City council continues work on budget
By Staff
Melissa Cason
The Russellville City Council held a lengthy work session Monday afternoon in an effort to develop a budget for the city.
Two months into the fiscal year, the city has not passed a budget still. Mayor Troy Oliver told council members during the work session that the council owes it to the department heads to get them a working budget as soon as possible.
Oliver said once a budget is passed it will be evaluated monthly against actual costs in an effort to keep the council aware of the city’s financial situation.
The council worked with a budget presented by Councilman David Grissom. Grissom’s budget was a starting point for the council.
During the session, council members added travel and education expenses back into the budget.
The fire department was budgeted for $6,500 for travel and training, and the police department was given $8,200 for travel and training. Another $1,000 was added to the business license budget and park and recreation received $500 for travel and training.
The park and recreation department did have their part-time and temporary employee amount decreased from $65,000 to $30,000.
There was also discussion of the tutoring program at the Chucky Mullins Center.
The city employs three tutors for three hours to tutor 30 to 40 students each day.
The park and recreation department wasn the only department to see a decrease in manpower.
Grissom said he wanted to make it clear that his intent was not to lay off any city employees. However, the police department had lost two officers when Grissom began drafting the budget. The budget does not allow for a re-hire of those positions. A third officer has since resigned.
Police Chief Chris Hargett said the recent loss of the three officers makes the department short five patrol officers, which is straining the department.
Even with these two positions eliminated, the department is working with a significant shortage.
In addition to causing a serious shortage of manpower on the streets, the shortage could create more overtime shifts because it’s the department’s policy that no shift will operate with less than three officers per shift.
Hargett also said that citizens might see a delay in call reaction time because of the shortage.
During the discussion on the budget, Council members Gary Cummings and William Nale both mentioned making a decision on the police manpower shortage before a budget is passed. But, no one responded to either remark.
Another issue debated at the work session was the amount of money promised to the Russellville City Schools. The council voted to give the schools 38.33 percent of all sales tax revenue to the school system.
Masterson pointed out that the working budget shows a shortage of about $160,000 of the amount.
The answer to that question was divided among the council. Nale, Grissom and Lanny Hubbard all said they were still in favor of giving the school the promised amount. Oliver, Grissom and Cummings all said if the city had the money, they would be in favor of fulfilling their commitment to the school system, but without a tax increase, that seems unlikely.
The council did not vote on a budget Monday, but one could be passed in the coming weeks.
