Despite a relatively short council meeting, budget committee discussion managed to go off-topic several times on Monday evening.
Alderman Autumn Slane told council that she wished for the table to be more involved in the budget process, saying that a committee could be an information highway from department heads to council. She said that council rarely looks at bonds during budget meetings and that a committee could also help new alderman as they come in, having a more intimate understanding of department budgets.
Alderman Harry Meyer suggested starting slow in the process with having some department heads at the next budget meeting, which during this council meeting would be at the first meeting of each month. “Nothing real heavy duty,” Meyer said before saying that the fuel costs of the police department were “out of control.”
His statement was not immediately addressed, and alderman Terry McClung said that at one point, before the terms of Mayor Butch Berry, that council would be handed massive stacks of paper related to the budget due to their accounting program. He said he felt that council’s current process was fine, “Unless there’s something that really stinks.”
Alderman Melissa Greene voiced support for spending more time during budget meetings going over it and asking questions to the finance director and department heads.
Alderman David Avanzino requested that alderman receive the monthly budget report several days before the meeting and Finance Director Michael Akins said that he would do so, even saying he’d like to have that budget report to them earlier. Akins explained that the last meeting’s report hadn’t been so timely as the finance department was completing year-end reports that take up a majority of their time.
McClung motioned to move the budget committee meeting to the second meeting of the month to give both the finance department more time to complete the reports and for council more time to look them over.
Avanzino asked Slane if more time to look over the budget was a good compromise, and Slane said she believed it would be. She said that there had been times when she felt council was blindsided by large budget items needing approval and not enough time to look the items over.
Meyer then returned to speaking on the police department claiming that police officers are allowed to take vehicles home. Mayor Butch Berry was visibly confused and argued with Meyer on whether they are or not, with Meyer saying that he had just spoken with Akins about it. Akins clarified that officers on call are allowed to take their vehicles home in case they are needed during an emergency.
This sparked a debate among the Berry, Akins, and Meyer over whether or not he was seeking to micromanage the police department. Meyer took issue with the fact officers could take their vehicles home with Akins explaining that was an administrative decision made by Chief Brian Young.
Meyer also claimed that because council approves the police department budget, council was part of the decision-making process of how many employees that department keeps. Berry and Meyer debated over that semantic and Slane noted that without Meyer bringing that up in this meeting, no other alderman would have known that policy existed.
Akins argued that at any point in time in past budget meetings Meyer could have asked his questions about the police department and any alderman has that same opportunity for any budget meeting. It was floated that every department head attend budget meetings, with Berry saying he didn’t believe that would be needed. Currently, council can request a department head to come before council during either a budget meeting or council meeting to discuss their budgets or other items.
In the end, the debate died down and the moving of the budget meetings was approved unanimously.
Meetings go to basement; Livestreams remain
Council has decided to move all city meetings starting in April to the basement of the Auditorium. While there has been concern raised from discussion during the CAPC meeting last Wednesday about the possibility of a lack of live video feed, audio and visual streaming would be possible from the basement.
Ron Sumner told council that a temporary solution would be running microphones down to the basement and running the camera from down there, with the stream being run in the main room of the Auditorium. He said a permanent solution would need to be invested by the city. Avanzino abstained from the vote and the motion passed 5-0-1 with McClung bluntly saying he was ready to make the move to the basement.