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Indian Rocks Beach budget talks to be continued Sept. 19
By HARLAN WEIKLE
Article published on Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2007 |
INDIAN ROCKS BEACH – In the critical late hours of the budget process, an absence on the city commission brought the process to a halt Sept. 5.
Commissioner Bert Valery was on vacation, and after tie votes among the four commissioners in attendance blocked adoption of several budget proposals, the commission finally halted the session after 11 p.m.
While the millage rate was fine-tuned to 1.4695 from the previous figure of 1.47 and after a lengthy discussion of the budget presented by City Manager Steve Cottrell, the commission adopted the first reading of the 2007-08 budget as amended, setting Sept. 19 for a second and final reading and adoption.
The vote was 3-1, with Mayor Bill Ockunzzi dissenting based on his objection to the decision to borrow $500,000 from the Penny for Pinellas fund to pay for the sewer capital improvements, which is then paid back with interest.
“We don’t have to pay that fund back,” Ockunzzi said. “I strongly object. We’re just creating a burden to the sewer rate payers.”
Commissioner Jose Coppen spoke bluntly regarding his concerns after reviewing changes to the proposed budget, which showed an increase of 16 percent saying, “At that rate every four years we’ll be doubling the budget.”
Several citizens took the lectern during public comments to both praise for their work thus far and at the same time admonish the commission to, “sharpen their pencils” and return to the process of cutting the budget while retaining “essential services” and keeping taxes down during hard times.
Among those essential services demanded by a majority of the speakers: keeping two sheriff’s deputies on duty per shift. A proposal to save money by reducing that to one individual during certain day shifts would have saved an estimated $40,000 annually.
At one point, resident Nancy Obarski, speaking against the proposed elimination of one full time sheriff’s deputy during selected shifts said, “My dad was a cop for 30 years and I can tell you it is more than just patrolling a beat. I hope you’re willing to take responsibility if an officer gets killed because there is no back up.”
Commissioner Valery had originally made the proposal to cut costs by pairing down from two deputies per patrol to one during the day shift. Subsequently, that proposal led to an alternative plan substituting a community policing deputy for the sheriffs’ deputy in that scenario resulting in an estimated $40,000 a year savings. Ockunzzi objected to the substitution, calculating that between vacation time and sick time the net result would be a vacancy of one patrol officer 35 percent of the time.
According to Sheriffs Office spokesperson Marianne Pasha, community policing deputies are fully qualified sheriffs’ deputies, who may at times be assigned to work flexible shifts and as such are not relieved automatically when absent their normal shift, as are regular deputies.
Other budget decisions designed to increase revenue include a 25 percent hike in the sanitary sewer rate as well as an increase to the rate for solid waste. Both were tabled for discussion at the meeting on Sept. 19.
A proposed “communication services” tax and a public service tax (utility tax) on electric service to IRB customers were likewise tabled.
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Article published on Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2007
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