City manager John Godwin (right) elicited from council members in mid-June their budget priorities. From left are District 6 councilwoman Cleonne Drake, District 1 councilman Aaron Jenkins, District 2 councilwoman Sue Lancaster, city clerk Janice Ellis, and Godwin. (eParisExtra! photo by Charles Richards)
By CHARLES RICHARDS
eParisExtra!
Mayor AJ Hashmi said there’s a lot of good in city manager John Godwin’s proposed budget for the City of Paris for the 2012-2013 fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.
Still, it’s disappointing, he said, because once again the city has a budget that was prepared without a strategic plan.
More on that below. First, here’s an overall look at what various council members wanted and what they got from the city manager’s budget proposal.
The mayor, who represents District 7, and councilman John Wright, who represents District 3, requested that Godwin deliver a tax cut from the current rate of 52 cents per $100 valuation “without cutting essential services.” Both also wanted more work done in house and without the use of consultants.
When the city manager presented his proposed 2012-2013 budget on Wednesday, he said he went into the budget process with a goal of reducing taxes by one-half percent.
“I am actually recommending a total ad valorem tax rate of 51.107 cents per $100 valuation, a reduction of 1.717 percent from the current rate,“ Godwin said.
One cent in the tax rate produces about $137,000 in revenue.
Godwin’s proposed budget is $21,907,267.
The city manager said he favors doing as much work in house as possible.
Hashmi said in June he would like to see a million dollars earmarked in the budget — $250,000 for dilapidated structures, $250,000 for clean-up of the city, $250,000 for new streets, and $250,000 for new water and sewer lines.
The city manager’s budget contains:
Everyone wanted more aggressive code enforcement on high grass and dilapidated houses.
On top of the $400,000 that the city council itself pulled out of general fund reserves “to tear down every dilapidated house in the city,“ Godwin increased the budget for demolitions from $60,000 to $100,000.
District 1 councilman Aaron Jenkins and District 2 councilwoman Sue Lancaster said more aggressive code enforcement is needed on high grass and dilapidated houses.
Godwin’s budget increases the budget for lien lot mowing from $25,000 to $39,500 and park mowing from $28,l000 to $42,000 and adds a second lien mowing crew leader to expand the city’s ability to mow more lots more quickly.
Dr. Richard Grossnickle, who represents District 4, asked for more money for drainage issues.
Godwin proposed an 86 percent increase in money for drainage problems, from $55,800 to $104,000.
Cleonne Drake, who represents District 6, said she hopes employee benefits are improved, particularly in the area of restoring things taken away from them in recent years.
The city manager said he did not include increases in the cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) for the city’s 135 retired employees, saying to give them what they asked for in an appearance before the council last week would cost in excess of $1 million.
He told the council it might consider doing something — perhaps a stipend of $500 that would cost the city about $67,500.
Hashmi and District 5 councilman Matt Frierson made a strong pitch for implementation of a strategic plan.
“We need to know where we are now, our strengths and weaknesses, show and analysis, and how we move forward together,” Frierson said during a council workshop in mid-June.
The city manager addressed that in a memo to the council, summarizing what is contained in the budget.
“Simultaneous to working on the budget, I have been gathering ideas and thoughts for a comprehensive strategic plan for Paris,” Godwin said.
“Without a good working plan, cities run the danger of adopt ing budgets that over time become fragmented, with little or no focus, instead just incrementally ratcheting costs up from one year to the other.”
Hashmi said he had hoped a strategic plan would already be in place.
“Above all, what lacks in it is the fact that we have allocated funds again, but we don’t have a plan. When we function without a plan, it is a haphazard thing that is happening,” Hashmi said.
Godwin’s budget calls for hiring a city planner who would go to work in November and work part-time.
Also, he endorsed the council’s idea of a citizens advisory group to prioritize new infrastructure and said that committee should be charged with developing a capital improvement program.
The council is still studying the budget, but the mayor said he is disappointed that the manager had the budget ready by Aug. 1 but waited three weeks to show it to the council, giving the appearance he didn’t want the council to tamper with it.
Since the city has been without a strategic plan for so long, the mayor said, he thinks the city should not wait until November to bring a planner aboard.
The city would be better served, Hashmi said, with a full-time planner rather than a part-time planner.
Here are other items the city manager has in his budget proposal:
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Charles Richards Charles Richards moved to Paris in 2004 after retiring from a 40-year career in journalism – the last 26 years as a news writer and sports writer with The Associated Press in Dallas and Washington, D.C. In mid-2004, The Paris News coaxed him out of retirement, and he began covering the police, court and regional beat for The Paris News. Then in early 2005, he was switched to coverage of a sharply divided Paris City Council. He was appointed by the City Council in 2006 to the 12-member City Charter Review Commission, which extensively rewrote the outmoded document. His writing awards include two first-place awards in statewide competition for feature writing. The most recent was his 2005 story on a Paris doctor’s startling use of leeches in a successful attempt to re-attach a man’s severed ear. Over his career, Richards’ interview subjects include Alabama Gov. George Wallace, President Bill Clinton, President George W. Bush, David Koresh, Arnold Palmer, Muhammad Ali and numerous other political and sports figures. He is an alumnus of Texas Tech, where he was editor of the school newspaper. He lives in Paris with his wife, Barbara, who is retired after 30 years as a teacher and high school counselor.
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