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If the Edwardsville City Council adopts its 2010 budget as presented at the public hearing, Aug. 24, the city will be losing two employees and the mill levy will increase by two mills.

These tough decisions came from an administration trying to balance a budget that is filled with deficits caused by a $2 million drop in value and an $86,000 loss in revenue.

“This is an important night,” Webb said of approving the notice of a budget hearing.

The night was met with some contention, however. A 3-2 approval, with council members Craig Crider and Mark Bishop opposed, led to much discussion that focused on the layoffs of employees and employee raises.

The proposed 2010 budget calls for a 1 percent reduction in expenditures from the 2009 budget. This decrease includes eliminating one firefighter position and the parks maintenance position, but gives the fire department a 5 percent pay increase. In addition, the police department will get a 6.5 percent pay increase and non-union city staff will get a 3 percent increase.

The city is under a contractual agreement for the raises to be given to the fire and police departments.

Council members John Eickhoff and Crider spoke up, saying they were unsure about giving non-union employees raises with the cuts being made elsewhere.

“This is kind of hitchy giving people a raise and laying two off,” Crider said.

McTaggart disagreed, saying it would be unfair to give some departments raises while others got nothing just because they don’t belong to a union.

“We’ve got the fire and police locked in and now we’re going to say we have a problem giving non-union personnel raises,” McTaggart said. “There’s three department heads, fire, police and the city administrator. Those are the guys saving you and you’re not going to give them a raise. I got a problem with that.”

As far as laying off another firefighter, Webb said the city had to look at the overall advantage to having that person. Right now the fire department has two shifts of four and one shift of five.

“We have to look at does keeping that person add a value level as far as the day to day goes. Is there a significant impact to operations?” Webb said. “I don’t believe right now it does. Would it be great to have (shifts of ) six, six and six? Yes, but we’ve said (we can operate with) a minimum of four, four and four.”

Crider said, instead of laying off two employees, he would rather the parks maintenance employee become part time, saving in benefits, and that the mill levy be increased even more to keep the firefighter.

Webb said it would take another 1.5 mills to keep the fighter, adding to the already 2 mill increase budgeted. Webb said the 2 mill increase would amount to an extra $23 in taxes on a $100,000 house.

By approving the notice of a public hearing, the council has locked itself into a maximum amount it must spend in the 2010 budget. While line items could still be changed before officially adopting the budget, the city’s parameters and options are closing in.

The council will re-address the budget at the public hearing, Monday, Aug. 24.

In other business, the council:

• Approved, 5-0, a resolution authorizing a sale tax election. The election for the sales tax increase will be Tuesday, Nov. 3.

Residents of Edwardsville will have the opportunity to decide if they agree with a .5 percent increase, setting the city’s sales tax at 7.8 percent.

Webb said this increase is expected to generate about $150,000 to $170,000 in additional annual income for the city.

The city has yet to decide on the type of election. While originally favoring a mail-in ballot because of statistics that say there is a larger voter turnout with that form, council members are rethinking the $7,000 to $9,000 price tag attached.

Instead, the new resolution says that if the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kan., decides to move forward with its own plans for a sales tax election, Edwardsville will join in with a polling place election. This will cut the cost of an election by allowing some Wyandotte County Election Office fees to be shared between the two cities.

“This is more of a pass through,” said mayor John “Tiny” McTaggart. “Not that it won’t affect our citizens, but the biggest amount collected will be from people passing through buying gasoline.”

Webb said the new sales tax would put the city more in line with its neighbors. The Bonner Springs sales tax is at 8.050 percent, Shawnee is at 7.775 percent, Lenexa is at 8.025 percent and Kansas City, Kan., is at 7.55 percent.

• Approved, 5-0, minutes of the July 27 meeting.

• Approved, 5-0, payment of bills totaling $92,629.79.

• Approved, 5-0, the 2008 Auditor’s Report.

• Approved, 5-0, a resolution adopting Midewest Public Risk of Kansas bylaws.

• Approved, 5-0, a bid of $101 from William “Heinz” Rodgers to purchase the city’s 1992 Chevrolet C-10 animal control truck. Police Chief Mark Mathies said the truck had been put out to bid several times, only receiving one bid. He said the truck was originally purchased by the city for $1.

• Approved, 5-0, to give McTaggart permission to sign a letter of support of the Smart Moves Regional Transit Implementation Initiative.

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