It’s settled.
By July 1, the City of Annapolis will be operating on a budget of $75.1 million. The Mayor’s budget proposal, Ordinance No. O-09-10, passed with two amendments in a 6 to 3 vote by the City Council on Monday night. Those opposed were Alderman Frederick Paone (R-Ward 2), Alderman Matthew Silverman (D-Ward 5) and Alderman Ross Arnett (D-Ward 8).
The two amendments to the budget will not affect the impending department and service cuts. These include Alderman Sheila Finlayson’s motion to move $5,000 of the proposed $18,000 slated for the University of Maryland-College Park archaeology program fund to the Anne Arundel Arts Council, as well as Alderman Richard Israel’s amendment for the City Council to reconvene on Nov. 1 to propose new legislation—more cuts—should the budget fail to meet its $75.1 million target.
Paone motioned for the suspension of all grants, an allotted $205,000, for the next fiscal year, as well as for the elimination of the only full-time employee being added to the municipal payroll—a third attorney to the backlogged City Attorney’s Office—and to reallocate the position’s $140,000 salary across the Major Crimes and Investigations Unit and contractual employees in the Police Department, while shoring up the remainder, approximately $60,000, in the cash reserves. Both motions were voted down.
The vote for the FY 2011 budget is the culmination of nearly 6 weeks of negotiating the Mayor’s $80 million budget originally proposed March 8. It was Cohen’s first budget process as mayor.
“When I first took office I used the term of ‘train wreck’ to describe the city’s financial situation,” Cohen said. “We’ve now turned that train around…We’ve done the heavy lifting.”
The Mayor’s relief efforts will allow Annapolis to operate at $11.3 million less than last year, a 13 percent decrease. City services will be slashed by $1.2 million. Bus transportation routes will be among the first services to go, such as the C-60 North Star Route to BWI-Marshall Airport & Arundel Mills Mall. (The C-40 Route to Edgewater-Annapolis-Arnold is also in question.) Renegotiated contracts with the four unions—The International Association of Fire Fighters, Local 1926, the United Food & Commercial Workers Union, and the American Federation of State and County Municipal Employees, Local 3406 and Local 3162—were also passed, netting the city $969,330.
A 25 percent increase in water rates, projecting $660,000 in revenue to the city, also passed in the City Council.
But while there is a strong sense among Council members that, while the “train” has been righted, much remains to be done.
After the session adjourned, 20 minutes past 11 p.m., Finance Director Tim Elliott let out a restrained sigh of relief. “It was a grueling process,” Elliot said. “This part (the passing of the budget) is over. Now we have to see how the retirements come in and start working out the other contingencies.”
Retirement numbers and “contingencies”—the city is looking to achieve $1.5 million in cuts to the Transportation Department, as well as increasing the revenue made from Recreation and Parks fees from $1.2 million to $1.5million, Public Information Officer Phillip McGowan said—were major concerns for the aldermen opposed to passing the budget.
“The bottom line is, we don’t know how much we’re going to save from retirements or from the Recreation [and Parks] fund,” Paone told the Council.
“I don’t believe [the budget] is balanced,” Paone said. “It is made on assumptions…Other cuts could have been made.”
Cohen responded to these concerns during Monday night’s City Council Session. Recognizing that the City Council must approve a budget by law by July 1, Cohen said the budget is “reasonable” and recognizes that “more cuts will come if revenues are not met.”
Alderman Israel, who voted to pass the budget, said that overall the process was a typical performance of the City Council.
“It was a very good process, and very civil even in disagreement,” Israel said. “I commend the mayor for holding the line and not raising taxes.”
As Cohen’s salvaged train tentatively chugs along its new path, his office will be keeping close tabs on its progress. “We’ll be monitoring expenses month to month, even week to week,” Cohen said. “The budget is not the end of the story…There’s a lot more work to be done.”
Support The Sound - share our work!
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Josh Cohen, The Annapolis Sound. The Annapolis Sound said: Cohen's Budget Passes After Long Deliberations http://tinyurl.com/2d3ysvm [...]
Josh is a joke and this is all words and smoke and mirrors. Let us not forget that josh is incapable of big thinking and task completion. He was thrown out of St Johns’s College, he failed to complete his terms in his past two elected positions, he lost the poular vote for democratic mayoral candidate and he has failed to complete a master’s program he began at UB. Heck, he can’t even seem to wrap his head around the Market House problem—but he toys with a grandiose plan for re-defining and re-designing Downt town. This man is not suited for his position and should be removed.
Interesting way to start a conversation. The ad hominem approach has never been one of my favorites, but to each their own.
I guess what I’m wondering is how Mayor Cohen’s personal history will absolutely determine the success of this budget, especially since it was passed by the City Council and not through a tyrannical, unilateral move. It’s pretty easy – and traditionalist – to take pot shots at the person at the helm, but it’s not necessarily just.
I’m sure that the Mayor has his issues, but I’m also convinced that pointing them out doesn’t fix the problems we’re facing.
Setting aside the option of removing the Mayor from office, how would you suggest we deal with the budget deficit?
-K. Stewart
Someone has to point out the obvious do they not ? The “person at the helm” should have course in mind before he starts bailing don’t you think. What will he do if he sets a coarse after bailing that requires more supplies that he has on board. Guess he will have to return to port and buy more stuff. These maritime metaphors are silly are they not ?
But anyway crew members, there comes a time in a ship’s journey’s when they ship can’t sail as well when it is top heavy. Any weight shift is amplified and the ship lists to one side or the next, steering it off course. So crew members, I say, we must throw the weight at the top overboard until the ship reaches its destination . You see Josh’s past is indicative of his ability to lead, his ability to set the course, his ability to grab the hearts and minds of the masses as he paints for us a vision of the promise land he intends to find for us. He himself says it is his job as CEO to direct the overall operations, take the broadview, in order to improve our city for all. I believe that by analyzing his CV we can easily see a job of this type and magnitude is not one he in which should be involved.
I see your point, but I’m still wondering what the most effective way of “righting the ship” is.
Say, for example, Annapolitans rose up tomorrow in utter anger and frustration, physically removed Mayor Cohen from office and put you in his place, what would you do to fix Annapolis’ problems?
I would invite the best and the brightest from St. John’s College and begin a socratic dialogue as to the purposes of The City. ; )
The ship analogy is of course not a bad one. Or we could simply use the metaphor of life as a journey, in this case the life of a city. It seems to me that judgments about leadership and direction on such a journey are best made in light of how well they take us to the destination. This means I need to understand the goal, if I want to understand whether the steps we take are good ones or not.
I can’t say I know Mayor Cohen’s vision for the city well enough, but achieving such an understanding would be a place to start in order to make judgments about the quality of his leadership. I suppose it is possible that his leadership is great to approach his goals, but that we disagree on what the goals should be.
Hey there, this homepage is not being displayed correctly if I take a look at it with my new iphone 3gs. Maybe you might optimize the page for cellphone visitors also.