At a special-called work session on Monday, the council once again went over its budget proposal for the 2010 fiscal year, as well as the budget proposals from its fire and police departments. The numbers do not match up — in the town’s $809,000 budget, mayor Paul Jennings says there is only $376,038 to divide between the two departments, and their respective budget proposals add up to over $450,000.
“What I hear is all well and good,” Jennings said. “Talking about you cut all you can cut, nowhere else to cut, and all this.
“We don’t need to cut anybody, because I like what we got. But it doesn’t get those numbers together.”
Councilman Bill Rutledge presented the police department’s proposal, for $246,445. Rutledge said the budget proposal is roughly $30,000 less than the FY09 version, and added that every cent of is necessary for the town to maintain its total budget.
“The police department contributed $186,217 to the general fund, correction fund and police equipment fund,” Rutledge said. “And I think, if you take any portion of that from the general fund, it’s gonna compound the budget you just went over, tremendously.
“If we reduce the police department, for every policeman we think we can do without, we’re gonna lose about $32,000 in revenue, either in the general fund, or the correction fund, the police equipment fund.”
The council lost two officers — one left the department, the other was laid off — prior to Christmas in an effort to cut costs. Rutledge said the department currently has six officers, the minimum number for maintaining a full-time police department.
“The 6 that we have have manned this town for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for almost the last 365 days,” he said. “And that’s the bare bones, minimum that we can have to maintain that for 24 hours. I’ll promise you, if we get 4 or we get to 3, or whatever it is, whatever the council decides they want to do, I hope none of us has to call for police help at 10 at night or 12 at night, and count on the county to send a car here.”
Fire chief Mike Platts presented an equally compelling case for his department, which he has budgeted at more than $377,000, but only $215,528 of which would come from the town’s coffers. Complicating the matter is a SAFER grant from the federal government, which mandates the department maintain a certain level or run the risk of forfeiting its grant money.
“You cut a fireman, we violate the grant – which, they’d cut the $80,000 we’ve got left to draw on it, then we’d have to pay back the other $320,000 or so we’ve already drawn,” Jennings said. “When we do that, we’ll never get another grant. Nothing. Not only have you got that grant, you have several other small stuff – we’ll lose the capability of getting any of that.”
The fire department survived much of FY09 on a month-to-month basis, largely on donations from the town and ad valorem tax money from the county. A hotly-debated issue of video bingo was introduced, debated and ultimately approved as a means of rescuing the fire department, but the state supreme court struck down any video bingo in St. Clair County in a ruling issued over the summer.
Jennings had confirmed that he intended to continue pursuing bingo options in Jefferson County, but the county commission approved an ordinance that will stringently restrict any bingo operation on its side, as well.
On Monday, Platts called his budget a bare bones one.
“I took out everything that could be taken out, without cutting us so bad we bleed to death immediately,” he said.
No member of the council had an immediate solution. Councilman Steve Medori suggested the possibility of not paying some of the town’s obligations — such as dues for the Economic Development Council and the Birmingham Regional Planning Commission — which the town already owes from FY09. Rutledge suggested a resolution that would pull Argo’s police back to the town limits, something he suggested be on the agenda for the council’s regular meeting on Monday.
Rutledge also raised the possibility of cutting salaries for town employees, but only as a last resort.
“That’s the only place I see we can cut this (police) budget, and function, and continue to contribute the monies that they contribute today,” he said.
Later he stressed that he wasn’t proposing the town cut salaries – only that salaries are the only place in the budget that might be cut effectively.
“I didn’t suggest it,” he said. “I was just using that as a point – that’s the only other thing in this budget that I see we can cut.
“I wasn’t advocating it, wasn’t suggesting it, I probably wouldn’t support it. There’s just nothing else there.”
The fiscal year begins Friday, Oct. 1. The council is scheduled to hold its regular meeting on Monday, Oct. 5, at town hall.
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