Everyone getting their say on budgetary matters By ANNETTE ESTERHELD Staff Writer
In the early 2000s, the two giant city departments that have weighed in with the largest department budgets have been public works and community services. This year community services' budget is over $9 million and public works is over $12 million. But with the growth of the police department and the building of a new city hall, community services and public works are not the only big departments.
Just two years ago the budget for the police department was slightly over $800,000. This year it's nearly $5 million and climbing with the proposed addition of 12 police officers in the next year. The largest single item is the city hall with a proposed expenditure in FY09 of $26 million.
Budget sessions began with the introduction of the budget at the council's April 17 meeting. A week ago Thursday, the council held a budget worksession on the public works budget and this past Monday it was community services' turn.
One thing that became clear, especially in the public works session, is that the gas price increases have already and will continue to impact on the city's budgets.
It's only been a couple of months since the city staff put together the budget, but already the staff told the council that budget items that involve buying gas need to be changed to reflect the rising costs.
City Manager David Deutsch told the council that as the city built its budget, the staff talked about oil costs. He said the cost at that point was $110 a barrel and just in this brief time the cost is about $120 a barrel.
"You see our dilemma. We budgeted $3.25 per gallon of gas. That assessment will not hold. The last delivery was $2.99 per gallon," Deutsch said. "We suggest an increase to $3.90 per gallon."
He said diesel fuel was budgeted at $3.30 a gallon. There the latest delivery was $3.20 so he said the staff is suggesting $4.13 a gallon for diesel fuel.
Those adjustments in gas prices added $38,300 to the equipment maintenance and garage division; $84,700 to the solid waste division, $1,400 to the water division and $1,700 to the wastewater division.
Gas prices had an impact on community services budget which includes parks and grounds. Over $21,000 was added to the gas budget for mowers and trucks and under operating supplies $2,000 was added.
Deutsch also said the staff is proposing an increase in water and sewer rates for Bowie residents on the city's water system. He said the proposed increase is 21 cents per thousand gallons for water service and 29 cents for wastewater service.
"That's a 9 percent increase," Deutsch told the council. "That amounts to $11 a quarter for the typical customer who uses 20,000 gallons of water a quarter."
He said the rate increase is driven by several factors. One, the city's water and sewer system is totally surrounded by the WSSC system which serves the rest of the city and the customer base for the city's system can't grow. Another factor is the fact that people use less water and still another that electric utility costs have increased and are a major expense. Another factor is the Enhanced Nutrient Removal project that is being added to improve the system and ultimately impact positively on the Chesapeake Bay. Although the state is paying over 80 percent of the project, Bowie's cost is approximately $1.7 million.
Deutsch also said the staff is proposing adding a staff person, an equipment operator, to assist with the increased workload in the water and wastewater departments. The cost for this staff person is $48,226.
Other than the 12 police planned for the police department, this water and wastewater staffer is only one of three new staff positions being proposed. The other two are for an administrative office associate for the police department and an arts specialists for community service department. Deutsch said with the increase in arts activities that existing staff need assistance to manage arts.
"We kept our proposal for staffing to a minimum. We've talked about this position internally for two years. We felt the time was appropriate and we seek your support for this position," he said. He also said that three full-time and one part-time person share job responsibilities that would fall to this new position if it's added.
Council members asked many questions about the various aspects of the two budgets that were presented, but one of the liveliest discussions at the public works session was speeding and traffic calming.
Deutsch said there's $40,000 in the proposed budget for traffic calming in the form of humps that will be placed on Excalibur Road and Pin Oak Parkway to curb speeding.
Councilwoman At-large Geraldine Valentino-Smith said she had "put my marker down" to get traffic calming in other areas of the city.
Deutsch told her the city plans to install the traffic-calming devices on the two streets and then evaluate their effectiveness, analyze the data and bring a report to the council.
"Pin Oak and Excalibur are different streets than Stonybrook and Millstream drives," Valentino-Smith said. "The experience may not cross over."
She asked that a consultant be hired to "determine a complete package for traffic calming."
Deutsch said he was "not sure the city needed an independent consultant because of the work of the police department, Alan Creveling (former public safety director), Jim Henrikson (director of public works) and the Public Safety Committee."
"A consultant would be glad to come in," Deutsch said. "It would be a gold mine to evaluate all streets for traffic calming."
"I advocate a broader approach," said Valentino-Smith.
Mayor Pro Tem Todd Turner suggested the staff include a budget objective to evaluate other locations in Districts 1 and 2 as Valentino-Smith suggested. "Then use the findings of Excalibur and Pin Oak, but look for other streets in the next budget," he said.
Mayor G. Fred Robinson asked for consensus for the council to have the staff add the objective.
Budget information is available at www.cityofbowie.org.
There will be a budget hearing at the regular City Council meeting Monday, May 5. The budget worksession on the police department will be Thursday, May 8. All budget sessions are held in Council Chambers at City Hall.
