City sends budget freeze back to drawing board on The Murfreesboro Post

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City sends budget freeze back to drawing board

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By: MICHELLE WILLARD, Post Staff Writer

Posted: Friday, October 10, 2008 3:23 pm

Getting more police on the streets is the first priority of Murfreesboro City Council regardless of cost, the city council said.

At the council’s Thursday night meeting, City Manager Roger Haley proposed freezing the city budget by putting a hold on new hires in some departments and cutting projects from others with a majority coming from the police department.

Murfreesboro City Councilman Shane McFarland was very concerned about the cuts to the police in particular.

“In the economic time we’re in I’m concerned about everything but if you look at the freezes Mr. Haley is proposing almost 70 percent comes from the police depart,” McFarland said.

The police department freeze targets new hires. In the fiscal year 2008-2009 budget, the city approved hiring 36 additional police officers to patrol the streets of Murfreesboro.

Murfreesboro Police Chief Glenn Chrisman suggested only filling 18 of 36 budgeted full-time police positions for a savings of $454,918.50, but requested Haley take another look a the police department’s budget should the economic climate improve.

McFarland said crime tends to increase as the economy worsens and cutting police officers is not in the best interests of the city.

“I’m concerned that by cutting these positions out we’re not being proactive toward crime in our city,” he said.

McFarland would rather Haley take another look at city departments and see if any other new or unfilled posts can be frozen instead, instead of one department taking the biggest hit.

“I feel strongly that if we look at administrative positions and if they can function with what they’ve got, then our first priority is putting police officers on the street,” McFarland said.

McFarland said the city can tighten its belt without having to sacrifice public safety or dip into the rainy day fund.

“Dipping into the reserves is not the solution right now if we can cut back somewhere,” McFarland said.

Haley cited increased cost for fuel and electricity, plus the state of the national economy as reasons for the budget freeze. He then asked all city departments to look closely at their budgets and cut costs where possible.

The department recommendations resulted in cutting almost $900,000 for the city’s budget for this fiscal year.

McFarland’s and the city council’s discomfort with signing on to portions of Haley’s budget cut plan resulted in orders to department heads for revisions to their original recommendations at their regular staff meeting Friday morning.

“Council did not take any action,” Haley explained to the group. “They instructed us to come back to them with an update on Unforeseen (a budget line item), the amount budgeted compared to the amount committed and then what amounts to a review of the entire budget to prioritize other cuts so emergency services won’t be impacted.”

Haley then asked the department heads to re-examine their budgets to identify areas where additional savings might be realized and return the list by Monday at noon.

“Look at your operations at try to identify 10 items that you can modify from the way you normally operate … that you can reduce spending in that area … 10 areas where you can save costs,” Haley said.

Examples he mentioned included adjusting a building’s heating and air conditioning, turning off lights when not in use and even unscrewing every other bulb in light fixtures.

“You may not know the dollar figure,” he said, “but you all have monthly green bar. Look at that sheet and … try to identify – and be conservative – what might be saved.

“It will add up,” he said.

Michelle Willard can be contacted at 615-869-0816 or mwillard@murfreesboropost.com.

Tagged under CITY

Member Opinions:

By: barrettbear on 10/10/08
Keep the faith and trust in the Lord. Everything will work out for the best. The MPD does a great job.

By: diddlede on 10/11/08
You are exactly right barrettbear. We need God's blessing on our city government, our county government and our leaders in Washington. God bless America.

By: ItsGood on 10/11/08
slow down growth with cut expenses

By: Curious on 10/12/08
Wonder if they have a reward system for employees who come up with money saving ideas. The county has had such a plan for a year or so and it's working.

Perhaps they could sell advertising space at the soccer complex.