Preliminary Budget Discussions Begin in City

Anticipated deficits in the coming budgets for the have led City Manager Pete Dame to begin exploring ideas about ways to save money. He said the cuts that will be necessary are likely to be more visible to the public as compared the many cuts the administration has made in the last several years. 

Dame told council he anticipates a $400,000 shortfall in the 2012/13 fiscal year budget, which the council will work on in the coming months and pass before July 1 when the new fiscal year begins. For the 2013/14 fiscal year, Dame said, the shortage will be about $1 million, mainly due to the dwindling funds in an account established to pay for retiree healthcare costs.

That account is likely to be drained by the end of this calendar year, Dame said. Another factor is the increase the city must pay for pensions, which is five times more than officials projected it to be, Dame said.

Dame suggested compiling a two-year budget to tackle both years that involve shortages at one time. He also listed several specific measures he and other city employees are exploring to see if the savings would be significant enough to be worth the change.

As a preliminary discussion about the budget, Dame told the council he was simply looking for their thoughts about his suggestions to ensure there is not opposition to any particular item.

His suggestions included:

• having only curbside refuse pickup
• contracting out landscaping, grass cutting and refuse collection
• elimination of the K-9 unit, Raleigh, from the Public Safety Deparment
• elimination of the fall festival at Neff Park
• elmination of three traffic signals at Lakeland and St. Paul, University and Goethe and Rivard and Charlevoix
• eliminate services that have been performed on some private roads
• eliminate a crossing guard at Notre Dame and Waterloo
• eliminate co-sponsorships for the Grosse Pointe Woods fireworks display, the summer Village Music on the Plaza concert series
• increase the rotation for tree trimmings from three to every five years

None of these suggestions are set in stone as of yet. They are each being explored and evaluated to see if the savings would be significant enough to merit the change, Dame said.

The suggestion that is likely to save the most money is the K-9 unit, Dame said, explaining it would be more than $20,000 in savings. He said Raleigh is used by all of the other Grosse Pointes and that every time he is called to a scene or attends a public event, his handler, Sgt. Michael Almeranti, is paid overtime.

The other ares likely to add up in savings is the elimination of the traffic signals, he said, noting the maintenance fee the City pays to Wayne County is a lot of money. Traffic studies of the suggested intersections will be performed before such a change would happen, Dame said.

Director of Public Safety Stephen Poloni told council several minutes later that he and the other directors in the Pointes have already begun discussing ways in which everyone could chip in to cover the costs associated with Raleigh.

Some of the suggestions are "not essential but nice to have," Dame said, referring to the Fall Festival. "We do hope residents will donate to the Foundation" so the event may happen but not on the city's budget.

Scrace also asked and suggested that Dame try to meet with current retirees to see if anything can be worked out with them that would be a cost-savings. Dame said he had already planned to do so.

The council gave their informal approval for Dame to research all of the above listed ideas and they would like to see some of the numbers attached to the suggestions in a future meeting so they have an idea on the scope of savings that could be achieved.

The new fiscal year begins July 1, which means at the absolute latest a new budget could be approved is June 30.