"Three to three? I will vote to pass the 2012 as written," he said slamming down the gavel.
With that, Redfield mayor Tony Lawhon cast a tie breaking vote in the City Council meeting to pass the budget, which included a $12,000 raise for himself.
Pay Raise for Mayor
The City Clerk had suggested that amount, based on how much the city attorney makes.
"She makes $20,000 a year and she is far more part-time than I am. So that’s what she based her recommendation on," Lawhon said. "I was surprised by that suggestion. I did not ask for that raise."
"It is a part time-position you hold here right? KARK asked Lawhon.
"It is. Although if you’re mayor you’re always mayor," he said.
"Yes, but a part-time position dictates a certain pay level when someone applies for a job, correct?" we continued to ask him.
"Yes, but it’s difficult for a mayor to really determine how much time is spent dedicated to the position. It’s not like working part-time at McDonald’s. You’re always the mayor. You’re on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week," he said. "There’s a lot of things to look at inside of that."
2010 Census data show Redfield’s population rests at 1,297 people. Lawhon’s salary increase would bump him to $20,000 a year, a whopping 130 percent increase for the part-time position.
"If I see this is going to be an issue, if this is going to hurt the city, I will definitely refuse that pay," Lawhon said. "I need to get my head wrapped around everything, when it comes to the budget and then I will know if it will hurt the city. If it will, I will refuse that pay. I’m seriously considering that."
In a comparison to cities of a similar size, Decatur’s mayor makes $12,000 a year for a city of 1,699 people. Perryville, population 1,460, pays its mayor $14,767. In Goshen, population 1,071, the mayor doesn’t take home a dime. The City Council and he volunteer to serve part-time.
Budget Cuts to City Departments
The tie-breaking vote Lawhon cast passed the 2012 budget, which cut into several departmental coffers, because projected revenues for the year are expected to dip by $20,000.
"That’s not a drastic amount, we’re not destitute by any means," Lawhon said. "But we do need to take a look at meeting everyone’s needs in the budget. We need to pay for needs, not necessarily wants."
"You are saying that there are projected revenue decreases of $20,000 but you’re raise is $12,000? That seems a bit disproportionate, doesn’t it?" KARK asked Lawhon.
"It’s a little bit odd. Once again, I didn’t not ask for that. I would have been happy with anything or nothing," he said.
Prior to that tie-breaking vote, another City Council member had suggested not to accept the $12,000 raise, but to pass the budget with a three percent raise for the mayor instead.
That measure failed with a 3 to 2 vote from the council.
A second, separate motion was made to accept the 2011 Redfield City Budget. It stonewalled at a 3-3 tie, which the mayor abstained from voting in.
"I did not vote to break that tie, because I did want the 2012 budget to pass," Lawhon said.
Fire Department Hard Hit?
"The piggy bank was robbed as a matter of fact," the Fire Chief told us across town.
Fire Chief Dennis McFatridge’s department was one of the hardest hit by the budgetary belt-tightening, with cuts of about $35,000.
"Any way the mayor wants to put it, we lost 43 percent of money designated to this fire department for maintaining it, operating it, and improving it," he said. "We will make do, doing the best we can to stay within the budget for this year, but in the long run customers should know it’s going to cost them."
The mayor explains it like this, the Fire Department has only used about 82 percent of its budget over the past five years. So, he cut out the surplus to save up for an Emergency Reserve fund.
"It’s my goal to set up an Emergency Contingency fund," Lawhon said. "So, if we do have drastic revenue drops we have something to fall back on."
"This emergency contingency fund, we’ve heard a little bit about it the last two days. That’s the first time I’ve heard about it. I have not a heard a word about it before the City Council meeting and on the TV stations," McFatridge said.
According to McFatridge, the mayor was correct in estimating how much operations cost per year. However, the money remaining at the end of the year was banked in an equipment replacement fund. That way, the department can save over time for equipment replacements, knowing at what point the cash has accumulated to pay for the equipment outright.
The Mayor assured KARK that any needs the department has for replacing equipment will be met by the City Council.
"That department head can come to me and tell me what their need is," Lawhon said. "We can take that to the City Council at the very next meeting and in all likelihood it will be approved."
"I have equipment like pagers that tear up and I need to replace. I don’t have a month to wait for important equipment like that for the Council to approve," McFatridge said. "But he’s cut our budget down to bare bones. The way it is now, we wouldn’t have money to replace a pair of gloves. We need a bit of leniency as department heads to run our departments with the money we have allotted."
And McFatridge doesn’t foresee the process being as simple as it sounds for replacing big items.
"For a large budget item, it won’t be that easy because the money won’t be there. We’re putting it in the Emergency Contingency fund for his raise or maybe to add another police officer later in the year," McFatridge said. "I don’t think it will be that easy, no."
One of the major needs the Fire Department has been saving for is a new Rescue Unit. Mayor Lawhon said he intends to have the money on hand to purchase that in 2013. McFatridge said that’s news to him.
"There hasn’t been any discussion between us [the Fire Department] and him about replacing that in 2013," McFatridge said. I’m hearing things now at the council meeting and on TV that haven’t even been discussed with the people involved."
Regardless of McFatridge’s fears, Lawhon said the city will not experience a cut in services despite an elimination of the surplus in the department’s budget.
"We are not cutting services," he said. "I want the people to know that. Just because you hear budget cut does not mean the services will suffer. I want that to be clear."
"You cannot afford to lose 35,000 approximately every year in the future and maintain what we have going," McFartridge said. "You have equipment that tears up, breaks down, costs go up. I don’t care what the mayor says."
Police Department Comparison
Mayor Lawhon also pointed out that the Police Department has suffered cuts to it’s budget, claiming it was reduced from $279,000 to $55,000.
However, the Mayor decided to move payroll from being a department budget allotment to the city’s general fund. The police payroll amounts to $203,657 a year. Subtracting last year’s payroll from the 2011 budget of $279,000 results in a remaining balance of $75,343.
Other line items were also transferred to the General Fund, including professional fees, administration, savings, worker’s compensation, LOPFI, membership fees, city attorney fees, postage, and equipment savings.
At the end of the day, the Police Department’s budget was decreased but only by $9,000 or about 3 percent, versus the Fire Department’s loss of $37,300 or 43 percent. That doesn’t include any payroll exclusions, because fire department personnel work for free.
