Fayetteville Presents 2010 Budget

COUNCIL DOESN’T CALL FOR CUTS IN CITY SERVICES

By Skip Descant

Posted: November 1, 2009 at 2:12 a.m.

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FAYETTEVILLE — For now, don’t expect any big changes in city services next year.

That means the trash continues to get collected as it currently does. Recycling keeps moving along in its regular cycle. Trails will get built. And added investments in technology upgrades are planned.

That’s despite the economic downturn, which has put a dent in Fayetteville’s city revenue streams. But administration o◊cials have brought forward a budget that recoups money by extending the life of items like police cars, not filling job positions, not o◊ering raises and other savings. As an aside, Fayetteville Mayor Lioneld Jordan has said if revenue in the fi rst quarter of 2010 does not meet his predictions, cuts to city services could be in play.

“We feel we can do this,” Paul Becker, Fayetteville finance director, told the Fayetteville City Council during a budget work session Saturday. Becker was speaking about the idea of extending the life of equipment such as pickups or police cars. “Now, this is something that you can’t do every year ... But this is something we need to do.”

That’s not to say the city will delay buying a single new car in 2010. Because each year, a certain amount of money is built into the city’s “Shop Fund.” The idea is that by the time a car gets to be a certain age, it has accrued enough money to be replaced. What Fayetteville Mayor Lioneld Jordan wants to do is extend the life of vehicles so that less money has to be funneled into the Shop Fund annually.

“The items replaced this year are those items that completed their accrual thisyear,” said Don Marr, Fayetteville chief of staff. But then added, in the future, “if you have a police car that’s scheduled to be replaced in three years, now it’ll be four.”

The reductions on the expense side of the balance sheet planned by the mayor’s office amount to nearly $1.4 million in 2010 for the general fund. That’s still not enough to cover expected shortfall.

Any time city councils discuss budgets, what they are really discussing is where priorities should be placed. The council has given all indication of moving forward with the administration’s recommendation to invest an added $450,000 in information technology areas which will improve e◊ciency among departments and how those departments interact with residential needs.

News, Pages 4 on 11/01/2009

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