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Politics & Government

Albertville Council Looks Into Ways to Lower Levy

The Albertville City Council met Monday night for a budget workshop.

Interim City Administrator Bob Thistle and city staff have refined some of the numbers for the or and came to the council with a second proposal and recommendation.

"By refining some of the numbers and some of the services specifically impacting legal and the planning and building department we can bring the levy down to 4.7 percent," Thistle told the council.

The newest proposal would still include a 2.4 percent Cost of Living increase for city staff including fire fighters and STEPS.

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"We gave the COLA last year and now we're asking for it again," Larry Sorenson said as the council discussed it.

Two of the 18 cities that Finance Director Tina Lannes polled said no to COLA for their 2013 budget. "We have great employees and I have a hard time with this because our employees deserve it but we also did it last year," Jillian Hendrickson said.

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Last year was the first year that the council approved a COLA in several years and staff morale was affected by that, Lannes told the council and staff present.

"The most valuable thing we have is people," Thistle said.

One of the proposals Thistle and Lannes brought forward was extending the payment of the general fund over two to three years rather than in the 2013 budget. The general fund has to be replenished due to the $100,000 of expenses incurred after this past April.

"I like spreading out the payments," Mayor Mark Meehan said suggesting the budget spread the payments for the next three years but council member Dan Wagner disagreed.

"The right thing to do is to pay for it now," he said.

"The next time we do a contract we need to do something so the city won't take such a hit if we let someone go," Meehan suggested as the council talked about the $100,000 expense to which Sorenson was surprised, "Do you have a plan to let a future city administrator go?" he asked.

If the council votes and agreed on a levy that spreads the general fund payment out, the levy would be down to 4.7 percent affecting the average $200,000 home by an additional $44.

"Is it responsible to spread the $100,000 over two or three years? I don't know but I don't know if we have a choice," Sorenson said.

The council discussed what they thought an acceptable levy would be and most agreed that 2 to 2.5 percent was as high as they wanted to see it.

"It's going to hurt but I think we need to just pay for it now," Wagner said suggesting that the budget include the full $100,000 for 2013.

Still John Vetsch said he won't vote for any levy at or above 1 percent, something city staff say is not likely or possible. "I want to see the levy at less than 1 percent," he said.

The city staff is going to continue looking at the budget and what areas can be cut without affecting core services and will present a proposal and recommendation to the council.

The council meets again Tuesday, Aug. 28 at 7 p.m. for a special meeting in which they will hear proposals from Springsted for the permanent city administrator and also further discuss the 2013 budget and levy. A preliminary levy will be voted on at the Sept. 4 council meeting and at which time will not be able to increase, but could decrease prior to the final budget approval in December.

 

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