Belleville City Council moves toward budget decisions

On Monday in a special Zoom meeting to discuss the proposed budget for the 2020-21 fiscal year, the Belleville City Council canceled its next scheduled budget meeting for May 13.
There is little left to discuss and that will be placed on the regular meeting agenda on May 18.
The $2.2 million general fund budget proposed by interim city manager Tracey Schultz Kobylarz and Plante Moran financial consultant Kelly Howey was reduced 30% because of expected revenue cuts. It ended up with revenues of $29,271 that they recommended putting in the fund balance.
She said this is with the understanding that the city will likely incur additional costs in insurance, supplies, and repair line items. She said she suspects there also may be additional seawall expenditures.
Kobylarz said this “surplus” was accomplished while keeping all current employees at 100% wages and benefits.
“Please KNOW this is subject to change after the State holds its revenue conference next Friday,” she said.
The council met on April 27 to discuss the budget and the following changes were made to follow council requests.
• Police staffing levels were reduced;
• Employees were reallocated to funds / departments based on time spent in those areas;
• Worker’s comp insurance was reduced;
• The grave buyback program was eliminated; and
• Road revenues were increased based on Michigan Transportation Fund estimates.
The budget also included the following capital purchases: one-year payment on one police car plus related equipment, one-year payment on fire truck, full purchase of two DPW trucks and trailer, codification of ordinances, and building utilization study.
After about an hour and a half of discussion on Monday, the council agreed on seven full-time police officers, instead of the six suggested in the budget or the nine requested by the police chief.
There were no replacements for half-time and full-time administrative employees that retired in April.
While Police Chief Dave Robinson had proposed promoting two officers to sergeants with 4% raises, the council liked having supervisory personnel, who would also be patrolling, but it worried about where the extra $5,000 a year would come from.
“Those two officers already have been here a long time,” said Fire Chief Brian Loranger, referring to Cpls. Todd Schrecengost and Kris Faull.
Mayor Kerreen Conley said she assumes there would be some competitive process in selecting the sergeants and Chief Robinson said that was so.
“We don’t hire or promote anyone because someone had ‘paid their dues’,” said Kobylarz. “It gets my feathers in a ruffle when I hear something like that.”
Chief Robinson said anyone with more than five years of experience is eligible to participate in the selection process.
Chief Loranger apologized for his comment suggesting the corporals would be promoted to sergeants.
Councilman Tom Fielder said the police chief said he would be able to take out $10,000 of his overtime allocation, so that would work to get the sergeants.
Mayor Conley asked if the sergeants would be out of the union and Chief Robinson said they would become civil service employees and their pension would follow them. Mayor Conley recalled problems with the last sergeant’s retirement. That would need to be addressed.
Chief Loranger spoke at length at this meeting and meetings in the past to inform the council of his department’s need for a new fire truck to replace the 31-year-old engine now in place. It’s not in this year’s budget or coming anytime soon.
After much discussion, it was decided to put $25,000 or more aside from this budget towards a fire engine. Loranger said at that rate it would take ten years to get a down payment for an engine that could run up to $500,000.
He explained the present engine has a stick shift and many of his fire fighters can’t drive it. He said he doesn’t want to ruin the transmission to teach them.
“I don’t have to have a Cadillac,” he said.
Kobylarz said what he’s saying is the engine is operable, but they don’t have people to drive it.
“It’s 31 years old and parts are falling off,” he said, noting his other truck is 25 years old.
“I’ve been asking for a fire engine for a very long time,” he said, noting, “Now, I’m seeing progress.”
When asked about the possibility of leasing fire equipment, Loranger said he had done research on the options more than a year ago and the former city manager had the information.
The new city manager said she didn’t have it and so Loranger was asked to find his copy so it could be updated with the goal of working toward a fire engine discussion in the next budget cycle.
“It’d be a shame if city hall caught on fire and the fire truck couldn’t put it out,” said Councilman Ken Voigt.
Vocational Center
Moving from the budget issue, Mayor Pro Tem Jesse Marcotte asked about the school district’s vocational center on Sumpter Road that is an eyesore. He suggested working with the school district to make it look better.
“Once it is returned to the tax roll it will be another source of income,” he said of the vacant buildings on eight acres.
“It’s the only undeveloped large parcel we have,” said Councilman Voigt.
DPW Director Rick Rutherford said the biggest issue with that property is that the school has quite a high price on it and there is a power line over the main building that should be put underground, which would be at a large cost.
“I wish the school would take that into consideration on the price,” Rutherford said, noting a lot of different developers have been interested.
Mayor Conley suggested reaching out to the school superintendent and DTE to get a price on burying the electric line.
Rutherford said Scott Jones already rerouted the power lines on his project on the north end of Belleville, but each project is different and you get different prices.