Yakima City Council Decides On A Final Budget
YAKIMA -- We were there Tuesday morning when The Yakima City Council decided on final cuts it will make to balance next year's budget. And there were some real surprises. Many of the layoffs that were threatened have now been reduced, which means when it comes to protecting you and your family, the council spared no expense to keep that protection in place.
This was the final opportunity for council members to nit-pick a budget proposal that seemed to change almost daily since it was unveiled in October. Back then, the city's $2 million shortfall was going to be made up with the elimination of 30 jobs from police to fire to parks, maybe even pools.
However, a very different looking budget was hammered out months later. This started with a very popular guarantee that no public pool was on the chopping block.
John Trudeau has been swimming at Lion's Pool for more than a decade. "They're gonna keep the pool open. We all need the pool. Everybody needs the pool. There's so many people that go there that have to have this pool. I've been going there for 11 years, and I wouldn't give it up for anything."
And with the pools safe, better that three-quarters of the audience was done with the meeting.
When it came to public safety, police were spared any severe cuts. The fire department wasn't so lucky, at first. Then, their union agreed to an across the board 3% pay cut. That complicated things a bit.
Here's why: the fire department was set to lose two firefighters, a secretary and the position of deputy fire marshal as well as about $150,000 from it's overtime budget. That's $455,000 in savings.
The Union agreed to take the one-time/one year 3% pay cut in exchange for the getting all the positions and money back. When you do the math, the 3% only came out to a $200,000 savings. Leaving the city with a deficit of $255,000. Even so, council agreed to take the firefighters up on the deal.
City Manager Dick Zais explained how they made it up. "The council made a decision to depart from their previous directive and allocate a portion of the reserves that are in excess of their reserve minimums to allocate $255,000 to in fact restore those positions."
That was not necessarily expected. But it was a surprise to Interim Fire Chief, David Willson, "They decided that their department was at bare bones and would be crippled with any further cuts, so. It's a good day for the fire department."
Not all city departments were feeling the love. But in the end, balancing a budget will cost the city less. Instead of 30 positions, only 13 will have to be cut. And the hardest budget this council has ever deliberate is done. Not one of them is looking forward to the next.
The city staff will now put the budget into its final form and next week, council will give its final approval on the changes made Tuesday.
This was the final opportunity for council members to nit-pick a budget proposal that seemed to change almost daily since it was unveiled in October. Back then, the city's $2 million shortfall was going to be made up with the elimination of 30 jobs from police to fire to parks, maybe even pools.
However, a very different looking budget was hammered out months later. This started with a very popular guarantee that no public pool was on the chopping block.
John Trudeau has been swimming at Lion's Pool for more than a decade. "They're gonna keep the pool open. We all need the pool. Everybody needs the pool. There's so many people that go there that have to have this pool. I've been going there for 11 years, and I wouldn't give it up for anything."
And with the pools safe, better that three-quarters of the audience was done with the meeting.
When it came to public safety, police were spared any severe cuts. The fire department wasn't so lucky, at first. Then, their union agreed to an across the board 3% pay cut. That complicated things a bit.
Here's why: the fire department was set to lose two firefighters, a secretary and the position of deputy fire marshal as well as about $150,000 from it's overtime budget. That's $455,000 in savings.
The Union agreed to take the one-time/one year 3% pay cut in exchange for the getting all the positions and money back. When you do the math, the 3% only came out to a $200,000 savings. Leaving the city with a deficit of $255,000. Even so, council agreed to take the firefighters up on the deal.
City Manager Dick Zais explained how they made it up. "The council made a decision to depart from their previous directive and allocate a portion of the reserves that are in excess of their reserve minimums to allocate $255,000 to in fact restore those positions."
That was not necessarily expected. But it was a surprise to Interim Fire Chief, David Willson, "They decided that their department was at bare bones and would be crippled with any further cuts, so. It's a good day for the fire department."
Not all city departments were feeling the love. But in the end, balancing a budget will cost the city less. Instead of 30 positions, only 13 will have to be cut. And the hardest budget this council has ever deliberate is done. Not one of them is looking forward to the next.
The city staff will now put the budget into its final form and next week, council will give its final approval on the changes made Tuesday.
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