City Beat: New mayor moves to fill Manley's council seat

April 20 was the first regular meeting for the new members of Springfield City Council, but council's longest-serving member overshadowed the proceedings.

Ralph Manley, a 10-year council veteran, abruptly resigned at the end of the meeting after his bid for mayor pro tem failed earlier in the night. Manley was one of three council members nominated for the post; he received two votes to Dan Chiles' four and Doug Burlison's three. Five votes are required to fill the post.

At the conclusion of the meeting, a visibly upset Manley turned in his letter of resignation to new Mayor Jim O'Neal. In the letter, copies of which were given to news media, Manley cited the lack of council support as the reason for his abrupt departure.

"I have failed to get a majority of support from this current council," Manley wrote, "so it is with regrets that after 10 years of dedicated service ... I hereby submit my resignation."

At council's April 21 luncheon, O'Neal expressed his respect for Manley and surprise with Manley's resignation.

"Ralph K. Manley has served his country, his community and his city extremely well for his entire life," O'Neal said, adding that he hopes the city will be able to "appropriately honor" Manley in the near future. "I regret that he felt the need to do what he did, but that is strictly his decision. I wish him ... nothing but the best going forward."

Despite the shock over the departure, O'Neal said council could not afford to dawdle in picking a successor for the Zone 3 seat, which covers southwest Springfield. To that end, the city took applications last week from qualified residents, with plans to pick the representative at a special council meeting.

"My intent is to come out of that meeting with a councilperson, and I think we'll be able to do that," O'Neal said.

During the luncheon, council also moved forward with its election of O'Neal's second in command, voting 5-3 in favor of Chiles.

The budget picture

As another indicator of council's need to move quickly, City Manager Greg Burris presented council with his "15,000-foot view" of the budget for fiscal 2010, which begins July 1.

The city's sales tax revenues are down 2.73 percent, or $3.3 million during the first 10 months of this fiscal year compared to the last, and Burris said projections for fiscal 2010 are for sales tax totals to remain flat from this year's actual totals.

To that end, the fiscal 2010 budget predicts general fund revenue of $71.3 million, compared to $73.5 million in this year's budget.

The drop is even worse than what Burris presented in January as the "worst-case scenario" for next year's budget; that scenario predicted 1.5 percent sales tax declines in both fiscal '09 and fiscal '10.

Additionally, the city plans to make the full actuarial recommended contribution to the Police and Fire Pension Fund - a contribution that for next year will reach $13 million.

The drop in revenue and increased contribution means that, in addition to continuing cuts made in this year's budget, including more than 36 full-time jobs frozen, and continuing an additional hiring freeze implemented in January, the city's general fund faces a laundry list of additional cuts, including:

• Reduced transfers to the parks, health and transportation funds totaling $1 million;

• Eliminating service contracts with nonprofits;

• Eliminating the employee leadership and supervisory training programs;

• Eliminating community programs such as the Festival of Lights and downtown WiFi;

• Suspended cost-of-living and merit pay increases; and

• Eliminating city-sponsored activities at Jordan Valley Park.

Burris noted that with the cuts already in place, the city has slashed $7 million from the general fund budget and frozen 8.5 percent of the city work force.

"If you're looking for the elevator speech about where we're at right now, that pretty much sums it up," Burris told council. "All departments have and will continue to be impacted - all staffing is down, and all staff are trying to do more than one job."

Police, fire hires

The news, however, is not as bad as it could be.

Burris noted that the city expects growth of $2.3 million in its gross receipts tax revenue - the tax paid to the city by telecommunications and cable companies.

The growth comes from the settlement of the city's lawsuit with AT&T Mobility; starting in July, the company will no longer be paying those taxes in protest, meaning the city can spend the money.

The city also expects nearly $1 million in additional money from growth in other revenue sources and from an overhead study that will allow the city to reap additional money from federal grants and subsidies.

Burris said he wants to use that additional revenue to hire 10 officers for the Police Department, which is 34 officers below full strength, and fill five vacancies in the Fire Department, which is undermanned by 20 firefighters.

He also hopes to begin addressing several other city funding shortages, including the city's self-funded health insurance and worker's compensation programs, and to provide some extra money for safety-related building maintenance.

City staff plans to have the final budget proposal ready for council May 1, so that council can adopt the budget by the beginning of June.