With a 4-3 vote tonight, Galesburg aldermen passed a budget for the 2017 fiscal year.
Even though a roughly $344,000 deficit within that budget is on the books, the $23 million spending plan will be balanced with city reserves.
Ward 2 Alderman Wayne Dennis was a “no” vote.
“There’s still a few things that I want to look at, some cut items,” Dennis says. “There’s some things in there that I think we should get rid of.”
Dennis did not elaborate on what those items were. Russell Fleming in Ward 3 was also a no vote.
“I’m not comfortable with taking the deputy treasurer away from the treasurer,” Fleming says.
The deputy treasurer position will be reduced to a part time salary position. Roughly six other city staff positions will also see a change, though no layoffs were made this year.
Fleming also said he had “other concerns” but like Dennis, did not go into detail.
Galesburg Water Division employee Ric Fielder, who spoke on behalf of AFSCME local 1173, was among those who spoke against, prior to council’s vote. He also cited the employee restructuring as a concern.
“The union disagrees with the city’s proposal to eliminate the street division’s secretary position, due to the fact that there has always been a need for and sufficient work to support the position,” Fielder told council. “The union will review the decision and pursue any contractual violations within our power.”
Ward 1 Alderwoman Angela Bastian was the third vote against. She does not support raising the aggregate levy within the overall property tax which has been proposed by City Administration.
Bastian also felt the city should have put more money toward fire and police pensions and that the restructuring of city staff was simply what she called, “a shuffling.”
“I don’t feel like we came out ahead,” Bastian says. “We did eliminate some positions, but we’ve tweaked others, so, it almost was a wash.”
City Manager Todd Thompson, who proposed the budget, says the city budgets much more conservatively now then in past years, due to rising public safety pension costs and a smaller tax base.
In other news, council discussed an item on first read that would allow law enforcement officials to essentially pick through a resident’s trash for evidence investigation.
The item is an amendment to an ordinance that currently says only solid waste haulers can interact with collection items. City Attorney Brad Nolden told council that the ordinance change is in connection with a pending criminal case in Knox County Circuit Court.
A motion was made to table the item until after the case, which failed. The amendment will return to the agenda at next meeting.
