City budget includes job cuts

By Cindy Landrum  

MAY 4, 2010 7:45 a.m. (0)

Thirty-four jobs will be eliminated, city employees would not receive merit pay increases and solid waste fees would increase under a budget proposal, which got its first look from Greenville City Council Monday night.

But core services will not be reduced under the $136.6 million budget, City Manager Jim Bourey told council members.

The city’s general fund is down 3 percent, thanks mostly to lower business license and building permit revenues due to the deep recession, while the overall budget is up 2 percent over this year’s $134.1 million budget.

Taxes will not be increased, the 15^th year in a row for the city, Bourey said.

“This is the new normal,” Bourey told council members, saying it will take years to get back to revenue levels and economic activity levels the city saw in the past. “We had to make some tough choices.”

Thirty-four positions are eliminated in the proposed budget, including 13 full-time and 11 part-time positions in the parking services department because of implementation of an automated parking garage payment system where citizens such debit or credit cards to pay the fees.

Other jobs cut included three building inspectors, a part-time assistant municipal court judge, a code enforcement officer, a building plans examiner, a urban designer, an assistant budget director, senior accountant, a communications specialist in the police department, an investigative support services specialist, a deputy fire marshal, a fire department resource management officer, a senior traffic signal technician, a public works inspector, a building services administrator and two secretaries.

Eleven of the eliminated positions are vacant and four are filled by retiring employees.

Sixteen city employees are interviewing for alternate positions, while another eight have not told city officials whether they will seek other positions within the city.

“The goal is to have no employee laid off,” Bourey said.

The city has asked Greenville County Schools to pay for two school resource officers, but the school district has told the city it cannot because its budget is in even more dire straits because of state budget cuts.

The proposed budget will increase solid waste feels from $8.50 per month to $14 per month, in part to cover a $4 per ton increase in the tipping fee charged by the county, Bourey said.

Fees will increase at the Greenville Zoo as well. Child admission would increase from $3 to $4.50, while adult tickets would cost $7.75, up from $6. Individual zoo memberships would increase from $32 to $36, while household memberships increase from $49 to $54.

The zoo is the only department to add employees. It would add three new positions to implement zoo accreditation requirements.

The city council will discuss the budget again on Monday during a work session.

Among items to be discussed is $45,000 included in the budget for bike lanes.

“I don’t want this to come down to where we’re choosing paint on the road over a position,” said councilman David Sudduth.

A public hearing and first reading of the budget is scheduled for May 17.

Second and final reading is expected to be held on May 24.

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