Budget Process Nearing Start

The City Council is getting ready to deal with the 2015 budget, but first must wait for it to come from the administration.

Last year, the budget was unveiled in a presentation held at the Senior Center in March. On Monday, when Council President Bridget Rivers asked Finance Director Ron West when the council would receive the budget, he said, "Next month," adding that there will also be an ordinance for a road program.

The roads issue deserves a separate blog post, but suffice it to say a five-year road repair schedule set by the administration of the late Mayor Albert T. McWilliams suffered delays and gaps during the eight-year span under former Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs, and Mayor Adrian O. Mapp must now reopen the whole program.

The budget process calls for the administration to deliver a proposal to the governing body that includes an operating plan for 2015 as well as one for capital improvements. The council votes to introduce the budget and can then modify it after a series of hearings with department heads on their fiscal needs. The city runs on temporary appropriations until the budget is passed.

The council may also appoint a Citizens Budget Advisory Committee. Each of the seven council members can name two citizens to the committee, but Rivers said Monday she had received no responses from the council. The council may also hire a budget consultant. Last year, the consultant suggested changes that decimated Mapp's staffing requests. On Monday, Councilman Cory Storch said he supports having a budget consultant, but asked that it be one "truly independent of the city."

"I recommend that we don't employ the person we hired last year," he said.

The council also has to schedule budget meetings. Despite Mapp's on-time budget submission in 2014, the process straggled on until passage of amendments late in May, meaning the city operated for nearly half the year on temporary appropriations.

--Bernice