City Hall becoming a magical place

In the last year, City Hall has proven itself to be a building filled with magicians.

First city staff - and now city council members - have found accounts that are rarely discussed publicly and pulled money from them to trim proposed levy increases, the way a magician pulls a quarter from behind some unsuspecting child’s ear.

Last summer, the council took $100,000 from a tourism fund and increased fees and fines to knock out a quarter of its originally proposed $560,000 levy increase.

Because the tourism fund is supplied by county bed tax money, it can only be used for a specific number of things, according to county law.

A county attorney said at the time that the law has a broad interpretation, allowing municipalities to use to fund in a variety of ways.

Earlier this week, the council took $100,000 from a $289,872 contingency fund found on page 40 in the budget, normally used to balance salary discrepancies that crop up when employees “cash out” sick time or union contracts call for increased wages. It’s an account that actually didn’t exist as recently as the 2008-09 budget.

City Manager Mary M. Corriveau said the money put into the account is a historical average of those salary discrepancies. This upcoming year, she will have to do with $100,000 less. The council’s most recent move cut the levy increase to 2 percent.

Prior to adopting the $46.8 million budget, council members argued that the city’s roughly $9 million fund balance is healthy enough that smaller contingency accounts should not exist.

As reported in Tuesday’s paper, city residents with properties assessed at $100,000 can expect a $748 tax bill mailed to them on July 5. And remember, payments must be mailed in by Aug. 5 without penalty.

Also discussed at length prior to the budget’s adoption was a particular $880, or .0019 percent of the total budget, that the four council members and Mayor Jeffrey E. Graham are scheduled to receive as salary increases.

With councilmen Jeffrey M. Smith and Joseph M. Butler Jr. opposing the raises and the mayor and Councilwoman Roxanne M. Burns in favor, the group split a vote to remove the raises from the budget. Because neither side gathered the three votes needed for the change, the raises stayed.

The voice unheard Monday was that of Councilwoman Teresa R. Macaluso, who did not attend the session because of the recent death of her father.

She told the Times Friday: “As far as I'm concerned, I'm going to dig my heels in just a little bit to make sure they've done everything they can to cut spending.”

It will be interesting to talk to her again to see if those heels would have squashed the council’s pay raise.