CRESTVIEW — Passionate debate resulted from the City Council’s final budget workshop as City Clerk Betsy Roy sought consensus on a revised budget, resulting in one member temporarily leaving the chamber.
But by a 3-1 vote, with Councilman Tom Gordon dissenting, the council agreed Thursday to move the budget to the first of two public hearings.
Council members Robyn Helt and Gordon criticized the revised version, saying it arrived after the council already agreed last week on what members thought was the final budget.
Though the $29 million budget's amount remained unchanged, the Fire Department’s budget content was revised after firefighters expressed concern that police officers were receiving a bigger raise than they were.
Instead of blanket 3 percent raises for all city workers, Fire Chief Joe Traylor restructured his budget to provide firefighters a 4 percent raise and dispatchers a 5 percent increase.
UNSUSTAINABLE RAISES
Helt, citing a recent city financial audit, said giving such large raises will have ramifications in future budget years and would be unsustainable.
“Our city is basically operating at a deficit,” she said. “It's a trend that's been going on for a long time.”
“We're working hand-to-mouth,” Gordon said. “We don't have anything in reserves.”
“We have been asking employees to make sacrifices for the last four or five years,” Council President Shannon Hayes said. “But what sacrifices have we asked our citizens to make? We're trying to kill the employees but we haven't asked anything of the citizens.”
Asking homeowners to pay a proposed fire assessment fee would be an equitable solution, Hayes said.
“Some of our citizens have been having a free lunch for years and we refuse to ask them to buy a loaf of bread to go with the meat we've been giving,” he said.
“The government is not here to be served by citizens,” Gordon said.
“Our citizens absolutely have given up things,” Helt said. “Many citizens are doing without a job.”
Then, noticing Hayes had leaned back and closed his eyes, Helt said, “I'll just stop because our president is so bored that he chooses to go to sleep,” and left the chamber.
Upon Helt’s return a few minutes later, Hayes asked for a council consensus. Helt agreed to the revised budget.
“I just caution the department heads that next year, when the city is in a more precarious position than it's in, we need to be prepared to make these difficult decisions that will need to be made,” she said.
WANT TO GO?
WHAT: 2014-15 Crestview City Budget Hearing
WHEN: 5:30 p.m. Sept. 9 and 23
WHERE: City Council Chamber, city hall
Email News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Revised proposed budget now includes higher raises for firefighters