Council advocates budget cuts

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Aug 15, 2006 by Tim Hrenchir

By Tim Hrenchir

THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

Topeka Mayor Bill Bunten accused Topeka City Council members of trying to cripple his office Monday after most of them proposed that city manager Norton Bonaparte Jr. slash the job of Bunten's executive assistant from the city's 2007 budget.

"It's vindictive," Bunten said. "It's unfair. It should not be done."

Council members Lana Kennedy, John Nave, Clark Duffy, Jeff Preisner and Brett Blackburn encouraged Bonaparte to eliminate the job currently held by mayoral assistant Celeste Benton, saying they expected it would soon be left unfilled because Bunten told them he anticipates Benton will leave city employment.

Bunten said after Monday's meeting that Benton seems happy in her work and hasn't offered her resignation, but he considered it likely his office soon would lose her to other employment that pays more than her current salary. Eliminating Benton's job would reduce the number of people working for Bunten to one full-time office specialist and one half-time receptionist.

Council members suggested cutting the mayoral assistant's job and removing its proposed 2007 salary of $42,607 from next year's suggested budget as they met Monday to provide input to Bonaparte.

Bonaparte said he plans to use guidance garnered from Monday's session to provide the council on Friday with revised budget recommendations, which it will consider Aug. 21. The council plans to adopt a final 2007 budget on Aug. 22.

Officially, no cuts have been made yet from the proposed 2007 budget Bonaparte submitted July 5 to council members, which would have brought about a 2.92-mill increase in city property taxes to 33.47 mills. Excluding internal service funds and contingencies serving as fund balances, it would have increased the city's budget to $182.8 million from its 2006 revised budget estimate of $175.3 million.

But council members voted July 26 to ban themselves from approving a 2007 budget assessing more than the city's 2006 property tax levy of 30.65 mills, while retaining the option of raising service fees by as much as 5 percent. The council could reach that goal by cutting about $2.79 million from Bonaparte's recommended budget, raising about $2.81 million by increasing service fees by 5 percent, or mixing budget cuts and service fee hikes.

On Monday, John Alcala was the only councilman not present as members of that body explained various cuts in the 2007 budget they were proposing to Bonaparte and city finance and budget director Jim Langford.

Though no votes were taken, at least five council members each expressed support for three moves that would save slightly more than $200,000. Those moves were to cut funding for the mayoral assistant's job, a soon-to-be vacant economic development specialist's position and a deputy city manager's job Bonaparte had hoped to create.

A majority of council members also proposed cutting the city's number of full-time employees by not filling some city openings that have been left unfilled for long periods of time. It was unclear how much that would save.

Bonaparte heard mixed messages from the council on several issues at Monday's meeting. For example, some advocated a mix of spending cuts and increases in service fees to reach the city's budget goal, while others said the city should simply cut spending.

Bonaparte heard support expressed by some council members - but not enough to constitute a majority - for various budget cuts that included lowering proposed cost-of-living and step pay increases to be given to city employees, reducing spending for commodities by city departments and cutting funding to social service agencies that depend on the city for small percentages of their overall budgets.

Preisner and Nave suggested cuts in funding to the Battered Women Task Force operated by the Topeka YWCA. Nave suggested reducing funding for the task force from a proposed $30,000 to $15,000. Preisner suggested the city give the $30,000 instead to the Prairie Advocacy Group, a nonprofit organization that serves child victims of sexual assault.

Tim Hrenchir can be reached at (785) 295-1184

or tim.hrenchir@cjonline.com.