New police officer cut from proposed budget
WATERVLIET, N.Y. » City officials met Thursday night in the senior center to discuss the 2018 proposed budget for the Police Department and other budget matters.
Police Chief Mark Spain started off the workshop with a 40-minute presentation and analysis of his proposed budget, explaining he planned to add a new officer in January. He said the new officer would be paid for in part by savings in the current fiscal year.
“For that new recruit, you can see that the salary is relatively low, a savings against a seasoned police officer of about $20,000 for the first year,” explained Spain. “When you add all of those up from year to year, it’s a savings of about $4,226.”
Smith, however, removed the new officer from the plan submitted to the City Council, saying he believes the department does not need to hire a new recruit unless someone in the department retires.
“I believe that we do not need that recruit, so I put a zero there, and if and when someone does retire, it would then be hiring a recruit off the list,” explained Smith.
Smith also rejected Spain’s request to lease a new police vehicle, at an estimated cost of about $15,000 per year for three years.
“Our vehicles are getting a little older, which drives our vehicle maintenance repair dollars up,” Spain explained, “so we were hoping to get a new vehicle using that money.”
After seeing a recent fiscal stress report from the state Comptroller’s Office that lists the city as being under the second-highest level of financial pressure of any municipality in the state outside New York City, Smith said it might not make sense for the city to pay
city to pay for the vehicle directly out of the budget, but to instead borrow to pay for it.
“One of the things that comes out of the report is that the city’s bonding issuance is very low, and we’re very much below the threshold,” Smith said, “so we do have the ability to go into debt without causing any more fiscal stress to the city. Originally, it would not have been my recommendation to bond money for a vehicle. I would have rather liked to budget it, but based on the fiscal stress report, I believe it’s it the city’s best interest to bond for a vehicle.”
Smith also gave a brief presentation Thursday night to review items from recent water and sewer budget workshops. Neither budget includes a proposed rate increaes, with the proposed sewer rate to remain at $4.16 per 1,000 gallons or a flat rate at $182.84, and the water rate to also be unchanged at $3.95 per 1,000 gallons or a flat rate at $358 per year.
Later in the evening, during the City Council’s regular meeting, members agreed to schedule public hearings for Thursday, Oct. 26, on legislation allowing the city to exceed the statemandated cap on property tax increases — which would require unanimous approval of the council’s two current members, Mayor Michael Manning and Councilman Charles Patricelli — and formally setting the water and sewer rates. The council will also host a budget workshop at 6 p.m. that night to review the proposed fire department budget.