 At the beginning of the night, the council re-adjourned the voting
session of July 17 and quickly passed this year's appropriations
ordinance. The ordinance is the official document submitted to the
state of Illinois and filed with the county of Logan as a report of
projected revenues and expenditures for the fiscal year.
The appropriations ordinance takes into consideration every
possible scenario in spending and is always greater than the fiscal
budget. This year's ordinance totals $27,225,735: almost double the
budget.
This is done so that if the city would win a grant award or
receive an unexpected cash windfall, they would be able to spend the
money without modifying the appropriations ordinance.
As the vote was completed, Busby reminded everyone that the
appropriations ordinance is NOT what the city lives by; it lives by
the budget.
Aldermen debate on how to control spending
Two weeks ago at the committee-of-the-whole meeting, Busby
introduced a proposed change in purchasing policies. He wanted two
members of the finance committee to preapprove any purchase over
$100.
At last week's voting session the proposal was tabled.
This week, Busby began a discussion about his proposal by saying
that he had heard from Alderwoman Melody Anderson, who chairs the
finance committee, that she wanted her name removed from the list of
people to contact for permission to make purchases.
He cited that Anderson works a full-time job, serves as the
treasurer for her church and gives hours to the council, and she
simply does not have time to field calls from department heads
regarding their purchases.
He also noted that Anderson had expressed her doubts that the
plan would work anyway. Among other things, she had told Busby that
she felt that the $100 figure was too low.
Busby had re-examined his idea and proposed that the purchases be
approved by one member of the finance committee and that there would
be exceptions for grant funds, medical expenses and gasoline, such
as for the fire trucks.
Anderson said at the meeting that she was not sure this was a
workable solution and that she would hope that the proposal of this
rule would serve as a huge wake-up call to the department heads.
Alderman Tom O'Donohue asked if the department heads had the
issue explained to them. He wanted to know if any of them had been
talked to about their spending, and Busby said that yes, they had.
Busby said he didn't necessarily want to do this, because he
really didn't want to micromanage the departments, but that he felt
they were not doing their job.
Alderman Marty Neitzel said she thought that the department heads
had been put on alert with this proposal, and her suggestion would
be to give them 30 days and see if they respond with improved
spending habits.
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O'Donohue questioned what the consequences would be if they
didn't. He asked who was to say that the member of the finance
committee might approve something that wasn't necessary. And, what
would be the consequence to the department head?
Busby answered, "We have a real problem then."
O'Donohue countered, "It sounds like we have a real problem now."
Busby responded to that by saying that the city was broke, then
backed up on the statement and clarified himself, saying the city
isn't broke; it is experiencing a serious cash-flow problem because
the state of Illinois is not paying its obligations.
City attorney Bill Bates spoke up on this and said that the
problem lies in how the city looks at spending. None of the
departments is over budget. The expenses that they are incurring are
within the budget for this year, but the problem lies in everyone
focusing on the wrong part of the budget in this particular case.
Instead of looking at what their allowable expenditures are, they
should be looking at what the revenues actually coming into the city
are.
He also wondered if there was some report that the treasurer or
city clerk could provide to the department heads showing them what
their budgeted income should be at this point in the year versus
what it actually is.
Chuck Conzo, the city treasurer, spoke out, saying that he was
capable of providing such a report and would start working on that
as quickly as possible.
Busby also reminded everyone that the bank balances are public
record and any department head can request that information from the
city clerk's office at any time.
In the end Busby said that he was getting a consensus from the
council that he should withdraw his proposal, and he will do so next
week at the voting session.
Before moving on, Busby did tell the council there was some good
news coming to the city. It is anticipated that the city will
receive a payment of $420,000 on Aug. 3. This money is revenue to
the city from the collection of property taxes.
[By NILA SMITH]
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