EDMOND — City council members had no complaints this week during a workshop that called for them to examine a proposed $236 million budget for next fiscal year — a figure $16 million higher than this year's budget.
The budget will be considered by the council at its June 11 meeting. The city's 2007-08 fiscal year begins July 1.
With the increased revenue, the city staff projects that 19 additional employees will be hired, including five new police department positions and four jobs in the fire department.
The budget also projects a 3 percent, across-the-board pay increase for city workers.
Despite the salary projections, the outcome of salary negotiations is unknown because city employees recently voted to form a local union.
There are 328 nonuniformed, nonsupervisory city employees eligible to become part of the local union.
"We have significant concerns about the future budgetary impact of the activity, but do not have enough information to make any projections at this time,” Stevens said. "We will monitor that very closely.”
Annual negotiations are continuing at this time with both the police and fire unions; therefore, the impact of those salary adjustments is also unknown, the city manager said.
The projected 3 percent salary increase for city employees would cost the city more than $647,000, an additional 1.32 percent increase in the total personnel budget.
This adjustment is in addition to the annual 5 percent step increases that can be earned by many employees, Stevens said.
The four new fire department hires would include three firefighters. Four of the five new people police department employees would be police officers.
These additional positions would give each department 116 employees.
With the new police positions, City Manager Larry Stevens said, Edmond's number of officers now correlates with one of the national standards that recommends 1.5 officers for every 1,000 residents.
"I am satisfied that the proposed additional positions are necessary to meet the high level of citizen expectations for municipal services that has become the benchmark for our organization,” Stevens said. "While we remain very sensitive to all increases in the number of employees, the need for additional employees in a rapidly-growing community can reasonably be anticipated.”
The proposed budget includes the hiring of one more full-time employee than was approved for this year. The new staff will give the city 680 full-time employees.
Other departments due to get new employees are risk management, utility customer service, finance, central communications, public works administration, field services, water resources, Edmond Electric and human resources.
Council members spent 3½ hours in a review of the budget this week. The process was much quicker this year as the council needed almost seven hours to look over the 2006-07 budget.
The estimated general fund budget shows a $1.7 million increase in sales tax revenue.
Projected sales tax receipts for next year are expected to be 7 percent higher than fiscal year 2006-07. Remaining revenue comes from utility services, various fees, licenses and permits, other taxes and miscellaneous sources.
In a 15-page budget message, Stevens said the projected 7 percent sales tax increase is conservative. Through the first 11 months of this fiscal year, Stevens said, the actual sales tax collections are 8.4 percent higher than anticipated.
Unlike most cities, Edmond's budget includes a budget for next year and a five-year financial plan, Stevens said.
