Council mulls creative solutions to close $3.55 million funding gap

The city will aim to find an additional $3.55 million in reductions and revenues next week.

The unanimous decision was made by the city council after an all-day special finance meeting Wednesday.

However, the specifics of how the city will close that gap, and how it will affect services, have yet to become clear. Cost-saving measures will be presented at a March 25 meeting.

The majority of council members were resolute that the entire amount could not be made up through downsizing.

"We can't get where we need to go simply by cutting," council member Debbie Vancil said.

Instead councillors began to focus on creative ways to not only curb spending, but defer payments and generate revenue.

Some of the more interesting possibilities mulled by council members included moving the court facility into City Hall, curbing long-range planning and contracting police services to the county.

The focus was on more achievable short-term goals for bolstering city coffers such as selling at least $1 million in property by the end of the year.

The city is also likely to issue registered warrants, basically IOUs, on a $300,000 transfer to the Metropolitan Park and Recreation District for ballfields now under construction at Battle Point Park. The move would defer the payment until 2010.

As noted by City Administrator Mark Dombroski, tax-supported revenues have been on target for the past two months. However, the council agreed to reduce revenue assumptions by another $1 million.

The funding gap would be made up by an additional $1 million in labor reductions and associated costs, which could dramatically impact services. The immediate result could be an end to most staff support for citizen commissions and committees, and the possibility of a four-day, 32-hour work week for employees.

The looming reductions came with warnings from staff that cuts will dramatically change what islanders could expect in terms of service.

"We stand by and we are ready to serve," said Lance Newkirk of the public works department. "But we cannot do more with less, we will do less with less."