Kent mayor presents proposed budget; positions to be cut

With revenues expected to continue to fall, Kent Mayor Suzette Cooke Thursday night presented her 2010 budget proposal, which eliminates nearly 56 positions – 24 of them actual layoffs.

The 24 affected employees received notice this week that they would be laid off effective Nov. 30. That will bring the total number of layoffs in 2009 to 28, or 3.4 percent of the workforce, according to a presentation by Cooke and Finance Director Bob Nachlinger.

The remainder of the positions to be cut – 27 – are presently unfilled and they will be eliminated entirely in the 2010 budget.

The cuts are designed to help the city deal with a projected $4.6 million revenue shortfall next year.

The shortfall comes from $1 million that has gone to flood preparedness, as well as an increase in insurance liability, and, thanks to a drop in assessed property valuations, a $1.1 million reduction in fire district revenues the city is projected to get.

While Cooke said no department was untouched by budget cuts, she assured the City Council that the cuts would not affect the number of police on the streets, firefighters on the trucks or cuts to the city’s human services.

Though the actual budget was not presented at the Thursday workshop, several details of the 2010 spending plan emerged, including where cuts would be made.

Cooke said the city has asked the unions to once again consider a five-day furlough that could save the city about $450,000 and said the administration decided not to spend down the city’s fund balance to help balance the budget.

The non-represented staff has already agreed to the furlough plan and the city’s other two unions: teamsters and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) are considering the request. Police and Fire unions in 2009 agreed to a 3 percent reduction in deferred compensation and are again considering that request.

Presently Kent’s fund balance sits at approximately 8.1 percent of the operating budget, something the administration does not wish to change.

In terms of service reductions, the 2010 budget includes reductions throughout the city, including cuts to Parks, Recreation and Community Services which will lose 9.4 positions. The department also will see a reduction in the number of trips at the senior activity center, the consolidation of all services at the Resource Center to Kent Commons, elimination of scorekeepers in the adult softball program, elimination of youth/teen trips and a reduction in the number of city-sponsored concerts and events.

While no police officers have been eliminated, eight support positions in the police department are being eliminated in the budget. Three police department employees received layoff notices and one position was eliminated, including the Community Education Supervisor and a Public Education Specialist.

Other positions eliminated in the Police Department were accreditation staff for the police department and the jail, though those officers moved into patrol or corrections officer roles, as well as positions in public education, parking enforcement and internal training. The internal training position will also be returned to patrol.

Three vacant officer position were also eliminated, but according to Chief Steve Strachan, those positions will be filled by officers moving out of administrative positions and back on to patrol.

“We had to make difficult decisions and prioritize,” Strachan said Friday, adding that approximately $700,000 was cut from the police department, though he said it was less other city departments.

There also will be cuts to services in finance, information technology and the city clerk’s office, all of which may result in longer wait times for residents and staff.

In sheer quantity of employees, the hardest-hit department will be Economic and Community Development, which is set to lose more than 10 positions. According to Thursday’s presentation, service times will be reduced and business recruitment also will be impacted, something that worried members of the City Council.

“I would think this would be one of the highest priorities the city would have at this point,” said Councilman Les Thomas.

Economic Director Ben Wolters assured the Council that while recruitment would be cut, the focus for 2010 would be on retaining the business currently located in Kent, but considering looking elsewhere due to flooding.

He said the parts cut from his budget involve conferences and other events where he would traditionally lobby for the city.

“I won’t say there won’t be impact,” Wolters told the Council. “There will.”

Cooke said the city is in better position than several of the surrounding municipalities because of the work done in 2009 to try and make budget reductions, including working with the city’s unions to lessen the impacts of the 2009 budget shortfall.

Cooke also said the spending plan she put forth is contingent on the failure of initiative 1033, the Tim Eyman-backed measure designed to limit property tax collection. According to Cooke, if 1033 passes, deep additional cuts would have to be made to the plan.

In a phone interview Friday, Cooke stressed that the 2010 budget was designed with the public’s highest priorities in mind.

“My purpose with this budget has been to once again deliver on what we view as the public’s highest priorities,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean there won’t be some people very upset.”