About 20 percent of requests funded in committee-approved 2021 Jefferson City budget

After a month of budget discussions, the adjusted 2021 budget has made its way to the Jefferson City Council for final approval.

The Jefferson City Budget Committee, made up of all 10 City Council members, approved a $64,651,654 budget for fiscal year 2021 in August. The FY21 budget will now go to the council for approval and will go into effect Nov. 1. The council could vote on the budget at their next meeting.

About $32.8 million of the total budget is the city's general fund, which covers personnel and operations of city departments.

Each year, city departments submit funding requests, or pink sheets, for new equipment, personnel costs or other needs.

This year, city staff submitted a total of 90 pink sheets. After the mayor-approved budget and Budget Committee discussions, 20 of those pink sheets were funded.

In total, city departments requested $819,766 for personnel services, about $1.9 million for vehicles and equipment and about $1.4 million in miscellaneous requests.

Pink sheets within the Police, Parks, Planning and Protective Services, and Public Works departments were funded, while the city's Fire and Human Resources departments did not receive funding for their requests.

Police Department

5 funding requests approved: $178,150

The Jefferson City Police Department submitted 17 funding requests. Of those, 16 were for new police vehicles. The cost of each vehicle is listed as $35,630.10.

In her proposed budget, Mayor Carrie Tergin included funding for five of these vehicles. Funding for one will come from the general fund.

The other four will be funded using Sales Tax G funds for a total of $140,000.

Police Chief Roger Schroeder said in previous years the department would replace nine patrol cars each fiscal year, but that rate is no longer happening, leading to a buildup in the number of needed replacements.

Schroeder said the department is now at the point where they will need to replace 25 cars in 2021 and 2022. Although they were not able to replace all of the vehicles requested this year, Schroeder said he acknowledges the difficulties the City Council faces as they address budget needs.

"Mayor Tergin and the City Council recognized our need, and I believe they did the best they could under the circumstances," Schroeder told the News Tribune on Thursday. "The most important observation to take away from the discussions was a commitment to continue to seriously explore various options, which will establish an ability to fund our needs on a long-range and consistent basis."

The last funding request was personnel funding for a police officer trainee. This pink sheet was not funded and was listed last in the order of priority by the department.

There were also three pink sheets submitted by smaller divisions within the Police Department.

The Animal Control Division submitted two requests to fund part-time customer service positions, each for $10,400. Neither was funded. The positions were requested to provide consistent coverage of the front desk at the Jefferson City Animal Shelter.

The 911 or Communications Division requested $51,899.37 for a communications operator position, which was not funded.

The proposed budget for the School Resource Officer Division is $702,553, the proposed budget for the Mustang program is $200,259, and the 911 Center proposed budget is $1,598,704. The Animal Control Division has a proposed budget of $672,620.

In total, the Police Department's proposed budget is $8,940,105. The department submitted requests for an additional $704,012 and received $178,150 for the vehicles.

Fire Department

No funding requests approved: $0

The Jefferson City Fire Department submitted 13 pink sheet requests, totaling $1,832,093. None were funded in the committee-approved budget.

The largest request is a familiar one for the department - $525,000 to replace the Hyde Park burn building. The department has submitted this request for several years, Fire Chief Matt Schofield said Thursday.

The building has two elements - a drill tower and burn room. Schofield said the drill tower is usable, but the burn room, where crews can practice live burns, is no longer safe to use.

"We put a high priority in live fire training," he said. "We know how important live fire training is, so having a facility to do live fire training is absolutely a priority to the Fire Department."

Other requests from the department included replacing equipment, personnel, vehicles and a remodel of Fire Station 4.

Schofield said the Fire Department is working with the city's Finance Committee to move extra funding from the Fire Station 2 remodel to use for the Fire Station 4 remodel. The change will be put before City Council on Monday.

Planning and Protective Services

1 funding request approved: $15,000

The Planning and Protective Services Department submitted seven pink sheets and had one funded following Budget Committee discussions.

The department's Building Regulations Division received funding for one of four submitted pink sheets - $15,000 yearly for electronic processing software.

Department Director Sonny Sanders told the News Tribune on Wednesday the department's code enforcement staff already use the software, but they are expanding the software so staff in the Neighborhood Services, Planning and Building Regulations divisions can also use it.

The $15,000 will be a yearly licensing fee for the programming, and the department will use existing funds from the Community Development Block Grant program to pay a one-time fee of $31,500 for implementation services of the programming.

Sanders said the $15,000 cost will be offset by an increase in the department's projected revenue, to come from building permit fees.

"I showed they had been underestimating the amount of revenue we generate from building permit fees," he said. "Before the tornado, before the hail storm, we were trending up in our building permit fees."

In the current fiscal year, the budget estimated about $300,000 revenue, and the department has already brought in close to $400,000, Sanders said. The fiscal year does not end until Oct. 31.

By increasing the estimated building permit fee revenue, the budget was able to include the cost of the programming fee.

Also within the Building Regulations Division were requests for personnel costs of an administrative technician, mechanical inspector and site-plan review engineer.

The department's Property Maintenance and Code Enforcement Division submitted three requests, which were almost funded.

A $2,136 request to replace iPads, $20,000 for abatement services and a portion of a $130,000 request for demolition funding were all proposed to be funded during committee discussions but were ultimately removed from the budget adjustments.

The Planning and Protective Services Department's overall proposed budget is over $2.2 million. Of that, $535,230 would be grant funded, Sanders said at a previous budget committee meeting.

Public Works

4 funding requests approved: $194,000

The Public Works Department submitted more than 30 pink sheets between its eight divisions, totaling almost $1.3 million.

The committee-approved budget funds four of these requests for a total of $194,000.

A request from the Parking Division to replace a parking enforcement vehicle for $26,000 was approved, and the cost will come out of the parking fund.

The other three funded requests were submitted by the wastewater division and will come from the Wastewater Division fund - $80,000 to replace the HVAC system at the wastewater maintenance building at 2320 Hyde Park Road; $75,000 for a replacement F550-style dump truck; and $13,000 to replace a gooseneck trailer.

The vehicle and trailer to be replaced are 20 years old, according to the pink sheets. The HVAC system is 21 years old and requires frequent maintenance, leading to a need to replace it as well.

Unfunded pink sheets within the Public Works Department came from the Central Maintenance, Engineering, Airport, Parking and Wastewater divisions.

Requests included replacement of equipment and vehicles, as well as some personnel costs.

Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department

8 funding requests approved: $140,537

Eight funding requests were approved for the Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department, at a total of $140,537. This funding will come from the parks fund, not the city's general fund.

Six parks divisions received funding for computer replacements - $3,000 for administration, $1,500 for the ice arena, $3,000 for Memorial Park Family Aquatic Center and $1,500 for parks maintenance.

The Recreation Programs Division received funding for computer replacement and a ventless fryer for Vivion Field, for a total of $34,500.

The Outdoor Recreation Division received funding for computer replacement and a belay system for the Binder Park ropes course, for a total of $16,650.

The department also received $50,000 to be used for any unforeseen issues with infrastructure and large equipment replacement and $30,837 as part of the department's agreement with Lincoln University for equipment replacement at The Linc.

Unlike in some previous years, the Parks Department did not submit many requests, Director Todd Spalding told the News Tribune on Thursday, because of the approval of about $7 million in special obligation improvement bonds earlier in the fiscal year.

Those bonds are being used to fund parks projects like the rebuild of Community Park and improvements at Ellis-Porter Riverside and McClung parks, as laid out in the Parks Department's 20-year master plan.

The department's total proposed budget is $8,975,673. That includes approximately $2.5 million for parks maintenance, $1.1 million for recreation programs and $1.5 million for administration.

Other departments

No funding requests approved: $0

The FY2021 budget does not fund any of the nine pink sheets submitted by the Human Resources Department.

Totaling $197,099.76, the department's pink sheets included programming and electronic systems, an awareness campaign to draw applicants, funding for the employee involvement committee, increased funding for the city's wellness program, a new full-time employee in the department and a $25-per-month match for employee's deferred compensation contributions.

The department also asked for $20,668 for the citywide internship program, which was not funded. Typically, the program hires four to eight college juniors or seniors for city positions during the summer.

The internship program did not receive funding, so the city will not offer internship positions during this fiscal year.

The city's Finance Department submitted one pink sheet, which was not funded.

The request was for $15,000 for an e-procurement system, which would manage vendors, bid submittal, receipt, tabulation, evaluation, award and contract management, according to the pink sheet.

There was one unfunded non-departmental pink sheet for $67,768. This would have covered the personnel cost of adding President's Day as a paid holiday for all benefited employees.

The Information Technology and Law departments, as well as the city clerk, city administrator, mayor and City Council, did not submit any pink sheets for FY2021.