Mayor: City budget’s back in black

Mayor Ron Oler voted against the city’s 2024 budget as a Richmond Common Council member because it was a funded budget, but not balanced. 

As council began two nights of budget meetings Aug. 20, Oler said the 2025 budget’s general fund is in the black. Oler said the budget includes a 4% raise for nonunion city employees plus the negotiated raises for union members.

“I’m very proud of the work that happened to create the budget,” Oler said after the meetings concluded. “It was a great job creating a great budget.”

Oler said the budget was balanced through prioritizing and by moving equipment purchases into the cumulative capital development fund rather than the general fund.

State circuit breakers that cap the percent of property tax a property owner pays cost the city more than $10.5 million in tax revenue for this budget, Oler said. He plans to testify before the legislature to change the cap structure, saying cities can’t stay on this path. The city has lost more than $100 million in revenue since 2008.

The city does expect a 4% increase in its revenue estimates, so there will be more money than for 2024’s $60 million budget. The city also benefited from just a half-percent increase in health insurance costs.

In the mayor’s budget, Oler added personnel from three departments that report to the mayor to the mayor’s office budget, and he’s reducing the 11 positions to 10.

Information technology

Tracy Phillips, the city’s IT director, expressed concern about his budget leaving him no ability to purchase hardware after paying software fees. 

Other departments purchase computer equipment through their budgets. Some consult with Phillips, but others do not, leaving him not knowing the equipment in the city or its condition.

“I just think the IT budget should have money to pay for that,” Phillips said. “In the long term, I would like to see the IT department as an umbrella over all of that.”

Council asked Phillips to inventory all of the city’s equipment and its condition.

Street department

The city paved 3 1/2 miles in 12 street sections with its 2024 awards from the state’s Community Crossings grant program.

The city must match dollar-for-dollar the Community Crossings money it receives. The 2025 budget includes $300,000 in match money, although the city could apply for up to $1 million in grants.

“I can take all the money you’ll give me,” said T.L. Bosell, the street superintendent.

At the conclusion of the budget meetings, council member Jerry Purcell advocated for providing more match money to acquire as much state money as possible.

“We need to go for every penny we can in match,” Purcell said.

Parks department

Parks Superintendent Denise Retz noted that the department spends $3,500 a month because of vandalism. Six park locations have surveillance cameras with signage to help curtail some vandalism and identify those responsible for prosecution. Limited Wi-Fi prevents installation of cameras at all park sites, but the department will increase the number of cameras as Wi-Fi allows.

Retz also said Richmond Police Department is working to arrange active monitoring of the surveillance cameras, rather than just viewing surveillance tapes after vandalism occurs.

Retz’s proposed budget includes $200,000 for a pole barn to lock up maintenance equipment at Glen Miller Park. She said that of six break-ins at Glen Miller Park, four have occurred in the maintenance area.

Police department

Hiring at the police department is pulling the department closer to full staffing, so Chief Kyle Weatherly cut his overtime request by $100,000 to $300,000 for 2025.

The department is no longer paying sign-on bonuses, Weatherly said, because it wants recruits who are invested in the department and the city.

Weatherly boosted the continuing education fund $20,000 to $50,000 to increase training. He wants to make the Israel David “Izzy” Edelman Fire and Police Training Center a hub for regional training activities. As a host, the department receives free seats in the training and saves travel expenses.

“Our goal is to be the best-trained police department in the state,” Weatherly said.

The budget also includes vehicle and equipment needs in the cumulative capital development budget.

“We have plans in place to take the agency into the future,” Weatherly said.

Fire department

Richmond Fire Department Chief Jeff Kinder said that although 11 new members have been hired, the department is still eight members understaffed. Another six members have entered the state’s Deferred Retirement Option Plan and will retire next year.

That led to Kinder budgeting $1.5 million for overtime. The department does plan to start a program where it will hire interested firefighters as city employees and put them through training so they’re ready to become union firefighters when openings occur.

“Kudos to the fire chief and the assistant fire chief (James Clark) for their upstream thinking for a yearslong downstream problem,” said Oler, referencing the book “Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen” by Dan Heath that department heads are reading.