The city’s Finance Committee sent a proposal to the city council that would instruct departments and operations that receive money from the general fund to cut their budgets by 2% for the current fiscal year, and set that money aside.
Councilor Robert Corn, who also chairs this committee, explained that the idea would help the city handle “significant losses due to catastrophic flooding,” and “previously acquired debt,” the summary for this agenda item states.
These two combined factors have caused the city to be “in a significantly cash-poor position,” and the city “needs all available liquid funds to make essential repairs to destroyed municipal property caused by flooding.”
Departments excluded from this proposed resolution include water, wastewater, solid waste and landfill operations as well as the Roswell Air Center, Corn said.
Corn and Councilor Will Cavin were noted on the summary as having initiated this item to be considered.
“I just felt advance this to the full council, instead of letting it die at committee level,” said Councilor Edward Heldenbrand, who also voted to send the proposal to councilors. “It’s a big decision.”
The amount that could be set aside this way is estimated to be slightly more than $1 million, Heldenbrand said.
He also noted after the meeting that the resolution — if passed as is — could affect fire, police, streets, parks and a host of other city services and departments.
Now known as Resolution No. 25-08, the committee members voted 3-2 to send the proposal to the city council for further discussion and a possible vote.
The two members who voted against it were councilors Darrell Johnson and Juliana Halvorson.
Also after the meeting, City Manager Chad Cole was quick to reiterate what he said to the committee about the first six months of spending activity during this fiscal year, which began July 1, 2024: All city departments were adhering to the goal of not exceeding their budgets during the 2023 fiscal year.
“They are where they’re supposed to be,” Cole added.
That would also be having spent less than 50% of their allocations by the fiscal year halfway point.
Coincidence?
Outside Roswell City Hall on Thursday as the Finance Committee was meeting inside the building, a small group of demonstrators representing the Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA), Local Number 51, held hand-printed signs with such messages as “Back the Blue Collar.”
Another one of these signs stated that having a safe work environment is “non-negotiable.”
Rene Otero, who used to be president of the Roswell UWUA local, said Friday that he left his city and union leadership positions last month because of the rate of pay and benefits.
“I have a family to raise,” he said.
And after the October flooding, Otero said, union members worked tirelessly. “They depended on us blue-collar workers.”
Except for feeding workers, he said city officials didn’t show union members their gratitude in other ways, except for voicing it. Otero used as an example that city officials let the benefit that allowed union members free use of some city facilities lapse.
Otero said he heard the union is set to begin negotiating with the city again early next week. This was also confirmed by a city government source, though each person thought it was going to start on different days.
Otero also said the demonstration at that place and time was likely a way to garner public support for the union’s efforts to improve their compensation.
In 2023, it was reported that the local union had about 70 members. The national organization had about 45,000 during that same period.
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