Olympia City Manager Jay Burney unveiled a multi-pronged plan to shrink its 2025 operating budget deficit. Among the recommendations include staff reductions, organizational changes, and the exploration of new revenue sources.
At yesterday's council work session, Burney discussed the proposals to reduce the budget deficit by $11.8 million to $3.9 million. His last budget update in September showed that the deficit was reduced to $6.7 million, about 6% of the total general fund.
Some steps the city has taken to reduce the deficit include moving the Clean Team from the general fund to be covered by Waste Resources rates, saving $900,000.
Burney said they also updated early revenue projections, which provided an additional $2.5 million in adjustments.
One measure Burney proposes is reducing personnel, which represents 71% of the general fund expense. He recommended permanently reducing positions, including those for the director of Strategic Planning and Performance, Performance Management analyst, assistant city manager, and Visual Design and Production manager.
Burney mentioned that they are delaying hiring community service officers, crime analysts, outreach specialists for OPD, finance directors, some IT positions, and senior human resources.
Burney explained that for the "at risk" positions, the employees have been notified that their current position is at risk, but they have been offered a new position. These employees have until the end of February to either accept the new position or remain at risk.
Burney stated that the proposed reductions include about 26.75 positions eliminated across all funds - 18 from the general fund, 4.75 from CPD, one from Parks, and three seasonal employees - totaling about $3.6 million in savings.
He acknowledged that these staffing changes will impact staff morale and internal operations and potentially cause delays in services and workflows.
Besides the positions and staffing reductions, Burney proposes organizational changes, such as moving the parking division from the Community Planning and Development department to Public Works and restructuring customer service and permit functions.
The city is also exploring a shift in its approach to cultural events, transitioning from a partnership to a sponsorship model. This change aims to make the events more sustainable and independent from city staff support.
If the proposed reductions and adjustments are implemented, Burney said the city's balancing position would be reduced to $3.9 million.
He recommended that the city use the fund balance to address this remaining deficit. "If we utilize $3.9 million of fund balance to balance for 2025, it will leave you with the total fund balance of about 14.7 million, which is 13%. Your goal is to have a fund balance between 10% and 25%."
Burney noted that this would be a reduction from the previous year when the city balanced the 2024 budget using $4.7 million in fund balance.
The city manager discussed other potential revenue options for the city to consider.
The Finance Committee was updated on Monday on the proposed utility increases, which total 4.74% in the bimonthly utility bill, including drinking water, wastewater, stormwater, and waste.
Burney indicated that for every 1% increase in the municipal utility tax, the city could generate an additional $650,000 in revenue. He noted that if the council wanted to pursue this option, it would need to discuss it early on with the Utility Advisory Committee (UAC).
Although not making any recommendations, Burney discussed the possibility of a levy lid lift, which would require voter approval.
He said Olympia could ask for $1.25 per $1,000 of assessed property value, which could potentially raise $12 million for the general fund.
Burney added that it could support Tiny Home Villages, which is currently funded by the state and could disappear in the future. It could also provide funding for the city's climate initiatives and fire equipment needs.
The city council will hold public hearings on the 2025 operating budget at the city council meetings on Tuesdays, Oct. 29 and Nov. 12.
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Claire
Stupid MFers. Can't run a Shitty without running it into the ground. Voters should absolutely reject.any levy lid lift. Why should we bail out the incompetence?
Thursday, October 24, 2024 Report this
Claire
Stupid MFers. Can't run a Shitty without running it into the ground. Voters should absolutely reject.any levy lid lift. Why should we bail out the incompetence?
Thursday, October 24, 2024 Report this
OlyBlues
Last year the city unnecessarily increased the salary and increased positions in it's already overpaid Communications office. Now that they have a bloated and overpaid Communications division, low and behold, the city cannot afford to pay it's bills. There is so much mismanagement at the city. It is past time to be eliminating programs, reducing staff, and stop increasing already exorbitant salaries. The city cannot afford to continue with this reckless spending year after year.
Thursday, October 24, 2024 Report this
RedskinPatriot
The Jolt literally just posted an article about pay raises, even though they knew the 2025 budget was operating in the red? I get it, it was a citizen vote to raise the pay, but did anyone tell those people this would come at a cost to other services??? Com'on Man!! We can do better than this! Get informed people and make educated budget cuts starting with the top government employees. If they want to "serve" they can do it at no cost to the citizens.
Ryan B
Thursday, October 24, 2024 Report this
1Cochamamba9
Two very simple requirements could go a long ways to resolve this issue:
1. Make it MANDATORY that ALL government employees[100%] show competence with balancing a budget.
2. ELIMINATE the ABSURD tax incentives that the City has offered to developers for many. many years.
Thursday, October 24, 2024 Report this
JW
The city should not be cutting anything in core services such as fire, police and roads. There is no reason the small city of Olympia should be footing the bill for criminal tiny home villages and climate initiates. STOP WASTING MONEY. People want a safe community with drivable roads and 911 protection. We don't need you to waste money on the rest of this crap!!
Thursday, October 24, 2024 Report this
Skywarrior-Pilot
As a former Municipal Manager, Olympia appears to lack a focus on the fundamentals of Public Safety, Utilities, and Transportation. Instead, it wanders through social agendas and state responsibilities, producing regular budget deficits while running down infrastructure.
Taxpayers appear ignored, in preference to non-contributing residents, who simply increase policing costs and dissipate Council and Staff energies.
This city is in desperate need of a budget freeze and zero based program budget review. Former Governor Locke's template, of Priorities of Government with Stakeholder Involvement, would be a good start. Not every cause or NGO merits funding. Respectfully, Tom Fender
Thursday, October 24, 2024 Report this
FayForward
and our Olympia City Council is spending time and resources planning to pay out Reparations when we do not have the funding for basic services in our city. Please realign your priorities !
Thursday, October 24, 2024 Report this
Kdeviny
I thought the presentation was realistic and detailed. Especially like the plan to offer laid off staff a transfer.
Thursday, October 24, 2024 Report this
BCBEAN
What happened to the plan to close redundant schools? Did a minority of vocal entitled parents succeed in throwing the entire school district under the bus just so their little junior could continue at the same school?
Thursday, October 24, 2024 Report this