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Union City adopts $10.6m budget

By BEN NELMS
bnelms@TheCitizenNews.com

Union City council members unanimously adopted a $10.629 million General Fund budget in an Aug. 30 called meeting. The budget showed a $446,970 increase over the projected 2005-2006 budget discussed by the council earlier in August. Mirroring the years since 2000, the city’s net millage rate held steady at 7.5 mills.

Council members and department heads began budget discussions in May and continued the discussions in August. Recently projected revenues of $416,970, based on a 95 percent collection rate, and a $30,000 increase in building permit fees accounted for the $446,970 net increase over the projected 2005-2006 considered by the council earlier in August. Union City has experienced an annual 7.4 percent increase in growth over the past eight years, City Administrator Terrell Jacobs told the mayor and council.

The increase paved the way for city employees to receive a two percent cost of living adjustment (COLA), totaling $80,000, and covered an increase of approximately $40,000, or 16 percent, in city health insurance premiums. Also included was approximately $40,000 in salary and benefits for an additional Code Enforcement position to address soil erosion and health and sanitation issues. The addition will put two code enforcement employees on the city payroll. The new budget calls for the addition of a project manager for a cost of approximately $50,000 in salary and benefits. The position will address economic development and other projects, Jacobs said, and will look at grant issues. Jacobs told council members that he currently has five projects ready to be addressed.

The new budget enables the Police Department to begin the hiring process for the eight new positions for officers previously included the earlier budget discussions. The cost associated with beginning the process now rather than staggering the new hires, as was decided during preliminary budget discussions, will cost approximately $56,000. Other new expenditures areas included moving the Planning Director position, benefits and operation costs from the hotel/motel budget area to the General Fund, an increase of $27,000. The board also approved the true cost of the building inspector expense, reflecting the true cost of $253,000, an expenditure that had been under budgeted by $153,000.

In preliminary budget discussions in late spring, the council considered an increase from the $9.199 million FY 2004-2005 to a $10.182 million projected budget for FY 2005-2006, a difference of $982,238. Items such as salaries and benefits for eight new police officers, at approximately $320,000, three firefighters salaries and benefits totaling approximately $120,000, a three percent merit increase for city employees estimated at $120,000, the addition of four public works employees and other items spread through various departments represented in the General Fund budget.

Jacobs said the budget increases not only matched the increasing revenue the city is experiencing, but accounts for the significant changes occurring in Union City. As the commercial hub for the area, Union city has increased in population to approximately 17,000 in addition to the 50,000-60,000 people that access the city daily for business purposes. That influx of people requires that the city services must be able to accommodate those numbers, he said.