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Marsha Powers

HOLLY, Michigan – Village Council members convening for a special budget work session had a lot to talk about Tuesday night as they considered ways to come up with the $277,000 needed to balance the fiscal year 2010-2011 budget.

In January, Village Manager Marsha Powers estimated that council would need to find $317,000 to balance the budget. With the elimination of the Holly Police Department lieutenant position becoming effective on July 1, Powers said the deficit had been whittled down to $277,000.

On Wednesday, Lt. Det. Scott Fischer who has served on the Holly police force for more than 30 years, confirmed that he will be retiring in July.

As council members prepared to discuss the matter on Tuesday, Powers gave a rundown of what’s included in the budget and what isn’t.

“There are no fireworks, there is no contribution to Oakland Livingston Human Services Agency (OLHSA) or Holly Area Youth Assistance (HAYA), the parks allocation is strictly just maintenance with the mowing reduced to every other week instead of once a week, the cemetery allocation is the same way - it’s basically just maintaining it,” she said.

While the annual goose roundup and tree trimming was allocated in the budget, Powers said little had been decided with regard to the Downtown Development Authority. “I didn’t do anything with the DDA other than I can tell you what it would save or give back to the general fund if you didn’t have a DDA director and a (tax increment funding) TIF allocation to the DDA,” she said. Powers said staff furloughs were still an option to be discussed.

Councilman Don Winglemire asked for more information pertaining to the police department, specifically how many officers work each shift, and whether or not the acting sergeant for that shift could fill in as a patrol officer, essentially filling two positions for the cost of one.

“Right now you have a situation where you have three patrol officers on each shift, and that allows you to schedule under perfect circumstances, two patrol officers working every shift,” said Police Chief Rollie Gackstetter. He said in instances where sick leave, compensatory time off, and personal leave time result in one patrol officer working, the sergeant currently takes the second patrol officer’s place.

“What Ms. Powers has thrown in there now is, is do you want to go less than that, or do you want to go with not filling those shifts where you don’t have to?” Gackstetter asked. “Do you want to not fill that position and just have one officer on patrol during those times when there isn’t a sergeant and an officer working? Because the simple answer to the question is we’re already – as a regular matter of business – having a sergeant and officer working together, but what she’s proposing is going lower than that.”

Councilman Bill Kuyk asked Gackstetter how the department would function with one patrol officer in that situation.

“We would rely on the State Police or Oakland County Sheriff’s Department for support,” Gackstetter replied.

With most of the council members uncomfortable with that solution, the topic shifted to furloughs for all village staffers.

Powers said the recommended reductions of 4, 6 or 8 hour per week, or five, 10 or 15 furlough days per year would affect the entire village office staff, the Department of Public Works and two water department employees.

While Powers said reducing those employees by four hours per week could stand to save the village $88,000, the additional elimination of one village office employee on top of that would boost the savings to $144,000.

“I think we’ve probably bitten the bullet over the past couple years and not had to to go to this point, but they’re saying next year isn’t going to help us,” Powers said. “The budgets are put together this year with nothing – it’s bare bones costs.”

Councilwoman Reisa Hamilton asked if pursuing furloughs would result in more fighting with the union.

“Well, we meet tomorrow in negotiations again,” Powers said. “If I can get a general consensus of where you think you want to see it – try and keep everyone working and reduce hours, I’ll make the same pitch to them tomorrow, but they’ve made it clear in the past, they don’t care about reducing hours – they just said to lay people off.”

Powers said laying off two village office employees and one DPW worker would save the village approximately $174,000. Additionally, she said another $27,000 initially designated for buying police cars could be shifted from the police department budget back into the motor pool fund. “It’s only $27,000 but it would get us closer to the $277,000,” Powers said.

“I don’t think going to the table tomorrow and saying, ‘Would you consider this,’ is where we want to head,” said Councilman Tom McKenney.  “I say we lay them off – and here’s how I feel about layoffs. If our citizens have to wait a little longer in line to file for a variance or pay a bill, that’s the cost of going through what we are right here – I’m more comfortable with that than I am with public safety issues.”

Hamilton asked Powers how much the village would save by not refilling the now-vacant DDA director position.

Powers said the village’s general fund will receive a total of $180,000 in TIF capture monies for the DDA this year, $112,000 of which comes from the village’s portion of the capture, and the remaining $68,000 coming from the Holly Township and Oakland County. From the general fund, the village normally transfers the monies into the DDA fund.

“The DDA still owes the village money, doesn’t it?” McKenney asked, referring to the 2007 loan in which the village doled out $400,000 to the DDA for an accounting snafu associated with the Streetscape project.

“Yes, the loan payment is $66,000 and if you didn’t fill the DDA director position or anything, you’d have a net gain of about $45,000 left out of the $112,000,” Powers said.

Of the entire $180,000 TIF capture and after paying back the loan, Powers said the DDA would have just about enough money for their director, a few activities, and the approximately $12,000 left reserved for façade and outdoor dining grants. “The other committees are cut right back to nothing, and are looking to the merchants for coming up and funding some of those events,” Powers said.

“Don’t some of the DDAs take their money and give it back to the municipalities like Fenton has done?” Winglemire asked.

Powers agreed and said Fenton’s Assistant City Manager serves in the capacity of DDA director for the city. “They don’t have a separate position that is funded there, but yes, that’s how they built the fire station and all kinds of things with DDA money,” she said. “But obviously, they have a gigantic DDA district, too.”

“If you’re going to draw in $180,000, you have $60,000 going back to the loan – that leaves you with $120,000,” Clemens said. Leaving $20,000 in the DDA fund, Clemens said it would leave the village with $100,000 to “play with.”

“You’re still doing something with that money that you’re capturing it from because you have that loan payment to pay,” Powers agreed.

With that council agreed that the $100,000 in DDA-related funds and the $174,000 savings realized by the three layoffs would be enough to cover the deficit.

Kleven suggested shifting $27,000 out of the police department budget back into the motor pool fund to allow for a little “cush.”

On Wednesday, Clemens said Powers would be taking over the tasks normally performed by the DDA director. “For the foreseeable future, the DDA will be without a director,” Clemens said. “Hopefully, if things level off next year, we’ll be able to hire someone for the position.”