Mount Vernon City Council approved $52.7 million in appropriations for the last 10 months of the fiscal year during its Jan. 25 meeting.
"This is a monumental resolution," Council President Bruce Hawkins said. "We're talking about general funding by $11.6 or $11.7 million, and all funds being about $52.7 million. We don't take this lightly. We met for four hours on this on Saturday to discuss each line."
On Dec. 28 they approved $6.44 million in appropriations across all city departments to get through January and February, to give them time to budget for the rest of the year.
The miscellaneous section of the funding listed $5.13 million in expenditures, which included $1.9 million for employee insurance and another $450,000 for workers' compensation. It also included $1.9 million for the city's reserve balance, sometimes called a rainy-day fund.
The appropriations include $92,000 for a Human Resources director's office. The position was just created during the same meeting, as Mount Vernon News reported Wednesday.
The Engineering Department's overall budget of just over $1 million for March through December had one question mark: A $45,000 budget line was kept for a vehicle planned for use as a maintenance vehicle with a toolbox setup so tools would not be scattered around city buildings, but the amount was reduced to $25,000.
City Councilman Mike Hillier said that Safety-Service Director Rick Dzik and the City auditor both told him the lower figure was used as a placeholder. The City will shop for an affordable vehicle.
Council questioned the $1,600 budgeted for video equipment during their Jan. 23 retreat. Mayor Matt Starr has used his own equipment for some of the City's recent videos, including Facebook videos about the wastewater treatment system.
Councilwoman Samantha Scoles said during the retreat that she didn't expect this in the capital expenditure budget. She said a limited number of videos with few viewers were on the City's YouTube channel.
"So Matt, I know this is your wheelhouse," she said. "But is this worth all the time and effort that you're putting into it if we're only getting a few viewers?"
Starr noted that it takes time to grow an audience. He also said the plan was to use the video equipment to create training videos for City departments, and to use it in an onboarding plan to help new employees and the members of the various boards and commissions the City appoints.
Other council members were concerned about the time that creating and editing videos takes away from employees' other duties. An engineering department consultant already had been tasked to assist with videos. They would rather see it as part of an overall communications package.
The funds were included in the HR director's budget in the resolution approved by council.
