By DAVE SCHULTZ
Scott Mentzer, president of the Bluffton Common Council, had a rather boring Labor Day weekend. He spent his time with the city’s budget.
Four members of the Bluffton Common Council assembled in the Council Chambers on City Hall’s second floor Thursday and gave their official but preliminary approval to a city budget that will be 30 percent less than last year’s — at least when it comes to the General Fund.
Mentzer, who was elected to the council in 2019, has been frustrated by the budgeting process. This year, with apologies to Paul Anka, he decided — as Anka’s famous song says — to do it “my way.”
He talked to department heads and used a “zero-based” budget system. Basically, rather than start with the previous year’s budget and account for inflation, he scoured the sources of city revenue and took nothing for granted. For instance, grant money was not written into the budgets but property taxes with the appropriate increases allowed by state law — were included.
“This year, I said, we’re not going to look at budgets,” he said he told the department heads. “We’re going to look at your spend rate. So, zero based, we’re going to look at what you’re spending, and what you must spend next year. If you’re going to increase (the budget), there’s got to be a reason.” Mentzer received department budgets and cut back on the requests with that
In other words, budgets for 2024 were going to be cut back based on needs assessment.
Here’s how three key city budgets shaped up for next year:
• General Fund: $7,627,435 was requested; $5,253,658 was in the paperwork distributed to council members Thursday.
• Parks and Recreation Department: $996,715 requested; $932,107 approved.
• Street Department: $1,600,690 requested; $1,297,315 approved.
The Parks Department and Street Departments have their own “pots of money” as they are supported by property tax revenue separate from the city’s General Fund.
“So the other misconception on the departments was if we pass their budget that they actually received that amount of revenue,” he said as he summarized the process. “And that’s not accurate. The previous budgets weren’t tethered to a revenue number. So now, I’m purposefully matching and aligning those two numbers that their revenue will align with the budget.”
Thursday’s meeting featured Mentzer in front of the white screen on the west side with his fellow council members Chandler Gerber, Josh Hunt, and Rick Elwell seated around him (Janella Stronczek was absent). Also present were Clerk-Treasurer Tami Runyon, Deputy Clerk-Treasurer (and Runyon’s successor in the office) Michelle Simon, and Mayor John Whicker.
“I don’t have a vote, but I support what you’ve done here,” Whicker said, referring to Mentzer.
“Looking at the budget process like this makes me feel a whole lot better,” Elwell said.
The city was under an unofficial deadline because the budget proposal had to be posted on the state’s Gateway website by Friday.
Thursday’s discussion was wide-ranging, and it appears that a plan for a tax increment financing district in downtown Bluffton may be in the works. Money from a downtown TIF could, for instance, fund the Community Re-Investment Program that the Bluffton NOW! revitalization group runs using city funds.
The budget includes a 3 percent pay increase for all civil city personnel except police officers. A pay matrix has been established for the Police Department, Mentzer said.
Mentzer said he could possibly establish a pay matrix for city employees by the end of the year, but it would not be applicable for the city’s 2024 budget.
“We have cut our budget by 30 percent. We have created a balanced budget where we are not budgeting to spend more than we’re expecting to bring in,” he said, wrapping up Thursday’s discussion.
The budget will be up for its first reading on Oct. 3 and for its second and final reading on Oct. 17.
daves@news-banner.com
