Peachtree City’s 238 employees are in line for a 2 percent “incentive” bonus in the next fiscal year, a pay bump the City Council calls “essentially a cost of living increase.”
The proposed $28 million budget for Peachtree City also includes a property tax rate increase — though not an increase in money received —
and a shakeup for the city’s recreation department.
The budget under discussion represents an increase of 4.4 percent over the current budget of $26.24 million.
The proposed city manager’s budget calls for the elimination of 11 total positions under the former leisure services division — including the two positions eliminated Thursday night — but the addition of six new recreation positions.
Leisure Services Director Randy Gaddo is out, as is Recreation Facilities Manager Scott Christopher. The nine additional staffers whose jobs would be eliminated Oct. 1 will be able to apply for the new jobs, but there is no guarantee they will be selected, city officials said.
The council met Monday night at City Hall to wrestle with the proposed budget numbers. Members plan to meet again July 11 for a second workshop.
The budget also contains a .104 millage rate increase, which is the amount needed to offset the drop in property values citywide in order to give the city the same amount of property tax revenue as in the current fiscal year, officials said.
The general consensus among council was to leave the millage rate increase intact, with the ability to eliminate it completely if citizens prefer that option instead.
Also in the budget proposal is a one-time 2 percent bonus for city employees as an “incentive,” although the consensus on council was that it was realistically a cost of living increase.
Councilman Eric Imker suggested instead of basing it on salary, the city should distribute the same amount to each employee since all are affected by higher food, gas and other prices no matter what salary they make.
Imker also cited a number of places where projections could be trimmed in order to eliminate the millage rate increase, but said he needed time to go through the entire budget and get feedback from city staff.
Mayor Don Haddix said the city needs to take a keen look at potential service cuts to avoid a property tax increase.
“I’m talking we have to start looking at some outright service cuts which may make people go ‘ouch’ but in the meantime we are at that point in reality,” Haddix said.
Haddix said he felt the city needed to look at eliminating the use of tax dollars to fund recreation and instead make it funded solely on fees.
“Let the people decide what they will pay for that service,” Haddix said. “Those are just a couple of options out there.”
Councilman Doug Sturbaum, noting the challenging economy, commended staff for how it put together the proposed budget.
“I think we’re on the right path here,” Sturbaum said, noting that the entire country is dealing with revenue being on the decline.
While the city is also eliminating a vacant position in the public works department, three other new staff positions are part of the budget, including a community services director, an accounting supervisor and a marketing coordinator for the Peachtree City Convention and Visitors Bureau. The latter position will be paid for with funds from the city’s hotel tax money.
A fourth hire would be for the city’s stormwater program and would be paid for with money from that separate fund, officials said.
Factoring in the new positions and the cuts to the recreation department, the city will save a projected $285,713 in salary and benefits during the fiscal year.
At the end of the meeting during public comments, incoming Peachtree City Little League President Kurt Boehringer said he was concerned about how the staff cuts would affect the recreation department.
Boehringer said he feels the city’s fields are nice and other amenities in town help improve the property values of his home.
Public Services Division Director Mark Caspar said the goal of the reorganization, which moved eight maintenance staffers from the recreation department to the public works department, was designed to streamline the process of getting issues at various venues addressed in a timely fashion.
Also, the city is undertaking a major focus on maintaining its infrastructure this year, with a consultant reviewing all the city’s infrastructure and proposing improvements, Pennington said. That includes all the city’s recreation facilities, down to the dirt on city ballfields, Haddix said.
Resident Lynda Wojcik said while she doesn’t use the library or the Kedron pools, she would rather pay the same amount of property taxes she’s paid in the past, even though her home value has dropped, to keep the amenities operating because they add to her property values.
Wojcik said she “paid more money” to live in Peachtree City because she liked the city’s amenities.
