Shorter swimming pool hours, less grass cutting at city parks and several other cost-saving measures are heading toward the desks of city commissioners. City Manager David Corliss takes your questions about the proposed city budget cuts – and other City Hall issues. Read more about the proposed cuts.

EmJones

What is the total cost of tax abatements to corporations?

What is the total cost of tax abatements to corporations who did not fulfill the conditions of those abatements?

peppermint

How much will the improvements to the road at 6th and Wakarusa (widening it to 7 lanes) cost the city? Will the city order a new traffic study from KDoT before approving this road improvement and any new development at that corner?

Lucky

What services do you plan to reduce during the next round of budget cuts given the 10% average decline in Lawrence residential home values below their tax assessed valuations that has occurred over the past year?

Fireball

Mr Corliss, I recognize you did not start/create the T bus system currently in place in our city. Rarely do I see anyone on one of the buses. When I do see people on a bus it amounts to one or two only. It is a HUGE waste of resources. Our city is mostly urban in nature. People living in middle or higher end neighborhoods (what our city mostly consists of) don’t generally use buses. Have you ever driven behind those buses and seen the black exhaust spewed forth when they start? How much fuel do they use? If the same amount of people are driving and one adds busses to the equation it does our enviornment no good whatsoever. Those buses are not stopping Urbanites from driving their vehicles. Fuel is very expensive right now and with the fixation on green house gasses it makes sense to rid our city of the buses. Why can’t the T bus system be taken away or altered; maybe vans could be used instead. Our city is spending too much money trying to maintain a bus system that is hardly being used.

gccs14r

Why are we subsidizing development on George Williams Way when we don’t have the money for basic services? If a developer needs a road, why shouldn’t he pay for it?

ww891

What cuts will the City Manager’s Office be making? Why was your office’s 2007 budget increased by 90% over your 2006 budget?

Solomon

What is going to be done to get Lawrence’s streets in decent repair. The condition of our city streets should be an embarassment for anyone associated with the city government. Also, on that subject, how much more street repair could have been done with the money sent down the lawyer rat hole fighting Wal-Mart?

ksrover

There is a drop in the sales tax revenue – what is the breakdown between retail, food, alcohol, etc?

emilyhadley

I’ve always wondered why the downtown pool hours weren’t later into the evening. With folks like us paying several dollars to come in and swim for less than an hour after work, couldn’t the pool increase revenue by being open longer, rather than try to cut costs by closing?

PattieJ

What is the justification for the road project on Geo.Williams Way recently approved by the City Commission? The $250,000 from the city when other agencies within the city are being asked to cut their budgets seems rather out of line. Shouldn’t this be tabled until funds are available?

none2

Just a clarification. The project was for culvert replacements on my street in North Lawrence — not the street itself

Moderator

Hi. This is Cody Howard. I’ll be moderating today’s chat with Lawrence City Manager David Corliss. Our thanks to him for stopping by the News Center today.

David Corliss

Cody, good to be with you this afternoon.

Moderator

We’ve heard talk for several weeks now about looming budget shortfalls. Please start by providing some background on the situation.

David Corliss

The City’s sales tax revenue is less than projected to-date and it is unlikely to meet our 2007 budget expectations. Additionally, the City has been spending down its unencumbered fund balance over the past several years, that can not be sustained into the future. Thus, reduced revenues from fund balance and sales taxes means that either revenues must go up (e.g. property tax mill levy) or expenditures must go down. We have been challenged to only spend 94% of our planned expenditures this year in order to achieve goals related to expenditure management. This means a 6% reduction in general fund expenditures, which includes police, fire, planning, street maintenance, inspections, support for non-City agencies, etc. and the administrative support for these services.

cowboy

With all due respect the public comments to date don’t indicate to me that the city is at all serious about generating a budget in the black , in your opinion what truly are the budget oportunities that will generate 1 million plus in cuts ?

David Corliss

Cowboy, thanks for your question. We are looking for approximately $3.5 million in general fund reductions, this includes the now expected reduction of $1million in sales tax. We are not proceeding at this time with filling a number of positions at City Hall, including the Parks and Recreation Director, the Director of the Human Relations Department, a personnel staff person and a full-time intern in Administrative Services Department, a clerk in our municipal court, a zoning enforcement officer, etc. This list will will likely grow. We are reducing contractual services in areas such as printing, janitorial, etc. We are deciding whether we can defer equipment purchases until next year – or beyond. We are looking at certain practices on use of City equipment and vehicles, such as take-home vehicles for City personnel who are on-call for certain City services. We are not proceeding with a number of capital items, such as completion of the playground at DeVictor Park, enhancements to the skateboard park, etc. Cowboy, this is not all hat and no cattle. It has serious implications for the hard working city staff members and for the community, but I am also optimistic about Lawrence’s long term growth and believe that after we correct the revenue/expenditure imbalance we can continue to invest in the community.

Moderator

We have a question specifically regarding the city’s vehicle policy…

booze_buds_03

I see multiple different city workers, most notably Parks and Recreation officials drive work vehicles home all the time and then use for what I can ascertain to be duties unrelated to city business. Can the city take a closer look at legitimate use of city vehicles?

David Corliss

That specific item has been under review for a number of months – too long in fact. We will be making changes in this area. But I also know that the community expects 24/7 service so the balance in our new policy will be to reduce/eliminate take-home use to only those who need it for on-call status and emergencies.

ww891

Why did you wait until almost half the year was gone before notifiying departments of the budget cuts?

David Corliss

I don’t think it is accurate to say that we waited until half-year for budget cuts. We have been monitoring revenues on a monthly basis – the first month payment in sales tax was among the highest ever received by the City, only since then has sales tax revenues not met expectations. Also, as noted above we have held on hiring on a number of 2007 authorized positions from the first of the year.

hawkperchedatriverfront

Mr. Corliss, cutting a household budget means that we cut our current spending. Therefore, do you plan to reduce wages/salaries, get lower bids for services and supplies, ask for early retirements for those who would be leaving in a couple years, and do not replace the positions and as a gesture of goodwill, return your last pay raise?

David Corliss

My preference is not to reduce salaries for City employees. I am looking primarily at reducing/removing City functions that are not part of core City mission. We do seek to obtain competitive bids on City services and supplies. Be sure to examine our posting on the City’s agenda web site where we highlight some of our efforts to seek cooperative bidding with others in the marketplace.

ww891

We keep reading about the sales tax receipt decrease. Why are departments that are funded from other revenue streams being asked to cut their budgets?

David Corliss

Budget cuts will impact different City departments differently. All of the revenue streams come from citizens so it is appropriate to look at all departments for economy measures regardless of whether they are funded from property taxes, sales taxes, water charges, etc.

none2

Mr. Corliss, I know my street had some neighborhood project approved two years ago, but the work was never done. Will previous years’ funded projects that weren’t executed be cut?

David Corliss

I am not going to recommend that we reduce our expenditures for street maintenance – we did this in the past and we got too far behind. We are puttng more public funds into street maintenance this year than we have in any past year – and I’m going to recommend that it not be reduced. You may be referring to a street calming project (traffic circle, speed hump, etc.) that has been approved by the City Commission but not yet funded. The Commission is going to discuss these projects next Tuesday night. I am not going to recommend that we fund these projects with City funds under current budget restraints.

Moderator

What can we expect at Tuesday’s City Commission meeting regarding this topic?

David Corliss

Staff will be briefing the Commission on our work to-date on this issue. We will be advising them specifically about the Economic Projects Coordinator position that was budgeted for this year and whether we should start recruitment for that position. We will continue these budget discussions with the Commission on June 4 and 5 when we have planned budget hearings with the Commission and department heads. We are essentially looking at an 18 month budget – the remainder of this year and then into 2008. It doesn’t make sense to defer an expenditure or hire in 2007 without looking at the 2008 consequences. I would ask that if citizens have additional questions or concerns that they feel free to contact me at 832-3403 or dcorliss@ci.lawrence.ks.us. Thanks for this opportunity.

Moderator

That concludes today’s chat. Our thanks to Lawrence City Manager David Corliss for taking time to visit with us today.