Lawrence’s plans to hire new police officers, firefighters, emergency dispatchers and other employees to serve a growing city will be dashed by Gov. Bill Graves’ cuts in state aid.

In response to an expected $1.3 million loss of state funding, City Manager Mike Wildgen on Friday unveiled a list of proposed cuts to the city’s 2003 budget.

Newly created jobs would be eliminated, replacement of departed employees would be slowed to a standstill and several initiatives – including one to make more city services available online – would be delayed. The cuts should just about cover the shortfall, Wildgen said.

“No one likes it, but it’s not unique to Lawrence,” he said. “We’ll still be providing stable city services.”

In a memo to the Lawrence City Commission, though, he acknowledged that residents may begin to feel the budget squeeze.

“These recommended actions are not without costs to services and activities,” Wildgen wrote. “Our city and staff will be challenged to meet (service) expectations with reduced or deferred resources.”

Few alternatives

Mayor Sue Hack said she would examine the recommendations closely, but she said it was likely the commission would adopt them .

“I don’t know what our alternatives are,” she said.

As part of $78 million in emergency budget cuts, Graves last week announced he was eliminating $48 million in payments to counties and cities from property tax reduction, city-county revenue sharing and highway funds.

Lawrence officials have estimated the cuts would cost the city more than $1.3 million in 2003; the city commission decided this week to sign on to an expected lawsuit challenging the cuts.

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In preparing the 2003 budget, commissioners authorized hiring five new police detectives, three new fire and medical personnel, three emergency dispatchers, a staff attorney for public safety, a long-range planner and a civil engineer.

“We were so excited we could do that without enormously raising taxes,” Hack said.

Under Wildgen’s proposal, though, those hirings will be delayed at least through the end of the Kansas Legislature’s 2003 session.

Police Chief Ron Olin, who has been asking for new detectives for five years, also was looking at cuts. The Police Department now has the staff to investigate only about a quarter of serious crimes committed in the city, he said, and that rate can be expected to slip if the city’s growth continues to outpace the department’s.

‘Getting colder’

“We’re extremely frustrated with the governor,” Olin said. “But we’ll have to make do with what’s allotted to us and maintain our current levels of safety and service.”

The city has had a hiring “chill” in effect in the past year to save money by slowing the pace of replacing departed employees. Under Friday’s proposal, replacement employees would be hired only in rare cases.

Wildgen hesitated to characterize the initiative as a hiring freeze.

“It’s getting colder,” he said. “That (chill) was the first notch up :quot; this is the second notch.”

The cuts also will put a crimp in the city’s planning efforts, Planning Director Linda Finger said. Not only will she not get to hire the long-range planner, she won’t be able to replace a planner who is leaving the department next week.

“It means it’ll take longer to get things done,” she said. “And it means long-range planning will take a back seat so we can concentrate on the day-to-day crises of current planning.”

Under the proposal, the city won’t purchase new vehicles, furniture and other items planned in 2003, out-of-state travel will be limited and nonbudgeted contingency expenditures will be curtailed.

The city will have nearly $6 million in leftover reserve funds at the end of 2002, but Wildgen said in his memorandum the money should be saved for future budgets instead of using it toward the $1.3 million shortfall.

Hack said the cuts would slice meat, not fat, from the city budget.

“I hope we don’t have to go any further,” she said. “It just stinks.”

The commission meets at 6:35 p.m. Tuesday in City Hall, Sixth and Massachusetts streets.