Commissioners hear budget plans
Marion County commissioners heard from several county department heads Monday, mostly talking about their budgets for 2004.
The complete county budget is to be finalized on Aug. 4, and published in official newspapers of record on Aug. 6. A public hearing on the budget will be held at 9 a.m. Aug. 18.
County Attorney Susan Robson said she does not herself need a cost-of-living raise, but if it were to be given to her employees, that would be fine.
Her department's autopsy fund, Robson pointed out, is something over which she has no control. One autopsy last year, done in Sedgwick County, had a $1,400 price tag for the county, and another cost about $600, she said.
She has lowered her cell-phone costs by using a different service, and District Judge Mike Powers has told her she can use lower-quality, "not-bond," paper, to save some money, too.
Robson had projected $9,000 in her 2004 budget for contractual services, but she and the commission agreed to amend that to $15,000.
Contractual services include autopsies, utilities, funds for special prosecutors, and many other items.
Robson was able to cut her estimated 2004 non-personnel (non-salaries) budget to $37,500, or by about $4,000 — about 10 percent, she said.
She asked commissioners for their recommendations on what to do about a Peabody man who wants to buy property that was formerly his.
But it's not that simple. The man lost the property due to non-payment of property taxes. It was put up for sale on the sheriff's auction block.
It was not bought, and now the man wants to buy it. County commission chairman Howard Collett said he was "not interested, unless he agrees to pay ALL of the back taxes."
JoAnn Knak, ambulance service director, presented budget proposals for 2004 with reductions of 3, 6, and 10 percent mapped out. She pointed out that critical items such as intravenous supplies, therepeutic medications, and oxygen have to be bought and on hand in order for the service to function.
Also, new emergency medical technicians must be trained from time to time. Marion has just seven EMTs, she said. Knak said ambulance run rates need to be increased to $450 and $500.
She said it was "hard to find any place to cut." She added that if an ambulance is damaged in a wreck or a fire, insurance companies will not "do a 100-percent replacement."
Dale Snelling, superintendent of the Marion County Lake and Park, said not as many people as expected took advantage of the lake during the Fourth of July weekend.
This was true at El Dorado and Cheney lakes, too, he said. Many area lakes' attendance was down by about 50 percent from expectations, Snelling said.
"We had a nice crowd, but not big. There were a lot of boats," he said.
To help with budget constraints, he could turn back some of his capital outlay funds, he said, but he would be reluctant to do so.
His departmental budget for 2003 is about $177,525, he said. He would be able to cut that by 10 percent by "going into" capital outlay.
Permit sales at the lake account for $105,000 of Snelling's budget, County Clerk Maggard said Tuesday.
Collett said that what he and the other two commissioners want is a cut in the approximately $39,000 per year that the county puts into the lake/park budget. Commissioners Leroy Wetta and Robert Hein agreed.
Snelling said he works about 5,000 hours a year, and his wife works about 90 percent of that many hours, at the lake and park. He worked 120 to 130 hours last week, he said.
Commissioners encouraged Snelling to "keep maintenance up," and cut from capital outlay if he has to do so.
Register of Deeds Faye Makovec said she could cut from her capital outlay funding, because she has a technology fund she can use for "tech" purchases.
She may need to train and hire a part-time helper, she said. She needs a new personal computer for her office, also another computer, and a bigger printer. A software update is also needed. These items will cost about $3,420, she said.
The next county commission meeting will be at 8 a.m. Monday at the courthouse.
