City Manager’s First Budget

Through Hearing Unbruised

By LIBBY CUDMORE • HOMETOWN ONEONTA

Edition of Friday, Nov. 28, 2014

When City Manager Martin Murphy joined City Hall in early October, Day One he started on his first budget, a $21.6 million spending plan for 2015 that Common Council will act on in December.

Murphy is no stranger to budgeting; previously, he was Cortland County administrator. “We were working with a $125 million budget, so it was much larger than what we have here,” he said. “But it’s all relative to the services the community needs.”

In his first budget, it’s focus. “A great deal of scrutiny is placed on fire and police,” he said. “They’re 40 percent of the budget, so you’re always scrutinizing the largest areas to see where you can have some efficiency.”

His first budget eliminates two vacant police positions and two from the fire department, one a vacancy and the second an expected retirement.

However, Murphy said, this change may not be permanent: $81,000 has been allocated for the Center for Public Safety Management to review the departments’ workload and deployment. “As the community changes, it’s important that we look at the places that need assistance and deploy our resources accordingly,” said the manager. “If it’s found that we need to put those positions back in, we will,” he said. “But we want to see what the calls and responses are so we can make data-driven decisions.”

Another $200,000 has been allocated to the fire department for a new ladder truck, totaling $400,000 with funds from the year prior.

With housing another priority, Murphy has proposed creating a full-time Community Development director, taking back duties Housing Specialist Jeff House had assumed on an interim basis.

But Murphy’s budget was not without detractors. At a public hearing on Tuesday, Nov. 25, John VanValkenburg declared, “Heaven forbid my house catch fire. I won’t be on the phone to 911 thinking, ‘I’m sure glad they hired a Community Development director’.”

Murphy also proposed eliminating a position from Human Resources and to replace a Recreation clerk with an administrative assistant.

His proposed a 25-cent bus fare increase to cover rising costs, buy new buses and maintain older ones, also drew criticism at the hearing. “We’re trying to bring people to Oneonta, not scare them out!” said Edward James Palumbo. “Many of us are on a fixed income.”

But overall, Martin is confident his budget will be passed by Common Council.