Owensboro city officials on Thursday discussed the proposed Fiscal Year 2022-23 budget, which included a major emphasis on raises for employees.
Overall, the proposal includes a $1.79 million dollar decrease compared to the current year’s budget. While the proposed budget showed a total cut of roughly $4.7 million in capital as well County Employees Retirement System (CERS) Reserve funds, it also included increasing personnel funds by $3.3 million.
“That personnel line includes a 7.5% base investment for all employees and a 15% — a double COLA — for our sworn hazardous duty police officers,” City Manager Nate Pagan said. “Frankly, I wish we could pay them more but, still a double COLA is pretty good. A number like 15% is probably the biggest annual increase they’ve ever received.”
Pagan said the City won’t be adding funds to the pension reserve account this year. The CERS Pension Fund has $4.2 million in reserves; however, a transfer of $700,000 to the general fund will be made during FY 21-22. Pagan said the reserve serves as a buffer to help them fight rates and increased costs.
The City’s overall proposed general fund spending sits at $56,767,872 — broken down by department as follows:
Public Safety — $31,851,139
Support Services — $7,676,296
Public Works — 6,789,795
General Government — $4,119, 986
Parks — 4,196,956
Agencies — 1,836,990
Community Development — $296,710
The City also plans to transfer a total of $9,059,332 during the upcoming Fiscal Year.
A breakdown of each department’s proposed budget as presented Thursday is below.
Administration Budget
The administration budget — generally applied to the City of Owensboro, CityAction and Neighborhood Alliances — has a proposed increase of 3% to $1.43 million dollars. The increase is across the board: personnel would rise by $32,239, supplies by $15,086, and the other category by $10,793.
Public Events
Tim Ross proposed a cut of 20%, dropping the total budget to $880,740 for FY 22-23.
While there are increases in personnel and maintenance costs — 5% and 14% respectively — Ross noted that the cut would largely be a result of trimming supplies and other categories totaling $247,646.
“That’s mainly because last year … we had a combination of the Air Show and the HydroFair event simultaneously in the same year. So with only hosting one of those signature events in the fall rather than both, we have a pretty significant decrease in overall expenses there,” Ross said.
With the Air Show not occurring this year, the budget allows for four of Owensboro’s other signature events — including the All American 4th of July, Owensboro HydroFair, Trail of Treats and Christmas Dancing Lights.
Ross said the 4th of July firework show will continue to be held downtown in addition to multiple other locations. The HydroFair, taking place Aug. 19 – 21, is working to find ways to mitigate the debris in the river and is anticipated to draw more than 60 teams. The Dancing Lights coverage area is expected to expand to more trees along Veterans Boulevard to add to the holiday light show.
The budget also includes some partnerships that are made throughout the year such as the Bar-B-Q Block Party, Porchfest, Live on the Banks, Friday After 5, and more.
Community Development Department
Community Development Director Abby Shelton said the proposed department budget is $296,710 — which is down $3,604 (1%) from last year’s budget.
There are drops in personnel and other funding of 1% and 5%, respectively. Meanwhile, there is a 41% increase of about $1,060 in utilities.
“Supply costs will increase due to in-house marketing costs associated with what materials needed to produce a one-page newsletter that will be mailed quarterly to each parcel address and Northwest NRSA,” Shelton said.
The newsletter will provide updates about programming projects and neighborhood investments in the Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy Area.
Shelton also said due to help from the Community Catalyst Grant Program, the Northwest NRSA has a commitment of $8.6 million. This is made up of $4.2 million in public funds and $4.4 million in private funds. There are 140 project applications leaving about $280,000 in CCG funds left to disperse.
Fire Department
Fire Chief James Howard proposed a $1.36 million increase in the budget with increases across the board in personnel, supplies, capital, and other expenditures.
“That increase … is due to navigating a physical environment that is characterized by inflation, supply chain disruptions, dynamic workforce recruitment challenges, and unprecedented strains on our emergency services,” Howard said.
Howard said the 11% increase in personnel alone is because of the cost of living adjustment, rising pension costs and expensive unscheduled overtime. The jump in supplies is largely attributed to fuel costs.
Going into FY 22-23, Howard said the department plans to upgrade its water rescue response through national training. Additional purchases include personal protective equipment, an inflatable rescue craft and a 14-foot motorized inflatable rescue boat.
Howard said they will continue to improve the amount of staff that can offer Basic and Advanced Life Support while also adding new technology to their systems. Other initiatives include hydrant testing, improving their deployable standard for Urban Search and Rescue teams, and achieving nationally recognized accreditation through the Center of Public Safety Excellence.
IT Department
IT Manager Angela Bruner said there is a proposed budget of $2.4 million for the new year, which would be an overall decrease of $123,000 — though capital would include a 14% increase of $11,472.
The increase is for the replacement of control panels for the facility.
Bruner said the department’s cybersecurity efforts were very strong, as she reported that during a specific 2-day period, there were 30,000 attempts to break into the system; however, none were successful due to the multiple protections in place.
Geographic Information System (GIS) Department
The department included a 6% increase in its proposed budget, pushing the amount to $534,696 total with increases in the personnel and other categories.
Finance Department
The Finance Department included a 6% increase to the budget totaling just over $2 million, stemming from the need to the cover credit card upcharge the city handles and the COLA given to all city departments.
Personnel Department
Manager of Human Resources Josh Bachmeier proposed the department budget receive $931,715 in the new year — a 3% increase.
Bachmeier said that, on average since the 2016-17 FY, the Owensboro Police Department’s Hazardous and Dispatch departments and Public Works Transit operations are seeing around 15% and 20% turnover rates, respectively. To help with the turnover, they are using the COLA to raise the pay in all departments.
With the proposed budget, entry-level police officers’ wages will start at $52,197; Police Sergeant wages start at $70,903; and Police Lieutenant wages start at $77,881.
Dispatch pay will increase for non-full-time call takers/telecommunicators as well. Entry-level 1st shift will start at $15 an hour; 2nd shift will start at $15.75; and 3rd shift will start at $16.
At Public Works, entry-level bus drivers’ starting pay will increase to $39,470; and bus driver/dispatcher will increase to $46,458. In the engineering department, entry-level technicians will increase to $56,853.
For the Parks & Recreation Department, current staff will raise to $12.15 an hour, while new employees will start at $11.30.
Police Department
Police Chief Art Ealum said that there is a nearly $2 million dollar increase to the police budget to a total of $17.6 million. There is an increase in all departments except the capital department.
The Police Department is also highlighting the implementation of a Safedevelop DFO & Ninhydrin Print Development Chamber to increase the efficiency of the department and provide faster clearance times as well as add new covert pole cameras that could lead to more solutions to investigations.
Central Dispatch
Paul Nave, Director of the 911 Dispatch Center, said that there is a 12% increase totaling $424,910 added to the budget. Most is a result of the raises added.
Nave noted that the turnover rate had a drastical negative impact on the services dispatch can provide, as it takes roughly a year to become proficient in the position.
Parks & Recreation Department
Director Amanda Rogers proposed a 3% increase to the Parks budget, making the total $4.19 million. There were increases in all departments. In the Recreation Department, there was $7,885 added for a $3.29 million total proposed budget.
In FY 22-23, the department is setting out to replace the playground at Moreland Park along with working toward advancements at the newly renamed Moneta Sleet Jr. Park.
“Getting to replace that playground will be a large project and we’re very excited about that. We’re also looking at making improvements at Moneta Sleet Jr. Park … so we’re looking at the potential of adding a gazebo, potentially a power source and some lighting at that location,” Rogers said.
Rogers said they are also working on a Parks Master Plan with operations and future projects for the parks based on input from the community.
Public Works Department
Within Public Works, the Engineering Department would see a 2% increase totaling about $3.5 million.
Along with the increase to their budget, they are hoping to pave 8 miles worth of road over the course of the year. However, the street department is proposed to see a 30% decrease in the new budget.
The proposed budget also included a 7% decrease for the stormwater crew, a 4% decrease for property maintenance, an 18% decrease for facilities maintenance (building), a 5% decrease for facilities maintenance (grounds), and an 18% decrease for the sanitation department.
The Owensboro Transit System is expected to see a 53% cut in their funding, dropping them to $3.2 million — mostly due to the capital section being cut by $3.46 million because of items that were purchased with one-time Cares Act funds and other grants.
Non-departmental funds
Northwest Incentives will be allotted $1.1 million dollars, and two new areas including workforce initiative and Max Rhoads Park (now Moneta Sleet Jr. Park) will be receiving $70,000 and $102,000, respectively.
TIF Funds
Gateway Commons TIF funds are expected to bring in a total revenue of $1.08 million to the area while spending the same amount in expenditures. The Downtown TIF fund will be bringing in $1.4 million in total revenue and will also be spending the same amount in expenditures.
Your Community Vision
This area will be allocating $6.9 million, including $3.3 million for stormwater, $190,506 for parks and $3.4 million for public works.
Stormwater will be divided into City Maintenance Crew, Projects-Outsourced, Projects-RWRA, and Stormwater Debt Service.
Arts Department
The Arts Department is proposing a $31,373 increase across the board due to the 2% cost of living increase.
Social Services
The various organizations are seeing a collective decrease of $41,929 allotted to them, with United Way taking the bulk of the drop with $43,371.
Government Services
All services are largely remaining the same except for a $4,201 increase to the Green River Area Development District and a $1,515 increase to the Human Relations Council. The Owensboro Regional Airport, ODC Veterans Affairs, OMPC, Sister Cities, and Sister Cities – Japanese did not see an increase.
