City Council Deadly Serious About Cutting Spending

Ocean City leaders, both elected and appointed, are on a mission to cut the costs of government. Their attention has been focused by the deepening national economic crisis, and by concerns about the coming season in the resort.

The Mayor and City Council met with staff all Tuesday afternoon, as a wintry mix of snow and ice pelted the resort outside, to review cost savings already accomplished, and to consider the way forward to more stringent cuts in the new budget.

A majority on the City Council began to establish a line beyond which they will not cut, except as a last resort.

• The council will not leave workers waiting for the bus in the middle of night in the winter. The council voted 4-3 to keep three buses running all night during the winter. Cutting from three buses to two at night would have saved $750 a week. Council members stressed the importance of many restaurant, cleaning, and security employees who work at night but might not own cars.
• The council may proceed slowly, but it will not thwart all progress on public safety improvements. It gave the go-ahead for design work on expansion of Fire Station No. 4 at at 130th Street.
• Council members will not risk tampering with successful programs that are closely associated with the resort's image or safety, in this case the Fourth of July fireworks display. Security and safety were issues in the 5-2 vote to extend the fireworks contract to a respected company that has held it for many years, rather than putting the contract up for bid. The contract includes a cost increase of $7,000, the first increase in four years.

But the City Council made crystal clear that it will scrutinize every budget item in every department. The town has already put a freeze on hiring. And city officials appear likely to ask the 600 town employees to forgo a three percent cost-of-living increase that the workers would normally receive.

At the same time, the City Council will strongly, strongly resist raising fees and taxes.

The council OK'd increasing two minor permit fees that had not been raised in 20 years. One fee is the per-day fee for using a commercial vehicle, such as a pickup truck or a sign crane, on the boardwalk. (The permit is issued without fee in some emergencies, such as an approaching storm.) The second fee is the construction-staging fee to close a street for construction work.

But the council postponed decisions on proposed increases in the business-license fee, and in parking fees at meters and at the inlet parking lot. The city manager indicated that water and sewer rates will probably go unchanged this year.

City Manager Dennis Dare and Police Chief Bernadette DiPino each gave detailed reports on cost savings already implemented, and additional ideas for savings. And two council members pressed Dare for more information on city fees; and for more data on compensation, benefits and expenses for the 100 highest paid city employees.

More on the budget and the business outlook for the 2009 season will be reported here in posts tomorrow or later in the week.

Also, I will try to pull together some of the city officials' perspectives on the budget.