Reply To: Budget Blueprint

Dear Council,

My thoughts on Budget Salaries for city manager and part time police chief:
In the hiring process where we initially selected Mr. Gant as the new city manager, his cost to the city would have been $131,680.00 per year for salary and vehicle allowance to be both city manager and Dept head of the police. Now that council has done a flip flop and elected not to hire Mr. Gant, I would be in favor of keeping Mr. Harrison as a part time police chief and contracting with Mr. Ybarra for City Manager at a pay rate equal to the difference of what we would have paid Mr. Gant minus the amount that we wind up paying Mr. Harrison. This would probably be around $30,000.00 per year. Since Mr. Ybarra at one time offered to do the job for free, I think 30k is a fair offer and helps us stay away from having to raise taxes.

Speaking of taxes, I am not in favor of doing anything in this budget that requires us to raise taxes.

Thoughts?