Huntington City Budget

Huntington City Council unanimously approved an $867,861 budget reduction from mayor Kim Wolfe’s proposed budget for the 2010-2011 fiscal year (beginning in July 1, 2010) that will lead to a cut in fire and police department budgets and 20-day furloughs for selected city employees.
At the budget meeting on March 22 City Council members decided on a budget of $40,289,914 for FY 2011. This budget is an $84,550 decrease from the estimated FY 2010 budget, however it is a $747,175 increase from the mayor’s initial budget proposed on February 2, which totaled $39,542,739. This revision came shortly after the mayor’s 10 percent cut across the board for the overall budget.
The Police Department received the biggest reduction, in terms of dollar amount, on the City Councils revised budget. The original police budget the mayor submitted to City Council before the cuts was $10,741,819. The revised budget is $11,069,488, which is a $327,669 increase from what the mayor proposed but a $198,971 reduction from what the police department requested.
The Fire Department’s proposed budget from the mayor for the 2011 fiscal was $10,121,153 and the budget that City Council approved was $10,429,956. The fire initially requested $10,549,956 but had it reduced by $120,000. In dollar amount was the second largest department to receive reductions.
In the budget meeting I attended on March 20 the City Council was in agreement with the fact that if at all possible, little or no changes would be made to police and fire departments. The police and fire departments receive an estimated $10 million dollars each in the city budget each year. The closest amount to them, Insurance Programs with about $8 million. All of the other departments receive $2 million or less. So the budget places most of its interest in the police and fire departments, Mayor Wolfe also agrees that more money should be given to these departments
The Floodwall proposed budget for 2011 fiscal year was $648,677 and the City Council approved a budget of $534,187. The budget that the department requested was $636,532 but it was reduced by $102,345. The Engineering Department proposed budget was $922,601 and the City Council approved budget was $874,574. The budget requested by the department was $901,561 but it was reduced by $35,987.
“You can’t make everyone happy with it comes to where the money goes,” Mayor Wolfe said. “What the interesting thing they (city council) were funding back into the budget, but when you got down into the other departments besides fire and police, the change was drastic. The money has to come from somewhere, it’s kind of like cutting a pie.”
In the mayor’s State of the City Address, he spoke of the possibility of 20-day furloughs instead of massive layoffs to save the city money in the upcoming budget.
“The proposed 20-day furloughs would generate approximately $1.1 million in saving to the overall budget,” Mayor Wolfe said. “ These furloughs would be spread out over the fiscal year and would be under the advisement of the respective manager.”
On a side note the office that I followed for the budget story was the Mayor’s Office. At the March 13 meeting, the Mayor’s Office requested a $5,000 increase to their budget from last year to fund trainings. The budget for the Mayor’s Office was $353,565 and an approximate $5,000 increase to this budget would make the Mayor’s Office budget and estimated $358,565 Brandi Jacobs-Jones, Director of Administration and Finance for the city of Huntington, spoke about the need for this increase to help with the training of the city’s administration.
“The rationality behind the increase is when we get into tough economic times, we tend to cut training,” Jones said. “When times are tight, you need your people on their “A” game even more. We are looking to partnering with Unlimited Futures Inc. to train our department heads as well as supervisors.”
With this increase to the mayor’s budget, the city of Huntington would benefit from a training that would help the managers and supervisors of the departments manage their staff more effectively and efficiently. There was no record on the Levy Estimate that I received that indicated the mayor’s budget in any way. Until this information has been obtained, the mayor’s budget is unknown.





Department Proposed Budget by Mayor City Council Approved Budget
Reduction Budget Requested by Department

Police $10,741,819 $11,069,488 $198,871 $11,268,359

Fire $10,121,153 $10,429,956 $120,000 $10,549,956

Floodwall $648,677 $534,187 $102,345 $636,532

Engineering $922,601 $874,574 $35,987 $910,561


Source: Huntington Levy Estimate and Huntington Annual Budget Estimate 2010