An eight-month hiring freeze, which was implemented in April to avert a potential financial crisis that could have left the city in the red by October, has come to an end, said Columbus Mayor Robert Smith.
The freeze was part of a cost-saving plan Smith presented before the city council in March in response to a financial report, which predicted the city would overspend its nearly $3 million cash balance by more than $338,000 by the end of September.
Smith told The Dispatch Wednesday his plan had saved the city $2.1 million by December, $1.4 million of which came from the hiring freeze on a total of 32 vacant positions previously budgeted for the fire, police and public works departments.
Smith’s plan also put off pay raises for promotions, raised employees’ health insurance deductibles, cut down overtime shifts and ended the contract with Baptist Medical Group for a health clinic that provided city employees and their dependents with free care.
The city ended last fiscal year with $1.2 million in its general fund balance, including a $450,000 unbudgeted reimbursement from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History for City Hall renovations, Smith said. The latest monthly financial report, which was presented before the city council on Tuesday, puts the city’s operating fund cash balance at almost $2 million by the end of December.
Smith said the freeze was lifted both by design and due to the city’s financial turnaround.
“We are in a more comfortable position from a financial standpoint,” Smith said. “We can assure the taxpayers that we are going to be very frugal in our spending.”
Smith said he does not foresee the city overspending again. The new chief financial officer, Deliah Vaughn, meets with department directors monthly to keep them updated on the finances, he said. The previous CFO, Milton Rawle, resigned last year as city leaders were grappling with how to handle two straight fiscal years (2017 and 2018) with deficits exceeding $800,000.
“We have parameters that we’ve set up to where there’s more check and balance now than what we have had in the past,” Smith said.
Department staffing
Columbus Police Department, which was budgeted for 70 officers before the hiring freeze caused the city council to roll that back to 61, stayed at a minimum of 55 positions through the freeze, Shelton said. Included among the unfilled positions were assistant chief — which had been vacant for most of the previous two years — and a captain of Criminal Investigations Division, which has been vacant since August when Capt. Stacey Deans passed away after several months of health issues.
Departments of emergency services were allowed to replace vacant positions to keep a minimum staffing level during the freeze, Shelton said.
“We were still able to keep our officers on the street to protect and serve the city,” Shelton said. “We made the best with what we had.”
With the lifting of the hiring freeze came a renewed search for the command staff positions, said Shelton, which allowed the department to hire an assistant chief and CID head in the new year. Shelton said that relieved the burden on his shoulders and allowed him to apply for grants and focus on strategic plans for the department.
“I have someone that can manage the day-to-day things at the police department, which … would free me up some time to do some major work,” Shelton said.
“The way the budget is now, I’m fully confident that we’ll be where we need (with the staffing level),” he added.
Likewise, Columbus Fire and Rescue’s budgeted staffing was cut as a cost-saving measure, but Chief Martin Andrews said the department was already having a hard time filling vacant positions due to the lack of applicants.
CFR’s budgeted staffing level went from 79 to 70 in FY 2020, Andrews said.
“Actually, we did not have any problem with the freeze they put on at that time,” he said. “It did affect my department, but, just to be honest about it, it didn’t affect (us) that adversely or anything, because we was never able to hire anyone above that 70 number anyway.”
Andrews said the department is starting to feel the pressure of being understaffed. The department’s current staff of 63 is seven people short, but only one candidate applied, he said.
“We are struggling with that,” Andrews said. “We had never been down this amount of numbers of firefighters.”
Casey Bush, director of the city’s public works department, whose hiring was also put on hold, did not return a call from The Dispatch before press time.
Being ‘fiscally responsible’
Ward 3 Councilman Charlie Box said the city’s finances are in better shape than last year, and revenues are coming in as expected. Long-term cost-saving measures, such as medical insurance changes, would stay in effect, he said. The city’s auditing firm, Watkins, Ward and Stafford, now conducts a quarterly check on the city’s finances, he said.
He cautioned, however, that the city needs to follow the budget judiciously and spend in line with the need even after the freeze was lifted.
“We projected a surplus in our budget,” he said. “But that could disappear quickly if we hire too many people.”
Ward 6 Councilman Bill Gavin agrees that the city should stick to the budget and be careful with hiring.
“That’s the only way we can be fiscally responsible,” he said. “We could use a lot more police officers, but is it feasible in order to go spend that extra money to get those extra folks?”
Gavin and Box also said the council rolled back on their own travel, and scrutinized other city employees’ travel more closely than they had in the past.
“Instead of rubber stamping it, like we normally do, it was just pretty much a formality,” Gavin said of the approval process during the freeze. “We did question and ask about the travel.”
To make sure the city stays fiscally responsible, Gavin said he would like to see employees submit a report after each training on what they took away from the trip.
The council has also been more careful about approving unbudgeted expenses. Citing financial concerns, Box voted Tuesday night against applying for a grant to survey Columbus’ Southside to designate the neighborhood as a Local Historic District. The city would have to match the same amount of the grant, capped at $10,000.
Box said granting money for unbudgeted items could lead to a slippery slope in spending. He is willing to keep his options open, he said, but is inclined to follow the budget rigorously.
“Ten thousand (dollars) doesn’t seem like a lot …,” Box said, “but the next thing that comes up would be $50,000, and the first thing you know, you are right back in the red again.
“These grants are good and I want to keep on getting them,” he added, “but I want them to be forecast in our budget.”
Gavin, who voted against the grant application citing lack of consensus among Southside residents, said he is still “on the fence” with the survey grant.
“I didn’t want to commit thousands of dollars based on ‘some people want it, some people not,'” Gavin said.
Smith said he was surprised by the vote.
“I would have voted in favor of it that night … because the majority of people that are affected by the district was (in favor),” Smith said.
“We amend the budget all the time,” he added. “…You just have to look at … how will the city benefit from amending the budget to take on this expenditure.”
Conflict disclosure: Managing Editor Zack Plair took part in editing this article. He is currently involved in legal proceedings with the city of Columbus.
Yue Stella Yu was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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