EXCLUSIVE SERIES: The 2006 Budget Hearings Part 1

Last night Lakewood City Council began the 2006 budget hearings. Technically, council is meeting as the committee of the whole. In previous years just the finance committee held the hearings but council president Robert Seelie determined that since the full council will ultimately have to review the budget it might as well be in on the deliberations from the beginning.

Seven meetings are scheduled over the next week and a half. Specifics have been posted by council member Michael Dever (at large) and appear on the Calendar.

Even though the term "budget hearings" sounds portentous and definitive, in reality, these hearings are part of a continuum. They are part of an ongoing process. This characteristic was emphasized by Mayor Thomas George in his opening remarks. These budget requests represent figures that have been developed over different time spans ranging from just this year to many years of planning. Three key areas that were presented last night demonstrate that variation of planning length.

The first major area discussed was the city's workers compensation program. Over ten years ago as a council member, George initiated a change in the process of how the city provided for workers comp insurance coverage. During that time Lakewood has traveled a path of participating in the State of Ohio Workers Compensation program to one of self insured workers comp. The reason for the change is two fold: reduced cost to Lakewood and better claim handling for injured employees. Art Stehlik who heads a company that is advising and administering Lakewood's workers comp insurance presented figures that show how Lakewood will become totally self insured by the end of the year.

The next department to present was the Building Department. Ed Fitzgerald, Project Administrator for New Lakewood, made the presentation. This is a department that has been in transition for the past two years. Upon assuming the mayor's job two years ago, George focused quickly on the building department for a new direction in terms of goals and updating the technology used to achieve those goals. There was a backlog of violations that were not being pursued. George rehired Mike Flynn to clear out the over several hundred violations. He then tasked Fitzgerald and the department with a more consistent and systematic inspection program. Changes in permit fees, some raised, some lowered, were made to return true value to the customer and encourage new building. Retraining of inspectors so they could use computers was instituted. Fitzgerald reported that scanning of past records was being completed so that all this data could be digitized.

Fitzgerald pointed out that with the increase in new construction that one full time inspector would effectively be spending all his time on just the new construction. Seelie therefore saw a need for one additional inspector to maintain the pace of normal inspections that had been achieved.

Finally, Public Works Director Tony Beno presented a list of capital expenditures for vehicles and buildings. New and replacement vehicles are mostly a year to year cost. While there is much talk about regionalism there isn't any real agreement on what that means. Beno is interpreting that to mean sharing equipment with neighboring suburbs if possible. So, on a machine by machine basis he explores the potential cost savings of shared use of specialized or seasonal equipment.

Several major building repairs were presented, also.

Tonight the police, fire, and ems will present their budgets.
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Volume 2, Issue 3, Posted 09.46 PM / 25th January 2006.