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Athens’ mayor says no immediate staffing changes are planned as the city faces significant hits to its budget
By: David Forster
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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) — The mayor of Athens said he has no plans at this point for staffing reductions given recent blows to the city’s budget.
This prompted Councilmember Solveig Spjeldnes to question Mayor Steve Patterson during the final reading Monday night of an ordinance authorizing next year’s city staffing levels.
“It seems really impossible for me to believe that we would not be making any staffing changes,” she said. “How are you going to do it?”
“We have money in the budget,” Patterson replied. “There has been money in the budget, so we have enough money to move things around and to pay the refund.”
Patterson said he has a plan in place should staffing reductions become necessary. “But at this point this isn’t something where I’m going to start changing the staffing ordinance because of the $750,000 refund,” he said.
This prompted a somewhat tense exchange between Spjeldnes and Patterson.
“That’s pretty vague to say basically trust us, I’ll figure it out somehow,” Spjeldnes said.
“We know what we’re going to do,” Patterson replied.
Spjeldnes: “Great, tell us.”
Patterson: “Well, I’m not changing the staffing ordinance, and I’m not changing the current staffing. Plain and simple. We have money in the budget, and we’re going to move forward with it.”
Spjeldnes cast the lone vote against the ordinance.
The council also approved an ordinance Monday to place a two-tenths of a percent income tax increase on the ballot in May.
The city’s revenue has been lagging behind expenses for the past couple of years. The city tried to raise income taxes last year with a three-tenths increase on the ballot, but it was voted down.
Patterson told the council the new proposal would raise about $1.8 million a year in extra tax revenue, although he emphasized this was a ballpark figure and said he would come back to the council with a better estimate.
Councilmember Alan Swank emphasized the council was not voting to raise the tax.
“This is a vote by the council members neither for or against this,” he said of the proposed increase. “This simply places it on the ballot and gives the citizens the opportunity to say yea or nay on the income tax.”