Budget, Budget, Budget

Huntington's city council meeting last night was all about budgeting, which would appear to be fitting after the State of the City Address and unveiling of the coming fiscal year's budget.

This was the first city council meeting I'd been to, and I was absolutely not expecting it to last nearly three hours, but the items on the agenda were constantly interjected with both comments from the council members and from concerned citizens.  These citizens certainly seemed interested in having their voices heard by everyone.

One of the biggest budget issues that kept popping up over the night was a hiring freeze within the Huntington Fire Department.  The city has a hiring freeze that will not allow the fire department to hire additional staff, which they believe they need.  They thought they had a solution in the form of a grant that would allow them to pay for up to 10 positions for two years, but to be eligible the department needs to be at full staff -- meaning they would need to hire before the grant was any sort of guarantee.

Council member Steve Williams asked a question that seemed to have been either overlooked or ignored: what happens when the two years are up?  Full staff for the fire department is 106 firefighters, six of which are currently unfilled because of budget concerns.  If six are hired so that 10 more may be paid for (putting staffing over at 116), those positions may have to be cut in two years if no additional grants or other funding opportunities present.  The time it takes to train this staff would be unhelpful in the process -- it takes three months to train a firefighter and one month to officially hire one.   Additionally, several current firefighters have expressed plans to retire within the next year.

The motion failed.

Other concerns included sanitary board issues, street salt, new crime-tracking technology, officer efficiency and safety, zoning and economic development.  When it came down to it though, nearly everything came back to jobs.

Finally, I had my first in-person look at Tom McCallister in action.  I'd seen him before through editing VOSOTs at work, but I'd never actually seen him at work.  He interjected faithfully, with plenty to say about jobs, finance issues, and he was happy to take up any cause another concerned citizen wanted to raise.  It made the meeting longer and it was disruptive, but I have to admire the man's persistence when it comes to his opinions and convictions.