ROCKLAND, Maine — The city manager unveiled Wednesday afternoon a $12.4 million budget that reduces expenses but still will require a slight property tax increase because of reduced revenues.
One proposed reduction involved eliminating the staff attorney position.
The budget now goes to the City Council, which is scheduled to review the recommendations beginning next week at 5:30 p.m. Wednesdays through June. The final adoption is tentatively set for Monday, June 27.
“This budget is not exclusively a collection of costs that only consider our needs for this year,” City Manager James Chaousis said in his budget message to the council. “It is both the beginning of a long-term strategy for improving facilities and infrastructure over time without unduly burdening taxpayers and an opportunity to present changes in policy and programs. Information needed to debate and consider changes is clearly provided. The budget will no longer just be a number but will be a statement of policy direction.”
The $12,397,523 proposal represents a reduction in operational expenses of $776,581 over the current budget.
The amount of property taxes to support this budget is proposed to increase about $177,000. The city projects that the tax rate will increase from $21.20 per $1,000 of assessed value to $21.69, about a 2 percent bump. A person owning a home assessed at $154,000 would pay about $75 more in taxes. That tax rate projection takes into account an additional $162,000 to be assessed by the school district and $54,000 more owed to Knox County
One reduction involves the full-time position held by city attorney Kevin Beal, who has had a tumultuous year.
Chaousis issued a memo to the council in December 2015 that stated, “Often, there is a disconnect between communications coming from the City Council, city manager and the city attorney. This also appears to be a repeated pattern of behavior from the legal department in which the City Council has offered guidance. It does not appear that this guidance has had an effect.”
Then the city manager said in early January that he was conducting an investigation into multiple city employees and had gone through their computers as part of that probe. While he declined to identify the targets, citing the confidentiality of personnel matters, multiple sources told the Bangor Daily News that Beal’s city-supplied computer was one of those examined.
That same month, the city hired an outside attorney specializing in labor law to deal with personnel issues. The outside attorney, however, said that Beal was not under investigation.
Under the proposed budget released Wednesday, the manager calls for eliminating the city attorney position and contracting out for legal services. The legal budget is $112,000 in the current year with the proposed 2016-17 budget calling for $60,000 in contractual services.
The budget also calls for the addition of a volunteer coordinator position at a cost of $50,000.
“Rockland is fortunate to have so many talented community members, and we would like to work with them to try and harness this energy and talent for the benefit of Rockland,” Chaousis said.
The coordinator would work on attracting library volunteers, park and street beautification, community-based events and good neighbor initiatives, he said. The position would be paid for through revenues from the tax increment financing district.
The manager said using TIF revenues for projects such as this would benefit the entire community as opposed to the perception that only the downtown reaps those benefits.
The manager also is proposing funding the fire chief position. The assistant fire chief has served in both capacities during the past two years.
A vacant police patrol officer position will remain unfunded for the next year under the proposed budget.
The manager pointed out that the proposed budget is lower than three years ago but the slow growth of taxable value has made it impossible to retain current levels of services and make improvements to the city’s infrastructure and facilities without increasing the tax rate.