Assembly metes out more than $600,000

MAT-SU -- The Mat-Su Borough Assembly went through a post-budget round of distributing funds Tuesday, after more than $600,000 was lapsed to the borough by the school district.

According to a 1996 borough ordinance, the Mat-Su Borough School District is permitted to retain half of its unreserved local-appropriation fund balance. The other half lapses to the borough.

Essentially, explained Kim Floyd, school district public information specialist, the ordinance requires that unspent money left in the school district's operating fund must be split in half between the district and the borough. In recent years, Floyd said, the lapsed funds have totaled around $1 million. This year, the total is about $1.25 million, with more than $625,000 going back to the borough.

When the assembly agreed earlier in the year to fund education to the fullest extent allowed by law, a stipulation that was discussed involved the potential lapsed funds. Assembly members agreed the lapsed funds returned to the borough would go to offset some of the cuts made to facilitate full education funding.

Tuesday night the assembly agreed to allocate more than $425,000 to the restoration of previous budget reductions and new requests, with the remaining $200,000 going to the borough's general fund.

More than $230,000 went to restore budget cuts made this spring, nearly $80,000 of which will allow the borough's information technology department to provide matching funds for the purchase of assorted computer equipment.

More than $90,000 will go toward vehicle replacement, just more than $20,000 will go to professional services at Port MacKenzie, $20,000 will go toward contractual services for the assembly, $12,000 to temporary assistant wages for the accounting and law departments. Printing costs in borough administration will take approximately $5,000 and $1,000 was added to the mayor's travel budget.

Nearly $200,000 in additional funding went to new requests, although not all the new requests initially asked for made it through the assembly.

A request for $50,000 in additional funding for the borough's spring clean-up did win approval. The money, according to borough manager John Duffy, will go to offset the cost of the increasingly popular clean-up program.

"The success has translated into higher costs," Duffy told the assembly.

The now half-time borough human resources position became a full-time position, thanks to an additional appropriation of $3,700. The position, which addresses personnel issues for the borough's 185 permanent, 60 temporary and between 300 and 400 on-call employees and emergency responders, had previously been full-time.

That position was cut in 1999, then restored in this year's budget process to a half-time position -- not enough, according to administration, to effectively deal with the diverse employee issues that come up.

Three departmental budgets will receive a total of $80,000 to cover an unusual amount of legal services that have added up since the beginning of this fiscal year. Of that money, $20,000 will go to the manager's legal services budget, $10,000 to the clerk's and $50,000 to the attorney's legal services budget.

Just more than $2,000 will fund a year-round Emergency Medical Services trainer position. That position was previously funded on a seasonal basis, but this will allow training to continue throughout the year.

The clerk's professional services budget will be increased by $30,000.

One item didn't make it past the assembly. Duffy included a request for $32,000 to fund a communications and public affairs director position, but the assembly, in a split decision, decided against filling the position at this point.

Assembly member Talis Colberg made an amendment to snip the position out of the allocation, citing a combination of poor timing and potential negative public perception about such a position.

The position was not included in the budget process a few months ago, Colberg said, and it seems to add an unnecessary position that may be better handled contractually when it is needed.

"I don't think it helps to add a new layer to bureaucracy," Colberg said. "It seems to be not a very effective way of spending money … and we've got a lot of critics anyway."

Assemblywoman Sara Jansen said she saw money spent on a spokesperson as a way to allow administration officials to concentrate on their positions, not on typing out press releases.

"While I would hope that the manager would still be visible in the public, I would prefer that he spend his time on managerial duties," Jansen said.

The position was ultimately cut in a 4-3 decision, with assembly members Jansen, Kelly Lankford Ladere and Jim Colver in favor of retaining the position.

Before the main motion passed unanimously to allocate the more than $400,000, Borough Mayor Tim Anderson voiced his surprise that only approximately $6,000 was allocated for on-call emergency responders between May 15 and June 30.

Ladere took the opportunity to suggest an amendment that eventually added more than $26,000 to the budget to pay for on-call emergency responders to remain at the station during that month-and-a-half period.

Find out more about Ladere's amendment in the related story on this page.