June 26, 1967 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Pa3e 26 Special Session 869, Minutes June 26, 1967 ANMUAL BUDGET 1967-68: Councilman Katzen said at this time he would like to register his ob- jections to the Budget. He said he doesn't believe it will surprise anyone that he is against approval of the Budget for the simple reason it does not include an advance for the Firefighters. He thinks that City ~nager Henry in all of his discussions has been very cogent, clear and very fair,but°he hag faile~ to utilize the same methods which he utilized in raising the Police Department's salaries and that is he has said that all other considerations aside, one of the main, if not the main reason for raising the Police Department's salaries is to keep the Police Depart- ment ~up to snuff" as far as competiveness in the money market, the labor market. Councilman Katzen said it will be seen that in order to keep the City competitive, and in order to keep the quality of the Firefighters"up to snuff" according to the labor market, the City must advance the Fire- fighters - that, in and of itself, without any parochical discussion or comparison of the two services is enough to indicate that there should have been an additional appropriation for the Firefighters other than the token concession which was made regarding in-grade time. He said the second reason he voted against the approval of the Budget is very simple - that is~ the Council has not devoted enough time to the alternatives to the proposed tax increase which is included in the Budget. He said that the Council, in a concerted effort, spent far too little time in session on the floor here or in executive session, in considera- tion of the Budget. IL expressed the view that the Council has not ful- filled its mandate of representing the people properly in so doing. He said he would like to observe that although there is a sizeable tax in- crease incorporated into this Budget, which has Just been approved, there were no public hearings. He said he realizes the Council is not under any compulsion to have a public hearing despite the very gravity of theme tax increases - despite the amount involved in these tax increases. He said that traditionally, University City has had a more open way of consider- ing such matters and he believes this is important enough to solicit an actual hearing on a tax increase of this nature. He added that if the Council did hold a public hearing on the tax increase, to his knowledge it didn't have enough publicity to have popular knowledge of what is going On. Councilman Katzen said the Budget is inacceptable to him for several other reasons which he will not announce publicly although he believes his views are kno~.m privately~ there are several departments which he believes are over-funded and there is one department which he believes could be completely eliminated. Therefore, he continued, his conscience does not permit him to approve the funds as presently described in the Budget. t~yor Kaufman said he merely wants to clarify one point in Councilman ~tzen's remarks and the t~yor quoted from Article III of the City Charter, Section 19, Powers and duties of the City t.~nager, to the effect that it is the function of the City t,~nager to "prepare the budget annually and submit it to the council and be responsible for its administration after