By Bill Brown
Buffalo News (New York)
Copyright 2007 The Buffalo News
All Rights Reserved
BATAVIA, N.Y. — The City Council’s attempts to rein in a record high $23.7 million budget and a 23 percent property tax increase, the largest in a decade, centered on overtime in the Police and Fire departments at a budget session Thursday.
Overtime in the proposed 2007-08 spending plan is set at $85,000. A good share of that figure is requested for the two departments, whose heads faced a sometimes heated exchange during a lengthy meeting, one of the two-a-week sessions the Council has been holding on City Manager Jason R. Molino’s budget.
Despite a directive from the Council to reduce expenses in each department by 10 percent, the Police Department’s $3.4 million request calls for a 3 percent increase. The Fire Department, with a $2.8 million budget, shows expenses up 10 percent.
Police Chief Darryl D. Sehm, who heads a department with 33 officers, including six detectives, noted that grant funding and DWI fine income have helped contain expenses.
Fire Chief Larry L. Smith, whose department poses the highest overtime costs, joined Sehm in citing union contracts for problems in cutting expenses through changing assignments and reducing overtime.
The Fire Department has 40 firefighters and 16 medics who staff an ambulance service that serves Genesee County as well as the city.
The firefighters union also is protesting a plan to close Fire Station No. 2 on Ellicott Street. It was built in 1947, when two railroad lines cut through the city, delaying emergency traffic. Trains were rerouted south of the city 10 years later, diminishing the need for an auxiliary station.
About 30 firefighters attended the meeting, which was delayed by 40 minutes because of an executive session. No explanation was given for the delay, although both chiefs and the city manager attended the closed meeting.