A crowd of more than 100 municipal employees and their families attended Monday’s Cullman City Council meeting upset that the mayor and council would consider passing a $23 million budget that includes no cost-of-living increase for workers.

But pass a $23.4 million budget they did, and as reported earlier, in place of a cost-of-living adjustment are two additional steps on the employee pay scale to benefit those workers who had previously topped out at maximum pay for their particular salary range.

Police Sgt. Craig Green addressed the mayor and council when the floor was opened to any citizen not included on the night’s agenda.

“I’ve been asked to speak on behalf of city employees. We’re not assuming anything, but we do have a few concerns. There are three in particular,” Green said. “First is a cost-of-living raise. We saw in the newspaper there may be one and then we read later there wouldn’t be one. Second, is the cost of family coverage insurance, and third, is the cost of insurance for retired employees. We basically wanted to let you know we have these concerns.”

There was no response from Mayor Don Green or council members Woody Jacobs, Wayne Walker, Kevin Morrow, Ernest Hauk or Garlan Gudger Jr.

Following the meeting, several employees gathered in the basement of the Col. Cullmann Home across the street to discuss their options.

Capt. Milford Parrish noted that information about this year’s budget seemed to be more difficult to obtain than in year’s past.

“They’ve been as closed-mouth about this budget than any I can remember in the past. If it’s such a good budget why keep it such a secret?” Parrish asked.

“No one here is against the parks. Please stress that,” said Police Lt. Kenneth Nail. “No one is against a new police department or a new fire station. Those are all great. But they don’t put food in my kids’ mouths.”

Regarding the two additional step raises, officers pointed out that in their department those additional steps will benefit only one employee this year.

“And what does it say when the first step of a sergeant’s pay is less than top-out pay for a patrolman?” asked Lt. Becky Boyd. “We have patrolmen starting out at $9.47 an hour when the pay scale lists their pay in Range 30, which is where a patrolman starts out, at $12.26.”

Several in attendance questioned what, if anything, they could do, now that the council has approved the budget.

“The budget has been passed, but it can always be amended,” came a comment from the back of the room.

Boyd stressed that what is needed now, after a show of support among the departments at Monday’s council meeting, is continued support among the employees and the answers to some questions regarding the budget.

“To get things done it is going to take city employees sticking together,” Boyd said.

Green also encouraged workers to be patient until more information can be gathered.

“We want to work with them and we want them to be willing to work with us,” Green said. “It’s important that we maintain an open dialog.”

Last year’s budget contained a 3 percent cost-of-living increase for all full-time employees. The city also agreed to pay an additional $13.60 per month for individual health insurance coverage as well as $23.10 per month on family coverage.

In the 2004-05 fiscal year budget, the city managed to give employees a 2.5 percent cost-of-living increase. The city also paid an additional $21 toward single and family coverage health insurance for all full-time employees.

Step raises also remained in place for full-time employees along with classification changes and adjustments in the pay scale for firemen.

The $23.4 million budget approved for fiscal year 2006 includes $19.2 million in general fund expenditures and $4.2 million in transfers to other accounts and departments.

Total projected expenditures for the 2006-07 fiscal budget are $23,492,009. That amount includes $19,284,714 in general fund expenses and $4,207,295 in transfers.

In comparison, the city’s 2005-06 fiscal budget was $19,001,743.







“In terms of general fund expenditures, this year’s budget is only slightly more than last years. The difference is in the general fund transfers to other accounts. We’re doing it this way because If we were to include the transfers along with our general fund expenditures they would show up in the budget as expenses in two places, so we separate them to simplify the bookkeeping,” explained City Clerk Lucille Galin.

Examples of transfers would be the city’s portion of the cost of constructing an industrial access road on County Road 222 (estimated cost $622,000), the public road that provides access to Cullman Casting (estimated cost $640,000), the farmers market (estimated cost $650,000), and sidewalks along U.S. Highway 278 West (estimated cost $215,000).

On the revenue side, officials are projecting total revenues and transfers in from sources such as state and federal grants, in the amount of $23,688,661. That leaves the city with projected unbudgeted funds of $196,652 this fiscal year.

It’s a tight budget, but also an ambitious one with funding set aside for special projects that include the remodeling of the fire department and former jail and police department area at City Hall (estimated cost $325,000), and repair of the Lake George Dam (estimated cost $115,000).

“Everyone worked very hard to balance this year’s budget. The only problem I have with the budget is the decision to cut the city’s appropriation to city schools by $259,000 (50 percent). I didn’t agree with it,” Green said. “I respect the council’s decision. I just thought this was a bad time.”

Three years ago, the city budgeted $618,000 for Cullman City Schools, which included a one-time appropriation of $100,000. Last year, the city budgeted it’s standard appropriation of $518,000.

While he would liked to have seen the city match that appropriation this year, Green said he understands some cuts had to be made in order to balance the budget.

“This council has been very pro-education. The best example of that is their decision to levy a half-cent sales tax for local schools,” Green said. “That half-cent sales tax, I believe, is completely covering the 10-mills obligation to our city schools.”

City Council President Woody Jacobs said members of the Cullman School Board were made aware that the council was considering a reduction of its local contribution.

“Given the amount of the budget we were considering this year we had some difficult decisions to make in order to balance everything out,” Jacobs said. “Included in this budget are some capital improvements and projects we all feel are very important for our city and our residents.”

Some of these projects will be paid for with general fund monies and others like the renovation or relocation of Fire Station No. 2 ($1 million), construction of a building to house the city’s police department, and improvements to other municipal buildings like the garage and public works ($1.5 million), construction of an aquatics/wellness center at Ingle Park ($14.5 million), and construction of the Field of Miracles youth baseball/softball complex at Ingle Park ($1.8 million), will be funded through a $23 million bond issue.

While a $259,000 reduction in the city’s allocation to local schools may seem drastic, Jacobs was quick to point out that the half-cent sales tax levied by the council to benefit city schools continues to bring in additional revenue every year.

“When the half-cent sales tax went into effect we were hopeful it would generate $1.1 million for local schools and if I remember correctly, it generated close to $1.6 million that first year. This year it is estimated to generate $2 million for city schools, so the sales tax is doing what it was intended to do and more,” Jacobs said. “This was a situation where we needed the additional revenue to help us do some of these other things we’ve been considering for quite some time now, and while it wasn’t an easy decision to make, we felt it was necessary.”

Council members and the mayor also feel it’s time local hotels and motels contribute more to improvements to local parks and recreational facilities.

On Monday, after nearly two years of discussions on the matter, the council held the first reading of an ordinance which, if approved, would increase the local lodgings tax by an additional 2 percent.

The proceeds from the tax, estimated at $170,000 per year, would be used to help retire the debt service on a $23 million bond that among other things would fund construction of the Field of Miracles youth baseball/softball complex, as well as a new aquatics/wellness center at Ingle Park.

The council passed an ordinance levying a 4 percent rental tax in the city in June 2005. The proceeds from that tax (estimated at $350,000 per year) will also go toward retiring the city’s bond indebtedness.

At the time, the council left open their option of revisiting a possible lodgings tax which has been opposed by local motel/hotel owners and state tourism representatives.

Local hotel/motel owners and managers contend that an increase in the local tax, which currently stands at 10 percent (5 percent state and 5 percent county) would devastate their business by placing them at a disadvantage when compared to the lodgings taxes being levied in surrounding communities.

Jacobs said it is not the intent of the city council to place an unreasonable tax burden on any business or individual.

“We’re not looking to price motels and hotels out of business, nor are we looking to put them at a disadvantage in comparison to room rates being charged in neighboring towns,” Jacobs said. “But I do think a lodgings tax is a viable source of revenue that could help fund the expansion of Ingle Park.”

Green agreed that increasing the lodgings tax to assist with improvements to Ingle Park is fair.

“I support it. I personally feel that what we’ll be spending it for will generate money for our hotels and motels in the city. Heritage Park is now booked 36 weekends out of the year and the new park is going to schedule tournaments as well that are going to generate revenue for our local hotels and motels. I think it is only fair that they support the improvement of our local park facilities.”