Lakeville City Council and Staff Examine Deeper Budget Cuts

Imagine a Lakeville with no , or outdoor skating rinks. Picture city playgrounds with cracked and unsafe playing surfaces combined with inadequate fields from reduced fertilization.

Visualize driving down Lakeville streets ill-marked with traffic lanes, continually snow-packed residential roads, a result of a decrease in deicing. Imagine a city where patrol officers take on 1,800 annual animal control calls in addition to law enforcement duties and community service officers that are required to mow the police station lawn.

This is the Lakeville of the future if 5 percent of the city’s annual budget was further trimmed according to a report prepared by city staff and discussed by the City Council during a work session Monday evening. The grim realities were part of a budget adjustment “exercise” requested by the council during a previous work session that asked city staff to take a look at their departments and devise ways to reduce operating expenses by 5 percent.

While it was clear that drastic reductions such as closing the arts center or senior center were not being seriously considered, those items and many other public services were put out as possibilities if deeper cuts were to be achieved.

The 2011 budget was approved by the previous City Council and mayor last year, but Lakeville's new and the are revisiting the budget to see where further reductions can be made. Bellows voted against approving the budget last year while still in a council member position.

Bellows and new Council Members and ran on platforms that included similar planks when it came to the need for tightening the city budget, and they have wasted no time in walking the walk on that issue.

The more than six hour work session featured a staff-led 68-page report and discussion that detailed items which would have to be considered to be cut to achieve a 5 percent budget reduction. The discussion also laid out the ramifications such cuts would have on city residents. It was a shocking portrait of how further reductions would affect services and the quality of life and it eerily mirrored the from February.

The report revealed how little margin is left to cut before core services are brought into the equation.

City staff also included a separate report that included the proposed budget reductions for 2011.

During the review of those recommendations, the council did reach consensus on some items. Those include deferring a citywide upgrade of Microsoft Office software while departments experiment with utilizing an open-source office system; reducing council members’ individual expense allotments; eliminating credit card fees through online services; and cutting items such as mailing out welcome packets to new residents and paid, home cable TV service for Telecommunications Commission members.

But not all the talk was about cuts. One position was added during discussions last evening—a full-time police records technician will begin in the last six months of 2011.

Those items resulted in a net reduction of $61,034 in general fund expenses per year. Those items will need to be officially voted on to make final.

But the line-item budget exercise was a stark revelation to some.

“I’m absolutely astounded by what five percent means,” said Council member Kerrin Swecker. "I actually had to put it down and come back to it. There’s no way we can cut five percent out of every single department and still operate.”

“I think this (the exercise) was a very good thing so citizens can see what would happen,” said Council memeber Colleen Ratzlaff Labeau. “Those same taxpayers pay this same tax bill and as cuts come down from federal, state and county levels, we can’t be naive to this stuff.”

“I’m not sure if we can reach a consensus, but I’d cut a lot of it,” said Bellows prior to beginning line-item discussions on the 68-page document.

City Administrator Steve Mielke briefed the council members on the staff’s viewpoint after concluding the exercise. “We came to the conclusion that it is extremely difficult to do that and maintain an efficient work flow,” said Mielke. “If you want to get into serious dollars, you have to look into cutting services.”

The budget cut discussion comes on the heels of $1.4 million in cuts in 2009 that trimmed 18 city staff positions. Current city staffing levels were estimated to be at 2002 levels accoridng to city staff. Lakeville’s population has grown approximately 30 percent since then.

“I’m wholly uninterested in discussing any further staff reductions,” said Council member Matt Little. “I’m not interested in cutting staff at all.”

Despite the late hour, Bellows was unwavering in examining the options line by line to try to flush out more savings and continued the examination into Tuesday morning before adjourning just past midnight.

Other items discussed for possible reductions or elimination include city funding for the school district’s chemical awareness program, relocating fire department administration, repairs to the meeting room at the water treatment facility utilized by non-profit groups, and replacing the city’s electrical inspection services with state inspections. The thorough examination even included line items such as a $933 for lollipops given to customers with children at the city’s three liquor stores—a practice that has been in place for 25 years.

The next step is for staff to draft a revised budget adjustment recommendation so it can be brought forward in council chambers for official action.

Other news

Other issues discussed during the work session included the proposed Kenrick Avenue extension project and a potential upgrade to the intersection at County Roads 50 and 60.

The Kensington Avenue extension is essentially off the table for 2011 and will be pushed to a later date for further examination.

A report was given by Dakota County representatives on the need to upgrade the intersection. It was determined that a multi-lane roundabout would be the recommended option should that project move forward. Funds for that project would be split with the county and also receive federal funds. It was determined as part of the study that the proposed Kenrick Avenue extension would have little impact on the traffic rates at that intersection.

The council also continued discussions on looking into the pros and cons of city-operated liquor stores versus opening that area up for private business. Businesses such as Trader Joes and Costco have turned away from Lakeville due to not being able to include retail liquor operations and the council has agreed to revisit those operations at length.