College Park City Council members said they don’t anticipate any last-minute challenges to the city’s budget proposals, including funding for a citywide system of security cameras.
The council formally introduced the budget last night, but had worked its way through the $13.3 million proposal earlier this month, asking many questions but demanding few modifications to the version proposed by the city staff, according to District 2 Councilman Bob Catlin.
“For all the talk, it didn’t really change all that much,” Catlin said.
The council is set to allocate $200,000 of the extra money from the city’s 2009 fiscal year police funding toward a new system of 61 security cameras across the city, a move that city officials hope will deter most criminals and make it easier to catch those who remain.
Catlin was among the many city officials who said they were caught off guard last year when several council members raised eleventh-hour objections to an increase in city spending.
The city raised its taxes last year to double its spending on police services, a move that eventually passed in 5-3 vote after several dozen residents spoke out to support extra funding for safety.
Mayor Stephen Brayman, who had called last year’s budget actions “amazing” and “irresponsible,” was asking council members recently if they had any “fireworks” planned this year and did not report any possible sources of contention.
City officials did predict that longtime District 2 Councilman Jack Perry – who has missed most council meetings this year for health reasons but who attended the budget meeting – would vote against the budget if he could make it to the May 12 council meeting.
Perry – who prefers to see the city keep both its spending and its taxes low – has voted in favor of only one budget in over a decade, supporting only an increase in parking ticket fines, Catlin said.
Catlin added that he doubted anyone would join Perry in a dissent this year. District 4 council members Mary Cook and Karen Hampton opposed last year’s budget, and District 3 Councilman Mark Cook suggested but then abandoned a proposal for spending cuts.
Last year’s budget eventually turned out to have overfunded the city’s public safety services, when contract delays prevented new police officers from starting their jobs in College Park for several months.
The council is set to allocate $200,000 of the extra money from the city’s 2009 fiscal year police funding toward a new system of 61 security cameras across the city, a move that city officials hope will deter most criminals and make it easier to catch those who remain.
The fiscal-year 2010 budget, which begins this July, was fully balanced despite an increase in spending and the economic downturn because of higher assessed property values in the city, officials said.
The city will hold a public hearing on the budget May 12 at 7 p.m. in city hall.
holtdbk@gmail.com
