Elgin includes hiring in proposed 2015 budget

Elgin's proposed 2015 budget includes five new positions and continued increased contributions to its public safety pension funds.

The city needs a geographic information systems analyst to maintain its databases, and a public safety systems specialist to help with technology within the fire and police departments, City Manager Sean Stegall said Wednesday at a special city council's committee of the whole meeting.

The city also needs a development engineer, whose salary would be offset partially - or possibly fully - by impact and building permit fees, and two 911 emergency operators to avoid forced overtime in that department, Stegall said.

"Those are high-stress positions from the beginning," Councilwoman Tish Powell said. "You don't want to burn people out."

Altogether, those five positions roughly would cost an additional $500,000 per year.

The city, which has about 700 full-time equivalent positions, hasn't created any news ones since it laid off employees in January 2012, Stegall said.

The city's 2015 proposed budget is $290.5 million, or about $9.7 million larger than last year's.

The proposed 2015 general fund budget - which accounts for the city's day-to-day operations - is balanced at just under $114.9 million, including a $5.5 million supplemental police and fire pension contribution funded by reserves. That's a $9.5 million increase over this year's $105.3 million general fund budget.

Stegall said the increase is mainly due to health insurance and pension contributions. He plans to delve into specifics at next Wednesday's committee of the whole meeting, he added.

The city contributed an additional $6 million to its pension funds this year and is planning to contribute $3 million more each in 2016 and 2017, Stegall said.

"We always paid our actuarially required amount, and now you're paying beyond that," he said.

Under this plan, the city's reserves would drop from an estimated $43.1 million this year to $34.3 million - or 30 percent of total expenditures - in 2017.

Councilman Toby Shaw proposed using even more reserves for pension contributions, pointing out they would earn interest. Stegall called it "an idea worth exploring."

The city council should consider acquiring debt to fund capital projects, and street projects would be a good candidate because of next year's projected low oil prices, Stegall said.

Elgin has an estimated $850 in debt service per capita this year, compared to $1,214 in 2004, he said.

The city's proposed capital investments include $400,000 to upgrade the 14-year-old fitness equipment at the Centre of Elgin, he said.

"We don't' need to be in the LA Fitness market; it's a community recreation center. But we need to have sufficient equipment," he said.