By Patrick Adrian
Staff Writer
CLAREMONT — The Claremont City Council will keep vacant positions funded for now in next year’s budget though councilors indicated a desire to revisit this practice in the coming months.
City councilors conveyed frustration on Tuesday over the proposed city budget for fiscal year 2022, which still falls short of the council’s desired goal of a $1 million budget for road paving.
While City Manager Ed Morris has given a number close to that goal, approximately $985,000, though that total is based in part on anticipated funds that may become available during the coming fiscal year.
To many councilors, the infrastructure budget should be the cornerstone around which the rest of the budget is crafted rather than the recipient of the leftovers.
“I feel like we mislead ourselves by deferring projects and underfunding improvements year after year,” said Councilor Michael Demars. “My feeling is that those things need to be a higher priority rather than the result of the math.”
The “result of the math”, according to Demars, means whatever funding remains once the city budgets for its largest costs, particularly employee salaries.
Demars, who owns local IT service provider, CCI Managed Services, said that while having quality employees is important to running a successful organization, organizations need to find savings when necessary to sustain their operations.
Several councilors agreed, saying the city needs to systematically change its budgeting approach by aligning its employment and service costs to the city’s revenue capacity and priorities.
“Nobody likes the word ‘privatize’ and I understand that,” said Councilor Deborah Matteau. “And I understand that . . . But so much of our budget goes toward payroll that we take whatever’s left over each year to fix the potholes and [other needs], and we can never catch up.”
Some councilors asked about defunding some of the vacant positions in the Claremont Police Department, at least for this year to help close the gap for the targeted paving budget.
The city is proposing a police department budget of approximately $3.2 million for fiscal year 2022, an increase of about $214,000 from the current fiscal year.
Currently vacant positions in the police department include multiple captain positions and one lieutenant position, which has not been filled since 2016.
Both Morris and Police Chief Mark Chase strongly advised against the practice of defunding or removing department positions, saying it sends a bad message that adversely impacts employee morale and discourages potential applicants.
“It sets a precedent on every Google search you do that we are cutting or defunding our police department at a time when we are trying to recruit,” Morris said.
“I think we are very fortunate in the City of Claremont to have officers who want to be here,” Chase told the council. “I think if we start cutting or we don’t fund officers I think it is sending a bad message.”
There can be many unintended consequences by cutting these vacant positions, Morris and Chase said. First these removals will eliminate any opportunity to fill the position next fiscal year even should an opportunity arise. Perhaps more importantly, these cuts may potentially discourage applicants for other needed positions like patrol officers, which the department is currently trying to fill.
Cutting or defunding these positions may also violate the terms of grants that fund police positions, as these grants are awarded based on a department’s personnel shortages.
“If we fund for 23 officers and then decide we are only going to fund for 22 or 21, I have to report that to the Department of Justice,” Chase said.
The city council ultimately decided to keep the department’s budget as is, concluding that any decisions to restructure departments or reduce staffing need a longer conversation and period of study.
Several councilors were adamant that the discussion be prioritized in the next fiscal year and in a timely manner so that decisions may be implemented into a next budget proposal.
Morris said that these vacancies may be reviewed again midyear around January 2023. The city could consider moving the money from those vacancies then, which would still work with the timeline to repair roads since many projects will not go to bid until then.
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