7-25-13 fdl budget update

The Fond du Lac city manager says the 2014 budget will include no major changes in service levels or the reduction or elimination of existing services.  The Fond du lac city council was provided with a budget update at their meeting Wednesday night.   City manager Joe Moore says due to changes in collective bargaining and a new wage and salary schedule, personnel costs are projected to decrease by an estimated $117,000.  Moore says the reality of some of the adjustments made to balance this year’s budget  are beginning to sink in with Fond du lac residents.  "We've had some complaints about charging at the bulky waste site, about our inability to cut brush on the banks of creeks and rivers as quickly as we normally would have, complaints this winter-we were lagging behind in our ability to plow snow in the timing the citizens would have expected and all of those things go back to having a few less people on hand to do the job,"  Moore told WFDL news.  "I don't expect us to take any more personnel reductions, as a matter of fact it won't be in the budget."

Moore says the budget includes an increase of nearly $66,000 to fund five additional Community Service officers and increase the hours of two existing summertime CSOs in the police department.  The budget will not include any water or wastewater utility rate increases.  Approximately $600,000 in general fund balance will be used to help balance the budget.