Mayor will seek transfer of funds

Layoffs are possible if the transfer legislation doesn't pass.
& lt;a href=mailto:dick@vindy.com & gt;By DENISE DICK & lt;/a & gt;
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Mayor Hank Angelo will request legislation to transfer money from the general fund to stave off a deficit in the water-pollution-control department after council rejected a sewer-rate increase.
"By law, you can't operate in the red," Angelo said.
The amount of the transfer must be determined.
Councilmen Alford L. Novak, D-2nd, John Homlitas, D-3rd, Brendan J. Keating, D-5th, and Gary Fonce and Daniel E. Polivka, both D-at large, voted in favor of the increase at a council meeting Wednesday.
Voting against the increase were Councilmen Robert Holmes, D-4th, James "Doc" Pugh, D-6th, Robert A. Marchese, D-at large, and Councilwoman Susan E. Hartman, D-7th.
Councilwoman Virginia Bufano, D-1st, who recently had surgery, didn't attend.
The ordinance failed because a two-thirds majority of the entire body is required for passage.
"I'd like to ask the four council members who voted against it what their plan is," Angelo said.
Layoffs likely
If council doesn't pass an ordinance to transfer the general fund money, layoffs of sanitary-sewer employees from the water-pollution-control department will likely occur.
Hartman said she had requested a meeting with her residents for the administration to explain how the increase would benefit them. The meeting wasn't scheduled.
"Because of that, all of my residents that I talked to, even today, are not in favor of it," she said in explaining her vote.
Holmes said he wanted a definite amount of money that would go for repairs and construction to address flooding.
"That's got to be ironclad," he said. "I will not give a blank check."
The ordinance would have increased sewer rates from $1.98 to $2.74 per 100 cubic feet of water for city residents and from $2.79 to $3.85 for nonresidents.
Budget shortfall
City officials have said the rate increase is needed because of an anticipated $350,000 budget shortfall in the water-pollution-control department.
Tom Angelo, director of that department, said the vote was about what he'd expected.
"None of those council members who voted no has called my department with questions for the last six months or has come to the plant," he said.
Projects that council members wanted to see completed to deal with flooding are further from becoming reality.
"There's not enough money to run the plant, so there's certainly not enough money to address the problems that the citizens are experiencing," Tom Angelo said.
Increase recommended
Last May, a consultant, which the city paid about $12,000, presented a rate study to council members and the administration, recommending a rate increase. The Akron consultant said the water-pollution-control department's revenue has decreased over the past four years with 2002 revenue 21 percent lower than 1999. The department's built-up reserve also has been depleted.
Declining population and a decreasing commercial/industrial base in the city were among reasons the consultant gave.
"That money was needed prior to the problems that occurred over the summer," Hank Angelo said, referring to flooding.
The mayor and Tom Angelo will make a presentation to city residents at 6 p.m. Tuesday at W.D. Packard Music Hall regarding causes of the flooding that deluged many city basements over the summer.