Council comes together for additional morning meetings

Staff report

CANFIELD

City council met in public session at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday to discuss how to combat a decreased revenue problem for 2016 and 2017.

City Manager Joe Warino said the early morning meetings are the only times, outside of the Wednesday evening council meetings, when officials can get together.

“We can’t talk amongst each other unless in public meeting, so this gives us the opportunity to meet everyone’s schedules and discuss,” Warino said.

Council discussed both long-term and short-term plans to present to residents.

“It’s just a healthy discussion,” Warino said. “We’d like to have a laid-out five-year plan to present to the public about where we want to be as a group. We’re also looking at short-term and figuring out where we’ll be in January.”

Finance Director Christine Clayton is in the process of putting together a budget for 2017 to stay ahead of the curve during this time of financial worry.

Cities and townships across Ohio are suffering from a loss of a local share from the state.

Council recently cut $800,000 in spending out of 2016’s $11.3 million budget. The cuts came from nonmandated funds such as leaf pickup and brush pickup.

Warino said he fears if a disaster struck, such as a tornado, Canfield would be “strapped” budgetwise.

Council will meet again, continuing at 6:30 a.m. every Wednesday in the Canfield Administrative Building, 104 Lisbon St., in addition to its regularly scheduled council meetings until it comes up with a solution to the problem.

The next evening council meeting will be at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday.