Lakewood – Little on the budget-cutting menu was palatable Monday night as the Lakewood City Council began looking at putting the city on a diet.
With $12.5 million in cuts needed over two years, department heads were told to put everything on the chopping block except for services and programs that are required by law.
A list of reductions included nearly $16 million in potential cuts and slicing 122 city jobs.
Over five years, the state’s fourth-largest city has cut $13.2 million from its $72 million operating budget, sliced 101 jobs and frozen salaries.
“We are not recommending these cuts,” City Manager Mike Rock said. “What you have underscores the challenges.”
Council members were uncomfortable with the elimination of code-enforcement officers, ending the anti-graffiti program, total closure of the Clement Center that serves seniors, and not transporting prisoners for court appearances.
Particularly loathsome to the council was chopping 10 positions and $840,000 from the community planning and development department, leaving one long-range planner.
“With a city of 140,000 with projects in the pipeline such as the Federal Center and light rail, this is a very tenuous and serious situation for this city,” said Councilman Ed Peterson.
Mayor Steve Burkholder agreed, saying, “Do the math. Hundreds of millions of dollars are in those projects.”
The laundry list also includes freezing salaries through 2009, furloughs and benefit cuts.
Councilman Mike Stevens asked the staff to address the question of whether these are scare tactics to bully residents into hiking the city sales tax from 2 percent to 3 percent.
“The sales tax has been at 2 percent for 30 years,” replied Joni Iman, director of the mayor’s and city manager’s offices. “There is a growing gap between expenditures and revenues. We’ve had five years of budget cuts, we’ve tightened up departments and eliminated nearly all discretionary spending.”
No decisions were made Monday night. By August, two budgets will be prepared after more council discussions and public comment. One will include the dire cuts and the other will be built on a sales-tax increase to be placed on the ballot in November.
Staff writer Ann Schrader can be reached at 303-278-3217 or aschrader@denverpost.com.
