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Chapel Hill town manager asks for review of town services

Posted on April 21, 2011April 21, 2011 by Staff

By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer

CHAPEL HILL — Another year of cost cutting has Chapel Hill Town Manager Roger Stancil convinced that the town needs to restructure the way it builds its budget, including undertaking a thorough review of priorities when it comes to town services.

In an interview Tuesday, Stancil said that after two years of belt tightening Chapel Hill needs to take a hard look both at what services it wants to provide and possible alternative revenue sources.

He said he’d like to see the town conduct a review of what it does over the next year and reset service levels to reflect the budget realities.

“We need to have some way to prioritize them,” Stancil said.

The town also needs to consider revenue sources that have been rejected in the past, he said, such as advertising on Chapel Hill Transit buses, pay-as-you-throw for garbage collection and sponsorships for town events.

As for this year’s budget, the council will hear a full update of the fiscal outlook next week. In a brief review earlier this month, Stancil said the town is faced with a substantial shortfall. Although expenditures have been kept $2.2 million below last year’s projections, another $1.5 million will need to be trimmed.

He told the council that unless a project is important for public safety or has already begun, it will be put on hold.

In an outline presented at the meeting, Stancil indicated that to prevent a tax increase and layoffs the town would need to dip into its fund balance to plug an almost $5 million gap.

Saving an additional $1.5 million between now and June 30 and delaying capital projects would free up some of the money going toward the debt-management fund and reduce the amount of savings the town would have to tap.

The state’s Local Government Commission requires towns to maintain fund balances equal to at least 7 percent of their budgets. The council’s fund balance goal for many years has been 12 percent. Using the town’s fund balance to fill the entire gap would bring the level to 9.5 percent.

Stancil said that the town can’t continue to rely on use of the fund balance and cost cutting to fill budget holes, particularly since the town’s past saving efforts have made finding places to cut more difficult.

“The best way for us to create savings is to not fill a position,” he said. “But at this point, there’s not a lot of turnover.”

He told the council at the budget briefing to get ready to lay the groundwork for a shift in the years ahead.

“The strategies we had worked,” he said, “but it is not sustainable long-term.”

1 thought on “Chapel Hill town manager asks for review of town services”

  1. Bonnie Hauser says:
    April 23, 2011 at 11:04 am

    Thanks to Mr Stancil for opening the door to fiscal sustainability. Hopefully the other towns and the county will follow.

    Delaying non- essential projects is a great start. Maybe Chapel Hill can lead a discussion on sharing services and facilities with the other towns and the county? Public Works/solid waste, Parks and Rec, and other departments could be good candidates to share buildings and support resources (and cut overheads and bureaucracy).

    Such changes could save money without further cutting services.

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