Kirk Ross
Staff Writer
CARRBORO — Town Manager Steve Stewart isn’t known for overblown hyperbole or prone to wild exaggeration. So when on Tuesday night he called this year and the one ahead two of the toughest he’s faced in 32 years of drafting budgets, it underlined what town leaders are facing, again, as budget season rolls around.
“Sounds like it’s going to be a fun spring,†Alderman Jacquie Gist deadpanned after hearing Stewart’s reality check at a meeting of the board at Town Hall.
Stewart said that paying for the opening and staffing of the new fire station on Homestead Road and a mandatory increase in the rate the town pays into the employee retirement fund are the biggest fiscal challenges.
He also said he made a pledge to the town’s employees that he would do everything he could to avoid any layoffs and furloughs. That’ll mean holding open unfilled positions, cutting back on training and forgoing proposed changes to the town’s pay classifications and merit pay system.
In order to avoid a tax increase, the town will have to keep a tight rein on spending.
“We’ll be lucky just to continue to do what we’ve been doing. I don’t see that there’s any room for new programs or expansion unless we cut somewhere else or we look at a tax increase being imposed,†Stewart said.
Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton said he expects Stewart to try to hold the line on taxes.
“I know the manager will do what he can to make sure there’s as little change in taxes as he can figure out how to do,†Chilton said Wednesday.
Chilton said he was concerned about the impact on town employees of another year of short staffs and no pay increases.
“I feel like the town’s employees have been partners with the taxpayers in trying to deal with the recession,†he said.
The board, Chilton said, will need to find a way of letting employees know they are valued by the community.
“We need to find some way to make sure [the employees] are feeling the love,†the mayor said.
Also Tuesday night, the board adopted new rules for the design review process for downtown developments. The changes were made to allow for greater flexibility in judging a project’s design.
In other action, the board delayed a public hearing on a revision of the town’s outdoor-lighting ordinance and on modifications to the town’s affordable-housing rules.
The board also delayed a decision on whether to change banks. Chilton said the town’s finance department staff is short-staffed and board members wanted to hold off on a decision until the matter could be more thoroughly reviewed and the finance department better prepared to make a change.