
{"id":17545,"date":"2011-04-21T10:10:43","date_gmt":"2011-04-21T14:10:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=17545"},"modified":"2011-04-21T10:11:09","modified_gmt":"2011-04-21T14:11:09","slug":"chapel-hill-town-manager-asks-for-review-of-town-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2011\/04\/21\/chapel-hill-town-manager-asks-for-review-of-town-services\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapel Hill town manager asks for review of town services"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Kirk Ross<br \/>\n<\/strong><em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>CHAPEL HILL  \u00e2\u20ac\u201d 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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>He said he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d 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.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We need to have some way to prioritize them,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Stancil said.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>As for this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s projections, another $1.5 million will need to be trimmed.<\/p>\n<p>He told the council that unless a project is important for public safety or has already begun, it will be put on hold.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>The state\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Local Government Commission requires towns to maintain fund balances equal to at least 7 percent of their budgets. The council\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fund balance goal for many years has been 12 percent. Using the town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fund balance to fill the entire gap would bring the level to 9.5 percent.<\/p>\n<p>Stancil said that the town can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t continue to rely on use of the fund balance and cost cutting to fill budget holes, particularly since the town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s past saving efforts have made finding places to cut more difficult.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The best way for us to create savings is to not fill a position,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153But at this point, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a lot of turnover.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>He told the council at the budget briefing to get ready to lay the groundwork for a shift in the years ahead.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The strategies we had worked,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153but it is not sustainable long-term.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17545"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17585,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17545\/revisions\/17585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}