HUNTINGTON - Huntington's City Council introduced an ordinance Monday to modify current code in order to raise city service fees from $3 to $5.
The service fees, which are drawn monthly from the paychecks of those who work in Huntington, fund the city's growing demand for police services, street repairs and maintenance.
Huntington Mayor Steve Williams expressed his reluctance to raise the fees, but said the increase may be the city's only option.
"This proposal that's before you today is not to balance the budget," Williams said. "It's intended to strengthen the efforts of the police department to ensure we have beginnings of a long-term plan to address our capital movements."
Since 2011, grants and other outside funding for the police department totaled $13.4 million, starting with $2.8 million in 2011. By 2015, exterior financial support had decreased to $1.8 million. Drug forfeiture, which Williams described as the "mother's milk" for the city, provided $598,000 in 2011 for the police department, which dropped over the next four years to $247,000 in 2015.
"We take very seriously the cry within the community: collect that which is owed," Williams said. "We know we must do that, but we also know that our budget is only able to go so far."
Williams said he mentioned the demand for capital improvements in his last two State of the City addresses, specifically noting the need for policing in the drug-ridden areas.
"I don't think I was bashful in saying that we needed to find funding," Williams said. "In turn in the last year, this council, along with me identified that we need to be much more aggressive in what we were attempting to do in our police protections because of the drug epidemic present in the city."
Williams said the council had high confidence in the allocation of funding to the department: In 2014, council considered diverting additional dollars to the Huntington Police Department in order to hire 10 additional officers.
But over the next year, the anticipated budget from sales taxes diminished, causing an across-the-border budget reduction, removing the intended $500,000 from funding new positions.
"It helped that there was construction going on downtown," Williams said. "But as those projects wrapped up, our B&O taxes started to drop and $2.5 million was lost."
The city service fees, which fund police salaries and city paving and maintenance, were implemented under former Mayor David Felinton.
Councilman Scott Caserta raised questions about the city's desire for more funding, noting "unused funds" such as the landfill closure fund savings, which were absorbed by the general fund months prior.
"I said this back in March during the budget sessions: I think it's a trust issue," he said. "I can't trust this administration to do with money what they say they're gonna do. I'll just put it out there."
He also questioned the contingency funds, noting the council had enveloped several closed accounts.
"You can increase the user fee to $10 and it's going to get spent," he said. "I've seen it in too many administrations: city hall no longer works for you; you work for city hall," Caserta said.
Caserta made a movement to waiver the agenda and allow members of the public to comment on the ordinance. The movement failed with a majority dissenting.
A public discussion on the increase will be addressed at the Finance Committee meeting at 6 p.m. on Monday.
Council voted to approve the ordinance for a second reading, which will be held at council's next meeting on Sept. 28.