MANSFIELD — Mayor Tim Theaker’s administration has added $1.84 million to its safety services fund in a final 2022 proposed budget City Council discussed Tuesday night.
According to Finance Director Linn Steward, the additional funds are more than budgeted in the temporary budget council approved in December. The new budget calls for an additional:
— $754,582 for police salary and benefits to help alleviate hiring and retention issues. The number of budgeted officers remains at 87, including five positions paid by grant.
— $706,655 for fire department salary and benefits, mainly to offset rising overtime costs. The number of budgeted firefighters remains at 90.
— $251,053 for public safety communications center salary and benefits to help alleviate staffing shortages. The number of budgeted personnel increased by three, to 20 from 17.
The finance director said $180,740 in the general fund budget was set aside for the city’s budget stabilization fund. Steward said the total unappropriated balance in the 2022 general fund is $346,581.
She said total city revenue for 2022 went up $900,000 from the temporary budget.
Alomar Davenport, chair of City Council’s finance committee, encouraged his fellow lawmakers to examine the mayor’s proposed budget. By state law, the city must approve a final budget by the end of March.
A vote on the budget is planned March 15 and Davenport said he may schedule a finance committee meeting next week if needed for additional discussion.
“As a council, our job is to scrutinize (and) question the budget that we receive from the office of the mayor. We can make recommendations, of course, but that is at the sole discretion of the office of the mayor whether to implement those or not,” Davenport said.
“We don’t have to agree with everything that’s in there in order to approve it, but we need to understand everything that’s in there in order to approve it.”
Also on Tuesday, City Council:
— approved appointments of Jon Van Harlingen and Sam Dunn to the city’s board of utility appeals for two-year terms ending Dec. 31, 2023.
— approved a city ordinance regarding snow removal. The change would prohibit anyone plowing or moving snow from a driveway or parking lot onto “any street, highway or other public place subject to public travel.”
— approved spending $232,772.07 on three 2022 Ford Explorer Interceptor vehicles for the police department — units now on the dealer lot in Pittsburgh. The city’s Board of Control approved the purchase on Feb. 15, using American Rescue Plan Act funds. Police chief Keith Porch said the vehicles will need to be equipped, but said he expected them to be on the streets in the next four or five months.
— approved the acceptance of a $31,772.09 from the Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services under Paul Coverdell Forensic Science Improvement Grant. Funds will help “defray the costs of forensic science overtime and equipment,” largely focused on opioid casework.
— approved the acceptance of a $250,000 grant from the National Institute of Justice under the Forensic DNA Backlog Reduction Program. Funds will be used to “defray the costs of DNA personnel, contractual services and supplies.”
— approved the acceptance of a $100,000 grant from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to be used for the “Mansfield Newhope Inclusive Playground” at Sterkel Park.
The “community park for all” is a $5 million project planned to create an inclusive facility at Sterkel Park, south of the Sterkel Baseball Complex and southeast of Richland Newhope’s Raintree residential facility.
— discussed during caucus possible uses of the city’s estimated $850,000 in federal Community Development Block Grant funds and estimated in $275,000 in federal HOME dollars.
