MANSFIELD — Alomar Davenport is entering his first full budget cycle as the chair of the Mansfield City Council finance committee.
The 4th Ward councilman made it clear to fellow council members Tuesday evening he will conduct at least three budget hearings later this month with city administrators and department heads as the 2023 financial blueprint is formed.
By law, City Council must approve a temporary spending plan by Dec. 31 and a final budget by the end of March 2023. He plans three public readings of the temporary budget before a vote.
“As we all know, we are coming into budget time,” he said during a finance committee meeting. “The temporary budget has been pretty much complete.”
At the beginning of 2022, Davenport replaced longtime finance committee chairman Jon Van Harlingen, who lost his bid for re-election in the 3rd Ward.
“We will look to have budget hearings. (Finance) Director (Linn) Steward and her team will be in Nov. 1 to present the temporary budget to us. I would like to have our budget or department budget hearings prior to that,” said Davenport, in his first year as finance committee chair.
He said he planned to call in leaders of 12 to 16 departments to examine their spending requests during three sessions in the final week of October, likely beginning at 4:30 p.m. each day.
“Their main focus will be looking at their capital outlay, what they’re requesting, why they’re requesting, … things of that nature,” Davenport said.
“We will put department heads on notice that this is coming,” he said.
In other activity on Tuesday, City Council:
— approved increasing its budget for the transient occupancy taxes, also known as “bed taxes,” that is shared evenly by the Destination Mansfield-Richland County and Downtown Mansfield, Inc.
The city has collected 3 percent more from the bed tax than expected at this point in the year.
— approved spending $786,151 on a new front mount snow blower and chassis for use at Mansfield Lahm Regional Airport. The purchase will be from M-B Companies Inc. in Chilton, Wisc., using money from the airport fund and airport operations debt service classification.
— approved spending $106,546 to purchase a 2022 Ford F-550 chassis 4×4 dump truck for the sewer repair department.
— discussed during caucus submitting an amended annual action plan for 2022 indicating proposed uses for the city’s Home Investment Program funds and Community Development Block Grant funds.
— approved spending $92,044.47 on a new computer backup storage device for the city’s off-site disaster recovery location, using American Rescue Plan Act funds.
— approved spending $38,250 with DRM Productions Inc. of Mansfield to redesign the city’s website, including new countywide branding.
Also on Tuesday, 2nd Ward Councilwoman Cheryl Meier asked the administration for an update at the next council meeting Oct. 18 on residents behind in utility payments whose accounts were sent to a claims management company.
She also asked for an update from Deanna West-Torrence and the North End Community Improvement Collaborative regarding a new community center for which council has committed ARPA funding.
At-large Councilman Phil Scott also asked the administration to provide an update on the city-wide water meter replacement program.
