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Show Btfl.: State Of The City By GARY R. BLODGETT BOUNTIFUL - Mayor Elmer W. Barlow was optimistic, op-timistic, but stern, as he presented Bountiful's first ever State of the City message to the City Council last Wednesday Wed-nesday night. HE SAID that Bountiful's economic condition is "very healthy" but that the city faces some possible cutbacks later this year in the face of reductions of federal funding. He praised the city treasurer (Arden Jenson) and his staff for their foresight in reinvesting city funds which has provided nearly $225,000 in interest. THIS IS equivalent to four mills of property tax money," the mayor said. "Because of this and the tight control of money being spent by all departments, the city is operating without a deficit." He noted that city department depart-ment heads are already working on next fiscal year's budget. "I AM going to make certain cer-tain that the city continues to have a very close monitoring of our tax money, I want to know where every dime is being spent," the mayor emphasized. He urged the purchase of a computer to handle the expanding ex-panding workload by city employees and a means of keeping an even closer tab on revenue and expenditures. THE MAYOR also spoke of the police and fire departments, depart-ments, two other departments under his jurisdiction. "Morale in the police department has increased greatly since the department's depart-ment's reorganization about a year ago," he said. "We are experiencing better morale and cooperation under the new chief whom I feel is doing a real good job." HE SAID the fire department depart-ment has two of the best-equipped best-equipped stations in the state. "But with the completion of a major expansion program, I feel that now the fire department depart-ment can cut back on its capital cap-ital improvement expenditures expendi-tures and this money can be used elsewhere," the mayor said. HOWEVER, THE mayor ' was not in compliance with all that is going on within the city. "I'm not so sure that a patrol pa-trol car per police officer is the answer to deterring crime," he said. "In fact, we were told at a recent meeting of the National League of Cities Ci-ties that this philosophy (car per man) is just a fantasy to deterrent of crime. "I LEARNED that Bountiful Boun-tiful was the only city represented at the league of a similar population that still uses the car-per-man program. Other cities of similar size have less than a car-per-two-men program and that their crime rate is no higher than Bountiful's. Sooner or later, I'd like to see us cut back 15 or 20 cars which would be a big financial finan-cial savings." He also suggested a vehicle allowance program for city employees, and a cut back of city-owned cars. "WE COULD save $75,000 annually if the city adopted a plan whereby employees used their personal cars and were reimbursed a gasoline allowance," he said. Also, the mayor emphasized that he was not pleased with the council's decision to allow a straight across-the-board 7 percent pay increase to all city employees. "I BELIEVE that employees should receive the increase, but not in the method approved by the council," he said. "I believe that a higher percent should be given to lower income employees and a lesser amount, percentagewise, to higher paid employees. "I would suggest 9 percent to lower income employees, 5 percent to those from $15,000 to $25,000 annually, and only wo percent to those w.th salaries over $25,000. THE PRESENT plan orovides far too much of a spread between employees '"mIvo? Barlow cautioned ,he council about the possibility pos-sibility of federal monies-including monies-including revenue sharing and CETA funds-being cut drastically or eliminated later this year. HE SAID that CETA funds, alone could amount to a loss to the city of about $108,000. Another $100,000 will be lost through the changeover from city court to the new circuit court system. . "Thus, we should pledge to accomplish more with less money," he told the council. |