The Huntington Budget Meeting - After

A motion to get me out of bed at 9 am on a Saturday morning brought me to a Huntington City Council meeting addressing the budget of the upcoming year.

The most controversial part of the budget discussed was the allocation of funds for the Huntingon- Cabell- Wayne Animal Control Shelter. Currently Huntington is the only municipality that is donating funds to the shelter. Councilman James Insco believes that pulling the extra funds that the city allocates will help address problems with the shelter. The opposing side, Councilman James Ritter said he understands that the shelter isn't covering all the area that it is supposed to, like Wayne county, but pulling $100,000 dollars from their funds he says that it will devastate them. Councilman Insco says that the shelter is not effective and throwing money at them isn't doing anything and the funds are limited. Insco hopes to encourage other municipalities to help contribute from the other two counties so that Huntington's budget isn't the only one contributing. While they will not be contributing those funds, they are still supporting the shelter from the county budget.

The police department cut $300,000 from their budget since last year. Most of that money was from public works, so there weren't as many police or fire men eliminated from their positions. A hot button issue that stirred the pot was the proposal of a Goodwill contract for maintenance at the police department. Currently there is one maintenance position that encompasses a wide variety of jobs around the station. The contract would hire two more for that job from Goodwill services and they would work twenty hours a week. The concern from council was the security of sensitive information. The current holder of the position has worked there for nine years and is not a security risk, the two new employees would undergo a background check but council members were still concerned.

Bureau Supervisor would be a new job allocated to the city's inspection and compliance department, but the council members moved to eliminate the position during the budget meeting. Some members were concerned that by adding this position while they planned on eliminating eight others would create inconsistency and upset the constituents.

Another topic at the meeting was moving towards a more electronic development plan for the city. Making the common forms more readily available to any constituent was a priority for council members. They are seeking to develop a streamline, easier experience for any Huntington resident. A Marshall graduate student is proposed to come in as an intern to help with the daily processes of the city and help create the comprehensive plan development.

The city is seeing cuts in the budget, which means jobs are being eliminated. The finance department proposed that instead of specific jobs in their department they would combine those into one job that would encompass all requirements for the office. This would eliminate six positions.

The Huntington city council is making changes to tighten the purse strings, in an effort to make things more streamline and effective. It is comforting to know that they are taking a close look at the budget for the upcoming year by thoroughly examining the effectiveness of all departments.