Mayor Joshua Schlicher has responded to several concerns raised by Marietta City Council members Monday night.
During a Finance Committee meeting, several council members brought up concerns they had with fund transfers related to raises in union contracts, the mayor and city administration.
Schlicher talked with The Times on Tuesday about the concerns.
During the meeting, council members discussed transfer requests they received from City Director of Budget and Purchasing Mitch Dimmerling for funds that need to be moved from the city’s general, fire levy, street, parking lot fund and water funds to cover union raises that were not included in the fiscal year 2024 budget.
Ward 2 Councilman Bret Allphin expressed concern over council members receiving the transfer requests from Dimmerling on Monday afternoon and it not being enough time to review them.
Schlicher said council members knew the transfers were coming and what they were for.
“They’re pretty self explanatory at this point,” he said.
According to Schlicher, council members receive transfer requests anywhere from a week to a few days before a council meeting and they received these requests later than usual due to Dimmerling wanting the requests done before he went on vacation this week, City Law Director Paul Bertram working on other legislation for the city’s regular council meeting today and this being a short week due to the holiday.
“It could’ve been a couple of days sooner, but the information is all there,” he said.
Schlicher also said he doesn’t know what council’s concerns with the transfers are and no council member has contacted him about any issues with the transfer requests.
During the meeting Allphin and At-Large Councilwoman Cassidi Shoaf expressed unhappiness that no one from city administration, including Dimmerling, showed up to the committee meeting.
Schlicher said he is happy to answer council members’ questions and there are other ways for them to talk to him besides a committee meeting for routine transfers.
During the meeting council members also expressed concern over the effect the transfers might have on the city’s general fund and on council efforts to cut $1.2 million for 2024 due to a performance audit predicting the city’s general fund could be empty as early as 2025. At-Large City Councilman Harley Noland and At-Large City Councilman Ben Rutherford pointed out the transfers are more than a $500,000 increase to what comes out of the general fund and this reduces the approximately $970,000 in savings in a Schlicher plan for cuts to closer to $400,000.
Schlicher’s plan contained operational cuts and not filling empty positions, among other measures. Allphin said during the meeting that the plan had very few personnel changes.
Schlicher said council knew about the transfers prior to his plan being submitted and they were talking about the need for the transfers a month ago.
During a Finance Committee meeting May 23, Ward 1 Councilman and Finance Committee Chair Michael Scales told council members that the city needed about $314,000 more in its budget to cover some of the raises for the police and fire unions because 1% of the raises were not included in the city’s budget.
Schlicher said council is now reducing the amount of his plan’s savings in their mind because they do not like some of the line items in his plan and they are “changing the goal post.”
He also said he doesn’t know what Allphin is getting at when he said there were very few personnel changes in Schlicher’s plan.
He said there are 14 of the city’s approximately 200 positions not filled and that is a “substantial percentage” of the city’s payroll.
During the meeting Rutherford and Shoaf expressed they are concerned people in the city do not understand the seriousness of the city’s financial position. Rutherford said he wants to ask Schlicher and City Safety Service Director Steven Wetz if they believe there is a seriousness to council’s fiscal concerns.
“I’ve always believed that there’s some cash flow issues with certain line items in the general fund,” Schlicher said, but he does not believe the city is in a position where they will need to shut down.
There were claims made by City Council President Susan Vessels during the meeting that council was told they cannot speak to Dimmerling directly and she believes the city doesn’t want to share records with council. Shoaf stated she thinks the city is saying it has to approve what is allowed to be shared.
“That’s not true,” Schlicher said about these claims.
He said in the past council would come in and “demand” documents and financial reports at “a minute’s notice” and Dimmerling would be busy working on other things. According to Schlicher, the city changed the process so council members will now submit requests by email or verbally but cannot expect the city to drop what they are doing and immediately fulfill the request.
Schlicher said “It’s not like we’re hiding anything,” and council can come over and the city will do its best to give them what they want.
Council decided during the meeting to not request legislation for the transfers yet.
Schlicher said he doesn’t know what council wants to accomplish by “tabling” the transfers and this will not hold up paying employees but eventually the money will need to be transferred.
Schlicher does not believe the finance committee is sticking to its duties. He said the finance committee is “overstretching” its duties since the audit came out and they are “trying to legislate positions out of the city” and make operational and other changes “with their little busy work.”
He said this has all created a lot of stress for the city administration and department heads and has led to the city losing good, valuable employees and to employees looking for other work.
Schliche said everyone, including city administration, could have handled the whole situation with the cuts more “appropriately” and “business-like.”
“I still respect them,” Schlcicher said about council and he stated he will continue to work with them.
Michelle Dillon can be reached at mdillon@newsandsentinel.com