City officials in Auburn have eliminated eight positions, including that of the fire chief, and proposed merging five municipal departments into two, in response to a budget shortfall of roughly $800,000.

Additional cuts are likely for next year, according to Mayor Jonathan LaBonte.

“Cities live and die on generating property tax revenue,” he said. “We need to help businesses and homeowners add value to their property. I think there is an appreciation so far that we’re looking at administrative cuts rather than service cuts.”

Auburn, a city of about 23,000 on the west side of the Androscoggin River, is not the only municipality facing a budget shortfall or looking to consolidate services this budget cycle, but its situation is unusual because of two restrictive local ordinances.

‘VERY SERIOUS FINANCIAL HURDLES’

One mandates that the city keep any tax increase below the consumer price index, currently 0.7 percent. The second requires that the city’s unassigned fund balance – its rainy day fund – stay at or above 12.5 percent of annual expenses.

City Manager Howard Kroll presented the proposed $39.2 million budget to city councilors on Monday night. The public will have a chance to weigh in at a hearing on April 25. Councilors will vote on it in June.

Kroll did not respond Tuesday to phone or email messages, but in an email to employees last Friday, he said the layoffs were effective immediately and were “necessary in order to meet some very serious financial hurdles facing the city.”

LaBonte said Auburn has been bracing for budget cuts for the last few months but didn’t know what they would look like until Kroll presented his plan.

The 2016-17 budget had not yet been posted publicly on Tuesday, but LaBonte said that, as proposed, it would effectively combine the police and fire departments into one public safety department, with one administrator, necessitating the layoff of Fire Chief Frank Roma.

Additionally, LaBonte said the city would consolidate the planning, economic development and community development departments into one municipal agency. Reine Mynahan, director of Community Development, is set to retire in June and her position would be absorbed by the department merger.

MANY MUNICIPALITIES FACE CUTS

In addition to the fire chief, a fire planner and public services planner were laid off, as well as a custodian and city electrician. Three vacant positions will go unfilled.

The city would allocate $3.5 million to the unassigned fund balance in order to meet the 12.5 percent threshold.

Eric Conrad, spokesman for the Maine Municipal Association, said cities and towns are increasingly looking for ways to cut costs, particularly to offset other factors, such as declining revenue sharing by the state. He said Auburn’s situation might be unusual, but “clearly there are examples in recent years of tightening and trying to more efficiently deliver services.”

Conrad said there have been some concerns by MMA members about combining fire and police departments.

“What we hear is that those skills sets aren’t necessarily the same,” he said.

In 2011, the city of Westbrook created a public safety department to oversee police and fire and put one person in change. Only three years later, however, that top administrator had left and the city ended up reverting to a traditional system with separate chiefs for fire and police services.

FRICTION OVER MERGER PROPOSAL

The proposed cuts in Auburn come at a time when the city and Lewiston, its counterpart across the river, are exploring merging into one municipality. Although the cuts might suggest Auburn could benefit from pooling its resources with Lewiston, LaBonte said he thinks the opposite is true.

“What we’re finding during the budget process are examples where Auburn is paying more than our fair share,” he said.

The proposed 2016-17 budget would also make some changes to areas where the two cities are collaborating. Auburn would no longer pay to be part of the Lewiston-Auburn Economic Growth Council. Additionally, Auburn would reduce its payment to the joint Lewiston-Auburn 911 system by roughly $200,000 and to the Lewiston-Auburn Transit Committee by $27,000.

LaBonte, who opposes the possibility of merging Lewiston and Auburn, said he doesn’t mind working together “where it makes sense.”

“But doing it because it feels good doesn’t make sense and, in some cases, it’s costing our taxpayers more,” the mayor said.

Eric Russell can be contacted at 791-6344 or at:

erussell@pressherald.com

Twitter: PPHEricRussell

Copy the Story Link