The City of Sheridan, like many communities today, has seen our revenues decrease markedly this year due to the recession. The city manager and employees have done an amazing job of managing this so far, already reducing expenditures by almost 23% through April 30th. Unfortunately, revenues are down over 33% for the same period, and we do not expect to see any recovery in the near term.
On Tuesday, the city manager proposed five cost-cutting measures to help fill our budget gap for the rest of the 2009. Briefly, the options are:
1) Discontinue ambulance service and switch to 3-person fire shifts
2) Outsource dispatch services
3) General government and supervisory furloughs up to 48 hours
4) All employee furloughs up to 48 hours
5) Outsource fire services
6) Discontinue city contributions to health and dental insurance for employees
City council is considering this list of options now.
I believe it is in the City's best interest to explore and better understand all of the costs and benefits associated with each cost-saving suggestion. I'm looking forward to hearing more details from the city manager on each option.
If you are a resident of Sheridan Ward 3 who would like to discuss these suggestions with me or provide some input, please feel free to contact me at tbeiter-fluhr@ci.sheridan.co.us or Jose Tafoya at jtafoya@ci.sheridan.co.us. For other wards, see http://www.ci.sheridan.co.us/City%20Council/ccouncil.htm. I would also like to hear feedback from city employees.
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