{"id":9130,"date":"2013-11-26T12:22:44","date_gmt":"2013-11-26T17:22:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=9130"},"modified":"2013-11-26T15:50:27","modified_gmt":"2013-11-26T20:50:27","slug":"city-council-passes-2014-budget-taxes-to-set-to-increase-3-5-mils","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=9130","title":{"rendered":"City Council passes 2014 budget; taxes to rise 3.5 mills"},"content":{"rendered":"

Plan includes contingencies to increase accountability of administration<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Kyle Carrozza<\/strong><\/span>, Staff Writer, The Times<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"CoatesvilleLogo-copy1\"<\/a>COATESVILLE \u2013 City Council adopted the preliminary budget for 2014 at its meeting Monday night.<\/p>\n

The budget, set at just over $10 million, includes a 3.5-mill tax increase to make the new rate 9.415 mills.\u00a0The budget also includes stipulations in order to stimulate redevelopment in the city.<\/p>\n

In the first few months of next year, City Council will draft goals and objectives for 2014. Those goals and objectives will be handed on to the city\u2019s various administrative departments, who will then develop plans for achieving them.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince each department has a reporting responsibility back with finance, are those departments communicating in the best way they have?\u201d asked City Council President David Collins. \u201cWe\u2019ve determined that, in the past, those measures have not been in place, so we\u2019re taking the responsibility on to make sure that we give the proper instructions to the administration.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that the measures would allow City Council to hold the administration accountable as well as allowing citizens to hold City Council responsible.<\/p>\n

Collins said that the goals could include the training of personnel, using the most efficient software for record-keeping, and even setting individual performance goals for each eight-hour workday. Other objectives may look to increase revenue into the city, as Council wants to cut its dependence on trust fund money.<\/p>\n

He said that Council will come up with the objectives in the first 30 days of 2014, and they would then be given to City Manager Kirby Hudson, who would formulate more specific plans for each department.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach year, these goals and objectives will be reviewed by whoever\u2019s on Council, but it will be a permanent document that will be kept evergreen year over year and as the administration changes,\u201d said Collins.<\/p>\n

He also said that City Council would work to come up with consequences for departments or individuals that do not meet their goals.<\/p>\n

Council members all showed support for the plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI took an oath; let\u2019s do it,\u201d said Ingrid Jones.<\/p>\n

City Council also voted to hire three additional part-time police officers, pending their passing of physical and psychological examinations.<\/p>\n

In other city news, Council accepted a bid from Barrasso Excavation out of Mohnton to deal with Walnut Street storm water.\u00a0The action comes in response to a state mandate passed earlier this year, which requires municipalities to make sure storm water is being dealt with.<\/p>\n

The excavation will cost just over $240,000, but the city has received a grant of $340,000 that will go to the project. The repairs will not take place until next year so that these items can be added to the 2014 budget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Plan includes contingencies to increase accountability of administration By Kyle Carrozza, Staff Writer, The Times COATESVILLE \u2013 City Council adopted the preliminary budget for 2014 at its meeting Monday night. The budget, set at just over $10 million, includes a 3.5-mill tax increase to make the new rate 9.415 mills.\u00a0The budget also includes stipulations in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":9136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[3242,51,126,24,3243],"class_list":["post-9130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-3242","tag-budget","tag-city-council","tag-coatesville","tag-tax-increase"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9130"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9149,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9130\/revisions\/9149"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}