Columbia considers adding about $2 million in new positions

The proposed Columbia budget that takes effect this summer – if council approves the current draft – calls for almost 30 new positions that would add $2.25 million in annual costs.

But some council members, and even the city manager who submitted the proposal, have expressed reservations about adding some of those jobs.

As council prepares to continue work Tuesday on the biggest parts of the 2016-17 budget, the draft plan by City Manager Teresa Wilson includes:

▪  $1.25 million for 17 positions in the water and sewer department, largely for personnel to meet requirements of a court-ordered upgrade of the sewer system, said Missy Caughman, city budget director.

▪  $300,000 to hire seven Columbia animal shelter workers for the first year of a plan to convert the facility into a no-kill shelter. Annual costs to fully implement that goal will rise annual by $700,000 starting July 2017, Caughman said.

That $300,000, first-year price tag might be slashed in half under a scaled-back plan that council will hear Tuesday, she said.

▪  $225,000 for two code officers who will help the police department enforce new landlord regulations that take effect July 1. The code enforcement team also will absorb two positions that are to be transferred from the Fire Department, which once had some the code enforcement responsibilities that have been moved to police. The transferred position carries a yearly price tag of $125,000, but is not a net increase to the budget, Caughman said.

▪  $200,000 to hire 21 summer lifeguards for the renovated Greenview Aquatic Center set to open later this month.

▪  $50,000 for an accounting technician for the city’s finance office.

All of the cost estimates for the 27 positions include salaries and start-up expenses, Caughman said.

Councilman Ed McDowell balked at committing $700,000 yearly for the treatment of animals as the city seeks to have a shelter that promotes more adoptions and euthanizes fewer animals. There are human needs that need addressing first, McDowell said.

Councilman Howard Duvall also said he has doubts about hiring all seven new employees during the fiscal year that starts July 1.

Wilson told council that she probably would not have suggested such a big increase for the shelter. But council last year instructed her to include the expansion because the city is committed to a no-kill shelter.

Newly elected councilmen McDowell and Duvall were not in office when the shelter expansion decision was reached.

This story was originally published May 9, 2016 at 1:23 PM.