City of Bluefield
Proposed Annual Executive Budget
Fiscal Year 2005-2006
Table of Contents
2005-06 City of Bluefield Budget Proposal
Proposed Budget Message……………….3-4
Budget Summary………………………………5-6
Bluefield City Budget Spreadsheet…… 7(8 pages)
Dear Honorable Mayor and Members of the Bluefield City Council:
As your new city manager it is my pleasure to submit for your review and consideration the proposed budget for the 2005-06 fiscal year. The budget is balanced and prepared in the amount $6,983,350. This represents an $718,350 or 11.5% increase from the last fiscal year’s adopted budget of $6,265,000.
Changes that have been made to this year’s budget are that wages to all the positions will increase 4% every year, while firefighters and police officer get an additional 6% increase. Two percent of the increase was promised last year after a statewide salary survey found that the pay to firefighters and police officers was 10% below the state average. The additional 4% increase it to bump up the rate of pay to be competitive with the state average. The population of Bluefield has increased 3% over the past year so there is a need to add one police and fire personnel as we now have 60,000 citizens. The starting salary will be set at $24,000 for each new fire and safety personnel. This salary was based on the rate of pay for the lowest salaried personnel for each department. I feel that as the city manager it is not only my responsibility to see that we invest wisely for the future of our growing city, but also that we invest in the public safety of our growing city. By increasing the pay of police and fire personnel we are providing an incentive to keep quality personnel in each department. Addressing other pressing public safety issues and the ongoing need for police reform and accountability, I would like to commit $25,000 to body camera implementation for each of the officers. After...