VERO BEACH — The Vero Beach City Council will hold one of its two required public hearings of the 2013-14 city budget at 5:10 p.m. Tuesday in council chambers.
The $19.4 million general fund budget falls short of the 10.9 percent reduction goal laid out by City Manager Jim O’Connor over the summer. It calls for the elimination of 28 positions in various city departments.
The budget as first published in June was set to reduce the city workforce by 43 positions, but during the budget process 15 of those positions were reinstated.
The city had proposed folding its 911 dispatch service in with the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office, which would have meant 10 jobs. Some of those dispatchers would have been hired by the county and Vero would have had to pay the sheriff’s office on a contract basis for the services.
Other positions put back in the budget include the animal control officer and a clerical person in the city clerk’s office.
The announcement of the retirement of a police captain, which came after the publication of the budget, is expected to help the police department realize some savings. Capt. Keith Touchberry was named the new City of Fellsmere Police Chief in mid-August.
Included in the budget is a salary increase of 4.62 percent for employees who had earned $70,000 or more annually prior to a reduction intended to relieve lower-ranked workers from unpaid furlough days.
The city is budgeted to collect $4.1 million in property taxes but to spend nearly four times that much in personnel costs.
In the general fund alone — not counting the enterprise funds of the electric, water and sewer utilities, solid waste, the airport or the marina — the city expects to spend $10 million in salaries and payroll taxes, plus more than $5 million for health insurance, life insurance, pension contributions, worker’s compensation insurance and premium assistance to retirees.
Health insurance premiums for the city’s employees and retirees increased 17.2 percent and pension contribution rates spiked 22 percent due to the fact that the pension fund is still absorbing market losses from 2008, which were smoothed out over five years.
The public hearing of the budget, by state law, must be conducted after 5 p.m. and will be broadcast live on the city’s public access channel. City council meetings are also streamed live on the internet at www.covb.org.
A copy of the public hearing version of the city budget is available online at www.covb.org under city departments, finance, budget and financial reports or by clicking on this link.