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Budget Committee Meeting <br />August 24, 1999 <br />Page 4 <br />project, and he would like to see them graduate the contribution down <br />each year. <br />City Manager Malone said what he would like to explore sometime in <br />the year is to look and see if he could find someone that is reasonably <br />priced to take an objective look at salaries and wages, not every <br />position, may be certain positions, but we generally have requests for <br />reclassification. The idea would be to try to get worth for the money <br />and implement it in some fashion. City Manager Malone said it has <br />been done before and never used. <br />Mr. Anderson commented that when we used a consultant to do the <br />insurance for the City, two or three years ago when that same issue <br />came up, he did the bids and specifications, and was perfectly capable <br />of doing it, but when he made his recommendation, all the ones that <br />did not recommend, they got mad about it. Mr. Anderson point was that <br />you need to have an outsider come in to do these type things. <br />Mr. Wilson wanted to know the mechanics of the Buildings- Structures <br />account, and pointed out that $850,000.00 was in that account last <br />year, and that did not happen, and this year you have $500,000.00. Mr. <br />Wilson said this does not effect the tax rate, does it. City Manager <br />answered, no, that this is totally the TxDOT grant. Mr. Wilson made a <br />suggestion that the Committee goes through the budget and on each <br />department's budget reduce them by 5 %. Mr. Wilson wanted to know <br />where would the staff feel comfortable to take the 5% from. Mr. Wilson <br />advised, when he is talking about 5% he is talking about 5% of the real <br />budget that takes taxes to cover. <br />Regarding salaries, City Manager Malone said ordinarily what he <br />places in the budget is a cost of living increase based on the CPI. The <br />CPI is less than 3 %, and he was calculating a 3% cost of living increase <br />to place in the budget, but there were various Council Members that <br />have suggested that they would like to see a 5% increase in salaries, <br />and City Manager Malone advised he used the 5% increase based on <br />the request. Councilman Gray voiced his opinion that the City's pay <br />scale is way behind Sherman and Greenville, for example the Assistant <br />