St. Clair Shores City Council looks to approve budget in June

ST. CLAIR SHORES — At the recent budget meeting, the St. Clair Shores City Council, mayor and staff heard that their budget is balanced for the upcoming year.

Assistant City Manager Michael Greene said the general fund has around $43,746,634 in expenses and that the total expenses for all funds in the proposed budget are $114,584,483. He said it is very similar to years past.

There is a surplus in the budget, which Greene attributed to the staff.

“The way that comes about is just good budgeting on behalf of staff,” Greene said.

He said what could happen with that money is using it for an unbudgeted project. What isn’t used will go into the fund balance to use for one-time expenses.

Expenditures included the typical things, Greene said, with the largest ones being the roads. The two biggest general projects will be at Kyte Monroe and the library.

At Kyte Monroe, Greene said, they had $300,000 in their budget for a grant to redo the lighting. They received a congressional grant in the amount of $1.5 million for library renovations, Greene said.

The library is an account they are watching carefully over the next few years because it is digging into the fund balance a little bit, Greene said.

“We’re going to track to see how we can better control their expenses and maybe adjust their revenue some so we can still make sure we can have a thriving library for our city,” Greene said.

Greene said the court’s budgets are normal. The Police Department is doing typical vehicle replacement and they have regular staffing. Greene said the biggest thing that might affect the police budget is the use of American Rescue Plan Act funds to redo their building.

“Over this next year, we’re hoping to kind of finalize that plan to get that rolling so that might adjust their budget some,” Greene said. “But at the moment, it has not because we don’t know what the final plan is.”

The Fire Department is the same, with regular staffing, and they are going to allocate some of the ARPA funds to redo their building. Greene said that’s going to be a discussion down the road. He also said they have additional safety equipment in their budget as well as a new vehicle.

It takes a long process to customize a fire truck, Greene said, which is why it is going to take a long time to get a new one.

“Since fire vehicles are so specialized, either an ambulance or an actual apparatus, they are essentially custom built every time you order one,” Greene said. “As soon as you place the order, you get put on the list.”

The Community Development Department’s budget is up a little bit due to inflation, but Greene still expects them to do well.

The Department of Public Works, utility, motor pool and streets is one of the biggest expenses due to streets being in there, Greene said.

“This is probably our biggest change to our budget as we kind of, specifically motor pool, as we kind of just did some internal accounting to how we track expenses,” Greene said. “But other than that, they should be straightforward.”

In the Parks and Recreation Department, everything is normal as well but they adjusted their funds a little bit.

“For example, we took (the) pool and one other account out of their own funds and threw them into the general fund and we left golf in its own little enterprise fund,” Greene said. “But other than that, they’re going to keep on moving forward with their programming as they have in the past.”

The budget is set as if the city is fully staffed, so there are no concerns if a department is not fully staffed at the moment.

“So, in the event we do have full staff on board then we have no worry for the budget,” Greene said.

Mayor Kip Walby said nothing was approved at the hearing and the budget will be approved at a City Council meeting tentatively set in June.

Councilman Ronald Frederick said Interim Finance Director and Treasurer Renae Warnke and City Manager Dustin Lent did a great job with the budget.

“We’re glad that it’s balanced. That’s the big thing,” Frederick said.