PORT ANGELES — During a town hall meeting Tuesday to discuss the budget, the Port Angeles City Council will be asking the public a question: “What are your priorities?”
Do residents want to add police officers and firefighters, or are road repairs and senior services more important?
The meeting will be at 5 p.m. in City Council chambers in City Hall at 321 E. Fifth St.
Once City Manager Kent Myers finishes an introduction and explanation of the rules, the microphone will be turned over to anyone who wants to tell the council what is most — and least — important, Myers said.
The city needs to cut $300,000 from the 2012 budget, and the council wants to know where the people want those cuts made.
“If I handed you $100 to budget, how would you split it between the departments?” Myers asked.
The town hall meeting is part of a new budget program called “priorities-based budgeting.”
Instead of continuing cutting everything equally across the board, Myers said some programs are more important than others and should be cut less, while other should be trimmed more. Some programs could be given more funding. Some might be completely eliminated.
“Port Angeles has a very engaged citizenry,” Myers said.
Port Angeles City Council meetings are very well-attended compared with many other cities, he said.
The people are aware of what the issues are, and they should be an integral part of the decision-making.
Because of conservative budgeting, the city has been able to keep almost all of its employees through the recession, he said.
At the peak in 2009, there were 265 city employees. As of Thursday, the city had 257 employees, said Yvonne Ziomkowski, city finance director. A large portion of that loss was the transfer of city pool employees to the William Shore Pool District when it was created in 2009, she said.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.