Starkville will slightly scale back its travel budget in the upcoming fiscal year as a budget worksheet shows a near-$6,000 drop in allocations for citywide departments.
When reviewing the city’s budget as it was obtained from a Sept. 11 worksheet, The Dispatch found 25 separate line items marked travel that spanned various departments, services and even grants. Starkville previously allocated $122,035 for travel, but the city failed to reach half of the expected expenditure according to year-to-date totals shown when the document was produced.
Aldermen approved the city’s Fiscal Year 2014-2015 budget Tuesday in a 4-3 vote. The city’s guiding financial documents allocates $116,167 for travel in those same 25 line items.
Travel frequency and expenses, specifically those for aldermen and the mayor’s office, recently became a point of contention at the board table as leaders levied a variety of accusations, from taking too many trips and wasting taxpayer money to having their travel paid for by outsiders looking to affect policy.
The board approved a November conference trip for Mayor Parker Wiseman and Ward 2 Alderman Lisa Wynn on Sept. 2, but not before the first-term alderman and Vice Mayor Roy A. Perkins battled over the validity of continuing education versus ever-tightening city finances.
Perkins said the current administration has shown a willingness to dip into travel funds that is “unheard of” compared to the prior board, while Wynn called out the longest-serving alderman for a trip to last year’s Mississippi Municipal League Conference in which he “did not attend classes” and was “only there to receive” his induction into the group’s hall of fame.
Last week, Ward 1 Alderman Ben Carver and Ward 3 Alderman David Little targeted Wiseman’s and Chief Administrative Officer Taylor Adams’ trip to a Human Rights Campaign-sponsored event in which the group reimbursed the city for the duo’s travel expenses.
Aldermen and public speakers accused the mayor of having a pro-LGBT agenda, while Wiseman said he only attended when he was invited to speak at the February event after the board unanimously approved an equality resolution in January that extended non-discrimination language to LGBT employees.
The board’s travel budget is set at $20,000 for the upcoming fiscal year, compared to the current $30,000 allocation. As of Sept. 11 budget worksheet, the line item’s year-to-date expense was $21,084.29.
Wiseman’s line item for travel will increase from $7,000 to $11,000, but aldermen approved two new line items specifically for Adams and the mayor’s administrative assistant, a combined $14,000.
As of Sept. 11, the mayor’s office was about $2,000 over its FY 2013-2014 budget.
The city’s engineering and street departments’ travel line items were also over their current year’s budget marks, the worksheet shows. As of Sept. 11, the document states engineering spent $1,358.13 on travel when it was budgeted at $1,000, while the street department went $12.30 over its $100 line item.
Travel budgets are also increasing for the city’s information technology ($100), human resources ($500), city planning ($1,000) and sanitation ($2,000) departments. A specific line item for travel listed in a drug education fund is also increasing from $3,000 to $3,467, the worksheet shows.
Line items for other administrative costs ($2,000), a DUI grant ($3,935) and the city’s wastewater treatment plant employees ($1,500) show decreases in travel allocations.
Besides line items for the board, mayor’s office, CAO, only one other fund is budgeted for more than $10,000 in travel: approximately $30,000 in expenses associated with a brownfield grant. The city budgeted the same amount for that specific line item in its current fiscal year, but year-to-date totals show Starkville only expended $4,107.03 as of earlier this month.
A $10,000 travel budget for Starkville Police Department was left blank for the upcoming fiscal year. As of Sept. 11, that line item showed $2,264.45 in activity.
Other departments, funds and services with flat travel budgets for the next fiscal year include Starkville Municipal Court ($2,000), engineering ($1,000), Starkville Fire Department ($1,000), building department/code enforcement ($4,000), airport ($2,500), sanitary landfill ($1,500), new construction and rehabilitation ($1,000), water department ($2,500) and drinking water treatment ($1,000)
The upcoming fiscal year begins Oct. 1.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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