Marietta City Council passes ordinances related to budget cuts, insurance expenses

Tables position cuts

MARIETTA -- Marietta City Council adopted two ordinances related to departmental budget cuts and increased health insurance premiums in certain situations Thursday night as part of an effort to save $1.2 million this year.

Council conducted the third reading of Ordinance 65 (24-25) and then unanimously approved the ordinance.

Ward 1 Councilman Michael Scales, who sponsored the ordinance, previously told The Times the ordinance involves transfers and appropriations that are for 38 departmental cuts totaling $920,000 that were listed in a plan Mayor Joshua Schlicher presented to council May 20.

The plan was created at the direction of council due to a negative city performance audit that predicted the city's general fund may be depleted as early as 2025. Council had originally suggested several staff cuts in April as a way to cut $1.2 million from the city's budget for 2024.

The transfers and appropriations in the ordinance total $920,000 and are linked to the cuts in the plan, which include things such as the police department not filling two patrolmen positions and a temporary clerk position; the fire department not paying for a firefighter position that is empty due to a deployment and not filling a firefighter position once it is empty next year; the Marietta Municipal Court not filling three open positions; the city's slum and blight property demolition program shifting the funding for some properties to a county program; and the city law director's office waiting to fill an open position for an assistant law director until later in the year.

Details for these cuts can be found in Schlicher's plan, called the 2024 Strategic Plan, at fhttps://www.mariettaoh.net/news_detail_T3_R41.php.

According to Scales, council's next step in saving the city's general fund will be working on the tax budget.

"We're just taking care of this, then we're starting on the tax budget next," Scales said after the meeting.

According to Scales, council prepares the tax budget as a general outline of next year's budget and then provides it to the county for it to be reviewed for how the city spends property tax receipts.

"This is the first step in a long trip and it gives us an idea of where we stand," Scales said about the tax budget. "Plus when we start we know where the cuts are going to be next year. So we're moving right along."

Scales expressed gratitude for the people who worked on the strategic plan.

"I do want to thank all the people that worked (on) the general fund," he said.

Council also addressed ordinances associated with abolishing city positions that are not currently filled or that will be empty in the near future.

Council conducted the third readings of the ordinances, which include Ordinance No. 60 (24-25) which abolishes the city engineer position; Ordinance No. 61 (24-25) which abolishes the assistant city engineer position; Ordinance No. 62 (24-25) which abolishes the engineering office manager position; Ordinance No. 63 (24-25) which abolishes a clerk position in the Marietta Police Department; and Ordinance No. 64 (24-25) which abolishes two Marietta Police Department patrolman positions.

After the third reading, council approved tabling all the ordinances so additional language could be added to them.

According to City Law Director Paul Bertram, he asked that the ordinances be tabled due to language required by the Revised Code and by contracts related to union, non-union and civil service commission employees needing to be added to the ordinances.

"I've done some further research," Bertram said of the ordinances. "I want to amend these to put this language in so that they are defensible."

According to Bertram a motion to amend the ordinances will need to be introduced and then the ordinances will be read fully with their changes before they can be either approved or denied by council.

During the meeting council also conducted the first reading of Ordinance 68 (24-25), which amends the amount city employees pay for an insurance policy in some circumstances. Council then voted to suspend the rules and not conduct the second and third readings of the ordinance. Council then unanimously approved the ordinance.

According to At-Large Councilwoman Cassidi Shoaf, who sponsored the ordinance, it changes the premium amount a city employee who has a spouse that is also a city employee pays for their insurance premium when they are using their spouse's insurance policy as a second policy.

Shoaf previously told The Times that the way the city insurance works is that Marietta employees have their own health insurance policy but if their spouse works for the city as well, then each employee is covered on their spouse's insurance plan too, so it is like they are insured twice.

Council had originally passed an ordinance in March that stopped a city employee from being able to use their spouse's insurance policy as a secondary insurance policy if the spouse is also a city employee but in April learned that the Teamsters Union viewed the ordinance as not valid due to employees needing to opt out of insurance acting as a secondary policy for their spouse.

Shoaf said after the meeting that the ordinance means the city will pay 70% of the premium and the employee will pay 30% of the premium for their insurance policy when it is the secondary policy for their spouse, instead of the usual amount of they pay of 15%. This does not affect the amount an employee will pay for their own insurance policy.

Other items addressed at council:

* Council conducted the first reading of an ordinance extending Marietta's DORA (Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area) during the Great American Race, to include June 23, which is a Sunday. They then suspended the rules, did not conduct the second and third readings of the ordinance and unanimously passed it.

* Council conducted the first reading of two ordinances allowing the city to enter into an agreement for a Natural Gas Aggregation Program with Eastern Power and Gas and for an Electric Generation Aggregation Program with Constellation Energy, with both taking effect Oct. 1. They then suspended the rules, did not conduct the second and third readings of the ordinances and unanimously passed them.

* Council conducted the first reading of a resolution authorizing the city's director of public safety and service to apply for, and enter into a Water Pollution Control Loan Fund (WPCLF) Agreement for a regionalization evaluation/survey to the determine feasibility of receiving extra sanitary flows in a sewer line that runs along Muskin Drive to Front Street. The resolution set the cost at a maximum of $49,900. They then suspended the rules, did not conduct the second and third readings of the resolution and unanimously passed it.

The next city council meeting will be at 7:30 p.m. June 20 in Room 10 of the Marietta Armory.

Michelle Dillon can be reached at mdillon@newsnandsentinel.com