Ask Mr. Answer Person: Does the city's $1.6 million budget adjustment reflect on the job the City Manager is doing?

Wow!  Readers are still talking about the Decorah City Council's vote to give City Manager Chad Bird a $18,197 pay raise starting July 1st.  The latest question comes from Gordie, who also noticed our story (http://www.decorahnews.com/news-stories/2016/05/13539.html) about adjustments made to the city's 2015-2106 budget:  The last several weeks I've been reading about the City Manager's raise and reasons for the large raise in pay.  Only now the city must amend its budget by $1.6 million.  Sounds to me like the city council is rewarding the City Manager for a poor job of budgeting and managing...What's the deal?"

Mr. Answer Person says: "OK--it's been an active month in city government.  But don't confuse the issue of the City Manager's pay raise with the adjustment to the city's budget.

First of all, many of the higher expenses ($1.6 million) were offset by higher revenues ($1.1 million).  The city will be taking $497,644 out of its reserves to pay for the extra expenses.  But many of those expenses were planned--just maybe not during 2015-2016.

The proof will come next budget year, to see whether property taxes have to be raised because of a lower reserve fund balance or if spending will be lower next year because the projects have already been tackled this year.

Moreover, the city budget is a product of discussions between the city council, department heads and city staff--so while it's understandable to pick on the city manager because of the city council's decisions, it's the city council and not the city manager that votes on budgets and budgetary matters.