The City Council and mayor may have broken along party lines in the battle over the city budget last summer. But a proposal to change the city’s budget process is not a partisan maneuver, said Councilwoman Cyndi Lamm, sponsor of the proposed charter amendment.
The charter amendment is an effort to improve collaboration and cooperation between the City Council and the mayor, said ³¢²¹³¾³¾Ìýand Councilman Roy Christensen who also worked on the amendment.
The proposal is one of two charter amendments introduced a week ago. Â Â
One, a tax-related proposal that would require voter approval of city tax increases, will not be pursued because of problems with the amendment language.
The council will hold a public hearing on Lamm's budget process proposal at Monday's 5:30 p.m. meeting and could vote on the proposal that night.
People are also reading…
If approved by the council and mayor, it would appear on the May city election ballot.
Republican council members, frustrated by the council’s lack of power in budget decisions, are supporting the charter amendment, which makes two major changes to the city budget process.
It requires a mayor to provide the administration’s budget plan to the council and public much earlier -- by May 1 -- rather than the current mid-July, for a fiscal year than begins Sept. 1.
That gives council members and the public more time to review and understand the budget, Lamm said.
And the proposal would make the previous year's budget the fallback budget should the mayor and council fail to reach agreement on a budget.
Currently, the mayor’s budget proposal is the fallback budget in the event of a stalemate, giving the mayor little incentive to compromise.
Lamm said she looked at what would work over the long run, no matter what party the mayor or council members are. She wanted a budget process that would work 20 years from now, and that would work the same if liberals or conservatives were in power.
In rewriting the budget process rules, Lamm said she wanted something that would get everyone working together.
“We went through every possible permutation and mix (of party membership) for the mayor’s office and the City Council to decide what is right,†said Christensen.
The goal was to have everyone negotiate in good faith, he said.
Some people wanted to eliminate the mayor’s ability to veto a budget plan approved by a majority of the council, Christensen said.
“That is not the right way to do the process,†he said. “That doesn’t create the balance we want, where everyone has a reason to negotiate (on the budget),†he said.
"Everyone has to have a reason to sit down and think it through,†he said.
Beutler is opposing the proposed amendment because his staff and others haven't had time to thoroughly analyze it and its potential consequences.Ìý
The Citizens for a Better Lincoln tax-related charter amendment debacle made clear that a charter amendment cannot be rushed to the ballot, said Rick Hoppe, chief of staff to Beutler.
The mayor is open to changes on the budget process if those changes are thoroughly vetted. It’s too important to decide in haste, Hoppe said.
The tax-related proposal is dead for now.
Christensen, who had introduced the proposal drafted by private political action committee Citizens for a Better Lincoln, has said he will not pursue the change because of problems with the proposal's language.
But he is in full support of the budget process proposal.
Republicans have complained for several years that they don't have access to the mayor's budget plan in time to review and work on potential changes before the budget has to be approved in late August.
The Republican majority on the council and the Democratic mayor ended up in court this fall after they couldn't agree during the budget process.
Republicans on the council did not want to increase the city's property tax rate, which Beutler's budget plan required.
Beutler said the money was needed to pay for needed services, which included additional firefighters and police, fighting the emerald ash borer and improving StarTran bus service.
The mayor vetoed the council plan, which required no tax hike but delayed principal payments on some bonds, delayed the purchase of an ambulance and slashed the mayor's budget. And the four Republicans on the council could not get a fifth vote for a veto override.Ìý
That meant Beutler's budget proposal became the budget for the city.Ìý