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Clerk outlines budget with 10% reduction target, removes rentals and flags rising election and postage costs
Summary
In a staff budget review, the city clerk proposed line-item adjustments including removing rentals, increasing postage and software maintenance budgets, trimming some dues and advertising lines, and requested an additional staff position while aiming for a 10% overall reduction.
The clerk told colleagues at a staff budget review that she would bring trainees into budget entry tasks and proposed specific line-item changes aimed at meeting a citywide 10% reduction target.
The clerk said the professional services line can be reduced to $12,000 and proposed budgeting $200 for city election costs as a cushion (with a floor of $150), citing payments to Fulton County for poll workers and early‑voting locations. She recommended removing a rentals line that had supported council events, noting those costs could be handled elsewhere rather than in the clerk's operating budget.
The discussion flagged postage and shipping as a key pressure area: the clerk said the office spent about $35,000 this year and proposed increasing the postage budget to roughly $45,000 to accommodate mailings and election materials as postal rates rise. Participants noted scheduled postage increases and an estimated average annual increase of about 4.2% over coming years.
Other line-item proposals included reducing advertising from about $2,500 to $2,000 when feasible, setting printing and binding at $3,000, and trimming dues and fees (staff memberships such as IIMC and ICMA) from $3,000 to $1,000 pending itemization. The clerk recommended education and travel be set near $15,000 to reflect staff conference needs and said staff have already used roughly $4,036 year to date.
Software and maintenance was a notable ask: the clerk reported current software/maintenance at about $97,200 and proposed raising the request to $120,000 to cover systems including the city's open‑records platform, agenda tools and a new verbatim‑minutes capability. She described the verbatim minutes work as an AI‑assisted process for long meetings that will require additional processing and review.
On staffing, the clerk said the office is fully staffed but that workload is heavy and requested an additional position; reviewers said they would coordinate with HR and suggested an HR form to document the request. Participants also identified a "secondary salary" line (about $55,000) where actuals are lower than budgeted and suggested it could yield savings toward the 10% reduction goal.
The meeting ended with the clerk asked to enter the revised numbers into the budget system and the group agreeing to revisit totals as the fiscal year approaches.
