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Council signals hiring‑freeze approach to bridge FY27 shortfall, keeps cuts to police in place
Summary
After reviewing proposed cuts, the council indicated consensus to leave current police reductions in place, adopt a hiring freeze to manage future vacancies by attrition, and continue identifying non‑personnel savings, while provisional approvals were given for finance and tax‑collector budgets.
At the April 28 workshop the council worked through the municipal bottom line and the options to reach a flat or near‑flat FY27 budget. Chair Chris Camiri summarized presented savings and the paths to preserve capital spending; staff ran numbers showing recent cuts reduce the mill rate by parts of a dollar but that the school budget and other factors still influence the final rate.
Rather than ordering immediate layoffs, the board indicated a majority preference for a hiring freeze after adoption so any future vacancies could be evaluated before filling positions. “The consensus of the council right now is the cuts that we've made to the police department are sufficient,” the chair said, and the council directed staff to implement a hiring freeze following budget adoption so attrition could be used to meet targets. The finance department budget ($314,897) and the tax collector budget ($229,280) were provisionally approved during the meeting; motions to provisionally adopt those budgets were moved, seconded and carried.
