This is the Spartanburg Herald-Journal‘s story, so I’ll let them tell it …
Despite a spat between two councilmen, Spartanburg’s budget crossed its first hurdle Monday.
Councilman Joe Spigner voted against the budget, saying he was against using a $167,067 public safety grant, financed with federal stimulus funds, to pay the salaries of four officers for three years. The COPS grant was the lone item in the $33.65 million budget to receive stimulus dollars, although city staff has applied for other federal grants.
In response to a question from Spigner, Budget Director James Kennedy said that after the three-year period, the salaries would be paid through the general fund.
“I can’t support the budget because it’s using stimulus funds for positions,” Spigner said.
“We already know, Mr. Spigner, and you’re wasting our time,” Councilman Robert Reeder answered, before Spigner called for a “point of order” and said he had the floor.
After Councilman Junie White asked for boxing gloves, Councilwoman Linda Dogan said she understood Spigner’s concerns and respected his opinion, but if the city didn’t accept the money, another municipality would, and state residents would still be required to repay the funds.
No one spoke during a public hearing on the budget, and council is required to approve final reading on the spending plan before the ordinance is enacted.
The full story is here.
I wish we had more detail of what happened at the meeting, and some post-meeting reaction and context from the Council members, but reporter Lynne P. Shackleford either didn’t get it, or the editors didn’t feel like it merited space. It’s a shame, because I suspect what was happening was that Spigner was trying to grandstand on some ideological point, and the rest of the council wasn’t interested in hashing it out when the budget is already so tight. Could have made for a very dramatic and revealing story, properly written.
In fairness, as the paper of record for city government, the SH-J is more than a little handcuffed in trying to get all the angles on this. I expect that we’ll only see things get more tense in these meetings in coming months and years as Spartanburg’s demographics begin to shift, and I doubt this will be the last such exchange in the near future.
Anyone want to volunteer to start covering City Council for the Spark?
Steve Shanafelt
I know I agreed to do it, and I totally dropped the ball on not going to this. I didn’t find out about it until after the fact, but I’ve got the rest of city and county council meetings scheduled in my iCal so I shouldn’t miss another one. No need to take me out of the game yet coach
I was at Council Monday night and I was surprised to see this as the headline the next day. I didn’t see it as that big of a deal but I guess it was the most exciting thing that happened and it was funny when Junie White chimed in about the boxing gloves. But, Joe’s been taking jabs at Obama and the stimulus package for months at Council meetings. So I think everyone is like…okay, already. He knew everyone was going to vote for it…so it was his chance to make a point. And I thought it was okay and not too tense ALTHOUGH it probably did get tense behind closed doors throughout the budget process.
Anyhoo…more people DO need to come to City Council. The more the merrier.
Ok, so let me get this straight Councilman Spigner voted against funding that would help supply salaries to four safety officers for three years that would NOT come out of the general budget???
I did the math (yes I used a calculator) If the grant is annual,the salaries would add up to a little over $41k a year for these four individuals. IF, which I suspect is the case it is a one time grant, these salaries would only be $13.9k a year.
I am really trying to see the objection to all this. Yeah I understand the arguments against the stimulus package, but its a reality now and we will be paying it back whether we want to or notor whether we see a dime of it or not. So why not use our portion well?
One concern would be how the city would fund the positions of these three officers once the stimulus money halts in three years. This is an issue whenever salaries are covered with temporary funds, like grants.