c
HlGIH..AND PARK - High­
land Park Mayor Martha G.
Scott • .• every city depart-
ment to . ys. can
reduce . t by 20%.
During a que tion and
aDS'� seu;t·Cl dlwitJl citizeas' •
before the MOIlday �
12 Oty Couacil meeting. the
yor said state gO\WDJDmt,
. ch loaned $3.8 million to
Highland Park, deinanded the
city '1ook into it.-
When one om n asked
whether it was possible to make
20% cuts in the Public Safety
Department (combining police
d fire services), which,
claimed, �ives Iitde enough
it u,. Mayor Scott ed,
"We're just looking into it. rm
certain that alI'departments wiD
DOt be able to make 20%.·
The mayor dded,·At this
time, we're t�lking about Cutting
expenses, not firing wor ers or
reducing em loyee alaries,'
dding that this would only be
done as a las resort
One man said, "I ould �te
to see you layoff hardworking
employees the bottom, rather
than topheavy salaries a the
top,"
yor Scott replied, "I will
take hard loot &om down to
up.·
Some observers state that
these new de�lopments vindi­
cate city council's position
�ing this years budg hear-
The city council members
wanted each department to try
as hard as possible to cut fund­
ing by a certain amount
Larry Wilkerson, then the
mayor's administrative assis­
tant, argued thatt the city's
urp could help pay ch ex­
penses and denied that it
necessary to "hoard the urplus
in order to prevent anticipated
financial problems in the future.
Some aides of the mayor ar­
gued that ving too much of
surplus (e'Yen for payment of
debts) might encourage the
unions to for higher wages.
The mayor refused to allo
department heads to meet with
the council to disalss where the
cats might best be made.
Admin· trative a sist nt,
Fred Ferris asked the depart­
men in a memo to submit a
budget revision tatement
owing here viDgs can be
expected to occur."
Ferri also ked ·depart­
men to report
- What personnel positions
an remain unfilled? (Depart­
ment heads, 0 fe a positio
ould be fiUed, were ked to
pepare -written justification
desa· your reasoniag and
include a cost bmefit �.'
- What activitie in the
department c n generate
revenue! to what extent are
ways of saving money within
��partment,' Ferris' memo
I
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