Pay hikes cause dissent on N. Baltimore budget

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NORTH BALTIMORE – Council has approved its
2014 budget, but its passage was met with some dissension on Tuesday.By a 3-2 vote, council members approved
$5.2 million in appropriations for 2014.Two council members, Leslee Thompson and Aaron Patterson, voted
against the appropriations. Jeff Bretz was absent from the meeting.Despite being one of the key figures in
preparing the budget as head of the finance committee, Patterson said he felt strongly about voting against
it."I don’t agree with the way we did the raises," Patterson said after the meeting. "I am
very upset about it."Patterson said village employees were given 2.5 percent raises across the board.
In addition, employees were considered for additional small raises based on their 2013 performance
rating."I don’t agree with the across-the-board raises if we have employees who are out-performing
other employees," Patterson said. "I like to reward our employees who go above and beyond for the
citizens of this community."Thompson had a different reason for voting against the budget."I
disagree with some of how the budget is being funded. We are continually going into our carry-over,"
Thompson said.Those departments and funds receiving the largest appropriations included: police ($421,478);
dispatch ($111,407); fire department ($85,664); EMS ($97,787); lands and buildings ($109,480); street
maintenance and repair ($251,548); water fund ($1.2 million); wastewater ($990,414); debt fund payment to
Ohio Water Development Authority ($614,805); water capital improvements ($180,000); street cleaning, tree
maintenance, street lighting ($179,958).Also at Tuesday’s council meeting, members responded to an e-mail
from a concerned citizen regarding a Dec. 11 emergency incident. The citizen said North Baltimore EMS was
called out for the emergency, but no one responded. Hanco EMS had to be called instead causing a delay in
response."If we the voters of North Baltimore are paying to have a service, we deserve to know that
when the call is made we will have someone responding immediately, not 20 minutes or more after the original
call," the resident wrote in the e-mail.Council member Janet Goldner responded to the e-mail during the
council meeting."We are aware our EMS is not running as smoothly as we would hope. We are working
diligently to have a solution to that," Goldner said.She said council is considering several options to
resolve the ongoing issue and will soon present these options, along with a council recommendation, to the
community through public meetings and speaking with various organizations."Council has already been
spending many, many hours on this subject the last several months," council member Bill Cameron
added."We’d like to already have this decision, but we just aren’t ready … We don’t want to make this
decision in haste," Cameron said.

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