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Marco Island City Council took some credence to residents’ requests for the city to consider cutting staff and looking at efficiencies.

While council did not vote on whether to approve the request for six new employee positions within the city, council did approve the help of a volunteer human resources expert to look into the matter. They also approved approximately $100,000 in 2009 to purchase lap-top computers for police patrol cars.

The proposal for the City of Marco Island to hire six additional employees while the City of Naples and Collier County governments are choosing to lay-off employees caused many citizens to voice their concerns about rising costs to live on-island.

City Council heard the concerns July 24 and by Monday, decided to take action on the issue.

Chairman Bill Trotter recommended help from one of Marco’s residents, Larry Magel.

Magel said he was once responsible for 1,100 personnel at a Chicago-based law firm. While his firm was ranked 21st in size nationally, his expense control practices ranked the firm fifth in profitability, he said.

“I saw the county had a productivity committee. I thought about whether Marco Island should have such a function and discussed it with the Chairman (Bill Trotter).”

The additional city employees requested include three firefighter/paramedics, a human resources coordinator, an accountant and an information technology professional in the utilities department. While the IT position will not come out of the general fund, Trotter said it was still important to look at the need for the new position because it could have an effect on the bills residents receive from the city’s water and sewer utility.

Trotter said the city departments requesting new employees will receive the first review, but all are expected to be looked at closely. Trotter said he will serve as a liaison to Magel’s research into city staffing matters.

City Council approved four percent staff raises in June and City Manager Steve Thompson is also proposing to budget in another one percent to give incentives to employees who find ways to cut costs or who indicate other high performance measures.

Trotter set forth three recommendations for council to consider Monday which would have set upcoming budget hearings in a clear direction. His proposal included setting a preliminary storm water fee and fire assessment and then decreasing the ad valorem rate proportionally. Although Trotter said the decisions wouldn’t be made conclusive until September’s public hearings, it would be a start to the budgeting process.

The storm water fee was proposed by Public Works Director Rony Joel as a fee of about $6 per month for single family homes and would generate $800,000. The money would be used exclusively for improving storm drainage.

City Council was split on whether to implement these fees and assessments 3-3 with Councilors Frank Recker, Jerry Gibson and Ted Forcht opposing the idea.

Recker said he was opposed to making such large decisions without going over the budget in more detail to see what money was actually needed. Recker has also reiterated citizens’ requests to either cut costs or raise ad valorem rather than institute new fees and assessments.

Forcht’s decision is consistent with his previous votes against the fire assessment.

Resident Richard Schuster, 77, commented on City Council’s prior budget meetings, which largely focused on finding such alternative revenue sources as the fire assessment.

“You’re looking for alternative revenue sources, but what is our source of additional revenue?” Schuster asked council.

The tie vote on the matter meant the motion failed and several other budget actions were postponed during Monday’s meeting.

“ ... I guess we’re not progressing,” Trotter said.

The tie may have been broken by City Councilor Rob Popoff who was absent from Monday’s morning meeting due to out-of-town business.

Popoff said that he would not attend any back-to-back meeting schedule which kept council in the community room for about 12 hours in one day.

“It’s not fair to the public and it’s not fair to the people who have to work,” he said.

Popoff said he spent over three hours reviewing the budget with city staff prior to the meeting but was only able to attend the regularly scheduled evening meeting.

Monday’s budget meeting was the first among the four budget workshops so far which focused on expenditures.

Once the idea failed for adjusting the ad valorem rate proportionately lower to make up for the new storm water fee, Trotter removed his other motions sensing Council was not ready to make the decision.

City Council did prioritize at least one issue on the budget. The police department was requesting about $100,000 to complete the work necessary to make the surveillance cameras on the Judge S.S. Jolley Bridge fully functional.

Interim Police Chief Thom Carr proposed that police officers could also use lap-top computers in their cars which would allow them to run vehicles’ license plates, swipe licenses and run other searches. He did not budget the items in, but said they would be useful.

“Wouldn’t it make more sense to put a tool right into the hands of the officers?” Recker asked the councilors.

Forcht agreed, saying the cameras have never worked right anyway.

Council voted 7-0 to back Carr’s recommendation for the laptops and balance the budget by removing the surveillance camera repairs.

Carr is still waiting to find out if this will be his last budget process while Thompson makes a final decision on the four contenders for the police chief position.

Thompson said he was not surprised that many budget decisions from City Council will wait until the next two public hearings in September.

“The public hearings will still allow for meaningful input ... Everything is still on the table,” Thompson said.