(Atlantic) The Atlantic City Council covered a lot of ground in a short period at Wednesday’s electronic City Council meeting. The meeting started at 5:30 p.m. and was adjourned shortly before 5:50 p.m.
Social distancing allowed only the Mayor, City administrator, City Clerk, Administrative Assistant, Police Chief, two council members, and Cable TV operator Nick Kern inside the Council Chambers. Thanks to technology, five of the other councilmembers participated via zoom, a video communication conferencing system allowing all members to join in on the discussions and resolutions.
Following the approval of the consent agenda, the Council moved to adopt the fiscal year 2021 budget. This action followed a public hearing in which there were no comments.
The budget shows a decrease in the tax levy from $16.86 to $16.56. Atlantic City Administrator John Lund says the sad irony of this budget is it involved months of development. While he was proud of the final product, the budget is based on a pre-COVID-19 world.
Lund says traditional revenues could collapse or see just a few bad quarters; relief funding may or may not arrive to aid local governments. Lund says outside of the city’s debt service, collective bargaining agreements, and next year’s health insurance renewals, everything else should be considered preliminary.
The Council also approved a resolution that allows elected officials to make policies subject to the dismissal by unelected officials or government employees. The Council’s approval is needed to eliminate any conflicts between the actual City operations and procedures.
Lund added the local government of Atlantic is doing well, for the time being, some issues may come about should COVID-19 arrive in Cass County, many more issues could pop up. Those issues may include; hours of work, work rules concerning work absences, and problems dealing with forfeited vacation paid time off accumulation on the anniversary of employment. The flexibility ends when the pandemic is over.
The Council also adopted the proposed fiscal year 2021 ten-year capital improvement plan and agreed to set annual wages for the Atlantic Park and Recreation Department.
