What a difference two weeks — or even seventy-two minutes – makes in Vice Mayor Toth’s perspective.
At the Council’s March 25 work session, regarding the Code of Ethics, Toth said “Fiscal Year 2024, we spent $10,554 on the processes of these complaints. That’s money that could have gone to streets. That’s money that could have helped with our staff; we do cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) with each budget. At some point we gotta care about these smaller dollar amounts.”
During the council’s budget work session on April 8, cautious spending was the focus for most of the session. When a COLA for town staff came up, most of the council wanted 2.5%. Toth said “There’s very little wiggle room in the budget that we currently have. Any of this amount cuts into that $1.23 million contingency … We’re just trying to do what we can to be smart about our budget … 2.5% is perfectly reasonable.”
