NEWBURYPORT — As the heart of the budget season approaches, some city leaders are pushing for a new format that would give department heads more control over transfers and individual line items.
But other elected officials say the proposal is tantamount to giving up fiscal control during difficult financial times — and should be rejected.
The proposal, pushed by Mayor John Moak and endorsed by Donna Holaday, the chairwoman of the Budget and Finance Committee, would change the way the City Council approves the mayor's budget: Instead of line item by line item, councilors would consider expenditures in categories, such as personnel and supplies, for example.
Also, it would also make council approval of transfers within departments unnecessary unless they exceed $2,000 or occur more than twice for a given line item.
The method is used by most municipalities in the state, Moak and Holaday said, and is also the method the state Department of Revenue recommends. Amesbury, for instance, uses a similar system.
"We believe that is the way it should be presented," Moak said. "Category usage is more of an accepted way."
Holaday said, "It basically gives the department heads a little more autonomy in managing departments."
But such a proposal has hit roadblocks in the city before — including last year, Moak said, when he first proposed it — and several councilors say they still don't want to see the change instituted.
City Councilor Tom Jones said he has problems with the new proposal, especially with the elimination of approval for each of the transfer items.
Departments use transfers to move money from one account to another to help fund items. The council must approve all transfers now, with some getting even further scrutiny in committee meetings.
"That is not where I want to go with it," Jones said of the proposal. "I appreciate that transfers within the department through the current procedure are difficult, but at the end of the day in tight financial times, that second look, that level of discretion that is held by the council, is a good thing."
City Councilor Steve Hutcheson said he shares some of the same concerns that Jones raised.
"I'm more apt to want to go with the old way," he said. "I can't see going a little more lenient, especially the way things are going."
Holaday, though, said she doesn't see the new system as the council being any less accountable for spending.
Councilors would still have information on every line item, but instead of approving each line item, they would approve in categories, she said. Furthermore, she said should councilors raise concerns, all documentation on transfers — no matter how small — would be available for the council at any time.
Holaday also said the Budget and Finance Committee will look at the transfers at least quarterly — and more often if questions arise — to monitor the activity.
"I don't see that we are giving up anything actually," she said. "I don't see that at all."
Jones said he understands that rebuttal: "The counter is that we still will be able to look at all of it."
But he said he is concerned that what departments spend money on could change throughout the year since the council will not approve transfers.
He said with no oversight over those transfers, it would be unclear what, exactly, the money was spent on.
"If we don't know where that money is going to be spent, that kind of leaves us in the blind for the years going forward," he said. "I don't think our job is so difficult and onerous that we need to shorten it up to that extent."
Holaday said the change has come under fire in previous administrations when councilors "were not comfortable giving up control over every line item."
She said when she was first on the council and didn't understand the system as well, she listened to elder councilors and supported not changing it.
But not anymore.
"Going forward, I'm supportive of this change, and I'm trying to come up with a compromise so councilors feel comfortable," she said.
The council, which briefly discussed the change at the most recent council meeting, plans to address it again at the end of the month. Holaday said it will come after all the budget hearings with city department heads, which start May 19.
Moak released his $46 million spending plan for the city Monday. The plan is a 3.2 percent — or $1.4 million — increase from the previous year.
