Mayor Steve Williams came to
Marshall’s campus on Tuesday to answer questions from journalism students about
the budget deficit.
Huntington
is ranked in the top eight in America’s Best Community Competition despite the
recent budget cuts and Williams’ strives to set a standard others will seek to
follow.
“One
thing that I’ve come to understand is that if you’re going to be America’s Best
Community you have to be resilient,” said Williams. “It doesn’t mean that you don’t go through
hard times. It means that you go through
hard times and you take a hit and somehow you keep standing.”
The
expected six million dollar deficit by the end of this fiscal year came as a
shock to the William’s administration.
The
Mayor said that 1/4 of that number was predictable, while 3/4 came as a
surprise and of this budget 72 percent was employee related.
“The
last thing anybody ever wants to do is lay somebody off,” said Williams. “If you’re credible, if you’re going to be a
leader, an effective leader, layoffs are the very last resort. We found there was no way to avoid it.”
The
city’s budget cuts left 10 recently hired probationary police officers, one
part time officer, seven recently hired probationary fire fighters and 6
civilians without a job.
As
Mayor Williams prepares for the State of the City address he said, “I’m going
to be asking, what do you want? What do
you want? Do you want to place blame or
do you want to fix the problem?”
The
solution begins with taking funds from the 1.4 million dollars in paving to
make sure that the money is used to keep police officers on the streets and
firefighters in the firehouse.
Williams
compared the budget issues Huntington is experiencing to having a storm travel
through the area and how it is important not to give up.
“My
wife and I, our daughter lives up in Michigan,” said Williams. “She’s having a big barbeque at her home on a
lake, up in Michigan in late July. Just
because we’re going to have a big winter storm here, doesn’t mean that we’re
canceling the trip because I know it’s going to be sunny eventually.”
He
continued to say that the city of Huntington is going to work its way through
these layoffs and that he doesn’t hope, but expects this to get better.
