Goodwin confident in budget as it goes up for vote

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A vote on the budget put forth by Charleston Mayor Amy Shuler Goodwin will occur Monday night by the Charleston City Council Finance Committee and full council.

The budget, revealed on March 4, is aimed at addressing a $3 million deficit through spending cuts. Goodwin said there were difficult decisions made, but she feels confident moving forward.

“I feel at place and I feel at peace with the budget that we presented,” she said. “Yes, there are tough cuts and yes we had to make some very difficult decisions. I am proud of the budget that we put forward and I feel like it really with identify with many of the things that we think are important to create a vibrant city.”

Departmental expenses were looked at and slashed in the budget, including the city’s funding for the city’s trash and recycling bag voucher program and travel expenses.

Goodwin said this was not a slash and burn budget as they sat with directors asking for help

“This wasn’t run with only my advice and my suggestions,” she said.  “We met with all of the directors and our entire senior staff team. We took the opportunity to do follow up questions about what we believe were the best interests for their departments and thus the taxpayers.”

One of the hardest decisions, Goodwin said, was the reduction in force because they are about people. Charleston city manager Jonathan Storage told 580-WCHS when the budget was presented that the departmental cuts include reducing most department overtime amounts, reducing senior staff salaries and cutting 21 positions. He said that 11 of those 21 are or will be vacant and the other 10 caused redundancies between departments.

Goodwin cited one of the reasons for those cuts as Charleston getting smaller and the city not hitting 50,000 person mark.

Tough decisions and all, Goodwin said she believes her administration did a good job with their first budget.

“That’s why we were put here,” she said. “To make hard decisions, to make sure that we are truly, not just saying it in word, looking at every line item, looking at every dollar, and how can those be best spent. We made some pretty big cuts this time around because we had to.

“I think there were some ups and downs to the process. It was without a question, a tremendous learning process for our entire team. We had never done this before, particularly with this budget.”