By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Hutchinson City Manager Jeff Cantrell acknowledges that, due to COVID-19, the City budget may take more discussion in a shorter time window this year than it does in typical years.
"We're going to meet as many times as we would under a normal year, although the timing's going to be skewed a little bit," Cantrell said. "We're going to have to wait to see what those collections are in order to paint an accurate picture on the retail activity. We can do a lot of work towards goals and objectives in advance of that. Unfortunately, that work might not be completely relevant if we don't truly know what our collections are going to be."
It's always the hope of any employer to keep good people, especially when circumstances out of their control are causing the problems and the City is no different.
"I think it's about 65% of our whole budget on our outlay, labor," Cantrell said. "It is a big piece of our expense and it is one where, if you do furlough or potentially even cut jobs, you're going to lose that talent and in a lot of cases, you lose it permanently."
The hope is that if there are cuts, at least a portion can be done through natural attrition like retirements and those moving on voluntarily.
"I think that's always a piece of it," Cantrell said. "When you put a package together that involves downsizing or trimming your labor, you always look at that and you hope to grab a certain percentage of it that way. It's not what I have ever seen as being the exclusive solution to it, but it's definitely a piece of it."
Ultimately, Cantrell will provide the governing body with a menu of choices and it will be up to the City Council to make the final decisions on cuts, if they are necessary.