Special meeting to be held on Wilkes-Barre’s 2021 budget

WILKES-BARRE — City Council has scheduled a special meeting on Dec. 29 to approve the amended 2021 budget before year’s end.

The meeting, set for 6 p.m., will be online only, with no public attendance at City Hall. The link will be posted on the city’s web site, wilkes-barre.city. Council has instituted safety measures out of concern for the increase in the number of new COVID-19 cases locally.

Council Chairman Bill Barrett said the second and final reading of ordinances regarding the 2021 budget and related changes to the sewer maintenance, recycling and rental inspection fees are on the agenda.

At its Dec. 17 meeting council, by a 3-2 vote, approved the first reading of a budget ordinance with changes to Mayor George Brown’s proposed $53.2 million balanced budget for next year, dropping the recycling and sewer maintenance fees lower than the mayor’s figures as well as cutting overtime and workers’ compensation.

Brown had initially proposed doubling the recycling and sewer maintenance fees to $100 to raise $2 million revenues to balance the budget. But councilmembers Tony Brooks, Beth Gilbert McBride and John Marconi opposed the hikes, stalling the budget approval process and leaving Brown to warn of layoffs and cuts in services if the fees weren’t raised.

Both sides held discussions in an attempt to reach a compromise and move the budget toward passage by Dec. 31. Last week Brown presented his changes, but Brooks, McBride and Marconi again objected and introduced their numbers.

The sewer maintenance and recycling fees were increased to $75 and the rental inspection fee was raised to $100 from $75. Overtime and workers’ compensation were each reduced by $200,000.

Barrett and councilman Mike Belusko, who supported the mayor’s budget from the start, voted against the changes put forth by the three other council members.

Brown was disappointed with the vote and called the budget unrealistic. He said he was not sure layoffs could be avoided, but believed they could at least be minimized.