TIPP CITY — The Tipp City Council approved two ordinances regarding the 2023 annual budget for the city of Tipp City.
The first ordinance approved unanimously by the council adopts the operating budget for fiscal year 2023 as it was proposed by City Manager Tim Eggleston and amended by the City Council.
The council has had numerous discussions regarding the budget for 2023. According to Eggleston the budget passed during Monday’s meeting of the council passing the ordinance includes the stipulation that nothing will be implemented against the council’s wishes regarding human resources, the administrative assistant and the law director’s position.
Huffman commented on the budget and the revisions done on the budget.
“I always feel like this is a process, but it is also one that will go on through the year, because we do get requests to make changes in the budget as we go. There have been some things that have been of particular importance to me in seeing that we do our due diligence as council members and do what is beneficial to the city,” said Huffman.
A new appropriation that has been prominent in multiple council discussions are the allocations to fund a full-time fire department as requested by the fire chief and the city manager. Huffman’s understanding is that approval of the budget is that the appropriation is an appropriate amount of funds to hire new members of the Fire Department to staff a full-time department as opposed to a volunteer fire department. The council has taken multiple recommendations from a sub-committee, the Tipp City Fire and EMS Steering Committee, on a plan for how to navigate moving to a full-time fire department and more recommendations for staffing are expected.
According to Huffman, the approval of the budget is not an approval of a particular plan but that the council will continue to work through details and base their decisions on staffing as recommendations from the sub-committee continue to be presented to the council.
Another appropriation to the budget is the addition of a full-time law position, which would be new to the city.
“I think we have to really consider what the needs of the city are for legal services and how much we think should be appropriated to that to meet the needs of the city and how best to do that,” said Huffman.
The second ordinance passed during the meeting is an ordinance allowing the council to make appropriations for current expenses and other expenditures of Tipp City during the fiscal year ending on Dec. 31, 2023.
According to Eggleston, this ordinance, once approved, will provide funds for the plans mentioned previously for a full-time fire department and a full-time law position. While the ordinance approves the appropriations of funds for the plans, the appropriations can still be reviewed and amended throughout the year.
The next regular session meeting of the Tipp City Council will be held on Jan. 3, 2023 at 7:30 p.m. at the Tipp City Government Center, 260 S. Garber Drive, Tipp City.
