The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on City of Salina finances and ways for the city to counter those impacts will be addressed during a special city commission meeting on Wednesday.
The meeting is scheduled for 4 p.m. Wednesday in room 107 of the City-County Building, 300 West Ash Street.
In order to observe guidance restricting gatherings to 10 or less, the meeting will take place via telephone conference which can be viewed on Salina Media Connection via Cox Cable Channel 20 or online at www.salinatv.org. The meeting will also be broadcasted live on the City of Salina YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/cityofSalinaKansas.
Citizens who wish to address the city commission may provide public comments by dialing (785) 621-0800 and entering participant code 782956 followed by #.
If citizens wish to speak either during the public forum or when the mayor requests public comment on an item, citizens must dial *9 from their phones to alert the moderator, who will open the line.
Per commissioners' direction, city staff have put together a 50-page COVID-19 Staffing Plan that will be at the center of the Wednesday meeting.
At their April 13 meeting, commissioners unanimously voted to direct staff to prepare a specific proposal for moving forward with staff adjustments including furloughs and shared work programs for the commissioners' further consideration. The possibility of voluntary or mandatory pay reductions had also been previously discussed, the plan noted.
According to the plan, individual consideration was given for each of the more than 485 city employees by department heads, the city manager, the financial director, and the human resources director. Every effort was made to minimize financial impacts on employees, the plan noted.
The report indicates that city staff believe the financial impacts will last beyond the duration of the governor's stay-at-home order. According to the report, expense and service reductions will be needed well beyond the stay-at-home order to attempt to balance the city’s 2020 budget.
To see the Salina City Commission meeting packet for Wednesday, click here.