The lingering economic downturn, which has impacted cities great and small, has wreaked havoc upon the city of Enumclaw’s spending plan for 2010.

A tentative budget, drafted by Mayor John Wise but still an evolving process, calls for a decrease in revenues, less city spending and elimination of eight full-time jobs from the employment roster. Additionally, another five full-time positions have been earmarked for part-time status.

The 2010 budget, Wise wrote in an introduction to his budget proposal, “is built on the concepts of no new taxes or charges, maintaining solid support for core services and maintaining a portion of all current city services.”

The preliminary budget, generally adopted during the first City Council meeting in December, has been developed “by keeping a close eye on the ever-changing, mostly downward, economy,” Wise wrote. To keep things balanced, Wise has implemented a combination of staff and program cuts, position freezes and the spending of cash reserves.

The bottom line is a general fund budget that is down nearly $800,000 from 2009 levels. The general fund is responsible for most crucial city services, except for those “enterprise funds” that are required to be self-sufficient like water, sewer, solid waste and natural gas.

The cost savings in the general fund are tied directly to cuts in staff.

Of the eight full-time positions recommended for elimination, two are now filled by employees who will be retiring at the end of the calendar year. In danger of losing their city jobs, however, are a secretary in the Administration Department, corrections officer, assistant planner, maintenance worker in the Parks Department, a civil engineer and the water-sewer superintendent.

Identified for reduction to part time are the program assistant at the Senior Activity Center, a library technician and a Public Works Department secretary. A library clerk is slated to drop from almost half-time to less than one-third and the city’s cultural arts manager, already less than full-time, is identified in the proposed budget as a .34 employee.

Non-union employees are on the receiving end of a double whammy in the mayor’s proposed budget. Wise recommends no cost-of-living adjustment in 2010 for those employees and additionally has figured in five furlough days to be taken without pay.

Employees belonging to employee unions will receive a 2.5 percent cost-of-living increase that had been previously negotiated.

The city has made money available each year for nonprofit, public service agencies and will continue to do so in 2010 – but at reduced levels, according to the Wise budget. In three areas the mayor has suggested that funding be eliminated completely: the annual Fourth of July celebration, the downtown Street Fair and Kid’s BASE.

In his budget introduction, Wise emphasized that the spending document is “an evolving process” and can be altered until it is adopted by the council.

The overall budget is down about $24 million from 2009, but that figure is skewed by completion of the wastewater treatment plant – the largest public works project in city history.

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