Covington mayor vetoes budget

A disagreement over part of the budget ordinance for 2010 between Covington Mayor Candace Watkins and the City Council has resulted in the mayor vetoing the city budget that passed unanimously at Tuesday night’s council meeting.

The veto is based on a failed attempt to change the city charter in November 2008 that would require council action by ordinance in order to transfer funds of a preset limit within a department, office or agency.

Currently, the mayor can transfer any amount of money from one part of a budget to another within a department without council approval.

Council approval is currently needed only if funds are transferred from one department to another.

The charter change failed by a vote of 2,045 to 1,817. It was one of 11 charter changes on the ballot that was headed by the presidential election.

As part of the budget ordinance, the council voted unanimously to adopt an amendment that would require the council to be notified of budget changes between $5,000-$15,000 and anything over $15,000 would need the council’s approval.

As was reported in Friday’s edition, Councilman Lee Alexius said that the budget process looks at what is needed and if something changes, the council should be notified. “We (the council) are the budget process,” he said, “And if something does not agree with what was budgeted, we should be told.”

He added that anything under $15,000 does not need to be approved by the council.

The council only needs to be notified so adjustments can be made.

He said many times in the budget process, priorities are set in each department and matters may be tabled because of budgetary constraints.

When excess in one area occurs involving a great deal of money ($15,000 or more), the budgetary process should decide how best that excess money should be spent.

Alexius said that in most cases, it’s a small amount of money and will not be affected by the change, but if a larger amount is involved, the council should be able to look at the city’s priorities and decide where excess money can be utilized best.

In a press release dated Nov. 5, Watkins said  “What Mr. Faust (Councilman-at-large Matt Faust) is attempting to do is amend the charter by ordinance... The voters expressly declined the proposal to make that action part of the City’s Charter in the November 2008 election.”

According to Watkins’ release, “essentially the Mayor is empowered to move funds within the operating budget of any department of the city once the budget is approved by the council. Money may only be moved from one department to another by and (sic) ordinance passed by the Council. ‘We need permission to move money from one department to another,’ stated Watkins, ‘however moving money within a department is the authority of the Mayor.’”

In an explanation of the veto, Watkins said the rejection of the charter amendment “prevents exactly what is attempted in Ordinance 2009-29.

Therefore Ordinance Number 2009-29 is hereby vetoed as it is disallowed by the City Charter and the ability to pass an ordinance such as Number 2009-29 was expressly rejected by the voters in the Nov. 4, 2008, election.”

When Councilman Marty Benoit was asked his response to the veto on Friday afternoon, he said he had not received the letter. He said he would need to do research on the issue before commenting.

At Tuesday’s council meeting, the mayor said she did not want a raise. In the past, she has vetoed it. Thus far, she has not.

The veto of the ordinance adopting the budget, of which the controversial policy is a part, will take a council vote of five of the seven members, or a two-thirds majority to overturn.

The legality of the ordinance is in dispute with both the council and the mayor.

Alexius said Foshee told the council that they could pass the budget ordinance with the stipulations. Watkins says it is a violation of the city charter. Foshee could not be reached for comment.