The largest piece of legislation the city will pass all year was approved with little debate Monday.

The St. Joseph City Council explained a handful of discrepancies between documents and spoken promises to two city employees before it passed the $130 million 2009-10 city budget.

John Olszowka, a spokesman for City Employees United, was happy when he heard the city would add seven new employees next year instead of 11. But he had a concern: the budget showed nine new jobs.

City Manager Vince Capell explained the differences. The copy of the budget the group had obtained was a preliminary budget, which did not yet include changes the council made during budget deliberations in May.

“That will be changed when (Financial Services Director) Carolyn (Harrison) puts out the new budget,” Mr. Capell said.

Another spokesman for the employee group, Scott Vanover, was concerned about a 67 percent increase in services and utilities. Ms. Harrison attributed the increase to impending projects to address the city’s combined sewer overflow problem.

“The service and utilities section also includes service projects, and we have several huge projects coming, especially in the sewer fund,” Ms. Harrison said.

Mr. Vanover asked why the city budget increased from $110 million last year to $130 million in the new budget. Once again, the sewers factored in.

“Almost all of that was the higher cost mandated by the government for combined sewer overflow,” Mr. Capell said.

The budget actually projects a drop in tax revenue, but $45 million in sewer bonds more than makes up for the drop.

Council approves sewer rate hike

In other business, the council voted to increase sewer rates for most customers by 18 percent. Industrial customers who treat their own wastewater will see a 13 percent increase.

Council member Bill Falkner attempted to amend the bill to lower sewer rates for customers outside the St. Joseph city limits.

Residents of Country Club Village currently pay about double the standard rate for sewer service. Mr. Falkner’s proposal would have lowered their bill to 20 percent above standard city rates. Country Club residents pay a higher rate because they do not pay city taxes to maintain the wastewater system.

“I just think we need to be good neighbors,” Mr. Falkner said.

City Manager Vince Capell said he disagreed with Mr. Falkner. If the city lowered rates for customers outside St. Joseph, city residents would have to pay higher bills to cover the city’s costs, Mr. Capell said.

Mayor Ken Shearin supported Mr. Falkner’s idea, but the rest of the council voted down the proposal. The original version of the bill passed 6-2, with Mr. Shearin and Mr. Falkner casting the dissenting votes.

Clinton Thomas can be reached at clintonthomas@npgco.com.