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ST. CLAIR SHORES — The St. Clair Shores City Council listened to a budget hearing on April 28. This is the layout of the budget for fiscal year 2025-2026 they will be asked to consider and approve with or without changes in the weeks to come.
Councilman Chris Vitale was excused for the meeting.
According to the full budget packet on the city’s website, the city manager’s recommended general fund budget for fiscal year 2025-2026 is $47,398,760 and the recommended expenditures are $47,000,003.98. City Manager Dustin Lent said they expect the fund balance to increase $224,198.
Recently, John Walters took over the position of finance director and Lent said he hit the ground running.
The city will not look for any full-time staff in the coming fiscal year. At the time of the meeting, they were in negotiations for three contracts with patrol officers, police commanders and firefighters with an expected 5% increase in salaries.
“So that’s actually what’s in the budget for payroll is a 5% increase for police, fire and command,” Lent said.
The St. Clair Shores Police Department was represented at the hearing by Deputy Police Chief Matt McAllister and Sgt. Heather Campbell. McAllister said they anticipate a minimum of four retirements over the course of the year as well as four promotions. At the time of the meeting, they recently hired two new officers and were in the process of hiring a third.
Lent said they are very fortunate to have hired police officers from other departments with a large amount of experience.
“Most of the people that we’re getting already have three to five years of experience coming by the time they come to us,” Lent said.
The department also started participating in the Macomb Elder Justice Alliance, something that is still new to the department.
“This is a relatively new program for St. Clair Shores and focuses on ending elder abuse, fraud, exploitation and neglect through education, collaboration and advocacy,” McAllister said.
They also began crisis intervention training for patrol officers.
“It’s a four-day training and focuses on understanding mental illness, active listening and de-escalation through communication,” McAllister said.
The Police Department anticipates paying off around $53,000 for body-worn and vehicle cameras purchased in 2023 and is looking to purchase 24 new body-worn cameras to fully outfit the department for special events.
The department is also requesting around $400,000 to cover the soft costs for the new police building, Flock Safety camera annual fees and the purchase of two new narcotics vehicles. They are also requesting around $280,000 for four new patrol vehicles through the motor pool capital outlay fund.
The St. Clair Shores Fire Department is requesting a new ambulance which is its big line item this fiscal year. In an email, Fire Chief James Piper said the last ambulance was purchased for around $440,000. He said they are searching for a new one with the same parameters and same expected cost.
As for the city’s committees and commissions, Lent asked that they take a few commissions down to $9,000 and match the Beautification Committee. He stated the committee does a lot of work. According to an email from Lent, two committees were recommended to be brought down from $9,600 to $9,000 and the rest of the committees and commissions were recommended to be brought up to $9,000, $6,000 or $3,000.
As the 40th District Court building begins to age, 40th District Court Administrator Andrea Strassburg said, they will be seeking repairs and replacement.
“So there is some concentration on that in the capital outlay section,” Strassburg said. “With some HVAC censor replacements, there’s a hot water tank that is aging.”
Cybersecurity is also a main focus.
A common theme through all departments, especially in the Parks and Recreation Department, is an increase in wages for employees.
“Increases will be kept to a minimum; however, our wages need to be attractive enough to both gain new interest but also retain current employees,” Rob Spinazzola, Parks and Recreation Department director, said in an email.
Rubello asked near the beginning of the meeting what effect the wage increases have on the budget. Lent said the wages differ based on union contracts with the city’s police, fire and command staff being a significant portion of the wage increases.
