Morris City Council approves annual budget with $6.1 million in general fund

The Morris City Council approved its budget for fiscal 2025 with $6.1 million in the general fund after revenues were greater than expenses in fiscal 2024.

City Clerk Lori Werden gave kudos to everyone working with the city, as the expectation at this time last year was that the city would have $3.5 million in the general fund. Werden said the estimated revenues were at $22,309,908 while expenditures were at $21,927,925, a $381,983 surplus.

“There are a lot of grant dollars coming into the general fund, so that certainly does help,” Werden said. “And then we’re getting reimbursed on the Calhoun Street bridge project.”

Morris received $1.8 million from the federal government in March, which covered about 80% of the total cost of the project. Morris only needed to cover 20% of the cost to receive the extra funding.

Included in the new budget is the position of a salaried parks supervisor, budgeted to make around $100,000 per year. Mayor Chris Brown said this position is part of restructuring the parks department to work like the rest of the city departments.

Werden said this position is not new, and it is meant to restructure the job of a retiring hourly employee who is part of the union. The position will now be considered a management position.

Other projects included in the budget is the Brisbin Road water and sewer extension, which went out for a low bid of $1,018,323.45 during Monday night’s meeting, investments in the water treatment plant, and about $3 million on the city’s park renovations during the budget cycle.

“We want to make sure our parks are taken care of if we’re going to sink this kind of money in there,” Werden said. “It just makes sense.”

The budget passed through the City Council by a vote of 7-to-1, with Alderman Alex Clubb voting against the budget on two grounds. His first issue was the public information officer position, which he said from his understanding would be a temporary position that has instead been turned into a community affairs director position.

“That was supposed to be from my understanding a temporary position that we would vote on, and we’ve never voted on it,” Clubb said. “The name got changed to community affairs director, and now that person is making basically $90,000.”

The position of Public Information Officer, which was held by Stan Knudson when it was created in July 2021 after the Superior Battery Fire, has since been vacated and Knudson was again hired to a new position, Community Affairs Director. That position is decided upon through the budgeting process every fiscal year.

Clubb also is against the creation of the parks supervisor position, as he doesn’t believe the city should be spending that money. He voted yes for the tentative budget that was placed on file Monday, April 1.

Brown said Werden spends many hours every year leading up to the budget meeting with each alderman to make the budget work.

“I can’t say enough,” Brown said. “Lori’s gonna go home and she’s gonna start sleeping better now that she’s able to get all this done and all this filing finished.”

Brown said Werden has been working since November to meet with every alderman individually to go through the budget and make everything work.

Clarification: An earlier edition of this article equated Stan Knudson’s position as Community Affairs Director to his old position as Public Information Officer. Knudson was hired as a Public Information Officer, which is a position that has since been vacated. The position of Community Affairs Director was created after the Public Information Officer position was vacated, and Knudson went through the hiring process to obtain the job of Community Affairs Director.