By Daniel Lapham/Staff Writer

El Reno’s budget for the 2007-2008 fiscal year will look different from previous years when it’s reviewed in a public hearing Monday night.

Under the pen of new El Reno City Manager Tony Rivera, the new budget has undergone a face-lift revealing a new format, one that Rivera referred to as a “budget at a glance where you can see the whole budget in one fold-out sheet.”

“What we did this year is prepare what we call key reports,” Rivera said. “There is a report that shows capital outlay items like police cars, computers and radios. It’s a much shorter but much more informative document than what they have provided in the past.”

The hearing is set for 7 p.m. Monday in City Council chambers at City Hall.

The proposed general fund for the 2007-2008 fiscal year budget is $12,708,740, according to a memorandum given by Rivera. The proposed general fund budget weighs in $2,102,700 higher than last fiscal year.

Vice Mayor Mark Gilmore said he has studied the budget and “it looks like the money is distributed well. I like the way it is written this year as opposed to the one I saw from last year and as far as how it is laid out and easy to read, it is probably one of the best budgets I have seen.”

Both Gilmore and Council member Debbie Harrison said they are pleased to see that a subsidy for the Parkview ambulance service has been added to the budget and think the proposed methods of accountability will prove to work well.

“We have budgeted the money (to the hospital) in case they need it, but it is not just a lump sum that is given to them,” Gilmore said. “We are going to be checking it on a quarterly basis.”

Harrison said $300,000 will be set aside for the ambulance service for the entire fiscal year.

“I like the way it is set up, in the preliminary report,” she said. “There is no doubt to me that we need to budget money to the ambulance service, but we need to be reviewing the process to assess the issues.”

Although the proposed budget looks good, Harrison said there are some things she plans to discuss further at Monday’s meeting.

“One is the position for a grant writer for the city,” she said. “It was not in the budget that was proposed and I would like to see us allocate some funds for a grant writer. There is a need for this position.”

The second issue Harrison said she plans to bring up is the allocation of funds for new city vehicles.

“I would also like to see us review our list of vehicles and make some allocations to continue with vehicle replacement,” she said. “There are some money savings that are possible in the future involving maintenance and fuel savings. When you are dealing with new vehicles, there are not the maintenance costs and fuel costs as there are on older vehicles.”

Gilmore said all in all he thinks the budget is a good estimate of what they think the city will need throughout the year.

“We do have a lot of issues with the water and sewer system that still need to be met, but unfortunately there is not enough money in there to say, ‘Let’s just fix it all.’ So we are pursuing grants to take care of some of those issues. We are aggressively applying for grants and we will adjust the budget as needed when those grants come in.”