The Buechel

Know your legal rights

More than half the population
of West Buechel lives in rental
housing. The two large apartment
complexes within the City are
professionally operated by those
who are familiar with the Uniform
Residential Landlord Tenant Act, as
it applies in Jefferson County.
Many of the smaller individual
landlords, however, may not be
as well educated about the laws
requirements.

BYPASS
November 30, 2015

Budget Disaster: Part II

City of West Buechel
FY 2015-16 Budget
Mayor Richards annual budget
proposal from June was approved by
the City Council in November. This
new budget is defective in several
respects.

Administrative Payroll

The West Buechel Tenants Union

was inspired by a prayer of gratitude
on Thanksgiving Day, 2015, and
its purpose is to promote bettter
understanding of tenant rights and
landlord obligations.

Currently West Buechel has two

full-time administrative employees
working in City Hall; the City
Clerk-Treasurer and an Assistant
Clerk.

If you have any questions, please

call Tom Fox at 502-442-8308.

Base Salaries
Clerk-Treasurer
Assistant Clerk
Total

Tom Fox | 3712 St. Francis Ave. | 502-442-8308 | tomwfox@gmail.com

Issue number 2

$54,480.00
$46,800.00
$101,280.00

With employer tax contributions

added in (Social Security, Medicare
& FUTA) the annual salary costs to
the City for these two employees is
$109,584.96.
This does not include provision for
any overtime pay.
Problem: The new 2015-16
Budget allocates only $85,000 for
Administrative salaries!

30% Not Enough Money

The budgeted amount for
administrative payroll is enough to
pay for about 40 weeks, if there is
no overtime. Unless the City Council
amends the budget to provide a 30%
increase, at least, the office staffs
last payday will be around April Fools
Day, 2016.

The Forgotten Employees

In addition to Police Officers and

Administrative office staff, West

Buechel also has two full-time Code
Enforcement Officers. One has been
working for the City since 2011. The
other is the Mayors girlfriend hired
in to a new position created this year
just for her.
There isnt enough money in the
Administrative budget to pay for
office workers salaries, there isnt
enough in the Police budget to
cover police officers pay and there
is nothing in the budget for code
enforcement payroll.

Code Enforcement Salaries

Ricky Nelson
Diane King

$44,241.00
$42,161.00

Total

$86,402.00

With employer tax contributions

added in (Social Security, Medicare &
FUTA) the annual salary costs to the
City is $93,487.00.
Again, this does not include provision
for any overtime pay.

The Last Payday

If Code Enforcement salaries are paid
out of the Administrative budget,
that fund has ALREADY run out of

money. If Code Enforcement payroll

is included in the Police Department
payroll, the last paycheck for all
Police Officers, Code Enforcement
Officers and Administrative
employees will be in April, when the
money well runs dry.

Community Center Slashed

The budgeted amounts for
Community Center payroll and Center
repairs were cut by one-third from
last year.
The budget for Community Center
activities was slashed by 70%.
However, Mayor Richards spent more
than fifteen thousand dollars to rip
out the shrubbery at the Community
Center and to install a new fence
and an electric gate. For what?

Secrets & Lies

The Citys new budget makes no
provision for late payment penalties
and fines. If the City Council
assumed the bills would be paid on
time, it was mistaken. By the time
the Council voted on the budget
Ordinance in November, there had
already been at least $2000 late
payment penalties imposed upon
the City by the Kentucky Retirement
System since the beginning of the
new fiscal year, that we know of.

Mayor Richards has denied this.

Capital Outlay

There may have been other fines or

late payment penalties that are not
publicly known, yet.

Another example of the Richards

administration repeating the errors
of the Fowler administration is to be
found the budget category Capital
Outlay

Leased Equipment
The City pays $256.52 per month
to U. S. Bankcorp to lease its office
photocopy/scan/fax equipment,
which amounts to $3,078.24 per
year.
The new budget allots $2,000 for
leased office equipment. Not enough
by half.

Hidden Costs
A significant cost of the West Buechel
Police Department comes in the form
of insurance premium payments.
- Workers compensation insurance
- Law enforcement liability insurance
- Police vehicle casualty and liability
insurance

None of these insurance expenses are

included in the Police Department
budget. They are all hidden in
the Administrative budget, which
conceals the true cost of Police
Department operations.
This is an example of former Mayor
Sharon Fowlers bad practices that
the Richards administration copied
without question.

A capital outlay is money spent to

either purchase a fixed asset or to
extend its useful life. Mayor Sharon
Fowler did not understand what a
Capital Outlay was and in prior
year budgets she conglomerated a
mishmash collection of spending that
had nothing to do with capital outlays.
Mayor Richards has done no better
than Fowler did before him.
- The Buechel Festival is not a capital
outlay.
- Money for City Council employees is
not a capital outlay.
- Contract Labor is not a capital
outlay.
Ultimately, basic City financial
statements cannot help but be
distorted if fundamental accounting
concepts are misunderstood this
badly.