CAMDEN — By BRADLY GILL
Staff writer
The City of Camden Board of Alderman narrowly passed a 2019 operating budget for the City of Camden with a 4-3 vote, while Mayor Marie Trisollini and Alderman Danny Glaze both bid farewell during the City Council meeting Monday night.
A motion to amend the 2019 budget and lower the annual salary of council members to redirect those funds to the parks repair budget was introduced by Alderman L.E. Lindsey. The motion was voted down 7-1, with the sole affirmative vote coming from Lindsey. Glaze abstained from voting.
After a 4-3 vote with Glaze again abstaining, the aldermen passed the 2019 operating budget for the city of Camden. Chris Aregood, Irene Galbert, Chip Simmons and L.E. Lindsey voted in the affirmative, while Marvin Moore, Joe Askew and Terrie Smith voted against the budget.
The total expenditures for 2019 are estimated to be $7,188,271, with the Camden Police Department budget coming in at $2,677,052 and the Camden Fire Department Budget coming in at $2,223,294. The mayor indicated that this was a 15-percent raise for starting positions due to the need to compete with other area fire and police departments. Public works saw a jump from the 2018 budget of $170,387 to $210,248 in 2019, partially due to the state mandated minimum wage increase. Treasurer Jim Green indicated this was roughly an 8-percent jump in pay for starting employees, but he said the city did not have enough revenue to facilitate an 8-percent raise across the board for all employees. He did note that the presented budget was acceptable - in his opinion.
Trisollini and Glaze also said their goodbyes to the council and the City of Camden. Trisollini was defeated by Julian Lott in the November 2018 General Election, and Glaze has decided to abdicate his position on the board. James Bell will replace Glaze.
Trisollini touted the accomplishments the city has made, such as the TRACE walking trail and the purchase of the first new fire truck for the city. She noted that she was the first elected female mayor in the city of Camden and that she would forever be grateful to the fire and police departments after seeing firsthand the hard work they put in.
“I’ve experienced a lot of things that citizens don’t get to experience and I intend to spend much of the remainder of my life sharing those experiences and being grateful that I’ve had them,” she said. “So, I just want to thank everyone who put up with me when they didn’t want to and worked with me when they didn’t want to, and put up with me and worked with me when they did want to.”
Glaze said that while his experiences with the council were ones he would “treasure,” he was relinquishing his seat because he was asked to leave the council, but not by anyone in the room. His wife of 36 years asked him to step down, and according to Glaze, “I’m smarter than I used to be, so I listened,”
He told incoming Alderman James Bell to “put his boots on,” and he applauded Bell’s campaign as well as the campaign of Mayor Elect Julian Lott.
“I will tell each and every one of you, the time I sat in that chair, the decisions that I’ve made, the things I’ve said, the way I voted…I don’t back up from it I go forward with it. Because I feel like those decisions I made were good for each and every citizen of Camden, Arkansas,” Glaze shared. “That’s what this council is about. It’s not about us. It’s not about ‘I’. It is ‘we.’ We as a city and community, that’s looking and striving to grow. And it takes ‘we,’ not ‘I,’ to make this happen.”