City looks for cost savings ahead of new budget year

Poplar Bluff City Council members hope a professional telecommunications auditing service can identify cost savings in the coming year.

The council voted Monday to hire the Spyglass Group to review phone, internet, printing and other communications expenses for the city. The goal is to find cost savings, city manager Matt Winters said previously.

Overall expenses have been a concern for officials, as the city struggled to balance its 2020 budget and made mid-year cuts. Officials are also approaching a December workshop session on the 2021 budget.

There are no up front costs to the Spyglass agreement, Winters said.

The city will only pay if they opt to use any of the savings identified by Spyglass. The cost would be a percentage of those savings, he said.

“They review our bills and make recommendations. We decide if we take the recommendations,” Winters said in a workshop session at the beginning of November. “It doesn’t cost anything to look at it.”

Spyglass previously reviewed city communications in 2015 and found $16,000 in savings, not all of which the city agreed to at that time, Winters said.

The council is expected to hold its first workshop on the 2021 budget at the Dec. 7 council meeting, likely too soon for any recommendations from the group to be available.

City council members approved $330,000 in budget cuts to 2020 spending in July, including a hiring freeze that left seven vacant positions open at that time.

The city was unable to pass a use tax in June that would have provided sales tax income on certain internet purchases. Officials have said this will impact budgets going forward, as the purchases cut into local buying that provides local sales tax.

City council members also reviewed a grant Monday for which the city and Three Rivers College partnered. With the city’s help, the college received approximately $420,000 toward the creation of a mobile training lab. The college is waiting on some state money before students can utilize the lab, a representative said, but the grant gives the college until December 2021 to do this.

Mayor Robert Smith also called on residents to please wear their masks as the city continues to see increases in COVID-19 cases. An additional 76 cases were reported Monday, bringing the total to 2,320 for Butler County.