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Amid resignations, budget crisis, Jefferson City Council to hold special meeting Thursday

In an effort to save the city money, two Jefferson City officials announced their resignation this week. But it hasn’t been enough to solve the city’s deficit.

Mayor Eric Struemph of Jefferson City called a special city council meeting for 8 a.m. Thursday. On the agenda are budget issues, resignations, and morale. The meeting comes after last month’s announcement of the city’s nearly $1.7 million budget shortfall. One option proposed by the city council is a separation incentive plan that would allow retirement-eligible city employees to resign voluntarily with certain incentives.

City administrator Nathan Nikolaus hopes the city will be able to solve the budget problem without losing any more employees.

“Personally I am committed to not having any employee layoffs.  I think we will propose enough cuts out of other things that that will not be necessary,” Nikolaus said.

Public Works Director Roger Schwartze said Tuesday he’s resigning because it would be difficult to avoid layoffs or furloughs, and he, “started with (himself).”

The council will try to resolve much of the budget issue in the coming meeting, but the discussion may continue into the coming weeks. Nickolaus hopes the issue is resolved as soon as possible.

“The longer we go the more difficult the cuts become. There’s less and less of the year to draw your savings from,” Nickolaus said.

The Jefferson City Council will also hold its regularly scheduled meeting next Monday.