Parma’s 2023 budget continues focus on first responders

PARMA, Ohio -- The news coming out of City Council approving the 2023 budget last week is tied to maintaining Parma’s employment ranks.

“A big chunk of the budget, as in most cities, is public safety,” Mayor Tim DeGeeter said. “Obviously, that’s important for us, being an inner-ring suburb and the seventh-largest city (in Ohio).

“We’re really proud that we’re fully staffed. We keep hearing not just in Ohio, but throughout the country, there are issues of attracting and retaining quality police officers and firefighters. We don’t have that problem here, so we’re staffed very well for our residents,” he said.

Parma Auditor Brian D. Day said the total general fund appropriations for 2023 are $67,245,786.

“This is roughly a 6 percent increase from the approved 2022 general fund appropriations,” Day said. “A significant factor in balancing the 2022 and 2023 budgets and keeping the city fiscally stable has been the ability to utilize the ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds provided to the city during the COVID pandemic.

“For example, we’ve been able to fund $5.8 million towards public safety salaries and benefits utilizing ARPA funds.”

DeGeeter added, “We’re also utilizing ARPA funds for some of the infrastructure needs -- roads, catch basins.”

Speaking of the Service Department, the mayor noted that the city’s upcoming “aggressive” roads program requires the hiring of additional workers.

“We’re probably going to hire eight or nine guys,” Parma Service Director Tony Vannello said.

“We’ve already begun interviews for those labor positions. Our intent is to have those guys on the road when we start the road program here in the next several weeks.”

The need for new Service Department employees is tied to recent retirements, which were not replaced with new employees.

“This is another catch-up like we did a couple of years ago,” DeGeeter said. “Part of that fact is we can always use more service workers, as we have a lot of construction needs throughout our city.

“That will be something significant moving forward in 2023.”

Read more news from the Parma Sun Post.