Sterling Heights approves $252 million budget, including $22 million for major road work

The Sterling Heights City Council has approved a $252 million annual budget for the city’s new fiscal year, including more than $22 million for major road work, the addition of a risk reduction officer in fire prevention and a new assistant city manager position.

The budget for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, which begins July 1, is about 12% less than that of the current year, according to Jennifer Varney, the city's chief financial officer.

The upcoming year will see a lot of road work, including resurfacing 14 Mile from Van Dyke to Maple Lane, 18 Mile from Utica Road to the Plumbrook Drain and 17 Mile from Mound to Van Dyke. The budget also includes the $10 million revitalization of Clinton River Road. Varney said the initial work on that project, such as environmental studies, will occur in the next fiscal year, but construction might not start until summer 2025.

The upcoming budget will also allow Sterling Heights to add two new positions to the fire prevention division of the fire department. One is a community risk reduction officer, who will develop new ideas for fire inspection processes. The other is a mobile integrated EMS health coordinator, who will help reduce the number of low acuity ambulance runs in the city.

Though the overall budget decreased, the general fund ― which is the city's main operating fund ― went up by about 4.7%, Varney said on Tuesday. That increase is mainly due to personnel costs, including wages, the police and fire pension contribution and health insurance increases, she said.

Another assistant city manager

Sterling Heights' new budget also includes the addition of another assistant city manager to the city staff. The position will oversee the police department, fire department and public works. The individual will also be "the driving force" for the implementation of the city's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion program, according to a description of the position. The current assistant city manager, Jeff Bahorski, meanwhile, will oversee human resources, the public library, parks and recreation, community relations and city development.

City spokesperson Melanie Davis said this structure is common in other council-manager governments across the country and state. The city of Troy, for example, has an assistant city manager and a deputy city manager.

A few members of the public voiced pushback against the addition of the position during the Tuesday evening council meeting, arguing that it wasn't necessary. Council members Deanna Koski and Henry Yanez also questioned the necessity of the position, though they voted in favor of the budget.

Yanez argued that the city has already added a second assistant fire chief and will be adding a deputy police chief.

"We do run an efficient organization," he said, "but even if we run an efficient organization, we still should have a certain level of empathy for the people who are struggling on a day-to-day basis, the people who pay the taxes so we can stand up here and do this."

Millage rate increase

The city will have a millage rate of 16.5823 mills, a slight increase over the current rate of 16.3800 mills, primarily due to an increase in the refuse collection millage rate. Last year, the City Council approved a new refuse collection contract, which went into effect this month, Varney said. The contract includes inflationary increases and additional services, including universal curbside recycling and automated cart collection.

Under the old contract, residents had the option of paying $57 a year to the waste company for a curbside recycling subscription. Now, recycling is universal.

The average homeowner will pay about $30 more in property taxes per year due to the refuse millage rate increase, according to the city. However, most of the households that were previously paying the $57 recycling fee will actually experience a net savings, Varney said.