Huntington council reviews draft budget, debates salt stockpile, code enforcement and transparency

Huntington — The City Council opened a work session Saturday to review the administration’s proposed annual budget, during which members praised the plan’s clarity but raised specific concerns about sidewalk enforcement after the recent ice storm, whether to increase salt and equipment funding for public works, and requests for greater transparency and department-head participation at the upcoming public hearing.

The chair said amendments could be proposed at the session or at Monday’s public hearing and noted the administration had made budget documents available in advance. "We can work out amendments, propose any amendments today," the chair told colleagues, adding that the administration had posted budget information online as part of transparency efforts.

Miss Rumbaugh, who opened the council’s round of comments, praised the timing of the budget release and said that few public complaints suggested the proposal was well received. But she asked whether the city has enough code-enforcement staff to enforce an existing ordinance that requires property owners to clear sidewalks after snow and ice, and whether enforcement capacity led to the many unshoveled sidewalks reported after the extreme weather event. "Can you expound on that… about an enforcement issue in regards to updating our code enforcement?" she asked.

The city attorney responded with a step-by-step description of the enforcement process: officers provide notice, property owners typically have 10 days to comply, unresolved violations can proceed to municipal court where judges may assess fines, and filing civil suits costs about $250 so staff target multiple violations first. The attorney also said the city has statutory immunities that limit municipal liability for injuries related to snow and ice accumulation. "We pay claims that we're legally liable to pay," the city attorney said, noting pothole and vehicle-damage claims are handled differently from slip-on-ice claims and that some claims may be filed within a two-year window.

Council members debated storm-preparedness spending. Miss Rumbaugh proposed increasing the salt allocation (she suggested doubling an estimated 6 tons to 12 tons), adding funds for another snowplow or truck (a council estimate ranged roughly $800,000–$1,000,000), and temporarily restoring microgrants while giving the mayor discretion to distribute funds for another year to assess outcomes. Several members said they were not prepared to recommend increased salt or pavement funding without clearer evidence that additional spending would reduce claims or materially improve response times.

A council member requested that department heads attend Monday’s public hearing so members can ask line-item questions on the record rather than relying on answers outside the meeting. "This is our biggest responsibility and to what Stacy Joe… just said," the council member said, urging a full accounting and public walk-through of budget lines. The council asked the administration to provide a list of approved and denied contributions from the previous year before the Monday hearing.

Several council members — including those who said they had reviewed the budget in detail — expressed general support for the administration’s proposal, commending presentations from department heads and the mayor’s team and saying they would take public comments at Monday’s hearing into account.

The session included a brief procedural vote to close the public hearing portion before starting the work session; that motion carried by voice. The work session continued without recorded changes to specific line items in the transcript. The council asked staff to supply additional materials and to have department heads available for Monday’s public hearing.