Mayor Justin Nickels will present his 2023 Executive Budget to the Common Council Monday, October 17th.
During his two months-plus crafting the spending plan. Nickels says the biggest challenge has been crafting ways to attract and retain a quality workforce.
“We have a workforce of 350- employees,” Nickels explained. “Police, Fire, Transit, DPW, these are the people who provide the day-to-day services that the citizens expect, so obviously we want to hire the best and most qualified individuals possible.”
But, as the mayor explained, “Everyone is seeing rising wages, which is a good thing, but it’s also a struggle for an organization, like a city, that relies solely on property taxes to pay for it.”
Nickels says the Council will see a just completed wage study that will include ways for Manitowoc to, in his words, “adapt with the times. We are seeing a lot of folks who want to have the ability to work from home…we are seeing individuals who want more vacation [as opposed to] more pay.”
The Mayor adds that several million dollars has been set aside for road infrastructure projects.
The largest of those is the total reconstruction of Reed Avenue from 2nd to 8th Street and a good chunk of East Albert Drive that Nickels says looks “pretty rough.”
The full budget will be made available online at www.Manitowoc.org.
