AUBURN – City Manager Pat Finnigan is making her case for fiscal year budget cuts to city employees, starting with Auburn police.

Finnigan met with police for three hours Wednesday explaining the city’s fiscal year 2004 budget and how it will impact their jobs. Finnigan said she is trying to meet with all city departments to explain the city’s budget.

“Not everybody gets three hours, but I do stay with them for as long as it takes to answer all of their questions,” Finnigan said.

The meeting was closed to the public and the press because it was a department meeting and included personnel issues, she said. Finnigan said she tries to meet with all city departments quarterly.

Councilors are scheduled to give final approval to the fiscal year 2004 budget Monday. That budget calls for a 94-cent property tax hike citywide, coupled with $780,000 in budget cuts. The budget calls for $18,472 in cuts from the Police Department alone, most of it in the department’s police cruiser budget.

Detective Chad Syphers, president of the Auburn chapter of the Maine Association of Police, said Wednesday’s meeting was a good prelude to labor negotiations next week. The city’s contract with the police union is due to expire June 30. Negotiations started earlier this year, but were suspended until the City Council had adopted the budget. They are scheduled to continue Monday, Syphers said.

“That will be the first real nuts-and-bolts meeting,” he said. “We should have a good idea where we stand after that meeting.”

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