VIDALIA — Vidalia aldermen opted not to approve a revised budget Thursday that would have taken the city’s net position from losing approximately $4.9 million to gaining approximately $2.3 million.

Aldermen Tron McCoy, Sabrina Doré and Tommy Probst each cited concerns and voted against the budget, with Aldermen Robert Gardner and Jon Betts saying while the budget was not yet perfect, it was a step in the right direction.

Following the meeting, Mayor Buz Craft said, “I am disappointed, but that is their prerogative.”

Earlier in the nearly three-hour meeting, Craft said if the revised budget could not get approved, he would not spend the approximately $37.3 million approved by the previous administration. Under Craft’s administration’s proposed budget, the town would have spent approximately $33.7 million.

McCoy said his decision was in consideration of the people who were not at the meeting — the people at home worried about Vidalia’s high utility bills.

Many in McCoy’s district have to choose monthly between paying utility bills and keeping the heat or air conditioning on, or buying medicine, he said.

“They are making life and death decisions every day,” McCoy said. “They are not concerned about us up here talking about the budget tonight.”

Amongst Doré’s concerns were administrative costs, which she said in the proposed budget shows the department will overspend by approximately $127,000 between Town Manager Bill Murray, Town Accountant Debra Moak and Craft.

Moak said the budget is not perfect yet, and adding a little more detail to it overshot some departments, but other departments came in under, which balanced the budget.

Craft said even with additional positions such as Murray’s, the town is still saving approximately $1.1 million on salaries and benefits through other personnel cuts.

Doré said another concern was overtime, with the town spending more than $40,000 a month. While Doré said she understands some employees are required to be on call, her biggest concern is some employees have nine hours built into each day, guaranteeing at least one hour of overtime each day.

Craft said he did not believe that concern could be worked out legally until the town updates its employee handbook, which he said was a project coming down the pipeline soon.

Doré also asked if the town had considered taking private bids for lawn care, was looking into missed revenue opportunities in some departments such as on leases, code enforcement and traffic tickets, all of which Craft said he would consider.

In the streets and sanitation department, Doré said the range for hourly employees, which varies by approximately $10 an hour, has caused some concern among employees.

Probst’s cited concerns about the legality of a few items in the budget, and also in having some department heads working on an hourly wage.

Legal concerns included the agreement the town has for the recreation complex, Probst said. He said he was concerned a cooperative agreement was not approved by the previous administration based on documentation he obtained from Bill Murray.

Town Attorney George Murray said a concern like the recreation complex’s cooperative agreement had nothing to do with the budget that was up for approval Thursday. Murray said if Probst had that concern, the town could research the agreement and correct it if it was done incorrectly.

Probst said he was also concerned about the legality of the incentive payments given to employees during the holidays. Probst said he got an opinion from the Louisiana Attorney General, and amongst requirements to qualify include unusual, extraordinary actions, not the normal expected duties of an employee.

Probst said he received a $650 incentive package, but no one had evaluated him to see if he had done anything extraordinary beyond the call of duty. Probst said he did not feel like he had done anything outside of what was expected of him, so he returned the money to the town.

Probst said Doré and Betts also returned the money.

Gardner said he has spent more time in town hall than he does at his place of employment recently trying to help make the budget right and to find grants and other solutions to help the citizens.

“To have saved $1.1 million saved is tremendous, and to only have been here seven months,” Gardner said. “I commend everyone for working diligently.”

Betts said as part of the previous administration, one thing he pledged to do if returned to office was to operate the town in a more fiscally responsible method.

“Everyone that ran on the idea of being more fiscally responsible, this is the place to start,” Betts said. “We can fight over incidentals later. But tonight, the purpose of this is to begin to get our town in a place to be more fiscally responsible.”