Pete Christopherson is growing impatient already.

"Why don't we do something? We just keep talking," 2nd Ward Austin City Council Member Christopherson said during a break at Monday night's retreat in the Ruby Rupner Auditorium at the Jay C. Hormel Nature Center.

Christopherson and other city officials and staff assembled for an afternoon-to-evening brainstorming session over the city's response to the state budget crisis.

The city faces a reduction in local government aid of $933,881 this year and another $1,788,716 next year.

The city plans to scrutinize its budget and made recommendations for a reduction in programs and services to match or exceed the anticipated LGA cutbacks.

The recommendations will be discussed at-length at a series of public information meetings to be scheduled. Austin Mayor Bonnie Rietz said she wants the citizens' input before the reductions are reviewed one final time at a pubic hearing.

When that is done, the council members will have to act and when they do, the Austin that citizens have come to know may be changed forever.

Council Member At-Large Wayne P. Goodnature sees the financial crisis as an opportunity to think creatively.

Goodnature proposed combining the offices of the Austin Housing and Redevelopment Authority and Development Corporation of Austin directors with the city administrator's position.

The three jobs are among the most influential and highest paying in the city. For instance, the city allocates $76,000 a year to the DCA.

Goodnature estimates the city could save as much as $100,000 a year by merging the three positions. Also, he wants the mayor's position to take on additional responsibilities.

That was one example of the kind of brainstorming being done by city officials.

Another example came from City Administrator Patrick McGarvey.

McGarvey proposed sweeping reductions in many areas, totaling $1,130,000 in savings in fiscal 2003 and $2,273,000 in fiscal 2004.

That would get the job done, as far as balancing the city's budget in anticipation of the LGA reductions by the state. But at what price?

"You see the cuts, but what you don't see are the people and the services you will lose if you make them," observed Jon Erichson, director of public works and city engineer.

Erichson said the city's department heads must first study the impact of the cuts McGarvey proposes making before the council members can prioritize essential and non-essential services.

Erichson said he was not hedging on taking action.

"No one is trying to say 'Don't do anything'," Erichson said. "That isn't an option anymore."

Among the McGarvey proposals are the reduction of as many as six positions in the city street department and three in the park, recreation and forestry department.

Erichson and Dennis Maschka, director of the PRF department, said it's one thing to eliminate jobs, but which programs and services are citizens willing to do without?

Austin Police Chief Paul M. Philipp and Fire Chief Dan Wilson would also see jobs eliminated under the McGarvey proposals. Philipp said 82 percent of his public safety budget is personnel costs, leaving him little other room to make reductions.

If all of the cuts -- closing the Youth Activity Center, reducing swimming pool hours and other actions that would, essentially, put more people on the street, that has Philipp worried.

"I see more business coming my way and not less," he said.

Gloria Nordin, 3rd Ward council member, responded to the massive proposed cuts by McGarvey by saying volunteers could pick up some of the slack. But for how long, Nordin couldn't say.

Offering senior city employees an early-retirement package caught the eye of Tracey Chamberlain, 3rd Ward council member. It was Chamberlain who instituted the early-retirement of long-time Austin firefighters in the early 1990s.

Chamberlain said there are peripheral things in the city budget that he deems more vulnerable than public safety.

Chamberlain said he was willing to trust city department heads to prioritize programs and services "because that's what we pay them to do."

Rietz said city officials will meet with area legislators to assess the latest financial forecasts from St. Paul.

McGarvey said he expects the Minnesota Legislature to be dead-locked over financial issues and require a special session in May.

Lee Bonorden can be contacted at 434-2232 or by e-mail at :mailto:lee.bonorden@austindailyherald.com