The Aberdeen City Council on Wednesday approved second reading of the city’s 2017 budget but removed the one of the new positions proposed to begin next year — a rental property inspector. Six council members opted to remove the inspector position, while five wanted to retain it.

They also decided to reduce the allocation for a city administrator so it would only be funded for the last three months of employment in 2017 — if this new position is ultimately created — and devoted some of that money to improving the quality of telephone and internet services currently available for City Hall business.

“You can’t legislate the marketplace,” said Councilman Tim Alstrom, who proposed the inspector not be added to the city’s work force next year.

Kathi Prieto said she thought the position was important because there are many people in the city who are financially unable to find good quality places to live and that some landlords take advantage of this fact.

“A huge number of people are living in rentals that are in deplorable conditions,” she said. “How bad the bad landlords are make the problems so great.”

Council President Peter Schave proposed to eliminate the city administrator from the budget completely in 2017, but several council members didn’t want to completely shut the door on the concept for another full year.

Council members expressed apprehension about the addition of both positions in Mayor Erik Larson’s budget proposal during a budget workshop last week. He asked the council members to include full-year funding for the city administrator, rental property inspector, three police officers, and two corrections officers. He intended for all of the positions not to be filled until the second half of the year, however.

The rental property inspector would have ensured the city’s residential and commercial properties were safe to occupy through annual inspections. The city already has asked rental property owners to identify themselves through a licensing program created last year by the council. It began issuing these licenses earlier this year.

The police officers are going to be funded with the city’s share of revenue from the new three-tenths-of-a-percent tax collection stream approved by voters in August. The other positions would be paid for using traditional city funding sources. The two corrections officers to help operate the city jail are being proposed because the city’s insurance carrier suggested it.

Some major capital improvements are also included within the budget this coming year. Among the requests are repairing the leaky roof at City Hall, upgrades for the elevator, and a more secure front desk at the Finance Department. Fire department headquarters is slated for improvements as well.

The movement of $155,000 toward the telephone and internet improvements addressed needs not in the proposed budget. Some council members brought them up during the workshop last week. The work is estimated to cost up to $1 million and will be done gradually over a period of years.

The budget, as proposed, would require about $220,000 in reserves. General fund revenues for 2017 are estimated to be nearly $13.8 million, while expenditures detailed in the spending plan total slightly more than $14 million.

Larson’s proposal leaves the city with 120 days’ worth of reserve funding.

He said use of reserves is to cover one-time capital expenses and that the city’s work force being moved to a lower-tier medical plan, as well as projected economic growth, is expected to provide adequate revenue to offset the increased spending.

Economic growth projections are based on a variety of information sources, such as the Washington State Economic Forecast Council and Washington State Office of Financial Management, said Mike Folkers, finance director.

Final adoption of the budget is slated for Dec. 14.

Hoder resigns council seat

Council member Kathi Hoder tearfully resigned her position as a Fourth Ward representative at the beginning of the meeting. She’s moving to Hoquiam, which makes her ineligible to continue service.

Larson said he respects Hoder’s efforts on the council and ran for mayor only because Hoder opted not to seek that office and continue sitting on the council.