Weldon City Faced with a Budget Crisis

On Wednesday afternoon, the government of the city of Weldon was forced into a fiscal crisis over the passage of a budget due to ongoing disputes between the Mayor and the city council. 

The city mayor, Griffin Dunbar, has been accused of unreasonably increasing his pay by the city council. Meanwhile, Mayor Dunbar has lambasted the city council for refusing to act on the budget or pass city ordinances, being further irritated by the standstill over most new legislation. 

According to the accounts of two officials–Joseph Wilson II, city auditor, and Easton Sheeler, Council President–the first budget proposed contained an exceedingly high salary for the mayor, as well as several “ghost positions” created solely to grant greater pay to the mayor. 

According to Sheeler, when the city council rejected the proposal, it proposed an amended version with what was viewed as more reasonable mayoral compensation. However, as the process of amending the budget was completed, the governor–wary of any attempt to change the budget–allegedly “forged [their] signatures on the original [budget].”

The city council remained active, moving to approve the new amended budget with an appropriately lowered mayoral salary. Discussions remained active and committed to finding a conclusive solution to the crisis before the end of the workday.

At approximately 2:30 PM, a solution was finally reached, with an overdue budget passed with the Council amendments and reluctant acceptance of the governor, and it was sent to the county shortly thereafter. According to Donovan W. Moretta, Assistant Director of Law, the “disagreement between the mayor and city council” was resolved, and he added, “We got a budget passed. A little bit late, but we got it passed nonetheless.”

With the solution to the budget crisis resolved, the Council has renewed its efforts to serve its residents and has worked toward building new infrastructure to effectively provide for its citizens.