Ding, ding, ding.

Mayor Bob Cleary presented a revised 2003 budget Thursday as Ironton City Council went for round two of its budget workshops.

Cleary presented his second draft of the budget that contained adjustments to the general fund and included the $259,000 from selling 8.6 acres of property in the tentatively named Ironton Commerce Center to the Ohio Department of Transportation.

In an effort to reduce expenses, the mayor's proposal includes cutting $30,000 from the police department that would have been used for a new vehicle, lowering the projected insurance increase from 21 percent to 18 percent, cutting $1,500 for capital improvements from every department, reducing overtime allocation for the police and fire departments, eliminating a part-time position that the city had hoped to add to the dispatching department and creating the position of economic development director within the engineering department rather than a new department.

"I would like council to take this and build up some questions," Cleary said. "Take a look at it and instead of tearing it apart one line at a time, look at where you think the numbers should change."

Creating the position within the engineering department "just makes sense" because all the information would be at their fingertips, he said.

"We have had a couple of really good prospects for this position," he said. "I think we will get what we need. Someone with a lot of experience can lead us to where we need to be."

Cleary proposed splitting the money generated from the ODOT sale -- $159,000 going to debt reduction on the Ironton City Center and the other $100,000 to be used toward developing the Ironton Commerce Center.

Councilman Jim Tordiff said he thinks this second draft is a step in the right direction. Before he had seen the mayor's new plan, Tordiff proposed placing a freeze on salary increases to save more than $100,000 from the carryover balance.

After talking with one city employee, Tordiff said he was surprised to hear that the city worker would support a salary freeze, if it meant job security in the future.

His revision did not include a salary freeze and the raises were included, Cleary said.

During the open discussion, Tordiff asked Mayor Cleary to step aside with him to privately discuss personnel, despite the protests of Council Chairman Jesse Roberts and other council members.

Tordiff said "they" could vote him off if they wanted to.

Although the mayor said it should be discussed in executive session, he reluctantly agreed as he and Tordiff stepped aside and talked amongst themselves for a couple of minutes.

When contacted Friday morning, Tordiff said he had just asked if talking about items such as wage freezes would cause problems with the mayors' wage negotiations with the city employees.

This may be in violation of the proper procedures mandated by Ohio's Sunshine Laws, which provides open access to public meetings and allows personnel to be discussed in executive session.

"I do not think this is any different than leaning over and talking to another council member," Tordiff said. "In my mind, it is not even close to violating the Sunshine Laws, but that is just my opinion."

After the discussion, Councilman Richard Price motioned, seconded by Brent Pyles, to go into executive session to further discuss personnel.

The meeting was adjourned after the executive session, Chairman Roberts said.

He said afterwards that Council is "still very far off" from agreeing to a budget and that he does not plan to call another workshop at this time.