Elkhart Mayor Dick Moore vetoed amendments to his budget passed by the City Council last Monday.
This is the first time Moore has used his veto power as Mayor.
The amendments, brought forward by Councilwoman Mary Olson eliminated eight city positions in exchange for furlough days for all city employees.
Moore said Monday in a news conference that the better option is to furlough employees, rather than layoffs.
"I am not willing to go without a supervisor in the Street Department or Buildings and Grounds Department," says Moore.
But council members argue those positions are disposable and eliminating them would be a permanent solution to the city's financial woes, instead of the Mayor's proposed furlough days, which they say is just a band-aid. Police and fire fighters also sent an open letter protesting the implementation of furlough days.
"The majority of the council, as opposed to acting independently as the Mayor has chosen to do, decided it would be better to unemploy seven people, rather than underemploy 623," said Councilman David Henke.
Council members say this whole situation could have been avoided if the Mayor worked more with the council before drafting his budget, and now the divide between the Mayor and Council is even greater.
"He will have a more scrutinized time these next three years going forward. I would want to know, if this is how you do your financial budget, every paper clip, every cost of a trash can is going to have to be looked at," said Henke.
But the mayor says he has done his due diligence to work with the council, and thinks the relationship between Republicans on the council and his office may have already been beyond repair.
"That's been there the last four and a half years. I'm not worried about that going on. We haven't had a lot of support from the Republican side of the Council for a long, long time," said Moore.
The Council has until November 1st to respond.
They need two-thirds vote to override the veto, which Councilwoman Olson says is unlikely.
