Dearborn Heights City Council passes budget, avoids July 1 government shutdown

DEARBORN HEIGHTS, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) - The Dearborn Heights City Council approved the budget for the upcoming fiscal year, avoiding a citywide shutdown on July 1.

The council held a special meeting on Friday, voting 5-2 in favor of the budget.

"I'm happy this budget was passed and that the employees of this city and also the residents can be at ease," said Mayor Bill Bazzi.

On Friday, the council reviewed Bazzi's latest budget and eliminated $75,000 in the overtime budget for police officers and firefighters. They also cut four new positions in the city government that they said they never voted for, and discovered a $177,000 surplus.

"There were a lot of discrepancies in that first budget he gave us, which also had a $2 million deficit when he first gave it to us," said Council Chairman Mo Baydoun. "Everybody should be happy. Should we have came to the 11th hour? Absolutely not. But if the administration had not have waited until the sixth hour, we could've gotten this done in April."

The vote comes two days after the city administration said it was preparing to potentially shut down services if the council did not approve the budget by June 30.

A few days before the meeting, council members and Bazzi blamed each other for the budget's failure to be approved. Bazzi accused the council of not approving the budget when it was first proposed in April; however, the council claimed that the administration was withholding information that was needed to approve the budget.

Residents like Connie Wegge say they've had enough of the "blame game."

"They represent the people of Dearborn Heights, and they represent me. They need to come together and do what they need to do for us," Wegge said.