CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WAND) - Champaign's city council is recommending approximately $3.2 million in budget cuts for the 2021-22 fiscal year in order to make up for a budget gap stemming from the pandemic. 

The News-Gazette reports leaders are planning to reorganize staff and not fill some vacant positions. This would lead to about 19 full-time positions being removed, with six of them coming from Champaign's voluntary separation program. A total of 35 people have applied for voluntary separation. 

Champaign Finance Director Kay Nees said only six voluntary separations got approval partly because the city had a focus on removing vacancies before making cuts to current staff. Nees said Champaign was helped by a higher-than-expected level of sales tax revenue and funds that came from Illinois through the federal CARES Act.

City Manager Dorothy David said the level of cutting and budget balancing officials thought they would need in September was much larger than where projections stand in December.

“While this has been a very tough impact, and some of the things that we’ll be proposing tonight are not ideal because all reductions in city staffing and cuts to our budget impact the services we deliver to this community, it could have been much worse, and we are pleased that the things we are recommending are things that we can move forward and still deliver a very high-quality level of services and continue to be responsive to emerging needs in the community," said David at a Tuesday council study session.

Champaign's cuts will move recurring expenses in the upcoming fiscal year up to its policy of 98.5 percent recurring revenues. In the 2020 fiscal year, the newspaper said the budget is projected to be off this target by over $3 million. There was a surplus of over $3 million in the previous fiscal year.

Staff member recommendations were mostly approved by city council, The News-Gazette said, with no raises in taxes or fees included. They did involve reorganizing positions and keeping vacancies empty in the city manager, finance, firefighters, IT, legal, neighborhood services, police, planning and public works departments. 

In changes to the recommendations, Champaign officials decided to have a battalion chief in training in the fire department unfunded through the 2024 fiscal year but still on the city's books. They also chose to flexibly define positions in the police department that will be filled at a later date instead of limiting those to patrol officers. 

Council member Alicia Beck said this “provides us an opportunity to start fresh and to think in a different way about how we want to staff those kinds of efforts in our community." 

The newspaper said included departments identified $235,000 in savings from equipment purchases, professional services and professional development. Proposed cuts also have Champaign's economic development incentives budget taking a $100,000 cut.Â