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WILKES-BARRE &mdash; The meeting Monday to resolve the budget dispute between Mayor George Brown and city council ended with an agreement the talks wouldn&rsquo;t end there.
				&ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to continue the discussion,&rdquo; Brown said.
				The mayor and members of his administration met in City Hall with city council Chairman Bill Barrett and Vice Chairman Tony Brooks for approximately 90 minutes in an effort to create a 2021 budget acceptable to all parties and avoid layoffs and service cuts.
				&ldquo;It was a good meeting,&rdquo; with everyone respectful, Brown said. Also attending were City Administrator Charlie McCormick and Deputy City Administrator Butch Frati.
				&ldquo;We all understand the city has a problem,&rdquo; Brown said, adding Wilkes-Barre is not alone in dealing with the financial effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
				&ldquo;I believe we have the team to fix that,&rdquo; Brown said.
				Answers to some of the questions raised by Barrett and Brooks were not readily available during the meeting and required the administration some time to respond, Brown said.
				Barrett and Brooks stood on opposite sides of dispute, but sat down at the table in Brown&rsquo;s office to discuss his proposed $53.2 million budget rejected 3-2 by city council on Nov. 19.
				Brooks joined with city council members Beth Gilbert McBride and John Marconi in opposition to the budget balanced with $2 million in revenues raised by doubling the annual sewer and recycling fees to $100. Brooks thanked Brown for holding the meeting, but declined to go into specifics afterward.
				&ldquo;We&rsquo;re still in discussions,&rdquo; Brooks said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure we&rsquo;ll have more meetings. We have the month of December to resolve this,&rdquo; he said.
				Prior to the meeting Brooks said he would reach out to McBride and Marconi to relay their concerns. Just Brooks and Barrett attended and kept council&rsquo;s number below the three-member limit that qualified as a quorum and subject to the state&rsquo;s Sunshine Law on open meetings.
				Barrett, who along with councilman Mike Belusko supported the proposed budget, said talk at the table covered a variety of topics.
				&ldquo;We bounced back and forth between revenues and expenses,&rdquo; Barrett said.
				Barrett said they discussed wage freezes and labor contracts covered by collective bargaining agreements with the four unions, as well as the city needing to be more proactive with rental properties to ensure fair treatment for everyone involved.
				If council and the mayor failed to reach a resolution on the proposed budget, it would go into effect without the fee increases, Barrett explained. Without the additional $2 million in revenues from the fees it would be difficult to provide the recycling and yard waste pickups, plow the streets and maintain the parks, he said.
				Brown presented the fee increases as the most equitable way to raise revenues for city-provided services. He preferred to balance the budget with the higher fees rather than with either a 30-mill property tax hike or 25 to 30 person reduction in the workforce.
				The city no longer makes money from its recyclables and pays to dispose of them, Brown said. And compared to other municipalities Wilkes-Barre&rsquo;s sewer and recycling fees are lower, he said.

Talks to continue on Wilkes-Barre’s 2021 budget