Unalaska, AK – With shorter pollock seasons bringing in less money, looming public employee retirement costs and a federal funding picture that's less certain than it was in recent years, Unalaska's city administration and council are looking to limit the growth of the city's overall budget in the coming fiscal year.

That was the main thrust of a City Council work session Monday night at City Hall, where city department heads presented their strategies for keeping the budget from increasing by more than 3 percent in 2009. For two city departments, that could mean changes to upper-level staffing positions that are currently vacant.

The Finance Department is looking at combining its controller and city treasurer positions. Meanwhile, Public Safety Director Jamie Sunderland told the council he'd like to see the city scrap the department's lieutenant position, which he held for five years before taking over as director in December.

The job is open for now, but Sunderland said he would take on some of the lieutenant's administrative responsibilities himself and give others to a yet-to-be-hired fire chief, while dividing other duties among the department's police sergeants. He said he'd also like to make one of the ten patrol officers into a sergeant, in addition to the three already serving in that capacity.

"That way, a little bit of the supervisory load is spread out," he said. "That was the way the department was run for many years a couple of directors ago. I certainly thought that was a successful model, and something I'd like to return to."

The city's fiscal year 2009 budget will be up for a first reading by the City Council next month. In another work session before tonight's regular meeting, the council will look at budgets for local non-profits and capital projects.