Coatesville's upcoming budget process will be more open and less contentious than last year's City Manager Harry Walker promised council on Monday night.

"Information will be provided in detail," Walker said as part of his manger's report. He said the goal is to "create a more open budget process."

Throughout this year the city's finances have divided council. Ed Simpson, the most outspoken of the three minority, city council members, has repeatedly complained he isn't provided timely financial reports. It was a concern he repeated Monday night when he questioned Finance Director Ricky Dean why he had not received a monthly financial statement.

"He didn't do one," interjected Walker.

Also, the so-called budget surplus evaporated into semantics. Dean said the some $700,000 the city is showing as surplus revenue isn't what he termed "a surplus in excess." Instead, said Dean, the money is earmarked for fourth quarter expenditures. "There is no way there will be surplus at the end of the year," he said. The fourth quarter begins Oct. 1.

Last year the budget process was riddled with accusations that City Hall was not forthcoming with budget information. Early in last year's budget process, detailed information was withhold under the argument the numbers were fluid and it would be improper to release them since they were always changing.

One section of the last year's budget that Walker was most open about was the need to sell city-owned real estate to raise $1.2 million to balance the budget. "Does this mean the budget is balanced? Yes. Are we comfortable with it? No," Walker said at the time.

The city so far has failed to fill that budget gap with the sale of city-owned property. Last month city council approved Walker's call to layoff eight full-time employees and to change the status of two of the city's paid firefighters from full-time to part-time. He said at the time the layoffs would save the city $400,000 annually.

Currently, the city property taxes are 9.905 mills. The earned income tax is 2.5 percent.