Gary officials went out of their way Tuesday to make a transfer of funds within the overall city budget public.

The move, which was approved without opposition by the city’s Common Council, calls for shifting $50,000 from the portion of account 224 that covers machinery and equipment for the Fire Department to the portion that pays for fuel.

Account 224 as a whole is the portion of the budget that is under control of the Fire Department and is used to cover, among other things, expenses for the Emergency Medical Services programs.

That fund was the source of controversy within city government when it was discovered that money was being transferred throughout the budget without any sort of Common Council approval in advance.

Officials eventually discovered that none of the funds was misappropriated, but the Indiana State Board of Accounts eventually found that transfers caused confusion as to how much was actually in the fund — as at one point a $4.5 million discrepancy was discovered.

Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson at the meeting said this particular transfer is essential because the portion of funds covering machinery and equipment was running short.

Council President Ronald Brewer said the transfer is appropriate because it was money being transferred from one portion of the fire department budget to another portion.

“It is their fund,” Brewer said.

Brewer told his Common Council colleagues of how he has pitched in with efforts to landscape park lands that were becoming overgrown with grass and weeds due to heavy rain conditions. He said he bought a mower and has taken on cutting grass at about a dozen lots at various sites around Gary. He said he plans to spend the next three weeks continuing to cut grass at places that had become overgrown. He said the real problem, from city government’s perspective, is that they don’t have enough people working on city crews in order to properly maintain all of the land the city ought to be maintaining.

“We have a shortage of manpower,” he said, adding that even if the city were to purchase all the needed equipment for grass cutting and maintenance, “it doesn’t help if we don’t have enough people to use it all.”

Gregory Tejeda is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.