Responding to what he called the city council's "very clear" wish to control city spending, Eden Prairie's city manager has proposed cuts to the city's social services.

They include reducing the Housing and Community Services staff -- which handles affordable housing and immigrant outreach -- from 3.5 full-time employees to 1.5 full-time employees. And decreasing the amount the city grants to service organizations, such as food shelves, by 40 percent.

The council will consider Scott Neal's recommendations at a workshop this week. It will adopt a preliminary budget Sept. 4.

Neal, along with Mayor Phil Young, said the proposed cuts make sense. The city's human service spending is "nontraditional," Young said, and "it's fair to look at specific departments and ask, 'How did we get here?' "

But some vocal residents who have organized a group called Eden Prairie Cares say the proposal is unnecessary and could leave many without the help they need.

"People are very giving here," said Council Member Sherry Butcher, who said she's received 100 e-mails from residents opposing the budget cuts.

"The potential for having these cuts is really distressing," she said.

Social services are 'an outlier'

In a presentation to the council, Neal outlined the reasons for the cuts. Among them: Eden Prairie's hefty $25.9 million tax levy in 2006 and the community's increasing demand on city services.

He suggested the city focus on its "core mission services," such as police, fire and protecting real estate values, while reducing its "supplemental mission services," such as housing, recreation and economic development.

"In part, I looked at what among our services is different from our peers," Neal said. "The area that began to get my focus was housing and community services... There we are an outlier."

Eagan spends far less on social services than Eden Prairie, for example. Bloomington spends far more.

Minnetonka is an in-between. Of the 15.5 employees in its Community Development Department, two focus on housing, said City Manager John Gunyou. And each year, the city council, like Eden Prairie's, allocates money in the form of service grants to organizations, such as Teens Alone, which works to prevent teen homelessness. While Eden Prairie gave a total of $198,870 in grants in 2007, Minnetonka gave $65,500.

Minnetonka Mayor Jan Callison said the city has been providing those grants at least since she's began on the council 14 years ago. "We balance recognizing the good they do in the community with being good stewards of the public purse," she said.

In addition to the 2008 budget cuts to human services, Neal has proposed cutting four positions in other departments -- mostly through attrition and mostly during 2009. He also has suggested adding three full-time staff members -- one to police, one to the community center and one to information technology.

The difference between the total city staff requested for the 2008 budget and what Neal proposed is about $986,000. He said that to the owner of the median single-family home, worth $378,400, that difference translates to a savings of about $34 a year.

A small price for a lot of help?

Resident Cari McGuire, who organized the group Eden Prairie Cares, argues that human services spending equals 1 percent of the budget -- and that most residents are willing to pay the $8 to $10 a year required to fund it.