In a 6-1 vote Wednesday, the Bremerton City Council approved a $37.5 million budget for operation of the city in 2015.

Councilwoman Leslie Daugs was the lone “no” vote.

The budget, which was first presented to the city council by Mayor Patty Lent on Oct. 22, includes funding for two new firefighters and keep a full-time city auditor, but does not include body cameras for the city’s police officers.

The budget is an increase of $3.1 million, up from this year’s $34.4 million budget.

In order to fund the increase, last month, the council approved a 1 percent increase in the city’s property taxes, and added increases to its utility fees and user fess, such as park facility rentals.

When those increases were up for a vote, Daugs also said “no.”

“I just think now is a time when we should be controlling our spending,” Daugs said Wednesday. “I think there are areas in this budget that we still need to fine tune. So at this time, I’m not in support of the budget.”

Other council members said that while they understood her concerns and the need to keep spending in control, they saw the budget as “status quo.”

“This is really a status quo budget,” said Dino Davis. “There are some increases, but nothing major and I am very glad to see that we are adding firefighters that are desperately needed.”

One item that was a sticking point during the council’s workshops on the budget was the mayor’s intent to eliminate the city auditor position. She wanted to go with contracted audits only that would cost about $48,000, whereas a full time position is funded at $130,000.

Ultimately, the council decided to leave the position as a full time city employee because the council said it was required by the City Charter.

Police department body cameras are something that the council wants. But they eliminated them in the 2015 budget because they were concerned that they would be overwhelmed with public records requests for the camera footage, as is happening elsewhere.

“I’m still in favor of the body cameras,” said councilman Jerry McDonald. He added that with the regulations regarding them changing almost daily and with possible federal grants coming soon, the city will keep looking at the issue.

The expected cost, if the city had purchased them now, was about $100,000.

Two new firefighter positions are budgeted at $189,000, but overtime costs will be reduced as a tradeoff, the mayor pointed out in the budget document. The overtime is expected to be about $500,000 this year.

Council President Greg Wheeler made mention of the police cadet program that is being funded at $24,000, saying that it will help young people who are interested in law enforcement as a career.

Councilman Mike Sullivan said he felt the budget was appropriate.

“Is it perfect?” he asked. “No. Could we spend another 100 hours fighting over it and make it perfect? No. We’ve kept the city auditor position as required by City Charter and we’re added firefighters and I will be supporting it.”

Another item mentioned was the addition of a video specialist for the Bremerton Kitsap Access Television at a cost of $72,000.”This will help market the city,” said McDonald.

And a seasonal maintenance position at a cost of $9,000, was mentioned by council member Davis as a way to help keep the city’s waterfront and parks maintained which will be a “big help in the summer,” he said.

The budget also maintains about $3 million in reserves which is about 8.5 percent of the city’s general fund.