LATHROP — Unable to approve a final budget without a public hearing, the Lathrop-Manteca Fire District board voted 4-1 last week to submit a preliminary 2009-10 budget to the San Joaquin County auditor to get something on record.

Although four of the five board members voted Aug. 20 to submit the budget with eight vacant fire positions included but not funded, member Gloryanna Rhodes refused to approve the action.

“Expenditures and revenues have to match,” she said. “I vote no. I think it’s a lie. If they are still in the books, they are in your expenditures. I can’t vote for it.”

Board member Claudio Revives said he did not want to eliminate the unfunded positions — a chief, three division chiefs, a fire inspector and three firefighters — and thought it was important to show them on the budget submitted to the county.

Fred Manding, interim fire chief, stressed that he did not want to see the positions lost. He said his department had worked too hard to build its staff numbers over the years to see them lowered. He said county officials do not care how many positions are covered by the budget, only that the dollar amounts are right.

The preliminary budget would include the eight positions, according to Chairman Bennie Gatto — but the positions would not be funded.

Those positions would remain on the budget, unfilled, until the money was available to fill them, said Angela Manding, fire district business manager. She said submitting a preliminary budget would give the district until Oct. 1 to finalize a budget.

“We can revise it,” board member Manuel Medeiros said. “We revise it all the time. We should approve the budget as-is. This is not in stone.”

Still, Rhodes said she could not approve a budget without enough money to support the vacant positions. It was her belief the district could be more than $2 million in the hole for the 2009-10 fiscal year.

“I want to put on the record very clearly that I object,” Rhodes said. “I can’t go on the record approving this. A balanced budget is a balanced budget.”

The board also agreed to have a public hearing in September, which would allow the board 10 days to advertise the hearing date.