Budget session held for clarity of line item funding

Included in the discussion was the need for additional staff. “I would just like to see something in the budget where we can hire a couple of different people. If it’s anywhere in there, then I’m game,” stated Councilmember Robert Black, “We need to have a public works director.”

Regarding administrative funds, Mayor Kathleen Smith also asked, “With the wages and salaries do we have some wiggle room to hire additional personnel in that?” Interim City Manager Randy Sullivan said yes, there would be some opportunity in there depending on what the salary would be for the next city manager.

Smith asked if the city needs to have a safety officer for insurance, as the city has been without one since the retirement of Doyce Stewart months earlier. Sullivan explained, “We’re a part of a risk pool that all of the cities pay into and then you get discounts. So, if you have no injuries and you have a public safety officer that does trainings every month with everybody, then your rate goes down.”

Another discussion was the additional funding allocated for employee state retirement. The scheduled payment is $35,874 but an additional $200,000 has been added to that payment. “It’s not written down that we have to pay this additional, it’s just a debt that it would help the city in the long run,” informed Sullivan. He noted that if that money wasn’t paid, it would be added into the rates for the next year. “So that $200,000 could be used as a contingency budget?” asked Mayor Smith. “Yes,” agreed Sullivan. “And the state retirement plan is fairly healthy. We had rate increases this year for state retirement but I don’t think the state has had an increase since before I got here,” noted Sullivan, adding that may even have been COVID related.

Also reviewed was the additional $600,000 included in the budget for the annual payment to the Public (PSPRS) for law enforcement. “PSPRS, that fund is really poorly managed and our debt just kept getting bigger and bigger and now it’s about $6 million under,” explained Sullivan. He said that the city does not pay interest on the debt owed, but if the rate of return is lower than projected, the city does have a rate increase to cover the percentage that it fell short of to make up the difference. “But if the plan does better, the interest rate will go towards that unpaid liability,” stated Sullivan. “If it overperforms, we owe less.”

He stated, “Soltis’ idea was to pay that down in bigger chunks and in 10 years we would not have any debt. As that debt goes down our retirement, the contributions that we are required, will actually go down. So, paying the debt down is actually a good thing. But it’s a philosophical thing as well, because it’s never going to go away. If that plan started to be managed better, then that debt could be starting to be (reduced) just because it’s being managed better.

“Two years in a row there were organizations that sued the plan, we (cities) lost millions and millions so we’re not the only ones in the debt. There’s a lot of communities in huge debt. I think this is a good plan if you can make it work in your budget. I do think this budget has a lot of opportunity elsewhere also,” he said, noting that last year the rates did go down a bit.

In the Lodgers Fund, $350,000 is set aside for construction, $250,000 for stabilization of the Bucket of Blood building and $100,000 for the Blevins House. The council discussed how those funds may be delegated differently within a tourism-based need, with perhaps putting more towards the Blevins building which is intact, whereas the Bucket of Blood building is basically a façade with no funding allocated for reconstruction.

Councilmember Pack said she would like to look into the Hidden Cove Golf Course to make it more financially feasible. “The golf course brings in $58,000 but we spend $353,000,” she noted. Some ideas mentioned were camping grounds, increasing the usage price or expanding the course.

Councilwoman Teri Tafoya stated that priorities for her included creating a beautification committee of citizens to provide input on what the city could improve. One of the issues mentioned was the number of non-functioning street lights. Also discussed were ways that the citizens could have assistance with property cleanup and weed removal as far as pickup of debris.

With the delay in passing the final budget, city staff had concerns regarding proposed pay raises and that they too would be delayed. The issue was brought up in the work session with a letter submitted by Human Resources Director Pat Nichols. Sullivan explained that yes, the delay would impact raises but since the budget was passed later that evening the impact equates to a delay of one day for those raises to be in effect.