City Council begins crunching budget numbers for FY 2018

Whitefish City Council began digging into the city budget last week in the first of two budget work sessions scheduled this month.

The proposed budget includes an increase in taxes for property owners this year after a one-time increase in the resort tax rebate caused a reduction in tax bills last year.

The fiscal year 2018 budget includes a property tax mill levy increase of 8.24 mills.

The increase is the result of a reduction in resort tax relief of 6.24 mills. Last year property owners received a one-time windfall when only one debt payment had to be made in 2016 for the Haskill Basin conservation easement, according to the city.

Spending for fiscal year 2018 is expected to be about $12.5 million less this year.

Finance Director Dana Smith said it's difficult to know exactly how much more property owners will pay in taxes because it's a tax reappraisal year and new property appraisal numbers won't be available until early August.

During budget talks last week, one item reoccurred throughout several city department's proposed budgets — the purchase of vehicles. The administrative services, which includes the office of City Manager, Finance Director, City Clerk and Human Resources, budget calls for the purchase of a vehicle of $30,000. The building department is asking to purchase a pickup truck for $30,000, the fire department wants to purchase a new command vehicle for $65,000, the police department wants a new vehicle at $36,000, and public works is looking to purchase a pickup at $45,000, a dump truck at $45,000 and a loader at $150,000.

City Councilor Richard Hildner pointed out that a city committee is currently creating a climate action plan for the city that looks at ways to reduce carbon emissions and plan for the future.

“We need to look at alternative fuel vehicles or hybrid vehicles,” Hildner said. “We need to find the most fuel efficient vehicles. To reduce our carbon emissions we have to take a serious look at this when we're looking to purchase so many vehicles.”

Mayor John Muhlfeld said while it's important to look at reducing carbon emissions the cost of the vehicles also needs to be considered before the switch is made.

Several department heads said they would be willing to investigate the purchase of alternative fuel vehicles.

Council will hold its next budget work session on June 13 at City Hall.

Library

The library budget shows an increase in spending of about $17,000.

Anne Moran, library board trustee, said the increase is for repairs to the library building.

“You will see our contingency decrease a little bit in coming years to do more repair and maintenance,” she said. “We're also looking at grants to do work like refurbish the furniture.”

Moran said the library board has been extremely frugal for the past six years since the library transitioned away from Flathead County as a way to get a get an understanding of its operating expenses, but now it's time for the library to begin making some repairs.

Planning and Building

The building fund anticipates a decrease in revenue of $40,000 from a decrease in plan reviews and building permits.

Planning Director Dave Taylor said while the city anticipates a few projects to come in before the end of the fiscal year in June, the number of reviews and permits is down this year.

“We're having a slowdown after such a big boom in 2015 and 2016,” he said. “We're seeing a lot of the available lots in the city used and we're not seeing a lot of subdivisions.”

The planning department budget calls for adding a full-time long range planner to tackle the many planning goals established by City Council. This is expected to cost $84,000 per year, but the city says it will save $150,000 as opposed to hiring consultants to do the same work.

“We have large projects planned with the Highway 93 corridor plan and the update to the growth policy,” Taylor said.

Police

The police department revenue is showing a decrease of about $60,000 from the ending of or decrease in grant funding. The department is expecting to spend about $11,000 to increase its use of part-time officers.

Two of the additional mills levied in the overall budget are expected to go to the police department to cover the costs of a new vehicle and the additional staffing. The parking enforcement position has also been increased to full-time.

Police Chief Bill Dial said calls for service have increased about 40 percent in 2016 over 2015. The department received about 10,000 calls for service in 2015 over the 14,000 in 2016. Traffic stops are up by about 1,000, citations and arrests are also up. Arrests for DUI have more than doubled from 55 in 2015 to 121 in 2016.

Dial pointed to two main factors that have caused the increases — the city's hiring of an in-house prosecutor and the lack of space at the Flathead County Detention Center.

“[Assistant City Attorney] Kristi Curtis works with the officers, prepares them for trial and explains why cases are put in plea deals,” he said. “When officers feel good about what's happening they work harder.”

Dial said a lack of space at the county jail also adds to the increase for police services because offenders know they will spend minimal time in jail.

While the police department is relying on part-time officers to fill the gaps, Dial pointed out that the department hasn't added a new full-time officer in seven years.

“We can't sustain the call volume with the number of officers we have,” he said. “We might need to take a deep breath and deal with this in order to have a safe community.”

Fire and Ambulance

The fire and ambulance services are also dealing with the stresses of increasing calls and providing mutual aid to neighboring districts.

“We're going toward having an all paid force because we're losing volunteers,” Fire Chief Joe Page said. “We're heading to a crisis and it's departments all across the country that are hurting for volunteers.”

In the future, Page said Whitefish is going to need to work with the rural districts to find ways to improve the situation.

For this year's budget, the department is looking to purchase a command vehicle at $65,000 and add a part-time administrative assistant.

Page said the department's vehicle fleet is aging and the purchase of new vehicles is behind schedule.

Councilor Andy Feury said he worries that as commercial development increases on Montana 40 outside the city limits, Whitefish's fire and ambulance services will be more taxed servicing that area.

“We can't continue to provide service outside the city limits,” he said. “We may need to start charging for that service.”

Parks and Recreation

The parks and recreation budget includes increasing two seasonal positions to full-time. However, the cost is offset by not hiring the Parks Superintendent position.

Parks and Recreation Director Maria Butts said the duties of the Parks Superintendent have now been split between three positions and the new organization is more efficient and provides a cost savings.

The parks department is looking to purchase a new walker mower and commercial mower at a cost of $35,000. It is also planing a $15,000 increase in repair and maintenance for the Baker path.

“You will see that [maintenance] increase a little every year as we try to get closer to the recommended amount for maintaining trails,” Butts explained. “We're also looking to replace some of our equipment.”