Saratoga finalizes budget, budget amendment

While a nearly two and half hour discussion over a report from James Childress and two executive sessions took up the majority of the Saratoga Town Council meeting on June 23, the governing body also passed two budgetary items on third reading.

Ordinance No. 856, an ordinance amending the 2019/2020 Budget, and Ordinance No. 857, an ordinance setting the 2020/2021 Budget, were both passed by a 3-1 vote with Councilmember Jon Nelson voting nay both times. 

Over the past month, both documents have been the subject of heated debate between the council itself and with members of the public. Additionally, the statutory passing of the ordinances prior to July 1 led to a special meeting to be held for a second reading of both items.

Ordinance No. 856

Since the introduction of Ordinance No. 856, Nelson has continually pushed for additions to the budget amendment. As was reported previously (see “Council passes budget amendment” on page 7 of the June 17 Saratoga Sun) those additions included:

• $30,000 to the airport fund from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act

• $13,485 in excess of revenues over expenditures for the airport fund

• $185,862 in excess of revenues over expenditures for the water fund

• $115,286 in excess of revenues over expenditures for the sewer fund

• $30,510 in excess of revenues over expenditures for the weed and pest fund.

When those additions were not considered by the rest of the council, citing guidance from Childress, Nelson voted against the amendment. During the third reading, Nelson again pushed for the inclusion of transfers to reserves. Councilmember Bob Keel, again citing Childress, stated that he did not believe it was the right time to include Nelson’s suggestions.

The inclusion of the transfers was asked of Childress earlier in the meeting as one of over 30 questions Nelson had for the accountant.

“I think you want to have an understanding of what actually is surplus cash. You want to have operating capital in the right place. You want to acknowledge interfund overhead and find some way to reasonably record it,” said Childress. “Once you’ve done that, you should be able to say, ‘Okay, now we can start funneling some of that money around.’”

With no motion to support Nelson’s thrice proposed additions, Ordinance No. 856 was passed as presented on third reading.

Ordinance No. 857

The proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2020/2021 had seen its own ups and downs as it was passed unanimously on first and second reading, but saw a 3-1 vote on June 23. Nelson stated that he had emailed the rest of the council “very minor changes” relating to information he had received about a State Lands and Investment Board (SLIB) grant for the Saratoga Police Department.

“I proposed pulling that $31,003 out of miscellaneous revenues on the revenue side and then the police department on the expenditure side to reflect that outcome from that grant application,” said Nelson.

Keel stated that the changes proposed by Nelson were not included in the budget because the Saratoga Police Department had not received any information about the SLIB grant, the intention of which was to purchase two new pursuit vehicles.

“You verified that information, I’m not doubting that one bit, but the police department hasn’t been told that yet. I think it would be wise for the town council to go with the information we have right now,” said Keel.

“So, you don’t doubt it one bit but you don’t think taking out is the right thing to do right here before third and final reading?” Nelson asked.

Both Nelson and Keel then responded to each other that they were both operating on the best information they had at that time.

When it was asked how the governing body would respond should projected revenues not come in as expected, especially considering the information provided by Childress earlier, the weight of the situation did not seem to be lost on the council.

“I think the true answer would be we’re going to have to adjust our budget and I think, after what we’ve heard tonight, we’re going to have to do that anyways,” said Keel. “I think, with the information we have and the statutory constraints that we have, we need to pass this and then start working on solutions to the problems that were outlined to us by Mr. Childress. Some of those, I can almost guarantee you, are going to involve cuts. Should we be spending $25,000 on a baseball field? That’s going to be a question. Are we going to be able to buy a dump truck. That’s going to be a question.”

Keel added that he believed the Saratoga Town Council would need to consider much of the information provided by Childress as the governing body moved forward. This included the role that town hall played in managing the other departments and working with the Saratoga-Carbon County Impact Joint Powers Board.

“I think doing the retroactive interfund allocations is not an option. I think what we need to do is sit down with the water and sewer joint powers board and say, ‘Look, there’s a problem here. Do you want to be part of the solution to fix it? Let’s make a plan.’ I don’t think it’s easy as saying, ‘Yeah, we owe you $1.2 million. Here’s the term of the loan repayment.’ I think it’s a lot more complicated than that,’ Keel said. “Might be partly getting the county commissioners in and saying, ‘Look, this is what our plans are to fix these issues.’ It’s not a simple answer. It’s very complex and I think we saw the full depth of the iceberg today and today is day one.”

The next meeting of the Saratoga Town Council will be at 6 p.m. on July 7 at Saratoga Town Hall.