A work session of the Boulder City Council March 16, announced to focus on the budget, included discussions of the ambulance service, road maintenance, storm drainage and police department.
Mayor Rusty Giulio expressed confidence that Boulder is headed in the right direction and will see increased revenues.
If the city can encourage the creation of residential lots, “people are going to come here, and we’re going to recruit them, and we’re going to make it work,” he said.
A major purpose of the work session was to educate new council members on the budgeting process and status. City Clerk Diana Van Haecke explained how reserves work, how budget transfers work, where various funds come from, and how to read budget reports.
Van Haecke said the city does not have “a lot of extra money” and cautioned the council to keep in mind how added expenditures could affect the budget long term.
One long term expenditure discussed by the council was police department wages.
Two officers who left since the first of the year were being paid $18 per hour and $18.50, said Van Haecke. That is about a quarter less than deputies with the sheriff’s office are paid. She provided the council with projections of costs for various pay rates. With vacancy savings from the two positions, the city can probably afford increases for the remainder of this budget year, but it is important to consider the impact on future year budgets, she cautioned.
Council member Drew Dawson echoed that sentiment, saying wages “tend to grow in outlying years and that can rapidly outstrip our income.”
Council member Shane Maichel said the city could probably afford to raise wages because it would offset the losses incurred every time an officer has to be replaced and trained.
“If we’re going to keep our police department, we’ve got to get with the times,” he said.
After reminding the council they needed to stick to focusing on the budget, Van Haecke left when the discussion broadened.
In a rehash of a discussion previously held at a regular city council meeting, the council discussed how many officers the city needs.
Mayor Giulio said, “The ones I’ve talked to, 75 percent of them want three officers.”
He added, “A lot of people want the coverage.”
Council member Sherry Lepley disagreed, saying the people talking to her want to get rid of the police department and have the sheriff’s office provide the service.
“We put them through the law enforcement academy and they leave,” she said.
Giulio said he wants to get a second legal opinion on whether the city can require officers to commit to work for the city for a set amount of time after finishing the academy.
Colleen Teeling, the only member of the general public in attendance, advocated doing a comparison of the cost to have the sheriff’s office contract to provide Boulder law enforcement to the cost of hiring and training officers who leave.
Giulio said that although most of the discussion has focused on pay, he thinks there are also other reasons officers leave.
“Two of them quit because they said it was me coming into office,” he said, referring to his comments about the police department during his campaign. He said he spoke with one of the departing officers who told him he wanted an opportunity to grow in responsibility. Giulio said improving communications with officers could help.
Lepley said of the departed officers, “I can’t say as I miss those two,” calling them “a lot of trouble.”
The council did not reach any decisions about the police department.
THE AMBULANCE
Van Haecke told the council she does not anticipate the ambulance budget being in the red this year, an improvement over some past situations.
Dawson suggested the council “take a deeper dive” into the ambulance budget, looking at the number of runs, the aging of accounts and other specifics, calling it a good accountability measure.
Giulio suggested Dawson, with his years of experience in emergency medical management, take on that task.
Noting his own lack of expertise in the area, Giulio said, “I move dirt with a shovel and a piece of equipment and all that.”
With a laugh, Dawson said, “That takes care of those when the ambulance doesn’t work.”
Dawson agreed to visit with Van Haecke about the statistics available.
The ambulance service has been a “definite concern,” said Giulio.
“Everybody’s been wondering what’s been happening wih the ambulance service,” he added.
ROADS
“You drive around there right now, we’ve got some issues we’re going to have to deal with,” Mayor Giulio said of the town roads.
“At some point we’re going to have to go to an Intercap loan for $500,000 and fix the roads,” he said.
Building funds to repair the roads and maintain equipment ought to be part of the city’s capital improvement plan, council members said.
Dealing with storm water drainage also needs to be part of the approach to road improvements, they said.
Giulio said he has been in discussions about addressing drainage.
BUDGET PROCESS
Van Haecke told the council formal budget development begins in May when department heads are asked to submit anticipated needs for the coming year. After that the council reviews those needs and develops a budget through a series of public workshops. A hearing on the final proposed budget is generally held in August after the state Department of Revenue reports the taxable valuation of property in city limits.
