Sean C. Morgan
The City of Sweet Home Budget Committee increased proposed expenditures for next year by $33,000 primarily for charitable causes last week.
The committee agreed to a request by Dave Holley to provide $5,000 each to the HOPE Center, a women’s shelter operated by First Baptist Church, and Sweet Home Emergency Ministries, a food bank. The decision also provides $3,000 to the Kids Food Pak program, which sends backpacks full of food home with children across School District 55 for the weekends.
District 55 Supt. Larry Horton requested $6,000 to help pay for the operation of the swimming pool over the summer. Disrict Aquatics Director Junia Calhoon will soon be working as a volunteer, and pool users are looking for grants and other sources of funding for the summer. The pool is on the chopping block in district budget cuts, and pool supporters are planning to ask voters next year to form an aquatics district. The Budget Committee agreed to help, offering $10,000.
City staff cut the city’s $5,000 community grant program in the proposed budget for 2011-12. The Budget Committee restored the program.
Staff also cut the summer recreation program in the parks budget from $11,000 to $6,000. The Budget Committee restored that funding as well.
The Budget Committee agreed unanimously to pay for the expenditure increases by reducing funds slated for the building reserve fund by $33,000, from $345,000 to $312,000. Money in the building reserve fund can be used to pay for capital expenditures, such as a new City Hall. In the proposed budget, the city will have a reserve of nearly $1.3 million.
In the parks budget, the biggest cut is in programs, said Community Development Director Carol Lewis. “This is the one that makes my heart break.”
Until funding was restored by the committee, the cut was in the summer recreation program. The reduction would have eliminated the annual rafting trip and cut the number of recreation days from nine to five.
Councilor Scott McKee Jr. said that the city should do anything positive that it can for the children.
The summer recreation program gives them something to do, he said, adding that the program enables children to be invovled in activities all summer long that he didn’t get to when he was growing up in Sweet Home.
Holley said the committee should consider upping the budgeting for the program to $11,000 instead of $6,000. “Let’s not cut off our nose to spite our face.”
Mahler said he would hate to see the community grant program cut, and he thinks more organizations will request funding from it.
Last year, the city gave that $5,000 to the School District to keep the pool open during the summer, he said, but he is expecting requests from projects like the skate park.
Talking about things for the youth to do, the grant program could help, he said.
Under the program, the City Council awards grants to projects that benefit the community of Sweet Home.
Holley suggested reducing the building reserve transfer to pay for the expenditures.
Although he is fully in agreement with building the reserve fund, he said, it seems like a fund the city could use to address needs within the community.
SHEM is known to help hundreds of people, he said. The HOPE Center provides help to women in need, while the Food Pak program feeds children in need over weekends. The Food Pak program has grown from six children to 115 by the last count he was aware of, Holley said.
Holley said he had some problems with Horton’s presentation about the pool, he said. First, the director is donating her salary.
The program is a good program, well-used by the community, Holley said, suggesting that the Budget Committee give more than requested. “I think the cost borne by the School District is way out of balance.”
Budget Committee members asked about funding for the Sweet Home Community Foundation.
Foundation President and Police Chief Bob Burford warned that funding these programs this way might have unintended consequences, once it is published in the newspaper.
“You’re going to have a whole bunch more people in here, going, ‘What about my project?’” Burford said.
“My only suggestion is that you consider putting a lump sum out to the Community Foundation,” which has a grant process in place that already funds several of the programs the Budget Committee wants to fund.
The foundation usually grants about $30,000 per year, although with less revenue from the Oregon Jamboree and potentially none in coming years, the foundation granted only $18,000 this year.
McKee said he doesn’t look at these items as grants.
Rather, he said, they provide human services to deal with special human needs.
The trails group can come ask for grant money, he said, but in a time of economic hardship, he asked why money should go through an added process.
This may be a one-time set of expenditures, Holley said. “We may not be in a position to do any of this next year.”
The Budget Committee previously provided $5,000 to SHEM two years ago.
The decisions are not final until the Budget Committee approves the budget and sends its recommendation to the City Council, which then must decide whether to adopt the budget prior to the end of the fiscal year on June 30.
The General Fund
The Budget Committee reviewed the city’s proposed 2011-12 general fund on April 27.
Total revenue in the fund is $3.1 million, down from $3.3 million in 2010-11.
Revenue includes a $1.3 million beginning fund balance, money that rolls over from the current budget year. Some of the cash is used to provide cash flow during the first four months of the fiscal year, which begins on July 1.
Property taxes provide $469,000, down from $471,000; approximately $1 million in various fees, including franchise fees, down about $20,000; and $260,000 in administrative charges to Public Works funds, up about $7,000.
General fund revenue is down from $3.3 million in 2010-11.
Personnel expenditures increase in most parts of the general fund, while the budget reduces expenditures on materials, services and capital outlays.
General fund expenditures are down about $165,000 overall. Among reductions, the city will reduce its transfer to the building reserve fund by about $118,000, from $430,000.
The building program will share a clerk half-time with the Sweet Home Public Library, trimming more than $20,000 in personnel from the building program budget. The employee will fill in a part-time vacancy at the library.
Even with the restoration of funding to the summer recreation program, the parks budget will be down about $27,000. Most of that reduction is in capital outlays, budgeted at $12,500 for next fiscal year, representing fewer park improvements.
Non-departmental spending will increase from $46,000 to $122,000 for liability insurance next year. This year, the city had received a refund from the insurance carrier.
The Budget Committee will meet next at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 4, to review the police and library budgets.
It also plans to meet on May 11 to review Public Works budgets.
Information or a copy of the budget is available at City Hall, 1140 12th Ave. or by calling the city at (541) 367-5128.