Kalispell council balks at trimming jobs

Kalispell City Council members had told the city staff to trim the city government's proposed 2008-09 general fund budget.

But they did not like what they saw Monday, which included eliminating six jobs.

Fix it, they said - and lay off fewer employees.

The city staff should nibble here and nibble there, they suggested.

Sometime later this month, the city staff and council will meet in another workshop session to come up with a general fund budget that council members would likely approve.

The state's legal deadline to nail down the city government budgets is Sept. 30. But Kalispell will apply for an extension.

The basic facts are:

. Most of the city's 2008-09 budget of $52 million is locked in, with the only wiggle room in the general fund, which pays for much of the everyday operations and administration of the city. About 80 percent of the general fund pays for firefighters, police officers and parks employees, plus some planning department, municipal court and city attorney's workers, as well as the council's salaries.

. In early August, the proposed general fund was about $11.35 million in expenses, $600,000 to $700,000 more than the predicted revenue. Since then, expenses have been trimmed to $10.78 million, but that still is about $167,000 more than predicted revenue for 2008-09.

. The $167,000 could come from the city's cash reserves, dropping that fund from roughly $473,000 to almost $306,000. However, the rule of thumb for a city of Kalispell's size calls for cash reserves of more than $1 million to be considered financially solid.

Throughout the summer, the city staff has resisted pressure to cut jobs, pinning its hopes on the council approving a parks operations-and-maintenance tax that would raise roughly $540,000 annually - removing that amount from the general fund's obligations.

But in mid-August , the council decided to put the proposed parks tax to a public referendum in November - killing the staff's hopes of raising $540,000 in extra income for the 2008-09 fiscal year, which began July 1.

During the past two months, City Manager Jim Patrick told the council several times that a balanced general fund without the parks tax probably would lead to job cuts. At the same time, the council gradually increased pressure on Patrick to trim the proposed general fund by a significant amount of money.

The city employs roughly 200 people.

At Monday's workshop session, council members balked at the proposed job cuts, contending six is too many and budget cuts should be sought elsewhere.

It was the first time the council actually faced mapped-out job cuts and the first time significant opposition to job cuts surfaced in the council.

"Laying off employees should be the last resort," Council Member Bob Hafferman said.

But council member Jim Atkinson - who supported a parks tax in mid-August - recalled that the council told the staff to map out layoffs. "The staff did what [the council members] asked you to do. Now they don't like what you're saying," Atkinson said. "If we balance the budget the way we say we want to balance the budget, we've got to take the heat for cutting staff."

Council member Duane Larson said: "I wish we could save some jobs. Maybe we can, if we tighten up. But we can't save all the jobs."

In a memo last week, Patrick announced six jobs to be cut. All six are union members, and have chances to bump less-senior union workers in other city jobs they are qualified to do.

The six positions are:

. The parks department's receptionist, plus a recreation coordinator.

. The planning department's code enforcement officer.

. Two fire prevention specialists in the fire department.

. A municipal court clerk.

Patrick also recommended that the hours be cut for two planning department employees plus the police department's crime analyst.

Seasonal recreational employees also would be trimmed, and there would be a major reduction in recreational programs.

Five people whose positions are on the chopping block were told about their status prior to Patrick's memo being released. The exception was the municipal court clerk facing elimination.

The removal of two of the fire department's three fire prevention inspectors, plus the elimination of the code enforcement officer, brought the loudest protests from the council.

Council members said - and the staff agreed - that removing two fire inspectors and the code officer would hurt the city's ability to head off future troubles, especially when new buildings have been sprouting at a fast pace. Cutbacks in inspections now could lead to major safety problems within a few years, council members and staff said.

Having three inspectors greatly influenced a drop in fire insurance premiums in Kalispell, Acting Fire Chief Dan Diehl said.

"Fire losses will go up, especially on commercial properties," Diehl said.

Mayor Pam Kennedy said: "Cutting back on prevention and cutting back on code enforcement doesn't sound to me like we're taking care of the safety of the officers and of the city."

Council members made numerous suggestions Monday on where to look for potential general fund cuts.

Some wanted to trim money for education, traveling and memberships in associations.

Gasoline savings were greatly sought.

"When I see four employees on a job site and I see four vehicles, that sends a message to me that something is wrong," Kennedy said.

Hafferman suggested looking at eliminating the general fund's contingency money, stretching out the purchases of data processing equipment over a longer period of time, figuring out how to trim employee recruitment costs, raising fees for recreational programs, freezing salaries for non-union employees, and setting up an independent foundation to seek donations for parks programs.

The staff discussed a couple of budget-helping proposals with the council. These were:

. Pursuing collection of $1.28 million in outstanding municipal court fines stretching back 10 years.

The municipal court uses a Texas-based collection agency, which has picked up about $460,000 over the past three years. "For a long-distance collector, that's pretty good," Larson said.

The council and Municipal Court Judge Heidi Ulbricht agreed that the oldest outstanding fines probably are uncollectable. Council member Hank Olson said he believes anything older than two years is likely a loss.

People from all walks of life accrue traffic fines.

But a high percentage of criminal fines are levied against people living paycheck to paycheck or on Social Security or disability programs - making paying a low priority in those families' financially strapped conditions, Ulbricht said.

Kennedy suggested that the city sell the oldest debts to another collection agency under a contract in which that agency receives most of the debt while paying a small fraction to the city. A little money would be better than nothing, Kennedy said.

. Exploring charging ambulance fees on all vehicle accidents within Kalispell.

In 2007, the fire department responded to about 400 accidents in town - with the city staff speculating that a $200 fee could be charged to insurance companies for an accident response. Another recommendation was to charge insurance companies for used medical supplies.

The city government might study charging similarly for ambulance calls outside of Kalispell.

The council told the staff to study these proposals more.

Reporter John Stang may be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at jstang@dailyinterlake.com