Kalispell budget discussions focus on police, fire reductions

The Daily Inter Lake

Kalispell's government proposes spending $136,000 less on fire and police protection in fiscal 2010 than it expects to in fiscal 2009.

The Kalispell City Council will discuss those proposals at 7 p.m. tonight at a workshop session at which no votes are legally allowed.

The police and fire budget proposals unfold as follows:

They are part of the city's general fund, which pays for fire and police protection, a huge chunk of the city's salaries and its administrative services.

In fiscal 2009, the general fund is predicted to be roughly $10.267 million of which about $6.158 million goes to the fire and police departments - $2.333 million for the fire department and $3.825 million for the police.

That translates to the police and fire departments accounting for about 60 percent of the general fund in fiscal 2009, which ends June 30.

Meanwhile, the proposed general fund for fiscal 2010 - which begins July 1 - is roughly $9.1 million. But a significant part of that drop is due to the parks department being transferred out of the general fund.

The combined police and fire budget for fiscal 2010 is approximately 6.022 million, which is roughly $136,000 less than the fiscal 2009 figures.

The proposed fiscal 2010 fire budget is roughly $2.308 million, which is a drop of about $25,000. The proposed fiscal 2010 police budget is roughly $3.17 million, which would be a drop of almost $112,000.

All this translates to police and fire protection accounting for 66 percent of the 2010 general fund.

For the police, this further breaks down to 34 officers with a drug-enforcement fund adding another officer and an unfunded animal warden. This is less than the department's authorized strength.

The department currently has five vacancies, including three for officers.

But a hiring freeze is on until the final budget figures are approved - with no exceptions to be granted for exceeding that budget.

Meanwhile, police calls increased from 26,584 in 2007 to 26,692 in 2008. Arrests increased from 1,896 in 2007 to 1,934 in 2008.

Robberies, assaults, burglaries, thefts and vandalism have increased. Forgeries are roughly level from 2007 to 2008. Drug offenses are dropping.

The police force is seeking grants to increase its budget.

Meanwhile, it has to find ways to provide animal warden services and to transfer its dispatchers to a new Flathead County consolidated 911 center several months from now.

At the fire department, it expects to field 34 full-time-equivalent employees in fiscal 2010, compared to 35 in fiscal 2009 and 39 in fiscal 2008.

The fire department - which also handles ambulance calls in Kalispell and much of Flathead County - handled at least 4,500 calls in fiscal 2009 and expects to respond to 4,800 calls in fiscal 2010 .

It hopes to increase fire inspections from about 80 in fiscal 2009 to about 200 in fiscal 2010. Some overtime, replacing an ambulance and hiring extra people have been put on hold because of 2010 budget constraints.

In the overall picture, the $9.1 million general fund is part of a proposed $45.8 million budget for 2010.

The 2009 overall budget is about $53 million. The big drop is mostly due to the city finishing a major expansion of its sewage treatment plant earlier this year.

Most of the city's budget is locked in with expenses matching revenues.

The only real wiggle room is in the general fund, which pays for much of the everyday operations and administration of the city.

The council is keeping an eye in its cash reserves, which ideally should be about $1.5 million. But fiscal 2010's predicted cash reserves are $141,281, compared to fiscal 2009's predicted reserves of $136,547.