At odds over budget, Pocatello council to open public forum Thursday

POCATELLO — The Pocatello City Council has built a 2022 budget plan that Mayor Brian Blad is happy to sign.

“If it were passed today, I’m very comfortable with making sure that it is done and executed exactly,” he told EastIdahoNews.com.

The budget plan maintains the city’s operational cost and devotes additional funds to much-needed upkeep without increasing resident taxes, he said.

Some members of the council are not so confident, however.

The city is leaching funds from accounts meant to sustain the city through disasters, rather than either decreasing spending or increasing revenue, according to council members Claudia Ortega and Christine Stevens.

“We’re in the middle of budgeting, and we’ve got a multi-million dollar deficit,” she said. “(Blad and other council members) want to take money out of reserves to balance the budget, and not say anything to anybody.”

Per ordinance, the city keeps a Reserve fund equal to three months of the operating budget — $9 million in the general fund, according to Blad.

There are also two other “accounts” that the city “feeds” — “Fund 78” and “excess reserves.” According to Ortega and Stevens, the city is bleeding those accounts dry, leaving nothing for a future they expect could be rough.

“It’s irresponsible,” Ortega said. “It’s irresponsible to put the citizens of this community in such a precarious financial situation.”

Blad disagrees with that assessment.

Those two funds are designed to be “burnt” and refilled, he said. The catch is, monies from those funds can only be used for one-time purchases.

Blad offered the city fueling site as an example.

The site at which all city vehicles refuel features underground fuel storage. That storage is rusting and is a threat to leak, causing a massive health threat, and potentially incurring millions of dollars in fines from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

With “excess reserves” of approximately $5 million — that is over the $9 million Reserve — the city is able to pay for the fuel storage replacement, which will cost $800,000, without incurring additional taxation.

“That is exactly what (the excess reserve) is for,” Blad said.

The mayor admitted the city may have a track record of “kicking the can up the road,” leaving massive needs to be handled at a later date.

“But we’re being very aggressive in fixing everything that has been kicked down the road until today,” he said.

Some of the things being “kicked down the road,” according to Ortega and Stevens, include updated and increased evidence storage for the police department — at a cost of $150,000. And another $750,000 for city-wide traffic management. Ortega and Stevens have also requested the city look into potentially outsourcing the city’s sanitation department, something other comparably sized cities do for cost-efficiency.

In fact, Ortega and Stevens voiced concerns regarding their continued inability to bring any conversation to the council’s public meetings.

While researching ways to decrease city spending, Ortega recently requested a compensation breakdown, by position, for all city employees from city HR Manager Heather Buchanan.

The city of Pocatello, she said, employs 300 more employees than comparable Idaho cities — Caldwell and Coeur d’Alene. She wanted the opportunity to break down compensation for city employees to open a dialogue as to why that is.

Rather than receiving the information, she was told that an executive session had been scheduled to discuss employee pay.

Executive sessions are not normally used for budgeting conversations, and are less accessible to the public, she explained.

“I am fully supportive of (city) employees,” Stevens said. “But the other half of the equation is, I’m also equally supportive of the people who live in this town and pay taxes in this town.”

In order to maintain current tax rates, Stevens sees three options: completely cutting some services, pulling back on all services or “constrain” the number of people working for the city.

“We’re just asking — if I’m going to make a decision that involves $130 million of other people’s money, I need to understand facts,” Ortega added.

Asked about this decision, Blad said simply that the city is not in a position to even consider layoffs or cutbacks.

“We’re in a solid situation,” he said, “there’s no reason to lay people off. In fact, our employee wages haven’t kept up with private businesses or other government entities. The reality is, we should be discussing an increase in wages, not laying people off and cuts.”

The only thing both sides can agree on, apparently, is the importance of involvement by the public in discussions like budget planning.

Transparency is what drives government, Stevens said.

“Our goal has always been to open things up so the public can know what’s going on,” she added.

Blad believes it is “extremely important” for city residents to take part in council meetings like Thursday’s budget forum.

“When you come to council, you have three minutes to speak and then we cut you off so somebody else can speak. I am very strict with that three-minute time limit. If you have a lot that you really want the council to see and understand and consider, an email works great — you can email pages of stuff.”

Thursday’s meeting will include a public comments section and starts at 6 p.m. at City Hall.

Anyone that is interested in offering city council their thoughts but is not able to attend can send an email to city.council@pocatello.us.