Last Thursday at 3:30 p.m., the Kenmore Council quietly held an hour-and-a-half short-notice meeting to discuss the looming city deficit and the failure to obtain funding to complete the last third of the State Route 522 project.
The 2009 budget shows for the first time that general-fund expenses are exceeding revenues and that this trend is growing over the next six years. In reality, these projections are materially understated as they do not account for increased operating costs or inflation (other than employee salary and benefits).
In addition, the true magnitude of the deficit problem was not even addressed as the growing deficit in the street-maintenance fund was not included in the analysis.
City Manager Fred Stouder repeatedly advised the council that the operating surplus enjoyed over the last 10 years was not normal and should not be expected to continue. This ignores the fact that the legally required, original financial plan for the city clearly advised us that the operating surplus needed to be protected as it was our primary source for funding our needed capital improvements.
The operating surplus and the income from that surplus amounted to an average savings of $3 million a year over the last 10 years. Starting in 2007, the deliberate refusal of this City Council to plan for the increased operating costs that will coincide with the new $17 million city hall is forcing the council to cancel capital project improvements and to ultimately raise taxes just to cover existing service levels. Our primary source of investment capital has evaporated and the council wants us to believe that this is normal and should be expected.
The city continues to be unable (or unwilling) to clearly quantify how much the city is going to have to pay for the SR 522 project. From 2003 to 2006, our share of the costs held steady at around $6 million. Fred Stouder estimated off the top of his head that the final third of the project will cost Kenmore taxpayers around $8 million. Add that to the $7 million to $9 million in costs for the current two-thirds of the project, and share of the costs have escalated in three years to $15 million to $17 million.
The City Council needs better planning, increased focus on controlling costs, and a more open public process. Important issues like these should be deliberated in open session during regular meetings so that the public has a reasonable opportunity to be informed about what is happening to our finances.
Diane Brennan
Candidate, Kenmore City Council Position No. 2
EDITOR’S NOTE: While the Reporter is not running candidate-endorsement letters, this letter tackles a city issue and, therefore, we are running it.
