Even as some controversy over the city’s calculations continues, Kenmore City Council expects to approve its latest two-year spending plan for 2011-2012 during its Nov. 22 meeting.

Early on in the budget talks, city Finance Director Joanne Gregory outlined estimated general fund budgets of $9.3 million in 2011 and just slightly more, $9.4 million, in 2012.

“Because this city has never relied on sales taxes, because we rely so heavily on property taxes, we are better able to forecast what our revenues are going to be,” said Mayor David Baker.

He added the city administration then takes a very conservative approach to setting the budget. Baker has said in the past that what that all means is that Kenmore is better off than some of its neighbors and some other local governmental agencies. Baker said he wanted to temper that statement a bit by pointing out some city projects — such as the completion of renovations to State Route 522 — might not get done as quickly as some would like.

“It’s a trade-off,” Baker said.

In order to balance its books over the next biennium, Kenmore sliced various service and consultant contracts by $1.2 million. The administration also proposed numerous smaller cuts, such as reducing travel expenditures by 20 percent.

Regarding contract and consultant services, Kenmore currently pays outside sources for many everyday municipal activities. Early on in the budget talks, City Manager Fredrick Stouder said by bringing some work in-house, Kenmore could save significant dollars. The budget contains monies for three new staffers, presumably to help carry any extra workload.

In his comments, Baker also noted the city did not plan to take the allowed 1-percent increase in property taxes. By doing so, Kenmore officials passed on the increase, allowed by state law without a vote of residents, for the seventh straight year.

Taking a tack opposite Baker, as he has in the past, Councilman John Hendrickson continued to be highly critical of Kenmore’s budgeting practices, claiming the city is heading toward a $2.2 million deficit over the next two years.

“Councilman Hendrickson has been saying we will heading into a deficit situation for a number of years,” Baker said, adding those predictions just haven’t proven true.

“I’m not discounting what the councilman is saying, however our staff is being extremely conservative in our budget estimates… Their future is riding on this as much as anyone else’s. It really behooves them to make this all work out.”

Some additional highlights of the spending plan as presented by the city administration include:

• City employees will receive no cost-of-living increases in 2011, but should earn a 1.5 percent adjustment in 2012.

• The city’s spring egg hunt was a victim of budget axing, a move meant to save Kenmore $11,000. Summer concerts were reduced from eight to six, providing a monetary savings of $22,000.

“These were not things we wanted to do,” Baker said. “But, lets face it, times are tough.”

• By far the city’s biggest contact expense, costs for public safety, including police, are expected to increase approximately 5 percent. The budget reflects the redeployment of one police patrol officer and the hiring of one new officer.

• Approved by the city salary commission, Kenmore’s mayor could receive a pay raise, along with members of city council.

For the mayor, pay will move from $500 to $750 a month. Councilmembers will earn $650 a month, up from $400.

• The budget could include $21,000 to hire a search firm to help find Kenmore’s next city manager. Stouder’s tenure was to wrap up at the end of 2010, but council voted earlier this year to extend his contract through April 2012.

Moving away from the numbers, Hendrickson also expressed concern with how city council handled the recent budget talks. Previously, Hendrickson described the process as “bizarre.” Council leadership asked members to submit questions on the spending plan in writing and were allowed to ask few, if any questions, during meetings. Hendrickson complained that all 92 submitted questions were answered in one hard-to-read document that did not identify who asked which questions.

“The budget review was the least transparent financial process I have ever been involved with and obtaining information was unnecessarily difficult,” Hendrickson said.

Baker said the intent of the format was to ensure all questions were answered and that all councilmembers had those answers in front of them to study.