[0:09] Good evening and would like to welcome
[0:11] everyone to the SP the special city
[0:14] council meeting town hall meeting.
[0:17] [clears throat] Um we do have this
[0:18] televised as tonight as well. I'm happy
[0:21] that we have some participants here that
[0:24] came in person and brave the hot
[0:26] weather, but um this will be viewed
[0:28] online and we usually have lots of
[0:30] followers with that. So, uh we will go
[0:33] ahead and start out with the roll call,
[0:35] please. Connie
[0:36] >> B
[0:37] >> here.
[0:37] >> Mang
[0:38] >> here.
[0:38] >> Nichols
[0:39] >> here.
[0:40] >> Alson
[0:40] >> here.
[0:41] >> Sfield
[0:41] >> here. Swanson
[0:44] >> here. I will mention that council member
[0:47] Swanson is excused for the evening.
[0:49] She's at a trip overseas out of the
[0:52] country right now. She wishes to be here
[0:55] and will join us at the next quarterly
[0:57] meeting. So, I'd like to move on to
[1:00] agenda item two. It's the budget
[1:02] development process. We do have Rich
[1:04] Morgan here from our finance department.
[1:07] Um, Rich will update the public on the
[1:10] budget development process.
[1:14] >> Okay.
[1:17] No spitting.
[1:18] >> Yeah. none allowed. And by the way, for
[1:21] the others that are here to comment, um
[1:24] we'll take about a half hour with Rich.
[1:27] And um after that, it is open for some
[1:30] dialogue in case you're waiting for
[1:32] that.
[1:33] >> I thought I would just open with one
[1:35] caveat. I I am happy to be here, mayor,
[1:37] council, happy to talk with you
[1:40] generally about how a mu a municipal
[1:43] organization would budget. If I crack or
[1:47] start crying, don't worry. I'm a dad and
[1:49] my daughter's leaving for California
[1:51] tomorrow. We just finished our last
[1:53] supper and Yeah.
[1:55] >> Yeah.
[1:56] >> It's not the budget that's making me
[1:58] cry.
[1:58] >> No, I promise. You know what's important
[2:00] in life.
[2:02] >> Okay.
[2:04] So Idaho code 50 uh chapter 10 section 2
[2:08] says the city council of each city shall
[2:10] pri prior to passing the annual
[2:11] appropriation ordinance prepare a budget
[2:14] estimating the probable amount of money
[2:16] necessary for all purposes for which an
[2:19] appropriation is to be made. So, the
[2:21] reason or one of the reasons that you
[2:26] budget is because Idaho has staturally
[2:30] required you to. You're going to hear me
[2:31] say a lot about Idaho because we are
[2:34] regulated by Idaho. The very fact that
[2:36] we exist is because Idaho lets us or
[2:39] allows us to through statute. Idaho code
[2:42] 67, which is also relied upon quite a
[2:46] bit in municipal finances, says budget
[2:48] information shall conform to the
[2:49] standards established in the uniform
[2:51] accounting manual for local government
[2:53] entities. This is where we're going to
[2:56] get um the authority to rely on GAP
[3:00] which is generally accepted accounting
[3:02] principles as promulgated by gazby which
[3:06] is the governmental accounting standards
[3:08] board.
[3:10] So why budget? We just talked about the
[3:12] statutoily required um what we have to
[3:16] do, but there are also some very very
[3:18] good reasons why even if it wasn't
[3:21] statutoily required, we should probably
[3:24] go through this process. And the first
[3:26] one is that it's a policy document. Uh
[3:28] the council and the mayor can use this
[3:31] process and this procedure to set policy
[3:35] simply by funding and not funding what
[3:38] you want to and not want to fund. It's a
[3:41] financial plan. They're guard rails. I
[3:43] use that analogy a lot. The budget is
[3:46] not actual. It's an estimate, but it
[3:49] sets those guard rails for department
[3:52] heads and for the city um where we're
[3:54] going to go. It's a legal appropriation.
[3:57] So, now we're back to statute. If we
[3:59] didn't pass the ordinance that we will
[4:03] uh coming in in August, we would not
[4:06] have the authority to spend any money.
[4:09] Um, so you guys really do hold those
[4:11] purse strings. Um, giving us that
[4:14] authority to to to
[4:17] cash a check. It's a communication tool.
[4:19] We have a few people in the room. We'll
[4:21] have people online. It's going to be
[4:23] available online. We get records
[4:25] requests for it. It's a very easy way to
[4:27] communicate what we're going to do with
[4:29] the funds that we receive. And it also
[4:33] allows accountability because we can
[4:35] compare what really happened, what
[4:37] actually happened with the plan.
[4:42] Idaho budget requirements. So first just
[4:45] to set this is this is a requirement
[4:47] that we have to to follow. We can't pick
[4:49] our own fiscal year. Our fiscal year is
[4:51] from October 1 to September 30 and that
[4:55] is also set by the state.
[4:58] What do we have to do or what are we
[5:00] required by statute to set the budget?
[5:03] Well, we need to estimate our revenues
[5:05] by fund. And you'll hear me say that a
[5:07] lot too because a lot of times we'll
[5:08] talk about departments, we'll talk about
[5:10] line items, we'll talk about specific
[5:12] commodities like fuel or something
[5:15] that's catching our attention. But the
[5:17] budget is always by fund. We need to
[5:20] estimate our expenditures by fund. They
[5:23] are required to balance. So when we
[5:26] publish, you'll see this time at our
[5:29] revenues are going to be 186 million and
[5:32] our expenses are going to be 186
[5:34] million. Now a lot of people say, "Well,
[5:35] what if you want to save or what if you
[5:37] don't want to spend all that?" Well,
[5:38] that's possible. You'd see a line item,
[5:41] a specific line item that would be
[5:44] called transfer to reserve. If you're
[5:47] going to spend down now, sometimes you
[5:49] spend some of your reserves. We have
[5:50] that happening in some of our funds as
[5:52] well. Uh the biggest one is the the uh
[5:56] water pollution control fund. This
[5:58] coming year they have an $8 million
[6:00] project. So they're going to use their
[6:02] reserves. Instead of transfer to
[6:04] reserves, you're going to see a transfer
[6:05] out of reserves and that becomes a
[6:08] revenue source. So
[6:12] then we have tenative approval before
[6:14] publishing the notice of public hearing
[6:15] and we just finished that. In fact, we
[6:19] took an extra step. We had tentative
[6:21] approval and then we actually found a
[6:24] little bit more revenue and because we
[6:25] hadn't published I thought it was a good
[6:27] idea to get it that in there and we
[6:30] again approved tenatively that 186
[6:34] million and then we published the notice
[6:36] of public hearing. I do have I'll a
[6:39] quick jump because I think I can go
[6:42] back. Whoops.
[6:45] This is the notice of public hearing
[6:47] that we've prepared. Now, I know you
[6:48] can't see the detail very well. There's
[6:50] 55 funds here at the city, but that's
[6:53] what it'll look like. Um, if we go back
[6:56] now, that notice of public hearing, and
[6:58] it does, it needs to include the date,
[7:00] the time, the location.
[7:03] And in the notice of public hearing, you
[7:05] actually do have to split your revenues
[7:07] into two. You have to show the proposed
[7:10] tax revenues and then everything else.
[7:14] You have to have the proposed
[7:16] expenditures and then that comparative
[7:17] information. You are required to have
[7:21] two years plus the proposed. And I've
[7:24] always used budget, but I did learn just
[7:27] in the last couple of weeks that the
[7:29] oldest year where actuals are available,
[7:34] you could use actuals. So, for example,
[7:36] we're going to publish 27 as a proposed
[7:39] 26 as a budget number because we don't
[7:42] know what our actual total is yet. And
[7:44] then 25 could be either what the budget
[7:47] was was set, which is what we've
[7:49] prepared, or the actuals.
[7:52] >> Can you remind us real quick, Rich, when
[7:55] the public hearing is the date of the
[7:57] budget public hearing?
[7:59] >> The actual one we're that's coming up.
[8:01] >> That's our next council meeting on
[8:02] August 6th.
[8:03] >> Okay. Thank you.
[8:05] >> And that's the opportunity. You know,
[8:07] most of the time government in a in a
[8:09] represent re representative republic,
[8:11] which we are, is um what I like to call
[8:15] a spectator sport. These guys get to
[8:19] come and watch.
[8:21] They're spectators. They've elected you
[8:24] to do their job and they get to watch.
[8:28] Every once in a while, they get to
[8:30] participate. This is one of those every
[8:32] once in a while where we're required to
[8:35] have a public hearing and they can
[8:37] actually come up and address you. I
[8:39] think there's a lot of heartburn
[8:40] sometimes in government because people
[8:42] don't realize that they always hear
[8:43] democracy, it's my government and those
[8:45] are all true, but it really is a
[8:47] spectator sport. So, okay. So, we'll
[8:51] hold the public hearing. Um, you could
[8:55] adopt the budget on the same day, but
[8:57] the city of Pocutello chooses to adopt
[9:00] the budget the next meeting so that you
[9:03] have time to think about the comments
[9:06] that were made in that public hearing
[9:09] and that would be August 20th
[9:13] is when we'll adopt that budget. Then we
[9:15] certify our property taxes to the
[9:17] county. So, we'll send everything. We
[9:18] have to send our notice of public
[9:20] hearing. We have to send the budget. We
[9:22] have to send what's called the L2. It's
[9:24] a form that specifies how much budget
[9:28] we're asking the county to levy.
[9:31] Everyone says, "What's the le what are
[9:33] you going to set the levy at?" Well, you guys don't set the levy. You set a
[9:37] budget. I don't want to be misleading.
[9:40] What you do affects the levy. Certainly
[9:44] it does, but you don't set a levy. You
[9:46] set a budget. And you're limited in
[9:48] being able to do that. the the the state
[9:51] says that you cannot exceed 3% of the
[9:54] highest of the last three years. That's
[9:56] usually the most current year, but if
[9:59] for some reason we had a year that was
[10:01] lower in front of that, you can go back
[10:04] three years, look at look at those three
[10:05] years and choose 3% of the highest, you
[10:09] cannot exceed when you're using
[10:10] foregone, which we are 1% for M or 3%
[10:15] for capital use. and we're choosing 1%
[10:19] or have proposed 1% with our M. And then
[10:24] just recently the legislature passed a
[10:27] new limit. So after all of that, they'll
[10:30] look at the total increase including
[10:33] annexation,
[10:34] new construction, the 3%.
[10:39] Wait a minute. I don't think it does
[10:41] include annexation or new construction.
[10:43] Those go on automatically. It's the 3%.
[10:46] It's your use of foregone and you can't
[10:49] exceed that 8% increase.
[10:53] Sorry, I got I got a little excited
[10:56] there and I didn't want to misspeak.
[11:00] >> Also, another one of the revenue sources
[11:03] that the city relies on very heavily are
[11:05] fees. Those are in our enterprise funds.
[11:07] All the taxes are in our governmental
[11:09] funds. The fees that we are most most um
[11:13] familiar with are water, sewer,
[11:15] sanitation.
[11:17] We send out one bill and everyone pays
[11:21] their hundred plus dollars, but it
[11:24] actually is three separate utilities.
[11:26] It's water
[11:28] >> sanitation, please.
[11:29] >> When you're done with your blanket of
[11:31] points whenever you're done with that
[11:32] point.
[11:32] >> No. Well, so those can those are not
[11:36] limited like the property tax increases.
[11:39] The only caveat there is there's a 5%
[11:44] line drawn. If you if you raise a fee
[11:46] under that 5%,
[11:49] you just have to pass it. We have to go
[11:51] through the process. We have to present
[11:53] why we want that fee raised and then you
[11:56] guys will decide yes or no. If the fee
[11:59] is over 5%, you do again have to go
[12:02] through a public hearing and have input
[12:05] from constituents and citizens on those
[12:08] fees.
[12:10] >> So, uh I if you could briefly uh give us
[12:13] a
[12:15] description on what foregone
[12:17] specifically is so that people at home
[12:18] when they hear the term foregone,
[12:20] they'll understand.
[12:22] >> You bet.
[12:23] Forgon is an accounting
[12:27] of
[12:30] the ability that you had to tax and
[12:34] chose not to.
[12:38] There's no money there. It's just
[12:41] tracking
[12:43] if that makes sense. You You could have
[12:46] you. So, let's say your budget is $1,000
[12:52] and you can increase it to
[12:56] $1,300,
[12:58] but you only choose to increase it to
[13:01] $1,200.
[13:03] We don't take that increment of $100,
[13:07] but we track it.
[13:09] and the state has so far preserved your
[13:12] ability to come back later
[13:16] and say yeah we need that now.
[13:19] >> So it's is that fair?
[13:21] >> So it's the number or the amount that we
[13:23] had foregone on collecting.
[13:25] >> That is correct. Uh currently
[13:28] [clears throat] the city has about $5
[13:30] million
[13:32] being tracked in their foregone amount
[13:35] >> and of that total balance of foregone we
[13:38] can only take up to 3%
[13:41] of that or a lot for
[13:43] >> well 1% of that is three I think our
[13:48] foregone is $375,000
[13:51] and that can be permanently placed into
[13:55] M into the levy and every year it will
[14:00] be a part of that taxing levy. You do
[14:04] have the opportunity to take another 3%
[14:07] which would be almost a million dollars
[14:10] or maybe just just barely over a million
[14:12] dollars. It's a onetime shot. It reduces
[14:15] your foregone by that million dollars,
[14:18] but you never see that again and it
[14:20] doesn't roll over.
[14:21] >> So those are the two ways you can use
[14:24] that foregone. Thank you,
[14:28] >> Rich. Um, this might be something for
[14:30] myself I don't always get as well as the
[14:33] audience at home and here. Um, there's
[14:36] that overall 8% limit and just how
[14:40] that's adding up. But it's hard to grasp
[14:42] that because you can get the 3% of the
[14:45] highest last years, last three years,
[14:48] and then your management and overhead
[14:50] can exceed 1% and you can exceed 3% for
[14:54] capital and foregone. Well, that only
[14:56] adds up to 7%.
[14:58] >> Right?
[15:00] I'd have to show you some examples, I
[15:02] think, to make that clear. Uh to to to
[15:06] show you the math of how that would
[15:08] actually happen
[15:10] >> and could happen.
[15:11] >> Okay. So, it's a possibility that could
[15:14] happen, but we never seem to bump into
[15:16] that scenario here.
[15:18] >> We haven't yet. That is correct.
[15:22] >> Okay.
[15:26] What that does, what the legislature was
[15:28] trying to do there is actually it is
[15:32] actually cap the increase and it forces
[15:35] because of the computation or the math
[15:38] it forces the levy down
[15:41] >> because it used to be that rather than
[15:44] 1% on management and overhead we could
[15:47] take three
[15:49] or maybe I don't
[15:50] >> well it actually used to be when I
[15:52] started that you could take the whole
[15:53] >> whatever your gun amount is that is
[15:56] correct. Okay. But that's
[15:57] >> these limits are are fairly new. All of
[16:00] them.
[16:00] >> Yeah. The 1% really
[16:02] >> Yeah. The foregone may be sitting there,
[16:04] but you're you're really tight on what
[16:07] you can take is the crux of it,
[16:09] >> right? I think it's I think it's been I keep telling myself I shouldn't speak
[16:17] on the fly, but it's within five years
[16:19] that all of those limits have come into
[16:21] play.
[16:22] >> Mhm.
[16:23] And there was a lot of hubbhub on that
[16:26] year that they started them if city
[16:28] should go ahead and take the foregon
[16:33] before it's limited.
[16:35] >> Yeah.
[16:36] >> So, but we're way past that now.
[16:38] >> Okay.
[16:40] >> All right.
[16:43] Well,
[16:46] amending the budget. We get a lot of
[16:48] questions about that. the same exact
[16:50] process that you're [clears throat]
[16:52] going through now. Although
[16:55] I guess the difference is
[16:58] usually when you're amending the budget,
[16:59] you're specifically thinking about one
[17:02] revenue
[17:03] stream that that either is new uh we
[17:07] missed something reserves that we didn't
[17:10] include before and now we do want to use
[17:12] them for some reason. That's a revenue
[17:14] source that could be for amending the
[17:15] budget. So, it seems like it's more
[17:17] focused when you're amending the budget
[17:19] then than when we go through this
[17:22] process in August, but it's the exact
[17:27] same steps that we go through.
[17:32] What does the city budget pay for? I
[17:33] just threw up some of these numbers to
[17:35] show you. Police, there's two numbers
[17:38] there. Police is 44% of the general fund
[17:42] and 12% of the total budget of the city.
[17:46] Animal control which is under the police
[17:49] is 3% of the general fund and 8 and8%
[17:54] of the total city budget. Fire is 23%
[17:59] of the general fund and 6% of the total
[18:05] city budget. I think it's interesting to
[18:07] know and I think it's a good thing that
[18:10] if you look at the general fund 75%
[18:13] almost 75% of those funds are going to
[18:16] public safety and I think citizens
[18:19] support that. I really do. It's we're
[18:23] not
[18:25] um funding something that doesn't get a
[18:29] lot of their support. Parks is 2% of the
[18:32] total. Um,
[18:35] cemetery is 0.5%, streets is 5%.
[18:40] Transportation was three, water nine,
[18:42] wastewater eight, sanitation seven, and
[18:44] you can see libraries two, airport one,
[18:46] internal service was five.
[18:49] Just an interesting way to look at um
[18:52] how those 55 funds make up the total.
[18:55] These I picked these because these are
[18:57] the ones that are usually their
[18:58] operating funds and usually the funds
[19:00] that are that the citizen interacts with
[19:03] right the ones that they see.
[19:07] Where does the money come from? So
[19:10] property tax makes up 20% of the entire
[19:13] budget of the city. Shared revenue
[19:15] intergovernmental like sales gas. So
[19:18] sales tax the 6% you pay at the register
[19:20] when you're at Walmart. Gas tax when you
[19:23] fill up your car. the liquor tax. So, if
[19:25] my presentation is driving you to go
[19:28] across the parking lot here in a minute,
[19:31] you're helping the city budget.
[19:34] Uh, utility charges, 25%. That's all
[19:37] three of them. Franchise fees, those are
[19:40] those fees that we collect from um Idaho
[19:43] Power, Gas, it's one. Permits, permits,
[19:45] licenses, fees, leases. I added those
[19:48] all together. Kind of a catch-all, too.
[19:50] grants. 18% of our budget is from
[19:53] grants. We hear a lot of people saying,
[19:57] "Well, look for different ways to fund
[20:00] what's going on at city hall." And this
[20:03] one surprised me. I hadn't looked at
[20:05] that number and the mayor asked me to.
[20:07] That's almost as much as property tax.
[20:12] I I think that goes to show that we are
[20:15] trying to look for different ways,
[20:19] different revenue sources and that were
[20:23] successful. [clears throat]
[20:24] >> I was pretty happy with that number.
[20:27] Interest is 2%. We've had a lot of talk
[20:29] about that. reserves. A lot of people do
[20:33] not look as at reserves as a revenue
[20:35] source, but that's exactly what it is
[20:37] when it's budgeting is you bring it back
[20:39] in as a as a revenue stream.
[20:44] >> Are there other percentages, Rich?
[20:46] Because that didn't add up to 100.
[20:48] >> That is true. I only picked the ones
[20:51] that I thought were
[20:52] >> Okay, just in case someone's wondering
[20:55] why that doesn't add up to 100%.
[20:57] >> That's a really good point, Mayor. and it would have taken a couple of
[21:01] slides to get through them all.
[21:02] >> But so if the council is interested, it
[21:05] would be really easy, I think you've
[21:07] seen this report before, to put that
[21:09] percentage out on every single fund and get you that information and and
[21:15] maybe I should just make a note of doing
[21:17] that because it's good information to
[21:19] know.
[21:23] Oh, I went the wrong way. Sorry.
[21:29] So we're doing governmental accounting
[21:31] and it's by fund. Uh we have several
[21:35] fund types. Our governmental funds are
[21:37] the general. There are eight of them.
[21:39] Each fund that receives property tax is
[21:43] a governmental fund. We have a highway
[21:46] streets and roads fund. That's a
[21:47] governmental fund. It receives property
[21:49] tax. We have 11 enterprise funds. That's
[21:53] because we count their capital and their
[21:55] debt service. Each one of our enterprise
[21:58] uh funds has a capital fund and a debt
[22:01] service fund. We have eight internal
[22:03] service funds, seven capital projects
[22:06] funds, 20 special revenue funds, and one
[22:10] fudiciary fund. That fidiciary fund is
[22:12] the police retirement. I believe there
[22:15] are 15
[22:17] participants left in that fund.
[22:22] What's the budget calendar? Well, we're
[22:23] going to start in January. In fact, I
[22:25] think we've [laughter] talked about
[22:26] we're going to keep we're going to keep
[22:28] going. So, when I put this together,
[22:32] it's what we have done, but we are
[22:33] actually going to, I believe, have
[22:35] meetings either monthly or
[22:38] >> every other month or something. We're
[22:39] going to keep going and keep the
[22:41] conversation going and try to get some
[22:42] of the things we've talked about in the
[22:44] past budget strategic. But basically
[22:47] what you do is you sit down with the decision makers
[22:54] that are you and you find out what their
[22:58] goals are. You do some strategic
[23:00] planning and um we did that. Um one of
[23:04] the things that sticks in my mind that
[23:05] we always talk about is curb appeal.
[23:07] There were others. I I think we had five
[23:10] main 13 total. Um but we did that in
[23:13] March. I think it's important and and
[23:15] this was a little bit of a change for
[23:17] everybody here at the city is that you
[23:20] uh look at your revenues and wage and
[23:23] wage related expenses because those
[23:25] things really don't
[23:28] necessarily the wage and wage related
[23:30] expenses. We can pretty much h nail
[23:33] those down. We know who works for us. We
[23:35] know how much they make. We know what
[23:37] those related expenses are going to be.
[23:39] And the reason you want to do revenue
[23:40] first is because you need to know how
[23:42] big your pie is going to be when you
[23:44] start talking about adding um the
[23:48] department requests. Uh April, May, we
[23:51] have a lot of departments for those
[23:53] requests. June the council workshops
[23:56] when we get it all put together. July
[23:58] the tenative budget adoption. In August
[24:01] we'll have the public hearing. Now, in
[24:03] August, we're going to adopt our our um
[24:09] ordinance, but the drop dead is actually
[24:12] that first September, that first
[24:14] Thursday in September. The reason we
[24:17] build our calendar that way is because
[24:20] if for some reason you guys throw a loba
[24:22] bomb at us and we have to back up and do
[24:25] something different
[24:27] because you want to change direction or
[24:29] change your goals or whatever, we have
[24:32] that. We're nimble enough to do that. We
[24:34] have the opportunity and one more
[24:36] chance, one more meeting that we can
[24:38] make that um correction.
[24:42] What's a sound budget philosophy?
[24:44] spend with spend within reoccurring
[24:46] revenues. That means the ones that come
[24:49] back every year. Maintain adequate
[24:51] reserves. We've talked about this a
[24:53] little bit. Three months of operations
[24:55] and every single one of our funds has at
[24:57] least three months of operations. What
[25:00] happens after 3 months? Well, then you
[25:01] start building your capital plan. And uh
[25:04] we're actually moving into a formal
[25:07] process. We've had informal capital
[25:10] plans, but we're going to move into a
[25:12] formal process of that capital plan,
[25:14] which does include um deferred
[25:16] maintenance, prepare for emergencies,
[25:19] invest in infrastructure, and have a
[25:21] multi-year plan. I'm really excited
[25:23] about the opportunities we have with
[25:25] open gov. We have started entering 20 uh
[25:29] 28 already. I'll be able to do the L2
[25:31] for four years ahead. we can um
[25:36] tenatively look at wage wage related
[25:37] expenses. It it's going to be great.
[25:40] We'll be able to give you a real
[25:41] snapshot of what it might look like for
[25:45] four years instead of one. I almost wish
[25:48] in Oregon you can adopt two years at a
[25:50] time. And I almost wish that we could do
[25:53] that, but I don't think we'll ever get
[25:55] the conservative cowboys in Idaho to
[25:58] >> loosen up those rains that much, which
[26:01] is probably a good thing.
[26:03] >> What are the challenges?
[26:05] Inflation might be the biggest one. And
[26:07] I looked up last month's or the or 12
[26:11] months ending May of 2026. That's the
[26:13] latest data that we've got. Inflation's
[26:16] 4.2%.
[26:18] Well, I mean, that's a problem already
[26:20] because we can only go three, right? So,
[26:23] we're looking at less buying power.
[26:25] Employee wages are challenges. They're
[26:26] the largest part of the budget in any
[26:30] fund.
[26:31] Insurance, it's the largest individual
[26:34] annual increase. I looked up what is an
[26:37] average annual increase for health
[26:38] insurance for Idaho municipalities and
[26:42] it's 10 to 12%. That is that is what
[26:46] I've seen in my in in my past. It's what
[26:50] we saw this year. It's it's just it
[26:54] rings true that that is one of the
[26:57] [snorts] biggest challenges we have.
[26:59] Deferred maintenance I mentioned that
[27:01] infrastructure we are I think taking a
[27:04] great step towards that in the capital
[27:07] plan growth.
[27:10] I looked up the Pocutello metro area. I
[27:14] think that would probably just include
[27:16] like Portf Valley. Our growth is really
[27:19] small.5%.
[27:23] And so that's one of the challenges we
[27:25] have. We want we are going to have to
[27:27] provide not more with less, but we're
[27:30] going to have to provide what we're
[27:32] doing. We're going to have to try and
[27:35] maintain what we're doing with less.
[27:38] uh state legislation and you guys saw
[27:41] that clearly HB uh HB312 the funding
[27:45] evaporated and we had a $ 1.3 million
[27:48] hole in our highway streets and roads
[27:51] just economic uncertainty alto together
[27:54] what's the council's role in governance
[27:56] well you set priorities you set service
[27:58] levels you adopt tenative and final
[28:03] budgets meeting statutory requirements
[28:06] you monitor our performance with our
[28:08] reports back. Uh you make adjustments as
[28:11] needed. And I think that's why it's so
[28:13] important that we keep some of these
[28:14] meetings going and the discussion going.
[28:18] Really, what you guys do is protect the
[28:20] city's long-term financial health.
[28:22] That's that's what you're supposed to
[28:24] do. I thought I'd slide in really quick.
[28:27] I don't even know. Oh, I'm way over
[28:29] time. I better hurry.
[28:31] >> You're okay. Yeah, just a few minutes is
[28:33] fine.
[28:33] >> I thought this was I thought this would
[28:34] be really good for those who are
[28:36] listening. These are the things that I
[28:38] have gleaned from you as we've talked
[28:40] about the budget. Build a better
[28:43] Pocutello.
[28:44] Be proactive versus reactive. Be
[28:48] accurate, timely, understandable.
[28:50] What do you want to pay for and not want
[28:52] to pay for? If this was a new request,
[28:56] would you fund it and stop keeping
[28:59] score? I think those are all really good
[29:02] and it shows the the flavor of the
[29:05] council that we have.
[29:08] It shows that you guys are really trying
[29:10] hard to put something together that's
[29:13] meaningful when it comes to the budget
[29:15] and and doing your due diligence and I
[29:17] appreciate that. What's management's
[29:19] role? develop a calendar, prepare the
[29:22] estimates, draft the budget, review for
[29:24] accuracy, report performance, carry out
[29:26] adjustments, and in the end, it's to
[29:30] protect the city's long-term financial
[29:32] health. I highlighted that because
[29:35] we have the same role in the end. We
[29:39] just get there together in a different
[29:41] way.
[29:46] So, in the end, what makes a healthy
[29:47] budget? balanced revenues and
[29:50] expenditures, healthy reserves, three
[29:53] months of operations, realistic
[29:54] revenues, those those based projections
[29:57] in revenues. We had a little bit of that
[29:59] happened last year where maybe some of
[30:01] the projections were
[30:04] op a little too optimistic. It's not bad
[30:06] to be optimistic, but maybe in budgeting
[30:09] we should dial it back just a little
[30:11] bit. Sustainable staffing, good
[30:13] management because it's our biggest
[30:15] expense. capital investment, long-term
[30:17] planning. We're taking a step there and
[30:20] timely financial reporting.
[30:22] And I want to tell you that today we
[30:25] started disseminating our fiscal year 24
[30:29] financial report. It's old news, but
[30:32] it's still exciting to have it done. And
[30:35] we're well on our way to 25. So, I do
[30:39] believe we can be caught up for the
[30:42] current year when it's due in March of
[30:44] 2017. Yeah, kudos to you and your staff
[30:47] for that. That's
[30:48] >> my staff's been a big part of
[30:49] >> accomplishment and I know you've been
[30:50] laser [clears throat] focused on that
[30:52] since [laughter] you've gotten here.
[30:54] >> Thank you. I am going to quickly slip
[30:57] this in. This is kind of making a right
[31:00] turn, but we have an audit committee.
[31:02] It's not something that we had uh at the
[31:04] city of Chubik. It's really important.
[31:06] Doran actually at Deon wanted the city
[31:08] of Chvik to set one up. Uh what is the
[31:10] role of the audit committee? And and one
[31:12] of the reasons I want to slip it in is
[31:14] because during our final interview for
[31:16] fiscal year 24, Dorne thought or Deon
[31:19] and company thought Dorne's our auditor,
[31:21] I probably should say Deon and company
[31:23] suggested that we do some training and
[31:25] education on the role of the audit
[31:27] committee, especially on uh bullet
[31:30] number five, but audit committee, they
[31:32] they're financial reporting oversight.
[31:34] They're the ones that reviewed the
[31:35] financials and they accepted them. that
[31:37] the financials were actually accepted in
[31:39] May 26th, but there were some things
[31:41] change in my department and there are
[31:43] some things happen with the financials
[31:44] that we had a little bit of cleanup to
[31:46] do. So, that took us about 55 days to
[31:49] get that through and get her done.
[31:50] Oversight of the external audit, they
[31:52] take care of what's happening with Deon.
[31:54] Internal control oversight, risk
[31:57] management oversight. I'm going to skip
[31:59] that ethics one because I'd like to just
[32:01] point it out at the end. Monitoring,
[32:02] corrective actions, and communications
[32:04] with the governing body. And there are
[32:05] two council members on that audit
[32:08] committee. Council member Mangum and
[32:09] council member Swanson are both on
[32:11] there. So, but pointing out ethics and
[32:15] fraud. So, if there's something going on
[32:17] at the city that you thought that's not
[32:20] right or could even be maybe fraud or
[32:25] you're like, "Where did all that money
[32:26] go?" and you're uncomfortable in either
[32:29] talking to your supervisor, which is
[32:31] regular chain of command, that's what we
[32:33] usually do, or um
[32:37] there's another way for you to uh get
[32:40] your concern taken care of, and that's
[32:43] the audit committee. You can tell the
[32:45] audit committee what you're thinking
[32:46] about, what you've seen, what you've
[32:48] heard, what's your concern, and they
[32:50] will, I know they will take it
[32:52] seriously, and they'll investigate it,
[32:54] report back. at the end it's going to
[32:56] come back to the mayor and you guys, but
[32:59] um and we need to get that word out
[33:03] so that it's one of our internal
[33:05] controls
[33:07] and we do have every once in a while and
[33:10] sometimes it's baseless,
[33:11] >> but we do have someone ask, well,
[33:13] where's the money go?
[33:14] >> You know,
[33:16] >> what about me members of the public that
[33:18] they're feeling that there's just some
[33:21] shenanigans going on? I I want there to
[33:24] be a someone to look into this. Is that
[33:27] going to the audit committee as well or
[33:29] is that more
[33:31] >> both internal and external folks?
[33:33] >> I'm sorry that I did not make that
[33:35] clear. In fact,
[33:37] um
[33:39] I would like to make sure that that we
[33:42] do enough education that our that our
[33:45] public know that
[33:46] >> and that they realize there's that
[33:48] avenue that they could take to report
[33:51] that. Yeah, the audit committee is huge
[33:53] and I think getting that word out as
[33:56] much as we can in that spirit of
[33:59] transparency.
[34:00] You know, you think something is going
[34:03] on that's, you know, that there there is
[34:05] a method that it will be looked into.
[34:08] You know, I think it's very critical to
[34:10] get that word out.
[34:13] Thank you. Okay. Key takeaways. Budget's
[34:17] planning. Budget reflects community
[34:19] priorities. Every dollar has a purpose.
[34:23] Financial stab sustainability requires
[34:25] discipline and that's one thing I would
[34:28] thank you guys for because I think you
[34:29] do have that and I appreciate it.
[34:32] Today's decision affect tomorrow's
[34:34] taxpayers.
[34:36] >> And back to the audit committee, Rich,
[34:38] did you say there there are external
[34:40] people that belong to that as well?
[34:43] >> Yes, there are
[34:44] >> internal and external folks that
[34:46] >> on the committee. Yep.
[34:48] >> Mhm. [snorts]
[34:50] And then
[34:50] >> there are two employees, there are two
[34:51] council members, and there is one uh
[34:54] he's a financial um provider in our
[34:58] town. So, he brings some real expertise.
[35:01] >> Yeah.
[35:02] >> For the financial part, but
[35:04] >> Okay. So, you you mentioned open.gov or
[35:07] kind of the bigger question that this is
[35:10] a a great broad level overview like if
[35:13] I'm a citizen now and I really want to
[35:15] dig into these numbers, where do I go?
[35:17] How do I do that?
[35:19] >> Well, and I'll have to apologize. I
[35:21] think in the last meeting I told you
[35:22] open gov was available and I since
[35:26] learned like about 5 minutes after that
[35:28] meeting that I was wrong that it's not.
[35:31] And so we're going to take care of that
[35:33] this week. and and my vision is that you
[35:37] would go to the city's website and under
[35:42] budgeting you would see a link to our
[35:45] open gov software and be able to go in
[35:47] and look. I do I think that's correct.
[35:51] Um but again that link is not there. I
[35:54] checked with it. I've checked with my
[35:56] staff and we've got to set that up. So,
[36:01] >> and we're looking hopefully by the end
[36:03] of the month to get that going. Yep. You
[36:05] know,
[36:06] >> I think that'd be generous. I want to
[36:08] have it done before then. So,
[36:09] >> yeah. Yeah.
[36:10] >> Yeah, for sure.
[36:12] >> What What does Open Gov do that our last
[36:15] system didn't do? Because Open Gov's
[36:18] less It's only about a year old. We've
[36:20] only had that for about a year, haven't
[36:22] we?
[36:22] >> It really the biggest thing is provide
[36:24] access, I think. um and maybe more
[36:29] trusted access. Although we're putting
[36:31] in the numbers, we're not we're not um
[36:37] we don't have a period of time between
[36:39] the request and delivery to look at it
[36:42] and massage it or change it, right? The
[36:45] numbers are there. They're right there.
[36:46] >> The numbers are matched. They can go in
[36:48] and look at them. So, I don't think
[36:51] anything untrustworthy was working, but
[36:53] I think that system allows the person to
[36:56] feel that it's more trustworthy, if that
[36:59] makes sense.
[37:00] >> Okay.
[37:01] >> I think that's the biggest thing.
[37:03] >> Great.
[37:03] >> They'll see the stories that were
[37:05] presented. They'll see the total
[37:06] budgets. Um,
[37:10] and they can see those now as static
[37:13] entries under
[37:16] like the council's packets. And they do
[37:19] look like they will look in open gov,
[37:23] but we want to get them live.
[37:26] >> Okay, great.
[37:28] Okay. Well, well, thank you. It's it's a tad awkward how we set this up
[37:33] because I know Rich is presenting to the
[37:35] council. Um, but the way this was set up
[37:38] was really to let the folks here know
[37:40] and members of the public. So,
[37:44] >> next time we'll have you flip around
[37:45] toward the audience. But um that that
[37:47] was the target. This was a
[37:50] >> more of learning for us too, but we
[37:52] wanted the members of the public to see
[37:54] this.
[37:55] >> I didn't realize I was so chatty. I they
[37:57] told me 30 minutes
[37:58] >> and I thought I'd take 20 and look, I
[38:01] doubled that.
[38:02] >> We could have told you it was going to
[38:04] go longer. [laughter]
[38:05] >> Yeah. Always does.
[38:07] >> Thank you.
[38:08] >> Okay. Thank you, Rich.
[38:08] >> Thanks, Rich.
[38:11] >> Okay. At this time, we will accept some
[38:14] comments from the audience. We didn't
[38:17] have anyone sign in at the start of the
[38:19] meeting, but the sign-in sheet is at the
[38:22] podium. And so, if you'd like three
[38:24] minutes to speak on any topic that's on
[38:26] your mind, we welcome that. Um, I do
[38:29] need to remind everyone that regarding
[38:32] the the appeal and the appeal for the uh
[38:36] hearing examiner for that conditional
[38:38] use permit for the data center, there's
[38:41] a good chance that that's going to be
[38:43] appealed by the applicant. And so where
[38:47] it's an ongoing and the the council is
[38:50] on under exparte, it's an exparte or
[38:53] quas judicial matter, I should say. that
[38:57] same rules govern that before where
[38:59] we're still probably in that appeal
[39:02] process. It's kind of like what I told
[39:04] the public at council meeting last
[39:06] Thursday night that if your your
[39:08] comments pertain to something about that
[39:11] appeal that uh we're not able to take
[39:14] comments or hear comments like that
[39:16] tonight, but any other subject is wide
[39:18] open. And at this time, I'd invite you
[39:21] to come to the podium if you'd like and
[39:23] sign in. Hear what you got.
[39:39] » [snorts]
[39:45] [clears throat]
[40:06] » Lydia Noble from Pocutello. I have three
[40:09] things that I think um I would just like
[40:11] the council to consider and I appreciate
[40:14] your service and I'm glad that all of
[40:16] you are doing it because it is a lot of
[40:18] work and I want you to know that I
[40:20] appreciate what you do. Um, first one is
[40:24] I think that there's there are some
[40:27] things that can be done that may not
[40:30] maybe should be done. Just because it
[40:33] can be done, maybe it shouldn't be being
[40:35] done. And that has to do with the
[40:37] interest. The fact that the interest
[40:39] from most of the city departments seems
[40:41] to be being swept into the general fund.
[40:44] Whereas in other places, it's more that
[40:47] those interest incomes are kept within
[40:49] funds or departments so that those
[40:52] departments have their own source of
[40:54] income, source of revenue. So I know
[40:56] this is not something that can be fixed
[40:58] overnight. It's taken years to get here.
[41:01] So it's just something I want you to
[41:03] consider that as a member of the public
[41:04] who has some financial background, I
[41:07] would like to see us get back to that.
[41:09] The next thing is the right of way. I
[41:12] recently put in a public record request
[41:15] to try to understand if the city has any
[41:18] logical breakdown of how the row charges
[41:23] that are buried into the budgets for the
[41:25] enterprise departments water sanitation
[41:27] WPC those kinds of things if there's a method to how those charges
[41:33] are determined the answer I got was the
[41:36] raftellis
[41:38] rate study that we do every five years
[41:41] I'm Not sure that's exactly correct. So
[41:44] that brings me back to the initial
[41:46] question. How are the row charges
[41:48] determined? What is the methodology?
[41:50] Because I believe Raphelis may just be
[41:53] given that as part of the budget. So if
[41:56] they're already given that, of course,
[41:58] they're going to build the rate study
[42:00] with th those numbers built into the
[42:01] budget like they would build a budget,
[42:04] you know, with salary information in it.
[42:07] So my concern is in other cities, two
[42:10] other cities, Lewon and Moscow have
[42:12] already removed those kinds of charges
[42:15] because they have been viewed as an
[42:18] unconstitutional additional tax because
[42:21] sanitation, water, you know, these
[42:23] enterprise departments, they have
[42:25] nothing to do with street maintenance
[42:27] and the public already pays taxes,
[42:29] levies, county taxes, state taxes for
[42:32] the maintenance of our roads. So by
[42:34] burying it in the budget of the
[42:36] enterprise departments, I believe we
[42:38] could be artificially inflating our fees
[42:42] that we pay for city services. So I'd
[42:44] like to see us get back to maybe not
[42:46] doing that. It may take a few years to
[42:48] get back to that. I understand, but I
[42:51] just think it's not a good practice. And
[42:53] just because we can do it, I don't think
[42:54] we maybe should be doing it. Two other
[42:56] cities have removed it.
[42:58] >> And the last thing that I had, and I'm
[43:00] running out of time,
[43:00] >> I don't mind you going an extra minute.
[43:02] There's not
[43:04] >> and this last one is easy.
[43:06] >> I've been watching the growth of the
[43:07] city budget, but again, I'm looking at
[43:09] total numbers and I know a lot of that
[43:11] sometimes has the grants buried into it.
[43:14] So, there's no easy way because the
[43:16] city's never been really good about
[43:18] advertising how much of that portion
[43:19] comes out because it's simply the grants
[43:22] that the city received that need to be
[43:23] spent over one year, two years, five
[43:25] years, whatever. But I would like to see
[43:27] a comparison over let's say the last
[43:30] decade of how the budget has grown, the
[43:33] base budget, the budget that is the base
[43:36] of the city over a 10-year period. I
[43:38] would love to see a graphic of that or
[43:41] something to that effect because that
[43:42] would help the public understand the
[43:44] budget isn't growing exponentially,
[43:46] which is what I'm seeing when I'm
[43:47] looking at it when the grants and
[43:49] everything are put into it, but just how
[43:51] we've been growing our budget.
[43:53] >> Yeah. because the city the city itself
[43:56] isn't growing by population that much.
[43:59] So that's my concern that we need to
[44:01] start looking at that type of a thing.
[44:03] I've talked to other cities that have
[44:05] told me, two other cities have told me
[44:07] that they base the number of city
[44:10] full-time positions on their population.
[44:13] And they have between four and five city
[44:15] employees for every 1,000 population
[44:19] size. So, if they have an explosion in
[44:21] population, that helps them to justify
[44:24] additional full-time and I ask them,
[44:27] "What do you do when your city isn't
[44:28] growing and yet you see something
[44:30] unusual come up as far as workload?"
[44:33] They handle it with part-time workers is
[44:35] what both cities told me. And that was
[44:36] Twin Falls and Caldwell, I believe, that
[44:38] I spoke with. So, I'm just giving you
[44:40] that as it's something to to think
[44:42] about.
[44:43] >> Okay.
[44:43] >> All right. Thank you.
[44:45] >> Thank you. And I'll allow an opportunity
[44:47] for council to whatever comments you
[44:49] have. Like one quick one I have Lydia
[44:52] is, you know, I understand what you're
[44:54] saying. Duly noted about that interest.
[44:56] Like we have all of our funds and
[44:57] they're accumulating interest and it's
[45:00] been practice to put that in the general
[45:02] fund. Um you're right. It's a hard thing
[45:05] to resolve overnight. You know, one
[45:08] thing you probably know about this, but
[45:10] with the street department this year,
[45:12] like incremental step number one, that
[45:15] we we did transfer that out of the
[45:17] general fund and into the street
[45:20] >> fund. And that that was part of the way
[45:22] we were able to overcome that $1.3
[45:25] million shortfall from the state. So, so hear what you're saying. I agree
[45:30] that it's a a longer process and we we
[45:34] we've talked much um you know with
[45:37] finance staff and amongst ourselves on
[45:39] what we can do to
[45:41] >> to chip away at that and um you know and
[45:44] then the rate study on the the
[45:46] enterprise funds for the utilities. I I think that makes sense. Let's get some
[45:52] logistics there. and um it got what
[45:55] you're saying about take the grant
[45:57] portion out too cuz sometimes that does
[45:59] artificially inflate. Yeah.
[46:02] >> So that those are my quick comments.
[46:04] Just be happy if you you all have any
[46:07] more.
[46:09] >> Thank you.
[46:10] >> So thank you.
[46:11] >> Thank you.
[46:14] >> All right. Be be happy to hear from some
[46:16] others out there.
[46:21] Otherwise, this might be the shortest
[46:23] town hall meeting in history. [laughter]
[46:28] » Yeah.
[46:31] >> Okay. Well, appreciate you all being
[46:33] here. Hopefully, you'll learn some
[46:35] basics about budget formation and how we
[46:38] put that all together. Um, we all have
[46:42] email addresses. Our email addresses are
[46:44] on the city's website. Mine is
[46:47] mayorpocatello.gov.
[46:49] I believe there's a council at
[46:52] pocatello.gov that reaches everyone. So,
[46:57] um, always happy to chat. Um, if you
[46:59] want to talk with the mayor one on one,
[47:02] I do accept appointments and I can get a
[47:05] half hour. You may have to wait for two
[47:07] or 3 weeks or so to get in, but um, just
[47:11] know that we're all contactable and
[47:14] please feel free to reach out.
[47:18] Okay. And with that uh thank you and we
[47:20] are adjourned for the evening.