By Michael Howell
The Hamilton City Council adopted a preliminary budget for the coming fiscal year 2015-2016 that mirrors last year, according to City Finance Officer Craig Shepherd. The budget projects about $10 million in total expenses with about $9 million in revenues.
Projected expenses are roughly split into thirds with $3,300,000 going to personnel, $3,550,000 in operational costs and about $3,350,000 in capital expenditures. Shepherd said that personnel and operational costs were up across the board with medical insurance costs going up 15%.
About 24% of the projected revenue is from property taxes with another 26% coming from federal, state and local government sources. Close to 31% of the revenues comes from user fees for services and about 11% comes from inter-fund transfers from the water and sewer funds. The remainder comes from various other sources.
According to City Planner and Special Projects Director Dennis Stranger, the city is starting the fiscal year with about $1.1 million in cash on hand in the general fund, $1.2 million in the water fund and $1 million in the sewer fund.
The council held a public hearing and then passed a resolution annexing property at 232 Marcus Street. The residence, owned by Irene Sawyer, is currently on city water but is seeking to be placed on city sewer. The Council also passed an ordinance on first reading that establishes zoning for the property as a Transitional Neighborhood Business District.
The council eliminated the current allocation of street maintenance funds that splits the 20 mill fund into 15 mills for street maintenance and 5 mills for sidewalks, allowing all 20 mills to be spent on either street maintenance or sidewalks. Councilor Ken Bell said that it gives the city needed flexibility in use of the funds.
In other business the Council:
• waived the wastewater impact fees for the establishment of a Bicycle Rest Station at the Ravalli County Fairgrounds.
• approved a prosecuting attorney contract with John Bell at the same hourly rate as last year.
• updated the Deputy Clerk job description.
• appointed the Council President to sign off on a payroll reconciliation summary each month. According to City Attorney Karen Mahar, the process is intended to provide some verification to the Council as a whole that someone has looked at the money coming in and going out of payroll and checking that the totals match. This allows a financial review without having to put in the public record individual employee information such as leave times, medical issues and child support, which should remain confidential.