by John Dowd
Last Thursday the Stevensville Town Council met to discuss the 2023/24 budget. During the meeting several concerns were voiced, both by town officials and the public. Chief of these concerns was payroll and the prospect of employee retention, especially regarding police officers.
Overall, the budget, according to Mayor Steve Gibson, is in good shape, though tight. However, inflationary concerns have hit the town hard. The budget accounted for a 40 cent per hour raise for all employees which will take effect in January, but Gibson believes this is a pittance. “It’s something,” but he believes it is not going to keep people, and in fact it has not.
The main topic of concern was police officer pay. According to Gibson, and others that spoke during the meeting, police officers are not getting what they need, and the pay is not even close to competing with anywhere else nearby. Gibson’s concern is that they have lost so many officers to this. According to Town Interim Police Chief, Todd Schafer, “I go to work every day expecting to die. How long do I go to work every day thinking I can do that?” He explained that the pay to bring an officer into the job needs to be enough to offset the dangers faced on the job.
Schafer mentioned that Missoula police just got a huge raise, and make in some cases over $30 an hour. The lowest he has seen in the area, including other town and city police in Ravalli County, is around $26-$28 per hour. According to town officials during the meeting, Stevensville officers receive somewhere in the ballpark of $20 per hour, and a 30-year retirement. This is nearly $10 under the pay other departments are issued, and nearly all other departments have a 20-year retirement.
According to councilmember Nancy Lowell, “I think definitely, that’s something that should be done in the future, and I don’t know why it hasn’t been done already.” Robert Underwood spoke in agreement. Underwood was the finance officer for the town in the past, but has moved to part time to help out. He was at the meeting reading aloud portions of the budget for the town council. “We are behind in certain areas, especially with the police,” he said.
Gibson brought up again his intent to try to cut his own pay. He even included a list of what other town mayors make in areas of similar size to Stevensville. According to him, he currently makes $20,000 a year. He said that in Big Timber, the mayor makes $5,340 per year, the Red Lodge mayor gets $4,800, the Three Forks mayor gets $7,200, the Columbus mayor gets $8,400 and the Forsyth mayor gets $9,600 a year. “And some of these are bigger than we are,” said Gibson.
Gibson has had his pay cut before, when he first took office, and met with some contention from members of the council when he wanted to do it again. Gibson requested that it be cut by another $4,000 or so, to roughly bring it down to $15,000 per year. The whole goal is to free up money to go into pay for employees. In an interview after the council meeting, the mayor said, “The town is going to have to decide what services they want.” He expressed his concerns that next year’s budget is going to be more difficult and that the town may need to cut programs to raise funds for other ones. He mentioned some choices may include cutting police, fire department and public works, as these areas are currently underpaid. To him, if the town wants to maintain these, hard decisions may need to be made.
One option brought forth by public comment came from Jim Tadvick, who asked, “Why not turn over the police to the Sheriff?” Gibson said the idea is being explored. According to him, the sheriff intends to reach out to him about the option. To Gibson’s knowledge, the proposal may include keeping two officers on. These officers could continue to use the new space in Town Hall, and the Sheriff’s Office would help with their pay. However, the officers would become deputies. “This is my understanding, but again, he [the Sheriff] hasn’t called yet,” said Gibson.
Gibson was also concerned that the town is going to have to replace a police car or fire engine soon. They will need to spend money eventually and the mayor said that the town is going to need to consider where that money will come from if something breaks down. “It may need to come from the general fund, which is already tapped,” he said.
Gibson added that the budget has been difficult as there were several funds where money had been switched around to pay for things they were not intended to pay for. This, he said, was done by the former mayor, Brandon Dewey. Many of the funds have had to be moved again, or combined in order to clean up the budget and make sense of it. This confusion may make it more difficult in future to find funding for other things that may come up, or to reasonably pay employees, said Gibson. Gibson also plans to put in his resignation over the next couple months for health reasons. He expressed that he wished he could stay longer, as there is so much more to clean up.
Another concern, mentioned by Lowell, is the town pool. She said it is difficult for her to understand how it is losing so much money. According to Gibson, who chimed in on the matter, “The pool loses money every year.” Lowell asked why they cannot cut the pay to the lifeguards, as they seem to make too much. Again, Gibson spoke up, saying that the pay they receive really is not enough, and is under $14 per hour. One main aspect brought up during the discussion was the fact that the pool does not maximize profit. Council member Bob Michalson spoke up, saying that in a town he came from, a pool district was set up. He believes that may work in Stevensville, because kids from all over the area use the services of the pool, not just those within the town limits.
Michalson also brought up the idea of doing a surplus sale of old town vehicles, which might raise some money for the issues talked about. Gibson agreed and mentioned some prospective town vehicles.
Another concern brought up by Michalson was to raise the amount allotted to travel for council members, not an idea popular with Gibson. However, Michalson, and other members, believed it would allow them to attend more training offerings. He then made a motion, after some discussion on the matter, to raise the budget for Legislative Services, under travel, lodging and training, to $2,500. It passed unanimously.
The council elected to look over the budget for final review. Final budget approval will come up at the next meeting on Oct. 26.