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Mayor introduces 2015 budget, council hears parks survey results
10/22/2014 5:59:06 PM
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Mayor introduces 2015 budget, council hears parks survey results By Craig Howard
Splash Contributor
There were no marching bands, prancing mascots or municipal floats on hand when Mayor Steve Peterson introduced his preliminary budget for 2015 at Tuesday night's City Council meeting.
Yet, just as he has for most of Liberty Lake's tenure as an incorporated city, Peterson paraded out a financial outline for the upcoming year that contained an abundance of positive projections and ambitious plans that now await council approval.
"We have done much to improve our service and bring community benefits to our residents," Peterson said. "Our commitment to being a safe, clean and green community with excellent facilities has not wavered."
The mayor went on to emphasize that the city will address a quintet of topics identified by council at its annual retreat, including a strategy to replace the aging facility at the Trailhead at Liberty Lake Golf Course and developing a vision for the remaining acreage in the center of the city that now features Town Square Park.
The remaining issues on the city's priority list include a long-term plan to add space to the library, potentially incorporating a senior center with the project, the possibility of a municipal swimming pool and investing more resources in transportation improvements.
Breaking into his thesaurus, Peterson said he is proposing the idea of a charrette, or dedicated network of stakeholders focused on a specific project, "to address a master plan approach to achieve the five major elements within our city." He added that City Hall will host three community open houses in the first quarter of next year alone and introduce an addition to the city website called "Engage Liberty Lake" that will build upon the success of past resident surveys.
"City accomplishment relies on citizen input and feedback," the mayor said.
Several major projects are on the docket for next year, beginning with the reconstruction of Appleway Avenue, the design of new traffic signalization at Appleway and Liberty Lake Road and the blueprint for the repair of Liberty Lake Road from Country Vista north to Interstate 90, a project that will require a match of outside funding if it is to go forward in 2015. Peterson added that it would also behoove the city to strengthen a funding mechanism called the Local Infrastructure Financing Tool (LIFT) "and identify financing for long-term projects."
The mayor's draft budget features what he described as "conservative revenue projections and disciplined expenditures" addressing a list that includes the maintenance and facilitation of the recently constructed Liberty Lake Ballfields, the addition of new vehicles and equipment to sustain city services and increased compensation for city staff (a 2-percent step increase).
The expenditure game plan would mean hiring a full-time maintenance worker, an entry level employee at City Hall, a new police officer and several seasonal employees in Parks and Recreation.
"To support these additional expenses, our budget revenue will grow with the inclusion of waste management contract dollars, local government shared dollars for weed enforcement and a standard 1 percent growth in our property tax levy," Peterson said.
Each year, the city has the option of increasing the property tax rate by 1 percent. Even if council approves the hike for 2015, the city's rate would hover around $1.78 per assessed $1,000 of property value, according to Finance Director RJ Stevenson, an amount that would still be lower than surrounding jurisdictions like Spokane Valley, Millwood and Spokane.
In his portion of the budget presentation, Stevenson showed council how the city's general fund as well as its emphasis on street improvements and park acreage has increased proportionately to Liberty Lake's growth in population.
Along with projects like the Appleway upgrade, improvements to Pavillion Park and the addition of a restroom at the Liberty Lake Ballfields, the city is looking at allocating $125,000 for building contingency (to be spent in cases such as the library roof repair earlier this year), $20,000 for improvements at the Rocky Hill barn, $70,000 for a municipal comprehensive plan update, $100,000 for pedestrian crossing safety and $10,000 for an electric vehicle charging station.
The expenditures leave the city's ending general fund balance for 2015 at $1,959,425, well above the state-required minimum of $531,000.
"Today, our community has unity, leadership and a vision to provide a city which citizens are proud and a place where businesses can grow and flourish," Peterson said.
The Nov. 4 council meeting will include a workshop on the 2015 budget. Council representatives are being encouraged to send "mayor's budget questions" to Stevenson for inclusion in the budget planning process. The city has until the end of the year to approve its budget.
Results of parks survey in
For the first time since 2008, residents of Liberty Lake have been asked to weigh in on the future of parks and recreation. With an update to the municipal Parks, Recreation, Open Space and Trails Plan required by the end of 2015, the city is gathering feedback on citizen priorities for existing facilities and programs as well as plans for the future.
On Tuesday, Amanda Tainio, Planning and Building Services manager, walked the governing board through the results of an extensive public survey that ran from April through August. The process also involved focus group meetings and collaboration with Minapsys, a local company specializing in online, collaborative information gathering.
The main survey collected responses from 402 participants. When asked if the city currently has an adequate number of parks and recreation facilities, over 20 percent of respondents strongly agreed. Nearly 50 percent agreed.
Residents gave sparkling reviews to the overall quality and maintenance of city parks and facilities. When asked to rank the importance of existing facilities, multi-use trails topped the list while community events led the way in the favorite programing category. Nearly 70 percent said parks, recreation, open space and trails are "extremely important" to Liberty Lake's quality of life.
"Overall, the public is happy," Tainio said. "Our parks are well-utilized, clean and safe."
Approximately 30 percent of respondents said they were opposed to an increase in fees or taxes to build and maintain new facilities while nearly the same percentage said they would support the city issuing a bond to pay for improvements. If city did access more funding and could expand current facilities, respondents ranked community gardens and exercise equipment as the top priorities.
As far as future projects, a community pool and aquatic programming ranked high in several categories.
The mayor and council applauded Tainio and Parks and Recreation Coordinator Michelle Griffin for their work on the survey and the foundation it would create for the vision of greenspace and recreation programming in Liberty Lake.
"It's great to see real numbers from real people," Council Member Keith Kopelson said.
The next steps for the plan involve a direct email campaign to stakeholders, gathering input from focus groups, public meetings and workshops and public hearings hosted by the planning commission and council.
In other city news:
• The Liberty Lake Police Department will host the fourth annual Community Domestic Violence Symposium this Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon at the LLPD precinct, 23127 E. Mission Ave. The free event will include presentations from Police Chief Brian Asmus, Stormi Koerner, a domestic violence detective with the Spokane Police Department, Tiffany Follett, YWCA community education and outreach manager and Ginger Johnson with Abuse Recovery Ministry and Services (ARMS). A complimentary lunch will be served.
• City Administrator Katy Allen told council that the draft of the waste management comprehensive plan is complete. Waste Management and Sunshine Disposal and Recycling will take over garbage collection and recycling duties in Liberty Lake on Nov. 17.
• A public hearing on the waste management comprehensive plan is scheduled for the Nov. 4 council meeting.
• Allen said the annual community-wide leaf pick-up will be held on Saturday, Nov. 15.
• Council approved the awarding of a contract for pedestrian improvements at Liberty Lake Elementary School.
• Council voted to approve a contract for a monument sign at Rocky Hill Park.
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