T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY — City of Marshalltown Finance Director Diana Steiner, left, addresses the council as councilors Mark Mitchell and Barry Kell look on during Monday night’s special budget meeting at city hall.

The Marshalltown city council met for over two and a half hours during a special session at city hall on Monday night, ultimately opting to use about $1.17 million in Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) funds to cover the projected deficit now that property valuations have been received from the county.

The early discussion items moved along relatively quickly as the council agreed to bump up the cash flow reserve fund from 17 to 18 percent, which affects the city’s bond rating, with the end goal of 20 percent and contribute $5,000 to the annual community fireworks show.

City Finance Director Diana Steiner explained that after a huge increase in valuations during the previous fiscal year, the jump was minuscule this time around — about a 0.3 percent bump. She also laid out the various revenues cities have lost through changes in state law as the backfill is set to completely expire by Fiscal Year 2029. The total valuation is estimated at $1,701,126,995, but the actual taxable value is just under half of that at $975,044,594.

About 15 minutes in, the council dove into the longest portion of the discussion: proposed budget cuts to help cover the approximately $1.3 million budget shortfall with the caveat that of the projected $4.2 million in LOST revenue the city is projected to generate, 25 percent, or about $1,050,000, is authorized for council-designated uses and can be transferred in to the general fund to cover the gap along with reserves already in the city’s accounts.

As Steiner and City Administrator Carol Webb laid out several potential cost saving measures, the majority of them directed at city employees turned out to be unpopular — specifically, closing the library on Sundays (estimated saving of $22,000 annually), which Councilor Mike Ladehoff quickly objected to and reducing the percentage of hotel/motel tax revenues distributed to the Marshalltown Area Chamber of Commerce to promote recreation and tourism activities from its current 56 percent Chamber, 44 percent city split to 50-50, the minimum allotment to the Chamber required by Iowa law.

Chamber President/CEO John Hall noted that while he felt the organization could survive the loss, the hotel/motel tax was approved by voters, and he touted the increasing sophistication of the data they use to track visitors.

“There’s things that we can cut, but the question is, what do we want to be at the table on?” he asked, citing the recent Iowa Jeep Club event near Garwin as a prime example.

He suggested an in-depth analysis to further study the impact of a change. One cut the council quickly agreed on was severing a contract with a third-party fire code inspection company and doing the work in house, which would save about $30,000 annually.

The council agreed on using Automated Traffic Enforcement (ATE) revenues to purchase AXON body cameras after a federal grant request was denied. The remaining cost of the AXON contract for the next four years is $182,000, but outgoing Police Chief Mike Tupper warned that the ATE funding could go away forever after a sweeping bill was signed into law last session and resulted in the vast majority of operational traffic cameras being shut down and rejected for permits.

“The state legislature does not like (cameras). Based on what we’re seeing so far, it’s endangered at the state legislature,” Tupper said. “We need speed cameras. I know it’s not popular, but I just want to say that the number one complaint I receive in the chief’s office, and it’s been this way for 13 years, is traffic in the neighborhoods and people driving too darn fast in our neighborhoods. And we don’t have enough cops to be everywhere at once, so speed cameras are a great force multiplier for us.”

Currently, he projected that the city is generating about $5,000 a week in revenue from the remaining camera on Lincoln Way, but 35 percent of it goes straight to the vendor, Sensys Gatso. Tupper also spoke about the use of FLOCK public safety cameras, which have been utilized in homicides and other high profile cases.

Delaying a three percent Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for non-union employees led Councilor Gary Thompson to comment that he was “appalled” by the proposal and, more broadly, any cost saving measures on the backs of city employees. Ladehoff responded that while it wasn’t meant to be mean spirited or controversial, he wanted everything to be on the table.

“What the statehouse is doing to us, it’s like death by a thousand cuts,” Ladehoff said.

Closing the pool an hour early or delaying hires of a police captain, a deputy fire chief and two certified officers failed to garner a quorum of support from the council, and Thompson ultimately made a motion to allow new Fire Chief Christopher Cross to fill the deputy slot as soon as possible.

Nonetheless, Cross told the council he had essentially been in charge for the last year and would manage one way or another.

“There’s only so much pie. It is what it is,” he said.

Mandatory furloughs were also met with swift resistance, though Councilor Barry Kell did suggest offering them on a voluntary basis for employees who hadn’t yet accumulated paid time off. Raising the fees for the Summer Blast program at the aquatic center, which typically serves lower-income children, was also shot down as councilors worried it would result in decreased use.

Once the initial round of cuts was discussed and voted up or shot down, the council still faced a $1.17 million deficit, and a motion to transfer the amount of LOST revenues available to cover the remaining balance passed by a unanimous 7-0 tally. Thompson, however, did express concern about the tactic of continually using LOST to backfill the budget while keeping additional dollars in reserves.

“Here’s what we’re gonna have to approach someday is (that) we keep moving this money in, but yet every year, we think we have this deficit but every year, we keep having this surplus,” he said. “And we’re so afraid of Moody’s and the bond rating that we’re never gonna touch that surplus. So we’re building up this war chest on the back of the taxpayers, and for what reason? I don’t understand what we’re doing every year. I mean I get it, but I don’t get it.”

Steiner explained that the money earns interest whether through CDs or in a checking account.

In other business, the council:

• Set a public hearing for an amendment to Chapter 156 related to ground solar arrays for the Monday, Feb. 10 meeting as part of the consent agenda.

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.