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Residents challenge city budget priorities, call for larger direct‑assistance fund and audits
Summary
During public comments, multiple residents criticized the proposed fiscal 2025 budget’s large unassigned reserves and asked the council to set aside $3–5 million for resident assistance, while also pressing for timely audits and answers about sanitation and hotel‑motel funds.
Several residents used the May 5 public‑comment period to press the council on the proposed fiscal‑year 2025 budget and related financial matters.
Ja'Pere Hemming (listed as Jaipure/Jaffray Hemming in the record) urged the council to set aside $3–5 million from unassigned general‑fund reserves for a community rainy‑day fund to provide direct resident assistance — utility rebates, small emergency cash grants and micro‑grants to small businesses. Hemming said the draft budget held nearly $35 million in unassigned general‑fund reserves, “triple the required minimum,” and criticized the proposed rainy‑day policy for restricting use to one‑time capital or grant‑match expenses rather than direct household aid.
Other commenters raised questions about audits and fund balances. Anna Adams asked when outstanding audits — including a fiscal‑year 2023 audit and a forensic audit referenced in public comments — would be completed and presented. She also asked why the solid‑waste enterprise fund remains in deficit and whether the city was charging all customers and commercial haulers appropriately.
Jacqueline Slaughter Gibbons and others pressed for accurate resident counts and collection of all utility revenues, saying the city’s population figure of 38,000 looked low given recent development and that unpaid accounts or billing gaps might explain deficits in sanitation.
City council and staff responses during the meeting included: council members agreeing to place rule‑of‑procedure items on a work session agenda for further review and to follow up on audit timing; the city manager confirmed that emergency procurements were funded in the current budgets (answers given later in meeting). Council member Straub noted the need for improved mailing and notification protocols after a resident reported receiving a $0.96 lien warning. Several council members asked for finance‑department presentations to the council on the proposed budget in an upcoming work session so members can review line items and ask questions.
No budget votes were taken May 5. The council’s charter requires approval of the budget by the first Monday in June; council members and commentators framed the May 5 meeting as part of an ongoing budget season.
