Agenda - 09-06-2022; 8-a - Minutes

Browse Search

11 1 Commissioner Fowler said she values what outside agencies offer. She said that 2 funding them at a much larger budget this year due to the increase in the sales tax revenues. 3 She said that a 6% decrease would still mean funding at 1.27%. She said that would still be 4 above the 1.2% usual goal. 5 Commissioner Richards said the emphasis on the outside agency funding this year 6 reviewed the work and questioned if the agency supported, augmented, and were aligned with 7 what the departments needed. She said that if they take away from that, are they ultimately 8 taking away funds that will needs to spent to fill the gap. 9 Chair Price said in some cases they are filling gaps, so the gaps would just remain. 10 Commissioner Hamilton said the process is not new, just that the Board sets the dollar 11 amount and the Manager makes the individual allocation. 12 Commissioner Fowler said it would still be more money than they got last year. 13 Commissioner Richards said there are a couple of new ones that are getting funding this 14 year. She asked if those would drop off completely. 15 Chair Price said no they would get 6%-7% less overall. 16 Commissioner Richards asked if they would just reduce all of the allocations by that 17 percentage. 18 Bonnie Hammersley said that is how she would recommend it because if they did a 19 dollar amount then some funding would be wiped out. She said that department heads will meet 20 with the outside agencies to discuss what they can do with the reduced amount. 21 Commissioner Hamilton said that the way that would make it the fairest would be fine. 22 Commissioner McKee said he had a difficult conversation with a representative of an 23 outside agency that felt the funding was insufficient. He said that they wanted him to insert 24 additional money through an amendment and he told the person no, because there was a 25 process. He said that he has gone through meetings where there was horse trading in funding 26 some projects and reducing somewhere else. He said that cutting $100,000 will have an effect. 27 Commissioner Greene said this is not the way to do it. She said that it is not fair at this 28 point to go back to the agencies and tell them that they are getting a reduced amount. She said 29 that would not breed trust. She said the outside agencies need every penny. 30 Chair Price said it is a good thing to have outside agencies to do the work that 31 government cannot do. She said that they took a hit during the pandemic, and it is important to 32 help them get back on their feet. She said that some cases they encourage the agencies to 33 provide living wages to their employees. 34 Commissioner Bedford, Commissioner Hamilton, and Commissioner Fowler were in 35 favor of amendment 22-23OP-007 which would increase school funding by $100,000 and 36 reduce Outside Agency funding by $100,000. Chair Price, Commissioner Greene, 37 Commissioner McKee, and Commissioner Richards were opposed. 38 Commissioner Hamilton said she was inclined to change the next budget amendment, 39 22-23OP-008, to increase funding. 40 Travis Myren said that is the technical way they are showing the available ARPA 41 balance and to place it in the current expense budget. 42 Commissioner Hamilton said the schools need more money. 43 Chair Price asked if the $350,000 comes from the $4.1 million in ARPA funds. 44 Travis Myren said the $4.1 million is assuming that all of the ARPA amendments are 45 adopted. He said that currently there is $4.8 million in unexpended ARPA funds. 46 Commissioner Hamilton said she would instead like to take $1.2 million from unallocated 47 ARPA funds to give to the schools. 48 Commissioner Greene asked how much ARPA money would be left. 49 Gary Donaldson said it would be $3.6 million. 50 Commissioner Greene asked for clarification on this.