Post Falls City Council approves budget, fees

POST FALLS - The Post Falls City Council on Tuesday night unanimously approved the city's fiscal 2015 budget, containing increased sewer and water fees, but no tax hike.

The city's current General Fund budget amount is $18.7 million. The fiscal 2015 budget is penciled to be $19.9 million. The increase is largely due to grant-funded expenditures, said Jason Faulkner, finance director.

Post Falls resident Barry Rubin, who regularly attends council meetings and comments on proposals, said he was pleased with the budget proposal overall.

"I liked seeing the reduction (in expenditures) in most of the categories," Rubin said. "All in all, I think that this is a reasonable budget."

City council member Alan Wolfe said he was relieved to learn that the reduction in some areas won't translate into a decrease in services.

Rubin suggested that more budget analysis be done in the future on road improvement projects. He also suggested that the amount of tax increase, if any, should be posted with the proposed budget in the Legals section of The Press.

City Administrator Shelly Enderud liked Rubin's suggestion on posting any or no tax hike and said the city will do so in the future. The last time Post Falls approved a tax increase was for fiscal 2012 with a 2 percent hike.

The budget includes an across-the-board 2 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) increase for all city employees. Some employees will also receive a merit pay increase as large as 2 percent.

The total amount budgeted for salary increases - if every employee was granted the 2 percent merit hike - is $310,400. Roughly 80 percent of the employees are expected to get the full merit increase.

The budget also decreased the maximum number of paid-time off (PTO) hours that can be accrued by an employee from 330 to 290.

Large expenditure items in the budget include: the $550,000 Seventh Avenue modernization project, which will be funded by multiple sources; $74,000 worth of safety improvements to Mullan Avenue and Idaho Street, a grant-funded project that requires a $4,500 match from the city; the $800,000 Highway 41 trail project from Seltice Way to Mullan Avenue, which is grant- and urban renewal-funded; and three new police cars valued at a total of $130,000.

The only new position will be a senior lieutenant for the police department. The total amount for that position is $112,640.

* In other business were unanimously approved fee increases.

Sewer rates will increase 14.5 percent on Oct. 1, while water rates will jump 2.5 percent.

For the average residential user with 5,000 gallons of water use per month, the wastewater fee will increase from $33.79 to $38.69 per month and the water fee from $5.10 to $5.25.

The wastewater fee also increased 14.5 percent last year.

Those who commented on the fee proposals said they understood that the large sewer hike was brought on by mandates from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to improve the water quality of the Spokane River. Post Falls, Coeur d'Alene and the Hayden Area Regional Sewer Board discharge treated wastewater to the river.

But resident Doug Johnson took issue with the water increase.

"Are we not sustainable?" said Johnson, adding that, unless there's a major water problem, growth should pay for the increase. "I realize (the increase) is only pennies, but this (increase) is permanent, not just for one year."

The council also approved the 232-acre Tullamore planned unit development request of Copper Basin Construction for the site owned by Panhandle State Bank west of Highway 41 between Poleline and Prairie.

The request included developing the site in a non-sequential block format as opposed to phases, a park of at least 7.08 acres, revised setbacks and future traffic signals at Highway 41 and Hope.

The council made it a condition that the developer must fully fund the $450,000 traffic signal project as the original developer agreed to do. The request was for the developer to pay for half of the cost and transportation impact fees to pay the other half.

"It's frustrating to me as a citizen to see developers change the rules of the game they agree to in the beginning," Wolfe said.

Drew Dittman of Lake City Engineering, which represents Copper Basin and the bank, said the new developers have been picking up the pieces the previous developer didn't fulfill and are trying to finally move the project ahead.