Mayor can't stop ignite cda budget

Coeur d’Alene Mayor Steve Widmyer’s effort to trim $63,000 from ignite cda’s annual budget failed to catch fire.

The city’s urban renewal agency board members passed a $7.1 million budget despite Widmyer’s lone no vote Wednesday afternoon at the Coeur d’Alene Public Library.

“Yes, I am disappointed,” Widmyer said. “I was looking for some cost savings. They didn’t do their homework.”

The agency’s anticipated revenue of $5.3 million includes $5.1 million of estimated tax increment and $127,611 in property rental receipts.

The budget’s beginning fund balance is estimated to be $11.4 million by Oct. 1, and the ending fund balance is estimated to be $9.6 million by Sept. 30, 2017. Fund balances can be applied to debt service, board initiatives or held in reserve.

Ignite cda’s budgeted expenses for 2017 increased roughly $60,000 from the previous year.

Widmyer’s proposal included reducing the costs of legal services, government relations and community relations in 2017. He presented fellow board members with a budget analysis of cities with similar-sized urban renewal districts, Twin Falls, Nampa and Post Falls.

The majority of the board expressed interest in exploring Widmyer’s proposal in greater depth and had questions about how those other cities handled many of those responsibilities with their own employees as opposed to contracting services to private businesses. But it was clear the board wasn’t going to accept the proposal.

The discussion became slightly contentious when Widmyer argued that board members were approving line items in a budget without knowing what those actually are.

“We’ve skipped a step,” he said. “We’re making million-dollar decisions and with everyone voting, ‘Yes’ to spend the money it pulls away the motivation to revisit this later and do something down the line.”

Board member Scott Hoskins fired back at Widmyer, saying he should have brought the proposal to the board sooner and that there wasn’t time to consider it.

And ignite cda board member Deanna Goodlander said, legally the board had to approve the budget on Wednesday.

“We don’t have a choice,” she said. “We have to approve this today.”

Ultimately, the board voted to hold a financial/budget workshop within 45 days to look at the mayor’s proposal. No date has been set yet.

“It’s a great starting point,” said Dave Patzer, ignite board member. “We need to make sure we’re comparing apples to apples on the proposed budget.”

Brad Jordan, a longtime board member, noted ignite cda doesn’t have to spend every dollar in the proposed budget.

“It’s the high-water mark,” he said. “These ideas deserve consideration.”

At the core of Widmyer’s proposal was an overall effort to lower professional services costs, including eliminating a $23,000 government relations contract with Molitor & Associates, a Boise lobbying firm.

“I based my proposal on historic data,” he said. “Many other cities handle these responsibilities within their own staff.”

The large items in the urban renewal agency’s budget include payments on the $16.7 million bond for the agency’s high profile big ticket projects, such as the remodeled McEuen Park and education corridor upgrades. The board also approved a refinancing of that bond in an effort to save taxpayers additional dollars.

A budget item listed as “agency funded programs” accounts for $3.1 million in the 2017 budget. This includes $1.25 million for the North Idaho Collaborative Education Facility within the education corridor and $1.75 million for the Seltice Way project, a large reconstruction effort north of Riverstone.