MY TURN: Spirit Lake must focus on all community needs

Please know my interest in taking this public approach is in the hope of urging the citizens of Spirit Lake to “take a breath” and focus on what’s best for the community overall, now and into the future.

When I started in the position as the Spirit Lake Recreation Director two and a half years ago, I was excited to use my bachelor’s degree in Recreation Management and over 35 years of experience with the YMCA and the city of Post Falls, as well as the opportunity to build a robust Recreation department from the ground up in the city of Spirit Lake. With no city recreation programs occurring for almost a year, there was a need for basic programs and development of a sustainable service to the immediate and surrounding communities. The opportunity to expand the activities, as well as increase incoming revenue to offset expenses through supported program growth was desperately needed. I chose to come onboard as a salaried employee vs hourly, due to the amount of time and effort it would take to get the recreation department up and running.

The city is now offering 15 different programs serving the young and adults in the community, to include returning families from Athol and Blanchard that had left for Rathdrum programs. Program participation has increased each season, and we have a departmental surplus margin above the program expenses.

Spirit Lake recently was faced with the need to rebuild the police department to serve and protect the community. However, while the City Council has had no problem in offering signing bonuses and significantly increased wages for the police department employees, the other seven essential workers handling the other city departments, including myself, have been denied increases and placed on a wage freeze.

Speaking for myself, I am paid less than managers of the other four main recreation departments in our area, in addition to them having two to five full-time staff to assist with their programs. It was disappointing at the last Tuesday, 10/10/23 City Council meeting, when I presented my report and broached the topic of lifting the wage freeze for the other departmental employees or at a minimum a cost of living increase (COLA), to receive absolutely no response from the City Council.

I have had no issue with putting in 90 to 105 hours per pay period (bi-monthly), to support the families and kids in the three communities with quality programs. To be totally disregarded and not to even receive a courtesy acknowledgment or consideration to the request was a slap in the face.

Prior to Chief Sanchez’s departure, he provided hourly wage increases to the police department employees, which did not help with keeping employees. Chief Sanchez also included $115,000 from a potential grant award the city was pursuing in his budget. Mismanagement or wrongdoing by the city clerk has been inferred regarding the missing $115,000. The grant was not awarded to the city, thus the $115,000 funds were never received and should never have been included in the police department budget.

The recent police department signing bonuses and pay increases have added to my budgetary concerns, due to the City Council approving the move of $172,000 American Rescue Plan Act funds to the police budget to help cover costs. Why is this a concern? The ARPA funds were a one-time federal funding due to COVID received by the city. So what happens next year when the city does not have replacement funds?

These funds were being held in a reserve to help support a future necessary city expense. As an example, the upcoming projects to expand the water/sewer infrastructure to support growth. Remember, there is a moratorium on building until these infrastructure projects are completed, which directly impacts in growing the tax base.

Ten years ago, as a member of the National Park and Recreation Association, the cost was $56K to incarcerate one juvenile. Yes, the police department is vital to a community but having quality recreation programs in the community makes for a healthy, positive and productive outlet for kids. I serve over 200 teens, as well as employ 15 teens throughout the year and over the summer. Add to that the need for improved infrastructure to support and encourage growth of the tax base for the city.

The police department is not the only essential service making Spirit Lake the community people are eager to be a part of. Please know I’m not the only one struggling with the City Council’s poor financial decisions. We can only hope the city will start supporting the “other” essential staff and making decisions to benefit the whole of Spirit Lake. It would be very disappointing to lose the progress made not only with the recreation program, but to lose other staff due to poor management of our budgeting process.

Mitzi Michaud is the park and rec director for Spirit Lake.