Spirit Lake approves budget

The Spirit Lake City Council narrowly passed a budget in a split decision Tuesday, with Mayor Jeremy Cowperthwaite casting the deciding vote.

“If the budget didn’t pass last night, we wouldn’t have received money from property taxes,” City Clerk Michelle Wharton said.

Councilmen Kenny Gross and Gary Ventress cast the dissenting votes, saying the city staff hasn’t been cooperative in getting information to the council.

“I can’t sit here with these people that elected me and approve a budget that wasn’t done as council asked,” Ventress said. “I just can’t do it.”

The $5.4 million budget has gone through a few changes, like freezing and removing staff raises by request from council members. Questions regarding the police budget have been asked in several budget workshops and council meetings. The Spirit Lake Police Department was understaffed by seven out of eight positions for months, so Gross expected leftover money. The department was also over budget on expenditures, Wharton said, so the salary savings weren’t significant.

The approved 2024 budget would include about $580,000 for the police department, including salaries and benefits for nine police officers and staff. Since Police Chief Morlan started Aug. 8 he’s been able to hire two officers. His longtime friend and coworker, Lt. Eric Reade, came out of retirement to join the department and former Spirit Lake Police Officer Jim Windrem was hired back.

“I guess my question is, we’re trying to hire police officers, and trying to get up to where we need to be,” Council President Darrell Woods said. “And we’re only giving them $500,000?”

Before passing the budget, council members asked Wharton to move $172,000 in grant money from the American Rescue Plan Act from a water enterprise fund into the city’s general fund.

The water enterprise fund was designated for wells, and the $172,000 was set aside for that by a previous mayor, Wharton said.

“I feel like we need to just go ahead and allocate that $172,000 that’s currently sitting at Water,” Councilman Gross said. “We just need to move the full amount of that to Police Department and put that in their budget. Anything that is not used up by the leasing of the vehicles, the potential dispatch fees and the hiring needs can simply go into any one of their various needs. They have more needs than anybody else right now.”

The ARPA money can be a supplement of one-time money to the police department’s budget, but it will not be recurring revenue for future planning.

“Money was taken from other departments and put into the police department,” Wharton said. “We didn’t want to inflate them with the ARPA funds and leave the ARPA funds where they are if they don’t have to use them. And I don’t think the ARPA fairy is going to come again and once it’s gone, it’s gone.”

The police department is in need of cars, Morlan said, and lockers for evidence, body cameras and other equipment.

“We initially popped in some numbers, but I think I’d like to have a little bit more play, little bit more wiggle room,” Chief Morlan said. “Here’s one of the issues that I have, quite frankly. I have two staff that need to be trained, because our staff left. It’s like we’re running without radar.”

If Morlan isn’t able to train office staff for dispatching, the city would have to outsource that in 2024, which would be another large expense for the police budget.

The ARPA money moved should help to cover those expenses, and anything left over at the end of 2024 can stay in the city’s general fund.