The 2020-21 Budget is nearly complete
The City is in the final stages of putting together the 2021-22 budget. Mercer Islanders for Sustainable Spending (MISS) has been critical of the budget process and forecasting in the past - especially the process that led to Proposition 1 being placed on the ballot. This effort started with the Community Advisory Group (CAG) in 2016. A subgroup of the CAG (sometimes referred to in the pejorative as the CAG Minority Group) pointed out that the City had plenty of money and there was no need for additional property taxes and the City could balance the budget in the years 2019-20. This has become a reality with the defeat of Proposition 1. The other reality is that we have a new City Manager and many new City Council Members, and the atmosphere is like night and day.
The City today has surpluses from 2017, 2018, and 2019 totaling $3.3 million and they are estimating ending 2020 with $6.9 million in the General Fund of which $3.3 is committed and held in reserve, leaving an unassigned fund balance of $3.6 million. At this evening’s City Council meeting (November 17th, 2020) the Council will decide how to spend this money, keep it in reserve, lower taxes, forgo tax increases, or some combination. Final approval of the Biennial Budget is on December 1st. So, at the end of an exceedingly difficult year for city governments, Mercer Island is in good shape. The City Council deserves credit for choosing Jessi Bon for City Manager.
Jessi Bon deserves much if not all of the credit for the City’s strong budget. We must not forget the work she did in re-organizing the Staff prior to Covid. She replaced several directors and right-sized a couple directors to managers. When Covid hit, she acted quickly in reducing and further reorganizing staff by focusing and prioritizing essential work to keep our citizens safe.
All efforts should be made to keep the number of employees, full-time equivalents (FTE’s), and limited term equivalents (LTE’s) at 186 (the forecast 2021 level). It will be several quarters before things settle down to analyze whether the reorganization improved efficiency or simply “re-arranged the deck chairs.” On average, individual salary and benefits went up 5.2% (3.4% for salaries and 10% for benefits) from 2020 to 2021. The average total compensation (salary + benefits) for 186 Mercer Island City employees (FTE+LTE) is just short of $150K/year. To that end, we believe the Fire Department is way out of sync with city salaries and overtime.
Potential one-time spending options in 2021-22:
Classification & Compensation study $60,000
Biennial Public Opinion Survey $20,000
Cultural Competency Training $40,000
Transpo, Parks, & Fire Impact Fee Study $125,000
ADA Transition Plan $250,000
Consultant - City's Housing Action Plan $150,000
Recreation Recovery Plan Startup $400,000
Thrift Shop Startup Funding $100,000
Funding for a Special Election $55,000
Potential on-going spending options in the future:
Economic Development Coordinator $119,882
Senior Policy Analyst (1.0 FTE) $135,480
Patrol Officers (2 FTE) $243,242
Sustainability Program Manager $142,560
Reinstate Park Maint. Casual Labor $263,224
Recreation Program Operating Subsidy $400,000
YFS Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Training $5,000
The above list is not totally inclusive but meant to give you an idea of items on which the city is considering spending your tax dollars. We are encouraging the City Council Members to spend as little of this money as possible. Prioritize the list: For example:
It might be a higher priority to hire the police officers than a Senior Policy Analyst and a Sustainability Manager. The City has been winning sustainability awards with a part-time Sustainability Manager. Why do we need a full time one?
Why do we need a special election? Put the issues on the ballot of the regular election. Polling and surveying is unreliable and prone to manipulation. We don’t need a special election for $20k.
We need to get the recreation program up and running but do we need to spend $400,000 on a plan to do it and then subsidize the program for an ongoing $400,000 per year? How about getting the fees more in-line with the expenses?
Fire OT and salaries need to be reviewed. It’s unfortunate Mayor Wong changed his vote against a Request for Proposal. The Fire Union is misrepresenting the issues as they try to leverage the 2021 contract negotiations.
We concede the logic in proceeding with the Thrift Store Remodel to 60% design. But we ask the Council to really analyze the financial logic at 60% and not rely on sunk costs in justifying progress.
Finally, the $150k in studying the City’s Housing Plan has the potential of being a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.” We are a mature City having multiple GMA studies showing MI is built out and additional density comes at the expense of City and School Services. Far less is required to study what we already know.
In summary, MISS appreciates the time and effort our City Council commits to our wonderful community. We look forward to helping the Council improve the Biennial Budget and other budget challenges.