BY MARSHA L. MELNICHAK Northwest Arkansas Times
First, the Fayetteville City Council said no to using cash reserves in budgeting. Then it voted to pull $12,500 from the same reserves for an arts festival.
With a 5-3 vote, the council approved a resolution “to request that the budget to be submitted to the City Council by the administration be balanced.”
“Basically this is fiscal sustainability. To me, it’s a no-brainer,” said Ward 3 Alderman Bobby Ferrell, who proposed the amendment.
He explained the idea is that when the administration brings a budget to the council for consideration, it should be prepared without use of the city’s cash reserves. Despite that request, the city administration may propose a budget that relies on cash reserves.
“I’ll be bringing forward the best budget that we can. That’s my job. It might mean reserves,” Mayor Dan Coody said after the meeting. “I don’t know yet. We won’t know until we get all the budget figures back from all the divisions and process them.”
Cash reserves can be described as the city’s savings, said Paul Becker, finance and internal services director. They are not a “rainy-day fund,” which is a specifically designated account, he said. Fayetteville does not have a rainy-day fund.
City Attorney Kit Williams said the resolution was, as it states, a request.
“I guess the administration can reject that request,” he said.
Ferrell said his proposal was intended to tighten the budget, not tie staff hands in preparing the budget.
Ward 2 Aldermen Kyle Cook and Nancy Allen and Ward 4 Aldermen Lioneld Jordan and Shirley Lucas joined Ferrell in support of the resolution.
Lucas explained that the council works every year not to go into the reserve and finds itself whittling down the proposed budget.
Ward 1 Aldermen Adella Gray and Brenda Thiel and Ward 3 Alderman Robert Rhoads voted against the resolution.
Coody said at the meeting that not being able to use the reserves could mean raising property taxes or laying people off to have a balanced budget when it is proposed to the council.
He said after the meeting that he would not advocate a property tax increase this year and that the city is not in a position to cut the workforce because it is already understaffed.
Thiel said she would rather see what the city departments think is essential. Without use of the reserves to balance the budget, she said, the council could be put in the position of picking and choosing which city employees get laid off.
Arts festival
A few minutes after the budget discussion, Jordan proposed providing $32,500 to Fayetteville Downtown Partners for producing the 2008 Fayetteville Arts Festival.
That figures was 13 times greater than the amount requested by the group and more than three times the amount of cash donations raised so far by the organization.
Fayetteville Downtown Partners, which is producing the Labor Day weekend festival, did not request city money during the 2008 budget process but asked for $2,500 at the council’s agenda setting session last week.
Downtown Partners board President Daniel Keeley told the council Tuesday that the organization had raised about $10,000 in donations.
As part of his rationale for his amendment, Jordan cited previous council funding for trails, purchase of urban forest and support for the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks from the economic development fund.
That money is part of the city’s general fund cash reserves and is part of the money remaining from the sale of the Wilson Springs Business Park property, now known as springwoods.
“I know that we have talked a lot about supporting the arts program, and I think it’s time that we do that,” Jordan said.
Allen quickly seconded his amendment, which would have changed the city’s contract with Downtown Partners from $2,500 to $32,500.
Rhoads said he was torn between wanting to support the festival and not spending more than the city should.
“If I had all the money in the world, I’d give you a whole lot more than $32,500, but down the road I think we’ll have to come up with some funds … to maintain and enhance the Walton Arts Center,” he said.
The amendment to provide $32,500 for the festival failed with a 5-3 vote. Jordan, Allen and Cook voted for it; Gray, Thiel, Rhoads, Ferrell and Lucas voted against it.
However, the council then voted unanimously to provide $12,500 for the arts festival.
Other business
The council approved an amendment about street design and access, the hiring of two police officers, adding a provision for an energy efficiency certificate to the energy code, and a planned zoning district for a Habitat for Humanity development.
A proposal to allow Aframe signs was left on first reading at the request of city planning staff, which wants to make some changes to it.
Annexation of Holcomb Heights III was approved with a 7-1 vote. Cook voted against it.
Publication:Northwest Arkansas Times; Date:Aug 6, 2008
