Budget Woes

I hope you all saw the notice in your mailboxes regarding the June 21 budget hearing and vote. The budget is the City's single most significant statement of policy and priority. If you're in any way concerned about the services American Fork City provides you -- including water, sewer, garbage, streets, sidewalks, library, recreation, and planning for growth -- then you'll want come to the hearing to learn more.

Instead of blogging last weekend, I took the occasion to answer about umpteen-dozen letters that had piled up. I'm excerpting one of them here, as it illustrates some of the budgetary pressure the City faces this year.

This letter responds to a part-time employee who was understandably disappointed to learn that the City Council, in its two-year plan to bring all City wages up to market values, placed part-timers in year two of the phase-in (as in: next year).

References that might lead to the identity of the recipient have been edited.

Thanks for your email. I appreciate your concerns, as does the rest of the City Council, and I want you to know we are doing all we can to address them. We know and understand that our human resources are our most important asset, and we prize our employees highly -- both part-time and full-time.

As a member of the City Council, I am also a part-timer, though my wages are not subject to review. I choose part-time work because as a full-time mother, I choose to work part-time hours. But this doesn't mean that I don't work hard, or that my work isn't valuable. The same, I know, is true of you and all the rest of our City part-timers.

I wanted to provide a little bit of context so that you could understand the tough spot we're in as a City.

When the City completed its wage study, our Chief of Staff and our City Budget Officer proposed that we bring all wages City-wide up to market ranges, both part-time and full-time. The City Council would very much like to have done this. But we recognized that doing this all in one year would leave no money for anything else -- we couldn't fix sidewalks, keep up with roads, or save money for cemetery lands. We also have several City employees about to collapse from the strain of wearing two and three hats, and the public complaining about the backlog this creates. Because the public is complaining so loudly, and because we have to account to the public for our use of their tax dollars, we did not feel we could afford to postpone any of these needs another year.

The only way to do everything this year would have been to raise property taxes yet again, but we felt we just couldn't ask that of our residents. For one thing, it would probably end up hurting the part-timers more than the wage increase would help them.

Fortunately, next year, the City's allotment from taxes at the Meadows will be larger, and we can forecast already that there will be plenty of room to complete the wage increases. That's why we proposed the two-step phase-in, which addresses full-timers in this year's budget, and part-timers in next year's budget.

However, we are deeply concerned about you and your team, the life guards at the Fitness Center, and a few others in the City who are making under $7.00 an hour, some of you making barely more than minimum wage. You'll surely agree that these are urgent cases. After looking it over a bit with City staff, we on the Council think we can address your cases this summer, and we have scheduled a work session for early July to treat this question. I don't know what the outcome will be, but it sounds like anything will be better than what we are doing now.

I appreciate the fact that inflation everywhere is eroding your spending power, and that your wages need to keep pace. I also know that we have many fantastic people working for us in the City, and I appreciate the many positive things you said about your colleagues. Please know that we appreciate the hard work you give, and know also that we are doing all we can to recognize the contribution you make to our City and to keep you happy here as employees.

Thanks again for your note. It helps us do a better job when you let us know what your needs are.

The budget hearing is scheduled for Thursday, June 21, at 7:30 p.m., upstairs at Historic City Hall (31 North Church Street). I hope you'll come to learn more.