Proposed Bartlesville City budget: Here are major takeaways

In a workshop meeting Monday, the Bartlesville City Council discussed the proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2022-2023 and the proposed use for $2.8 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding. No action was taken, but the City Council will discuss and possibly vote on a final version during its June 6 meeting.

Bartlesville City Manager Mike Bailey and Chief Financial Officer Jason Muninger presented the document to the Council, answering questions and discussing the budget planning up to that point.

Here are the highlights of the proposed budget and the City leaders’ discussion:

Sales Tax

Sales tax is the largest contributor to the City’s revenue, making up an average of 37% of the City’s revenue annually. City staff expect to end the current fiscal year with a $1.8 million year-over-year increase in sales tax revenue — however, the proposed budget projects a $1.1 million decrease.

This is intentional. Bailey said sales tax collections cannot be predicted based on the last 18 months, believed to be “grossly skewed by COVID and economic stimulus.” Instead, City staff used the fiscal year 2019-2020 numbers to project a normal growth of 3%.

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Utility rate increases

The utility rate increases were approved during the Council’s April meeting as a way to fund necessary capital improvements. They are the second phase of increases, building increases that took effect in July 2021.

In the fiscal year 2022-2023 budget, the average residential utility customer in Bartlesville will have the following changes:

-Water incremental rates will decrease by about 3.3%

-Water capital investment fees will increase by about 42%

-Wastewater base rates will increase by about 8%

-Wastewater incremental rates will increase by about 5.7%

-Wastewater capital investment fees will increase by about 27.6%

-Sanitation cart rates will increase by 5.8%

Proposed City Staff Additions

The proposed budget also includes the addition of several staff members. These include assistants for the city manager and public works director, three part-time, seasonal parks department employees and two new police officers.

The city manager and public works assistants are important, Bailey said, to enable transition for the positions.

“I have no intention of leaving. But that doesn’t mean something won't happen that I won’t be able to work with a future council, or this council gets tired of me and I move on. Those things happen,” Bailey said.

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The police officer positions are part of a three-year pilot program the City is launching in partnership with Grand Lake Mental Health Center. Bailey said the program will create a co-response unit pairing the officers with two social workers that would ride together. They will not be assigned to a district, exclusively responding to mental health emergencies.

“That could take a lot of forms. … we could be dealing with drug addictions, we could be dealing with domestic situations,” Bailey said. “Probably more than half of our calls are related to mental health issues. This allows us to address that in a proactive manner.”

The partnership will be funded with ARPA funds.

ARPA Funding

Considered as a separate item from the budget, City staff proposed possible uses for the $2.9 million in ARPA funding left for the City.

The proposed use of the funds is:

-$1 million for the Stabilization Reserve Fund

-$500,000 for the police mental health project

-$500,000 for implementing the Comprehensive Strategic Plan

-$100,000 for the operation and maintenance of the First Christian Church building

-$400,000 for street improvements

-$300,000 for an additional Sooner Pool water slide

-$72,590 for other

The Comprehensive Strategic Plan assessment is a process still being undertaken by the City that will result in suggested changes to the City's structure and goals.

“We don’t know yet what our strategic priorities will be, but we will have specific things. This set some funding aside so when we get to that point, we can work towards whatever that goal is," Bailey said.

The funds for the FCC building will allow the City to maintain the building during a short-term lease while it decides whether it can use the building, and what for.

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Ward 4 Council member Billie Roane took issue with the use of funds to add a third waterslide to the Sooner Pool expansion project, saying she frequently hears from constituents about needed capital improvements.

"You know, what I'm stumbling with is that we're spending $300,00 on a slide and $400,000 on streets," Roane said.

Ward 2 Council member Paul Stuart took issue with the amount allocated to the Stabilization Fund, rather than using some for projects not included in the Capital Improvement Fund or differed maintenance projects.

"Everything we put in that reserve fund represents other things we could be doing that would save us money long term," Stuart said.

The Council discussed the concerns, but no decision was made. Bailey said the discussion would be taken under advisement for the allocation prior to the June Council meeting.

This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: Proposed Bartlesville City budget: 4 major takeaways