SEQUIM — Before the lights went out Monday night, City Council members haggled at length over city fees, a proposed 2 percent sewer rate increase and health and social services contributions to the Boys & Girls Club of the Olympic Peninsula, the Sequim Senior Activity Center and the free clinic.
It was all part of a hearing on the proposed $18.6 million 2011 budget, discussion and action of which halted at about 9:45 p.m. Monday, shortly after an unexpected windstorm doused electricity in Sequim for an hour or more.
That forced the council, which was left in the dark with only the glow of its battery-powered computer screens, to postpone the hearing and any further action on the budget until 6 p.m. Monday in council chambers at Sequim Transit Center, 190 W. Cedar St.
Budget highlights
Highlights of the budget-related actions taken Monday night:
• The council voted 5-2, with council members Erik Erichsen and Susan Lorenzen opposed, to increase the sewer service rate 2 percent to raise $130,000 to help pay the debt for the city’s newly expanded $11 million water reclamation facility.
Erichsen moved to not raise the fee, supporting the use of money intended for social services to make up for the loss of revenue.
City Manager Steve Burkett said that would mean reducing the projected revenues for the city sewer fund and having to instead increase the utility tax.
It would mean coming back next year to increase sewer rates more, he said.
Erichsen argued that the city was “giving away” $100,000, and Lorenzen agreed.
• A motion by Councilman Don Hall and supported by Councilman Bill Huizinga was defeated 5-2 to raise social services funding by $10,000 to $60,000 for the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula.
Lorenzen argued that the clubs were not charging enough for members, just $30 a year. The clubs’ board president, Jerry Sinn, has said the idea for the lower rate is to encourage membership and not turn any child away.
‘Free baby-sitting’
“The Boys & Girls Club needs to charge more,” Lorenzen said. “This is free baby-sitting.”
• The council approved 6-1, with Erichsen voting no, an ordinance relating to utility-rate reductions for indigents. Proposed is $31,000 to fund the rate reductions.
Erichsen said he opposed the idea, likening it to “redistributing wealth.” He called such an action “inappropriate and un-American.”
• After Lorenzen said she wanted the cost of Guy Cole Convention Center to be “a little more rentable,” the council voted 4-3 to lower the fees and raise the kitchen-cleaning deposit to $125 a day.
Mayor Ken Hays and council members Hall and Laura Dubois voted against the measure.
Fees were approved at $50 for one to four hours of use by nonprofit groups and $100 for five or more hours a day.
Hays contended that the cleaning deposit was too low and that “they were stealing everything out of the kitchen.”
Balanced document
The budget, which does not propose furloughs or layoffs of city staff, is balanced and is planned to avoid spending down reserves and the fund balance, the city manager said.
Council budget adoption was originally scheduled for Nov. 22, but more than a foot of snow falling that day forced postponement.
Because it is a relatively small city with an estimated population of 5,800 and a growing big-box store and retail economy, Sequim now has the highest per capita property, sales and utility tax revenue total on the North Olympic Peninsula at $788, compared with Port Angeles with $662 and Port Townsend with $730, Burkett said.
Proposed in the budget are the following major 2011 capital projects:
• $500,000 for extension of the city’s water line east to Sequim Marine Sciences Lab of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, commonly called Battelle, on Sequim Bay.
• $200,000 for sewer line extension east to the Sequim Marine Science Lab.
• $275,000 in water main line replacements.
• $150,000 for asphalt overlays on damaged streets.
• $150,000 for an overlay to repair road in sewer line projects.
• $150,000 for a generator at the north-end sewage lift station.
• $60,0000 for a truck for a sewer inspection camera.
• $60,000 for water meter replacements.
• $75,000 for a reservoir generator.
• $540,000 for the second phase of the reclaimed water project.
Also budgeted are $100,000 in transportation benefit district road projects, $72,000 for Rhodefer Road chip-sealing resurfacing and $50,000 for Olympic Discovery Trail repairs at a slide area near John Wayne Marina.
Burkett said $1 million was being set aside for future City Hall land acquisition.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
