Financial decisions dominate City agenda

High on the list of City Council decisions at the Oct. 13 meeting were the upcoming budget for 2021 and 2022, funding for the Christmas Lighting festival and a new parking agreement with Cascade Medical Center.

The 2020 Christmas Lighting festival is officially closed although that just means there will be no lighting ceremony. The Cashmere Chamber is planning to light the trees and downtown buildings. With that in mind the city approved funding for traffic control efforts for the three Christmas Lighting weekends of Dec. 5 and 6, Dec. 12 and 13 and Dec. 19 and 20. The city is anticipating that crowds will still be large.

Following complaints from local residents in 2017 the city formed the Public Safety and Traffic Management Group. That group is composed of the Chelan County Sheriff’s Department, Washington State Patrol, WSDOT Emergency Management, Chelan County Emergency Management, Chealn County Fire District #3, Washington Department of Transportation, Chelan County Public Works, Cascade Medical Center and the Leavenworth Chamber of Commerce. The city is represented by the Mayor, City Administrator, and Public Works Director. 

Beginning in 2018 the city expended $99, 659.61 for traffic management. That increased to $125,386.69 in 2019. The city is requesting authorization for $135,000 in 2020 an increase of 7.7 percent.

The city says they will re-evaluate the need following the attendance on the first weekend, Dec. 5 & 6 in view of the COVID Pandemic.

Council approved a change to a 2007 agreement with Cascade Medical Center regarding parking. The old agreement created a partnership between the city and CMC to provide reserved parking for CMC employees on the public streets in exchange for the city’s use of CMC parking after hours and on weekends.

With parking meters being installed a new agreement has been signed that will allow the city’s meter contractor to program the meters to recognize the CMC employees so they will not be charged for parking. The agreement also requested a permit from the hospital to install meters on hospital property. These meters could then be programmed to allow public parking when the hospital is closed.  

Council also reviewed some preliminary budget proposals for the 2021-2022 budgets. The preliminary budget presented to council at last weeks meeting showed General fund revenues are expected to decline in 2020 by $670,000 or 18 percent. General Fund expenses however will increase by $221,575 or 8 percent. For 2021 the proposed budget would see general fund revenues increase 3 percent while expenses would increase 14 percent.

For 2021 the city is considering adding four new positions. Those positions are a Parking Enforcement Officer for $87,092, a Development Services Senior Planner for $98,538, an Assistant City Clerk for $40,337, and a Communications Analyst at $89,921. All of the compensation numbers include salary and benefits as shown in the preliminary budgets.

During the study session council discussed proposed rate increases for city services. Water rates will likely increase 5 percent, Sewer 2 percent and Stormwater charges by 9 percent in 2021. These rate increases were approved as part of the six year utility rate study approved by resolution 20-2017.

The council is still considering efforts to structure a tax on lodging services to help establish a fund for subsidizing housing costs. But lodging tax collections for this year are already projected to be down $965,000 or 40 percent. While a good part of the decline rests squarely on the Pandemic, city officials are not projecting a significant comeback in 2021 or 2022. Unless the fund can grow faster than the 17 percent currently projected it will begin to encounter reserve problems that could curtail advertising for the city. City officials also need to consider if adding another 5 percent to the lodging tax could begin to discourage visitors