Strategic plan, community priorities impact 2024 city budget

By Craig Howard Splash Contributing Editor

Landing in Liberty Lake after career stops in Texas hubs like Houston and Ft. Worth, Mark McAvoy was accustomed to municipal budgets with their share of debt obligations.

Not so in Liberty Lake.

“It’s been a refreshing change,” said Liberty Lake’s city administrator. “Usually, you’re serving debt before you start to serve the public.”

Last year at this time, McAvoy had just arrived on the job. He hit the ground running, joining a team effort at City Hall to prepare a preliminary budget for 2023 that would be presented by Mayor Cris Kaminskas to City Council that fall.

This time around, McAvoy is part of a shift to something called “priority-based budgeting” that he says is still in the early stages but will represent “a transition in the way we philosophically look at budgeting.”

Driving the new approach is the city’s revamping of the strategic plan. A community survey on the plan drew around 650 responses and echoed many of the priorities identified by council such as public safety, preservation of roads and other infrastructure, parks and new amenities at existing municipal greenspace.

“The same pattern held true with the survey results, generally speaking with the things City Council put at the top,” McAvoy said.

A focus group met twice in July to review survey results and prepare a summary for council. McAvoy said the governing board will comb through the report and emerge with an updated strategic plan before the end of the year.

From the formation of the Community Engagement Commission to the strategic plan survey and other efforts to gather feedback from residents, McAvoy said council “has made it a point to shift the way it uses public input in this (budget) process.”

There will be as many as four public hearings on the budget before it is presented for council approval. The city’s new communication software, ZenCity – which interacts will all social media channels – will also figure into the gathering of citizen feedback on the budget.

As for Liberty Lake’s relative freedom from debt, McAvoy points to the “vision and commitment of the city” and the fact that services like fire protection and water/ sewer utilities are operated outside municipal purview. Incurring recent debt to cover the renovation costs of the Trailhead clubhouse, parking lot and pro shop, McAvoy said, was made possible because of the city’s overall fiscal health.

Kaminskas said her budget should be ready for council by the first or second meeting in October. While department heads have begun preparing requests based on revenue forecasts and looking at line-by-line aspects of their respective budgets, including professional services, equipment, staffing, capital projects and more, the mayor said she is focused on “the big picture.”

“I’m asking ‘How do we make this organization more efficient?’” Kaminskas said. “What will this organization look like in the years moving forward and how do we get there?”

Considering possibilities like creating a separate Public Works department instead of having it under the umbrella of the existing Operations and Maintenance department is one example of pursuing increased efficiencies, Kaminskas said. The O-and-R team is currently the city’s largest department, consisting of 27 full-time employees, one part-time worker and 10 seasonal staff.

Finding a balance with the right amount of employees in a growing city is an ongoing challenge, the mayor added.

“As we look ahead to buildout, we don’t want to hire too soon and have to lay off people,” Kaminskas said.

Liberty Lake’s current population is just over 13,000. The city is expected to have just under 21,000 residents at buildout.

For the mayor, priority-based budgeting boils down to a simple approach.

“The budget should really reflect the priorities of the strategic plan,” she said.

Finance Director Kyle Dixon said there is “a game of catch-up” when it comes to providing services to a resident base that has been increasing each year, particularly on the burgeoning north side.

“It’s a question of how we accommodate all the new demand for services without burning out our employees,” he said.

Dixon said the transition to priority-based budgeting “will be a shift in how we’re doing things.” The days of 8,000 different line items will likely be gone.

Kaminskas has moved up the internal deadlines for the preliminary budget “so we won’t be under so much pressure.” Dixon can relate.

“There’s a crunch right before the mayor’s budget comes out,” he said. “Getting that last-minute information can potentially have a cascading effect in other areas.”

Preparing 200-page binders with the first draft of the budget for each council member is a rewarding part of the process, Dixon said. The budget books will be presented in September.

“Putting those binders together signifies all the work we’ve put into the budget even though we’re going to be working on it for the next three months,” he said.

Council Member Annie Kurtz, who will be part of her fourth budget process, says the mayor, city administrator, finance director and department heads “do the bulk of the work” on the budget.

“As far as council goes, different people have different questions about the budget,” she said. “It’s nice going through it as a group.”

Kurtz was instrumental in the formation of the Community Engagement Commission and said the city’s efforts to involve the public in their own government through this and other approaches represent “a good start.” Discussions related to the budget, she said, should follow suit.

“When the budget comes up, we talk a lot about the council’s priorities but we need to talk about the community’s priorities,” Kurtz said.

August

Shakespeare and Symphony coming to Pavillion Park

Two of the biggest annual summer events on Liberty Lake’s public performing arts calendar are about to make their 2023 appearances at Pavillion Park.

On Sunday, Aug. 20, the Montana Shakespeare in the Parks troupe returns to Pavillion Park for a free performance of

“The Three Musketeers” starting at 5 p.m. This is the first season during the 51-year history of the Montana State University’s program that it has presented the swashbuckling classic.

Then for Labor Day weekend, the Spokane Symphony Orchestra takes to the Pavillion Park stage with the 22nd Annual Lud Kramer Memorial Concert, happening on Saturday, Sept. 2. The musicians with conductor James Lowe will perform from 6 to 8 p.m. in a concert ranging from classics to movie themes for the free event.