Palmer passes budget

PALMER — The Palmer City Council passed the 2020 budget on Tuesday.

After eight public hearings when the council heard detailed analysis on every budget item from City Manager Nathan Wallace and a special budget meeting prior to the regular council meeting, the council voted unanimously to adopt the 2020 employee pay plan, fee and fine schedule, five year capital improvement plan and after nine amendments and much discussion, the total budget for the city of Palmer. Resolution 20-005 provides a $16,489,232 budget for the city of Palmer.

Of the amendments added to the budget during the final meeting was a $3,000 addition to provide Wifi in the city of Palmer. After discussions at previous meetings about the possibility of providing wifi as a service for those who rent out the Train Depot, Wallace then brought the idea to MTA for clarification on how it could be implemented.

“I think from the tourism standpoint that’s a pretty big advantage,” Councilwoman Jill Valerius said.

Once the council took up the budget for the final public hearing, Councilman Richard Best made a motion to remove the additional $3,000. Best’s motion failed to carry without a second and the downtown wifi was added into the budget. Among other budget amendments made late on Tuesday night was a subtraction from the budget for the city Clerk. Citing the desire to keep the city from Public Employees Retirement System expenditures in the future, Best moved to change the Clerk’s office from two full-time positions to two half-time positions.

“I think is imperative to determine what is necessary in that office. I think this is probably a long discussion but I think we should probably stick with the amount we had over hte last few years,” Best said.

Valerius noted that the clerk’s office is in charge of maintaining the distribution of information from the city to the public, the city’s website and running elections.

“There’s an adequate need for those to be full time positions and a ton of work to be done in that department so I wouldn’t support this,” Councilwoman Sabrena Combs said.

Councilman Steve Carrington noted that if the need for additional staff becomes apparent, the council could always re-hire more staff in the next calendar year with a budget amendment.

“I don’t see the job of the city clerk getting any easier with the task that we are looking at approaching in the new year,” Councilwoman Julie Berberich said.

The amendment to reduce the clerk’s budget passed with Mayor Edna DeVries, Deputy Mayor Linda Combs, Best and Carrington voting in support.

Best also moved to reduce the amount for Community Council grants from $15,000 to $12,000. While Palmer’s Community Council grants often go for small amounts to events in downtown such as the Who Let The Girls Out weekend or the Green Day Gallop, councilors in favor argued that the city should not partake in underwriting businesses.

In the past two years, the council has issued large grants to the YAK and to the Hatcher Pass Avalanche Center. Best’s motion to reduce the grants passed with Council passed with Berberich and Sabrena Combs voting in opposition. Best’s final motion to reduce the budget was to reduce the travel budget for the 40th anniversary of the sister city program with Saroma, Japan, next summer. Best moved to reduce the amount by $4,000, allowing the city to pay only for Deputy Mayor Linda Combs’ ticket to Japan. Valerius then moved to reduce the entire travel budget and not pay for any plane tickets, which failed with only Valerius voting in support.

“While the event comes up every 10 years, your taxes are paid yearly,” Best said.

The motion to reduce the Saroma travel budget failed with only Best and DeVries in support. Following the unanimous passage of the budget as amended, Sabrena Combs moved to issue end of year raises to city employees which passed unanimously.

The meeting on Tuesday was the last for Palmer Police Chief Lance Ketterling, who retires at the end of the year. Commander Dwayne Shelton will take over as Chief of the Palmer Police. Ketterling has spent 23 years on the Palmer Police.

“It has been my privilege and my honor,” Ketterling said.