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ADOPTED | BOOK

Growing & Aging

Our community continues to grow and age at the same time. We have new residents to serve and
we have existing residents whose demand for services has increased.

Public Safety Response

In order to meet escalating EMS and service calls, the FY2022/23 budget has funding for 3 new
Firefighter positions. The initial 3 years for this staffing will be funded through a grant, with the City
covering only the cost of uniforms and personal equipment. After the grant period, these positions
will need to be fully funded by the City. The adopted budget includes the addition of these positions
contingent upon receipt of the grant. We anticipate service calls will require this additional staffing
in the near future regardless of whether or not grant funds are received.

The mental health care crisis in all communities is well documented. The Crime Control District
(CCD) budget includes the addition of one civilian position to join the Crisis Response Sergeant in
responding to calls involving individuals in need of mental health intervention.

Code Enforcement

As our houses and their residents age, we are seeing an increased gap in our residents’ ability or
willingness to keep their properties up to code. Over the past few years, we have received an
increasing number of complaints for code violations. An additional Code Enforcement Officer was
added in 2018, and we are proposing to add an additional Code Enforcement Officer in the 2022-
23 budget.

Streets and Traffic

Regular street maintenance can prevent streets from deteriorating to a level where they can no
longer be maintained and must be reconstructed at a much higher cost. For several years the budget
has included $1,000,000 for street maintenance. Unfortunately, this amount is not able to keep up
with the increasing age of our streets or the cost of materials. As mentioned previously, completion
of TIF #2 provides around $1,200,000 in additional capacity for bond issuance without increasing
tax collections. Staff is proposing that this capacity be used to fund $5,000,000 in 5-year notes in
order to double our efforts for street maintenance for the next five years. This additional funding will
help to keep us from falling behind recommended maintenance schedules.

One of the challenges in increasing our street improvement efforts is a lack of staffing to manage
the additional projects. In 2018 we left an Associate Engineer position vacant due to funding
reasons. Without this position handling routine engineering projects, the City Engineer and Director
of Public Works are very challenged to pick up the additional work associated with the 2020 bond
program. The adopted budget recommends reinstating funding for the Associate Engineer in order
to prevent us from falling behind on the bond program.

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