Cave Springs leaders aim to create budget

CAVE SPRINGS -- City leaders on Tuesday will try to hammer out the 2017 budget and figure out how to replenish city money without firing anyone.

A budget work session will start at 6:30 p.m. at the American Legion building. The session comes two weeks after the City Council decided not to override Mayor Travis Lee's Jan. 4 veto of the council's budget.

The council fired 10 employees and eliminated their positions during the Jan. 4 meeting. All of those positions were created by Lee since he took office two years ago. Some city leaders have criticized Lee by saying the positions are unnecessary and a financial drain on the city. Lee said all the positions were approved by the council, as was other spending he's been criticized for.

"I think the first thing I'm going to give to them [at the meeting] is the facts on what was spent and who approved what," Lee said. "They have approved everything, and I want to make sure they know that first."

Alderman Larry Fletcher said his hope for the work session is to come up with solutions.

"We got to take another look at the personnel," Fletcher said. "Are the positions adequate or too many? A lot of brainstorming needs to take place to figure out how to cut spending. It's not going to be easy."

The general fund

The city's general fund was $147,524 two weeks ago, said Kimberly Hutcheson, city treasurer and recorder. The fund had a balance of $515,603 on Jan. 31, 2014, she said.

Lee has answered accusations of misspending by saying he wants a financial audit. After the Jan. 10 council meeting, Lee said Legislative Audit soon will perform an audit on city finances for 2015 and 2016.

Purse strings will have to be tightened and cuts will have to be made to put together a budget, said Alderman Mary Ann Winters.

"We will have to look at all these high salaries that are being paid out, and we're going to have to start doing something about them," she said. "My idea is we still need to cut the salaries in half."

Winters said $450,000 in salaries, which she said is about half of the total salaries based off her quick calculations, needs to be cut for the city to survive. She specifically mentioned the vice mayor, a position held by Charlie Holyfield; and building inspector, a position held by B.J. Burney, as positions needing reduced salaries. Winters has also questioned the need for those positions entirely, saying Lee should handle any duties Holyfield has and it would be cheaper to contract for building inspections instead of paying Burney's salary.

Payroll figures provided by Hutcheson shows Holyfield's annual earnings for 2016 were $49,423. Burney received $43,451. Lee said as mayor he receives $30 an hour and earns around $60,000 a year.

Lee said he doesn't remember who set the salaries of Holyfield, Burney and the other eight employees he hired since becoming mayor, but he said all salaries were approved by the City Council. Fletcher said he recalls it being Lee who set the salaries.

Lee said City Council meeting minutes show the council approved the salaries and other spending initiatives, and City Attorney Tom Guarino compiled the minutes in which the approvals were made and showed them to council members after he was hired in November.

Lee said every position the city has is crucial to Cave Springs' growth.

"If we cut anything, it has to be something else other than payroll," he said. "Employees are going to be our biggest expense."

Legal fees and professional fees, such as engineering costs, are the city's second largest expense, Lee said.

City jobs

If the city subcontracted building inspections as Winters recommends, it would cost too much money, Lee said. A special census done in 2016 showed the city had 3,811 residents -- more than twice the number in 2010, which the federal census showed as 1,910.

The city completed 4,692 building inspections in 2016 and issued 246 building permits, Burney said.

"I would say 80 percent of that is new construction," Burney said.

At least 95 percent of the new construction is for homes going into platted subdivisions, Burney said.

Burney said $365,279 was collected by the city in 2016 for building permits, contractor permits and reinspection fees. He said that money goes into the city's general fund. In 2015, $296,761 was collected in permits and fees, Lee said.

Lee also defended Holyfield's position and salary, saying chief of staff is a more appropriate title for Holyfield than vice mayor.

"I think people have a problem more with the title [vice mayor] than what the position is," Lee said. "I needed something to show that he was in charge if I wasn't there, to give someone the authority to help do the day-to-day operations that come up. I can't be there every day."

Lee said his typical workday is made up of several meetings with developers and engineers, touching on projects happening throughout the city

"There's no way I can handle all that by myself," Lee said. "[Charlie helps out] with people taking days off, complaints coming in [and] working with other developers. It's overwhelming, and we still don't have enough people."

The demands of city administration in Cave Springs are much higher than people realize, and all the positions he's hired since he started are necessary ones, Lee said. The city has 22 employees, not including part-time volunteer firefighters. The Water and Sewer Department employs the most city workers, Lee said.

Gentry, like Cave Springs, is a small Benton County city. Gentry has a 3,425 residents and 24 full-time and eight part-time city employees, said Mayor Kevin Johnston.

Centerton, a Benton County city that has grown rapidly in recent years and now has a population of about 14,000, has 65 full-time employees, said Mayor Bill Edwards. The city had 20 employees when Edwards started as mayor in 2011.

Funding priorities

Lee, Winters and Fletcher all agree money needs to be put aside to repair the Community Building.

The City Council unanimously voted in June to spend up to $75,000 to repair the 80-year-old building.

"We've got to fund the community building," Fletcher said. "We have no choice but to fund it."

The city has a responsibility to repair the building, Winters said.

"We promised the people that we would fix that Community Building," she said. "We put $75,000 in a line item especially for that."

Free inmate work details provided by the Benton County Jail began work on the Community Building, stripping material in the building, but work stopped when money became a point of contention in the city, Lee said.

"In my budget we set aside money for that; that's of course with inmate labor to help us get that repaired. But the council want to keep putting that off until they get the reserve back to where it needs to be," Lee said.

Replenishing the reserve is a top priority, but the city also needs to put together a street repair program and make sure the Police and Fire departments are well-funded, Fletcher said.

Several community members called upon city leaders to make a better effort to work together during the Jan. 10 council meeting.

"There can be winners on both sides instead of you being at each other's throats," Kim Files said.

Lee said he hopes he and his colleagues can build a solid budget and he's willing to compromise.

"I'm going to pass out a lot of hugs at the start of the meeting, and hopefully that will relieve some tension," Lee said.

NW News on 01/22/2017