Bartlesville Police Department will add eight new police officer positions — six of them as School Resource Officers — following City Council approval of the 2022-23 Fiscal Year budget during a meeting held Monday.
The proposed budget had initially included two new police officer positions to work in conjunction with a local mental health facility in dealing with the city’s growing mental health needs, but a deal reached with Bartlesville Public Schools last week for funding allowed for the inclusion of six additional SROs, City Manager Mike Bailey told the council. Currently, only three SROs are assigned to Bartlesville Public Schools.
“The cost for the additional SROs would be split 75 percent by BPS and 25 percent by the City. This is a unique opportunity to add six police officers to our department for a relatively small investment,” Bailey said.
The total cost for the first year for the new positions is $393,000, with the City’s portion coming in at $134,850.The first year includes equipment costs, so the cost to retain the positions in subsequent years will be less, approximately $98,250.
ARPA Funds
Other changes in the proposed budget include the use of American Rescue Plan Act funds. The City will have about $2.9 million leftover in ARPA funding after having received $3.5 million last year. Based on individual council member requests following a workshop meeting held May 23, the money will be used to fund the following:
- Reserve Fund — $750,000
- Priorities identified in the City Strategic Plan (currently underway) — $500,000
- Police pilot project with Grand Lake Mental Health — $500,000
- Operation and Maintenance for the First Christian Church Building, which the City will lease for one year pending results from a feasibility study to determine possible use — $100,000
- Possible hiring of a City Parks and Recreation coordinator, pending talks with the Richard Kane YMCA —$72,590
- Streets — $500,000
- Water slide alternate for Sooner Pool (included in the original expansion design but added as a bid alternate to reduce costs) — $300,000
- Pathfinder — $100,000
- Sidewalks — $50,000
Utilities
The budget includes projections based on utility fee increases approved by the council in April that will go into effect on July 1.
A comprehensive water and wastewater rate study was conducted in Fiscal Year 2020-21, which included recommendations for new rates sufficient to support the operations of the system and capital fees to support mandatory improvements to the system. The new rates were effective for customers within and outside the city limits and were phased in over a five-year period. The City Council adopted the first year of the five-year rate structure effective on July 1, 2021, and later adopted a slightly modified version of the rate structure for years two through five of the plan.
Water Rates
- Water base rates will not increase
- Water incremental rates will decrease by about 3.3 percent
- Water capital investment fees will increase by about 42 percent
Wastewater Rates
- Wastewater base rates will increase by about 8 percent
- Wastewater incremental rates will increase by about 5.7 percent
- Wastewater capital investment fees will increase by about 27.6 percent
Sanitation Rates
- Sanitation cart rates will increase by about 5.8 percent
- Sanitation commercial rates will increase by about 10 percent
Staffing additions, pay increases
The adopted budget includes staffing additions and pay increases for existing City employees. In addition to the police officer positions, an assistant city manager and an assistant Public Works director, as well as three half-time temporary positions in the Parks Department will be funded.
The proposed budget also includes a 5 percent cost of living adjustment for all City employees and 2.5 percent merit increases for employees who have not yet reached their top level of pay.
“As we entered this budget, our highest priority was to ensure that the wages for our employees stayed competitive in this market of increasing labor competition,” Bailey said. “This was further complicated by the fact that inflation has spiked to levels above 8 percent over the last few months. These increases are expected to cost about $1.26 million in the General Fund and $304,000 across the rest of the organization.”
Also, decreased costs in the City’s previous retirement plan, effective for employees who were enrolled prior to FY 2009-10, have resulted in a $245,974 cost savings for the City. The plan is now 81 percent funded, but recommended contributions included in the budget will increase the funding to 89 percent.
Reserve Fund
The City’s stabilization reserve policy calls for a contribution equal to 2 percent of the Operating Budget of the General Fund, Wastewater, Water and Sanitation funds until the maximum level is reached. The maximum level is defined as 35 percent of the operating budget of the fund, while the minimum level, set by municipal ordinance, is 16 percent of the operating budget of the fund. The upcoming fiscal year budget for the fund is a total of $955,857 across all four funds, bringing the total Reserve Fund to $11.6 million, or 19.6 percent of the budget.
“With this year’s allocation, all funds have now reached the minimum level but are years from the maximum level,” Bailey said.
CIP projects
Also approved in the budget adoption was the Capital Projects Budget, which includes expenditures funded through the City’s Half-cent Capital Improvement Projects (CIP) Sales Tax and General Obligation Bonds, both of which are approved by voters.
The upcoming budget includes approximately $9.5 million in G.O. Bond funding and about $3.1 million in Half-cent CIP Sales Tax funds for capital projects
Capital projects budgeted to receive funding in FY 2022-23 include:
- Police cameras, vehicles and other equipment
- Preventative street maintenance
- Pathfinder maintenance and repairs
- Shade structure replacement at Sooner and Frontier pools
- Jo Allyn Lowe turf
- Oak Park basketball court
- Mowers and other equipment
- Sewer line point repairs
- Transfer pumps and motors, water line and other equipment at the Water Treatment Plant
- City Hall upgrades and repairs
- Numerous street resurfacing/repairs
- Sooner Park restroom remodel
Conservative projections
The budget for the upcoming year is based on conservative projections which excluded the prior two fiscal years due to atypical sales tax receipt returns, Bailey said.
“While we expect to finish the year about $1.8 million ahead of the previous year, several factors surrounding the year’s performance must be considered going into the new year,” he said. “We don’t know how much of this growth was caused by inflation, how much of it was sustained by stimulus funds that have now been exhausted, or whether labor costs and a shrinking labor pool provided more money for people to spend, resulting in higher returns. We also don’t know what effect the Federal Reserve increasing interest rates will have on the economy or whether these factors combined could lead to a recession and, if so, what impact a recession would have on sales tax revenue in the next fiscal year.
“Given these unprecedented circumstances, we discarded the results from the last few fiscal years that we believe were so grossly skewed by COVID and economic stimulus and instead have looked back to fiscal year 2019-20 and projected what normal growth of 3 percent would have looked like from that fiscal year. These projections were used to calculate our sales tax expectations for the fiscal year 2022-23 budget. The results were a decrease of over $1.1 million from fiscal year 2021-22 to fiscal year 2022-23.”
Staff has projected $21 million in sales tax revenue for the upcoming fiscal year. Allocations include $16.4 million for the City’s General Fund, which funds all City operations including police, fire, and streets; $1.5 million for Economic Development; and $3 million for CIP projects.
The council voted 5-0 to approve adoption of the budget. The City’s fiscal year ends June 30, and Fiscal Year 2022-23 begins July 1.
Other matters
In other matters, the council took the following actions:
- Approved the budget for the Bartlesville Development Authority, which also includes the City’s tourism arm, Visit Bartlesville
- Approved a contract agreement between the City and the International Association of Fire Fighters, Local 200 for FY 2022-23
- Received the FY 2021-22 City audit