FY 2013-14 Wrangell Budget

City and Borough of Wrangell, Alaska

Incorporated as a borough on May 30, 2008

2013-2014 Fiscal Year Approved Budget

Rededicated Chief Shakes Tribal House—May 2013

Wrangell Cooperative Assoc. and Borough Joint Projects

The Wrangell Cooperative Association (WCA), after several years of planning, seeking funds, and construc-tion, successfully completed the reconstruction of Chief Shakes Tribal House, a replica of the Naanya.aayi clan house, relocated to Shakes Island in the mid-1800’s by the Stikine River tribe. The Civilian Conservation Corps reconstructed the Tribal House in 1940. After serving the community for more than seven decades, the harsh Alaska weather, insect infestation and other animals took its toll on the Tribal House. The Tribal House is included on the National Historic Registry. Master Carvers trained local laborers on tradi-tional carving methods. All cedar was hand adzed and wood was transported by hand across the bridge to the Island for installment. A temporary carving shed was erected to house all the work reconstructing Shakes Tribal House. In 2013, construction began on a per-manent carving shed located adjacent to the newly ren-ovated SNO building. In recent years, the Wrangell Cooperative Association (WCA) and the City and Borough of Wrangell (CBW) have worked together on a variety of joint projects for the betterment of Wrangell. Tlingit-Haida Regional Housing Authority (THRHA) contacted the city sever-al years ago with a proposal to improve the SNO Build-ing as part of our downtown revitalization plan. Only the borough was eligible to access specific grant funds through Federal Housing and Urban Develop-ment (HUD). Working in partnership with THRHA, the Borough received $869,000 in grant funds for the current SNO Building renovations. The design work and construction was done by the THRHA staff and workers.

Over the last 4 years, WCA has been able to access grant funding to assist the Irene Ingle Public Library in purchasing items that help provide quality services to the public. Items include an Early Literacy Station for 2-8 year olds, public use computers, ebooks, large print books, and DVDs.

In 2011, WCA obtained funding and paved both Pine and Etolin Streets. The Borough will be working coop-eratively with WCA again in 2014 on Weber Street im-provements. The borough will replace all of the un-derground utilities and WCA will provide for the de-sign and paving of the street. In 2011-2012 the borough and WCA worked together through grant money available to WCA to purchase and install LED lights at the native housing units off of Etolin Street and the balance of lights to be installed around town. The WCA grant to purchase the lights was for $54,000, coupled with an Alaska Energy Au-thority grant in the amount of $125,000 allowed the borough to replace most of the old street lights. The borough supplied all of the truck time and manpower to perform the installation. This project has saved the community approximately $32,000 each year on energy costs. It is not only cheaper to run the new lights, but replacement costs should also decrease because these new lights last 2 to 3 times longer. The relationship between the WCA and the borough has been a positive one which has benefited both organ-izations and more importantly has enhanced and bene-fited the citizens of Wrangell. We look forward to working on new projects in the future.

MEMORANDUM TO: THE HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF THE ASSEMBLY CITY AND BOROUGH OF WRANGELL FROM: TIMOTHY D. ROONEY

BOROUGH MANAGER SUBJECT: BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2013-14 DATE: June 4, 2013 Pursuant to Charter and statutory provisions, this correspondence is for the purpose of transmitting a budget proposal for FY 2013-14. The budget document contains detailed estimates of anticipated revenues and proposed expenditures for all operations and includes all funds maintained by the City and Borough of Wrangell. The utilization of a consolidated approach in presenting the budget will provide the Borough Assembly and citizens a comprehensive view of the financial position of the Borough’s government operations. This format also provides your constituents a budget document that clearly details projected revenue sources and how the Borough plans to spend money collected from those sources. Adoption of an annual budget is the single-most important policy decision of the Borough Assembly. Decisions made during the development and adoption of the budget has the effect of establishing direction for our Borough for the next several years. The budget serves as a policy statement that charges the city’s administration with the responsibility of accomplishing the goals and objectives. The City and Borough of Wrangell’s financial position remains strong and in confronting the current economic conditions facing the Nation and its municipal, county, and state governments, Wrangell’s conservative approach to budgeting, spending, and fiscal policy have proven to be the right course of action and philosophy. Simply put, the FY 2013-2014 budget proposal is one that maintains the current level of government services without any reduction in those services providing the sales tax rate continues at 7%. The objective of any budget is to establish priorities and allocate available resources to those priorities. It is the focal point for dialogue about the future direction of our community. As the Borough Manager, one of my primary duties is to annually prepare and propose to the Assembly a financial “business plan” for the future of the Borough. Therein is the budget challenge: to achieve the greatest results, make a difference in people’s lives, and do so while maintaining fiscal responsibility to the public. Successfully meeting that challenge is what will continue to make Wrangell Alaska’s Last Great Place. It is my privilege to place before the community a budget that sustainably and responsibly recognizes critical needs and services of the citizens of Wrangell.

• The Sales Tax rate will remain at 7%. If, in the event the initiative petition is approved by the citizens of Wrangell and Sales Tax is reduced to 5.5%, the necessary reductions to the budget are outlined and contained on Page 44A of the budget.

ASSUMPTIONS: During its development, the staff has made major assumptions that are key to this budget. These assumptions are part of the normal process of budget development. It should be noted, however, these assumptions become significant policy decisions providing the foundation for the entire budget as a result of the Borough Assembly approval. These assumptions/policy decisions are listed below for your consideration.

• The staff has projected sales tax revenue for FY 2013-14 at $ 2,410,000.

• The General Fund provides for a 1.4% reduction in revenue from the FY 2012-13 revised

estimate. This decrease is mainly a result of the reduction in State Revenue Sharing, Federal Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) and Secure Schools (Road Portion).

• All current and existing staffing levels have been maintained. No increase in personnel is included within this budget. Step increases for all employees plus a one-time payment of $750 is also included in the budget.

• The FY 2013-14 budget includes an increase in costs associated with employee health care. Blue Cross/Blue Shield has provided a health care premium that represents a 33% increase over the FY 2012-13 budget.

• The FY 2013-14 budget includes limited capital expenditures totaling $146,150 exclusive of any grants received.

• Scheduled water, garbage, and sewer rate increases to go into effect July 1, 2013. These increases were approved by the Borough Assembly in 2011.

• A continued expenditure of $25,000 to benefit the Chamber of Commerce in the

Community Promotion Budget for services provided to the City and Borough of Wrangell in association with the July 4th Celebration, Salmon Derby, and as a membership match incentive.

• A continued expenditure of $5,000 for an employee appreciation event in early-December.

• Property taxes, although authorized by the voters of Wrangell to be increased to 13 mills as a result of the Evergreen Elementary Playground Replacement Project, were maintained at 12.75 mills as a result of increased revenues elsewhere within the budget. The ability to continue to keep the mills at this level in future years will be dependent

directly upon revenues and while staff remains hopeful that this will occur in future years, the likelihood of it happening again is not high.

CONCLUSION, COMMENTS, APPRECIATION: Every city is financially unable to fully address every area of community concern. Priorities must be set and funded and this budget is no different. It has established priorities based on the funding available and on a review of major community and organizational needs and seeks to address those needs. The department directors have been the primary resource in the assessment of needs and planning of this budget document. It is the objective of this budget to continue to effectively address multiple priorities of a community, improve cost effectiveness of services, maintain and improve the efficiency of services, and better manage the taxpayer’s resources through a commitment to the continuous improvement of those services and processes. I take this opportunity to express my sincere appreciation to the staff members and department directors who have worked to develop this budget, all are members of the budget team and each has had an impact on this proposal. Special appreciation is noted for the work and effort made by Mr. Jeff Jabusch without whom the quality and accuracy of this proposal would not be possible. It remains clear that Mr. Jabusch’s history of fiscally conservative management has kept the City and Borough of Wrangell from experiencing many of the problems that other sister communities in Alaska and across the country have faced the last several years. I also appreciate the time that each member of the Assembly has spent in evaluating the budget through its approval process. I appreciate your continued support in implementing the strategies, goals, and services contained in this budget. In summary, a work session regarding the FY 2013-14 Budget was conducted on Tuesday evening, May 7, 2013 at 6:00 PM. Following the work session, a public hearing regarding the FY 2013-14 Budget was conducted on Tuesday evening, May 14, 2013 at 6:00 PM. At the public hearing, two citizens attended and provided comments regarding the proposed budget to the Borough Assembly. The budget was approved by the Borough Assembly on Tuesday, May 28, 2013 at 7:00 PM by a 6-1 vote of the Borough Assembly with Assemblyman Christian casting the dissenting vote. Respectfully submitted,