Nelson Going for Broke

By Tony Capri

The Nelson City Council met again last night to reconvene their current work session, a discussion focused mainly on city spending.There were many orders of business on the agenda, but the recurring theme was: the city has no money.

“They do, but they don’t,”

said City Manager Brandy Edwards.

“The old council had a budget of $440,000, and this council cut it down to $370,000. … A couple of [the council members] are completely against raising taxes.”

This leaves the city with few options when dealing with the large list of items that were mentioned during this latest council meeting, everything from sidewalk work and a new maintenance vehicle, to a retaining wall and security cameras for the City Hall.

Mayor Mike Haviland presided over the work session, and though council member Edith Portillo sighed and balked at almost every mention of city spending, the mayor was pleased with the progress they were making.

In spite of the mayor’s optimism, there were other key areas of concern that seemed to stump the council. For instance, it was agreed by all council members there was no money in the budget for a new sanitation truck, to which Edwards added,

“If the truck breaks, so does sanitation.”

The legality of various policy considerations was also brought up at the meeting, though City Attorney Jeff Rushbridge was not in attendance, leaving council members unable to agree upon the language of certain elements of the agenda.

Though the work session was relaxed and fairly informal, the group seemed eager and serious about taking up the task of addressing Nelson’s top spending priorities. There was some apparent reservation, however, by Portillo regarding what should or should not be discussed publicly, namely the possibility of raising city taxes by 2 percent.

Mayor Haviland later steered the discussion toward budget reserves. At present, the city’s preliminary plan states the budget reserves cannot fall below 16 percent of the total budget, though Haviland made a recommendation the reserve be raised to 25 percent. That could prove particularly difficult considering the already tight budget with which Nelson is forced to work with.

In a somewhat heated exchange, Council Member Bishop suggested to City Manager Edwards the present City Council is doing a bit of clean up for their predecessors. Though no actual voting took place during the work session, Bishop’s attitude seemed to be one of laying the groundwork for an improved system.