City Beat: Council passes $338M fiscal budget

Springfield City Council adopted the city’s annual budget June 13 with just one vote in opposition after two councilmembers failed to move contingency funds into a program designed to put more police officers on city streets.

The $338 million fiscal 2017 budget was approved with a 6-1 vote. Kristi Fulnecky opposed the bill after she and Craig Hosmer failed to secure last-minute funding for the city’s Police Department.

Fulnecky unsuccessfully tried amending the budget by $311,000 to add a handful of new officers to the force. The move would have provided a recruit officer nonsworn classification.

“Right now, officers in training are included in the authorized number. It gets a little skewed when people say, ‘How many officers do you have on the streets?’” Fulnecky said, pointing to the department’s authorized sworn staff of 352, which is higher than its actual average sworn staff – identified last month by Police Chief Paul Williams at 332. “This is a four-year plan the chief had presented. What it does is adds five recruits per year, so eventually, without affecting the budget too much, you can get up to 352 sworn officers.”

Fulnecky’s amendment never received a second motion and was withdrawn when Hosmer moved to amend the budget by adding $75,000 to the recruit-classification program. Fulnecky had suggested $75,000 would help fund the classification program before the end of the fiscal year beginning July 1. That money also would have come from a contingency line item.

“This is just an opportunity for us to look at it as a different budgetary item,” Hosmer said. “To me, it makes some sense to segregate recruits from actual sworn officers out on the street.”

City Manager Greg Burris said additional program funds in fiscal 2017, however, would in turn commit roughly $311,000 in fiscal 2018 funding for officer payroll after training – without a dedicated funding source.

The amendment failed by a 4-3 vote with McClure and councilmen Craig Fishel and Justin Burnett voting against it; five affirmative votes are needed for amendments to pass. Mayor Bob Stephens and Councilwoman Jan Fisk were absent from the meeting.

Councilman Mike Schilling said he wasn’t opposed to more officers but he’s concerned about amending the budget just prior to a vote.

“I’m nervous here about coming in at the 11th hour with an amendment,” Schilling said, adding he’s not certain more officers would mean less crime. “We need some more data, I think, on this.”

Hosmer pointed to rising crime statistics. In the first quarter, total crime in Springfield was up 10 percent from a year ago, with violations against persons rising to 519 from 477 and crimes against property jumping to 2,973 from 2,704.

“We are undermanned in the city of Springfield. We have too much crime on our streets,” Hosmer said.

The approved budget is up by $4 million, or about 1 percent, compared with the current year. The general fund budget – which includes Police, Fire and Building Development Services – was approved at $80.8 million, up 2 percent from $79.1 million in fiscal 2016. Special revenue funds, such as the public-safety pension sales tax and the hotel/motel tax, are projected to generate $110.8 million under the new budget, while enterprise funds such as the Springfield-Branson National Airport and clean-water services total $78.3 million.

Downtown CID, take two
A renewal and expansion of the Downtown Springfield Community Improvement District passed for a second time this year.

Council unanimously approved a 15-year renewal and expansion of the downtown CID in January, but a second approval was needed because city officials discovered the district had not collected enough signatures for a petition. The CID establishes an area for collecting special sales taxes to fund such services as added security and trash removal. According to Sarah Kerner, assistant city attorney and interim director of economic development, the initial expansion renewal failed to secure support from both property owners who own at least 50 percent of the expansion area and 50 percent of the property owners in the expanded CID space.

The larger district – primarily growing to the north and west – adds an estimated $6 million in annual taxable assessed valuation through 2030 for the roughly $39 million district.

The sales tax within the CID would rise to a half-cent per dollar from a quarter-cent, and the redrawn district would allow a special property tax assessment of up to 75 cents per every $100 of assessed value, up from 40 cents.

Since the Downtown Springfield CID was established in 1999, assessed values have grown within its borders to $36.4 million from $8.2 million, or more than 10 percent annually, according to information in the bill. Since 2007, taxable sales within the CID have grown 3 percent annually to $55.2 million from $45.1 million.

Animal shelter plans
Council advanced a proposal for a new animal shelter by passing a pair of bills annexing county land and setting its new zoning designation.

Council approved the annexation of 22.84 acres of city-owned property in the 3100-block of South Kauffman Road. The Springfield Greene-County Health Department and Environmental Services Department requested the annexation of the property acquired by the city in 2003 as a buffer area for the Southwest Treatment Plant and the Public Works salt facility.

Council passed a resolution in April calling for the annexation, but formal adoption of the property requires rezoning. At the June 13 meeting, council approved a general manufacturing district designation, changing from a county suburban residential district. The manufacturing district would allow existing and proposed uses for an animal shelter and adoption facility.

But an animal shelter master plan pegs the construction cost at $5.6 million. City officials say councilmembers will review the plan at an upcoming council lunch.