In a 4-to-1 vote, Durango City Council on Tuesday adopted the fiscal budget for 2022, after months of scrutinizing the proposed financial plan.
Olivier Bosmans was the only councilor to vote against approving the budget.
He said the proposed increase in staff and some decisions about how to pay for capital-improvement projects are not financially wise.
The city has budgeted to hire for 23 new positions, and fill 33 vacancies in the coming year. Bosmans argued that with the new hires, personnel costs could increase significantly.
“Personnel costs would probably increase over 25% from past years,” he said. “That’s a concern for our budget.”
Bosmans also opposed a proposed $2.22 sewage rate increase that is planned to keep up with operational costs and to pay for some capital-investment projects.
City Councilor Barbara Noseworthy agreed with Bosmans about the potential rate increase, and said the Infrastructure Advisory Board wants to have further discussions with city staff members in early January to consider different options for water and sewer funding.
Durango City Manager José Madrigal said approving the budget would not preclude the city from making adjustments to the budget at a later date.
One major change that came out of the two-month budget review process was the postponement of a $6 million project that would have redesigned County Road 250 (East Animas Road) and County Road 251 (extension of 32nd Street). The capital investment project would have redesigned County Road 251 from Holly Avenue to East Animas Road and the Metz Lane intersection. Money allocated in the proposed budget for that project was rerouted back to the city’s general fund.
“We ended up finding out that we couldn’t get it all done this year, so we took that project out and put money in for right-of-way acquisition,” Madrigal said.
He said there were some other small changes, such as an increase in funding for marketing, and arts and culture.
“Nothing substantial has changed, just a couple parts where we were looking at big projects that we figured we could hold off and not do it all in the coming year,” he said.
The 2022 projected budget is $172 million, which is up $49 million from 2021’s projected budget.
Most of the increase stems from an injection of federal money and surpluses from previous years the city will receive to pay for capital projects. Durango plans to spend $24 million more in federal funds for capital projects than it did in 2021. The total amount proposed for capital fund projects in 2022 is around $50 million.
The city has 61 different capital projects planned for the next year.
A 5% cost-of-living pay increase was approved for city employees in 2022. The city has allocated money to add at least two new police officers in 2022, and five new dispatch positions.
One of the big changes in the upcoming fiscal year will be the development of a capital investments project division to oversee the multitude of capital projects scheduled for the year.
The capital investment project division, which falls under the city’s Public Works Department, will have dedicated staff members who keep past, present and future projects organized to stop potential overlap and keep things on track.
“As January hits on, we start that new budget year and we’re really looking to get forward with some of those projects,” Madrigal said.
Capital investment projects are currently overseen within individual departments. In some cases, city departments don’t have expertise in fields such as engineering to properly communicate with contractors working on projects.
A housing division is also being added to help coordinate the city’s goal to develop affordable and workforce housing.
“I’m really excited about having some dedicated funding and staffing that is going to begin to address those housing issues,” Madrigal said.
The adopted budget will be made public for residents to view through the city’s financial transparency tool OpenGov, accessible through the city’s website.
njohnson@durangoherald.com
This story has been updated to clarify that the city of Durango is not budgeting for 56 new employees; rather, it seeks to fill 33 vacant positions and create 23 new positions. Also, the $2.22 proposed rate increase is for sewage, not water and sewage.
