By Ken Francis

Staff Writer 

After a 90-minute budget workshop last Monday, the Clearwater City Council agreed to work with a four percent levy increase as its starting point to establish the 2019 preliminary levy.

The discussion began with an all-inclusive budget presented by Administrator Kevin Kress that resulted in a 10.8% levy increase.

Kress said that number was high, but it was intended as the worst case scenario if the council decided to approve all the line item increases.

He said the biggest increase was $80,000 to build two additional stalls on the maintenance facility. He said the current building doesn’t have enough room.

Mayor Pete Edmonson asked where the idea for an expansion came from, since it wasn’t on the city’s capital improvement list.

“Just walking through the structure you can see how they’re struggling. They’re running out of room,” said Kress.

But he said it’s partially because of the design. The building has been pieced together with different additions.

“It’s not set up well for office and equipment storage,” he said.

Kress said it’s not urgent, and he would be comfortable taking it out of the 2019 budget.

Edmonson said the long-term plan could involve moving the maintenence facility, so adding to the existing building might not be money well spent.

Kress agreed.

“I kind of envision public works being here (city hall area). The city will have to decide to either build a fire/city hall or a separate structure that could include Lions building, food shelf and maybe the library,” he said. “They’re expensive, but it’s something we can talk about.”

Another discussion involved adjusting the pay for the mayor and council. Currently, council members receive $1,500 a year, $35 per meeting and a $20 cell phone stipend. They mayor gets $3,000 a year, $45 per meeting and a $40 cell phone allowance.

But those numbers haven’t changed in many years. Kris Crandall, a councilman for 12 years, said he couldn’t remember the pay ever changing since he’s been on the council.

Edmonson asked Kress if he had any suggestions.

“It’s a tough one because there’s so much variety between all the communities,” he said.

Councilman Rollie Lange said it’s time for an increase. He suggested $5,000 for council members and $7,000 for the mayor.

“I’ll start the debate there,” he said.

Councilman Richard Petty said no one is doing the job for the money. But the fact that only two people filed for office this year is an indication the job isn’t very desirable.

“The thing is, we need people to want to do this,” he said. “If it is a little bit of an extra income - then the more people the merrier.”

“When I started I said I wasn’t doing this for the money,” said Crandall. “At the same time, after 12 years we should be making a little more. We put a lot of time into this. There’s sacrifice with it.”

Edmonson felt a fair number might be a 50% increase. At that rate, council members would make $2,250 a year. The mayor’s pay would increase to $4,500. He also suggested hiking the meeting rates to $50 and $75 respectively. He said over the past year-plus, council meetings have been reduced from two meetings a month to one, saving the city money.

Council Member Andrea Lawrence said she began calculating what the council would have been getting with annual increases plus inflation, and said it was already well over $2,000.

“I don’t think we have to apologize. It’s a fair amount,” said Lange.

Kress said he would put those number into the preliminary budget for September when the council has another discussion.

Without the maintenance building addition, the levy increase is between three and four percent instead of 10.8%.