Three days before the deadline, the Roy City Council approved its 2024 annual budget during a special meeting on Friday, Dec. 15. Councilors previously delayed voting on the city’s budget on Dec. 11, instead requesting a special meeting on the final business day before Monday’s deadline.
Next year’s budget includes $1,398,293 in projected revenues and $2,289,444 in expenditures, according to city documents. The general fund was approved with a $66,866 deficit, as it was projected to start with a balance of $423,349 and finish with $356,483. Overall, city staff anticipate beginning the year with a balance of $2,489,878 and finishing with $1,598,727.
Councilors approved the budget, 3-2, with an amendment to reduce medical coverage for city staff’s families by 5% rather than the originally proposed 50% reduction. Councilor Rachel Chavez proposed the 5% reduction in response to Yvonne Starks’ 50% proposal. The reduction will provide approximately $1,300 to the city annually, according to City Clerk-Treasurer Michael Malek. Councilors Chavez, Jim Rotondo and Harvey Gilchrist voted to approve the budget, while Yvonne Starks and William Starks voted against it.
Following the council’s executive session and prior to the vote, Roy Mayor Kimber Ivy recommended that the council approve the budget and expressed her concerns regarding the priorities of members of the council.
“Despite extensive efforts from the city’s administrative staff to present revenue options, reduce the deficit and enhance the city’s resources, the council has chosen not to move forward with providing these resources,” Mayor Ivy said in a statement to the council. “It is disheartening to witness the reluctance to prioritize the city’s needs while considering removing benefits from our hard-working staff.”
Yvonne Starks doubled down on her stance that the City should further reduce medical benefits to keep the City afloat.
“Our budget will still be at a deficit, even if we reduce medical benefits,” she said. “Pierce County is reducing medical benefits, and other cities are reducing medical benefits. They simply can’t afford the rising cost for a city to cover 100% or 85%. If the city can’t sustain all the staff, we cease to exist, and we won’t have a staff anyway. We’ve got longtime employees that were once covered far less than what they are now. I still think that we need to look at our bottom line. We’re not going to be able to find any additional revenue.”
Gilchrist disagreed, saying during the meeting that the council should prioritize the well-being of the people who work within the city.
“For me, paying our staff their wages and benefits and taking care of their families is so important,” he said. “It’s important that we honor the hard work that they do and pay them for the work and level of skill they have.”
In Mayor Ivy’s budget message included in the budget documents given to the council, she outlined five priorities of the budget that reflect the City’s commitment to the betterment of Roy, while ensuring that it has listened to the words of the community and the council. The priorities include investing in infrastructure, enhancing public safety, promoting economic development, fostering community engagement and preserving the City’s heritage.
Significant capital projects that Roy anticipates undergoing in 2024 include improving the water tower and water filtration system. The City has earmarked $240,000 toward the water tower and $600,000 toward the water filtration, using money from its water capital improvement fund to kick-start these projects.
The City also projects increased expenditures in law enforcement services and court fees, compared with its 2023 projections, and additional funds were budgeted for parks and facility needs. Roy will spend $354,368 on law enforcement, $33,153 on culture and recreation and $77,127 in court fees. The City will see increased revenues from taxes — $586,449 compared with $580,821 in 2023.
While the budget is now complete, the council will continue to search for answers to create revenue for the city. In previous meetings, Ivy suggested hiring a lobbyist to help raise money and said during Friday’s meeting that she found one who is willing to help Roy for $6,000 a year. She said that the lobbyist had gotten a return of $7 million for a larger city for the same $6,000 a year.
“There is an opportunity for us to make up for this deficit and some if we make the right choices,” Ivy said. “We do have options that we really need to look into as far as revenue for the city.”
