BN 2013 Budget (Proposed)

Why do the neighborhood association accounts have fund balances?

Neighborhood Associations have fund balances because of past precedence that has allowed them to keep their balances from year-to-year.  In prior years, when funds were not rolled over, there was a "run" on the balances which may have resulted in unnecessary expenditures (for example, one NA bought a bench which sat uninstalled in City Hall for a year until a suitable location was determined).

What should the associations be spending that money on?

The funds are available for Neighborhood Associations to spend on community events and activities (e.g. picnics, clean up days, etc.), as well as outreach (postage, meeting postcards).  The City of West Linn manages all land-use related mailings.

The City of West Linn is always interested in exploring alternative means of providing municipal services to save money. It is also critical that the services provided meet the high expectations of the West Linn community which rated its satisfaction with our police department as 7.6 (on a scale of 1-10) – one of the highest ratings for any of our services.

We are aware that Wilsonville contracts with Clackamas County for police services as well as Happy Valley. As Wilsonville is probably closest to West Linn, let us look at comparable costs.

Wilsonville’s costs of Police services from their FY11 budget totals $3,708,355 (just Personal Services and Materials & Services) for 18 FTEs. Below are their comparative measures:
• Costs per Capita measure: $3.7M/18,050 = $205.43 per Capita
• FTE per 1,000 Capita: 18 FTEs/18,050/1000 = 1.00 per 1,000 Capita

West Linn’s costs of Police services from our FY11 budget totals $4,524,000 (just Personal Services and Materials & Services) for 35 FTEs (31 Sworn Officers plus 4 CSOs/Records). Below are our comparative measures:
• Costs per Capita measure: $4.524M/24,500 = $184.65 per Capita
• FTE per 1,000 Capita: 31 FTEs/24,500/1000 = 1.18 per 1,000 Capita

These measures show that relative to Wilsonville, the cost of police services is less expensive in West Linn and West Linn residences receive slightly more sworn officers per resident.

One concern with contracting out for police services is that it could be cost prohibitive to ever attempt to resurrect a city police department. Such costs would go far beyond simply recruiting police officers and police management to include procuring police vehicles; acquiring the technology and communications equipment required for operating a police department in the 21st century; developing a fully-functioning police station, and adding any other equipment and infrastructure that may be necessary. In other words, there may be no turning back once such a decision is made.

In regards to the second question about whether contracting out would keep the City from funding a police station, that a police station would have to exist somewhere in the City, whether county officers staff it or city officers staff it. Assuming that county officers serving West Linn could utilize an existing county facility located outside of West Linn would pull the quality of police services further away from the citizens that pay for this service – even if current capacity for this option exists.

As with all budgets within the City, personal service costs driven by FTE counts representing the majority of the budget cost. We continue to strive in keeping our FTE counts down and in the sworn officer area, West Linn continues to have one of the lowest FTEs per Capita in the area.

The full budget document will be posted online at 5:00 p.m. on Monday, April 11, 2011.