Gilbert Town Council approved a preliminary budget of $2.34 billion for fiscal year 2023-24 on May 21, but one council member suggested he hoped money could be shifted within toward public safety.
Councilmember Jim Torgeson questioned an increase in the budget for Office of Digital Government and suggested the money instead be split between the police and fire departments.
Torgeson was the lone council member who expressed continuing dissatisfaction with the Office of Digital Government, the town’s marketing and communications team, after an April 2 study session.
The study session was called after a conservative website in January brought up three-year-old charges that the department had spied on employees with conservative viewpoints — charges an independent investigation from a Scottsdale law firm dismissed. Nonetheless, the article brought out protests at a council meeting from residents involved with the Arizona Legislative District 14 Republican Party organization.
Torgeson noted ODG’s budget line was increasing from $1.52 million to just more than $2 million and suggested the increase be wiped out and split between police and fire for a net-zero change to the budget.
Once the preliminary budget is adopted, the overall budget cannot increase further at final adoption under state law.
Budget Director Kelly said technically Torgeson’s suggestion could be done and staff would listen to council, though spending of the budget really is up to Town Manager Patrick Banger’s direction. But Mayor Brigette Peterson said it would require a majority consensus from the council and that council would be “out of our lane” in doing so.
“Technically our lane is the overall budget and health and wellness fiscally set forth by this council under the policies that we've made where the town manager runs the everyday business of the community,” she said.
But Torgeson said he believed transferring money, possibly through some position moves, to police and fire was in the interest of the health and wellness of the town.
“I think that that would do a huge amount for repairing the trust, and what the public sees is something that has taken on a unfortunate political agency of its own,” he said.
But Councilmember Yung Koprowski rejected the notion, noting that setting priorities is a council decision, but that communications with residents is a town priority.
“I want to be really careful of talking about ‘we like this employee, and we think that employee needs to go somewhere else,’” she said. “I don't think that's our role, but I do think that focusing in on all the things that digital government does, which we had a presentation on, that reducing that budget means that we're going to reduce those services.”
She added that it was probably a conversation that should have taken place months ago rather than in the 11th hour of budget approval.
Council unanimously approved the preliminary budget.
The $2.34 billion budget includes $1.6 billion set aside to pay for current and upcoming capital budgets in the next five years. The budget also includes 46 new positions across various areas.
The council will hold a final vote on the budget on June 4.
We would like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org. Tom Blodgett can be reached by email at tblodgett@iniusa.org or follow him @sp_blodgett on X.
Meet Tom Tom Blodgett joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2022, when the company acquired Community Impact Newspaper's Phoenix-area properties. Raised in Arizona, he has spent more than 35 years in journalism in the state.
Community: He has served as an instructional professional in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication since 2005, and is editorial adviser to The State Press, the university's independent student media outlet. He also is director of operations for an 18U girls fastpitch softball team from Gilbert.
Education: Arizona State University with a BS in Journalism.
Random Fact: He lived in Belgium during his freshman year of high school.
Hobbies: Tweeting enthusiastically about ASU softball (season-ticket holder) and grumpily about other local sports (pessimistic fan).
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