Budget, levy earn final approval from Gilbert Town Council

Posted Wednesday, June 15, 2022 2:21 am

Tom Blodgett

Gilbert Town Council passed its fiscal year 2022-23 budget and property tax levy June 14, but the final approval contrasted sharply from last month’s contentious preliminary approval.

The budget for fiscal year 2022-23 will be $1.67 billion, up from $988.25 million in 2021-22, and the levy $29.6 million, up from $27.75 million. The secondary property tax rate will remain at $0.99 per $100 assessed valuation.

The vote on each measure was 5-2 with Vice Mayor Aimee Yentes and Council Member Laurin Hendrix voting in dissent, just as they did May 17 when council gave preliminary approval to the budget and levy.

However, unlike the May 17 preliminary approval, when Hendrix asked a series of pointed questions to Budget Director Kelly Pfost about how the rate was figured, Yentes took care to praise staff for its work and declaring the reasons she could not support the budget and levy were limited to some specific spending and cultural issues.

Hendrix remained silent during the June 14 meeting.

“I have a very deep conviction that the more money we can keep in taxpayers’ pockets the better,” Yentes said. “I appreciate the town really does strive for excellence. I do think we have high-quality professionals. I never want my thoughts and opinions to be misconstrued as not appreciating or respecting the work the professionals do in this organization. There’s just some key areas that I deviate from maybe our road map for spending.”

Yentes said she understood it was important to fund government to a level where people’s need for services are met. She said she loved the town’s innovation and the way town leadership at the management level pushes the envelope in some areas to be visionary.

Still, she said she had some concerns, particularly in transportation.

“I am concerned with the direction some of that is going,” Yentes said. “I don’t feel comfortable supporting a budget that is going to redefine, reimagine, redesign our streets and make it more congested in the future. I’m not supportive of putting money into studies that are going to bring additional public transit that nobody’s going to ride.”

Yentes said she was concerned about the size of some of the spending as the nation possibly heads toward recession, though she said she had not opposed having a transportation bond of some sort.

Mayor Brigette Peterson, who had pushed back against Hendrix’s questioning of Pfost on May 17, told Yentes she never believed Yentes had never come off as disrespectful during her four years on council and that she agreed with Yentes on some of the cultural issues.

However, Peterson said the proposed study was not to bring commuter rail to Gilbert but what the town should do with two pieces of land it owned along the already-present track that the region may in the future use for commuter rail.

She also noted the $515 million streets, transportation and infrastructure bond won approval from voters and, as it comes to spending, the bonding would not all be issued at once.

“Those are the two things I just differ with you on,” Peterson said. “But most of what you said otherwise, I agree with you. I think culturally there are some things that there are some discussions we should have within our staff. But that’s not our purview. If it’s purview of this council to look at policy to pass down to the town manager, then we should be doing that.”

Yentes’ comments came after Pfost’s presentation on the budget, which included a short video highlighting some of what the budget would pay for in the coming year.

Ambulance fees

Council passed on a 6-1 vote a proposal to increase ambulance billing rates, with Hendrix dissenting. The rate increases include:

basic life support from $813.65 per transport to $908.34;
advanced life support from $913.01 per transport to $1,019.38;
mileage from $11.18 per mile to $17.64; and
standby time from $203.42 per hour to $227.12.

The rates were recommended from the fire department and were the lower of two options presented.

Assistant Fire Chief Bob Badgett said Gilbert’s rates had been in place since 2017 without an increase while surrounding communities, which had those rates in 2017, had since raised them. The more expensive option would have put Gilbert’s rates in line with the surrounding communities, but Badgett said the town believed the lower rate was appropriate.

Gilbert also does not charge for supplies used during transport, as other cities do, Badgett said.

Other items

Council passed the 2023-32 capital improvement plan, which covers the capital projects the town is planning to undertake in the next 10 years, on 6-1 vote with Yentes dissenting.

During study session, Town Attorney Christopher Payne presented a plan to develop a risk management self-insured trust program with its own trust fund to cover risk-management claims and insurance premiums. No formal action was taken as the presentation came outside the business meeting.