Though the final vote on Camp Verde’s fiscal year 2017 budget won’t be considered until July, Town Manager Russ Martin and Finance Director Michael Showers are hard at work — not only on the numbers, but on getting input from the public.
“It’s as well laid-out as it’s ever been,” Martin said of the budget overview document Showers composed and made available for public view on the town’s website. He added that it is now possible to view a variety of municipal expenditures.
Want to look up how much it costs the town each time a Camp Verde Marshal officer arrests someone? That information is in the budget analysis viewable by anyone.
The invitation to look at — or examine with a fine-tooth comb — the budget is only one aspect of Martin and Showers’ effort to involve the community in the budget process. The goal, Showers said, is to create an environment of sharing ideas and priorities.
“Our motto for the budget is ‘Community Interest, Community Involvement and Community Ownership,’” Showers said, adding that he and city staff are still working to get step number one, community interest, in full swing. An important aspect of that is finding a way to gather public input.
“You really can have an impact on the process, and this is only the beginning,” Showers said of the town’s first budget forum, which took place Monday, May 9. “This is the first one, to establish a connection.”
During the forum, Showers presented what he called a “high, aerial view of the budget” in an attempt not to get bogged down in the detail of the nearly $8 million proposal.
According to Martin, while the budget is still not completed and will not be approved for some time, the “biggest story is Parks and Recreation and streets.”
Parks and Recreation currently employs only one full-time administrator, Coordinator Michael Marshall — a far cry from previous decades, when up to four administrative staff worked for the department.
With the new budget, Marshall will be tasked with growing Parks and Recreation, beginning with overseeing a portion of the development of a new community park. The project has been allocated $150,000.
Current projects in development and impacting the budget are the Camp Verde Community Library and the sewer plant.
The library, in particular, earned praise from Martin, who called it “far more than a library — it’s a community complex that also happens to have books.” He added that the Town Council will be moving its meetings to a space in the facility’s upper floor, with accommodation for upward of 80 people.
This is a vast improvement over the current council chambers with its approximately capacity of 30 people, Martin noted.
“The town’s budget is in great shape,” Martin added. “We prepared for an economic downturn, but in the meantime we don’t have to act like we’re starving.”
Regardless of the new park and facilities in construction, Martin and Showers said that Camp Verde is not taking chances that will negatively impact residents. Debt is inevitable when investments are made, but all debt should be paid off in a responsible time frame.
“The library will be paid off in 15 years,” Martin said. “And think how many years it will last beyond that.”
According to Showers, there is no sales tax increase in the proposed budget. The city’s current sales tax rate is 3.65 percent.
