Cottonwood City Council adopted its 2022-23 Fiscal Year tentative budget at $139 million.
As is customary during the budget planning process, the tentative budget was presented to council and members of the community via a public hearing at the regular council meeting on June 21 at Cottonwood City Hall.
Cottonwood Financial Services Manager Kirsten Lennon presented the budget, which included a few updates that were added after the proposed budget was presented on May 24.
“There have been some small changes since the proposed to the tentative,” Lennon said. “One of the main ones was that we increased the urban revenue share to what the state estimate was, which increased our revenue. Those changes of revenue were $733,225 total.”
According to a document prepared by Lennon, “The Proposed Tentative Budget for the upcoming fiscal year is $139,448,795. This is $38,815,835 higher than the 2022 Revised Budget due to updated numbers discussed during this year’s budget sessions, and adjustments to roll-overs due to capital projects in progress but not completed in Fiscal Year 2022.”
“We will have some small changes for the final budget as well,” she said.
Some of the changes to the final budget will include tweaks to the custodial budget, AWOS grant monies and additional staff reclassification.
Lennon stated that the $58 million capital fund amount has not been changed since the proposed budget discussion.
Additionally, Lennon said “We have about $24 million more in the bank, as cash, currently, than we did two years ago.”
The city plans to adopt the final 2022-23 budget next month; however, a date has not been announced.
Recreation Center Fees Increase
During the same meeting, all but one council member, Councilman Doug Hulse, voted to increase membership fees at the Cottonwood Recreation Center.
Hulse pointed out that all businesses are increasing costs because of inflation, and voiced concerns about the impacts to seniors and young adults.
“They’re spending their money just on gas and getting to work and paying rent and utilities and buying groceries,” he said, while suggesting delaying the increases “until things settle down a little bit.”
Councilwoman Tosca Henry said that while Hulse’s points are well-taken, “I think it’s important for the public to know that a good deal of council time was spent discussing alternatives to rate increases.”
The purpose for the increases is to help the city reduce operational costs.
According to a document prepared by the Cottonwood Parks and Recreation Department, the parks and recreation “team has worked diligently to control operational expenses at the Cottonwood Recreation Center to help achieve the goal of a subsidy no greater than 20%. We have added new revenue streams to the building by implementing multiple programs, such as our marketing program and the commissary kitchen agreements. We have worked with Yavapai College to offer additional group exercise classes at no extra cost to the city and made many other adjustments to the facility to ensure its operational efficiency. Parks and Recreation staff has exhausted all other available avenues to close the gap on the level of subsidy desired and now believes it is prudent to raise membership rates.”
The current rates or adult memberships are $35 for 10 visits, $35 for one month and $95 for three months, Jack Teel, director of Parks and Recreation said. “What we are projecting is slight bumps to each one of those and in general you’ll see that each one of those single rates for each three months is going to be about $3.”
Similar increases will also apply to youth, senior and military memberships.
Couples and family rates, while also increasing, will still be “discounted rates,” however, Teel said that couples will see the highest increase, going from a three-month rate at $135 to $200.
Teel stated that the rate adjustments are “much more palatable” than rates discussed at the council retreat earlier in the year, and will also have “a smaller impact on the individual, but a much larger impact on our overall cost recovery and subsidy of the recreation center.”
Additionally, Teel recommended eliminating all “annual rates across the board,” including youth, adult, senior, family, youth/adult and adult/senior.
“A lot of the times you’ll see a senior who is maybe 56, but their spouse is 54; it’s a double category there, it’s not often used, but creates a lot of back-end work on staff and makes it confusing when you have to re-sell those memberships,” he said.
Additional recommendations included adjustments to specialty group rates and event room rentals.
“[In terms of inflation], I think it’s a pretty reasonable rate,” Councilman Michael Mathews said. “It’s much less than what the real rate of inflation is, so I think it’s doable.”
The new fees will come into effect Monday, Aug. 1.
More information is available at cottonwoodaz.gov.