Friday, September 5, 2008

Budget hearing focuses on mayor


By DICK DORWORTH
Express Staff Writer

Budget questions dominated a Tuesday night Ketchum City Council meeting attended by a dozen concerned citizens and just three of the five members of the council. Mayor Randy Hall and councilman Baird Gourlay were not present, leaving Larry Helzel as acting mayor, Curtis Kemp and Charles Conn with the chores of governing Ketchum.

Not surprisingly, much of the evening's business involved how much money is coming in and where it is being spent. Some of those citizens at the meeting were passionate and engaged, none more so than Annie Corrock, the driving force behind an effort to recall Mayor Randy Hall. Corrock and her Warm Springs neighbor Phyllis Shafran peppered the council with questions about the city's budget and staffing, past decisions and future plans.

Some of those questions were mirrored in a flyer from Corrock's push to recall Mayor Hall that arrived in Ketchum post boxes the next day, titled "20 Questions We Need Answered." Among those questions were, "Did you know the city's over $5 million in debt, with $260,000 annual interest payment?" "In-lieu housing fees yielded over $4 million, yet no employee housing built. Where's the money?" "With budget cuts was doubling the mayor's salary fiscally responsible?" "Why were some city employees fired for budget reasons and higher-paying positions created?"

The remaining council and city staff responded to the questions, and expressed optimism about the present and future financial state, staff and governing policies of the city. Several times the council passed the questions along to Economic and Community Development Director Lisa Horowitz and to new City Administrator Gary Marks. Helzel expressed complete trust in the budget and in the new City Administrator's ability to manage it.

Perennial local activist, citizen and candidate for public office Mickey Garcia suggested that the city create two pie charts, one showing where Ketchum's money comes from and the other to show where it goes, to help citizens more easily understand the city's finances. Helzel replied that that seemed like a good idea.

In an interview yesterday with the Mountain Express, Jim Jaquet, longtime Ketchum city administrator who was integral to creating the new city budget, said he is "very optimistic" about Ketchum's economic future and that he has complete confidence in Marks.

"He [Marks] came from Whitefish, Mont., which has a very similar economy to Ketchum, and he is a veteran of the ups and downs of resort town economy," Jaquet said. "It's too bad he came in right at the tail end of this year's budget process, but he will make the right adjustments at the right time.

"Despite a drop in building revenues, the city is in a fairly strong position because we made some cuts in the budget to reflect those drops," Jaquet said.

Jaquet anticipates that building revenues will rebound in the future, in large part because of the investments made by Sun Valley Co. owner Earl Holding, including the recently completed Pavilion, the Club House and a nine-hole golf course.

In order to get the recall on the November 4 ballot, Corrock needs to get 418 signatures of registered voters by Sept. 19. Corrock estimates that she, along with a number of other volunteers, has received around 300 to date. The petition has been vocally opposed by a number of residents and organizations, including the Wood River Economic Partnership and the Sawtooth Board of Realtors.




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