Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Sun Valley rejects boost in marketing funding

Motion fails due to lack of majority

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By ERIC AVISSAR
Express Staff Writer

    Before Monday’s special meeting of the Sun Valley City Council for the third reading of the budget, Councilwoman Michelle Griffith made a prediction on the fate of the funding of the Sun Valley Marketing Alliance.
    She said she believed council members Nils Ribi and Franz Suhadolnik would oppose increasing funding from $250,000, the amount budgeted for the SVMA, while she and Council President Bob Youngman would be in favor of doing so.
    Griffith’s prediction was correct. Her proposal to increase the SVMA’s funding by $40,750 was rejected with a tie vote by the council.
    Mayor Dewayne Briscoe, who as mayor may break a tie, said the motion failed for lack of a majority.

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“We have leverage control, and we’re using it right now.
The leverage is that the local business community hasn’t stepped up.”
Franz Suhadolnik
Councilman

    In her first remarks voicing support for the SVMA, Griffith reignited another debate when she proposed that the increased funding come out of the budget for a new fire truck because the city of Ketchum may provide part of the funding.
    Griffith said, “The capital improvement program for the city of Ketchum highlights that the ladder truck will be part of their capital improvement budget next year. So, funding for a $1,000,000 piece of equipment along with all of the ongoing maintenance for the next 10 years is somewhat contradictory to what we’ve all said up here which is that we’d all like some sort of parity with Ketchum.
    “Why would we go off and buy a $1,000,000 piece of equipment ourselves when Ketchum is prepared to pay for half of it next year. It seems like an undue burden on our taxpayers.”
    While Griffith was adamant in her desire to fund the SVMA, Ribi and Suhadolnik made their opposition clear. Both said they are fed up with the lack of contributions from the local business community to the SVMA. Ribi also accused the business community of “giving up.”
    Youngman attempted to convince them the council has the power to hold the SVMA accountable for its performance.
    “If we don’t keep the SVMA funded, then there’s a relatively large potential they will totally fail. Then, nobody benefits at all,” Youngman said. “Given the substantial potential for this, I’ve offered that we can pull out.
“If we don’t see action by the SVMA, and we don’t see a response from the business community, we can put that into the contract and shut the contract down.”
However, Suhadolnik was unconvinced.
He said, “We have leverage control, and we’re using it right now. The leverage is that the local business community has not stepped up, and I’m not going to fund it (the SVMA).”
Ribi supported sticking with the current plan to replace the ladder truck.
    “We have to stick with our proposal, and I commend our city administrator, our treasurer, our fire chief on finding an appropriate way of getting a ladder truck.
    “The truck will meet the needs of our city and will meet needs of the city of Ketchum by buying a demo truck they can get October 1. It’s a lease that is affordable to us and will enable Ketchum to buy into it when they come around and see that it makes sense,” Ribi said.
    Mayor Briscoe said that he’s talked extensively with Ketchum Mayor Randy Hall on how to address the fire truck issue.
    Briscoe said, “He (Mayor Hall) acknowledges that this past week has made him realize that close cooperation between two fire departments is necessary to move forward.
    “We recognize that we have two different cities, and we both have our own problems to solve. There is a constructive dialog going on with how to resolve these issues.”

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