Saundra McDavid

Phil Bandy wants just the facts? Well so do the City Taxpayers, so here it goes:

The general revenues for the fiscal year 2007/2008 were budgeted at $7.8 million. The revenues budgeted for 2008/2009 are $7.2 million. Mayor Bandy is forecasting reduced revenues in the areas of building permits and fees and interest payments. Property taxes are budgeted to bring in additional revenue, because Mayor Bandy insists we need a property tax increase. What is alarming in the revenue number is the carryover from 2007/2008 was budgeted to be $1.4 million, however Mayor Bandy’s new budget dips into that carryover and lowers it to $377k. The reserve fund is likewise being cut. He is spending the city’s savings account at the same time he is claiming he is reducing his budget. Regarding my classification of “tax and spend;” Mayor Bandy is proposing to raise taxes and is planning on spending nearly all of the revenues, leaving a paltry level of savings for the next year. What more of a definition does he need?

For clarification, Mayor Bandy uses a $10.5 million dollar figure when referring to the budget in his rebuttal to my comments. This figure represents the $7.2 million listed above which is “General Revenue” plus around $3 million of bond and “fund” revenue which is additional money received from property taxes and allocated to the library ($1 million), as well as money generated from operating the Eagle City Water service (approximately $1.3 million, although $250k of that “revenue” is actually DEQ loan funds which is not revenue in the business world.) An interesting observation is that some of the “revenue” included in this $10.5 million dollar figure is actually general fund revenue which reappears as allocations to the Arts Commission and Historic Commission. So Mayor Bandy is counting revenue twice to come up with his $10.5 million calculation.

Mayor Bandy also claims that no employee earns more than six figures. What he failed to disclose is that those employees COST the city taxpayers more than six figures. Add in FICA, Work Comp, Insurance and the lucrative PERSI benefits to a base salary and the entire package jumps up significantly. The rest of the Treasure Valley is not receiving a cost of living increase. Many of the residents are trying their best to simply stay employed. What type of message is he sending to the people by increasing city government wages in a time like this? After the salary increase, whether it is a “raise” or a “cost of living adjustment,” the Mayor costs the city $104 k. In addition, he recently hired a new assistant which will cost the city an additional $75k. Does the Mayor really need an assistant paid for with the taxpayer’s dollar? The top City building official will cost the city $109k. The top planning and zoning official will cost the city $117k. The top planner will cost the city $106k. The City Clerk will cost taxpayers $106k. All of these are classified as six figures. And he again references a taxpayer-paid study by a “reputable human resources contractor” otherwise known as the Mercer Group, as justification for this raise, yet he has refused to release the study. It has been said that the report shows the top officials in the Eagle city government are receiving far more than comparable cities. Perhaps this is the reason Phil Bandy doesn’t want the study released to the public. Add to this the fact that city employee salaries were already raised last year, before the new administration came into office.

Mayor Bandy claims that building permits have increased in 2008 and that justifies staffing up for this number of permits in 2009. According to the Idaho Statesman, in an article dated August 4, 2008 the commercial building permits so far in 2008 have been only 14 compared to a total of 40 for the year of 2007. Unless he is expecting a flood of building permit requests in the next four months, the total number of commercial building permits in 2008 will be significantly down from the 2007 figures. Is he expecting us to believe that there will be a rush to develop more commercial property in Eagle when we can all see the multitude of empty commercial properties currently sitting on the market? Residential construction permits, according to the Statesman article number 66 so far this year compared to 88 for the year in 2007; not exactly soaring towards record breaking figures.

Mayor Bandy justifies his large City Hall staff by claiming that an unnamed article in a “late July edition” of the Idaho Business Review “shows increasing building permit activity relative to the same time last year.” Besides the fact that our Mayor is claiming the Idaho Business Review as his justification source, instead of actual permit figures from Eagle City Hall, one wonders if the article he is referring to is “Southwest Idaho Real Estate Market Sends Murky Signals” from the Review’s July 28^th edition. That article claimed that second-quarter home sales in 2008 were lower than those of second-quarter 2007. Or maybe it was the “Report: Commercial Real Estate Market Favors Tenants” from the July 28^th edition of the Review. That article states that a “slowing economy has Boise-area office and industrial vacancy rates rising and many retailers putting expansion plans on hold.” If one chooses to believe actual realtors in the real estate market, Eagle has an 18 to 24 month supply of homes on the market. (Team Boise, Realty Times, August 2, 2008) Does the Mayor expect that there is going to be a flood of building activity in 2009 to bring the permit numbers up to 2007 levels? Not according to the experts in the field. And not according to Bandy. Bandy’s proposed budget shows a lowering of building permit revenues in 2009, so even he is not forecasting an increase in building permits. Yet he still justifies the level of staffing with building permit forecasts? What kind of double-talk is that?

Mayor Bandy implies that since the City of Eagle’s budget is smaller than Ada County’s budget, Eagle should be immune from budget cuts. How ludicrous is that kind of reasoning? He also justifies the City property tax increase with a statement that Eagle has low property taxes already. So, he believes “low property taxes” are a bad thing and we should raise them? How ludicrous is that?

As for the two committees that received large budget increases, I stand behind my comments that they are committees headed by vocal campaign supporters of his. If it smells like a fish….

Here is another fact for the Mayor. An alarming incident occurred during the city’s recent budget workshop with City Council, now part of the Public Record. The fact that is disturbing is not so much that Mayor Bandy seriously lost his temper, but that he publicly demeaned and insulted an elected City Councilman in the process. The Councilman in question is not a hired city employee; he is an elected official not under the Mayor’s wing. Bandy’s behavior demonstrates his condescending attitude towards those who disagree with him, which is a disturbing quality in someone who is supposed to be a leader.

We now know where Mayor Bandy stands on fiscal responsibility. He claimed at the budget workshop that he is more fiscally responsible than any previous mayor. I disagree. His principles are not smaller government and lower taxes, and he does not give any indication that “growth is paying for itself.”

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