Council examines contracts in effort to ease budget deficit

The Liberty Lake City Council continued efforts to address a projected budget shortfall for 2011 by consolidating a couple of city contracts at Monday night’s council meeting.

The council amended its agreement with U.S. Bank and consolidated its communications contract with XO Communications, in an effort to shore up the city’s budget deficit.

“Everything that we’ve done is to basically go through each and every one of our contracts to make sure we’re getting the best bang for our buck,” said Mayor Wendy Van Orman. “This was one of the instances, going through our bank and asking them to readjust each one of their fees. Including the consolidation (with XO Communications), we definitely made a good savings. Saving some 3,000-plus dollars is no chicken feed. Every little bit counts.”

The mayor acknowledged while these steps are in the right direction, there is still much to be done.

“We need to look throughout our budget now and we’re looking at everything,” Van Orman said. “Nothing is off limits at this point. By December 31, we have to have a balanced budget in place, and we will have a balanced budget in place. We have been very fortunate up until now. It’s the very first time we’ve been behind.”

Mayor Pro Tem David Crump and Councilman Odin Langford, who serve on the finance committee, both noted the need to help finance the budget shortfall by looking for new potential revenue sources.

“There are limited methods we have to raise revenue, but we have to come up with something,” Langford said .

Langford and City Manager Doug Smith also spoke about their meetings with residents in the Rocky Hill Park neighborhood who live along the footpath regarding concerns about security in the area. Both said residents seemed pleased with the outcome of the meetings, in which the city agreed to clear out some of the weeds along the path and possibly extend the fence along the footpath.

The council also heard a first reading of a new golf cart ordinance for the city which in accordance with state law will require seat belt use by drivers on city streets.