Councilors take one of their own to task during budget process

Several Lewiston city councilors laid into fellow Councilor John Bradbury for what they called his repeated distortions of the fiscal year 2022 budget they passed Monday night.

The charge was led by John Pernsteiner, who first thanked city staff members for their work on the complicated $104 million budget before taking Bradbury to task.

“I think that it’s disheartening to hear just, honestly, flat-out misinterpretation of what has occurred here, and also just bad math,” Pernsteiner said, singling out Bradbury’s earlier comments that incorrectly stated changes to utility rates add up to a 12 percent increase. “When you raise rates 3 percent in one category, 5 in one and 3.5 in another, you don’t add those together to make a 12 percent increase in your rates.

“I worry about the misinformation that is often being dispelled about this budget, about the operations of the city that is occurring from this table,” Pernsteiner continued. “And I think that it needs to be very clear that this is not mismanagement. This process has been incredibly open and transparent. We’ve received great feedback, and have incorporated those things. Many of the (budget items) that were just discussed were from you, the citizens, who have brought these issues forward of things you want to see in this community.”

Councilor Bob Blakey, who asked Pernsteiner to speak first so he could “calm down” after Bradbury’s attacks on the budget, said he was tired of hearing Bradbury placate his supporters with constant budget misinformation.

“The public deserves better than that,” Blakey said, specifically calling out Bradbury’s contention that the budget is being subsidized with one-time emergency federal COVID-19 relief funding. “We’re using those monies for programs that we would not normally be able to do, we would not be able to get to, or we don’t have the money to budget for.”

City Manager Alan Nygaard confirmed that funding from the American Rescue Plan Act is slated to be used for improvements to the water distribution system that would otherwise have to be funded by ratepayers over several years.

“Because it is one-time revenue to the city, it seems prudent not to use it to replace operating dollars,” Nygaard said. “Because once you’ve spent those dollars, you have to find another source for those operating expenses. Using the (ARPA) money for capital (infrastructure projects) seems to be the most prudent way to be able to protect the future ratepayers of the city.”

Councilor Cari Miller also corrected Bradbury’s contention that the budget contained $1 million to rebuild the dilapidated stairs that connect the south end of New Sixth Street with Pioneer Park. In fact, the budget contains $50,000 to design the stairs, while the urban renewal plan being considered by the council only proposes the stairs as one of many projects to improve the economic viability of redeveloping the city’s historic downtown core. The council has ultimate authority over any expenditures proposed by the city’s Urban Renewal Agency.

Responding to Pernsteiner, Bradbury said he could argue that the utility rates aren’t cumulative, but they still present an increased cost to residents.

Later in the meeting, Pernsteiner made good on the effort he began last week to reduce the property tax burden, although not by as much as he initially proposed. Councilors unanimously adopted his amendment to reduce a proposed 3 percent increase to property tax revenues by 1 percent, which removes $228,000 from the city’s budget.

Last week he proposed drawing down city reserve funds by $440,000, but the council put off a decision until city staff could provide exact information about the impact of that reduction. General growth from things like new construction and the infusion of federal dollars have pushed down the overall levy rate used to calculate the actual amount property tax owners would pay. City Administrative Services Director Dan Marsh said the levy is now actually lower than it has been since 1985.

In other business:

Councilors got yet another update on city efforts to push Praveen Khurana to clean up his former Emperor of India King Thai restaurant on Main Street that was destroyed by fire in 2019. Assistant City Attorney Kayla Hermann said Khurana allowed city Building Official John Smith to inspect the property as requested by a previous council action.

Smith said he is now waiting for a letter from Khurana’s engineer on what needs to be done to secure the property. He can then use that information to write a letter to Khurana detailing the actions he needs to take to comply, which will trigger a 30-day period for him to do so. If he doesn’t, the city can move to abate the property itself and bill Khurana for the expense.

Mills may be contacted at jmills@lmtribune.com or at (208) 310-1901, ext. 2266.