With one month left in 2021, Boulder has approved its final budget adjustment, primarily meant to account for unplanned expenditures and revenues ahead of the new year.
Among other things, the nearly $18.5 million adjustment, approved unanimously in Tuesday’s Boulder City Council meeting, includes a $1.8 million transfer from the city’s telecommunications fund to its computer replacement fund.
“Future improvements to equipment will be more appropriately made out of the computer replacement fund, thus the need for the transfer,” Senior Budget Manager Mark Woulf said in the meeting.
About $330,000 has been designated to assist the city’s continued transformation into a hybrid work environment in which staff work both in person and from home.
Furthermore, Boulder plans to spend $4.9 million to acquire a vacant property at 5125 Pearl Parkway. According to Woulf, that cost will largely be covered by excess funds and split by the three departments likely to use the property: transportation, utilities and facilities and fleet.
The property is adjacent to Boulder’s municipal services center. Acquiring the Pearl Parkway fits in with goals outlined in the recently approved Facilities Master Plan, which recommends consolidating city services into a western campus at the Alpine-Balsam site and an eastern campus at the municipal services center near Valmont City Park.
An additional $250,000 has been allocated to help with Boulder Fire-Rescue’s overtime costs, which topped $700,000.
While other departments within Boulder’s government could absorb and plan for reductions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, this wasn’t the case for the city’s fire department.
“Minimum staffing standards in emergency services prevents much flexibility,” Woulf said.
Councilmember Mark Wallach asked how fund balances are replenished after the city decides to spend money from them.
Generally through traditional revenue streams, Woulf said, adding that 2021 revenues were higher than anticipated.
Aside from that, the adjustment was approved without much discussion on Tuesday, though City Council member Lauren Folkerts did question whether an allocation of three additional Fire-Rescue staff members — approved in the 2022 budget process — would cover the amount of overtime the department currently accrues.
City Manager Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde agreed overtime cost has been a historic concern for the fire department and said it’s something being considered.
“And frankly, they also have to plan for the unexpected,” she said. “We certainly did not expect the fire that happened recently (at the Whittier Apartments).”
Fire Chief Mike Calderazzo echoed this, emphasizing the continued pandemic-related challenges. The three additional hires will help the department get to a better place as it conducts a more thorough examination of its staffing levels over the next year, he said.
“It’s been a pretty rough year,” Calderazzo said. “Hopefully we can use next year as a normal year somewhat to study our leave use and be able to get the right balance. That’s kind of where we are right now.”
