City Council begins work on 2017 budget

The earliest incarnations of the city’s budget, which will be discussed by the City Council this fall, were generated by the heads of each department and dropped off with the city’s treasurer, Alison Fusillo, last week.

“Departments put together kind of their ‘wish lists,’” Fusillo said.

From there, she said, a very preliminary budget can be put together, which the mayor will then go over with the department heads to polish before sending the initial draft to the City Council.

Mayor Peter Christie said that he plans to get the first draft of next year’s budget to the city council in October.

“Next year,” he said, “is going to focus on the Police Department and our IT infrastructure.”

This was prompted, in part, by the realization that Bella Vista has a very small police force for its population. The FBI, he said, suggests 1.5 officers for every 1,000 people, while Bella Vista currently has less than one officer per 1,000 residents.

Bella Vista Police Chief Ken Farmer, just finished preparing budget requests for the mayor’s office last week.

“We keep growing,” he said, “and when you grow, you need to add personnel to keep up with things.”

Increased staff, Farmer said, is the largest request his department will make, and that’s largely because, while Bella Vista’s population has continued to rise, it’s been a long time since the Police Department has grown.

“Our call volume is increasing,” he said, “and the complexity of those calls is increasing and we feel like it’s the right time to ask for more personnel.”

Managing expenses, like additional personnel, is already tricky enough, but some departments also have to manage revenue.

Chris Suneson, director of Community Development Services, said that his department, which handles code enforcement, planning, building inspections and engineering, has to factor revenue into its budget requests.

Permit revenue, he said, can be hard to predict, but getting the closest possible prediction is important. To generate his estimates, he looks at a five-year history.

“We’ve been very fortunate this year,” Suneson said, “to be fairly accurate in our forecast as far as permit revenue.”

With requests from Suneson, Farmer and the other department heads, the mayor’s office will be able to create the early version of a budget, which Mayor Christie hopes to have fully hammered out with the council by December.

“It’s a very interesting time,” Christie said. “Bella Vista is on the cusp of change.”