Yuma City Council retreat kicks off

The Yuma City Council and other officials tackled day one of the City Council retreat.

The goal was to look ahead to the future and set goals they hope to reach.

The biggest topic on Monday was the budget and how the city will factor in the $2.2 million dollars they said is needed to pay all city employees this upcoming fiscal year.

“I believe that will result in a one percent budget cuts across the board. One of the issues we will have is the smaller departments won’t be able to cut one percent because they’re so close,” said Greg Wilkinson, City of Yuma administrator.

Mayor Doug Nicholls explained what Wilkinson meant by cutting the budgets.

“If we do a one percent cut in all the other parts of some of the budgets then that could then fund the parts that we can’t currently fund out of new revenue for the pay increases because the council’s made a high priority for salaries for our police, our fire and for all the employees,” explained Mayor Nicholls.

The city council unanimously voted yes to giving first responders and all other city employees a raise in January.

During Wilkinson’s projections to the council, he added he was concerned about hitting the $2.2 million needed.

Some of the suggestions made were to add revenue to the city to sustain the budget, such as the possibility of adding specific taxes like a sewer tax, but no final decisions will be made for months to come.

“We need to make sure the residents of the city want or say they want or need matches what they’re willing to pay. That’s essentially how I look at it. If we can find a new revenue source or a different way of doing something to fulfill a need that that’s fine. For me it’s not tax or no tax it’s can we find ways to free up more revenue for those things that we need, explained Mayor Nicholls.

Wilkinson also added that the budget will have to account for the possible annexation of the Mesa del Sol area if the annexation is passed.

The City of Yuma will also have to factor in the possible purchase of Far West Water, a possibility if the Mesa del Sol annexation goes through.

“We will have to implement new accounts and revenues and expenditures, purchasing IP, all that kind of stuff will be brought into the budget process. As we discussed before, everything with Far West will be in separate revenue accounts and expenditure accounts,” said Wilkinson.

Day two on the retreat kicks off Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. at the Ray Kroc baseball facility. It is open to the public.