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City spending high
THELMA GRIMES
News-Sun
As city officials stress the need for massive utility rate increases to offset deficits, little is being done on the city's part to curtail spending. Over the last two years more than $380,000 has been spent on outside consultants, legal advice and other special services.
The City Council is moving forward with plans to increase sewer rates by 75 percent and water by 36 percent to cut the combined $385,202 deficit between the two departments. Those increases, affecting more than 1,300 residents, could come as early as March.
Meanwhile, the San Pedro Valley News-Sun has kept a running tab of spending that was either approved by a unanimous vote of the City Council or solely by City Manager Boyd Kraemer, who can spend up to $20,000 at a time without council approval.
The list may be incomplete, since City Council does not necessarily make spending public.
For example, Kraemer approved paying A&S Dust Solutions of Benson $2,500 for dust control in the dirt parking lot on the west side of City Hall. The total bill was $5,000, half of which was paid by Angel De La Torre, owner of Benson Lumber, located across the street from City Hall on 5th Street.
Except for Mayor George Scott, no other council members knew about the dust control, which took place in June.
Mayor Scott said it was needed to take care of the dust problem. When asked if the city had received complaints from the public, Scott said no.
Besides controlling dirt in the air, the city has hired numerous outside consultants to deal with issues ranging from salaries and job descriptions to paying someone to determine how much utility rates should be increased from now until 2010.
The City Council spent $60,000 for HDR Engineering in Phoenix to study the current utility rates and propose new ones. The firm recommended the council approve increases this year and then again in 2007 or 2008.
In 2005, the city spent $7,800 to have Rick McCroy, President of the Human Resources Services Center in Chandler, update job descriptions and conduct a salary survey.
However, the study, which led to nearly $56,000 in salary increases for Benson employees, was criticized. Opponents, several of whom were former city employees, said the study could have been a lot cheaper had the city used services provided by the Arizona League of Cities and Towns.
In fact, the News-Sun found the League's Web site online, printed a copy of an order form, and within 15 minutes ordered the annual edition of the local government salary and benefit survey.
In two weeks, for a total $23.37, which included the cost of postage to send the order form, the News-Sun got a complete list of the salaries and benefits offered by every city in the state.
The 73-page book categorizes each city according to population, which gives a reader the opportunity to see how their city compares to others of the same size.
The study conducted by the Human Resource Services Center compared the salaries of Benson employees to all Southern Arizona cities, including Tucson and Sierra Vista, two cities with larger populations, bigger tax bases and higher paid employees.
Before resigning in October, City Clerk/Finance Director Karen Johnson said city employees could have done the studies.
"Department heads know their departments and their employees and could have updated those descriptions easily," she said in an interview before leaving for another job in Tennessee. "To have outside people do all these studies has been unusual for the staff. With the salaries, he did do a comparative study, but we could have gone off the Arizona League of cities guide, which is what I think Mr. McCroy did anyway."
She said the council feared residents would see a staff-produced utility study as biased and unjustified. "Could it have been done in-house? Yes. In the past, the rate studies done in-house were better than what any outside consultant could do. The staff knows what's needed and they know what we need to do," she said.
City Councilwoman Lori McGoffin said she felt like a lot of the outside consultants were hired over the last year because Kraemer did not want to take the lead.
"These studies are the manager's job, and I think he hired these outside firms because he didn't want to take the responsibility in case something went wrong," she said. "The studies were definitely a waste when we have employees who have said they can do them. I think we need to be a lot more careful in the coming years with what we spend money on. With all that money we have spent we could be treating our employees a lot better."
Taxpayer dollars have also paid for Kraemer's seeking financial advice from Curtis Shook, of Hutchinson, Shockey, Erley & Co. The city paid Shook $5,000 in November for assistance in getting a $1.2 million loan to bring water services up to code.
The city spent $5,000 on a transportation survey in 2005, and will pay the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) up to $33,000 as part of a grant to conduct a full-scale small area transportation study in the San Pedro Valley.
In November, the city paid Tucson planner Brent Davis $3,000 to help the City Council create a strategic plan. At $1,000 a session, two more sessions are expected.
The city also spent $2,516 in 2005 for a city survey. The survey, which was mailed to 3,200 postal patrons in Benson, had a return of 500. The survey asked residents to rate the city and its services.
While the cost seems high and the return was low, Councilman Toney King defended it.
"I am one that will defend doing that survey for the fact that we need to get information from citizens as often as we can," he said.
In what councilwoman Kathy Suagee called a waste of money, the city spent $4,000 in early 2005 to have Larry Scott and Robert Shelton of Benson draw a picture of what downtown Benson should look like.
Nothing has been said publicly about the picture since it was presented to the council.
In another prospect that fizzled, the city paid the Greater Tucson Economic Council $5,000 in the 2004-05 fiscal year to help seek economic prospects for the city. Benson Mayor Scott said it didn't work out as planned, and GTEC has since disbanded.
Besides outside consultants for studies and surveys, the city continues to pay high dollar fees for legal advice.
In the last two years, the city has had three lawsuits filed, one by AmeriCon Constructors Inc., a California firm suing over the construction of the Benson Wastewater Treatment Facility, one by the San Pedro Golf Course over the city's not honoring its contractual obligation to provide effluent, and one by the SKP RV Park over utility fees.
The AmeriCon suit was settled last summer for $1.7 million. The other two lawsuits have not yet been settled, and Mariscal & Weeks, a Phoenix law firm, has thus far billed the city $129,783.79, according to city attorney Ann Roberts. The city has used the firm's services since July of 2004.
The legal fees don't stop there. Kramer has paid Steve Witherspoon of Chandler and Udall in Tucson $50,190.31 since May 2004.
Kraemer said the law firm specializes in water law and has been helpful in getting the amended 100-year water assurance designation from the Arizona Department of Water Resources and in providing other advice in creating a water policy.
The water policy has yet to be approved and has been rewritten at least 11 times.
In a breakdown of the bill from Chandler and Udall, the city spent nearly $12,000 on issues regarding Smith Ranch, a 4,900-home development proposed by Tucson developer Diamond Ventures.
The development, however, is located in the county, about four miles west of the city near the Skyline Exit off Interstate 10. The development is also not a done deal, as legal issues are still pending.
When asked about the spending in November, City Attorney Roberts said she advised city officials against the prospect of annexing Smith Ranch into city limits or providing them with water services before the outside attorney was hired.
Suagee said the city hired the attorney to research the water analysis provided by Diamond Ventures, something Cochise County officials ended up doing as well.
"We had to respond to the water analysis," she said. "It was an expense I would have preferred not to pay, especially considering the county did a water analysis, and now there are other things with that. This shapes back to us not being on the offensive but defense all the time."
Water issues have often been controversial as Benson hovers on the verge of major residential growth. City officials have paid Burgess & Niple, a water resource service company in Phoenix, $32,530 since June 2005.
Most recently, the city paid the company $5,000 to help gather data and complete the application for an amended 100-year water assurance designation, which they received in December.
In other water-related spending the city has paid nearly $13,847.36 since July 2004 to cover electrical costs for the San Pedro Golf Course to pump water from a private well.
The electrical costs and $149,898.60 of free water in 2003 was given to the 18-hole golf course located off Madison Way in northwest Benson because the city has not been able to provide enough effluent.
The city signed a 100-year lease agreement in 2002 with the golf course. The city agreed to provide 180 million gallons of effluent every year at no cost.
Golf Course owner Tom Hartley has since filed a $429,000 lawsuit.
While it seems like the City Council and Kraemer have been doing a lot of extra spending, City Councilman Mark Fenn said they are not acting irresponsibly.
"There are always improvements that can be made. It's easy to look back and say well maybe we could have done that differently," he said. "You know, I would like to sit here and say yeah all that was well spent. I'm sure there are some things that we could have thought out a little more and done it better or not even at all. Each one of those you start adding them up and get a sizable amount of money. I don't think there's any reckless spending, but what I get nervous about is not knowing what we don't know and trying to make the right move each time. But when a situation presents itself to spend money and at the time you say yeah let's go ahead and do it, and it doesn't always turn out the best. If you second-guess after everything that happens, I just hope that we are learning each year and get a little better."
News-Sun
As city officials stress the need for massive utility rate increases to offset deficits, little is being done on the city's part to curtail spending. Over the last two years more than $380,000 has been spent on outside consultants, legal advice and other special services.
The City Council is moving forward with plans to increase sewer rates by 75 percent and water by 36 percent to cut the combined $385,202 deficit between the two departments. Those increases, affecting more than 1,300 residents, could come as early as March.
Meanwhile, the San Pedro Valley News-Sun has kept a running tab of spending that was either approved by a unanimous vote of the City Council or solely by City Manager Boyd Kraemer, who can spend up to $20,000 at a time without council approval.
The list may be incomplete, since City Council does not necessarily make spending public.
For example, Kraemer approved paying A&S Dust Solutions of Benson $2,500 for dust control in the dirt parking lot on the west side of City Hall. The total bill was $5,000, half of which was paid by Angel De La Torre, owner of Benson Lumber, located across the street from City Hall on 5th Street.
Except for Mayor George Scott, no other council members knew about the dust control, which took place in June.
Mayor Scott said it was needed to take care of the dust problem. When asked if the city had received complaints from the public, Scott said no.
Besides controlling dirt in the air, the city has hired numerous outside consultants to deal with issues ranging from salaries and job descriptions to paying someone to determine how much utility rates should be increased from now until 2010.
The City Council spent $60,000 for HDR Engineering in Phoenix to study the current utility rates and propose new ones. The firm recommended the council approve increases this year and then again in 2007 or 2008.
In 2005, the city spent $7,800 to have Rick McCroy, President of the Human Resources Services Center in Chandler, update job descriptions and conduct a salary survey.
However, the study, which led to nearly $56,000 in salary increases for Benson employees, was criticized. Opponents, several of whom were former city employees, said the study could have been a lot cheaper had the city used services provided by the Arizona League of Cities and Towns.
In fact, the News-Sun found the League's Web site online, printed a copy of an order form, and within 15 minutes ordered the annual edition of the local government salary and benefit survey.
In two weeks, for a total $23.37, which included the cost of postage to send the order form, the News-Sun got a complete list of the salaries and benefits offered by every city in the state.
The 73-page book categorizes each city according to population, which gives a reader the opportunity to see how their city compares to others of the same size.
The study conducted by the Human Resource Services Center compared the salaries of Benson employees to all Southern Arizona cities, including Tucson and Sierra Vista, two cities with larger populations, bigger tax bases and higher paid employees.
Before resigning in October, City Clerk/Finance Director Karen Johnson said city employees could have done the studies.
"Department heads know their departments and their employees and could have updated those descriptions easily," she said in an interview before leaving for another job in Tennessee. "To have outside people do all these studies has been unusual for the staff. With the salaries, he did do a comparative study, but we could have gone off the Arizona League of cities guide, which is what I think Mr. McCroy did anyway."
She said the council feared residents would see a staff-produced utility study as biased and unjustified. "Could it have been done in-house? Yes. In the past, the rate studies done in-house were better than what any outside consultant could do. The staff knows what's needed and they know what we need to do," she said.
City Councilwoman Lori McGoffin said she felt like a lot of the outside consultants were hired over the last year because Kraemer did not want to take the lead.
"These studies are the manager's job, and I think he hired these outside firms because he didn't want to take the responsibility in case something went wrong," she said. "The studies were definitely a waste when we have employees who have said they can do them. I think we need to be a lot more careful in the coming years with what we spend money on. With all that money we have spent we could be treating our employees a lot better."
Taxpayer dollars have also paid for Kraemer's seeking financial advice from Curtis Shook, of Hutchinson, Shockey, Erley & Co. The city paid Shook $5,000 in November for assistance in getting a $1.2 million loan to bring water services up to code.
The city spent $5,000 on a transportation survey in 2005, and will pay the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) up to $33,000 as part of a grant to conduct a full-scale small area transportation study in the San Pedro Valley.
In November, the city paid Tucson planner Brent Davis $3,000 to help the City Council create a strategic plan. At $1,000 a session, two more sessions are expected.
The city also spent $2,516 in 2005 for a city survey. The survey, which was mailed to 3,200 postal patrons in Benson, had a return of 500. The survey asked residents to rate the city and its services.
While the cost seems high and the return was low, Councilman Toney King defended it.
"I am one that will defend doing that survey for the fact that we need to get information from citizens as often as we can," he said.
In what councilwoman Kathy Suagee called a waste of money, the city spent $4,000 in early 2005 to have Larry Scott and Robert Shelton of Benson draw a picture of what downtown Benson should look like.
Nothing has been said publicly about the picture since it was presented to the council.
In another prospect that fizzled, the city paid the Greater Tucson Economic Council $5,000 in the 2004-05 fiscal year to help seek economic prospects for the city. Benson Mayor Scott said it didn't work out as planned, and GTEC has since disbanded.
Besides outside consultants for studies and surveys, the city continues to pay high dollar fees for legal advice.
In the last two years, the city has had three lawsuits filed, one by AmeriCon Constructors Inc., a California firm suing over the construction of the Benson Wastewater Treatment Facility, one by the San Pedro Golf Course over the city's not honoring its contractual obligation to provide effluent, and one by the SKP RV Park over utility fees.
The AmeriCon suit was settled last summer for $1.7 million. The other two lawsuits have not yet been settled, and Mariscal & Weeks, a Phoenix law firm, has thus far billed the city $129,783.79, according to city attorney Ann Roberts. The city has used the firm's services since July of 2004.
The legal fees don't stop there. Kramer has paid Steve Witherspoon of Chandler and Udall in Tucson $50,190.31 since May 2004.
Kraemer said the law firm specializes in water law and has been helpful in getting the amended 100-year water assurance designation from the Arizona Department of Water Resources and in providing other advice in creating a water policy.
The water policy has yet to be approved and has been rewritten at least 11 times.
In a breakdown of the bill from Chandler and Udall, the city spent nearly $12,000 on issues regarding Smith Ranch, a 4,900-home development proposed by Tucson developer Diamond Ventures.
The development, however, is located in the county, about four miles west of the city near the Skyline Exit off Interstate 10. The development is also not a done deal, as legal issues are still pending.
When asked about the spending in November, City Attorney Roberts said she advised city officials against the prospect of annexing Smith Ranch into city limits or providing them with water services before the outside attorney was hired.
Suagee said the city hired the attorney to research the water analysis provided by Diamond Ventures, something Cochise County officials ended up doing as well.
"We had to respond to the water analysis," she said. "It was an expense I would have preferred not to pay, especially considering the county did a water analysis, and now there are other things with that. This shapes back to us not being on the offensive but defense all the time."
Water issues have often been controversial as Benson hovers on the verge of major residential growth. City officials have paid Burgess & Niple, a water resource service company in Phoenix, $32,530 since June 2005.
Most recently, the city paid the company $5,000 to help gather data and complete the application for an amended 100-year water assurance designation, which they received in December.
In other water-related spending the city has paid nearly $13,847.36 since July 2004 to cover electrical costs for the San Pedro Golf Course to pump water from a private well.
The electrical costs and $149,898.60 of free water in 2003 was given to the 18-hole golf course located off Madison Way in northwest Benson because the city has not been able to provide enough effluent.
The city signed a 100-year lease agreement in 2002 with the golf course. The city agreed to provide 180 million gallons of effluent every year at no cost.
Golf Course owner Tom Hartley has since filed a $429,000 lawsuit.
While it seems like the City Council and Kraemer have been doing a lot of extra spending, City Councilman Mark Fenn said they are not acting irresponsibly.
"There are always improvements that can be made. It's easy to look back and say well maybe we could have done that differently," he said. "You know, I would like to sit here and say yeah all that was well spent. I'm sure there are some things that we could have thought out a little more and done it better or not even at all. Each one of those you start adding them up and get a sizable amount of money. I don't think there's any reckless spending, but what I get nervous about is not knowing what we don't know and trying to make the right move each time. But when a situation presents itself to spend money and at the time you say yeah let's go ahead and do it, and it doesn't always turn out the best. If you second-guess after everything that happens, I just hope that we are learning each year and get a little better."
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