Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Last month, the city of Denver announced to hiring Freeze.
I'm in a massive budget deficit in out the City
of Boulder is following suits.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Far less than Denver's shortfall, but the Boulder city officials
are now projecting an eight to ten million dollars shortfall
for this year, meaning that's some tough cuts we'll have
to be made. Joining us now on the KWA comments
bear a health hotline. As Director of Communication Engagement for
the City of Boulder, it's Sarah Huntley. Sarah, thank you
so much for your time this morning.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Good morning.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I know when Boulder kind of projected the twenty twenty
five budget it was relatively solid. So what really changed
in what we saw now leading to what we could
see in the eight to ten million dollars budget shortfall.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Well, we had anticipated that it was going to be
somewhat of a challenging year, so we did not increase
our base budget by very much, only by a little
over one percent based on some pretty conservative projections. But
in Boulder we rely very heavily on sales and use
taxes and we have started to get collections from the
end of twenty twenty four, in the beginning of twenty
(00:58):
twenty five, and we're noticing that they're coming in lower
than we had projected, and so we really want to
make adjustments now so that we don't get into a
deep budget situation.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Sarah, I want to ask that do you have a
reason why just is it literally that people are just
spending less and Boulder at this point?
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Well, we think in general there's just a lot of
economic uncertainty, both at the national level and then locally.
I think people are responding to that economic uncertainty by
really spending less money. And we certainly understand that. We
understand that people are stretched just like governments are stretched.
But we are asking that when people do spend money,
(01:36):
if they can spend money locally, you really make an
impact for the local governments to serve them.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
So when we look at this further at maybe too
early to tell, but are you projecting or estimating what
could be on the chopping block in order to try
to tighten this budget gap.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Well, we've taken two steps so far, and I do
want to just say that while we are expecting a
gap of about eight to ten million, we think we're
in better shape actually than some cities and municipalities around
us because we have been really focused on outcome space
budgeting for a while where we really try to prioritize
our services. We are going to, however, in order to
(02:16):
close this gap, be implementing a hire increase that has
gone into effect for any positions that have not currently
been offered to somebody. So we have about eighty five
positions that we think that will apply to right now,
and then we also will obviously have some attrition between
now and the end of the year. If the positions
are deemed to be critical, which really are probably positions
(02:39):
that are more in the safety realm, then it's possible
we would fill them, but we are going to have
to go through the city manager for her careful, careful review.
The other thing we've been asked to do as department
directors is to look for ways to underspend the budget
that's been allocated to us for twenty twenty five. So
each of us is going through our budget and looking
(02:59):
for things that we might be able to pause or
postpone programmatically wise or in our operations budget just to
really be able to save a little bit of money
to make sure that at the end of the year
we have a balanced budget.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Sarah, does that mean that even current employees may be
forced to take some sort of furlough some cuts? And
then secondly, is bolder leadership going to be feeling part
of the pain, not just the workers and the service people.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
So at this point we're not asking anybody to consider furloughs,
We're not considering wage decreases, we are not considering math layoffs.
We are just trying to freeze through attrition. What we
do anticipate is that every department will feel some of
the quote unquote pain because as people leave and we
don't fill those positions, we're going to need to either
(03:47):
adjust the service that person was providing or existing staff
will have to step in and pivot in terms of
what they're doing in their day to day job. And
I really askew the notion of leadership not being back
to because that could happen in the city manager's office,
it could happen at the highest levels of the organization.
In fact, those some of those positions would probably be
(04:09):
deemed non critical at the sort of mid level manager
positions because people could cover those roles for a short
period of time.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Obviously, there's lots of departments in the city of Boulder
that have to go through their budgets and see what
they can pause or postpone when it comes to these projects.
But can you name any examples of what those projects
could look like?
Speaker 3 (04:29):
You know, I really don't want to speculate because we
have not gone through the process yet of having department
directors make their recommendations. I know in my department, for example,
we're really going to try to find areas where we
can turn back that have least impact on our community,
and I'm sure that other departments will do that as well.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Director of Communications and Engagement for the City of Boulder
AT Sarah Huntley.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Thanks Sarah, Thank you. Have a good day.
Last month, the city of Denver announced to hiring Freeze.
I'm in a massive budget deficit in out the City
of Boulder is following suits.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Far less than Denver's shortfall, but the Boulder city officials
are now projecting an eight to ten million dollars shortfall
for this year, meaning that's some tough cuts we'll have
to be made. Joining us now on the KWA comments
bear a health hotline. As Director of Communication Engagement for
the City of Boulder, it's Sarah Huntley. Sarah, thank you
so much for your time this morning.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Good morning.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I know when Boulder kind of projected the twenty twenty
five budget it was relatively solid. So what really changed
in what we saw now leading to what we could
see in the eight to ten million dollars budget shortfall.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Well, we had anticipated that it was going to be
somewhat of a challenging year, so we did not increase
our base budget by very much, only by a little
over one percent based on some pretty conservative projections. But
in Boulder we rely very heavily on sales and use
taxes and we have started to get collections from the
end of twenty twenty four, in the beginning of twenty
(00:58):
twenty five, and we're noticing that they're coming in lower
than we had projected, and so we really want to
make adjustments now so that we don't get into a
deep budget situation.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Sarah, I want to ask that do you have a
reason why just is it literally that people are just
spending less and Boulder at this point?
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Well, we think in general there's just a lot of
economic uncertainty, both at the national level and then locally.
I think people are responding to that economic uncertainty by
really spending less money. And we certainly understand that. We
understand that people are stretched just like governments are stretched.
But we are asking that when people do spend money,
(01:36):
if they can spend money locally, you really make an
impact for the local governments to serve them.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
So when we look at this further at maybe too
early to tell, but are you projecting or estimating what
could be on the chopping block in order to try
to tighten this budget gap.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Well, we've taken two steps so far, and I do
want to just say that while we are expecting a
gap of about eight to ten million, we think we're
in better shape actually than some cities and municipalities around
us because we have been really focused on outcome space
budgeting for a while where we really try to prioritize
our services. We are going to, however, in order to
(02:16):
close this gap, be implementing a hire increase that has
gone into effect for any positions that have not currently
been offered to somebody. So we have about eighty five
positions that we think that will apply to right now,
and then we also will obviously have some attrition between
now and the end of the year. If the positions
are deemed to be critical, which really are probably positions
(02:39):
that are more in the safety realm, then it's possible
we would fill them, but we are going to have
to go through the city manager for her careful, careful review.
The other thing we've been asked to do as department
directors is to look for ways to underspend the budget
that's been allocated to us for twenty twenty five. So
each of us is going through our budget and looking
(02:59):
for things that we might be able to pause or
postpone programmatically wise or in our operations budget just to
really be able to save a little bit of money
to make sure that at the end of the year
we have a balanced budget.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Sarah, does that mean that even current employees may be
forced to take some sort of furlough some cuts? And
then secondly, is bolder leadership going to be feeling part
of the pain, not just the workers and the service people.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
So at this point we're not asking anybody to consider furloughs,
We're not considering wage decreases, we are not considering math layoffs.
We are just trying to freeze through attrition. What we
do anticipate is that every department will feel some of
the quote unquote pain because as people leave and we
don't fill those positions, we're going to need to either
(03:47):
adjust the service that person was providing or existing staff
will have to step in and pivot in terms of
what they're doing in their day to day job. And
I really askew the notion of leadership not being back
to because that could happen in the city manager's office,
it could happen at the highest levels of the organization.
In fact, those some of those positions would probably be
(04:09):
deemed non critical at the sort of mid level manager
positions because people could cover those roles for a short
period of time.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Obviously, there's lots of departments in the city of Boulder
that have to go through their budgets and see what
they can pause or postpone when it comes to these projects.
But can you name any examples of what those projects
could look like?
Speaker 3 (04:29):
You know, I really don't want to speculate because we
have not gone through the process yet of having department
directors make their recommendations. I know in my department, for example,
we're really going to try to find areas where we
can turn back that have least impact on our community,
and I'm sure that other departments will do that as well.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Director of Communications and Engagement for the City of Boulder
AT Sarah Huntley.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Thanks Sarah, Thank you. Have a good day.
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