The Pagosa Springs Town Council continued its discussion of the 2015 budget at last week’s regular meeting.
On Sept. 18, Town Manager Greg Schulte presented the preliminary budget to council. Since then, several work sessions were scheduled to meet with each department head so council could hear how much money will be needed for next year and how it will be used.
The town then held a special meeting on Oct. 29, where Schulte presented a condensed list of the six major questions that needed to be answered. However, these are not cut and dry issues, and the council only had enough time to deal with three of them — the 8th Street reconstruction project, service organizations and economic development (see last week’s edition of The SUN for more details).
The remaining three items on the list — legal expenses, court security and additional personnel — were tabled until last week’s regular town council meeting.
Even then, after discussing the issue of hiring new people for over an hour, a final decision could not be reached and the topic was once again tabled. Schulte warned council must have everything resolved and be ready to adopt the final budget by its first meeting in December.
Budget Issue 4
Over the past few years, the town has accrued much higher than normal legal expenses, so during the recent budgetary work sessions council asked staff to research the possibility of hiring an in-house attorney, similar to Todd Starr’s position with Archuleta County.
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