You need to have a balanced budget and this one is off by $60,000.”

Victoria Ranua

TOWER— The city of Tower’s budget woes continue to plague the council here. At their regular meeting on Monday, the council was unable to approve a 2020 budget. “You need to have a balanced budget and this one is off by $60,000,” City Clerk-Treasurer Victoria Ranua told the council as they reviewed revenue and expenditure reports she presented. “There’s $60,000 more in expenditures than money we’ll have coming in,” she said. “We need to figure out where that error is.”

According to Ranua, the format of the city’s accounting program makes it difficult to determine where the discrepancies might lie, but she said she hoped to have a budget ready for approval well ahead of the deadline on Dec. 31.

“Does this mean that we have to have another meeting this month?” asked Mayor Orlyn Kringstad.

Ranua indicated yes. “So what time would work for all of you? When that meeting comes, all of this will be sussed out. If you have concerns as you’re looking at these documents, about what’s in here, come and talk to me.”

The council decided to hold a special meeting at 3 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 16, to take up and approve their 2020 budget.

Adding to the budget problem is the city’s need to begin repayment of the $250,000 loan it accepted from the League of Minnesota Cities earlier this year in order to weather a severe cash flow crisis brought on by the poor fiscal management of the prior clerk-treasurer. The city will have to pay at least $50,000 on that debt in the coming year. The city is also budgeting a substantial increase for sidewalk repair, from $15,000 in the current year, to $42,000 next year. The city has faced an increasing number of complaints about the condition of the city’s sidewalks and there have been a number of injuries from falls due to uneven surfaces.

In addition, the proposed budget adds $20,000 to the budget reserve for repairs and maintenance to reflect the fact that the city is dealing with aging equipment.

The budget situation is further complicated by the fact that Ranua assumed her duties as clerk-treasurer late in the budget process. The condition of the city’s books has also made the work more difficult.

In other action, the council accepted the resignation of council member Steve Abrahamson, who announced he is leaving due to a sizable new real estate workload he is taking on in a neighboring county (see related story at right) that will make his continued service on the council and other city commissions difficult.

In related action, the council declared a vacancy and agreed to advertise for a replacement. Councilors agreed they would like to make a selection for the seat by the first meeting in January.

The council also weighed in on whether and when to provide holiday pay for ambulance staff. Ranua brought the issue to the council since she said she could find no written guidance on the recent practice of paying double overtime on certain major holidays. Ambulance director Steve Altenburg told the council that the prior council had approved the holiday pay sometime in the late summer or fall of 2018. Ranua recommended that the city continue to pay the premium, but some on the council weren’t ready to go along with the idea and they had questions about whether the extra pay had ever been approved. Council member Sheldon Majerle said he’d like to see a review of the practice in other neighboring departments to see if Tower’s pay premium is typical.

Kringstad asked Altenburg if the pay premium was ever approved by the city council. “It was, and I can’t remember when, it would have been in the late summer or early fall… of 2018.”

He said the former clerk-treasurer had asked the council to approve the holiday pay at the request of employees.

“I believe that statement is incorrect,” said Majerle. “It was never documented. It was never in the minutes, so evidently somebody didn’t do their job and just gave them this deal. I’m all for them if this was passed by the council and someone can prove that to me, all well and good.”

Kringstad said the council should determine what, if anything, was actually approved by the past council. “Well, Orlyn, I looked,” said Majerle. “I went back to the day they started the on-call service and there’s nothing in any of the minutes in that whole time period.”

A review of minutes by the Timberjay from May of 2018 through the end that year, could locate no reference to approval of the holiday pay in any minutes or council agendas.

“All I can tell you is that the council okayed it,” claimed Altenburg.

Kringstad said he’d be willing to volunteer to look into the matter.

Council member Mary Shedd, who made the motion to award holiday pay for six major holidays, said the council had the authority to approve the pay now and did not have to delve into whether prior bonus pay was authorized in the past or not.

Kringstad suggested tabling the question until the Dec. 16 special meeting.

But Shedd pushed forward and the council deadlocked 2-2 on her motion to approve the premium pay, with Beldo joining Shedd in support. The council then voted unanimously to take the matter up again at its Dec. 16 special meeting.

In other business, the council:

 Approved the establishment of a separate bank account for the Tower Ambulance Service in order to end the co-mingling of funds from the ambulance and other general fund sources. The standard city signing policy would apply to checks or other disbursements from the account.

Approved a city hall holiday schedule for 2020.

 Approved discontinuing holding council meetings at the civic center due to the limited attendance in recent months. Kringstad said he would still like to hold the annual audit presentation at the civic center given that it might have higher public interest.

 Approved a motion to decline to use city funds to pay for holiday greeting ads. The city has recently run as many as three holiday greeting ads in the Tower News at a total cost of $105. The city has, in the past, also run a single $35 greeting ad in the Timberjay, using art from local students. The council then approved a motion to use council members’ personal funds at their own discretion to purchase holiday greetings.

 Acknowledged the resignation letter from ambulance staff person Lucas Morgan.

 Heard accusations from Robert Pratt, of Vermilion Lake Township, who said he found some information online related to the Tower Harbor Shores project that still has Orlyn Kringstad’s name on it. Pratt also accused Kringstad of illegally selling town homes that had not yet been built. But Ranua, who has an extensive background in real estate, told Pratt, who is the father of former clerk-treasurer Linda Keith, that his accusation was baseless and that real estate law does allow for the marketing of property on a “spec” basis. After Pratt continued with his accusations, others on the council finally shut him down, noting he had gone well over his three minutes allowed under the city’s public input policy.