Sun Prairie considers resident panel on budget shortfall
Sun Prairie officials are considering an ad hoc community task force to help address projected operating deficits in the city budget.
Sun Prairie officials are considering an ad hoc community task force to help address projected operating deficits in the city budget.
They discussed the prospect of the task force, proposed by Mayor Steve Stocker and City Council president Rex Owens, at the committee of the whole meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 6.
Stocker, who presented the idea that evening, said that the task force’s work would include considerations for another referendum to raise property taxes along with cost cutting solutions.
“The purpose of this body is not to advocate for a predetermined answer. It’s to help the council make a better informed decision,” he said.
File photo: A "vote here" sign outside the Sun Prairie Municipal Building.
The proposal
Additionally, the city council would still hold the final say over which deficit reduction measures would be pursued.
“If the financial management plan is projecting structural shortfalls, the city cannot assume that the problem will resolve itself. Waiting does not eliminate the financial gap; it may simply leave the city with fewer options and less time to respond,” Stocker said.
While other alders appeared generally receptive to the proposal, some raised concerns about how the task force would go about its work.
Stocker and Owens proposed that the committee, which would be co-chaired by the pair, be made up of citizens appointed by the council.
Several alders voiced desires that the task force, if created, include a variety of citizens of different backgrounds to be fully representative of Sun Prairie as a whole.
Stocker told alders that he and Owens had a preliminary list of citizens they had not yet reached out to for participation, but were already considering. Some alders took issue with this.
“I am concerned about the makeup of that committee and how those individuals were selected. And when you say you're going to narrow it down, how are you going to narrow it down?...
We all represent different parts of the community and I would think that we would have the opportunity to to look at that list,” District 4 Alder Emily Comstock said.
Consequently, alders unanimously voted to amend the resolution creating the task force to include an application process for all citizens to volunteer themselves through.
Following the amendment, however, alders decided to postpone action to create the task force so that the questions raised could be answered beforehand.
“If we had waited a couple of weeks before acting on this, perhaps some of the questions that were asked and some of the structural items that members of the council were concerned about could have been addressed,” Comstock said.
