The actual costs of adding north Burien have been considerably less than a consultant estimated in 2008, Burien council members were told Sept. 19.
As part of their deliberations on annexing the rest of North Highline, lawmakers asked city staff for a comparison of the actual costs and the costs estimated by the Berke consulting group before the Boulevard Park area was annexed.
Finance director Kim Krause delivered a report from Berke that set estimated general fund expenditures at $ 3 million. Actual extrapolated expenditures for 2010 were $1.836 million.
Berke estimated in 2008 that the city would receive extra revenues of $1.640 million from annexation. The 2010 extrapolated actual revenues were $2.110 million, according to Berke.
The consultants said the main driver of the cost differences was police services, which were projected to be about $1.8 million. That is about $700,000 more the prorated actual costs.
Mayor Joan McGilton commended Police Chief Scott Kimerer and city staff for keeping costs down.
Berke also expected that the community development, finance and public works departments would hire new staff members to handle the additional area. However, no new staff members were hired in those departments. One new staffer was added in the parks department.
Councilman Gerald Robison noted the estimates for added community development staff came before the real estate crash.
Burien did not receive property taxes in 2010 for the newly annexed area. However, the city will receive the tax revenue for 2011.
When Burien receives the property tax revenue, City Manager Mike Martin noted, "the picture won't change or it will be more favorable."
Councilman Gordon Shaw also pointed to the economic downturn as a reason for the city not spending as much on the newly annexed area as expected.
"It is a credit to staff and management of the city that there is an attitude that where we are in this economy we have to do more with less before adding full-time equivalents (new staff positions,) Shaw declared.
Shaw added, "We are doing pretty well as a city."
He said it had been projected several years earlier that expenditures would start exceeding revenues by 2012. Now, Shaw said he doesn't expect that to happen until about 2018.
"We are about five years out from a decision on lowering services or raising more taxes. It will be the same with or without annexation," Shaw said.
Martin also added that water and sewer rates would not change for Burien residents if the city annexed White Center.
Several council members estimated that rates would increase for White Center residents if Seattle annexed the area.
Lawmakers also discussed federal and state legislative priorities for the coming year.
Martin said the city's main areas of focus are on securing funding for the state Route 518/ Des Moines Memorial Drive interchange, looking for state funding for the Northeast Redevelopment Area, retaining local control over the city's business and occupation (B&O) taxes and reform of the state SEPA review process.
Robison noted that state control of the B&O tax might bring more money to the city.
Martin also said the city is considering working with other local governments to pursue reimbursement for public records requests.
Robison responded that he is strongly in favor of the public obtaining the records.
"We don't want to limit them but the evidence from other cities is that it has gotten a little crazy out there," Martin declared.
He added that some people have taken up an "inordinate amount of staff time" seeking public information. He said public records requests can take up hundreds of hours of staff time with one staffer working full time on the requests.
For updated reports on the Burien City Council's annexation discussions, visit www.highlinetimes.com.
