PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles City Council is expected to continue denying funds to community organizations and services despite straying from that resolve in recent council decisions, city officials said Tuesday.
The latest instance of funding outside groups and events was the council’s March 15 approval, by a 4-3 vote, of $400 for the annual Port Angeles Kids Fishing Derby in Lincoln Park.
The split decision followed council members’ lengthy discussion over how closely they should hew to budget priorities they set last summer for 2016.
Over the past two months, they also have approved funding for the Olympic Peninsula Humane Society and the Clallam County Economic Development Corp. that had not been included in the 2016 spending plan.
Nevertheless, budget priorities remain intact as summer approaches, and with it, the council review of preliminary 2017 spending, City Manager Dan McKeen said Tuesday.
“We will be adhering to the priority-setting process,” he said. “There simply isn’t enough money to go around.”
Mayor Patrick Downie agreed.
“When you set priorities, inevitably there will be these issues that periodically come up,” he said.
“I don’t think we are going to step away very far from where we’re at.
“We have established the priority-setting model as our standard. I would like us to continue to do that.”
McKeen said it was easy enough to find the $400 for this year’s derby.
“It’s such a small amount that we should be able to take it out of [the parks and recreation] side of the budget,” he said.
The Port Angeles Kids Fishing Derby, which began in 1996, draws hundreds of parents and children to the park and begins this year at 8 a.m. April 9 with three dozen fishing rods as prizes.
Retired veterinarian John Procter, president of the Olympic Peninsula Fly Fishers, which sponsors the event, pleaded his case to the council
March 15.
“I was there with my hat in my hand, believe me,” he said this week.
He ex-plained that the group had completed derby fundraising this year with the expectation the city would continue its contribution.
“Then we find out the city pulled the plug, so to speak,” he said. “It completely caught us off guard.”
The fishing derby allocation had been left out of the 2016 spending plan as part of the council’s determination that youth and family programs, including after-school day care, were low-priority.
Also given low-priority status were the Feiro Marine Life Center, United Way of Clallam County and Port Angeles Fine Arts Center.
“We had a budget that we adopted, and we keep trying to keep adding things to it,” said Councilman Brad Collins, who was joined by Councilman Dan Gase and Deputy Mayor Cherie Kidd in voting against the derby funding.
“I don’t know how we can continue to do that,” Collins added.
In December, council members restored $16,200 in funding to the Olympic Peninsula Humane Society by juggling around real estate excise taxes to free up general funds.
The allocation fulfills the second year of a three-year agreement with the humane society that ends in 2017 but which City Attorney Bill Bloor said the city is not contractually obligated to annually fulfill.
Councilwoman Sissi Bruch, part of a majority for fishing derby funding that included Councilmen Lee Whetham and Michael Merideth and Mayor Downie, noted the council found $10,000 for the EDC in February, drawing it from already budgeted special-project economic development funds.
“If we can do it for the EDC, I’m afraid we are going to have to do it for something else,” Bruch said.
Derby organizers had been receiving $700, but portable toilets were eliminated because restrooms were available, lowering the amount needed.
Council members brought their wallets to the March 15 meeting.
To guarantee the derby would be held, Collins said he would donate $400, Whetham said he would chip in $200 and Kidd said she would add $100.
“This is not the place to challenge other council members to support the funding,” Merideth said.
“I say we muddle through this at the moment.
“The funding needs to be restored.
“To see those kids running around and moms and dads out there helping, you can’t buy that anywhere.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.