Port Townsend City Hall

Leader photo by Brian Kelly

The Port Townsend City Council unanimously approved its city budget for 2023, and next year’s spending plan focuses on hiring new city staff, more funding for long-needed equipment upgrades, utilizing new revenues sources, and more.

“This is one of the most important policy decisions made that help us achieve all of those things during the coming year,” said Finance Director Connie Anderson.

The city anticipates $48.9 million in total expenses and $49.9 million in total revenue for the upcoming year, according to city budget documents.

Compared to previously released preliminary budget documents, the main notable change in the final budget was an additional $60,000 transfer from the city’s general fund to its contingency fund to stay in compliance with the city’s fund balance policy.

The city plans to bring on a handful of new staff next year, with an increase in the number of full time equivalent (FTE) positions from 95.2 FTE in 2022 to 100.7 FTE positions.

New positions the city hopes to hire for include a communications and marketing manager, deputy police chief, behavioral health navigator, housing grant coordinator, and other roles, including a human resources assistant and housing grant coordinator.

The communications and marketing position is a brand new position for the city.

“The marketing function, it’s a stated strategic need for us to have more strategic approach to marketing and communication,” City Manager John Mauro told The Leader. “We’ve never had the communication function, even though we’ve dabbled in marketing; we’ve never had a role like this.”

The position will entail a half-and-half split between marketing work for tourism along with expanding community engagement with the city, Mauro added.

The expected cost for the position is $150,000, which includes salary and benefits, according to the position summary from the agenda bill. Funding for the position comes from two different sources; 50 percent of it from the city’s general fund and 50 percent from Lodging Tax Advisory Committee funds.

While the communications and marketing role is new to the city, comparable municipalities have hired for similar positions, such as the city of Sequim with its communications and marketing director, Barbara Hanna.

The deputy police chief position was added in order to shape an eventual path for a possible successor to the police chief, Mauro said.

The salary range for the deputy police chief is $107,021 to $130,431, according to the non-bargaining employee classification salary schedule.

According to the city, the deputy police chief position will handle day-to-day operations, supervision of patrol, traffic, investigations, and more.

While the city is set to grow the size of its staff in 2023, the city manager stated that many departments are still short-handed in numbers.

“Almost all city teams were understaffed and many still are,” Mauro said in his budget message to the council. “Because our staff count has been trending downward the past decade, we were already operating beyond maximum effort.”

The city is also dedicating funds to much-needed equipment upgrades and repairs, such as $65,000 for a new mini excavator. The city is set to repair sections of Lawrence Street in Uptown, using recycled concrete to stabilize the base.

Other equipment upgrades the city is eyeing are audio-visual improvements for public meetings, Kah Tai restroom improvements, upgrades to the city’s IT security systems, and other enhancements.

Some capital projects the city is working on for 2023 include new windows and doors for the Port Townsend Public Library, American Rescue Plan Act-funded improvements to Port Townsend City Hall, and street and sidewalk projects funded by banked capacity funds.

City staff members are also set to receive 5 percent pay raises across all departments following negotiations with the Teamsters Local No. 589 union, according to Mauro.

“I’m very pleased with the priorities laid out in this budget. It’s clear that staff has really put their best foot forward with focusing on housing, with focus on improving affordability in our community, street preservation, debt reduction, investing in staff to help us achieve big things,” Mayor David Faber said during the council’s approval of the budget.

“It’s a pretty impressive budget overall, I have to say. I’m very pleased with the way this has come together,” Faber said.