ROCK SPRINGS – Mayor Carl Demshar defended the city’s budgeting process at the June 18 meeting in response to a comment by Councilor Clark Stith regarding whether or not Rock Springs can afford the $40 million in proposed spending for the upcoming fiscal year.

“The (city) staff has worked really hard on putting together a budget that makes sense. The good news is that we have about $7.9 million cash on hand projected to be available July 1. We can’t afford to spend $40 million next year,” Stith said. “My view is that you’re spending what amounts to your accumulated savings. When you look at the general fund, where do you cut? It’s not that spending is out of control. The department I think has done a good job trying to keep spending in check…In my view it makes sense not to spend all of our savings in one year.”

Stith made a motion for a budget amendment, which would have removed $500,000 from a line item designated for fire department facilities construction. Stith said this would be the easiest to cut “without cutting anyone’s wages, without cutting any services and without doing any damage to anyone.”

“I think it would be more prudent to leave that $500,000. The fire department keeps all its employees, it keeps all its overtime pay and its operations stay the same,” Stith said.

Mayor Demshar expressed frustration with the idea that the city is spending money imprudently.

“As the mayor of this city, I take exception to the comment that we’re spending down our reserves. This is the ninth budget I’ve been involved in,” Demshar said. “We are very prudent when we go through that budget…We’re doing nothing different this year than we have in the last nine or ten years. I’m very comfortable with the budget and where it is today and the work that’s gone into it.”

Councilor Rob Zotti pointed out the city fire department is pushing the upper limits for response times in certain areas of Rock Springs, or about 7 minutes.

Demshar said that while he understands emergency response times are important and a fourth fire station in the northwest quadrant of Rock Springs is worth considering, the situation is adequate currently.

Rock Springs Fire Department Chief Lyle Armstrong said a station similar to one of the Rock Springs satellite stations was built last year in Campbell County for about $1.3 million.

Some of the fire department facilities construction line item could be potentially used if necessary, Demshar said, but it’s important for the city to save some money for the construction of another station in the future.

“People need to understand with this budget that that money is sitting in that line item, but if we have an emergency that requires us to take that money and spend it for something else, we as a governing body have that authority. That money doesn’t just sit there for nothing,” Demshar said. “To have comments made that have been made in the public arena, you can probably tell fired my rocket tonight because we’ve worked hard on this budget and have done what we think we need to do.”

The amendment failed, with councilors Glennise Wendorff, David Tate, Glenn Sugano, David Halter and Mayor Demshar voting against the amendment. Councilors Chad Banks, Clark Stith, Billy Shalata and Rob Zotti voted for it.