Matt Nielsen, the chief financial officer for Rexburg, presented the budget calendar for the fiscal year 2024 to the city council during their biweekly meeting on Wednesday.
Members of the city council get to set the salaries for mayor and city council, something unique to the budgeting process this year. Nielsen said to determine these salaries, they normally use a consumer price index from a survey the city completed a few years ago.
If the city council decides to make any changes to salaries, they would need to hold a public hearing at least 75 days before an election to communicate the changes to the public. Nielsen suggested the council hold such a meeting on May 3.
Even if the council voted to change salaries, it would not be implemented right away.
“Anything that you do change, it wouldn’t actually take effect until next January,” Nielsen said.
Self-insuring the city
Nielsen said the city is still on track to become self-insured beginning in 2024.
“We’ve been preparing for this for four years,” Nielsen said.
Being self-insured means rather than paying an insurance company to pay medical, dental or vision claims for the city, the city pays the claims itself. Cities will often use a third party such as Blue Cross to complete the billing process.
Nielsen hypothesized that the process of getting this approved will likely lead to increased rates for the city. However, these increases won’t be felt by city employees that are insured.
Updating Rexburg development code
During their last city council meeting, the city council postponed making a decision on new additions to the city’s development code.
Alan Parkinson, Rexburg’s city planner who sits on the Planning and Zoning Commission, requested that the city continue to hold off making a decision until they could receive full representation from the council since only four of seven members were present that night.
Parkinson suggested the city council hold a public work meeting in conjunction with Planning and Zoning and the public to go over questions and concerns before voting on the new development code. The meeting would be held on March 1 at 5 p.m. in Rexburg City Hall.
Council President Jordan Busby let those in attendance know they could receive email notifications on when public meetings like these would be held, as well as the agendas for each meeting.
“I would encourage all of you to sign up and get those newsletters,” Busby said.
You can sign up for these newsletters and see when future meetings will be held on the city’s website.