COEUR d’ALENE — The Coeur d’Alene City Council on Tuesday declined to eliminate five new positions approved in the 2022-23 budget, but agreed to put a pause on filling them.

The move was made to account for cost of living adjustments for the police department totaling $518,735, and for the fire department totaling $73,377, and $13,380 for a health reimbursement account for fire.

"The recommendation to cover the majority of these increases is to eliminate five new positions that were included in the 2022-23 budget," said Vonnie Jensen, city comptroller.

The City Council passed the budget before negotiations were finalized with the fire and police departments. The adjustments were needed to update the budget to reflect the unanticipated increased cost of the new contracts, according to a staff report.

"Right now, because of an agreement we made, we need to do this," said Mayor Jim Hammond.

The five posts marked for elimination were communication specialist in administration, $83,590; IT technician specialist, $82,474; police applications analyst, $84,659; and two from streets, a heavy equipment operator, $82,928 and an electrician apprentice, $78,531.

The proposal to balance the budget also included using $193,310 of the fund balance.

But some council members balked at cutting the five positions, and said there were extensive talks.

"I don’t want to see the communication specialist unfilled," said Councilwoman Kiki Miller.

Councilwoman Christie Wood said the IT post was important.

"The IT department, we cannot continue to overlook that. It runs the whole city," she said.

There was discussion about the possibility of using urban renewal money from the closure of the Lake District or taking from the fund balance, and reviewing capital expenses.

Jensen said those were not ongoing revenues.

She said she would hate for the city to hire those positions and then have to lay people off next year.

City Administrator Troy Tymesen said they needed the council's support "in confirming these positions don’t make sense assuming the budget is perfect. The budget is not perfect. We also relied heavily on income. If we start to back off on income, we do not have any extra dollars."

Hammond said he would work with staff to see if funds couldn't be found.

"I’m going to make an effort. I can’t make any promises, but I’m not going to give up on it yet," he said.

Wood said she was "hesitant to just go along with not filing those positions."

She said with a budget as large as the city's — $123 million — they should be able to find $600,000.

She suggested rather than eliminate the five positions, the council put a pause on filling them until the city could get a clearer view of its financial picture.

Councilman Dan English agreed.

"I don't want to just give them up, either," he said.

Councilman Dan Gookin said the council should support administration and not fill the five jobs.

"I think it would be a wise move. I think it would be prudent, just given the state of the economy the last thing we want to do is hire someone and let them go," he said.

The council agreed by a 6-0 vote to review finances in February, when state revenues come in, and then see if it could fill those five posts.

English said the state just reported that income, sales and corporate taxes were coming in under projections.

"I think the next quarter is pretty important to see what happens,” he said.