The City of River Falls is taking measures to combat the financial effect the COVID-19 pandemic is having on municipal operations.

Finance Director Sarah Karlsson reported that the city is in solid financial shape and is taking steps to stay that way.

“Because of the excellent stewardship of the city council, the city is in excellent financial health. It allows us to weather the storm well and make deliberate and thoughtful decisions,” she told the city council at their meeting last Tuesday evening.

The city has a strong fund balance and 90 days of cash on hand for all of its utilities.

“All in all, the city’s positioned really well,” she said.

There will be a lot less revenue coming in, an amount expected to be from $310,000 to $700,000, depending on how long the “Safe at Home” order exists. Also, federal and state revenue to the city are also undetermined now. Park and rec fees will be down, parking ticket revenue will be down, as will room tax revenue and resolving loan fund repayments. Karlsson said there’s been an “uptick in building permits.”

To combat the loss in revenue, the city has reduced general fund expenses by $580,000 by implementing a

See FINANCES, Page 7 hiring freeze (except for EMS), cutting road maintenance costs, reevaluating capital projects and restricting overall spending.

In the utility fund, there is a huge loss of revenue because of classes being cancelled at UW-River Falls, CVTC and the River Falls School District. Those three alone are responsible for an estimated $325,000 in lost revenue.

The city has a plan to reduce utility fund expenses by $500,000 as a result.

Karlsson said no one can predict exactly the path forward, but noted the city is in good shape.

“I want to emphasize how grateful I am to be working for a mayor and city council and staff that are going above and beyond,” she said. “I think we’re in a really good position to deal with whatever comes ahead.”

She said she doesn’t foresee the city having to dip into its fund balance.

Staff was questioned on the hiring freeze, in light of the retirement of a police officer.

“The hiring freeze applies to the police department,” said City Administrator Scot Simpson. “We don’t anticipate rehiring. That’s a discussion I’ve already had with Chief (Gordon) Young. He agreed with me. We’ll continue to monitor it, but there’s no reason to unfreeze the police.

“There’s obviously been some changes with overall police volume. We’re looking at the different volume of cases. We’re not doing this out of a sense of saving money. Certainly it can result in an impact in speed enforcement and other things if we don’t replace that position. At this time, I’m not recommending we do that,” said Simpson.

All in all, city staff is trying to keep things business as usual as much as they can.

“The city staff is going to be here to support the community. We feel a strong sense of responsibility to do that, standing side by side supporting the community,” he said.

The city is planning for when some things that have been closed can reopen.

“We will be rolling out some specific planning for the City of River Falls. We are hopeful at this time we may be able to do that in a coordinated effort with Pierce and St. Croix County and also with some municipal neighbors,” Simpson said.

Direction will be taken from the state, Simpson said.

“I caution the area, certainly as a city administrator and the police chief and others in service of the community, we do not believe we have the authority to defy the order of the Governor of the State of Wisconsin. Our job here is to exist under the structure of the laws that we have.”