Eagle Mountain Mayor Brian Olsen chided two City Council members Tuesday night for refusing to vote on a budget amendment, while they say the city is spending too fast and Olsen is moving money around on his own.

A motion to amend the Eagle Mountain 2006-07 budget by approximately $207,000 for hiring five full-time employees died with two for and three against approving the additional expenses. Also, $26,000 of the budget funds were intended to match a $26,000 grant to purchase paramedic equipment for the Eagle Mountain Fire Department. If the City Council denies the budget amendment a second time, those funds will be lost.

Council members David Blackburn and Linn Strouse abstained from voting on the budget because they said they wanted more information. Council members David Lifferth and Heather Jackson voted for the amendment and Councilman Vincent Liddiard voted no. Three votes were needed to pass the amendment.

"You folks need to be professional. You make a motion, you need to vote on this," Olsen said.

He said the five full-time positions are needed because of unanticipated growth since the budget was written, between January and June. He said 530 residential building permits were approved in the city during that time.

"When I began writing the budget in January and reviewing it with the budget committee we never anticipated the exponential growth the city would experience," Olsen said. "The budget was passed in June and became effective July 1. Since that time the demands for service placed upon the city have exceeded our forecasted budget, and hence the request for additional personnel to meet those demands."

After the meeting, Blackburn said his understanding of the budget was that funds were allotted to a specified department and those were the funds for the year.

"The budget process that I've been operating under for the last 2-1/2 years was essentially nullified today," he said. "Tonight's explanation states that rather than the multiple departments that we have had are financially lumped into four funds and the mayor has the liberty to literally transfer millions of dollars without the approval of the council. ... Recently he took the council-training money and paid for a desk and the accruement supplies for a receptionist.

"I didn't feel I had enough information to make a justifiable 'yes' vote."

The mayor said Wednesday that the transferring of the council-training money for receptionist furnishings was absolutely legal.

"The budget has been and continues today to be in compliance with state auditing regulations," he said. "Clearly, Mr. Blackburn hasn't learned nor has any idea about public accounting or business management. To say that I could transfer millions on my own accord is a bad-faith argument as is being accused of 'illegally' transferring funds. This vote was a no-brainer decision and was a deliberate attempt to sabotage the needed services that the citizens need."

After the motion was killed at the meeting, Strouse tried to explain why she abstained.

"We've already spent more than half the budget, but we're only two months into the fiscal year," she said.

But Olsen cut her comments short, saying that because the first motion had died, another motion would need to be made in order to have a discussion.

Later, she said she wanted to know why the five proposed full-time staff positions were not in the initial budget approval in June.

So Strouse made a motion to review the budget in greater depth. However, since a review of the budget was not listed on the meeting's agenda, Olsen conferred with city attorney Jerry Kinghorn and then told Strouse the motion was out of order. The council did not make another motion.

"I hope the citizenry can see what happened here tonight and hold the council accountable for its actions," an obviously agitated Olsen said.

If approved, the amendment would have allowed funding for five full-time city positions: $42,000 for a custodian with funds transferred from a contractual agreement with a city employee, $76,000 for a plans examiner, a $30,000 increase for a code enforcement officer whose hours had been increased, $40,000 for an accounting clerk and $44,000 for a lineman and the remaining amount for other lesser budget items. The money comes from increased development and building permit fees.

Councilwoman Heather Jackson was "ticked off," she said.

"I am absolutely outraged that we can't even pass a budget so we can hire the staff so they can do what they need to do," she said. "Our head building official Kent Partridge can't even take a vacation."

Budget amendment votes

David Blackburn abstain

Heather Jackson yes

Vincent Liddiard no

David Lifferth yes

Linn Strouse abstain

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page B10.