The Steamboat Springs City Council voted 6-1 last week to approve the first reading of an ordinance to adopt the 2027 budget following a discussion that centered on the need for a full-time city forester, potential funding for a human-bear conflict consultant and to what extent the city has struck a balance in funding critical services versus making tough decisions.
The first reading, voted on at council’s Oct. 20 regular meeting, comes two weeks after council’s nine-hour budget retreat on Oct. 6.
The day after the retreat, Finance Director Kim Weber said she received updated numbers from county staff on dispatch funding, noting that she previously had been using numbers that excluded the increase to E911 revenue that went into effect in February.
Adjusting the dispatch fee numbers brought down the city’s overall dispatch cost by roughly $281,000, which Weber then added back into the general fund.
After implementing other modifications based on council’s requests from the retreat, the city’s 2027 draft budget was left at just over $207,300 in surplus, or around $307,300 with, the inclusion of the city’s $100,000 in emergency reserves.
Interim Parks and Recreation Director Stephanie Munro gave a brief presentation on her department’s request for a full-time city forester billed at $130,000, which she argued is needed to fill an operational and community need gap in tree maintenance within city limits. Currently, the department consists solely of seasonal arborists.
Though staff recommended that council funded the request, council opted against it at the retreat. Councilor John Agosta, absent from the retreat, questioned why that decision was made.
“I feel that this is a very strategic position for the city,” said Agosta. “We are a mountain town, we are surrounded by trees, and our ecological health is critical for the city … I was surprised that we don’t even have it yet, and I do believe it is a critical position that we need to have going forward.”
Councilor Amy Dickson responded that, among other things, council pushed to fund the Steamboat Springs Chamber’s destination stewardship efforts $225,000 higher than staff recommended.
Council President Steve Muntean noted that it was a myriad of decisions — including nixing a $50,000 request from Northwest Colorado Health and $25,000 for Routt County Search and Rescue.
But Councilor Bryan Swintek said those choices were only part of the bigger picture, which Agosta would have known had he been properly caught up on the discussions that took place during the retreat.
“Councilor Agosta, would it be appropriate for you to recuse yourself? Like, you did not actually watch the meeting, did you?” said Swintek.
“I just worry that we’ve spent nine hours going over what I think is the most important meeting that we have going over all the city financials,” he continued. “It would be, I think, really difficult as a councilor to make an informed decision like this without the amount of context that we’ve gotten in that full day.”
Agosta admitted he had “read the material” but did not watch the retreat recording.
“I am not going to recuse myself,” he said. “ If you want to vote me off, you can do that.”
“I wouldn’t like you to put me in that position,” said Swintek. “I would like to hear you explain to the constituents why you are in a position to be able to represent (them) while missing the nine hour meeting. I’d like you to justify why you’re not recusing. ”
“Because I’m a city council member, and I get to vote on these things,” Agosta replied.
Muntean rationalized that with over $200,000 in surplus — reserves excluded — the city could afford to meet the request for a full-time forester.
Dickson revived a conversation initially held at council’s Oct. 13 work session, where city leaders heard from Keep Bears Wild Lead Educator Christi Bubenheim on how the city is faring regarding bear incidents.
At the work session, Bubenheim’s message was clear: something needs to change, and swiftly — but what that change looks like, exactly, could require more multi-faceted solutions than what she alone can suggest.
She warned that this year’s unusually high bear activity — as of Sept. 10, Routt County had seen a nearly 410% surge in bear incidents from 2025 — may not be an extremity, but “the new norm.”
“I’m hopeful that this is a one-off year, but realistically, I fear it might not be,” Bubenheim told council.
At the Oct. 20 meeting, Dickson advocated for allocating funding for a consultant to mitigate human-bear conflicts in regards to Bubenheim’s presentation, to which Councilor Dave Barnes suggested that such funds could simply be put toward heftier enforcement.
“My perspective is it’s much bigger than enforcement, because enforcement now is Chief (Mark) Beckett,” she said.
“It seems pretty evident,” said Barnes. “If I gotta go out and clean up my trash that the bear tipped over, sooner or later I’d get pissed off, and then if somebody charged me to clean up my own trash, I think self enforcement would probably happen.”
“I’m not sure what a consultant’s going to do for us other than say: ‘You need to build better bear-proof dumpsters,’” he added.
City Manager Tom Leeson concurred with Dickson that the issue was broader than enforcement, but said that city staff could speak with Colorado Parks and Wildlife — which Bubenheim had said earlier this month was heavily understaffed — on the best path forward, whether that means hiring a consultant or not.
Toward the end of the discussion, Swintek called the budget as drafted a “huge mistake” and said that council “has no leg to stand on to go to taxpayers and ask for additional funds next November.”
The additional funds he referenced relate to the range of ballot measures local voters could see next fall, potentially including a fire district consolidation measure, as well as funding for wildfire mitigation and land stewardship, early childhood education, and home health and hospice services.
“We are delivering everything and more, and we’re increasing headcount. We’re doing nothing to address our financial issues or to tee ourselves up politically,” he said. “We will not see substantial change until we make some really hard decisions as a council.”
Other councilors disagreed, noting that impactful cuts have indeed been made. Muntean noted that the city’s capital projects reserve currently has a shortfall of over $150 million.
Leeson had said at the retreat that the cuts will be felt “over time through deferred maintenance, insufficient staffing, reduced training opportunities, delayed equipment, replacements and the inability to fund strategic plan initiatives.”
Weber noted that a lot of what is funded in the capital plan is maintenance versus, “bright, shiny objects.”
Swintek clarified that his perspective is, in part, grounded in politics: that local residents and/or entrepreneurs will not come to council’s chambers and organize and support additional funding without them feeling the pain of not having the services they desire.
“We stop hiding the warts,” he said. “We start funding the things we keep kicking down the road and we stop funding the services that are the shiny objects that everyone interacts (with) and experiences. We start funding the underbelly that we’re hiding.”
Dickson said that it’s a balance, but Swintek argued that no balance was struck for the upcoming year and that the city “didn’t take any hard cuts.”
Weber said that while city staff have cut 10-12% from the budget over the past two years, they were in no way easy.
“We made it easy for the community. We made it easy for council,” she said. “I would not bring staff in here and say these cuts were easy for the most part.”
Council settled on the budget’s first reading with adding in $130,000 for the full-time arborist, $25,000 for Routt County Search and Rescue, and a placeholder for $30,000 for a consultant to help minimize human-bear conflicts in the city, leaving a tentative surplus of roughly $120,000, including $100,000 in emergency reserves.
Council voted 6-1, with Swintek opposed. The second ordinance reading of the budget is slated for Nov. 10.