Montrose leaders move to fix clerical error that stalled downtown grants

City Manager Bill Bell told the Montrose City Council at its June 15 work session that a typographical error left the Retail Sales Enhancement Fund’s professional contract services line drastically underfunded in published budget worksheets. "Only $4,200 was budgeted," Bell said, while staff intended $272,620 for DART programs that support murals, façade grants, flower baskets, events and emergency kitchen grants.

Bell said the dollars are already collected and sit in the RSSE fund balance, and he recommended the council add the full professional services line to the year-end supplemental budget so projects can continue to be approved administratively and executed on a timely schedule. He said an alternative would be to require each project to come before council individually, a process that would likely slow time-sensitive work.

Council members questioned how many façade and emergency grants come forward each year; staff estimated seven or eight façade grants on an average year and noted emergency kitchen grants sometimes require immediate action to keep a business open. Bell said staff cannot unilaterally spend outside the adopted budget and that the usual remedy is a supplemental budget approved at the regular meeting after discussion at a work session.

Business owners and downtown stakeholders urged the council to correct the error. Paul Olland, a longtime resident, thanked the council for downtown improvements and urged the city to "continue if not increase your support of programs like the DART program." Several small-business owners said the program has produced measurable benefits: one bookstore owner, Liz, said her sales were "up 71%" since becoming involved with DART, and Ed Levus, owner of a local fly shop, told the council a DART-affiliated television production attracted roughly "275,000 viewers," bringing tourism that benefited lodging and restaurants.

Staff and multiple council members said the correction could be treated as routine housekeeping because the funds were already collected in the RSSE account. Bell said the item is expected to return to a regular council meeting for a formal vote on July 7 unless the council chooses to add it earlier. Until a supplemental budget is approved, projects with existing grant approvals remain on hold.

Montrose’s DART program administrators and many downtown business owners argued the administrative approval path preserves momentum for small projects and emergency repairs that cannot wait through multiple council reviews; opponents or cautious council members stressed the need to confirm fund adequacy and fiscal controls before moving forward.

If the council follows staff’s recommendation, the city will add the corrected professional services line via a supplemental budget at year-end and bring a formal ordinance for council approval at the July 7 regular meeting, staff said.