Traverse City commissioners will begin looking at budget priorities for 2015-16 and establishing a process to use Brown Bridge Trust Fund (BBTF) dollars for city park improvement projects at a study session tonight.

While City Manager Jered Ottenwess will not present a draft city budget for the next fiscal year the commission until late April, he will begin soliciting input from commissioners tonight on what they'd like to see. Ottenwess will outline anticipated areas of increased spending in 2015-16 including the hiring of more city staff, increased maintenance costs for the Carnegie Building, inflationary wage and health insurance premium increases, snow plowing and potential funding for the newly enacted Public Arts Trust. He is also recommending scaling back capital outlay for street repair and maintenance from $1,050,000 to $750,000 to allow for great capital flexibility for other city improvement projects.

Commissioners tonight will also discuss creating a policy and process to determine how to spend BBTF dollars on city park improvement projects. Voters approved tapping the BBTF for such improvements last November. Ottenwess says he plans to budget $1.5 million in 2015-16 for a Brown Bridge improvement fund. Among the issues commissioners will discuss is establishing a minimum/maximum dollar figure per project, criteria for fund usage, review procedures, and the roles and responsibilities of the city commission, parks and recreation commission, city staff and stakeholders like residents and neighborhood groups throughout the project review process.