POULSBO — With nary a word of congratulations or caution, the Poulsbo City Council unanimously adopted the city’s budget for 2007 at its Dec. 20 meeting.

The $37.4 million budget represents a 22 percent increase, or $6.6 million, in expenditures from the city’s 2006 budget. Most of those increases involve capital projects, Finance Director Nanci Lien noted during the council’s month-long review of the budget.

Among those capital improvement projects are an estimated $214,500 for upkeep at the Poulsbo Library, city hall and the police station.

The council also approved $50,000 for the Lindvig Bridge beautification project, which once completed should enhance the appearance of the nondescript bridge on Front Street near Liberty Bay Auto.

However, based on the recommendation from its finance/administration committee, the council stopped short of approving any new programs until the revenue carryover from its 2006 budget is known.

“The recommendation was to fund most all of the new program requests,” Lien said.

However, the committee put two requests from Poulsbo Police Chief Jeff Doran for additional personnel on hold, Lien said.

The reason being to provide council enough time to complete a process study of the police department, said finance/administration committee chairman Dale Rudolph.

“The purpose of the process study is to allow us to know if we need to go up or down with level of staff,” Rudolph said.

The funding for that study will probably come from the city’s coffers in the first quarter of 2007, Rudolph said.

The police department wasn’t included in the previous citywide process study, which was completed in September 2003, said Mayor Kathryn Quade.

“I felt it would be the way to determine whether they need more or less or need to stay the same,” Quade said.

While the remainder of the new positions and programs requested by city department heads are expected to be approved in March 2007, Rudolph said the final decisions on those requests will be made based on the available funding and ranking by the finance/administration committee and Quade.