Finance Director Jay Schengel presented the 2020-21 Year End Report to the council on the evening of Dec 7th. This presentation broke down the estimates that were made in the spring as part of the budget compared to where they’re at in actuality.
The overview was broken down into four categories to give the council a perspective for the amendments presented for approval. The categories were general revenue, expenditures, unallocated balances and transfers that lead to the presented amendments.
For general revenue, the general fund was more than projected. This was projected with the money amount of $12.1 million, or 14%.
Expenditures, money spent, in this category were less than what was expected. The amount spent was $0.7 million, or in other terms, there was a 1% in savings.
When taking into account the unallocated, undistributed finances, and balance; financial staff found that there was $1.3 million at year’s end. This was $7.4 million lower than what was projected during the budget process.
When showing a graph portraying the fiscal year for 2020/21, most of the revenues overtook the expenditures a little more than anticipated. This was in part due to COVID playing a role on how the city perceived what was to come as far as expenditures, but never came to fruition.
According to the report, this didn’t affect the major revenue and department expenditures in detail however. Schengel showed the slide of different subjects and stated that everything was about what they anticipated in these ends.
For projects in the General Government Services (GGS) and Fleet categories, Schengel presented the transfers that were requested to increase to accommodate for the projects to come. $11.9 million was presented for the GGS and Fleet was shown for $6.04 million.
When presenting the amendments, Schengel asked for the Fire Department and City Clerk to be granted into the General Fund. The Fire Department saw an unanticipated emergency response overtime expenses. As for City Clerk, there were unanticipated amounts of costs during the election process.
Councilmember Bob Whalen commented on a few things for clarification, but gave praise when it came to the allocation for public safety vehicles.
“As far as where those funds get allocated, at least from my perspective, it sounds like you guys put some thought into it,” Whalen said. “I liked the idea that you were thinking forward related to public safety vehicles and how it is, we can have a little bit of, what sounds like, a buffer in there. So that we’re not going to be drawing down from the General Fund in order to pay for those.”
City Council voted unanimously 5-0 in favor of approving the budget amendments for the Fire Department and City Clerk. The vote also approved of the transfers necessary to balance the budget.