LAKEPORT, Calif. – Following an hour-and-a-half-long budget workshop on Tuesday, the Lakeport City Council voiced its approval of the city's preliminary budget for 2011-12 and appears set to approve it later this month.
The workshop, held before the council's regular meeting, considered a 142-page document compiled by City Manager Margaret Silveira, interim Finance Manager Dan Buffalo, department heads and staff.
Silveira said the budget is a team effort.
In these tougher financial times, it wasn't a budget prepared without some pain. Sitting with Silveira in her office, working out the specifics with the department heads, “We laughed, we cried,” Buffalo said.
The budget estimates revenues for the 2011-12 fiscal year at $14,367,399, with expenditures at $17,008,108.
The difference, approximately $2,640,709, are largely for capital projects that staff suggested would be prudent to pursue. Covering that amount will be city reserves and a small surplus from this budget year that's the result of deferred capital projects and department heads controlling costs, staff said.
Buffalo noted that the recommended budget is close to being balanced except for the fund reserves that will be used.
City staff worked to maintain current levels of city service and existing personnel, the latter being part of better serving the community's needs, they explained to the council.
Buffalo explained that, in years past, the city's budget was presented “in a bubble,” and only looked at one year at a time, rather than looking farther ahead to consider the implications.
“We attempted to do a very basic projection two years out, across all departments,” he said.
The budget also focuses on city priorities, meshing council and staff goals with available resources, while maintaining accountability, transparency and clarity, Buffalo said.
Silveira explained that the staff proposed going forward with capital improvement projects such as road work, which reserves will cover.
“It's a balancing act to try to keep some of the capital improvement projects moving,” said Silveira.
Councilman Bob Rumfelt praised staff for creating what he believed was one of the easiest and simplest budget documents he's seen in more than a decade on the council. “I appreciate all of the work that you did to simplify it and make it so clear.”
As illustrated in a series of charts Buffalo created, the proposed 2011-12 budget has revenues at about the same level as the 2010-11 fiscal year, with slightly higher expenditures. Both revenues and expenditures are down from 2009-10.
The city's largest revenue stream is taxes, at 68.1 percent, followed by charges for service, 11.7 percent; intergovernmental, 7.4 percent; other, 6.8 percent; franchise fees, 3.4 percent; licenses and permits, 1.7 percent; fines, forfeitures and penalties, 0.6 percent; and use of money, 0.3 percent.
On the expenditures side, salaries account for the largest slice of the pie, 37 percent, followed by operations, 34 percent; benefits, 20 percent; capital projects, 7 percent; and debt service, 2 percent.
“So, with what you're proposing, we're going to be OK?” Councilman Tom Engstrom asked.
Silveira said she's comfortable with it. Even with using reserves, the city will have 50 percent in reserves left over, well above the minimum requirement of 15 percent.
She said staff also is proposing to annex South Main Street in the coming fiscal year, which will bring in new revenue.
There are no new staff positions being proposed, only the filling of empty spots, like one position in the city's water operations. “It's very bare bones,” Silveira said.
Rumfelt said staff has done a very good job of keeping costs down. “And they just haven't gotten the credit for it, and it's a shame.”
Kelly Buendia, the city's human resources/administrative services director, said with the proposed 2011-12 budget city staff members feel that they are proposing very minimum staffing levels.
Three years ago the council put a hiring freeze in place, and she asked if council members were amenable to having her bring back a formal proposal to lift the freeze.
The purpose, Buendia explained, would not be to begin adding back staff positions. Rather, it would be to simplify the hiring process when a budgeted position is vacated.
She said it's become increasingly difficult to deal with vacancies because of the hiring freeze, which requires staff to go to the council and receive approval just to hire for a current position.
Typically, hiring freezes are for a short period of time. Buendia said three years is a long time for a freeze.
The council agreed that Buendia could bring the proposal back for a future meeting.
Buffalo told the council that the only staff positions in the budget are those which are funded.
Engstrom said he wanted to make sure that the city takes care of its current staff before hiring more.
He thanked all of the staff for doing more with less. Engstrom pointed out that the police department's proposed budget – at $1.7 million – is $350,000 less than it was when he retired from the city's police chief job in 2005.
Silveira told the council members she will bring the final budget back to them for approval on Tuesday, June 21.
During the meeting Mayor Suzanne Lyons asked about an update of the city's mission statement. Agreeing that the current statement is outdated, Silveira said staff will have a goal of bringing back a new city mission statement to the council by the middle of the new fiscal year.
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060711 Lakeport City Council - Budget Workshop
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