With that, I'd like to call the meeting to order, uh, live webcasts. The
meeting may be viewed on the city's website, and if you're
watching, uh, live via zoom, interpreter instructions will appear in the chat
box at the bottom of your screen if you prefer to sit in the chamber. And
for translation head, uh, sets are available to provide live spanish
translation. Please see the clerk's desk, uh, to check
out a, uh, headset. Alright, a, uh, a notice
agenda and information on the city of nashville city's website informs members of the public
that they may submit a general public comment or a public comment on a specific agenda
item in a number of ways. In person, uh, at the, by submitting
one of these salmon colored speaker slips or at the back of the chamber. And you'd wanna get that over
right away over to our clerk's desk via zoom by pre-registering on the
city's website, no later than two hours before the meeting. Um, and I don't believe
we had any comments on that, uh, or emailing
no later than four hours before the meeting. I don't think we had anything on that either. Nope. Alright. Just
want to clarify for all that, for everyone. Uh, all written comments, which we did not
receive in, but if they had received ones, they would be distributed to the council prior to the meeting and
published on the city's website if received by the deadline. With that, we
have roll call, please. Thank you. Council member
iani here. Council member rodriguez, present,
vice mayor molina. Present, mayor
morrison, uh, present. And we'll, uh, note that council member bush
is absent and we have a quorum. Alright, if we could please stand for the pledge
of allegiance. Uh, I'll ask, uh, member rodriguez, if you would
leave this, please, please, your right hand over your heart. Ready? Begin.
I question the five, the states, united states of america
and the republic one nation
under god with liberty and justice for all.
alright, so at this point we'll have, uh, public comments.
I only have one slip, so we'll allow you to three minutes. And, uh, mr.
nieto,
this is a much anticipated meeting year end, you
know, this is where you square up and everything. Now, I'm just really
not sure how you're gonna handle this. You know, we haven't given ex explanation of how this gonna handle. I
hope it's gonna be multiple meetings. Um, one of the things I notice
is I still don't have a handle on how much of a deficit we really
have. I know you have this presentation, it talks about previous year.
it talks about this year, but it doesn't talk about things that haven't been
identified. For instance, the standard, uh, the audit report. We still haven't
got the audit report. There could be surprises in there. I hope you checked to make sure there's no, no
surprises, but there could be what that effects might be. The other thing
is, I'm thinking here, is that, um, you haven't addressed what the unassigned
fund balance should be, which, in my opinion would be $20 million
more than what you have on top of the deficit. So if you wanna come up to
standards, that's what you wanna have to, that's what you have to do. Okay? Let me get into what I want to say here.
uh, I I, I just encourage you to all step back. I, you're gonna get into
the details, but I want you to identify the underlying causes of what
caused the de defense defense. Because if you don't identify that
and correcting them, you're having these proposals for
increase in taxes, cuts, dipping into the reserves. But if
you don't identify those underlying causes, what's to stop the public from
thinking you're just gonna do it again, and next year we're gonna have the same problems.
so you go into these details, find out what, what,
ask why is it that you have these problems from
the get go or from the top level here? I think a lot of the problems you've had is
because you don't have enough information. You don't have enough information from the accounting system.
it's, uh, it's not due to the accounting staff. Make sure,
I wanna make sure that they're, they're not playing for this, but you have a, a cost accounting
system that's not fully implemented. And I
think if you had that information, you would have the performance
information for financial to make some of the decisions you're gonna have to make right now
a lot easier. You know? And I just don't think you have that.
so I think you're walking into this with somewhat of a blind
eye and not having all the information you should make to make good, informative decisions.
um, you know, I have a lot to say here, but I hope you've given me more opportunity
to, uh, say these as you go along with these meetings. Thank you.
e um, next we go into
our staff report, which is our fiscal year, 26, 27. Budget
workshop. Number one, uh, let me just say before we jump
into this. This was originally scheduled for an evening meeting,
um, tuesday before last. And it was supposed to be the main
item on our agenda. Uh, there was an item also on there about the golf course,
which was just a perfunctionary, um, increase of
another five year extension. But because some people got on social media and
made a big thing about it, we ended up with a packed house beyond packed
of people wanting to speak on the golf course. So by the time we got to where this was
supposed to be on the agenda, we were already past 10 o'clock at night, which was not
a good time to do budget workshops that are gonna be lengthy. So
that's the reason we ended up having to put it off to today. And, uh,
so just to explain that, 'cause some people are wondering why we, why we were having it today.
with that, I'll turn that over to our city manager. Uh,
thank you mayor. Council members, members of the public. Uh, so we will
be kicking off our first, uh, formal budget workshop, uh, as we prepare
for the new fiscal year in 2027. Uh, as far as the
format today, uh, we're gonna turn it over to our, our finance team,
uh, led by, um, our acting director, uh, rachel
bera and aberra, and also our budget manager, paul valez.
um, at the conclusion, uh, we will be opening up for questions.
uh, just to give, uh, a heads up, we are gonna be recommending a second budget
workshop. Um, we're trying to coordinate calendars, uh,
and at, at the end of, uh, paul's presentation, uh, I'll give a
few highlights on what, what our plan is for the second budget workshop. With that,
I'm gonna go ahead and turn over to paul to kick off the presentation. Thank you.
thank you, city manager. Good afternoon, mayor morrison, vice mayor molina
and members of the city council paul ez, budget manager.
uh, today's presentation is intended to give an initial overview of
the fiscal year general fund preliminary budget. These
preliminary numbers include only the cost to maintain the city's current service levels,
any increases in expenditures or due to labor agreements, inflation,
contract agreements, or other existing obligations.
here are some of the budget highlights. The budget includes 382 full-time
equivalent permanent benefited positions 276
of which are in the general fund. It includes an additional 1.9 million
in unfunded pension liability over the fiscal year 2026
general fund budget. It also includes an additional 1.4 million
general liability insurance premium over the fiscal year 2026
general fund budget. There's also $1 million
in new funding for general fund cip projects.
and of course, it also includes compensation increases approved during fiscal
year 26, as well as scheduled fiscal year 27
increases as a result of the city's recent labor negotiations.
the slide illustrates the growth in sales tax. The city's primary revenue source
over time from 2019, actuals through 2027,
estimated this equates to a 3.6% average annual
growth rate.
our other, uh, main revenue source property tax revenue. The
slide illustrates the growth in property tax over time. Again, from 2019,
actuals through 2027, estimated this amounts to a 5.9%
average annual growth rate and property tax.
here we have the general fund revenues by category, the sales and use tax,
as well as the district tax budgets are based on analysis provided by our sales
tax consultant. I wanna point out that there are
currently wholesale sailors that remit district tax to the city. However,
the point of sale by the retailer occurs elsewhere. That's
why you see a 7.5% growth in districts tax and only
1.9% increase in sales tax.
uh, the property tax categories, property tax amounts are based on valuation reports
of property within the city. I have broken out the property tax
allocated line, whoops.
ah, there, it's broken out. The property tax allocated
line, which shows the amount that is allocated to partially fund the parks,
maintenance and library funds. These transfers are roughly $1 million
each to each fund.
property tax in lieu of elf is expected to increase by 58,000.
so as a whole, property tax revenue is expected to be relatively flat compared
to fiscal year 2027.
other revenues are budgeted at 20.9 million, which I'll break down on the following
slide.
there are $4.1 million in successor agency distributions.
uh, the associated debt service for, uh, obligations for the success
successor agency run through fiscal year 20 20, 20 33.
at that time, these, uh, distributions that you see up there will revert to property
tax revenue for the city.
the other large contributors in this category are f franchise fees,
tot reimbursements from the port and
investment earnings.
I wanna point out that the 400,000 in cannabis revenue does not include sales
tax and only reflects the 5% cannabis fee applied to
gross receipts. This revenue stream has somewhat
stabilized and is based on the monthly actuals received during fiscal year 2026.
the remaining $6 million on the last line includes various revenues
such as business license, tax plan, checking fees, building
permits, and swimming pool revenue.
this chart illustrates the growth in expenditures over time from 2019
through 2027. Estimated that equates to
a 5.3% average annual growth rate in general fund expenditures.
this table shows the 92.5 million general fund preliminary budget,
broken down, down by department with police and
fire making up the biggest portion
going down to the administration line. That's made up of city attorney, city
clerk, city manager, finance, and human
resources. The preliminary non-departmental
budget of 15.9 million is detailed on the next slide.
the 4.7 million pension obligation bond line is due to refinancing
a portion of our unfunded pension liability in 2021. This
transfers for that debt service, and these payments will run through fiscal year
2043.
4.6 million is to subsidize other city funds, which I'll break down in the next slide.
and 4.4 million is for the remaining unfunded pension liability.
here are the transfers out to the other funds.
4.7 million is for that, uh, pension obligation fund,
2.5 million and 1.4 million respectively to, uh,
subsidize the library fund and park maintenance fund
$1 million in a general fund funding of, uh, capital
improvement projects. That's 1 million in new funding,
6 7670 5,000 to subsidized nutrition fund.
4 64 retiree health benefits, and approximately
18,000 for the, uh, landscape maintenance district for the
mile of cars.
the slide shows the flow of general fund transfers to subsidized funds on the left
and general fund. Internal service charges on the right
here are our general liability and workers' compensation funds.
during these to fiscal year 26, there is a significant increase in premiums
and estimated claims.
these are the city's internal service funds. The annual cost of these
funds are spread equitably throughout the city based on allocation factors, such as
number of vehicles, number of computers, square footage,
et cetera.
the slide shows the transfers out. Again, this time compared to fiscal year 26, adopted
the transfers out, make up the difference between annual costs in the fund and any
other revenue sources.
here's an informational slide showing our, uh, expected increase
in the city's unfunded pension liability payments. So you
could see there are anticipated to continue to increase.
another informational slide here is, uh, the perception is that
the city typically outperforms the budget. If you
drill down a little bit, the majority of that outperformance is on the revenue side, particularly
in the other revenue category. This category has many accounts
that are difficult to predict, such as investment earnings, which has been as high as
1.7 million and as low as negative 900,000 during the
period shown on this slide. Unrealized
gains and losses also fall under this category, and that's an accounting entry
made in order to comply with government accounting rules.
here's a snapshot of, uh, the city's general fund vacancies.
this, and I, I call it a snapshot because this, this is continuously changing
. It'll look different last week than it will next week. So this is just to show you
a snapshot in time. Here's what was vacant and the approximate,
uh, 20 fy 27 value associated with those positions.
here are the city's key reserves. The estimated
balance is as of 6 30 20 25. Uh, the audit has not yet
been complete.
that middle uh, column there, the estimated balance is a 6 30 26,
takes into account, uh, what's in the preliminary budget for the unassigned fund balance.
and then that target on the right is based upon the $83 million
budget that was adopted in, uh, fiscal year 26.
that final column on the right shows, uh, just a brief
summary of what the policy is.
here are the general fund expenditures by category.
so you can see the biggest increases in personnel ser services.
that $7.2 million increase from 26 to 27
is made up of the following, primarily $3.9 million
in salary and benefits driven by the labor negotiations and
mous that were recently, uh, negotiated.
they include increases, uh, for fiscal year 26, as well as the scheduled
increases for fiscal year 27
includes $1.9 million payment and unfunded pension liability,
and 1.4 million in general liability charges.
debt services are going down due to paying off the rcs communication debt
in fiscal year 26. That remaining
amount is for energy bonds
increases in internal sur. I I discussed that. I'm sorry.
skipping down just to the bottom, the bottom line in bold
shows the preliminary estimated general fund deficit of $16.1 million
for fiscal year 27 compared to 9.3 million in
the fy 26 adopted budget.
this now shows how we closed the gap in 2026.
that was done through the use of $8.3 million in unassigned fund balance,
and $1 million in economic contingency reserve, which
was for, uh, a city revitalization project.
I didn't mention on the, uh, on the policy slide, but at the end of
fiscal year 26, all or much of that $1 million
revert back to the economic contingency fund.
here's a calculation of the estimated unassigned fund balance.
so starting with 23.4 at the end of fiscal year, uh, 20 25, 23
0.4 million less the deficit projected in fiscal
year 26, which was, uh, presented at our last council
meeting on the 21st of 10.3 million.
that leaves an estimated unassigned fund balance at the end of fiscal year 26 of
13.1 million,
less the projected deficit of the preliminary budget of 16.1 million
results in the exhausting, uh, of the remaining of our unassigned
fund balance and an additional $3 million
deficit.
and with that, I'll turn it over to the city manager to discuss the next steps.
uh, thank you, paul. So as we, uh, previewed, we
will be scheduling a second workshop, uh, in the coming, uh, weeks.
um, essentially what we want to cover is, uh, if there are
any questions that we're unable to address as part of this workshop,
say, that may require some additional research and analysis, we'll go ahead
and be prepared to respond to those at the next workshop. But primarily
we want to focus on one, um, the remaining
projected $3 million deficit. Um, we had,
um, some very focused meetings with all the individual, uh, department
directors and their teams where, um, they did a great job,
uh, working with their staff to look at strategic measures that each department
is being, is considering, um, to implement, to reduce the impact of
the general fund. That will include looking at, um, potentially
freezing some of those vacant positions you showed. Uh, in addition,
we want to provide, uh, our comprehensive review and, and
options for revenue initiatives. Obviously, uh, when you look at that presentation,
um, our expenditures continue to be, um,
exceeding, you know, revenues on a, on an annual basis. So we want
to take a deeper dive into that. Try to quantify what some of these revenue streams
that have been touched upon over recent years could actually generate.
in addition to focusing on, uh, what are some new revenue opportunities
that can hit within the next 12 to 18 months, given the fact that
we, um, have, uh, really begun to, to, uh, deplete
our reserves at a very rapid rate. Um, so with that,
I am going to, uh, go ahead and open it up to questions, um,
on the presentation and the, uh, general budget budget questions.
uh, thank you for your time. And paul, again, thank you for all you and,
um, rachel, your hard work preparing this presentation tonight.
mayor, thank you mayor. Uh, thank you very much
mr. Steve manganello. Um, just for the public to know, uh, mr.
manganello is now our acting city manager for the time being.
um, I have questions mr. Valdes, on the presentation. If you could
please, um, scroll to slide 15. Um, my questions right now, really, I
just, I just wanna understand the calpers, um,
um, what is it? Ual, um,
liability. What's ual unfunded? Unfunded
unfunded pension liability? Yes. Uh, yeah, these numbers here come
directly from calpers, the actuarial, and that's what we base that budget
on, and I understand their projections. Right. Um, fiscal year 26,
the total ual is 3.029.
right. Can you show me in the previous slides where that is in
our, um, expenditures?
I don't think I called that out as a specific line item. Uh, that
the categories are a little higher. Okay. Um, I'd, I'd be happy to follow up and show
you. Um, the reason I ask is because I'm nervous about the fiscal year 27,
um, ual, which is, um, quite a balloon
from that. It's 5 million that we will have to
pay for, correct? That's correct. And I wanna understand where in the budget
for 27 that is. So I was trying to see where it is in
26 so that then I can understand where it's gonna be in 27. But if it's not in,
you know, portrayed in the slide right now, I, I'm happy to wait and
see it later. The, the 26th portion, I don't believe it's broken
out that way, but
for, uh, for fiscal year 27th, the general fund
portion is
one moment. Sure.
4.4 million. So that was another question I had. 'cause I had, um,
been studying this and I didn't understand why the difference, the, the difference
between that number and the number that's on this slide. Correct. There, there are a
portion of the city's positions staffing that reside outside
of the general fund. Got it. The 4.4 million is the general
fund portion, which is the vast majority, um, including all
of our safety positions. Uh, and then that additional amount, the delta
there are for positions that fall outside of the general fund. Got
it. And my final question here is, when, when is that paid?
is that in monthly installments? We do get a prepayment
kind of, uh, discount if we pay it. I believe it's july
one. Um, and I believe that's for the entire fiscal, for the
upcoming fiscal year. Mm-hmm . And I believe that's typically what, uh, the practice has been.
so we, our practice is to aim to pay the entire amount.
so like for six, for 26, it would be something around 3 million. Um,
this payment would've been made last july at the beginning of the
fiscal year 26. That is correct. Last june. That's correct. Or
last june, july. And, um, do you anticipate we will be able
to do that again this year, pay the fi close to 5 million or the
4 million? I will de I will defer that question to, uh,
finance director. Thank you. Finance director, bur, thank you.
uh, that is correct. Uh, vice mayor, uh, we are scheduled to process that
payment and we do have the funding available to make that available. Thank you. Um, the
way it's processed, and I'm just gonna kind of give you a, a snapshot of
the way it works is we receive an invoice from calpers and
they provide that information to us with a valid, um, invoice date
and a expected pay date. And in to ensure that we have the
retirement available for our employees, we have to make that payment by july.
you have to make that payment what, uh, by july. By july 1st. Got it. Thank you.
uh, that clarifies a lot of, um, my questions around the, the calpers
payments. Um, I have another question related, not to this, but to the,
um, $1 million contingency balance that we have in
26. Um, there's, I think, um, it is not fully
understood that that is going to revert back into reserves.
um, but I'm not sure if that's something that we wanna talk about right now. Um, at,
at some point if my colleagues are interested in that conversation, I do wanna understand
the process around that. Thank you.
um, question on a specific, I got a bunch of question, but specific one on,
um, slide number that would be a slide number nine.
and we're talking about the pension obligation bond payment there. And we got
an asterisk that says previously part of labor cost. So then when
we go over, when we start talking about our departments, most of that is labor
cost. And so we have last, we have previous years in this year
on our previous years on that slide, did we take that out there also since, so we're
comparing apples to apples? Well, last year for 26
is when it was, is when it was moved out of the labor costs. Okay. Okay. So it is apple
to apples. So it is apple. Okay. That's what, that's what I wanted to, yes. Yeah. Um,
okay. So yeah, normally I think then otherwise you say previous to 26, 'cause
otherwise it looks like previous in the year that we're looking at now, that that could have been, uh,
okay. Clear. Definitely. Okay. Yeah, that's what I was wondering. I just wanted to make sure we were doing one to the other.
um, kind of see other hands.
so starting at the top,
uh, going back to slide two. And
so we have our, well calpers, that one,
you know, that's what calpers gives their actuaries. And we just, we have to pay that.
so that's that one. The liability insurance going
up quite a bit. How much, I mean, is that something that is
dependent upon us individually as a city or a, is it
a from a larger pot? I think our city attorney could,
uh, sure. Eloquently answer that
eloquently. Now you've put a contingency on it. Yes. Alright. So, um,
the, the increased premium is a result of two factors. The first
factor is what's called a hard market, a prism, like other insurance
companies. This is not truly an insurance company, but a collective, um, is experiencing
hard market. What that means is that there are more lawsuits
which have much higher, um, verdicts or settlements,
and that is an amount over $1 million. So what they have seen
in the last five years is an extreme uptick in liability
and number of judgments, um, against public entities. So that's
part one. Part two is that this is a collective each
city will pay in its proportionate share into the group. However,
like any insurance company, if you have, uh, cause
to use the insurance, it can cause your premiums to go up. Um, here
in the city, there are, there are some judgements that are being handled
mm-hmm . Should they come down. Um, we have one matter up on appeal.
if that matter comes down with a, um, a different number or
is retried, that number would be paid by and large through prism. And
so that may potentially affect our numbers in the future. Mm-hmm
. It's a pretty constant, um, sort of reworking of the numbers.
they do constant valuations for each entity. And this is not unusual
for, um, all of the entities that are here in prim, in southern california and in fact
throughout california. Okay. Any other questions?
yes. On that note, um, heidi, would you be able to provide us basically the actuals
and all of the backup for that? Because I appreciate the verbal report, but I would like to
sit down and actually understand what percentage or what proportion to the
best as possible is because of this collective and what part
is because of, uh, prior judgements. Right. And there'll be a couple of
things. Um, the first is our premium just comes as a premium. Um, some
of it'll come through actuarials and other items, but we can put those materials together
for you so that you understand. I can also get you the prism materials that describe the
market that we're in and what's happening. It is important to know, so I can get that all to you please, because
I think we, um, we on council and the public needs to understand which, uh, portion,
which we don't at this point, which portion is this because of the collective factors that
are beyond our control versus what has been within our organization are
our control. So I'd, I'd really be sure interested in that. I'll, uh, get that information
to all of you. Thank you. Okay. Um, also then on
page two, we have $1 million out of general fund going over to cip
fund. Question is that, is that our
matching amounts to, uh, to get grants?
mayor, I can speak to that on behalf of I was you over there for some reason?
? Yeah, it's, it's a combination. Um, so
a a portion of that is, is to support matching funds
to get after, um, grants. And, and just as a looking
at some big picture numbers, I'll give an example. I mean, we've,
we've received on average over the last four to five years,
about $50 million in competitive grants. And I think we've leveraged about
a million dollars in general funds. That's about a 20 to one return on investment.
so that's very notable. In addition, there's some major maintenance, uh,
needs that, um, we will, uh, we, we typically use
when we request funding for the, uh, general fund to the cip.
okay. Okay. Thank you. Just wanna bring that up. Um, going over
to page five, uh, property tax, uh,
going down, uh, what is our, what is
the rationale for that to be going down in property tax?
that can be caused by, uh, less turnover, less, less new
sales or less turnover of existing homes. Okay. Um,
it's really based on the valuation reports we get from, from the county. Okay.
so, uh, but, but there's still gonna be, even on homes, there's still a two gonna be a 2%
increase. I don't know if there were some possibly reassessments. Yep.
uh, I will, I will drill down further into that and let you know the
specifics behind. No, I I I'm assuming one of it would be some reassessments.
another thing would be if commercial property is going over to
becoming non-profit, uh, uh, is another thing. 'cause we
got a lot of non-profits are getting grants and buying up buildings, things along that line,
and all of a sudden they go off the tax roll. Another thing is affordable housing going off the tax
roll. Uh, so there's a number of things that could probably
lead to that. I just want to clarify, uh, next
page over page six, um, we have a list of the revenues.
it has $2 million for transient lodging tax. So that would be what
we anticipate collecting during the next fiscal year, correct?
that is correct. What about unpaid past due
bills? That would, if we was, that,
that is not factored into this 2 million. Okay. This is just based upon trends,
right? Uh, I don't know if, uh, occupancy rates have increased or room rates have increased.
sure. But these are, these are actual trends. Um,
no, no. I just based that aside from, aside from any delinquencies that are outstanding,
not included in that 2 million. Okay. So I'm just thinking that's another possible revenue sources
in the delinquencies. Okay. Um, and this one
down at the bottom on both revenues and when we go down to expenditures,
uh, one of the largest numbers here is others. Uh, I would
like to see a, a little bit more definitive list down to a certain point down to
a certain point. We don't wanna get down into real, real dinky numbers, but I think in some
of the larger numbers, both in revenues and we have our, our list
also for, uh, expenditures, that other is a huge category.
and so, you know, kind of determine where, where it kind of gets ridiculous to get down
into too much minutia. But, but some of the large
a, a more extensive list, I agree it, it is a fine line of where
to cut, cut off the, the, you know, the small ones. But
just to give you an idea of what's included in that 6 million, some of
'em, the larger ones, business license tax building permits,
swimming pool revenue, utility company permits. Yep. And then miscellaneous
refunds. Um, okay. I'd be happy to provide
counsel with, uh, you know, the buy account. Okay. Down to
the, down to the smallest ones. All right. Um,
then, uh, going down, I think most, most
of the other ones, I mean, you did the same thing with non-departmental, but then you did a nice explanation
of those non-departmental. He broke those down, which was really, really appreciate that.
um, the, uh, um,
next one, let's see. I'm trying to think what, um,
yeah, once again, general, uh, general liability. Yeah, that was the other one on there. Um,
question going down to page 13, and hopefully if I bring up
some of these, maybe I'll answer some questions. Maybe some other people may have already had, uh,
a significant deal in building maintenance. Do we have some specific projects
coming up or something that's gonna cause an increase of another $400,000?
or, I, I'm sure some of it is on the maintenance and operations side,
but there's also staff there too. So the staff there,
they receive their compensation increases, they, those costs increase,
and then those get those costs then get allocated out to the departments. Okay.
um, and then that becomes that, well that's part of the internal
service then off of that. That's correct. Okay. And, uh, um,
and I'm also looking at, well now another one that wouldn't necessarily be our, our staffing,
but, uh, vehicle replacement charge. And we got, um,
you know, uh, sizable increase about doubling, uh,
I mean, do we have some really large purchase, uh, purchases that are scheduled
to, to fall within this next year? A as part of our next
steps? That's one of the funds we'll be looking at to identify any, uh,
any potential savings that mm-hmm . Can be, uh, realized from that fund. Okay.
as well as the replacement schedule. Okay. And, you know, and I don't want us
to be dealing with antiques or whatever, but, um, you know, if
you go back 20 years ago, once a car hit 60,000
miles, it was time to get rid of the thing. I mean, they were, it was, they, they were ready. Total breakdowns.
now anymore, they're just designed to last a lot longer. And I wanna make sure we're
not still dealing with, you know, the same type concept that
we were using, you know, for, for reasonable life of like
vehicles and things along that line. So that, uh, um, at the same time, we
don't want to put anyone in a hazard situation or put something we're putting too much maintenance
or maintenance gets overburdensome, but, uh, don't necessarily want
to be just changing out vehicles for changing out vehicles. Uh, just be concern.
um, the,
um, next page on 14.
um, so I'm assuming the differences on
library park maintenance and nutrition fund are once again assigned a lot
to increase, uh, labor costs. That's a portion, that's
a portion of the increase. Uh, there are, there also could be increases
in, uh, maintenance and operation costs just due to, uh, existing
contracts. Mm-hmm . Uh, that are scheduled to go up as well as just inflation.
mm-hmm . But, uh, each of those funds does in fact have
staff mm-hmm . Right. So that's why the costs go up. Okay. I'm, you
know, I'm not picking on anybody or anything. I'm just saying with
what we're looking for, everything's gotta be on the table. Everything needs to be looked at. Uh,
the, uh, uh,
let's see if I had anything more specific. I do appreciate your comments about
the vacancy snapshot. If every one of these things were filled today,
next week, we would have another list. That's just the re that's, that's the reality.
um, and, uh, the,
the other thing I would mention is of our reserve
balances, every one of our reserves are below our targets, with
the exception of unassigned fund balance, which with
this budget, we're talking about wiping out entirely. So, um,
the thing to, uh, um, to look at. Now, the other,
uh, if I go down to 19 and on our
expenditures, um, okay, personnel cost of what will be going
up, um, this is 13.3%. That is, if,
if all those vac, if, if vacancies are all filled 12
months, if we have everybody in everything else, uh, that will be going up
13.3%, uh, which is quite considerable, but then our internal service
charges going up 23%. Is a lot of that also the connection
with the increased, uh, uh, personnel costs?
that is correct. The general liability gets charged as part of, uh,
the payroll process against the salaries. Okay.
um, and then the, on
page 20, the economic contingency reserve. Now, that one we basically
have not used during this year. Correct. There are a couple
minor payments. Um, I think, uh,
a plan for that city revitalization project, uh, a fully realized
plan has never been presented. Right. So, uh,
uh, staff believes that that $1 million will return to
the, uh, economic contingency reserve. Okay. I've got some
comments here. That's all the questions I have for right now. Uh, looking to others,
uh, member imani. Thank you, mayor. Um, thank you very
much. Um, for, um, this presentation, um,
listening to those comments and insurance, um, insurance is
the number one situation problems right now that we all are
having. It's all trajectory to increase, um, housing
liability, all of that. So property tax, um, I'm sure
it took, because there's really no, um, housing sales in, in
the industry right now is not, um, significant. That's why the,
the, the decrease in property tax as well as in our city,
we have a lot of affordable homes that we don't really collect property tax.
um, but we serve, um, this, this, um,
you know, I mean, affordable housing that we have, doti, I believe
our, our city manager has, um, been looking
at that. I, I understand there are, um, you know, I
mean, collectibles that we have take care of. Um, but those
are, um, things that we can, um, address.
you know, I mean, this is a living document, you know, I mean, we can
make adjustment quarterly or, um, or midyear,
uh, nutrition center. Um, if we are going to subsidize $675,000,
that means this pro, this program, I will have to direct our city
manager to look very closely on it. Um,
I appreciate the fact that our finance director had
provided us all of us here, a actual
as of march 30th, 2026. So, with that
said, I believe, um, I would, I have requested our city manager,
um, to look at a zero based approach, um,
in order for us to really, um, do a deeper
dive on, um, this numbers, um, as I have
provided to our city manager and to our city attorney with,
uh, a copy to our, uh, finance director. Um,
these are actual costs that, um, we are looking at.
um, and so it's very easy to put an estimate
in the next three months to fulfill the, uh, the fiscal year.
um, you, I mean, I have, uh, looked into
our, um, into our, um,
gen, um, our, um, our,
um, 76,000, um,
that is our revenue
generating, uh, that will be generated for 2027.
I know there are a lot of, um, other ways that, um,
our city manager and the directors will be providing us,
um, in our next, um, budget workshop.
um, however, I think the expenses is
what I really have looked into, uh, very, very carefully.
you know, I mean, as of now, if you're asking about a 1 million cip that
seed money for, for that, um, you, I mean, to date, we
only spend about 365 of it, right. Based
on the actuals. So I think we, our
staff are also very diligent in how they use this, um,
funding our economic, uh, contingency reserve. You
know, I mean, uh, paul, paul valez, our manager said a few,
but really those are just allocations that, um, you know, I
mean, we may be able to use, but you know, I mean, based on us being
so prudent in how we spend it, is why the,
the, the funds are still there not being touched.
our, um, question for our calpers, um, those
are also allocated beforehand. So then we can you, I mean,
with, with the actuals, were paid for 2026, uh, based
on the actuals that I have received or we have received. So,
um, I would like for our city manager to, um,
have a sit down with our, uh, finance director to
look into a zero base approach, um, based on the actuals
that we have, um, that we have, uh, been provided
in order for us to really streamline, um, our budget
as, as, as I, I don't wanna see a 16 million
deficit in our books. Um, so I, I
believe it's doable. 'cause we, based on those
numbers that I received, I crunched it and it
is doable. Um, but I have, um, you know, I mean,
I have, uh, sat down with our city manager and city attorney to look
into those numbers and make sure that we start with the zero based
approach. Thank you so much.
okay. And so, uh, thank, thank you staff, uh,
for the, uh, presentation and for, uh, responding to so many of, uh, my
questions, including the, uh, providing the actuals. 'cause that was, um, really
helpful. Uh, just to start, I would
request the additional actuals. So I did do this over
email, but just doing it just to reiterate, uh, what I asked, uh,
for through our, uh, city manager on our council department budget.
so that's going to increase, or at least it should,
based on our, uh, the 5%. Uh, what, what was presented
on here, uh, I don't think reflected
any updates or any inputs that we on council or any of our staff
provide finance, right? Because I
see it flat from last year to the, from the past
year to this year. I see that as flat. And it shouldn't be just the exact same, it should not
be the exact same number. And it is the city council and mayor's,
uh, districts include funding for, uh, the mayor
and his staff. And then in the district budget, it includes the
funding for the district members and their benefits. And then
the additional a hundred thousand dollars that was added, uh,
via policy three years ago, I believe. Right.
so what I'm requesting is the actuals from this past year, like
the detailed salary, actual, uh, breakdown. And, uh, no, we, we don't, I don't, do
we have it, did we, that was just that give, give 'em to us today? No, it was even
all of us. When was that? Um, last,
last week? No, then I don't think that provided, unless I missed something, I don't think that provided,
yeah. So that report was broken down by types of expenses,
which included the personnel costs. Okay. I'll, I'll take a look at that. So I,
I appreciate that because I think we need, in order for us to adjust our
budget and, um, add more clarity, because if you look at, um,
the fy 26 adopted, uh, budget, it, it hasn't been
updated. Like, so we need to update the descriptions. We need to update, uh, there's
placeholders like 60,000 for each of us. So, um, all of us need to
put those, um, inputs because we all have our different staffing needs. We all have
different, like we shouldn't use that 100,000 was just a placeholder. That's what I'm
saying is that's done as a placeholder. Now we have enough data and info, uh, we have
years of actual, so now we can actually budget and project, um, between
the 5%, uh, increase. Um, all of us are
using our budget in different ways. So that's what I'm saying is that, and I'm not saying you
guys have to take the lead on that. I'm saying we as a council department, a m council,
um, it's, it's our responsibility, but, but a, uh, we need to do those actuals,
uh, get those actuals and actually project. And so if we can work with staff on
that, I think that'd be helpful. So, um, so the,
um, uh, slide eight, uh,
did, so did, um, were the actuals in the breakdowns
for slide eight, uh, were those included in the,
uh, excel that we were given?
I see what you're saying about the mayor, uh, city council line where there's not much of
a change. I think that's just a coincidence. There's some ups and downs there. Mm-hmm
. Uh, what I can tell you is this budgeted, just, just how I stated, um,
for, for the districts, um, the council members salary and
benefits, and then $100,000, um, that has,
that you're correct in saying it has not been updated, uh, based upon
any sort of, um, mou agreement with the, the
labor unions. It, so it doesn't, but that's not correct. It's not an mou
that needs to be done. We have, what I'm saying is that we have actuals
from how we've spent that for the last couple of years. And so I think
each of us, um, from our districts need to submit that to one place
probably should be the mayor's office, um, one place. And then we
put that kind of package that together and give it to you all to review. So we make sure
we're including any of the healthcare, uh, adjustment increases
the retirement, increases the, uh, 5%,
um, increase. Uh, so that, that's what I'm, I'm, I'm
saying that those inputs, I think because that number needs to be a more
defined number, but I, I think, uh, that we, we need to do that work. So that's not
necessarily for you guys, I'm just saying to my colleagues that we need to do that work and
we need those act, but those, the actuals for this were provided
or the break, the breakdown. The breakdown. Well, well the breakdown of this, so for example,
um, one of the big increases, um, uh, was,
uh, overtime in some of these departments that went beyond their budget. Yes. But then it's,
the overtime is just a number, but there's nothing, no actuals beyond what
that reflects. That is correct. So overtime is an overall, and there's different
categories that roll up into an overtime category. So if that's what you're
trying to , yes. So, so overtime, for example, is just one of many things.
correct. That we need to understand the actuals and,
uh, in order to know why it went over budget so much,
um, and how we can control those costs. So some of it, from what I hear from staff
is that, uh, there's, um, been a struggle with hiring.
so I understand that, but then that means we need to beef up the hiring or
something needs to be done on that end. So that, that's where getting those
actuals will be helpful for that. And then if we can go to slide 19,
that was similar, needing to understand that breakdown.
um, and that's not for right now, but if you all could
provide what factored in, so there's no
breakdown here on personnel for, unless, like
I said, you all provided this in excel, so personnel services, um,
I, it's too broad. So we need to understand from which department,
which categories, what are the inputs that the directors
are feeding into this. So we can take a look at that, and then that way we can understand, okay,
well this is how we can reduce the future,
um, expenditures. Because what it seems like we're, like, what staff has done from
an exercise, and I don't mind this, but I, I just wanna be clear, is
it staff just rolled over? Like we just we're assuming just
kind of the best case scenario. Um, everything we want, this is
kind of a reflection of everything. Staff kind of wants no reductions in expenditures
or anything like that. Right.
council member, the, the numbers for 27 reflect the cost of
the city, uh, maintaining its current service levels. Got it. Okay.
so no adjust, no adjustments for cut? No, just no changes
from the baseline. From the status quo. This is basically the status quo. There are no new
enhancements, no new, um, program, no new staff.
uh, just whatever it would cost for the city to keep performing
the same services that we currently perform. Okay. That's fine. Great. Thank you. Um,
and I do wanna say, I definitely second what council member yamani said
about, uh, needing to go to a zero based, uh, approach of
budgeting. And so I'd be interested to know, um, we we're in a quick
timeline, so we need to get this out, but I think even if we can't, um,
uh, transform right away because of we're restricted in time and, uh, need
to get this out by july 1st, we need to get this adopted. Um, but in concept,
I would like us to do that. So for me, for example, for overtime, I would like us to start
zero on that. And then, uh, because what, what hasn't worked
for overtime in particular is we budget for it, but then we
continue to go over budget. And I've seen this year, over year, over year, it continues to
go over even when we, like, I understand budgeting for it, but I, I think there needs,
and there hasn't been in the interim, there hasn't been any reporting
to us on, hey, we're, it looks like we're going over on over overtime,
so we need to, you know, do something different. And we need to be,
as a council, I think we need to be getting more reports on specifically
when we're going over budget and how, what we need to do to fix it. So that's
where, what I'm kind of looking at for this moving forward. So I'm requesting
those details for that and request. And I like the idea of going to a zero
based approach so that we can start there and then build, like what are, what
are our needs, uh, where are our priorities that are, uh, public safety, that,
um, our obligations that that, that we, we need
to do? And then what are, you know, how can we, uh, make efficiency
adjustments, uh, moving forward, what we can do on that. So that's why
I like that on the zero-based approach, um, it was
mentioned by a couple of my colleagues on the economic contingency reserve.
there was a presentation by the chamber and a couple of
other groups in a co, uh, conceptually, and they, I think they
estimated there, uh, was a 250,000 they did present in december
to staff and city council. So, um, that, uh, we haven't
acted, uh, on that. But I think for that,
that, um, I, as I would recommend, we take a look at that,
what I envision economic contingency reserve, this city revitalization,
uh, project, which we did talk about, but it's actions
that we can take to enhance specifically our sales tax
since that's one of our largest, uh, contributing revenue sources. And there's a lot of ways
to do that. The chamber came with a proposal on focusing on events,
special events, and attracting people to national city has been proven from
a data perspective to increase our sales tax revenue. So
I definitely want to, uh, explore that more and have more discussions
about specifically what that could look like. Um, and then
question on slide 13, um, I think the mayor talked about this. This was
the internal service charges, so he brought this up. I don't really
understand what the net positive or benefit
is on this, because this is internal. So I'm really confused about what this
actually means, positive or negative to our budget. Each
of these funds are outside of the general fund, and they provide a service
to the general fund. So, uh, the way we determine the charges
is we take the total cost of those funds for the year. For example,
just looking at the vehicle replacement charges. We look at that charge, those charges
for the year, and then we allocate them to the city departments
based upon an equitable factor, which in this case, of course, would be the
vehicles. So everybody gets a, a piece of that, or
maybe it is, is, uh, more straightforward.
that's the, that's a separate fund outside the general, you said the beatles. I'm sorry, you
said the beatles? The beatles. I, I did it. Vehicle.
oh, the vehicles. Vehicles. I'm sorry. I thought you said beatles. That's what I'm vehicles. I'm, I got so confused.
I'm sorry. I'm a mumbler. I apologize. No, no worries. I'll take where you go, .
okay, thank you. So it's, so let me, uh, let me use it,
it as an example. Uh, that's information technology that's outside the
general fund. It's, its, it's its own fund. They have staff there,
they buy equipment there. Uh, and what you see there, that
2.9 million is the cost for fiscal year 27.
that cost needs to be allocated. So depending
on, in this case, it's probably computers, phones that
total cost is allocated throughout the city so that every department
and fund gets their fair share. Okay. So this could be
adjusted after if we give direction to the directors to look at
savings. Um, and for me, I would prioritize,
um, labor people over vehicles, equipment,
obviously with the asterisk that it depends on, you know, what the assignment
and, you know, there's a lot of other factors, but in general, I feel like we should put people over
vehicles and equipment and property. But I, that to me is
the, I feel like that's for the directors to decide. So once the directors and,
and hopefully the employees expect all the directors to be engaging every single employee from
the bottom all the way to the top, it it, to me, it shouldn't matter ranker title or position.
but, so once the directors have some recommendations there,
then like, so say the, uh, directors, um, identify a bunch
of, uh, cuts or a bunch of reductions, like putting off a bunch of purchases, then
this number would theoretically go down, right? In theory, if
reductions were made in theory to these internal service funds mm-hmm . Those savings would
then flow through to the general fund by the appropriate portion and being positive.
okay. Theory, like hope, being hopeful. Okay. Um, and then
what, um, the nutrition fund,
I have a bunch of questions, a, a bunch of the little different funds, but I, I
can save some of those, but while I'm at it, the nutrition fund, what was causing it
to increase by 171,000? Uh, was that,
like, how do we know how much of that was labor versus how much is, uh,
food material cost building energy?
I don't know the breakdown off the top of my head. Yeah, I don't, I don't, I don't expect you to, but,
but the way we, we fund that, the, the nutrition, uh, the nutrition center
is funded by, um, a county grant
by a transfer from . Oh, partly, right? Partly they, they have revenue sources
and then whatever the, the change is, whatever the difference is between
the revenue and the cost of that program for the year,
they don't carry a fund balance. So the general, that's why the general fund
has to make them whole and transfer those funds. Right.
so that's the, that's the estimated amount to make them whole,
uh, for 27. If I could, can you put your mic on
though? I'm sorry. So it would make, I think it would help if I like that
on that line, if we was to know how much that 674
was coming from gen, that's all general fund, the 674, right?
the 6 74 is completely from the general fund. So that's, so that's over
and above what the feds and what they, what the county, state,
any of, any other funding sources. So all of that is general fund.
that is correct. And got it. So that's, I mean, I'm just giving one example. I I
really think, uh, it should be all hands on deck. I don't think there should be any
sacred cows. Everything should be on the table. And, uh,
we have discussed, um, restricting
ideas to restrict our costs there. Uh, for example, I think
there was an idea, uh, from scott actually, uh, from a few months
ago about restricting adjust to national city residents, um, what we're doing to reduce
our costs. So there's some ideas there, like, I don't wanna get too into the weeds, but there's some good ideas there.
that's all the questions. Um, can I ask a follow up on this slide?
um, I, I, so I understand fully what you just stated,
um, mr. Valez about the, um, nutrition fund, right? So
this is, um, the money that is needed to continue the service for 27,
um, that isn't covered by grants and, and everything else. Is that the same
for like the library this, um, transfer out to other
funds? Is that explained the same for the library fund?
some funds, it's, uh, potentially do carry a fund balance, and at
the end of the fiscal year we do review that. Uh, we look at the
actual expenditures because we don't want to transfer more money, uh, than that
fund actually needs. But, but, uh, there is,
it is possible that some of these funds actually carry a fund balance
and we could use a portion of that to offset,
uh, the total transfer. In other words, kind of scale back the
transfer out from the general fund to these, uh,
subsidized funds. Yes. I, I think it would be important
because we are talking about, just as mr. Bush mentioned, we are
talking about like the granularity in the numbers here, right? Um,
and now that we are getting into the details here, I think it is important to understand
truly the library and how it is funded. And in 26,
um, 2.2 million from the general fund funded the
library. And, and what I'm asking is, is that beyond,
um, all of the grants that were acquired by the library, everything else.
so then the increase for 27 is
perhaps because of the labor increases, um, that are expected.
uh, and then what else? You know, like the, you
know, the bills that have to be paid, right? Like the, the, I don't know, the, the maintenance
of the library, the books and the, the fees to all of the,
you know, everything that, that needs to be paid in order to make the, the library function.
uh, I think I do need to understand truly what it means, just
as mr. Bush mentioned, to transfer this money out of the general fund. Um,
when it isn't a balance, we can definitely provide
that information in the, in the next budget workshop. Um,
I would ha I would hate to misspeak and tell you which of these funds actually have a fund
balance at the moment. Um, but we will provide that information. Yeah, that
would be helpful. Thank you. And just, I don't have any
more questions, but just, uh, uh, f follow up, uh,
thought, so I just talked about the expenditures, but on the, the revenues,
again, I think, uh, all hands on deck. Oh, uh, and I did forget
to mention, um, I, we, we need more breakdowns on and, uh,
for reductions need more breakdowns on professional
services and consultant services. And, sorry, I forgot what code
that is. But basically across the board, which are generally our outside consultants, um,
before we cut staff, that's what also I would like to,
uh, prioritize is, and I, um, can't really
recommend what to prioritize over another if I, if I don't know, you know, what,
on, on some of the consultant services. So if we can look at that, but getting, shifting over to the
revenue, um, I, I do worry,
uh, in my review of the actuals that was
provided, that we might be undercounting some revenue sources. Um,
and I did send staff this over, um, email. So if you don't have an
answer for that right now, that's fine. But for example, parking, uh, parking
citations, code 3, 2, 0 1. Um, and that is reflected in the adopted
budget. Um, I, when I looked through the actuals, I couldn't find that anywhere. And
there was a couple of the, uh, different, uh, actuals for,
um, some of the permits, I think residential permit, commercial permit, um, that weren't
reflected. And so if those inputs are feeding into this,
uh, budget, then we're, um, when then we're undercounting our, our revenues.
so if, if staff could take a look at that, unless you had an update for that specifically.
well, with, with respect to the parking citations, the parking programs in its own
fund, it's in a separate fund. The actuals that you were
provided were for general fund only. Got it. Okay. Understood. Um,
but so I then still want to talk more about that
because there's still re revenue potential there with, with parking. So we can,
like, we should have, um, more discussions. So I can understand
that. 'cause I know a lot of it is just my lack of understanding. And then revenue. Oh, can
I do a follow up on that? Also, um, on this slide related
to the sales tax that is projected, um, on another slide
you mentioned the 5% gross receipts, um, expectation
of the cannabis, uh, commercial cannabis businesses. The amount that,
and you said that doesn't, that projection doesn't include the sales tax, the amount
that is part of the sales tax. Is that in this, is that
included here? That is included in the sales tax? It is here that
I don't have it broken out. I'm sure it could be derived right. Looking at that. No, but that's
what I'm saying is, um, as mr. Bush is saying, is like we need to distill down, um,
you know, is there perhaps revenue that is being under counted?
it triggered my memory. Maybe the sales tax from the cannabis is one of those. But if you're saying it
is accounted for here, then that's a moot point. Thank you.
uh, we're always talking about like the library fund, the
nutrition fund, uh, park fund, those, if we can also
see, you know, what is their total budget because they get a lot of revenue.
I know the library gets a state library fund and different stuff along that line. So that is not
their total budget. That is just what we're going outta the general fund. So if we kind of
see that difference, in other words, how much are we, are we paying above what they get
from other sources to, to, to make that overall price? I think that would be helpful.
you know, if we just, uh, just to that point, if you guys could just provide us, and
this should have, this is all in excel, right? All the different department by department
breakdown of the adopted budget.
it's contained within the, uh, the city's financial system. Mm-hmm . Right?
so if that can be broken out, like in this kind of, uh,
format, and if there can be an additional line, like I just opened
it up, 1 6 6 nutrition fund, and you have the fya and this
how, how it appears organized. I'm 90% sure this is excel. So you have fy 24, you have
fy 25 adopted, which should be actual, but that's okay by now. Um,
and fy 26 adopted. Um, and
then if, and then we could on our own, create an fy 27.
and then if, if you guys gave us the inputs or we start from zero and
then build from there. If, if we can have that to play around with some
of this, I think that would be, that would be helpful. Okay. Okay. Down here.
uh, thank you to the public, thank you to staff for compiling this and putting it
together. I know we have a lot of things going on at the city at this particular moment.
and so squeezing this in the daytime, I know it's something unusual, but
considering, uh, everything we have going on, uh, it, it, it was the only thing
we could fit in. And I appreciate everybody making time to do hopefully numerous,
uh, budget workshops, which are very important. And so, um,
I do echo the sentiment to my colleagues and going into a new
approach to dealing with our budget. And, um, we've been discussing
the zero based budget process, uh, one that is looking more at
the actuals instead of constant projections, um, as
something that we should probably change in our city because we seem to go by last
year's projections. And the projections before that. And
what we've noticed over the last 10 years is that the projections have been wrong
oftentimes, uh, in incredibly conservative. And so
I wanna go over some of the presentation right now and then I'll come back to that point at the end.
but can you go, uh, to the page where we cover the property tax on
page five? Is that it? Yeah.
there we go. Thank you. So, um,
the property tax in particular, does that account for new
property that has been built and there's a new tax assessment for
that property in the city, is that considered part of the
property tax revenue that we get when a home is, when a home is sold, yes. When
there's when, uh, the owner gets a property tax bill due.
right? That's what makes up the property tax. It was, if it was an empty lot and then
suddenly somebody built 20 units on it, then, then
they're paying property off of those new units that are, that are built in the city. Correct.
once it's assessed, yes. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Affordable.
and what about development impact fees? Where do they land on this
in terms of where does that revenue come? So like if a project, they're gonna pay development impact fees,
where does, where does that go? They fall outside the general fund. Where do they fall?
they have their own development impact fee fund. I see.
not part of the general fund, not part of the discussion, obviously. And okay. That's correct. Okay.
just curious. Um, uh, when it comes
to changing over to the slide when we're talking about, uh,
staff time, I have it as slide number eight, but I think I have last,
uh, yeah, there we go. I'm sorry. Yeah.
so is there a way we can, um, because we did go over some of the actuals
with individual staff members and realize that over time is
considerable, but can we go over, we've had a,
um, uh, big issue of human trafficking in our city and, and
I know our pd or human trafficking task force have been working diligently on this.
I, uh, did a ride along, uh, just this week and, uh, definitely,
um, see the frustration in, in making sure we address this issue and
it's costing our city a lot of money. And so we wanna make sure how much
is that, is there a way we can get that breakdown for the next workshop?
I'm, I'm sorry, what, what is the, uh, overtime cost relating to human
trafficking in our city? I'll, I'll, uh, perhaps our police chief
or somebody from our police department could field that question.
, I, I, I will definitely have the breakdown for you.
I, I was just overlooking it now. Uh, one of the challenges that we have,
and ron's here with me today is, um,
some of it is reimbursable that goes back to the city. Mm-hmm . But some of
the operations I would have to categorize as overtime
special events or, uh, whatever category we use. But
it is substantial when I'm looking over these numbers. Yeah.
yeah. I did see the jump in, uh, pd over time, but I know that some
of that is related to that. So it's important to kind of differentiate even when we don't
get reimbursed, how much is this issue causing us? And it's
important that we work with our state legislators to hopefully get some of that, uh, be
reimbursed. 'cause ultimately this is a regional issue. We happen to be at
the epicenter regionally, um, as a result of, of, um,
uh, some installations near our city. And so I think it's important for us to
continue to make that argument and bring in revenue. Um, if our pd is,
is accruing additional overtime and making sure that they're tackling this
issue, we need to make sure that we get reimbursed for that as we continue to address it. So
I definitely look forward to those numbers. And, uh, similar for pd,
uh, sorry for fire, is it possible to get, uh, overtime numbers, I
know a lot of our, a lot of our fire, uh, uh, go statewide
to fight fires, , is there a way to get some of those
overtime costs kind of, um, accounted for? Uh,
yeah, absolutely. We actually had been looking at overtime closely for the past three
years. So we have a very accurate breakdown on where each one of those
overtimes categories, uh, is, is set apart. And we can certainly provide that
to you. I appreciate it. 'cause I know it isn't just the person that is leaving, right?
so if a crew leaves of four, like at the palisades, you left to the palisades
with a crew of four or 5, 4, 4, it, it, it also meant that,
um, our own stations were understaffed and as a result needed
to have overtime. Is that, that is somewhat accurate.
so the, the way that it works, if I may explain, uh, real briefly, as the engine goes to
an any incident on a mutual aid call, yeah. We are reimbursed at
a hundred percent for each one of those members that leave. So the overtime costs are,
are, are reimbursed to the city at a hundred percent. And on top of that, the city
makes an administrative fee on top of that, currently 24.6%.
okay. But, um, uh, yeah, we can certainly give you a, a
detailed expenditure of every overtime category and can answer all those
questions for you. Yeah, I appreciate that. Definitely looking forward to the, to the breakdown. And I know
our officers are first in line, always signing up to helping fight,
uh, fires throughout the state. So thank you for, thank you for that work. And I also echo
the sentiments of, um, uh, colleague bush. Uh, when it comes to the mayor council
budget, again, it is this kind of same approach that we seem to have
just going off of projections year to year. And the reason I know that, that is the
case is because just this last year, I believe we approved, um, the mayor's
assistant to go from executive to management.
and, and that should have at least changed the preliminary budget, but
it didn't. And so we need to make sure that we do a zero based
approach. Where are we in now? Where's the actual now? And go off of that instead of going through last year's
and the year before. That's projection. So just the observation,
um, I, I dunno what page this is on, on mine, it's 11.
uh, I'm looking at the nutrition fund. And this
is a conversation that's hard for me to constantly have because
every time we have a difficulty in the city, and it's been, I mean, every
time since I've followed the city, you have about 12 years now, 13 years.
and we always talk about cutting programs that, uh, uh, people
that need the most absolutely need. And I, I go to
the nutrition center, uh, often and I could tell you folks are desperate
to just eat. And oftentimes it's their only meal, um, especially those
that are being delivered food. And so I would be, um,
very considerate of those funding, uh, of that funding. But also,
uh, I do have a question for staff. Have we applied for additional county grants? And are
there opportunities for that to happen?
uh, thank you council member for that. That question. I know we've talked in the past about there's a
potential funding with, um, like the community enhancement grant. Um, but at this point
we're, we're still trying to see, um, kind of like where
we're at with the budget and how we can kind of restrict, um, or what kind of direction we're
gonna get from you all. Because if we are currently going
forward with our current model where we're just opening it up to the rest of the county, it's, it's
kind of getting to be un unsustainable. And so if we were to like,
apply for another grant that again, restricts us to that same parameter, um,
then it's, it's probably not gonna help. It's probably gonna make it even worse. 'cause right now we're actually,
um, restricting it. We've, we didn't have a cap before and
now we've actually finally put in a cap for our numbers. Um, it just, I don't know if food insecurity
kicked in or, or if just the word got out that the food at the nutrition center is really
a lot better than other, um, centers . But our numbers were up to like 400
at one point, and that just wasn't what we budgeted. Um, so staff
did a good job of, of finding a, a good point to kind of like put a
cap at. Um, but we still are getting a lot of non-residents that are coming.
and so that's what we, we need to kind of figure out and get some better direct or more direction on
how it could look, how it could look like if we did scale it back. And if it was gonna just be for
residents before we go out for another grant that could tie us to be, again,
it could be more cost exorbitant than, um, than what we're making. 'cause most,
most, uh, cities that have this grant, they're not actually, I can't think
of a single city that is fully subsidized by this grant. Everybody has,
has to pay, um, as part of when you put in the grant proposal that you
are gonna offset some of these costs. Um, so it's a, it's a great question. I know
you'd actually connected us, um, with, with the community enhancement grant is potential
and we're still kind of waiting to see how this outcome is gonna come. Have we applied for those grants?
uh, no. And again, it was all based off of this direction that was coming up because we knew there could be
some cuts and not knowing what, what that would look like. We didn't want, again,
tie us to a new, um, requirement, um, if we were
gonna reduce, reduce our services, if that makes any sense. It doesn't. I, okay.
yes. Lemme just give scenario. I just give some state to not apply for county funds that would bring in revenue
to address a problem that we all see is only getting worse. Right. Food
insecurity is a regional issue. So I do think it's important for us to apply to as
many grants as possible. Yeah. Some of these grants though, I will say, if they have these strings
attached to them where we have to keep feeding more people, that's, that's where the, that's
where it's gonna be cost prohibitive for us to try to apply for more grants when we just can't.
the problem is, um, the dining room is so small, you can only, you fit
like a little, a little bit more than a hundred people. And to get people within just a couple of hours,
we really shouldn't have been serving that many people. Um, it's supposed to be a congregate
setting where they actually have time to sit down, enjoy a meal and socialize. Um, so,
so that's where the kind of the problem is. We, we can't keep getting more and more money,
um, without kind of having a, a little bit better direction and seeing like where we,
where we need to go and where we can go with, with this, uh, with this program. So I think we're
gonna get there very soon, this next month from your leadership and, um,
knowing like what it could look like different scenarios, we could definitely, at that
time I think we'd be ready to apply for another grant. Um, but we just kind of need to
know where we're headed. How long has the nutrition center been open? Do we know? Gosh,
I don't know. It's been over over two decades, I believe. Yeah, I would imagine. I think that sounds
right. It's been a long time. Yeah. And it has been a staple to our community. And so
again, I realize that times are tough, but times are tougher for people
that go there to actually get a meal. And so I, I know we had this
specific conversation last year, but I, I would encourage all of us, and I've been in conversations
with, um, county supervisor aguire to bring in some additional
grants. I know we all have relationships with other in, uh, uh, organizations as
well. But I do think it's imperative to continue to fund the program, especially
the delivery portion, because those are individuals, uh, that
are seniors that cannot drive. And oftentimes they're caring for a loved one
that is sick, that is old, that can't move. And so anyw who
I, I just wanna reiterate that real quick. Uh, um, if I may, uh, councilman rodriguez.
so I agree with you, especially this spirit, it just integral, I think in principle, I hope we are a city
that, uh, does and acts exactly how you're saying. So
we should protect and prioritize the most vulnerable,
uh, a thousand percent. And I want to make sure to protect, uh, this program as much
as possible. So I don't see it as a giveaway. I don't see it as charity. I, I, I do see it as
like very valuable for, for our city. I for me, the,
the nuance, like what I, from, I think the information or the data
or the applying the grants, I would like to know
whether, um, the county grant,
um, if in getting that, if
it kind of the strings that are attached, such as requiring that, that be
open countywide, if I'd be interested in some kind
of analysis from staff, if that, if that doesn't cover those costs
versus if it would be better to just prioritize national city. Because as much as
I, I do, and you know, I don't really care about these jurisdictional
boundaries that much, to be honest. But just with, at least for this next year or two years
while we're in a crisis, then at least let's narrow that to let's do
a study and, and see if this county funding,
if it really does cover the cost of expansion, if that juice is even worth the squeeze. 'cause otherwise
we could just, we might be able to just completely fund it in-house and, and save
money. And I, I would also be leery, I guess, of,
uh, overreliance on the county because they're going through a lot of budget issues too.
so I just don't even know if that even is a sustainable, uh, pot
of funding. I, I appreciate that. And I think those are valid points. I think my frustration
is considering our, uh, fiscal position, we still did not apply
for the grants because the idea was, hey, leave it up to council to decide whether or not
they want to continue to support this program. That to me, is problematic. I think if
there's grants available for the fiscal year, I think we should apply for them and go for them. You know, I, okay, I
see your point. I I agree with that. I agree with that. That makes sense. Yes, I, I agree with that. Because then,
and then we should apply and then, and then if we decide not to, then we
have our conversation, not leave money at the table. I second that. Yeah, I agree with that.
I'm, I'm down for the conversation. I just do think we need to take advantage as much as we can. Oh, and if I could just add one
thing, sorry. Council member. Yeah. Um, we did not get
a grant, um, like a few years ago when it was time to re-up the grant. And
you'll, so you'll look, you'll see, uh, fy 24, we had, um, 600,000
in county grants. And then the next fiscal year, fiscal year 25,
it drops down to 3 79. And that's because we, um, had changed in the changeover
in the department. And there's some confusion. They didn't get the home meal delivery,
uh, grant. So we're about $220,000, like from
fy 24 to fy 25. That is a reduction. I don't
know what that grant would've looked like in fy 25 'cause it should have been more. 'cause each year they
usually give us an increase. Um, so there is that grant that's part of the county,
but you, once these grants come out, it's a five year process before you can reapply again.
so this grant's gonna run out in 2028. So then we just need two more years to
get through. So right now, the home meal delivery program is totally out of outta the drill fund.
we don't get any, uh, county grant reimbursement, but, but most cities do get that
reimbursed. Um, and again, just it was a change in leadership in the department
here that we didn't get that grant. Um, I'm not aware of any city,
any agency in the county that it has any other grant, um, has
any other funding than what we have right now. So we have all the funding that other cities
have, and I'm just not familiar with any other program that's out there. And we
just got notified last week from the county that, not this fiscal year, but the next fiscal
year is when they're gonna have reduction in funding. We think that's because of changes in
the federal administration that had been coming for a while. Now they're finally trickle down into this, uh, federal grant.
um, but I hear you, sir. If we have any funding available, we'll definitely make sure,
uh, we're going for that. I appreciate it. We appreciate all your support. Thank you.
looking at another page, I believe it's page 13, uh, there
was a general liability insurance question. There was a concern.
I do echo the symptoms to my colleagues and our attorney in getting a breakdown of that.
I do find it important and it feel, if my numbers are correct, does
that look like a 50% increase, which is significant from year to year.
and so I think it's important to, it's not 50, but it's around 38. Okay. 38
. I'm not a mathematician, but it, it was a significant increase of 1.3 million.
so I do think it's important for us to have that broken down.
um, uh, can we look at, uh, the
vehicle replacement charge? So earlier
there was a discussion of not increasing
from last year's budget, but this is an increase in last year's budget.
but I have assumptions myself, but I I am only assuming.
so can, can you kind of, can we look into that for next, next,
um, budget discussion? And, and this might just be that there's
cycles. I I get it. But is there a reason why there's a,
a substantial increase? We'll, we'll have the full details in budget workshop too.
okay. I appreciate it. Um, and then can we go over the general
fund vacancy snapshot?
uh, um, this is also, I think a reason,
as my colleagues mentioned, to go into a new budgeting process
because we do have this idea of, you know, aspiring to
hire all these positions and sometimes these petition, these positions are rotating, right? So,
so, um, when we say, you know, uh, uh,
we, we project a budget deficit of x amount of millions of dollars, that's assuming that all these
positions are filled, but they're not filled, right? So many of these positions are open,
they're vacant, they're, we're constantly bringing people in, right? Because
we have natural turnover within the organization. And so that's something
that I think we need to be more considerate of when we are thinking of,
uh, uh, or when we're discussing, uh, our budget. Because
this is assuming that, that we are at 100% capacity the
entire time. And I look, I just looked at last year's budget. Last year's budget included 22
positions, right? And, and I don't know, it, it, it, it looks like the
same positions as last year. So I don't know how many more were added
and how much more was added. I think it was a total of 1 million more than last year.
but, um, any who, so just a, just an observation of
us maybe needing to go through a different process in order to account
for this within our unassigned general fund balance, uh, depletion.
because that's how it is painted to us. Like, like, we're gonna use all these
funds, but we're, we know we're not, right? Because we haven't last year or the year before, or the year before.
so I think, I think it's important to account for that. Mm-hmm.
um, and then can we go over the, uh, oh wait, jose, if I may, um, on,
on that note, like for example, and I saw this on, um, police, uh,
on the fy 26 adopted budget. I think I saw it on police budget. Do we, do we have an
assistant police chief? It's a frozen
position, and you guys are right, you know, looking at some of these numbers,
you know, there's some that, that have, I show
a couple of higher numbers than, than the ones that we have here. So, but yeah,
to, to answer your question, it's been frozen and, and paul, uh, already
removed that from the process. Yeah. Council member, the, I, I reviewed the
list and assistant police chief was frozen. Uh,
I also assumed we weren't gonna operate without a, uh, a city manager,
which is technically vacant or a city attorney, which is technically
vacant. So those were, uh, or director of finance, you assumed those
because it's, are you here the status quo and you were just being consistent with applying the
status quo? I, I didn't, I didn't include them on this list because
I assumed that we would fill the city manager. I assumed that we would fill the city. Oh, oh, I get,
oh, got you. Okay. So, but, but for assistant police chief, for example,
you dropped it off because it was, the decision was made not to include it. So
that, that's why it wasn't, because there's no funding, there's already no funding
included for the position in fy 27. Got it. Okay. So there would be
no savings. Great. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.
can we also look at the, um, unassigned general fund balance slide?
there we go. So, so the projected ending unassigned general
fund balance for fy 25, that means this june 30th,
that was last june, june 30th of, uh, june 30th,
last year, 25. Yeah. That, and that number was, uh, what was presented
to counsel in december. Correct. Okay. And
the projected ending unassigned balance by this june would be 13, but
we don't, I haven't seen the actuals. I know that there might've been an email go out, but
do we know the, the, the actual, now, the thir, the 13.1
is start with the 23.4, and then that,
uh, the le the projected deficit of 2026 is what was
presented to council on april 21st. Correct. That's
the projected deficit for the, for, uh, this current fiscal year. So
we project and fy 26
at 13.1 million, uh, unassigned fund balance.
okay. And then from there, the, uh, you know, just the preliminary
27 budget is, uh, 16.1 million mm-hmm .
yeah. Again, I, I think we need to have actuals for this,
because I'm looking at, for example, last year's
projections. I'm looking at last year's budget that was presented to us
may 8th. And, and the nu numbers are very similar
to projections. Um, it also states we're having
a $8 million deficit for the next projected
year and a $3.3 million deficit for that fiscal year. But, but
that fiscal year was not a 3.3 budget deficit. And,
and I wanna see the actuals, you know, because I, I don't believe to,
I don't believe this actual number, because that has not been historically the case in our city. So
council member, are you referring to the 25 actuals? Correct.
uh, that, that is still unaudited? Yep. Okay.
well, I, I do think it's important for us to, to, to look at, at
actuals because we make, um, a lot of projections. And look,
I've been following the city for 12, 13 years now, and it's been the
same conversation over and over and over again. And, you
know, I think, I think it, um, uh, it just leads to
a sense of frustration because it, it comes from a perspective that I think is like a scarcity
mentality that seeps into every one of our departments. So we feel like the
money's gonna be gone, and then we should actually fight for a position because we want
to fill it, and then we leave that position open for years because we think there's not gonna
be any revenue. I think it's, I think it's really an approach that we have towards our city
that makes it very difficult for us to continue to operate. And I think we need to
have a new approach to look at our budget, seeing actuals, seeing what
we actually need going forward, uh, and budget accordingly and,
and, uh, and, and make the decisions, have those conversations. But there, there's just a
deep frustration with the process that has continued over, over the last
decade. And, and I understand the need for us to be conservative when it comes to our budgeting,
and oftentimes projections are, are, when it comes to revenue, are much higher. But,
um, at the same time, we need to be realistic as we're making decisions, because
I don't believe the point of a government is to just continue to have
humongous reserve balances and not utilize them for community when our
community needs them. So an example of that playing out now, right? It,
it, you know, I get it. We need to constantly, uh, fight to, to
save money, but, but it's difficult for me to make that moral argument when there's
people that are struggling to make ends meet, that wanna go to the nutrition center and
get a meal, and we're saying, no, we don't have money for you. Right? That is the
kind of, um, um, what is it called? Um,
kind of ethical conundrum that I deal with, right? So we need
to make sure that we try to take care of everybody in our city, and that means having the actual
numbers for us as we go forward. Um,
that's it. Those are all my comments. Thank you, mayor. Follow through? Yes. Thank you, mayor.
um, I have touched the expenditures. Um, for my first comment,
I would like to delve on the revenue right now. Um, you know, for
the other revenues that are, um, um, here,
I have requested the manager to have a breakdown of it. Um,
you know, I mean, and define, you know, I mean, um, this,
this, uh, revenue, um, uh, generating, um,
programs that we have. Mm-hmm. Um, I would also like to see,
you know, I mean the other services, um, like our
towing services, our land rental income, I think
those are the assets that we have, um,
to revisit. Um, because we know
that, um, there are opportunities there that we can,
that we can, um, benefit from, um, the
overtime reimbursement. Um, you know, I mean, that was defined last time, hopefully
can be defined, um, better. This, this school district, um,
uh, 408, this is ncpd. Um, so
these are the two school resource officers that, um,
you know, I mean, basically it's coming through the, uh,
general fund, but it's really, you know, I
mean, expensed by the pd because it's paid for by the
school district. So, um, I don't wanna touch that
away from the pd because we need those, um, those
resource officers. I'd like to delve onto the, uh, other
revenues more defined, please. And I would like to request,
um, city manager, I failed to request this from you earlier. Um,
all our enterprise funds, uh, that we have, uh, that covers vehicle
replacement, um, all the funds that we have, uh, I
know that we have those, I know these are all reflected via the,
uh, general fund, but I know that we have other, um,
enterprise funds that covers, um, you know, I mean those,
those other, um, like for example, there are staff
that are covered through hud. Um, you know, those are funds that we have. They're
called enterprise funds. That, that we can, why
do we not have this here? Because it's covered by this.
I think those will you, I mean, will make my colleagues here
understand where those funds are coming from. So if you will just,
um, uh, break down or identify all the funds that
we have within the city, so then they know that, or, or
we all know that we have some funds, like you said, oh, we need two,
we need 675 or 2.2 million for library.
but there is a library fund that is, um, covering
some of those. And I think identifying those and what is the,
what is the number, um, currently as of, you know, I mean,
whatever it is, you know, I mean, report as of march 31st,
then we will have an idea, um, on how we can,
um, you know, I mean, we can, um,
allocate some other funds, um, towards the general fund.
um, I, I, uh, I have all those.
I think, um, you know, I'm in city manager and
city attorney had, um, you know, I mean, received
all my, um, all my requests, um, with
regards to those, um, breakdowns and, and,
um, definition, um, to, to,
um, to, for, for all this revenue to be defined. Um,
um, so then it will be, um, clearer. And then we, we
can be, you know, I mean, there is no questions. Thank you, mayor.
thank you, mayor. Uh, quick question. Is there a reason why the, uh,
potential revenue opportunities page wasn't included on this presentation?
I think it was for last time. I can speak to that.
so this is an iterative approach. So the whole idea
of having two budget workshops is to get a big picture of our projected
expenditures and revenues. And then the second budget workshop is gonna be
a deeper dive into these revenue initiatives and opportunities. Um,
you know, one of the things I want to clarify is, you know, over
the, the previous months and weeks, uh, you know, your finance
team has done an excellent job working with the individual departments to
address and ultimately present what you will see at the next budget
workshop. A lot of what you're asking for, so I I, I just want to, I, I
want to clarify that, um, this was, uh,
an initial budget workshop. We didn't want to come to you with 50 slides
that covered every single account that the city has access to. So, as an
example, um, part of what the staff are looking at department
by department is how are we using to council member yi's,
uh, question, um, some of our enterprise funds,
um, and how do we maximize the use of those funds to offset,
uh, general fund expenditures? So I'll just give an example. Like, if we look at
a maintenance worker on our sewer crew, a hundred
percent of, of, of their salary and es is funded through the sewer enterprise
fund. So we have asked staff to go back and revisit that, whether
it's housing, whether it's, it's our, our sewer fund that is
part of, when we talked about a strategic approach. Um,
we have to revisit that and make sure what, if there is a position in
the city, maybe there's an operational shift where
now we can justify using 50% of that staff salary to
one of these enterprise funds. So what you guys are gonna get at the next budget
workshop is each one of our directors are gonna present about their department.
and in mr. Pachecos case, he, he's responsible for overseeing the
nutrition center operations. He's gonna give you options.
um, and I can assure you that what they are looking at are,
um, right sizing services to the community. So we don't have to cut services.
they are, each department is always looking at grant opportunities.
and, um, part of that, as mr. Pacheco said is, are there restrictions
or are some discretionary where we should be aggressively getting after funding?
'cause there aren't restrictions. We will be working with the departments on those.
um, you know, again, as we move through the budget process. But a lot has already
started, um, over the last couple months. And I think a lot of your
questions will get answered at this second budget workshop. I, I appreciate
that. And, um, one of the things I would be interested in
knowing is which ones of these fees are insourcing or,
or quote unquote taxes or economic development, which ones are these are able
to occur through, um, uh, council directive and which ones would
have to go through a ballot initiative? Um, and then,
you know, if we can commit to working on some of those or prioritize some of those,
I think that would be, that would be good for us as well. Thank you.
I'm sorry. There it is. Uh, couple of things. Uh, one of the things that was talked about was on
zero based approach. And I, I would like to see eventually, uh, for staff
to come back with a concept of that, uh, realistically,
we really can't consider that for this one. Uh, I mean, we gotta present
a, a balanced budget and a whole budget next month. And so,
uh, that's just kind of impossible to completely change our, uh, the whole format
within that shorter period of time. Um, but as say, I think we ought to be looking at
that policy for this next fiscal year and, and because it's gonna take a lot of preparation
to get to take a look and see if we want to take that approach and then to take that approach.
why mayor? Huh? Why, why are you answering for them? Why
am I answering them? Yes. Why are you answering for the, uh, finance finance? Um, I'm
not answering though. I'm answering for me. No, we're you're saying that we cannot do a zero approach right now
if you have the actual yes, you can. That's the direction that the city manager
will have to make. Okay. I'm gonna, city manager's got his hand up and then I'm gonna go back. Okay.
again, I think there's a misconception
that as part of our process, they're not looking at actuals. They absolutely
are looking at actuals. Yes, we have actuals through third quarter now. And,
uh, again, I'll use the staff vacancy slide, um, as
an example. Um, there's about 4 million, at least in that snapshot,
$4 million that is currently in the budget that is presented
to you tonight. Assuming all those get filled again, um,
you're starting to, um, take a more str we
are taking a more strategic look so that when we come back to you at the next budget workshop,
I can tell you there, some of these are going to be recommended to be frozen. And
now you are going to see how that, uh, reduces
the impact to the general fund. Mm-hmm . So give us that opportunity to second
workshop. I do think we're making progress towards getting our
budget process to where you want to see it go. And I, I do believe you're
gonna see a lot more detail in, in, in a strategic approach
with numbers to show how we start to reduce, um,
what I know you're considering to be a conservative budget by taking a deep dive
into services, into vacancies and then into,
um, more realistic revenues that we may actually be able to
get within the next 12 months. Yep. Yep. Um,
yeah. And as I say, the workload is gonna be heavy over these next few weeks. And plus
we got a few other things on our agendas and meetings, uh, including, you
know, city manager interviews and all these other fun, fun things. Uh, so
it's gonna be a jam packed few, few weeks in the next couple weeks. Um, another
thing is when we, you know, there's been a lot of discussion about overtime. If we
are wanting to see overtime by department, what I would like to see is what are
the reimbursements, in other words, for total amounts. Uh, and, and
so, so in other words, if you say, I'll just say million dollars in overtime, well, how much of that million
dollars that total amount was reimbursed, uh, and I'll use the example
'cause everyone keeps wanting to, the fire's kind of a complicated one, but I'm gonna use july 4th.
july 4th, we have police and park and, and, uh, public works on overtime.
well, that's in their budget. And so, but how much, how much
was that re how much of that was reimbursed so that we see, um, you know,
what the actual cost was to the city? And I think that's what
we really want to get to the, uh, and mayor, I, I think that's a great, uh, example.
and if I may jump in on that, and that's where there is the more difficult
conversation that's gonna take, I think more time is so, so in those
overtime things that we know are coming, do they have to be overtime? So can our pd,
whether it's fire, whether it's public works, I don't care which department it is, where can
you shift staff around instead of just the expectation of overtime,
where can be, there can be, um, staff adjustments,
enhancements. We used to have, um, a really strong senior patrol.
we used to have more of a
cadets that were kind of enhancing that. Maybe it's existing staff. So how can we be
creative about that? Like, again, that's where I'm really looking for in that second
workshop to kind of, that's why I would like to see those, those details. And there's a cost of those things
also. And, but still, but it's still at the same time, um, you
know, we don't wanna say, okay, shall we say public works? Public works. You come spend so many hours and
july 4th, so during the week, don't do your work here. And so you, so we're
gonna do work for an outside, for another group, you know, we have to be careful, you know, what our primary
core mission is. And then when we step outside of that core mission,
and then we charge others, you know, if we're doing something for, for another group, right?
or it's like, maybe we don't need to cut the grass this week in this particular area. So
I'm, I'm I, that's so just staff. So staff knows that's the kind of level of
micro level that I would like you guys to go into. Like where, where
can, where, where can there be creative, uh, solutions there also? Yeah,
we do have de uh, developer impact fees. Diffs, our primary
one is the one that we just increased, which was per housing unit or over $3,000
per housing unit. If they're not affordable, affordable doesn't pay that. Uh,
if they're not affordable, then you get, uh, over $3,000. But that money is
designated for increased capacity on regional arterials.
it is very specific in the, in the law. And so we can't just touch
that for something else. So we have to look at, you know, what, uh, what strings there are on
these different pots of money, uh, each for every one of them as we go through this. Another
thing, we talk about the ups and downs over the last, uh, 10, 12 years. And
we've always had these budgets, which are high, and then we come
in where we spend a lot less. But we have to realize this
budget that we've looked at for this last year, 25, 26, and now going
into this year, is different than any of those other budgets. Why? Because
of that big swing that was going on. The one big variable we have in like this
year's budget, the one we're currently in, and this one coming up is,
is those, uh, oh, the, uh, vacancies that
we know is a swing, but the one we had in there before was cip.
that was the huge one. So we had cip included,
we might have a $3 million cip project, and this year we're only
doing the, uh, some engineering work. So we only might only spend
a half a million dollars of that $3 million. That means we saved two and a half million dollars. No,
we didn't save anything. It falls over to the next year. And so now we've taken
cip out of this, out of this current f 25, 26 budget
and 26 27 budget, and the ongoing budgets, cip is no longer in there.
so to say that we had those big swings, look at those years, and so therefore that's gonna
happen. Now we're, we're giving the wrong information to the public and we need to be careful
in how we do that. Um, the, uh, so what kind
of information, mr. Mayor, that giving not right to the public?
what kind, what I just, what kind of wrong information are we providing
to the public? 'cause I don't like that statement. Okay. We are not providing
anything that is wrong to the public. That's why we are here, right?
we are giving direction like most especially to our city manager.
so then he can direct all this to the directors, so then we can
provide the correct information. So please don't
say that we're not providing, that we are providing wrong information to the public. Okay? If you're
finished, I just explained it, but I guess you didn't hear me, is that when
we state that in those years, 10 to 12, 15, 20 years, in the last 20 years
we've had these big swings. The difference between what the budget ends is
because we had cip in there, we've taken cip out of there.
so to, to put the claim is that to 25, 26.
and the 26 27 budget is the same as those other budgets. It's
not, it's widely different. So, so that big variable is taken out.
the big variable we still have left in this budget right now as it exists,
is that right there, the va vacancy rate, we know that's there because we're, if we are
budgeting for a certain number of positions, we have to increase, we have to include those
into the budget. Our question is, which one do we, are we really gonna do? And
therefore should they be frozen or not? What the deal? But otherwise we're given out that bad information.
mary, I, mary, I think that, so I think what you're referring to is earlier,
um, I, I think jose said that, uh, he was
talking about the swings in budgets. What I, I don't know that he was talking about that.
I can't assume, but I, when I heard that, I was thinking of
the swing and when the actuals come in versus what
we're budgeted for, um, on the, um, revenue and the expenditure
side. Like I've seen swings in that. So for me, that was what I think, um,
my colleagues were, were talking about. At least that's what I was referring to, the cap not being there.
you're right that that does, um, that's been, that's
been fixed. So that's not gonna be, but that's not gonna be an issue moving forward. So, but that was the, that was the big part of
the increase in revenue that we, that we showed that we weren't expending. That was
some of it. It wasn't so that gone, it wasn't all of it. It was some of it, it, but not because most of our,
most of our cis there's some nuance there. I think there's some nuance. That's why our public
directors in city engineer had only requested for a million to provide
for those, uh, those, uh, minor, uh, matches. But most
of our projects, that's why I recommended to re to
separate cip from our general fund. So then our general fund is not to,
um, you know, infringed. So, you know, I mean, I see the,
the swing, if you wanted me to use that word, you know, I mean to, to,
uh, start with the zero base because of all these vacancies that has
been there. Um, you know, I mean five or more years ago. So, um,
you know, I mean, that, that is my comment there. Okay. Alright, mr. Mayor,
I, I usually wouldn't comment on this, but I mean, you really didn't have to make this political.
I mean, I remember 12 years ago sitting on, in the
public listening to you say the same thing over and
over and over again, and it is an excuse why to then keep
our employees wages stagnant over and over and over again. And
that's the reason why many of our employees were 15, 20% underpaid
for market value, which is ridiculous. I kept hearing about un unassigned general fund balance
depletion in a few years, 12 years ago, same conversation
and big businesses still operate in our city without paying their fair share and
no action on that. This kind of feeling of just stagnation in
our city that it, it makes it very difficult to sit through these conversations.
I'm trying to mind my business, but there's really no need to, to, to do that, mayor. So
I do, I do have to say that. And, and we really need to get away from the scarcity mindset and need
to get to work to make sure that we bring in resources so we can take care of our employees and our community alike.
thank you. Okay. You, you were hearing 12 years ago, me saying that
cip needs to be separate because it was giving us an un real expectation,
and you heard that then you're hearing it now. And so we can't use those
excuses now. Then the, uh,
as we look toward our next, our, our next one, I would hope a number of things
I would hope that we would take a look at kind of, uh,
as, as I would see it, and we'll see the rest, council agrees, three different concepts. One,
what we can do in the fairly immediate future. I'm talking about right
now in this budget, what we can do in the midterm and then what we need to look at long
range and 'cause I think those are three different things. And a lot of times we start looking at the long
range actually, if that's gonna have an effect right now when it's not. So if we can
look to see what kind of, what kind of effect we can have in those different areas
and, uh, because there's, I think there's a lot of different both, um,
challenges, but also some opportunities in each one of those if's, especially
if we don't confuse the three different categories. And, uh,
so, uh, so I know that we're looking
at scheduling right now for a second workshop. We don't have an actual date yet.
as I'm looking, I know that shelly was putting out stuff, trying to
get, uh, dates from everybody. Uh, 'cause I know we're working around a lot of things.
we had, we had a special meeting last friday. We had all day special meeting
saturday. Here we are today having a special meeting. We got council meeting tomorrow. So yeah, there's
a lot of meetings. So we're trying to work around these schedules to get, and we got a very short time period to
get, make all this, make all this happen. Uh, so unless
look to the city manager, unless there's any, uh, closing comment.
okay, counsel. Uh, so I, so I appreciate
staff and, and my colleagues for the, uh, the debate. We need to debate and we
have different ideas and approaches to things. And I think, uh, this is a level
that, um, in the past that we haven't gotten into, and I think we do
because we need to understand, like I, I'm really proud of what we did as
a body, um, increasing everyone across the board, um,
their, uh, their wages and bringing everyone up to the median and then having, you
know, 5% consistent across the board, not treating one group differently than the other across
the board. 5%, 5%, 5%. And I'm really proud that we did that. And
there's a cost to it and we're seeing what this cost is, and hopefully all of the
employee groups, and I think they did understand what, what that is. And so now I think it's really an
all hands on deck for every single person in this organization. Like, let's be creative, let's
look at, there's gonna have to be some tough conversations about efficiencies, about
what people are doing. I've had that starting with myself and my staff. Like even on
time sheets. What were you doing on your task? What, um, where's
the, uh, performance indicators for this? I think that's something that our organization,
we all, all of us across the board really need to do better on is performance indicators.
um, like what's our goals for this month, for this quarter?
um, and, and how, how we can meet those goals where, um, I
mean something as, um, like, uh, doing performance
evaluations, uh, a lot of that has fallen by the wayside. That's a measure
of, um, efficiency. And I'm not saying for every department, I'm just saying like
I, I've, I've seen it in enough departments where I think it's enough an issue where
we just need to collectively address it. But, um, I
I, I don't think it's, we don't need to panic because
the money is there. So that fy 27, that looks
scary, you know, looking at negative 2 million at the end. But we haven't spent that. That's just theoretical.
we're just starting. So I, I'm just really confident in our council leadership.
I'm confident in the leadership of all of you, our directors, uh, our
employees in the community. Um, so the, the public I think has
some ideas and suggestions like, so I think, um, if we're transparent
about everything that we're, we're spending our money on, um,
and we, we have those kind of difficult discussions about what,
what are the trade offs, what's the drawbacks? Like, I, I'm really, really confident we're gonna,
uh, balance this budget do better than we did last time. I think last last
cycle was the lesson. I think there's a lot of things we could have done differently as a, as a
council. Um, but I, I'm just really confident. I
feel good about this moving forward. I believe in each and every one of you. So thank you for this.
thank you. You know, I, I do wanna throw in my reality point here
is, um, I, I do agree with, um, the, I, you know, the task
that we are all out here to do, and that is to provide a balanced budget. Um,
some of the commentary up here has been difficult to swallow because
I do recognize that in fact, for example, our unassigned
fund balance at one point very recently was 23 million. Um,
suddenly now it is 13 million and we are actually facing the
real possibility that we are going to need to drain it to zero.
so that is a fact. You know, the, I don't
know the exact numbers. I think we've gone, we've belabored this point already that
we are going to look at the numbers. We will do that exercise, but the reality
is, is we had $23 million unassigned fund balance,
and the reality that it will come down to zero very soon
is a reality. So I hear you all, you know,
let's not think, um, what is it? Um, god,
the term just escaped my head. Um, no, the, uh, scarcity
mindset. I, I don't know what you're talking about. 'cause I am scared.
okay. I am scared. So let's, let's be careful with some of that commentary,
because we really do have to face this very real possibility. Thank
you. Just to , it wasn't scared mindset of scarcity
mindset. I know. And I play a made a play on words. Thank you. Okay.
it is different things though, but, okay. Thank you.
thank you, mayor. Um, again, thank you for the public and
for staff here. Um, city manager, thank you so much for, uh, being
patient in, uh, you know, I mean relaying those messages to our
directors, um, you know, I mean, all the numbers that we have right now,
our estimate, so there is no facts here right now.
the facts will come at the, when we approve the budget,
those are the facts right now we're looking at estimates, we're looking at,
um, um, you know, and, um, revisiting each, um,
line item per line item in order for us to be able to understand
how we can streamline it and approve a budget that is not,
you know, I mean, that's not that, that we can, that we won't be afraid of.
how's that? Right? So that we, that we will move forward,
um, with confidence in, um, you know, I mean providing the services
to the people that we, we pledge to serve. So you, I mean, that's
my comment. Thank you. Alright, we'll
go ahead and wrap this up, I guess, at this stage. Um, and that is,
we'll look forward to the next, uh, budget workshop. We'll get that date out as
soon as we can get a date together, uh, that works for
both staff and for the, for the electeds, uh, to make this happen as soon as
possible. At the same time, give staff enough time. We gave you a lot of stuff today saying we
want all this stuff back , which I know doesn't just hit by pushing the, the button
on the computer. It doesn't, um, it takes, it's gonna be a lot of work, uh, to put some
of that stuff together. And first of all, just make the list of all the things we just asked you about.
so, uh, that's part is good. And as I think it's, as we look forward
toward dealing with the budget, hopefully we'll use good sound budget concepts.
and one of it is if we're gonna be including our ongoing expenses
that we make sure it comes from ongoing revenue and, uh, that we'd
be careful about using one time, one time funds, one time,
uh, money to do ongoing revenue because, or ongoing expenditures.
um, because otherwise that's gonna be eaten up as we can see already in that one fund alone
in a very, very short period of time. And a lot of those, a lot of the,
uh, one time money that we have is dedicated money. We don't have
some of that. We don't have any choice. It has to be there. So, um,
a lot of choices to be made, and we're looking forward to staff coming back to us with
a number of ideas and council members, you know, putting our
ideas together and, uh, listening to the public also and seeing what
we can, uh, we can make happen with that.
uh, your ajour. Thank you, mayor.