LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lakeport City Council has unanimously approved the new fiscal year budget, which carries with it a small deficit and seeks to finish major capital projects.
Finance Director Nick Walker presented the final recommended budget to the council last Tuesday night.
The budget presentation begins at the 19-minute mark in the video above. The budget report begins on page 43 of the agenda packet below.
The document places strong focus on public safety, roads, human capital, project execution, cost control and economic development.
The new fiscal year budget has $12.7 million in revenue and $16.3 million in expenditures.
Walker said the differences in those two numbers are reconciled by looking at items including $2.5 million in storm repair projects, for which the city already has received advance funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and insurance in prior years. Larger projects will be in line for reimbursement, such as the Library Park seawall.
The $16.3 million in expenditures breaks down as $5.6 million for personnel, $4.1 million for operations (materials, supplies, professional services), $1.6 million in debt service and $5 million in capital improvement projects, Walker said.
Going into the new fiscal year, Walker said there is a net change of half a full-time position, which is for the proposed assistant city manager’s job, which will only last half the year. City Manager Margaret Silveira said that position will be brought back in the year for approval.
Walker said the general fund is structurally balanced, with a $131,000 estimated deficit.
There are several projects to be carried over, including a public safety camera system, an SB1 project to upgrade Second Street, cement grinding for processing recycled asphalt and top-dressing Westside Community Park.
He said there are $1 million worth of one-time expenditures on capital projects in the general fund.
For the 2018-19 fiscal year, he said the city has an estimated $115,000 budget surplus, primarily from open positions, operational savings and unfinished projects. Overall, he said costs are up for personnel, pensions and health care.
He said the city’s water enterprise fund remains moderately stable, thanks to prior rate restructuring, with a small operating deficit of $26,000 that he said was partially due to pension costs.
The sewer enterprise fund is in a stable position, which Walker also attributed to rate increases.
Walker said the city receives $668,000 of the property taxes collected in the city, or about 14 percent of the entire assessment. The city gets a much larger piece of sales tax, $3.3 million, or 28.5 percent of the $11.8 million collected.
He said the only change made to the budget since the presentation he made to the council at its first meeting in June was that the Measure Z sales tax will cover costs for upgrading benches, trash receptacles and bike racks in Library Park and downtown.
Councilman George Spurr asked if there are plans for placing money back in reserve accounts that are being used to cover the deficit.
Silveira said they have to look at their reserves to make sure they are not too high, noting the city had put money into reserves last year.
Walker said the state says a 25 percent reserve is healthy; the city is at 60 percent.
Parlet moved to adopt the budget, which the council approved 4-0. Councilwoman Mireya Turner was absent for the meeting.
The council went on to unanimously approve the city’s $12,842,004 appropriations – or Gann – limit for Fiscal Year 2019-20.
The council also received a report on the Lakeport Dam Emergency Action Plan; approved the purchase of a $40,000 80-kilowatt generator for the Lakeport Boulevard lift station; approved a resolution rescinding Resolution No. 2431 (2011) and designating the locations of two-hour limited parking zones in the city; and approved a list of properties with nuisance weeds and vegetation and directed staff to utilize the administrative citation procedures to abate the vegetation.
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061819 Lakeport City Council agenda packet by LakeCoNews on Scribd