Fort Walton Beach Council minutes — 09-24-1990 Special — reading text

presentation. Mr. Rosenbaum said, to clarify the $ 2 million difference. that $ 1. 3 million came almost as a windfall when the City sold the property on the cut- off. He said for three years he has gone through a similar exercise. last year he did an analysis and when his budget came out, it was within $ 40, 000 or $ 50. 000 of what was estimated this time last year. He said Mr. deVaux has a point if he saying is overstating expenditures we are and accurately stating revenues, which has been done in the four years he has been fighting the budget. He said the reserves were built by overstating expenditures; the Finance Director is within 1% of his estimate of revenues on the last ten years. and that is close enough. He thought all Mr. deVaux is saying is we are overstating the estimated expenditures and accurately stating the estimated revenues and are showing a deficit budget; this year is $ 2 million. not $ 700. 000; we start now with $ 10, 781, 000 in cash and end up with $ 8, 368, 000, which is roughly a $ 2 million difference; but the City Manager presented the budget he knew he was said when he overstating approximately 4%, the Finance Director said 5%; ifyou use 5%, that gets it down to a deficit of only $ 1, 326, 000; and even with the increased taxes and the increased fees on garbage collection, we are showing we will come in about $ 1. 3 million short. The Finance comparing the actual cash Director said versus accrued accounting is comparing apples to oranges; for example. the $ 700, 000 loaned to RDA is money gone but it will not show up as expenditures. Mr. Maney complimented Mr. deVaux on his report, it was very revealing and he was glad it was done. He then said, referring back to the very first meeting on the budget, Mr. Wyatt said he thought Council should address the budget this year on the basis of determining what is needed, the services needed and then the money to provide those services. He said he likes that idea very much, trouble is they have not done it.  5 9- 24- 90 90/ 91 BUDGET ( CONT.) Mr. Maney said for some 25 years he was involved with putting together and analyzing the work in the bud~ ts; the last ten years he was running a budget of some $ 75 million dollars a year; every year when they put together a budget it was subject to first, the proposals by the various department heads and the chiefs. then it reviews were made, and rationale I was analyzed, was generated for the money wanted and the work to be done. He said last year, his first summer on Council, he was expecting something like that when the budget first came up and it wasn' tpresented that way, they just said here are the numbers, and he was new so he did not say much other than to suggest Manager to the City that maybe this year they could budget early, like in start on the March or April, to show some trend analysis that would give some rationale for what was coming in the next four or five months. He said their budget exercise is marked by superficial and incomplete information. with no supporting rationale at all. He said last Friday he saw for the first time the true budget of the City published in the paper, and it noted we have a $ 30 million budget. He said the only thing they have looked at, and that very superficially, is the General Fund budget which is around $ 19 million. He they said he thinks if are representing the citizens, they at all should look parts of the budget, the General Fund and the Enterprise Funds; he was waiting for that to happen and it hasn' t happened. He said the budget in the paper also says the beginning cash reserves on hand this year are $ 10. 8 million and the ending $ 8. 4 million, so that means even with a 12% increase in taxes, they are forecasting a loss of $ 2. 4 million, taking $ 1. 3 million out of the General Fund, and nine- tenths out of the Enterprise Fund. He said that amounts to living on our savings, and that should not be done, you use your reserves for contingencies, for example. the sewer spray field clean up, the water supply crisis last year. hurricanes, not for ordinary every day operations. This tells him Council has not done job; its the staff will prepare and present to Council what they ask staff to do, and they have done just that; they presented to Council some General Fund data, they did not do anything about the Enterprise Fund. no analysis of infrastructure needs and what money is required to fix or improve it, nothing about equipment needs or personnel needs, no trend data. I no they town Wyatt rationale; several should and miles cannot proposed because have; of the and new find right thing Council to streets it make in the did not matters and new budget. to do ask worse, sidewalks