UnGovr Transcript
iHow this transcript is madeUnGovr transcribes the official recording with automated speech-to-text, separates speakers by voice, and matches voices to the seated roster. Names and attributions are AI estimates and may contain errors.Verify any quote yourself: click anywhere in the transcript and the official video jumps to that exact moment, so you can check any quote against the recording.Scheduled start 6:00 PM · clock-time estimates pending review
0:00 – 0:0518 turns
Well, let's move on. On the consent calendar any changes to the minutes?
Actually I have one change. The minutes indicate that City Manager Harvey and Finance Director Cho were also present but in fact they're official committee members so I think you need to migrate those names up to the other paragraph.
Ah well said Do you have that change? Okay, thank you. Any other changes? All right, move to accept the minutes as amended. Thank you. Second. Any objections? Okay, thank y'all. All right so moving on to our first item and that is fiscal year 2026-27 proposed budget.
Just one moment. Oh, you better be pulling up a presentation PowerPoint slide.
Absolutely. Actually, let me while you're doing that, let me
Agenda Discussionitems moved / continued / pulled — click to expand
just backtrack is are there any
public comments not related to anything on the agenda? OK. Speak of anytime if there are. OK, thanks.
So good afternoon, members of the Finance and Budget Committee. I will be reviewing and walking through the budget document for 26-27. Just as noted in the staff report this is a draft document we do have a second meeting scheduled for June 2nd to further have a discussion And also at that time we'll be reviewing current year budget amendments and the GAN limit as well.
I will be going through this presentation in a similar format to the one that was presented with the mid-year review, so I'll start with the revenues expenditures going into the fund balance So this document is included in the agenda packet. It's just a budget at a glance that highlights the general fund revenues, top three sources, the expenditures and the reserve but I'll be going into more detail in this presentation.
So this slide reviews the top three general fund revenue sources, sales tax, transient occupancy tax and property tax. And just incorporating feedback from the last committee meeting, this table shows where we're at through April 2026 in comparison to last year of what we received From the budget and revenues thus far just so that's a comparison with the similar measurement period as prior year So from this chart, we have received approximately 74% of the top three revenue sources The same period last fiscal year. We received 68 percent. So we are trending slightly ahead of what we had budgeted
Brenda can ask Do would you like to all questions to be at the end or while you're going forward?
I don't mind questions. Okay, just
I'm just asking how you'd like to proceed and is there a way to account for? How we're trending ahead there because that's nice to see I mean on the accounting So in other words, especially when I look at like property tax Is there a way to account for that difference between just a year's worth of work? I'm hoping that it's because of our changes in the accounting department, but that may not be
I'm sorry. Can you ask your question one more time?
Let's just take one line, property tax. And I see that if I look at the percent of the budget from last year compared to the percent of the budget this year and I see we're much closer to our 100% number on every column or every row. So I'm just curious what the reason for that would be? It's a great trend, just curious what it's about.
In comparison to what we budgeted, we're coming up a little bit ahead. So in that area, so for example with property tax, we get allocations throughout the year most significantly in December and April. So we'll have a few months trailing in the coming months but the comparison is to what we have budgeted. So yeah, we're trying to do slightly better than what we had originally anticipated when we prepared the budget.
So one answer is the budgeting's more accurate? I'm just trying to say you could take that two ways, either the revenue coming in is closer to what it's going to finally be or our budgeting is better.
I think it's just that what we're seeing is very strong home prices in Ojai. We continue to see that, and they continue to be. Ojai tends to be a little bit immune from the national market. People are still actively buying homes here in Payne, in some cases over asking, and we're seeing that.
Okay, thank you.
Could I ask a couple questions? Number one the as of April 30th figures those columns those were not in your package is that correct? Those are new numbers that we did not
see.
0:05 – 0:1420 turns
Okay, so that's my way of explaining why I'm asking the question rather than figure it out for myself. So if the pace of receipt of revenues by type is the same in each year which it doesn't necessarily have to be but quite often it's close. The fact that we have higher percents as the mayor has pointed out in the year-to-date this year All things being equal is indicative of relatively more conservative budgets this year versus last year with regard to revenue.
All that's a supposition based on the assumption that the pacing is the same. So my question to you is, based on these statistics do you have any guesstimate as to what revenue favorability you might be anticipating relative to the budget?
I will add with our top three sources, recently we engaged with HDL to better project out our budgets for revenue sources. So for example, I don't believe that the property tax when the 25-26 budget was adopted, we had expertise in revenue analysis and economic insight at that time. But as we move forward, we have included in our projections their analysis so the top three are considering with consultation HDL's projections.
Okay. Are these figures that will be given to us, you know, in writing somewhere that I can do analysis after the fact with? That would be nice if I could keep
those. Yeah, of course. I could share that. Okay.
Thank you.
And then this slide shows the general fund revenues, the current fiscal year budget alongside the proposed 26-27 and as I just mentioned the top three sources projected numbers are in consultation with HDL. And if you see the percentages of each category, it's about the same. But as we look into the 26-27 budget there are economic considerations factored in so you'll see that the increase in the revenues fall or are not as are growing at a slower rate than the expenditure side. So I just wanted to make that note, but in comparison of categories it's about the same.
For example sales tax is about 14% of the total general fund revenues in both years. I apologize. The screen is a little bit hard to see, but this is in the agenda packet. This This is a summary of the general fund expenditures by department. This is similar format to what you've seen before, but we did add a column for the So this is our 25-26 estimate of where we think we will land at the end of the year.
When we were doing this projection out, what we did was look through what we had paid through March 13th. We did take into consideration when projecting out for the rest of the year that there may be some timing delays with how we receive invoices and payment so Bigger contracts for example, like the sheriff's department that one as of these numbers was paid through March So we took into those considerations when we were Making the projection amount
Will you remind me what's non-departmental again I
Those are costs that are not specific to a department. So for example, a lot of the cost would be like insurance liability Okay Something that's allocated citywide not specific Thank
You
So Brenda, I have a question on the column that you just mentioned. The current year estimate totals the $17,283. That's a new number to this committee is also significantly lower than the revised budget that was last discussed when the legal expenses were increased in March. What I heard you say, and I want to make sure I heard it correctly is that you have looked at year-to-date spending through March, I believe. Through May. Through May?
Okay. Well, you're very clairvoyant. May's not quite done. May 13th, yes. The spending that you've seen so far and your guesstimate of what will come in the rest of the year, then these are the numbers you expect for these departments overall. So if I were to cut to the chase, last year we were at 16.1 round numbers Unaudited, but got to be close at this point.
And now we're coming up to 17.3. Is that a correct sort of bottom line on where you guess you are right now?
Yeah with the estimates that we're projecting out to them at the year, yes.
Okay That's good news I want to see her crystal ball and rent it if
I can, but separate issue. It seems like what we can do though is to say, we can look at this number and then get to the end of the year especially when we look at this report next year and see how accurate was that? So that would be a good thing to see.
Well, it raises another question at the risk of going deeper down the rabbit hole. The overall year-end change in general fund balance—I'm going to do this off the top of my head—is a couple hundred thousand different versus the numbers that were projected a couple months ago. Now that we, in theory, think that the expenses are going to be favorable to that by $1.2 million, the only way that number can be right is if there's an unfavorable trend in revenues because it's got a balance.
But as you just showed us, there is a really good chance that the trend in revenues is favorable. Which causes me to wonder if the actual projected balance for the general fund at this year end doesn't have a fairly major glitch in it compared to those two numbers. I don't know if you followed all that or not, and we can always do this offline. But from a bean counter point of view, if my revenues are favorable by 1.2 or whatever that implied number would have been and my expenses are favorable by this, I expect my year-end fund balance to be much higher than the number that is being shown. So, as I say, probably best if you have time in your office and you want to walk me through how that works, I'd love to do that. But right now it's a puzzlement to me.
** Yeah, we can walk through that offline. But to be conservative, we did not increase the revenue section when we were calculating the fund balance. I guess that calculation... **
But even if you didn't, still your 1.2 favorable on expenses, right? **
Right.
** So all things being equal, you'd expect fund balance forecast to be up 1. 2 and it's not. So anyhow, let's do that offline so we don't bore the heck out of our audience. But right now it's an unresolved puzzlement to me.
Yeah, there is a separate slide that I'll go over regarding the fund balance. So I do do in a calculation based on budget and another calculation based on the projections where we would see probably slightly above $1 million difference in that calculation
but we can walk through that.
0:14 – 0:2422 turns
Could I ask a question about the non-recurring expenditures down at the bottom? Yeah. Because it looks like you've included the additional purchase of 503 South Ventura in the budgeted and in the estimated amount, but then the other three items are not included in the year end Estimate for 2526. I'm just curious
I think that's because they're not going to happen this year. They were in the budget, but it was not going
to happen. They're just not
going to happen. That's right. They're going to be paid in the next fiscal
year? In the next OIC.
If not further, in case of the grant match. Who
knows? So it looks like OIC, just because they're going to be in that year, they're still going to occur.
So if you look at the OUSD grant match, we budgeted it when the council approved it. Right. But it's not going to be paid presumably in the fiscal year that we're embarking on soon.
Got it. Yeah, I see. So in terms of the total expenditures then the estimate is 18.2 instead of this 17.3 that's
right because of adding the property purchase
those just those additional two items do make it back up to 18 point and could
close the gap if that
no yeah okay all right
no good that's great Thanks for taking our questions in real time. No, that's okay not a
problem. Super So also within this document you know as Miss Roth mentioned we did differentiate the ongoing and the non-recurring expenditures so Just to Review the balance budget policy. The city will maintain a balanced budget policy, which means that the city's operating budget is a general fund budget Operating revenues must fully cover operating expenditures under this policy It's allowable for total expenditures to exceed revenues in a given year however in this situation beginning fund balance can only be used as to fund capital improvement plan projects or other one-time non-occurring expenditures.
So for this reason, we differentiated on the document so that we can identify which part would be operating versus non-occurring and the minimum fund balance policy, the City Council and city staff shall maintain a minimum fund balance of 100% of the prior year's general fund operating expenditures as the minimum general fund reserve So with that, on the next slide is the fund balance calculation for the reserve. So as I mentioned we did a couple of different scenarios so if we're looking at the first row is the fiscal year 25-26 budgeted versus the 25- 26 projected which is on the second line and then the last row is the 26-27 proposed.
So the beginning fund balance plus the revenues so we again split up the operating expenditures with a non-recurring to get the end balance column. And then of that ending balance column, we take 100% of the prior year's fiscal operating expenditures and then the last column is the unallocated beyond that 100% reserve amount.
May I? A couple of comments. Number one, the reserve policy makes no mention of excluding nonrecurring operating expenses from the calculation. So I think this is a an amendment to the existing reserve policy, which can only be undertaken by the City Council. So I think I would strongly urge that we for purposes of calculating this reserve figure not make spontaneous adjustments to the reserve calculation And I would also point out that the budget book, which was produced late last year and recreates the reserve calculations that were made at last year's budget time does not mention or adjust for non-recurring quote unquote items.
So I think that is not an appropriate thing for us to do. And I certainly would not endorse that. Having said that, even if you were to endorse it, deciding what may or may not be a non-recurring item is a devil's task because you get bogged down. Well how long does it have to go before it's deemed recurring? And you showed the fee study as non-recurring but fee studies do recur. You have to do them over a certain period of time Fee schedule, so so I think the non-recurring Gambit here is something that we need to back away from That's one
point. I support you just on that point before you go to your next one Just to say I thought that there's several items that we would like to look at around the the reserve That was one but in general just asking what do other cities do and have that comparative? conversation after we get through this cycle and get as our next item. But I think there's a few important conversations to have around what is the prudent way to have this reserved? That's one, agreed.
And I would agree 100%. To the extent that we do or do not think that's a good idea it should be within the context of the overall review of the reserve policy. Second thing, the unallocated number that you show up here is comparing against the prior year's expense number. And so in that 100% reserve column near the right-hand side, you've got the 16085 which is the 2425 expense.
But the day after that year is done, now you roll in the new number. And if the new operating expenditures for the next year, which would have been 24-25 I think, you're going to change that unallocated number quite a bit. And I will point out in the budget book it was done last year when you look at the reserve calculations And I brought that book with me just to make sure I don't misstate things. The projected reserve percentage for 24-25 was 110%, which was a $1.8 million Thank you.
I think gives the City Council, number one an inaccurate number and number two a inappropriate sense of how much Delta Fund as we were calling it actually exists. So all this rolls into what the mayor just said is we need to make sure we're all on the same page with how the reserve policy works and how we present the numbers Having said that, back in March when the City Council was being asked to consider the purchase of 503 South Ventura which they did. They were told at that time that the city had 5.8 million of unallocated reserve. That number is north of everything that I've seen so I think we owe it from a financial responsibility point of view to all understand what we're talking about and make sure the numbers
are right Sorry to interrupt. Isn't that the same conversation we're going to have, which is other council people have brought this up to say if you have an operating budget like in this case that's 1.2 more than the year before? We've had council people say it's an imprudent way to use the prior years balance for the current year because we would need more to actually operate for a year so we can get into it or say that's the topic of conversation after we get through this budget. That's one of them.
You're absolutely right in all this because there's no magic about last year's expense versus this year's expense but what is the case right now is we have a policy that's in black and white and And so we until it changes officially which hopefully will do and probably this conversation adds motivation to do that Until it changes. We got to stay Consistent with the way, it's actually described. Yeah, that's
And I just would jump in, you know, I understand the desire to have that discussion. We will have the discussion late in the summer but I don't know that we're all going to be on the same page. I don't agree with the comment about the fee study and other non-reoccurring expenditures. I believe that these are. The last fee study we did, I think was ten years ago maybe more?
It'd be nice if you did fee studies all the time, but you just don't they're very involved. They're expensive there. They're intrusive of Staff time and so that you just tend to not do them very frequently Also council members are reticent to raise fees which usually is what comes after you do a fee study So that's why you don't see them very often we can certainly have a general fund or excuse me reserve discussion We will make based upon that discussion a recommendation But it will go to the City Council and the City Council will be the one deciding
I was just meaning to say this is all the stuff that we will talk about. All those questions, yes?
0:24 – 0:3133 turns
And I will just add with the fund balance that is seen in the budget book currently is based on budget. So as time passes by, we will update that calculation based on actual expenditures. So if you recall last year and fiscal year 24-25 revenues, I think came in a lot higher than was budgeted as well as expenditures coming in a lot lower It plays a part in the calculation with the difference of what was projected in the initial budget book and what we are presenting now. So as we go on, we are updating the calculation from budgeted to actuals.
To the extent that we are going to publish an unallocated number, it is the product of a one-off update of expected spending which has neither received the review of the Budget Committee or the approval of the City Council within the context of a midyear budget review process. That would be I think an incorrect assumption of authority on the part of the finance department because I think this committee has a Very valid role to advise the City Council on financial condition issues and the City Council Retains the right to change the budget if they want to. I've made many points in the past about trends on expenses and revenues that appear to be very different than what's in the budget and For various reasons, not many of which I frankly understand.
The city council and the city administration is reticent to change the approved budget in situations that I think it's obvious the numbers are going to come in
different. Every month I'm asking the question how are we doing on the budget? I'm asking on the revenue and the expense side because I want us to be somewhat argue It all depends on do you think we overspent or not but I would argue we did not overspend that's my opinion But I'm continuing to ask those questions so that we can make prudent decisions. But this does sound like, again, part of that conversation that we can
have. And I would in no way dissuade you or criticize that. That's exactly what you should be doing. But to the extent that you publish a number that's seven digits accurate quote unquote and it's based on an assumption or forecast that you've done that has not had any review let alone approval. This
feels like a different subject than what we're talking about right now.
Well, the whole city is going to see 4.1, 5.6, 4.5. What they need to know is those are unblessed by anybody.
I don't think anybody's confused about that. Basically, the Finance and Budget Committee is reviewing a draft budget document. They're offering their input and feedback. Thank you for that. This will eventually go through one more meeting of this committee and then we'll go to the City Council. I don' think that anybody here, and if they are listening or watching, this is a draft and we are reviewing this with this committee. It's not to be proposed as-is adopted. I'm sure there will be some tweaks that we make along the way so just to make that abundantly clear, that's what we're doing.
That's a good clarification and the way I would say it is this is the sausage factory And so don't get too worked up about in the middle of the process.
I would just Say that there are not going to be wild Discrepancies and crazy amounts of money that are gonna be swinging around because this is pretty close to what will be coming back To the City Council, but we will certainly be incorporating feedback received
Thank you for that
So Brenda, just to clarify. So the 16085 will be updated based on what the actual audit numbers come out as the actual expenditures for the general fund?
Yes, correct.
Right. So depending upon what that is all these other numbers could change. OK.
16085,
that's the 2425 number. Is that correct?
No, 2526. The budgeted and the projected are both the same there? But it's 100% reserved
so it's going against the prior year's operating expenses. So do we know where we're at, when the audit is going to be completed?
We are still in progress with the 24-25 audit. Not the ideal timeline that we had anticipated but due to some department vacancies and transitions you know it's still in progress at this moment.
Would you expect that to be wildly different than this number of the audit findings?
No I do not
So when do you expect to have your audit completed?
I don't have an exact timeline for you right now, but it's a conversation I can have with you once I meet again with the auditors.
So is it like any week now or any month now?
What's hinging on this for you?
Well, because that's going to impact a lot of other things I think down the road, future meetings we have. Like
how much money is in the reserve?
Right.
Well, I could point out one obvious thing and that is there are several balance sheet issues that are reflected in the forecast budget but are not in the preliminary numbers because that was just P&L stuff So, for instance, we've got some very large swings of balances between various funds which we are completely in the dark with regard to whether they make sense or not until we see what the quote-unquote starting real balances were which will come out of that audit.
It doesn't seem as wild to me as you're characterizing it myself.
Multiple millions is wild. I just want to point out that we're quibbling over whether we have 20 million or 21 or 22 million in the bank, so let's just please focus on that. This is a huge amount of cash to be sitting on. We're a city with no debt and so whether we have 21, 22, 23, yes, I do agree we should know exactly how much but we also do not have direction to spend that. This is money that is sitting there.
** Spoken like a non-CPA. CPAs have a much different point of view when it
comes to... ** When I ask the question, do you expect that those numbers are going to be wildly different after the audit? And I'm hearing the department say they will not be wildly different than when we say oh there's a lot hinging on that doesn't seem real. That's how it appears to me.
Well, I don't want to elongate this more than the forum is agreeable to but there are some very significant fund transfer numbers and fund spending numbers. And I sent you all a lengthy note yesterday which Highlighted a number of those that Sort of thing could be second-guessed or adjusted based on what a final number for last year's year end turned out to be but so
0:31 – 0:4130 turns
Please proceed. Yes. Thank you
So that was the presentation for General Fund. If there's no other questions, I'm going to move on to Measure C projects and also our Public Works Director Lindy Palmer is here to discuss next fiscal year's capital improvement projects but this slide just shows some of the highlights of the project. Some of the timing of what was currently budgeted for this fiscal year will shift Part of the amendments that we'll see at the next meeting.
But with that, I'd like to invite our Public Works Director.
So these are proposed for 20 26 27, this
is our proposed CIP for the next fiscal year. Yes new projects only yes
And if I could just set the stage a little bit This is also a presentation on its own right and the next City Council meeting Thank you. So this is this what you're receiving in But if we have an extra copy, of course Mr. Miley and Andrea can have one absolutely What I was just pointing out to the committee into the audience is this is a draft This is going to be further revised it's going to be presented to the City Council for their review at the May 26 meeting And based upon that, it will then be incorporated into the proposed budget which will come forward on June 9th.
So this is a draft we are talking about.
So what you have in front of you is the department and, of course, city manager and accounting. We have all financed, we've all worked together on looking at our pot of gold that we can spend on CIP projects for next year. It kind of shrunk a little bit but I think we have 14 new projects so about projects that we awarded, we had awarded by City Council in this current fiscal year. For example our paving project that is just underway now. So those are things that are already under way in the current years budget so I'm only talking about today New budgeted items for next fiscal year. Mayor, do you have a question? No. Okay, okay. So the first sheet is an 8 1⁄2 by 11 and it kind of gives you a brief overview of what our five-year CIPs, so we put a five-year CIP together every year.
So year one is the following fiscal year and then so on and so forth. So we've got that table on the top of the eight and a half by 11, and then at the bottom of that, we've got the revenue sources that we have identified for all of these new projects that we have. We would we are proposing for next fiscal year. Any questions over? I'm happy to take questions as we go if you have any.
So these are the same numbers that are in the budget for Yes. Okay, well
Well it wouldn't be I'm looking at page one of what's in our packet Where you see measure C project highlights and I see there's eight projects That's the city facility energy all the way down to the speed humps with dollar amounts attached
yes
That's what we're focusing on today, correct? Yes.
So what we have done and Brenda you can maybe chime in on this one I'm talking about the projects were doing not necessarily the accounting of them so we've got I can just kind of give you a brief overview so we've got let's just say we have five million dollars today in our paving line item. We're not going to spend all that money this year, so what we're going to do is reduce this year's actuals and that would be our amended budget but the balance carries into the next year.
So you will see like you'll see like the paving budget, you'll see a blip for next year because it looks like we're doing two projects next year because two projects will be paid for next year. So questions on that? So so what I would like to talk about today is just the new projects, not what the account, what it looks like in your budget, just the new projects.
So and the budgeted amount for that. So I'm on now on page two of the big the long sheet That starts with, at the top of the page in red it's streets. So we have these based on all our categories. We have streets and we have parking lots, we have climate mitigation etc., facilities and things like that. So on the first sheet, our first line and I'm looking at this. The third column over that says year one fiscal year 2627. So our budget for the current year is four and a half million for our paving project. We are reducing that next year to two and a half million.
So we have that's for the construction of our paving project next year. And then the 250 below that is for the design for the following year's construction, which is typical of what we do. And we go down to the next amount and I'm just going to go down that column and wherever the cell is populated in year one. So that's what I'm focusing on today. So the next one is 600000, and that is for the second part of our ATP project. So that's the part from the Y all the way through town.
This is not Measure C funded. This is all external funding So I'm not talking about any particular funding source right now, but I can afterwards. Can I just
ask you about that because phase two ATP, I know it stopped in front of the Ben Franklin parking lot? It did
and we're picking it up there. Oh. I say the Y, I mean in that general area, but we're picking it up at Valerio going to the Y and coming up Ojai Avenue. Okay,
thanks Renee because yeah. Thank
you.
That's a that's a kind of a gap where you see Oh it needs to go a little further
and I
was
expecting it in phase one But I knew it wasn't planned or paid for for phase one And and I thought that was just going to be the phase two but you're saying phase two includes that in The
Ohio it does okay and and just To make note Caltrans doesn't include this phase 1 and phase 2 they don't consider it two phases of the same project We do for talking points, but it's really all one project. Construction happened last year on Phase 1. Construction hopefully will happen in a year or so out. The $600,000 is not the major construction element. It's the design which we're still working with Caltrans on. And you see in year two that $4.5 million.
The next year? The next year, and we were able to public work staff Jackie and I were able to secure a four-and-a-half million dollar grant for that so we have just done that the last six eight months. So yeah, so we've got funding for the whole project.
That's amazing news!
Yeah, so we're kind of excited for that. Does that
show up on your revenues as a grant?
No because I only have year one our only our budget year okay So that's all I'm talking about. I don't have the revenue and all that So the next line item down is a hundred and fifty thousand And that's for our concrete and sidewalk repairs that we add to our paving project We're doing that now, we plan on doing that again next year curbs and gutters and you know broken up sidewalks as we can On the streets that were planning on paving Mayor, you'll love this one.
Speed hump installation. So this is just sort of... It is a swag. We have no idea what that figure is really going to be. I'm bringing back a speed hump policy in the next month or so and the council needs to decide how permissive or how restrictive that policy ends up being because I suspect that there will be many requests. Anyways, if we just
ask how much per
it's about seven to eight thousand dollars per speed hump. And that's that's I'm trying to think of a road with it. That's about a 12 foot speed.
OK,
so road width single lane is about twelve feet.
That's what our Public Safety Commission hopefully will help vet.
Yes. So it's not inexpensive, you know? And also the general the general rule of thumb, if you have it over a long stretch of roadway They say somewhere between three and four hundred feet apart So there might be four speed humps on a street. So that's 30,000 so there's some costs involved for sure So that's that's what we've got first streets any questions before I carry on Okay, so I'm going on to page 3 And we have, this is our parks category.
So at the very top we have 250,000 and I think that was on Brenda's slide for Measure C so we are hoping to do something with the bathrooms at Libby. There's quite a few challenges there, there's some problems with the sewer there and we'll start really looking into that and seeing what we can do to improve that.
0:41 – 0:4838 turns
I don't know if I'm correct, but I've been told from people with parks and rec that there's an issue like you said with the sewer. Coming into the ticket booth area. So I know that you just have restrooms on here, but will you look take a deeper dive?
You know we'll take a deeper dive on the whole sewer system there It's so it's a very convoluted situation We understand that the restaurants that are along Ojai Avenue Just east of the park are tied into the lateral for the bathrooms at Libbey Park and And so there's this, yeah it's a mess. So we will be looking at that comprehensively for sure. Thank you. Can
I ask one question? So when I see as you just pointed out, so there is the Libbey Park restrooms and then when I look at page 1 of our packet, the one that's in the upper right hand corner where you see the overview of everything Where it has the Measure C project highlights, Libbey Park Restrooms and Improvements 325. So I'm assuming, I see that your dollar amount's here and there must be some more things related to Libbey Park.
So I'm not sure because I don't know what you're looking at, but I would guess that we have some other miscellaneous improvements going on at Libbey Park. Is that the $75,000? Okay so that gets you to the $325,000. We've had some requests from the music folks who would like some improvements happening, so we're planning on kind of addressing some of those as well.
At long last, it appears that we will be working on a new playground at Sarasota. The good news with that? That's all external funding. We have a parks grant for that money or for that project so that will not hit our general fund or our Measure C, any local funding.
How much is that grant?
We have a $750,000 grant. So we would hope to cover the playground construction design construction and then the next item down which it was this discussion about a walking trail around the perimeter of the park. So I talked to our parks manager just moments before this meeting started and the commission is ready to go so hopefully that can happen soon.
That's incredible
yeah The last one, last but not least on this category is Clough Vista Improvement. So that will be coming back to council all of this will be coming back to council for our councils blessing Modifications revisions whatever next week's meeting honestly so it'll be you'll be hearing about this next Tuesday everything You're hearing about tonight the preview of what we'll be talking about next
week
so
What's that?
Didn't we already approve CLUF?
No, what we said was there was some conversation about who is going to do what. We were going to look at a vendor. There were some questions about it. So no, it needs to come back to us and we've been meeting with some of the potentials. So we're waiting on a
proposal.
Can I go back? Do you mind if I could step back one? If you go back to the streets again and I see sidewalk construction between Comarco and Capri
Yes, okay.
Well, I'm assuming that's design
That is that is design.
Okay,
that is concept
understand
those are in year two
Yeah,
not in the
budget and I totally get that.
Okay?
I was saying it's on your radar though already
It is and I should I should add to you see below on in each of these categories You see highlighted Those are new projects that we have heard that people may want to do that We think might need to be done, or we've heard from council that they would like to see them. They're not funded this year. They're here placeholder for discussion later. OK, so I am at the bottom half of page three and that is the climate category. We I think we all know what that is. We've got a million dollars for climate tech to do what they need to do this year. And then we've got another half a million next year.
Yeah.
So and that's underway. So and I am now on page four, I'm in the facilities category. Now, the big item here on the facilities category is the is the support of housing, and I'm waiting at that figure. That's just sort of an estimate in a placeholder for what what we currently understand to be maybe an estimate that dignity moves will bail out the city this year. I don't know the answer where I'm working with that trying to get that figure updated right now.
So questions? No. So page five, so we have our stormwater category. Could I just ask one question? Yeah.
Because I do know all the energy efficiency upgrades can sometimes require additional roof or infrastructure improvements to be able to handle the more efficient energy upgrades. Is that happening? Are there capital improvements that need to be made to accommodate the more energy efficient equipment that you're anticipating?
So as part of Climate Tech's project, they have not. So so we had originally thought we needed to put a new roof on the gym at Sarasota because that's where the new HVAC would go right now. They have figured out a creative way and they're putting it on the ground. So the roof is not a critical path at this point. So the items that Climatech has proposed on do not need what you are talking about. They're ready to go, they are building some structures. They're building a solar structure at Libby. They're building a solar structure at the skate park but those are the structures they're building. Not any facility improvements.
No existing facilities need energy upgrades?
They do need energy upgrades, but like this building needs energy upgrades, but we don't need any infrastructure improvements to do those. Okay thank you.
Lindy, can I ask one question? On the Cabin Village, I see you have $3 million in this current year and $3 million in next year. And I heard you say that it's anybody's guess.
But hopefully it's not anybody's guess. I'm waiting to hear from Dignity Moves. I've had email exchanges today so that figure I'm hoping will be updated before next week. So we'll have current year, next year and the following.
Okay, the real question I was drilling down to is do we-I know the lead project is now in the DTSC evaluation phase. Do we have any insight as to how long until they give us the green light for that?
We hope to have a meeting with them this week and learn more about the timeline.
0:48 – 1:0350 turns
Just one follow-up, Mr. Harvey I'm assuming but you can clarify Do we need their green light before we can start putting equipment on the property and actually building?
Yes, we're gonna need certification from DTSC That's part of the contract that we entered into with them We didn't have to do that, but we did that right okay
Okay, I'm at page 5 at stormwater Year one, so this storm drain video inspection that goes hand in hand with our paving projects because our paving projects now include concrete repairs and storm drain repairs. So before we do our design, we want to get a video camera out there to look at the condition of these storm drains. So that's what that's for. And we've got and then the two hundred thousand on the bottom bottom of that category are the actual improvements that we would lump into our paving project next year And the very last item is a trolley stop shelter, we have some external funding We have some CMAQ funding available from our old Bank of America shelter that we constructed. This is leftover So we're hoping to use it. There's a small a small local match of 8200 but we have almost 70,000 and in external funding so we are just waiting to identify a Shelter that needs to be constructed
Okay
Questions?
That's the shelter, that's the one that's by the import shop.
We haven't identified...
I'm just looking at the address.
We haven't fully identified, we
haven't committed
to a location yet.
Great! Sounds good. This is the future year, so I'm not expecting anything more than just the tidbit. But when I see going back to streets, the feasibility study for safety improvements in the Arbolada-
Yes.
That year too, not now. Is that having some kind of general conversation around pedestrian safety walking on those streets? Okay, and I see that it's 500 the year after. So it's gonna be gigantic.
That's all to say it's going to be gigantic. And how we move forward, that's three years out if we want to explore that. This is something that city council will see every single year and I anticipate conversations will be had as these items move closer into or they move further
out.
So-
Thank you for that.
Yeah.
Okay.
Anything else?
Thank you so much. That's fantastic. I appreciate the detail. Back to you.
That concluded the presentation, but happy to answer any questions or go into further discussion.
I know you have many items so maybe truncate them or compartmentalize them So give it make a point and then we can respond to that before making more points
Okay, and in Brenda. I am gonna hold you to your pledge that we can't have an offline meeting They dig into some things that are too detailed for normal people to stay awake through the The transfer of the ERF grant funds to CIP, which is showing up in the fund projections, is the type of grant fund migration that Kroll and I. Bailey have both called out as creating risk of grant accounting difficulties, if not inaccuracies. And I'm wondering why we think we need to transfer it into CIP from a process point-of-view because the point they made is you can easily, I think, Charge the expenditures to the specific fund To the ERF fund for example without transferring it a CIP because once it goes to CIP now It's swimming with a bunch of other fish.
Sometimes you can't really tell for sure which one you caught so I'm curious why we're doing that and
The transfers, I agree. It does take a lot of work, a lot of journal entries, a lot of review. Currently the CIP holds different line items to account for specific projects so we do charge for example that project two designated line items. We do have a transfer that goes in and out of Fund 12 and Fund 31 That is something that we do want to address moving forward, but currently for example the CIP lives in Fund 31.
They are tracked by the GL chart of accounts. That also is a goal that we want to look at in the future too. make more, I guess streamlined and efficient. So based on the capital portion of that grant funded project lives in Fund 31 currently they are tracked and monitored by GL code, GL account strings So you'll see that the transfer in and out related to that project will tie out for the revenue and expenditure portion. So, the expense gets charged to the Capital Improvement Project Fund, the transfer in to the capital improvement fund you'll see in Fund 31, and then transfer out in the ERF grant fund.
Yeah, I did see that you have specific GL accounts within the CIP cost center or department to hopefully isolate it. It's just a question from an accounting control. We've never made it into the fund to start. Then you wouldn't have the risk of putting it in the wrong cost center. And I saw somewhere- Let's
pause before you go on to your next point, if that's okay? So well, I have a couple questions then we can ask or other people can ask. There are two quickies on page 18. This is about the sheriff motor officer. So I see the 350 in the current and then 10,000. Now does that related to the motorcycle purchase that we're proposing or tell me about the difference there?
So some of the changes that we will see in the proposed budget is attributed to different groupings or aligning the budget to where things have been actually charged. So for example, that motor officer is actually counted in the line above. And so when you see the year-to-date Number
six to the three nine is what I'm is that where you're saying? The 350 the 340 ish is going up to The line above it now. Is that right? Sorry, sorry for interrupting. That's what you just said, correct?
** I believe so. So the motor officer line item was already included in the line above that, so that is why in the next year we see a reduction, but it's accounted for, I guess, in the current budget twice inadvertently, but you know, we're moving forward to correct that. So if we look at the bottom line of where we project to end the fiscal year, it will be a bit lower than what is
Thank you. And then this one's fast, on page 38 under local transportation I'm seeing at the very top when we see the revenue side just curious just the details of the Gold Coast Transit in the coming year and then also the Transportation Subsidy the 400 so Just maybe talk about those because they do offset the cost quite a lot of operating their trolley
So the subsidy portion from the county, I believe it's to reimburse costs for outside city limits portion. And then the part from Gold Coast is the portion that we get within these city limits. It is based on an allocation that we receive based on expenditures. We budget and provide to these agencies, but you know we are still looking at the revenue sources and you know looking to draw down on some grant funding that we have so working with Norma to oversee the revenue portions
Yeah. No, thank you. I appreciate that.
Other questions? Can I just ask one follow-up on the ERF? I'm trying to make it quick. I saw a revenue of $5.2 million in the CIP account that is identified as an ERF fund revenue transfer in and number one, I didn't see a transfer out from ERF I'm not aware of where that money is coming from, but since I asked that question, I thought perhaps that's how you're accounting for the deposit that we gave to Dignity Moves that is now in theory coming back on our books as actual spending. Is that correct or am I confused times two?
No, it might be a little confusing to see because for example we recognize revenue as its spent so there's a matching principle. So whatever of the 12.7 million grant award that we received what we did not spend at the end of 25-26 we deferred as revenue and will recognize that remaining portion as we expend those grant fundings
Okay, so it's the recognition of deferred revenue within that one year. Okay I'll have to think about that and we may cover that offline.
So we're talking about transfers what are the contra funds? You know that's a separate fund but it doesn't really tell you know where we're gonna do it but I assume it's transferring between departments or
No, that's a good question. So the contract counts how they're – I'll give an example for PEG qualifying expenditures for example when we relieve the deferred revenue to recognize The cost that are eligible for specific funding, for example in this case the PEG fees. We do an entry to defer that portion so technically it would be kind of a wash in one of these sections. So for example we spend money for PEG qualifying equipment and then we're going to recognize that deferred revenue that we had that was set aside for these eligible purchases, but there's another side to the entry which you may see as a contra count because you have to offset that expense in For example, the PEG lies in the equipment fund. So I'm sorry if I'm confusing this but for example, the expenditure will be charged to the PEG account line item at the end of the year we'll review and see what qualifies as an eligible expense to be covered by the PEC funding.
And so we'll relieve part of that deferred revenue that has been accumulated to be spent on qualifying expenditures And it is just an accounting I guess process where we are offsetting some of the expenditures so that it doesn't, so it's a net loss for example because it's not the general fund contributing to that cost. It's taking So that is the funding that was set aside for these purposes.
Another time you might see a contract count is within the revenue side of the chart of accounts. For example, we have HDL processes business licenses so a contract account which would be technically an expense in I guess administrative costs.
So it's transferring?
Basically, yeah. It's a similar concept.
Thank you. Renee, any questions that you
have? Yeah. If we go to Fund 12, Measure C—
Could you give
us that page? Which is on page 34 of the document. I'm looking at, first of all, the revenue side. And I would have expected some interest income in 25 and 26. And I thought we actually did have interest income in 25-26. So I'm just curious about interest income because there was a substantial amount of income that I'm assuming would be earning interest and that should show up as a revenue source. Is that correct?
Yeah, that is correct. It might not have been included in the original budget but interest will be allocated to Measure C as well.
Rene, last year at budget time I had a conversation with Christy Billings about the interest income budget which was very low compared to what they were actually going to get and I don't know on this particular cost center whether it was zero. It looks like it was zero but that doesn't surprise me given the conversation I had with Christy last year.
Okay.
It should not have been zero but it was.
It should not have been zero, but OK. And then in terms of expenditures I'm not sure and I've asked this question in the past about salaries and a position is this for one position? Page 34, right under revenues we get into expenditures and there's salaries and benefits for some position. And I just have a question about what is this position that would be for fire or capital project management?
1:03 – 1:0930 turns
Yes, so within the fiscal 26-27 proposed that would cover two maintenance staff.
Two maintenance staff? So are those existing maintenance staff that are in the public works department and you're transferring those expenditures over to this? OK, that's and it was one position or one part time position and now
So we're proposing to have two maintenance employees be born from Measure C funds. In the same way that we're also proposing to have code enforcement expenditures borne from Measure C funds, specifically because the language of the voters approved calls out for infrastructure improvement and code enforcement. And while an infrastructure improvement is certainly a project, It also requires people to do it and our maintenance staff, I mean really we're avoiding charging the entire department to that. We don't think that's appropriate either but a small apportionment of the team too we think is prudent.
And then again as well we'd like to start charging code enforcement to measure C2 because that's also specifically called out in the language and it hasn't been done previously.
I'm just curious in with code enforcement, like a $250,000 bill. What do we generate in fines? Code enforcement fines?
I don't have that information. There are some extraordinary fines that we do receive. You're probably aware for instance short term rental assessment often can be quite high but I don' t have a good number for you. We can get that for you
Would you expect though that it would not be a revenue generation? No,
I wouldn't think of kind of being the same category as recreation. We are going to receive some citations and fees but our policy and we think that were consistent with what council is directing us to do is we're trying to achieve compliance and so If we can get someone to comply rather than fining them, we're obviously going to always go the compliance without the fine route. But I will bring forward it but it doesn't anywhere near offset the cost.
And then another one would be the plan check
expense
of how much income do we get?
Now that one, okay so that one's a little bit different and this kind of goes to the fee study. We're not collecting what it costs but this is why you need to do a fee study but you know the part where it's going to come back to the council and you may not like it. It could likely be that you need to increase fees considerably if you were going to collect what it actually costs and sometimes council makes a policy decision where they just don't want to recover that full cost because it gets passed on to the customer.
It depends on who the customer is. I'm assuming that's the conversation we're likely going
to have. Yes, so you'll need to direct us to go out for an RFP, do the RFP, do the work and then come back with the findings.
Thanks for asking those questions though, those are
rather money. So just to go back, this contract services code enforcement, so that's not a transfer to the general fund? That is an expense that is actually going to stay within, in other words because you do code enforcement.
We're proposing that it reside there doesn't have to but this is what's going into the proposed budget to the council. Did I answer that correctly?
So that's a departure from the past.
We have not been charging code enforcement to Measure C, but the language that the voters approved actually specifies that so we felt that was something that needed at a minimum it's a placeholder for the council. The council may decide they don't want to charge that entire amount maybe they want to charge more? But if in a minimum they need to have the discussion as to what they'd like to do
It just means you have to flip back and forth to see what is within the general fund budget for code enforcement, or is it all relying in-
So this again is going to be part of that discussion. And we'll get some direction from them as to how they want to proceed.
One point I'd make, Renee. To the extent we are migrating expense from general fund to Measure C and it could easily be called for within the context of Measure C description that is going to obviously impact in a small way The assessment we make about it with regard to our reserve policy because if it turns out other Funds are beginning to feel more like general fund then Very discreet specific separate stuff that could affect it just as a sidebar
Yeah, cuz right now I do see there's like there's a code enforcement item under building and safety So yeah, that's a conversation. We need to have you know makes sense. Oh
Then I'll just skip around. Another thing, it's probably just common sense but I'll put it out there with the reduction in gas tax, the revenue is that because of the EV cars?
I was going to ask the same thing.
And then if that's the case, I was wondering do we generate money from the charging stations? Does something come back to us?
Sadly you do not. You actually subsidize the rate that customers pay at those stations.
That's why?
It's a policy decision council made when they were installed and we can certainly revisit that, but that was the direction provided. I think the thought at the time was they wanted to incentivize use. Because
do you know what like a ballpark figure, what that generates?
I don't. We can bring that back, but yeah. But I do know it is subsidized.
1:09 – 1:1531 turns
Well, I've heard some conversations around doing something different than a gas tax since that's decreasing with electric vehicles more like to miles traveled and things like that. So those are conversations I'm hearing people have but it's related to the question you're asking.
And then could I just ask one more question? I do remember at the end of last year when you adopted the 25-26 budget, there was a appropriation made for fire mitigation. And I'm wondering where that would possibly show up in the proposed budget.
I will answer your question, but I also want to address the prior question regarding the gas tax. So if you look at page 37 we are proposing a new fund called The Road of Maintenance and Rehabilitation. Currently the RMRA or SB1 funding is lumped in with the gas tax funding so if you see on the top of page 37 The 215,714 used to live in Fund 22. So I'm just reallocating to separate those two different funding sources.
So just wanted to address that question and then in terms of the fire mitigation that can be seen-
Page 41.
Thank you.
So you see that there's a fire mitigation, the 38 of 386 for the current year. There's not a number for the coming year and that's something that we're, I mean to step in but I know we're meeting with the Fire Safe Council also not to say that that's a necessary re-up but how is it going? What's happening? We get their progress reports but right now when you see the no dollar amount there Thank you very much.
I think the real question is to the extent that City Council decides they're going to allocate resource there, it would be great to have that in the budget as part of the budget discussion.
We may not know all of the items yet but we could put a placeholder in there. We could certainly do that and that would be maybe part of the conversation that could be had in the sense of well if we want to pull from other things and go there, great. If we want to pull from Short-hand Delta great, but that's something that we can decide but there's things that there's proposals We don't have yet. So we may have to adjust the budget as time goes on
Then I just have my two cents. So to me, and I don't know if you guys agree because there's so much fluctuation in amounts from one year to the next and it would be nice and helpful like a brief explanation if it's not too much work. I think it would save a lot of conversation and everything to have that information.
Would you say over a certain threshold?
I guess we could, you know what I mean?
Well just like if you said it's more than 20% different. What's
the cost? You know some of them this one okay page 17 insurance which you know what I mean I know insurance has got up so from 112 to 295 to 377 you know just big numbers there's quite a few of them throughout The motor officer, she explained. So that was nice because that was a question. Let's see...
I was offering the threshold just to say you don't need an explanation when things
are the same. Do you want to give us a percentage? You want to say 20%? That
would be fair if... Yeah, I guess if that's...
That way, in other words we're not coming back to you with something and you're like okay well that's de minimis. I don't need
to know why it's $5,000 more. 20% is fine. I appreciate that. Don't
lose your train of thought. If you had it where... Do it however you want but if you had either a cell and a table or on a PDF where you hovered over that piece and the box came up, you don't have to have a big gigantic document. You can hover over where you want to be and everybody knows there's a hyperlink there with more information if you wish for it.
Whatever makes it easy.
** No, no. I'm saying you're going to make a document that you can actually manage because you don't have oh here's a whole other column with all this information and you can highlight it and go as deep as you
like.
Up to you
guys. Whatever. ** By the way have you hired the new accountant? **
Yes starting Tuesday.
** Oh yay! Time to hire yet another accountant I think. Yes,
Kim.
Because my comment kind of this additional comment goes along with what Kim was talking about the 20%. In the past I haven't seen a budget document that has all the account codes on it and I'm used to seeing the percentage increase column from one year to the next because your eyes can really focus on the percentage increase numbers and dial in on those numbers much more quickly. Is it possible to add, and I'm not sure how this document is generated if it's from your budgeting software module or if you're downloading it but I'm just wondering is there the capability of preparing a percentage increase or decrease from the prior year column in this spreadsheet?
Yeah, we can add that. Thank you.
I just think that would help process the numbers a little easier.
Thank you for doing that.
1:15 – 1:2012 turns
Can I just quickly on page 41? I mentioned it earlier but I wanted to clarify my mention a little bit. The permanent housing operating subsidy of $2 million is being transferred into CIP As a proposed expense next year I think the real plan is that goes over four years and not all in one year. So, I presume to your notion of how you defer things this really should only be 500 not 2 million would that be correct?
That's correct, and then it wouldn't also go into effect until the project is obviously completed. So it shouldn't even be reflected in the next fiscal year because it's going to be 27-28 before that's realized. And then the other thing is just as a placeholder for council you're going to be getting an item about a request to do an RFP for an operator so that will be coming to you so you can help us put that together and send that out.
Thank you. That's good.
And then another question I was wondering because we haven't finished our goals and tactics, how is do we have those items included in a budget or we have to wait till we button up to bring it back?
We were monitoring that. I mean, basically it's tough, right? Because we're focusing primarily on a couple things, right? Categories and then capital projects, right? And so we're trying to make sure that everything that you've prioritized as a tactic is somehow addressed if we think we can complete it within the fiscal year. Yes, we'd like to have that discussion with council but obviously with the number of items you guys had it's kind of been a lower Priority but if there's something that catches your eye in the goals and tactics that you feel that were not Addressing. We'd love to we wouldn't be surprised if we missed something. So thank you
Another on page 17 Miscellaneous community support 2425 was 422,000. 25 and 26, 322 and then 400. What is that community support?
That's for Ojai Tent Town. The tent town? So that includes like secure all for security there, a lot of the rentals for like the fence and the restrooms. That line item is also includes half of the behavioral health from Ventura County. That line items does it dedicated to OTT.
Can I just follow up on something you just said, Kim? It's like I'm looking at the goals right now and you don't have to go there. I could just bring up a couple as an indicative example. The establishment of a housing trust we had put in the goals tentatively $100,000 to develop the trust so we had said at the last council meeting oh yeah, we'd like to bring an ad hoc committee to investigate that So it seems to me there's a few, not everyone but on the goals document that's on the website. There is a projected cost there but in some of the cases for example the bike path to Soule Park that's only an investigative cost. That's not the bike path cost. Of course so then you would say oh if those are things we want to do we're going to have to look at those additional items they're not in the budget right now and say does this make sense?
Where do we want to pull from or how would we want the money to be there So there is a lot of goals still that they're still there. Progress is made, but we'll have to decide what to pursue.
Well then I'm going to bring something else up. I noticed that with art they did receive $100,000 and I notice that's in the next proposed budget, but we haven't agreed to that when there are other things so that to me just doesn't make
sense. It's for you to decide. We bring forward just what's proposed and sometimes if you've done it. So it's a little bit of a tough call.
Staff is not making the decision that that's going to be approved. We're just so I'll give you an example yes because
We're guessing what you might want, so we think that there are some that want more than $100,000 for the Arts Commission. So we've got those talking at us both sides but to the earlier point about the Firesafe Council, that contract ends mid-fiscal year and we don't have a current proposal from the Firesafe Council or any other body and one thing we also are hearing from some members is well maybe next time We decide on something, we go out for an RFP for it. So we're waiting for the discussion and the budget's a living document.
And I think the mayor or Mr. Creasy or somebody mentioned changing the pie slices, that's what you can do. Or you can draw from your unprogrammed if you want to do that too.
1:20 – 1:256 turns
May I ask a question on salaries? When I run the overall salary numbers and take into account the additional heads, Had previously said that there was going to be a salary study done. I don't know whether that has happened or not, 1% doesn't sound to me like the type of number we would want on necessarily budget.
So, yeah on that topic we're going into closed session on the 26th with the council to discuss the salary survey and to discuss the proposed personnel changes within the next fiscal year. It's certainly not something that's secret as to what we're proposing I'll give this committee kind of a headline So, we've had a salary survey conducted. Overall the total compensation for the positions we surveyed against the comparator agencies in the region that we use is Within 5% of the market median, which is good. And the third party recommendation that we received, the person who did the survey is consistent with ours, which is you're on target if you're within 5% of that median. That means good job council. You raised up salaries two years ago. You did a CPI last year and now you're exactly where you roughly want to be.
With that said we've also heard council talking about a desire to try to further recruit and retain our internal staff And so we're proposing some internal career ladder positions namely at the assistant director level in all of our departments and some other logical progression levels. Those promotions wouldn't take effect until halfway through the year, one because we want to be fiscally responsible but two the way I like to do promotions is congratulations here's your new title you get to keep what you're working on currently and you get to go do more and that's how Yeah, exactly. But that's what we're able to do. We want to be very mindful here and this goes to Ms. Roth's point. You know, we do operate under the GAN limit. We're not empire building.
You are only 7500 people. We're not trying to come up with a staff roster all of a sudden that's 100 people. We think we need to be well below 50. And we are, and we're trying to stay there. We do also have some positions that are halftime or three-quarter time, and I'll give you some examples. The Homeless Services Coordinator, the Transit Supervisor, we have a maintenance employee at Serzotti Park that we feel that the work that's out there and the benefits the community would receive would be great if we could just move that to full time. So we're proposing that as well.
Those augmentations, the three-quarter and a half to full, we'd like the council to approve it so that those took effect starting July 1. The other promotional opportunities were suggesting halfway through the fiscal year again with the identification of the additional duties that incumbent would be taking on. So, we're not recommending council can decide otherwise a citywide COLA at this time. Council can obviously decide something different but we felt we've been very consistent with the council with the message that we like the salary surveys because it's just data and it comes back to you and these are Agencies we compete with and we lose employees to.
And if the data suggests that where we're trying to be, we don't want to tell you that you necessarily need to increase. In the day-to-day results that I'm seeing, I'm not having a drastic number of departures and with the recruitments we've been performing, we've been getting a robust response so right around where we need to be. However, as everybody here knows the labor market constantly changes and you know we'll always want to do a salary survey each year to make sure that we're kind of close so To answer a question that Mr. Creasy had what we're happy to release the salary survey But I would want to do so after it's no longer a working draft after I've gone into closed session with the council And I've answered questions and made tweaks in terms and then of course We're happy to release that And we do it for all city classifications that we have.
We do it for all on the salary schedule, I believe unless there's one glaring one that we know we're not going to fill. It's not a good use of someone's time to pursue.
When was the last study done?
Two years ago. Yeah.
Do you want to come up? All right,
double-fisted. He's coming up just one quick question I was wondering page 31 contract services I think that's solid waste that it's doubled just curious I know what it kind of means, but I don't want to say.
1:25 – 1:3627 turns
So this is just an example of like consolidating some of the line items so if you look at the prior year or I guess the line item right below it's zeroed out because we're moving two items into one so that 3030 in the prior year excuse me is the 60,000 in the next year.
Thank you. The bottom lines are the same on that item yeah yes Bill please
Hello. Hi. My wife, Cookie, who passed four years ago should really be making this speech. She always balanced the budget and she paid off my mortgage. And now we subsidized chargers That's hugely unfair in my opinion. Okay, number one, TOT tax statements for the audience transit occupancy tax. This is what I understand. The measure seat tax of TOT for 5% does not go into the general fund as it has its own account separately this year coming up $4,170,000. Two, in the beginning pages of the report it shows revenue from TOT as 8,107,000 about 600,000 more than the other year which is really great 10%, we've been charging that for years.
Three, I find it was always helpful to list similar source revenues, TOT together for planning purposes and economic management. 10% plus five are sources from tourist lodging The state fuel tax, we already know about that. I'm assuming it's from electric vehicles, $200,000 less. The property tax revenue from 26-27 is estimated to be $4,300,000 plus. Yet on page eight, it shows secured property. And maybe I don't understand this. Secured property is not property tax, right?
Yes or no?
City does not pay property tax.
So okay. So it says on page eight, secured property is 2.5. Are those things like trailers and such?
So maybe you want to complete the comment and we can respond all the
questions. No, please but don't go on forever so you want to be succinct enough to know what your questions are. I'm
just wondering whether secured property of 2.5 relates to property tax of 4.3?
No please, go ahead, please answer.
The property tax that line item also includes VLF so that's another line item that attributes to the $4 million. So it's a combination of secured, unsecured and VLF. So the vehicle licensing fee is also lumped into that line item that you're seeing.
We have the same or more property tax this coming year than the current year right? Oh, I'm sorry. We are getting more property tax the coming year than this year?
Yes, we're projected that revenue source is projected to increase but it also includes the VLF which is not included in that secured property tax line item.
I just want to know that we're getting more. Okay. It's good to know how much money we spend on contractors for our general plan, a quarter of a million dollars. What I did not see was the trolley section to know what that service costs per year.
It's there. It's local transportation, the local transit or transportation
section. I didn't see that. And I did see how much revenue we take.
It's
also
on that. Which was $31,000.
I could let you know, Bill. In a few more weeks, Ventura County will be issuing their latest three-year update of trolley performance and the Ojai report. All transit services get this done every three years It's an extremely useful document to look at, to understand ridership, fare trends, cost trends. It's by far the best way to look at it so if you wait till early June I can send you a copy of that once it is downloaded from Ventura
County. Just so you know its pages 38 and 39 of the packet? Thanks.
As you know, I really fully support the trolley system and the trolley drivers. Next item. The section on encampment resolution funding is good to have but without knowing where the balance of the almost $13 million award went It's very challenging to understand and try to share that with others. I did see in one of the ending account paragraphs two plus million in other categories, and heard that at a recent council meeting.
With the latest public statement we have about nine $9,400,000 from building contractors to five who submitted costs. I'm sorry. That's what we predicted and we ended up getting five submissions that are at least a million dollars more. And what do we have in the statement, in the budget statement? 5.4, $5,497,000. Ouch! So what is this budget discussion and report all about?
My answer that we take in and spend money and stay out of deficit, which is against the law. If I'm the public one key thing I want is to know what the money produced. I believe the citizens want a list of major accomplishments Products completed, services provided, crime solved or stopped early. Stormwater damage prevented or minimized to go along with the budget report and Lindy did that in a way of showing what she'd accomplished and what she's going to accomplish.
And the last is Here's my request, which is not appropriate to you. I believe the City of Ojai should issue at the end of each year a quote report to Ojai on what we have done during the last 12 months or an annual report to the citizens of Ojai on how their government works and spends their money. Thank you.
You'll be happy to know that there is an RFP out for a state of the city that we'll be discussing, and it's to make hopefully exactly what you're hoping for.
And I told this council, City of Pasadena produces an annual report which is really good.
I'd love to use that as a model.
I thought about moving there just to read it.
Whoa! Stay here. Thank you Bill. All right, so there's no action really except for we should go on to our next item which is the investment.
Could I ask one more question? The community service grants and I was looking for it again and I can't find it but I know the Green Coalition is in here somewhere on some page And there's no money allocated for 26, 27. And I thought there was an additional allocation for 25, 26 that I don't see in the number represented of $45,000. Anybody know what page that's on?
Oh here it is. It's on page 17. Page 17 in the middle of the page. Thank you.
1:36 – 1:4115 turns
They recently received a Submitted proposal which was approved by the council. It was largely to do some cleanup work if you will on The campus in this fiscal year, but that's that's the extent of money that the council has authorized the Green Coalition so If the Green Coalition if the council wants to allocate more money towards the Green Coalition in the next fiscal year again That kind of falls in the same category a little bit as the fire safe council work and that We don't I don't know where the council really sits on that and I don' feel comfortable putting a placeholder Council certainly is aware of that And and that can be a discussion about budget time or after it's a living document and they can amend it
I just thought the number for this year was higher than $41,000. And I thought there was an extension but I don't remember exactly
what it was. There's $200,000 not this coming year but the next year that's part of the plan back here. But I think we will see more projects come up that will come out in a general kind of I would call it a service category or nonprofit partner category because help may come up there. Help with Ohio, I mean by that? So I think there's going to be other vendors They're just not here with us right now.
And I remember we talked about this at the last budget meeting and you said we don't do a everybody submit a plan, it's on an as-needed basis kind of
thing. Just to spill the beans if you remember a few years ago the city used to have a kind of 1% of its fund that nonprofits were applying to I'm eager to bring that forward again. So that's something they'll be bringing forward to the council to discuss, to say it's not new It's something we used to do. I would love to bring it back
Is that the one that takes over for CDBG grants or CDBD grants gone forever? It was in here somewhere
Yeah, we're not an entitlement city Yeah, so we the only CDBG grants that we might be eligible for and I don't even know if they're still. I think they might have been gutted. They used to have a rehab grant that you could offer if your age and income eligible and then put a lien on the house. And I don't know if that program is even still out there but that department has been pretty gone.
Just before we run out of time, I'd love to receive the investment policy or discuss that. If there's anything to discuss? It looks like there are no changes. Am I seeing that?
Mayor, sorry to interrupt. We do have an attendee online. Oh please! No,
sorry. That's a good interruption.
Becky, if you have a question, do you mind raising your hand? And I don't know if I have access to let them in but I've let our IT know so just in case. Thank you for interrupting.
Okay, thanks.
Yeah so the second item is the investment policy review per the adopted financial policy. The investment policy is one that is to be adopted annually. So just bringing this item before this committee. This policy was awarded from California Municipal Treasurer's Association The investment policy certification earlier this fiscal year it received positive comments and is one example listed on their website as a Example policy currently we are not proposing any changes but has have confirmed that it aligns with government code and best practice standards I
My only comment would be, last year at this time we were a little bit timing-wise under the gun and I had suggested a handful of minor glitch edits that did not make it into last year's policy. And obviously since we're just rolling it forward as is, they're not making it into this year's policy either. It's a minor issue but in our one-on-one meeting coming up I will give you the list that I gave to Christy last year just in case you want to do some things there. The other point I would make is the actual policy as it shows up in our budget book does not have section numbers in it But the language of the policy makes reference to section numbers in various places and it's kind of odd Say section 7 says X but in fact, you can't find section 7 no matter how hard you look So we can talk about that offline.
Thank you. No, thank you. That's helpful Thank you, I don't think there's any other questions so what the meeting that we're gonna have on June 2nd is Describe, is that going to be a more detailed report that fixes some of these issues? What do you anticipate happening on June 2nd?
1:41 – 1:4624 turns
We just wanted to give the Finance and Budget Committee, if the committee wanted another opportunity based upon what we heard today. And if the committee doesn't want to meet and they feel the direction and input provided today is sufficient that's fine. We've made a list of things that we need to tweak and address within what's going to be presented. And we're happy to come back and maybe we don't need two hours that day, maybe we just need an hour.
I mean, I'm just freestyling here. Brenda and Leah does that sound? But you know what-
We have a visitor coming though on the GAN limits is that
correct? Sorry, I totally forgot about that forgive me. So Ms. Roth we have contracted thank you with the auditing firm and they have an expert on the GAN limit and they are taking a look at our situation as it relates to the GAM limit and You know, offering their opinion as to whether the city is in compliance or out of compliance. As well as just a general discussion on the GAN limit itself. So thank you for that reason alone we need to
meet. That's appropriate.
I forgot about that. Thank you. And
that sounds good. Smaller glitches that I pointed out in my memo, which I think hey, I would like to see another round of the budget So that anything that we decide to address is actually there because if we give it as you well know the City Council is operates at a much higher level and And it'd be nice for us to be able to say there's no obvious You know numeric glitches in this and you can do all the policy stuff you want So I would vote for that meeting
if you if it were possible to have those percentage Decreases or increases in that report. That would be useful if it's possible
Salaries went from 161 to 324 412
That's also partly offset by some revenue, it just reflects mostly an increase in programming. But again, it's not one where you're going to be 100% whole and I think that also is reflecting if I recall correctly the Nordoff pool? We didn't put that in there yet proposed?
** We did include the Blackboard. ** That solves that!
** Okay, so there you go. A quick explanation would have been perfect. Thank you.
** Yeah, just to add also in the salaries what was budgeted was a little bit low for the current year. So when we did our projection out, we're closer to the 385 mark for that specific line item. So that jump is maybe not as drastic as it might seem when we're comparing it to the budget versus what we are projecting out to the end of the year.
One more thing, sorry. Page 38, local transportation. The CMAQ grant trolley, I don't know what, $407,500? What is that for?
I will have to look into it, but I believe that it is related to the line item below it. So it might be just an adjustment we would have to make. But the CMAQ also is related to Lyndsay mentioned prior that we have some grant funding so that would be the 75,000 for like the trolley shelter. But I will have to double check and look into it, but from what I see, I think it might just be needed
Thank you for.
I'm
sorry, page 41, the miscellaneous grants. It would be nice to see what those grants were just.
Yeah, we can include that the 750 is the one that Lindy had mentioned with
this park. Yes. And I promise that's it now.
No, fine. That's good. Any other questions?
Microphone. There were lots of numbers that didn't check with what was in the budget document and what was in the summary document. And I'm just wondering, is there an explanation for that?
** We'll make sure that all the numbers are flowing. Currently, you know we're using Excel so we'll make sure that all the links are not...
** I'm going to go through all of that stuff in our fund meeting that we have coming up during your normal business hours. **
Okay. I just wanted to acknowledge that it...I went through just as a matter of course this should add up to that and there were some inconsistencies in prior years and So anyway, great. I look forward to that happening. Thank you.
1:47 – 1:4913 turns
So Christy really, she's a CalPERS retired annuitant and the CalPERS is very clear with their rules. You can't have two chiefs if you will. And so we have our own special assignment and she's only really working on that. She's working on the crull report and then she's going to be the one bringing the fee study back. She's limited by the hours and I think We've reduced the number of hours for her in our next fiscal year just in recognition that we're really getting to fully staffed and she's retired.
We love her, but yeah.
Thank you for all the work. Appreciate it. Okay?
Is there anything going to come forth in terms of the next meeting regarding the—there were four things that we were going Reserve above and beyond The reserve I can't remember that. Well,
so for the next meeting we're going to be very focused on just what we heard again today Yeah, well we heard today You know, mr. Creasy's gonna have his meeting with miss Cho they're gonna go through we're gonna try to address any discrepancies That will really be the focus along with again limit presentation Later in the summer, after the council has reviewed the budget and adopted it. That's when we'd like to come back forward and say okay now let's dive into the reserve policy. Would you like to have strategic layers? Would you like to identify thresholds and amounts and uses and all that stuff? Along with I think we have a couple other items on our list. A measure
C policy.
Measure C policy. That was the other thing
I was going to bring
up
is that measure
C. But we really wanted to carve that out so this committee could just focus on making sure the budget had
what
was in it that
needed to be there. I'm looking forward to those conversations actually. I think that's going to be really fruitful. Yes, thanks guys! Meeting adjourned.