City Commission Meeting Summary - April 15, 2009
The City Commission met in special budget workshop session and took the following action:
Received a staff update and discussed the revised downward revenue estimates and revised projected deficits for FY2009 and FY2010, including:
revised projected deficits of ($1.8 million) in FY2009 and ($7.4 million) in FY2010 for the General Fund
revised projected transfers from the Deficiencies Fund requiring an additional amount of $425,000, for a total of $2.8 million, for Fire Services; and an additional amount of $244,244, for a total of $7.9 million, for StarMetro
revised projected deficits of ($824,000) in FY2009 for the Building Inspection Fund, and ($167,481) for the Golf Course Fund
Discussed the actions being taken to address the projected FY2009 General Fund deficit (pages 4-5 of the Agenda Item), and requested additional information on:
a comparison of total overtime to a year earlier,
any unfunded projects that were on the Sales Tax List,
potential impacts of suspending purchases of new vehicles for 18 months,
whether the City's current vehicle replacement policy was conservative or liberal when compared to other agencies of government,
whether the $400,000 purchase of police cars could be delayed another couple of years,
savings from reduced overtime,
savings and impacts of eliminating all car allowances, and
potential of federal funding through the COPS Program
Voted 5-0 to approve acceptance of the FY2009 Year End Report and approve actions identified for preventing a year-end deficit of ($1.8 million) in the General Fund, excluding the $400,000 purchase of police vehicles from Sales Tax and the $200,000 Red Light Camera Fees Program pending additional information (Option 1 as amended)
Discussed the staff's assumptions for the FY2010 General Fund budget (pages 6-10 of Agenda Item, on file in the Office of the City Treasurer-Clerk), and requested additional information on:
CTC:RM:ecg:04-16-09type of personnel or program cut that would be required to achieve some percentage of the projected deficit,
some discussion of the kind of cuts that were anticipated to be ongoing,
more information on a realistic personnel furlough and how it would be implemented,
information on a salary decrease in equitable fashion,
the number of personnel that would need to be cut to solve the deficit,
a form/matrix showing departments and programmatic areas, a simplistic view of their functions, savings from potential cuts
information on OPED (will be included in overall budget proposal)