HomeMy WebLinkAbout00 - Written CommentsReceived After Agenda Printed
May 26, 2020
Special Meeting
May 26, 2020, Council — Finance Committee Agenda Comments
The following comments on items on the joint Newport Beach City Council — Finance Committee agenda
are submitted by:
Jim Mosher (iimmosher(o-)-yahoo.com ), 2210 Private Road, Newport Beach 92660 (949-548-6229)
Item 1. Review of the Proposed Fiscal Year 2020-21 Operating Budget
In the absence of any staff report pointing out what the likely discussion points will be, it is a
difficult for the public to feel engaged in this prior to the meeting.
Although the item posted at the indicated online location looks like a quite complete budget
(especially compared to recent years in which whole sections, such as revenue details, were
missing from the proposed budget books), I understand from the recent Finance Committee
meeting that the projections of both revenue and expenditures are quite uncertain, so it is
regarded internally as a placeholder budget, subject to later revision.
As usual, answers to some of the most basic questions do not automatically pop to the top for
the casual reader. For example, whether the City's expected revenues will cover it's expected
expenses. Comparing the expected revenues at the bottom of page 33 to the expected
expenditures at the bottom of page 41 it appears there is expected to be a deficit of about $29
million. This seems to be confirmed by the amount by which the anticipated year-end total City
fund balance shown at the bottom of page 47 is less than the starting balance shown on the
same page, although the difference is not by exactly the same number.
As to this shortfall, there has been extensive discussion at the Finance Committee of staff's
proposed tiered approach to "short-term budgetary solutions" (the Council heard some of this
with Item 13 on April 28). In the absence of a staff report, it is unclear if the budget book to be
presented to the Council for approval on June 9 will be the presently -posted one, one
incorporating some of those adjustment tiers, or the present one with a separate schedule of
adjustments to it (what was formerly called the "check list").
Item 2. Discussion of the Fee Schedule Update for Fiscal Year 2020-21
In the absence of a staff report, it is good to see an advance copy of the presentation.
It would have been good to provide a link to the possible fee schedule that is the basis of the
slides. Something was presented to the Council as Item 16 at the March 24 meeting, but
withdrawn. Would staff be proposing the same thing on June 9? Or something different?
Some confusion regarding this seems understandable since on March 24, the staff report said
the increases were expected to capture an additional $580,000 per year with phase-in to
$630,000 without. But the number now seems higher ($840,000) even though the demand for
fee -generating services may be lower.
It is unclear why this is.