Council to make sense of city dollars

City councilors will start planning the city’s financial future Tuesday evening.

They will have some help.

The seven councilors will be joined by the seven other members of the budget board for the work session that starts at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 1655 First St.

The session is open to the public.

The seven other members — all appointed by the City Council — advise councilors on matters related to the budget.

The City Council, however, has the final say in adopting the spending plan.

The agenda for Tuesday’s work session calls for a general rather than specific discussion.

This is necessary, since the city staff won’t complete the proposed budget until mid May. That budget will cover the 2010-11 fiscal year, which starts July 1.

The budget board’s first official meeting, during which members will review that proposed budget line by line, is scheduled for May 19.

During Tuesday’s work session the budget board will pore over spreadsheets showing the city’s financial situation through the first half of the current fiscal year.

Those documents show that the city spent less than it budgeted during that six-month period for each of the three main departments within the general fund: police, fire and administration.

Combined, those departments comprise about 58 percent of the $5.8 million general fund.

As of Dec. 31, 2009, spending in the police department was about 42.2 percent of budget. The fire department was at 44.6 percent, and administration at 41.1 percent.

Overall, general fund spending totaled almost $2.3 million, about 39 percent of the budgeted amount.

The biggest source of revenue for the general fund is property taxes, at about $2.1 million per year. The city also collects about $750,000 per year in franchise fees paid by cable TV, natural gas and electric utilities, and about $550,000 per year in ambulance bills.

General fund revenue also includes about $1.2 million cash reserves.

The water and sewer departments each has a separate budget, with most of the revenue coming from customers’ bills.

Through the first half of this fiscal year, the city collected slightly more than $1 million from water customers, about 54 percent of the total budgeted for the year.

Sewer bill collections totaled $482,000, about 51 percent of the amount budgeted.

After reviewing the year-to-date spreadsheets, the budget board will discuss the city’s spending priorities for the coming fiscal year.

Budget board members are: Alan Blair, Debra Bainter, Nelson Clarke, Randy Daugherty, Roger Coles, Peter Ellingson and Reid Langrill.