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City finance director briefs council on March quarterly report; council adopts April budget amendment
Summary
Finance Director presented March 2025 quarterly reports, warned of cash-flow timing and noted interfund loans and debt; council approved an ordinance amending the budget (Ordinance 4392) after discussion of fund-balance reconciliation and specific overages.
The Edmonds finance director presented the March 2025 quarterly financial report at the May 6 council meeting and told council members the city is monitoring revenues, expenditures and several one-time timing items.
Director Gold (identified in the packet and testimony as "Director Gold") told council supplemental reports had been added, including two-year budget forecasts and a debt summary. She said the finance team now produces trend analyses that compare year-to-date activity across multiple years and that staff will bring updated projections to a longer, full-day budget workshop later in the week.
Council members pressed for explanations of specific variances. Council member Dasch noted that packet figures showed Community Services/Economic Development at roughly 35% of the annual budget after one quarter (compared with a target of 25%), the police department at about 13% over the expected pace, and non‑departmental expenditures up nearly 46% primarily because of an annual payment to WCIA for insurance (Director Gold identified an $1,100,000+ payment as the main driver).
Director Gold also outlined the city’s outstanding debt and interfund loan. She said total debt outstanding appears to be roughly $64 million and described the interfund loan the city used to cover an earlier shortfall; she said property-tax receipts later in the spring will help replenish cash balances and that staff will meet with the city’s debt manager to review options for refunding or lowering interest costs.
Council members raised concerns about large, year-to-year changes in beginning fund balances and asked for reconciliations. Director Gold agreed to provide a reconciliation showing how the adopted beginning balance, the audited year-end balance and the amended beginning balance relate and to produce a cash-reconciliation report that ties fund-balance accounting to the city’s bank and investment balances.
On the same agenda the council considered a multi-fund April budget amendment dealing with unanticipated transfers and expenditures and an updated FTE schedule for planning department changes. Councilmember Tibbitt moved the ordinance amending ordinance number 4,377 and the council approved the measure in a roll-call vote (motion recorded in the minutes as passing 6–1). The agenda and staff report identified the ordinance as Ordinance 4392.
Council members stressed they want future budget packages to be clearer, with totals and clearer transfer tables; Director Gold said staff would simplify exhibits and include a one‑page cash reconciliation for future packages.
No supplemental appropriations for new ongoing programs were approved; the April amendment reallocated and recognized previously unrecorded or carry-forward activity and adjusted interfund transfer allocations per staff explanation.
