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Roosevelt City Council approves FY25 budget adjustments, asks staff to probe rising bank fees
Summary
Council approved a set of midyear adjustments to the fiscal year 2025 budget, covering program donations, capital maintenance and unplanned utility and bank fees; council also approved routine financials. Members asked staff to analyze and recommend ways to reduce growing credit-card processing costs.
Roosevelt City Council approved adjustments to its fiscal year 2025 budget on a unanimous vote after a brief public hearing and discussion about rising bank and card-processing charges.
Council members voted to add lineup items including a $13,000 allocation for a Fourth of July community celebration, reinstate insurance claim reimbursements for police fleet maintenance, budget donated funds for parks and golf course improvements, and add funds for irrigation and sewer pump replacements. Finance staff told the council the total requested increase across all funds was $498,744.79.
The changes were presented by Zeke, a city staff member handling the budget review. Zeke said bank charges and processing fees throughout the budget added up to a requested $85,900 because last fiscal-year spending outpaced the amount the city had budgeted. "Last fiscal year, we spent 98,000, but we only budgeted 44,000 this year," Zeke said. He told council an additional $30,000 in fees had hit accounts and staff would analyze where fees are coming from and whether options such as surcharges or discounts for noncard payments should be considered.
The council moved the budget to a public hearing and, after hearing no public comments on the changes, returned to regular session and approved the requested adjustments. Councilman White moved to approve the amendments; Councilman Allen seconded. The motion passed with all council members present voting aye.
Council also approved the regular monthly financial reports for the city after staff noted revenues and expenditures were tracking roughly on schedule: "With 33.4% of the year remaining, we are only 39% short of our revenues, which is expected," a staff presenter said. Capital-project spending was below budget and staff said they expect to roll unobligated capital funds back to the general fund at year-end.
The council asked staff to return with options to mitigate card-processing fees, including whether fees could be shifted to payers who use cards or whether incentives could be offered for using bank transfers or cash. The finance presenter said the city would analyze peer practices and return with recommendations.
The council also heard a separate update that some depreciation entries and a multi-phase street/water project will affect end-of-year accounting, and that staff would present a preliminary budget for the next fiscal year in a few weeks.
