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Council presses administration on staffing charges to Affordable Housing Trust Fund and parks millage
Summary
Council members questioned administration officials about moving staff positions onto special funds, asking for a line-item accounting of how many FTEs and what dollar amounts will be paid from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund and the parks millage rather than the general fund.
Council members on Thursday pressed city officials about the practice of funding full-time staff positions from special revenue sources such as the Affordable Housing Trust Fund and the parks millage, saying the decisions change the long-term footprint of city employment.
Council President Shipman and several council members raised concerns that charging permanent FTEs to trust or millage funds makes those positions effectively permanent and shifts a sustained personnel cost onto dedicated revenue streams. "There's a difference between paying out of a general fund and paying out of a revenue stream like a trust fund," Shipman said, noting the permanence of personnel decisions and the effect on long-term commitments.
Jolanda Carr of the Department of Finance told the council the initial positions moving from the executive office into the Affordable Housing Trust Fund represented about $2,000,000 in personnel costs. Finance and HR staff said they will provide a detailed list of the funds and the FTEs charged to each fund before the personnel-substitute paper. CFO Bala clarified the funding source for the trust fund: "The affordable housing trust fund is funded by general funds," Bala said, explaining that budget allocations originate in the general fund and are then allocated to the trust fund in the annual budget process.
Parks and Recreation reported 142 position transfers from the general fund into the parks millage fund and estimated that those transfers represented roughly $9,200,000. Parks staff described the transferred roles as maintenance and operations positions such as tree trimmers, arborists and park workers intended to support park maintenance and security under the millage program.
Councilmember Hillis and others said they expected more specificity about how much of those funds would pay salaries rather than capital or programmatic investments. Councilmember Hillis asked, "what will those positions be tasked with that kind of fit into the millage fund of parks improvements?" Parks staff answered they would be used for park maintenance duties.
Council members asked finance to return a line-level accounting that shows: (1) funds with dedicated revenue streams, (2) the dollar amounts of FTE compensation charged to those funds, and (3) whether the funded positions were planned as programmatic or permanent staff. Finance agreed to provide the report ahead of the Wednesday substitute paper.
No policy changes were adopted at the hearing; council members said they intend to use the forthcoming fund-by-fund FTE breakdown to guide decisions about whether certain staff should be funded from dedicated funds or the general fund going forward.
