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Berkeley council adopts third-quarter budget amendment; creates opioid settlement fund
Summary
Council approved M30-25 to amend the FY 2024-25 budget and created an opioid settlement fund to track settlement receipts; staff said third-quarter adjustments improved the general fund and moved funds into capital improvement reserves.
BERKELEY, Mich. — The Berkeley City Council on May 5 approved motion M30-25, adopting the third-quarter amendment to the FY 2024-25 budget and formally creating an opioid settlement fund to track settlement receipts and related transfers.
Deputy Finance Director Amy Zareowski summarized the adjustments and said the amendment produced a favorable impact on the originally adopted budget. She cited reduced public safety expenditures (including a change to the K-9 vehicle expense and lower dispatch costs) and additional revenue from rental income as contributors to the positive variance. Zareowski said the council-approved adjustments allowed staff to move funds into the public capital improvement fund to prepare for upcoming projects.
Zareowski also described the newly created opioid settlement fund, noting it will receive prior-year and current-year settlement receipts that had been held in the general fund. Major local and infrastructure funds were adjusted to reflect year-to-date actuals; construction activity projections were realigned to preserve reserves for planned projects presented in the city's 2025-26 budget materials.
Council members praised the finance team for the work. No council member raised substantive objections. The council then unanimously approved a separate motion, M31-25, accepting the budget-to-actual report for the quarter ended March 31, 2025. Staff told the council there are no significant concerns and that the quarter-end numbers are broadly in line with expectations as the city approaches fiscal year end.
Actions taken: Council adopted the third-quarter budget amendment (M30-25) and accepted the quarter-end budget-to-actual report (M31-25) in unanimous roll-call votes. The finance department was assigned to continue monitoring and to brief council as year-end results finalize.
Council members and staff noted that some figures presented verbally during the meeting were described imprecisely in the audio transcript; council materials on file with the city should be consulted for exact dollar amounts and line-item detail.
No new taxes or expenditures were adopted in these actions; adjustments reallocated existing resources and established a fund to account for opioid settlement proceeds.
