Finance staff shows new budget visuals; council asks for pre-budget hearing and Project Phoenix update

Finance staff presented simplified visual summaries of the city’s December and January financial statements and council members requested a pre-budget hearing and an update on Project Phoenix.

Rachel Nichols distributed two bar graphs — one for December and one for January — intended to give council a simpler view of appropriations, year-to-date spending, open purchase orders and remaining budgets. Nichols described the first column as the general fund appropriations total of $77,000,896 and explained that the gray portion shows year-to-date spending, the blue portion shows open purchase orders and the teal portion shows the remaining budget to be spent before June 30. She said salaries and benefits are not included in the blue open-PO figure because those obligations continue to accrue. "On the first page, the first column is the general fund expenditures at the very top it shows 77,000,896 which is the number council has appropriated for the general fund for the various departments. When you look at that column, the gray number is year to date of actually spent. The blue number in the middle represents open POs to vendors. That's money we owe and are obligated to pay and then the top shaded portion in teal is the remaining budget that's available to be spent between now and June 30," Nichols said.

Nichols said total budgeted revenues for the year were $62,000,000 and that as of December the city had collected $24,000,000, leaving roughly $37,000,000 still to be collected; she noted progress was made in January. The new visuals were presented as a trial and Nichols asked council for feedback on format and usefulness.

Other business: Councilmember DeBontz asked the mayor about a planned pre-budget hearing with department heads so council members could attend; the mayor said a date had not yet been set. DeBontz also requested an update on Project Phoenix at a future meeting, saying an update at the next council meeting would be sufficient.

Why it matters: The graphs aim to make appropriations, obligations and remaining budget clearer to council for the remainder of the fiscal year. Council members requested a pre-budget hearing to review department budgets and specifically asked staff for a Project Phoenix status update at an upcoming meeting.

What happens next: Finance staff will continue to present monthly summaries and invited feedback; the mayor's office will notify council when a pre-budget hearing date is set.