Finance committee reviews January finances; staff flags escrow accounting and overtime

Chair Jim Speeder called the Feb. 20 meeting of the Narberth Borough Finance Administration Committee to order and turned the treasurer’s report over to Manager Dobbs.

Manager Dobbs said the committee was reviewing January numbers and that real estate tax bills had been mailed, with the bulk of payments expected in March and to show up in April. She noted one accounting correction: a land-development line showing $5,300 in fees actually included $5,000 held as developer escrow and $300 as the application fee. That $5,000 will be moved to a separate escrow line in future reports, she said.

The clarification matters because the escrow is a pass-through security that will be drawn down as project invoices arrive, Dobbs said. “So you’ll see that it looks like we collected the $5,300 dollars of fees for land development plans. $5,000 of that $5,300 is an escrow. The $300 is the actual application fee,” she told the committee.

Committee members also flagged a missing rental payment. A member asked why there was no rental revenue from 201 Sabine for January; Dobbs said she would follow up to confirm the payment schedule and report back.

Dobbs additionally reported that borough overtime for public works has risen, in part because of a spate of recent snowstorms; she said overtime had “gotten up there” and noted a recent figure of about 40 percent in the affected account. The committee did not take any formal action on the treasurer’s report and asked staff to provide follow-up on the 201 Sabine rent and to correct the escrow accounting in next month’s statement.

The committee moved on to other agenda items after the report.