Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the City Finance Budget topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Finance director reports general fund finished fiscal year $1.1 million positive; council schedules study session on budget
Summary
City finance staff told the council the city closed the fiscal year with general-fund revenue exceeding expenditures by about $1.1 million, described one-time revenue sources and transferred opioid settlement funds to the capital fund; council scheduled a March study session to examine the budget further.
City finance staff presented the December financial report and told the council that the city's general fund ended the fiscal year with revenue exceeding expenditures by approximately $1,100,000, substantially better than the adopted budget projection that assumed a $308,000 deficit.
Speaking to the council, the presenter said the positive balance reflected conservative revenue estimates and several "one-time revenues" such as donations, grants and higher-than-expected permitting fees. He said the city moved opioid-settlement funds out of the general fund and into the capital resources fund to track them separately.
The presenter said the city plans a study session on March 25 to review the budget in more detail ahead of the council retreat and the annual financial-report submission to the state auditor, which the presenter said is due in May. He told council members that the city had set aside capital resources for likely infrastructure needs, including a potential civic-center roof replacement that he estimated at "probably a million dollar project, give or take a bit." He said policy aims to maintain a 20% reserved balance of the general fund to cover unexpected expenses such as insurance and payroll.
On one-time funds and operating needs, the presenter said the city intends to use about $1,200,000 of unreserved fund balance to operate in 2025 and estimated that ongoing personnel and operations pressures could increase the gap going into 2026 by roughly an additional $250,000. He said the business-and-occupation (B&O) tax came in close to budget, ending the year about 4% under adopted projections, and sales tax was roughly 3% over budget.
Council members questioned the size and availability of opioid-settlement funds. The presenter said the city held "about a hundred and $60,000 roughly" in opioid-related funds but elsewhere in the discussion also referenced "a hundred and $6,000," and he said there has been no recent notice of additional distributions. He said earlier allocations to the county under prior settlement rounds totaled about $19,000 and that the city is coordinating with county public health to identify appropriate uses.
Council and staff agreed to a March study session to "peel back" budget details and discuss service-level priorities for 2026. No formal appropriation or budget amendment was adopted during the meeting; the presentation was informational.
