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Finance committee reviews restricted funds: 7¢/4¢ gas tax, E-911 contract and court accounts
Summary
Homewood City finance committee heard staff explain restrictions on several special funds, confirmed a $90,000 state grant for 911 recorder equipment, and discussed court-related accounts and accounting system mismatches ahead of the Oct. 1 budget effective date.
Homewood City’s finance committee met in a special call Sept. 24 to review smaller restricted funds that sit outside department budgets, detailing how those accounts may be spent and noting several upcoming changes.
City Manager Glenn Adams said the 7¢ gas-tax and the 4¢/5¢ gas-tax funds are state-awarded, must remain separate from the general fund and are intended to “zero out every single year” by spending down for capital projects. He told the committee that roughly 70% of the 7¢ gas-tax receipts are used for traffic-related items such as traffic signs, striping and signal upgrades and that the city expects to fund additional asphalt work using a mix of those gas-tax balances and Rebuild Alabama funds.
Adams also reviewed an E‑911 account the city is transitioning in part to Shelby County. Brandon (last name not specified) told the committee Shelby County’s contract includes an annual CPI increase and that the county had asked to raise a contractual line from $6.70 to $6.90; Brandon said the city received that letter the same day. He said telephone legacy charges with AT&T remain partly the city’s responsibility until the systems are fully transferred and that the city applied for disconnects that can take up to two years.
Brandon said the state 911 board awarded Homewood a $90,000 grant to replace the system recorder. "So 90,000 coming in, 90,000 going out," he said, describing the grant as revenue that will be offset by a maintenance-contract expense in the 911 fund.
Committee members also discussed several court-related funds. Adams explained that municipal court collections drop into a Synovus account and are allocated monthly among state, county and city shares; the city receives about 40–45% of those collections. He said the court-corrections account covers inmate food and some correctional staffing costs, while cash-bond accounts are restricted and do not generally flow to the general fund. Adams said the court judicial-admin account is being used to move judge compensation and furniture costs off the general fund where allowable, and noted that some court staff previously did not receive bonuses and are being considered for adjusted pay out of restricted court funds.
The committee also flagged accounting mismatches between Synovus bank account classifications and the city’s ENCODE accounting categories; Adams said staff are reconciling the accounts and will provide follow-up detail. Several members asked for copies of the Synovus account breakdowns to match encumbrances and fund numbers.
Why it matters: restricted funds carry legal limits on how dollars can be used; reconciling the bank account allocations and ENCODE categories is necessary to ensure the city spends within those constraints and presents an accurate operational budget before the Oct. 1 effective date.
