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Lansdale finance committee previews sewer rate resolution, outlines payroll timing and reimbursement gaps
Summary
Council committee reviewed new financial reporting layout, a $1.1 million year-to-date revenue shortfall tied to timing of payroll and tax collections, and plans to publish a sanitary sewer rate resolution to explain 2023 forecasts and scheduled increases.
Councilwoman Carrie Oglesby, chairing the administration and finance committee, said the committee reviewed a revised financial-reporting layout and discussed a shortfall in year-to-date revenues caused primarily by timing differences in payroll and tax collections.
“The April payroll was paid April 3,” Oglesby said, noting that April is typically the borough’s largest tax-collection month. She said the committee was about $1,100,000 behind on revenues as of March 31 but also below planned spending for the year.
The nut graf: the committee said a pending reimbursement from PennDOT related to the East Main Street streetscape project — approximately $2,700,000 submitted for payment — should offset the current shortfall once received.
Committee members discussed changing the borough’s check-register protocols so council would approve bills before payment rather than approving bills after they have been paid. Oglesby said staff and the finance committee are working through logistics and expect to approve checks every two weeks, with rare exceptions for months that contain five weeks.
The committee also received an update on the borough’s recruitment for a finance director. Oglesby said the borough is working with an outside search firm that is paid only when a candidate is successfully placed and retained, with incremental payments tied to length of service (a final payment at roughly six months after placement).
On sanitary sewer rates, Oglesby said the borough will present a draft resolution to full council in two weeks that explains the 2023 10-year rate-forecast structure and the reasons for scheduled increases. The resolution, she said, will give more detail about the increases and their uses.
Other items discussed included reinstating a “junior council” program through the Pennsylvania Association of Boroughs for a high-school student, and a renewed series of “Civics 101” tours for residents covering legislative, executive and judicial functions.
Committee actions: the report indicated the committee recommended advancing the sanitary sewer rate resolution to full council and continuing work on check-register protocol changes; no full-council votes on those items were recorded in the work session.
