Audit committee reviews new quarterly financial statement; CFO projects about $1.5 million shortfall

The New Bedford City Council Committee on Audit on Monday night heard a presentation from Chief Financial Officer Robert Ekstrom on new quarterly-style financial statements and projections that the administration plans to post on the city website.

Ekstrom told the committee the packet provides a one-page general fund summary by department and additional pages that break the figures down by object code and enterprise funds. He said the city’s year-to-date expenditures through December were about $211 million against an original appropriation he described as roughly $469 million, and that, at the time of the report, the administration was projecting “a million 5 in deficits.”

The report showed a small projected surplus for City Council of about $21,000 driven by a vacancy in labor accounts, while other departments are producing a mix of favorable and unfavorable variances. “Half of that is labor and another half is non labor items,” Ekstrom said of the roughly $1.5 million projection. He identified fire overtime as one major driver of personal‑services pressure…