City proposes broad FY2024-25 budget amendments including transfers to reduce general fund balance

City finance staff presented a multi-part amendment to the FY2024-25 budget that would reallocate funds across departments, create mirror entries in receiving funds, and transfer general fund balance into other funds to comply with the statutory limit on general fund reserves.

Crystal (city finance staff) told the council the packet in the Dropbox was an earlier draft and that the version in front of members was updated that afternoon. She explained the amendments cover many departments: additions to employee benefits for council members to reflect a change in the Utah Retirement System; city attorney law-library subscriptions; telephone and outside-contract costs for City Hall after a new phone system and a carryover property-management contract; public works equipment maintenance costs; community development notice and office-supplies costs following a remodel; a new parks account for credit-card payment collection fees; neighborhood subscriptions and memberships tied to new communications software (partly grant-funded); animal services radio replacements because the radio network was upgraded; and other line-item adjustments.

Crystal said several larger entries transfer general fund balance into other funds. Those transfers include money into the debt service fund to cover the first interest payment on the public works campus bond, transfers into the water fund, capital fund, and public safety fund, and mirror entries in the receiving funds. "Our state regulations only allow us to keep a certain amount of fund balance in our general fund," Crystal said, and the amendments move funds from the general fund into other funds in part to remain under the statutory cap.

Capital fund adjustments highlighted carryover costs for recent park remodels (Lions Park and Bickley Park), a corrected line item for police hardware (original entry was $15,000 but should have been $150,000), police radio replacements to match the upgraded network, a fire-vehicle carryover for a 2023 Ford Super Duty that arrived after books closed, and a parks and facilities purchase of Cartograph asset-management software. Crystal said some items will be covered by grant revenue and the remainder by fund balance.

Public safety line items include an increase in fire overtime because the department has been short roughly seven firefighters this year, additional professional services and EMS fees tied to higher call volume, and increased medical testing costs related to mandated mental-health services. Crystal said mirrors of general-fund transfers appear in the receiving funds (e.g., capital fund, water fund, sewer fund, insurance reserve).

On the utilities side, staff proposed reclassifying sewer fund administrative salary lines to account for staffing changes and noted a lead-in-water study funded in part by a grant; the water fund will book grant revenue and the study expense, with the difference covered by a transfer from the general fund. Crystal said the detailed dollar amounts would be posted to the council Dropbox the following morning and that staff had not yet totaled every amendment in the revised packet.

Council members asked clarifying questions about the difference between the general fund and fund balance and whether a dollar total was available; Crystal said the documents in Dropbox would include the numbers and that she could calculate the post-transfer percentage if asked. The amendments will be returned to the regular meeting for formal consideration and any required public hearings.