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Tenino council approves first reading of budget amendment after auditors find additional adjustments
Summary
City leaders read Ordinance No. 9-31 to correct starting balances for multiple funds, acknowledged the revision shows a projected deficit and approved the ordinancefirst reading; council discussed short-term borrowing from sewer and water funds and plans to seek interim financial help.
Tenino council members conducted a first reading of Ordinance No. 9-31 on Sept. 24, 2024, to amend the city's 2024 budget after auditors reported additional adjustments and outstanding issues. The ordinance, read in full by an unnamed council speaker, lists corrected starting balances across the general fund, pool fund, street fund, special revenue, contingency and capital-improvement funds and authorizes specified interfund transfers and balance adjustments.
The reading said the general fund starting balance should be adjusted to a negative beginning balance (reported in the ordinance text as approximately -$393,393) and listed other starting-balance corrections, including the Corey Pool Fund at -$6,185.07 and various water and sewer fund balances. The ordinance also directs an interfund transfer from the Sewer Fund (410) to the Sewer Capital Improvement Fund (421) of $363,123.64 and updates estimated revenues and expenditures for the municipal capital improvement fund.
Why it matters: council members said the corrected starting balances reflect auditor adjustments and leave the city with a projected deficit under current revenue and expenditure assumptions. One council member asked whether the effective date (noted in the draft as Sept. 30) would need to be changed to fall five days after the second reading; the council agreed to fix the date for the adopted ordinance. Another member asked whether the figures represented starting balances as of Jan. 1, 2024; the speaker confirmed the numbers are the auditor's adjusted starting balances rolled forward from year-end 2023.
Council members discussed short-term steps to manage the deficit. The city will consider borrowing short-term from its sewer and water funds to finance operations until the end of the year, with plans to repay transferred amounts. The council also said staff will pursue additional budget adjustments and spending cuts, and that another budget amendment is likely before year-end because state law prohibits ending the fiscal year with negative balances.
Unidentified Speaker 3 told the council the city had contacted Prothman, a firm that provides interim executive staffing, to identify temporary assistance and candidates to help correct financial and operational problems; Prothman will report back with potential people and costs. The council also discussed longstanding uncollected municipal court tickets and options for pursuing collections or hiring part-time in-house collectors.
The ordinance passed its first reading by voice vote; no roll-call tally was recorded in the transcript. City staff said the ordinance will return for a second reading with the clarified dates and any numeric corrections. The council asked staff to provide supporting spreadsheets and comparisons showing how far prior budget figures differed from auditor-adjusted numbers ahead of the next meeting.
The council's discussion and the first reading were presented as steps to bring Tenino's official records into alignment with auditor findings and to prevent the city from closing 2024 with unauthorized negative fund balances.
