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New finance arrangement and grant awards leave Buouie looking broadly on track, officials say
Summary
A newly contracted finance consultant told the Buouie City Council that city finances are broadly on pace, highlighted unfunded state mandates that could cost several hundred thousand dollars in the electric budget, and described recent grant awards for radio communications and potential server replacement.
Austin Henderson, the finance consultant working with the city through Advisant, told the Buouie City Council that the city's finances are broadly on track as of April 30 and described immediate priorities for the budget process.
Henderson said utility fund revenues were generally “on par with what we'd expect to see,” with some timing-related variances, and that general-fund revenues were running at about 75 percent of the year-to-date target by the end of April. “Sales tax seems to be outpacing what the budget was,” he said, and investment performance has produced stronger-than-expected interest revenue.
The consultant cautioned that the council should plan for unfunded state mandates in the electric program. The city manager earlier told the council that new requirements for utility pole inspection and an electric-line vegetation plan could cost "in the vicinity of $250,000 to $300,000" in the electric portion of the budget.
Henderson also described two grant efforts: a governor's-office homeland-security grant that will reimburse 100 percent of approved radio communications equipment costs and a state grant to replace end-of-life computer servers for police, finance and administration. The governor's-office award was announced to the city, and staff said they plan to order approved equipment through a single vendor under a GSA contract; the purchase order total was given in the meeting as approximately $13,269 (amount as reported in the meeting). Henderson said he has no firm timetable for state reimbursement but expects it to follow the typical state process.
Council members pressed for clearer reporting on one-off grant revenue and the matching expenditures so department heads can see grant-related funding separate from their base budgets. Henderson recommended creating a non-departmental grouping for one-off grant activity to avoid making departmental budgets appear overspent when grant-funded expenditures are recorded. "If we have any kind of one-off expenditures, maybe having a non-departmental grouping," he said.
Robert Johnston, who described himself as supporting day-to-day finance operations, said he and Henderson are working to segregate duties and clean up month-end entries. The council moved to approve the consent agenda that included the financial statements after Henderson's presentation.
What happens next: staff will continue collecting department budget requests for the coming fiscal year and submit the grant application due July 30 for water-plant projects; the governor's-office reimbursement process will proceed after invoices are submitted.
