Marysville City Council approves 2022/23 budget

Jun. 24—Without much comment or debate, the Marysville City Council unanimously approved the fiscal year 2022/23 budget on Tuesday night during its meeting at city hall in Marysville.

"We have already brought this to the past two prior council meetings — there are no changes to what we brought forth," Jennifer Styczynski, finance director for the city of Marysville, said. "So, therefore staff recommended it be adopted as is."

According to the city, the "Proposed Operation Budget" includes $29.27 million in expenditures and $29.91 million in revenues. The budget is comprised of the city's six governmental fund type categories. They include the general fund, special revenue funds, debt service funds, capital project funds, fiduciary funds, and enterprise funds.

"As of June 30, 2022, the city's starting general fund balance (unaudited) is projected at $9,343,397 with a projected June 30, 2023, ending general fund balance of $9,292,522," the city said in a staff report. "For fiscal year 2022/23, general fund revenue and expenditures are projected to be $16.36 million and $16.41 million, respectively for a projected deficit of $50,875."

According to an executive summary provided by the city, the general fund's four largest revenue sources are property tax, sales tax, Measure C, and Measure F. These sources account for about $10.08 million or 61.59% of the total general fund revenues.

"In total, these four major revenue streams have increased by $1.07 million compared to the fiscal year 2021/22 adopted budget," the summary said. "The city will continue to monitor these revenues over the year as the continued impact of COVID-19 continues to influence the economy. The city will also continue to no longer budget potential grants until the grant is funded and received by the city. A supplemental appropriation will be done at that time to adjust the revenue and corresponding expense account."

With regards to general fund expenditures, the city said it "comprehensively evaluated" a three-year comparison and analysis of department budgets, expenses and potential cost savings.

"The outcome of this analysis continues to capture a clearer picture of each department's true cost and, as a result, over or underused budget expenses were adjusted appropriately," the executive summary stated. "The fiscal year 2022/23 proposed city budget includes 70 budgeted full-time equivalent (FTE) positions, a net increase of three FTE positions from the fiscal year 2021/22 adopted city budget. There is an overall increase of $563,000 in budgeted salaries and wages primarily due to beginning to budget for annual leave payouts, increased health insurance rates and budgeted step increases for all bargaining units per each units memorandum of understanding."

Specific department budget changes for fiscal year 2022/23 according to the executive summary include: — City attorney's office: The city attorney's budget overall is decreasing $28,000 mainly due to expenses for contested matters beyond the monthly limit of 50 hours of regular attorney services. This recommended decreased allocation is based on the prior year's average use of internal contract legal services. A separate budget line item is continued to be used to capture services provided from outside legal services for $35,000. — City manager's office: The overall proposed budget remains within $2,000 from the prior year. There was an overall deduction to professional services that will be offset by adding $10,000 to the budget for the upcoming election in November. — Community Development Department: The Professional Services budget for the Planning and Building Division includes an increase of $15,000. This increase comes from contracting a building inspector service until a full-time building inspector is hired and offset by decreased consultant costs to cover planning services needed in the prior fiscal year while hiring department director positions. Salaries and benefits increased by $151,000 to account for a full-time community development director and a full time assistant community development director. This year also includes $528,000 to complete the Zoning/Housing/Safety Element ordinances through a grant from the Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG) that requires a $17,000 city match, and an additional $70,000 from SACOG for economic development still to be determined. — Finance Department: The Finance Department budget was decreased overall by $15,000. In fiscal year 2021/22, there was additional funding for outside financial consulting ... due to vacancies in the department that were removed during the analysis of the current year needs. — Fire department: This year's budget is expected to slightly decrease by $14,000. The majority of this decrease comes from the intrafund transfer for dispatch services. A new calculation for this allocation was created to use the total number of fire calls versus the total overall dispatch calls to create a percentage to be applied to the total dispatch budget to be allocated between the police and fire departments. Most of the services and supplies budget was consistent with prior year budgets with the exception of SCBA's which saw a decrease of $33,000 between fiscal years due to a grant in fiscal year 2021/22. — Fleet department: The Fleet Maintenance Division and budget will be overseen by the city manager until a new fire chief and public works director are hired. Although the city has experienced tremendous success with leased vehicles in the police and public works departments, the city continues to experience significant challenges maintaining its fire department apparatus and other public works equipment. As a result, the city continues to maintain a fleet department in order to maintain the fire department's apparatus and public works equipment. This budget is status quo from last fiscal year. — General services: General services refers to expenditures that are not directly tied to a single department budget and fulfill the equipment, project, program, and service needs of multiple departments and/or the entire city organization as a whole. With that in mind, all the city's insurance needs (e.g., liability, property, vehicle, crime, flood, and fraud) are in the general services budget totaling $522,000, an increase of $17,000 from fiscal year 2021/22 mainly due to the increase in the cyber insurance market. — Homeless services: While in prior years funds to address homeless activities were not earmarked and budgeted for, in fiscal year 2019/20 the city established a "Homeless Services Division." This year's budget of $16,000 is status quo from the prior year. This division allows the city to better serve and more transparently account for and track the city's true costs and efforts to address homelessness. The division's budget is used for the city's share of the executive director for the Homeless Consortium, outreach and enforcement, clean-up and equipment, and portable restrooms. — Human resources: To continue greater governmental transparency and employ municipal finance best practices, all employee related costs that departments cannot control nor can be allocated to a specific employee have been allocated to the Human Resources (HR) Department. These expenses include unemployment, workers compensation, CalPERS unfunded pension liability, and employee recruitment costs (e.g., background check, fingerprinting, credit check, medical exam, and psychological exam). The total HR budget for fiscal year 2022/23 is $1.51 million with the largest allocation being our Pension Obligation Bond payment totaling $.99 million. — Police department: The overall budgets for police and dispatch have stayed comparatively the same as the prior year with only an overall budget increase of $169,000. The main increase of $156,000 comes from salaries and benefits resulting from negotiated step increases and salaries. A new full-time records clerk, from an existing part-time position, has also been proposed to assist with the new state and federal mandated reporting. This will require no increase to the budget as savings from individual line items have been reallocated to cover the cost of the position. In the Animal Care Services Division, there is an overall decrease of $7,000 mainly attributed to the success of the Trap, Neuter, and Release (TNR) Program, which allows for trapping, "fixing," and releasing local cats along with foster care and Fieldhaven's local assistance. This has allowed the city to be able to greatly reduce its cat sheltering expenses over the past four fiscal years. The Supplemental Law Enforcement Services Funds (SLESF) and Citizens' Option for Public Safety (COPS) are considered special revenue funds that are derived from revenue sources that are state regulated and must be spent for specific purposes. This year's SLESF/COPS fund total expenditures of $180,000 will support a variety of police activities, including salaries, tasers, vehicle leases, automated license plate reader program, and other frontline equipment. — Public works: The Public Works Department includes the following divisions: Facilities & Parks, Public Works & Engineering, Streets, and Wastewater Treatment. The Public Works & Engineering budget is looking at an overall increase of $16,000 mainly due to unfreezing the public works director position. The Facilities and Parks budget has an overall decrease of $190,000 from fiscal year 2021/22. The Gas Tax Fund (streets) budget is status quo with very little change from prior years with the exception of two accounts. Capital additions include $25,000 for a tow behind compressor and $25,000 for a trailer to haul newly purchased Bobcat from fiscal year 2021/22. Also proposed is an interfund transfer to the Street Capital Fund up to $334,106 for the construction management and contingency fund for the 5th Street Project started in fiscal year 2021/22 and expected to be completed in this fiscal year. The enterprise/wastewater fund working expense budget for this fiscal year is $3.01 million, representing a net decrease of $116,000 from the prior year's adopted budget. The decrease in expense is primarily due to an interfund transfer to the Wastewater Capital Fund to cover costs related to the decommission of the sewer ponds until grant funds are received. Included in the enterprise/wastewater budget are debt service payments for the 2021 Series A Revenue Bonds ($724,500) that refinanced the 2012 Revenue Bonds and the 2021 Series B Revenue Bonds ($263,500) that paid off the Linda County Water District Loan and provided $3 million in capital improvement funding. The fund's total debt service for this fiscal year is $.99 million. The Linda County Water District (LCWD) connection and collection system is fully operational, and $1.12 million has been budgeted to fulfill the city's contractual agreement with LCWD to fund reasonable and appropriate operations and maintenance costs, including capital improvements.

In addition to other revenue sources expected by the city, it also will utilize American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Funds.

"The Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) program provided governments across the country with resources needed to recover from the COVID-19 public health emergency through ARPA funding," the city said. "The city of Marysville will receive $3,078,479 of these funds between two equal payments received September 2021 and September 2022 to be obligated by December 31, 2024."

Projects totaling $1,950,000 for fiscal year 2022/23 that are expected to utilize these funds include: — Marketing grants for small businesses, criteria to be developed ($100,000) — Enhanced playground equipment for Gavin Park project ($50,000) — Down payment on required digital encryption radio system for public safety ($1,000,000) — Engineering and environmental cost for 22nd Street reconstruction project ($200,000) — Deferred maintenance of city hall including roof repairs, HVAC units, painting, and windows ($500,000) — Concrete retaining wall at Bryant Field to complete outfield wall project ($100,000)