Members of the Clearlake City Council/Redevelopment Agency met Thursday morning for a special joint workshop to review line-by-line the draft budget for Fiscal Year 2008-09. Members will continue the study session at 1 p.m. today in Council Chambers at City Hall.
According to Neiman, the city is facing a number of financial challenges. A number of those problems were solved throughout this past year. Staff is making a number of recommendations to solve other problems this fiscal year.
“The good news is (the budget) is balanced,” Neiman said. “If the council agrees with all the recommendations, we will have a surplus of $89,000 in the General Fund.”
Neiman reported that the city will be operating on a cash basis for the next fiscal year. “We have changed the budget and general ledger to a cash basis,” he said. “This means the fund balances are based on cash rather than cash and receivables. If this would have been done in the past the Housing Fund would have shown a substantial negative cash balance and the council and public would have asked questions and it”s a possibility that some of the issues we are dealing with today on the Housing Fund could have been avoided.”
Thursday”s study session included review of revenue estimates and several city departments including elected officials, city clerk, city attorney, city administrator, city finance, non-departmental, planning, the police department and the senior center. As a result of the discussion, a $6000 savings was calculated with budget cuts to non-departmental advertising and maintaining the same contribution to the Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce.
A positive aspect about the budget being proposed is that there is an increase in the capital project budget Neiman said. “Last year we had $2.2 million in the capital project budget. This year we are budgeting $2.5 million,” he said, adding that the increase is due in part to money carried over from the recent six-mile street rehabilitation project.
Public hearing for adoption of fiscal year of 2008-2009 budget is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 23, at Clearlake City Hall during the council”s regular meeting.
Contact Denise Rockenstein at drockenstein@clearlakeobserver.com.
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