$400K credit removed from Lakeport budget
LAKEPORT — A $400,000 line of credit is no longer an option to balance Lakeport”s budget after the Lakeport City Council removed it from the budget during a special meeting of the Lakeport City Council Tuesday night.
Acting City Manager Kevin Burke presented a list of alternatives for closing a $400,000 gap between revenue and expenses, which he said were the result of brainstorming sessions with city staff. The credit line, approved last summer as part of the city”s 2008-09 budget, was never used, according to Lakeport Financial Director Janet Tavernier. Mayor Ron Bertsch asked the council to vote it out of the budget Tuesday night.
“Nobody on the senior management staff felt that a line of credit as it exists in our currently approved budget is an appropriate way to close that gap,” Burke told the council.
The council voted 4-0, with councilman Roy Parmentier absent, to remove the line of credit from the city”s budget. The council will discuss at a later date how to cover the $400,000 gap. Tavernier said the city had reduced its spending from last year by $200,000, and the existing budget was sufficient if spending did not increase before the end of the fiscal year in June.
Among the top recommended alternatives were selling city property to the city redevelopment agency, freezing travel and training reimbursements and additional furloughs for city staff to save salary dollars.
Councilman Jim Irwin expressed chagrin about using money from a land sale to cover the city”s ongoing expenses.
“We”ve been doing that over the past few years, with the $1 million for the Vista Point property, and that”s how we”ve been handling these things. We”re using up all of the city”s assets, and that is not what I see the best route to be for fixing the root cause of the problem,” Irwin said.
Burke also recommended suspending paving for the next four months, which Burke said would save the city approximately $55,000. Burke said combined with the suspension of travel and training reimbursements, the city would see an immediate savings of $70,000.
“It”s a tough choice. Everything we talked about for recommendations ? they”re all unpleasant. They all were made with the understanding that we would rather not do any of it, but this is what we felt was the least painful and in the best interest of the city as a whole,” Burke said.
Other options included delaying payments, surrendering grants that would require match funds from the city, and the Golden Handshake, an early retirement incentive program. Burke and Tavernier said the Golden Handshake would not help the city”s bottom line until next fiscal year.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com, or call her directly at 263-5636, ext. 37.
