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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2004-09-13 City Council (11)City of Palo Alto C ty Manager’s Report TO: FROM: HONORABLE CITY COUNCIL CITY MANAGER DEPARTMENT: ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES DATE: SUBJECT: SEPTEMBER 13, 2004 CMR: 406:04 REQUEST TO PRELIMINARILY APPROVE REAPPROPRIATION REQUESTS 2003-04 RECOMMENDATION The Finance Committee recommends that the Council preliminarily approve the 2003-04 reappropriations (Attachment 1). COMMITTEE REVIEW AND RECOMMENDATIONS The Finance Comnai~ee recommends approval of the 2003-04 reappropriation requests with the following qualifications: 1)The reappropriation of $86,600 for Downtown North and Lytton neighborhood traffic cahning expenditures may only be used for devices already authorized by City Council. 2)The reappr0priation of $43,000 for the Parking District Educational Brochure not be approved. Staff is requested to report back to Council on discussions with the Chamber of Commerce and the Planning and Transportation Commission on the need for parldng educational materials. In addition, it was requested that the impact of the downtown parking plan, specifically the hourly parking limit, on sales tax revenues be reviewed. Staff believes the information contained in the July 12, 2004 (CMR:341:04) Status Report on Downtown and California Avenue Parking addresses the Finance Committee’s concerns on the need for parking educational materials, and will also be prepared to provide information regarding the Chamber’s recommendation at the Council meeting. ATTACHMENTS Attachment I:CMR 357:04 CMR:406:04 Page 1 of 2 PREPARED BY: MARY DIVINSKI Sr. Financial Analyst DEPARTMENT HEAD APPROVAL: CARL YEATS Director,Services CITY MANAGER APPROVAL: HARRISON Assistant City Manager CMR:406:04 Page 2 of 2 ATTACHMENT 1 of Manager’s Repor TO:HONORABLE CITY COUNCIL ATTENTION:FINANCE COMMITTEE FROM:CITY MANAGER DEPARTMENT:ADM][N][STRATIVE SERVICES DATE: SUBJECT: JULY 20, 2004 CMR: 357:04 REQUEST TO PRELIMINARILY REAPPROPRIATIONS REQUESTS "RECOMMENDATION Staff recommends that the Finance reappropriations (Attachment 1). Committee preliminarily APPROVE 2003-04 approve the 2003-04 BACKGROUND As a par~ of the typical year-end process, depamnent staff world with the Administrative Services Depamnent (ASD) to review outstanding financial obligations as of year-end. In the course of regular operations, these items span two fiscal years m the p~ocessing-- planning in one fiscal year and actual payment in the next. This necessitates carrying forward both encumbered and budgeted amounts. Council approves these carry forward items in the year-end closing ordinance, once the accounting books are closed. Staff utilizes the reappr0priation process if base funding in the followfng fiscal 3’ear cannot accommodate the expense. ASD staff works with departments to minimize the need for reappropriation and ultimately rejects requests that lack merit. In 1995, the Fiscal Procedures Chapter of the Municipal Code (Chapter 2.28) was amended to implement mission driven budgeting and the 2-year budget process (CMR:212:95; CMR:155:95). Section 2.28.090 governing reappropriations was amended to allow Council to preliminarily authorize reappropriations of non-capital appropriations at the beginning of the fiscal year with final authorization to be made at the time of adoption of the budget closing ordinance. The purpose of this was to ease difficulties experienced by the departments caused by the late final approval of the reappropriations where the reappropriation was justified and sufficient funds from the prior year are Clearly available. With ASD oversight, preIiminary approval allows the CiVf1<:357:04 Page 1 of 3 department to continue with normal operations and spend the funds as .of the Council’s prelimina~3~ approvai date rather than the year-end ordinance approva! date. To this point, the City has not been able to utilize the preliminary reappropriation process because of delays involved with the IFAS financial system, which required the manual entry ofreappropriation amounts into the new year’s budget. The standard practice was to post the reappropriations after the Council approved the close of the fiscal year. Final Council approval would occur in January, resulting in at least a 7-month !ag-time for these carry-forward items to be posted in the system. DISCUSSION With the implemep2ation of SP~P, there is an opportunity to take adva.~Xage of system efficiencies by allowing the system to automatically post the previous year’s reappropriations with the other encumbered carry-forwards as of the beginning of the new fiscal year. As noted above, the City of Palo Alto Municipal Code (Section 2.28.090) allows the "preliminary" approval of reap.propriations, as .long as final approval is included with the normal year-end closing ordinance. The preliminary reappropriation action allows for an early review of unconwnitted funds in a just-concluded fiscal year for possible carry-forward into the next. Attachment 1 identifies those reappropriation requests that ASD recommends for preliminary approval. Final approval will be requested by Council after the books are closed. RESOURCE IMPACT Staff has determined that sufficient uncommitted budgeted funds do exist to allow for the preliminary approval of the attached 2003-04 reappropriations list (Attachment !). General Fund proposed reappropriations total $444,322 along with $44,123 within a housing Special Revenue Fund. For comparative purposes, Council approved a similar operating amount ($311,67!) in 2002-03. POLICY IMPLICATIONS This recolmaendation is consistent with adopted Council policy. ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW The action recommended is not Environmental Quality Act. a project for the purposes of the California ATTAC2’-iMENT Attachment 1:2003-04 Reappropriations List CMR:357:04 Page 2 of 3 PREPARED BY: DEPARTMENT HEAD APPROVAL: ~ P MARY DIVNSKI Senior Financial Analyst CARL YEATS / Director, Adm]ffistrative Services CITY M~_NAGE.2 HARP so Assistant City Manager CMR:357:04 Page 3 of 3 Attachment 1 REAPPROPPdATION REQUESTS $ Planning Department $60,000 $68,700 $86,600 Zoning Ordinance Update Stanford _/!-!_yatt Serfior Housing Project Downtown North & l..~ytLOIl This reappropriation is.being requested in order to utilize public outreach, including focus groups, website access and study sessions to ensure ongoing community input of changes being proposed. These funds were left unspent in 2003-04, in order to match outreach effort timing to presentation of each phase of the zoning code as it has been completed. This reappropriation is being requested in order to provide the services for which the City has already been paid. The FY 2003-04 expenditures were carefully timed to meet the project requirements, resulting in a balance at year-end. This project will continue into FY 2005-06 This reappropriation is being requested because the trial of traffic calming devices and community discussion of alternatives continued well into FY 2003-04. Remaining funds will be used to continue the trial of traffic calming devices in the area and rrfitigate impacts in the Lytton neighborhood. Recommended $60,000. There is sufficient balance in the 2003-04 budget that can be reappropriated. Recommended $68,700. There is sufficient balance in the 2003-04 budget that can be reappropriated. Recommended $86,600, There is sufficient baia~ce in the 2003-04 budget that can be reappropriated. Planning Department, continued $75,000 " Traffic Calmin~ and This reappropriation is being requested because ’ Alternative Me~hods due to other ~vork priorities, these projects Police Department were not initiated until late in FY 2003-04. These projects will be implemented in FY 2004-05 and will be fully reimbursed with grant funding. The City will be reimbursed in full with TDA grants of $25,000 and $so, ooo. Recommended $75,000. There is sufficient balance in the 2003-04 budget that can be reappropriated. $43,000 Design, development,This reappropriation is being requested because Recommended $43,000. There is and printing of a public,recently Cou~acil directed staff to work with the Sufficient balance in the 2003-04 education brochure Chamber of Commerce to study and examine budget that can be reappropriated. encompassing a!!changes to the downtown parking parking changes in the configuration. Some changes have been made downtown area and a resolution reflecting those changes as well as a separate informational report will be going to Council in the next few weeks. St’aft is waiting for final direction before developing ~ and printing brochures. The General Fund monies for this project are reimbursed from the University Avenue Par’king District Fund. $111,022 Integration of the City’s This reappropriation is being requested because Recommended $111,1)22. There is GIS and CAD systems .as this was a multi-phase project (CIP PD-sufficient balance in the 2003-04 02017), it has been necessary to deploy and budget that can be reappropriated. fully test other deliverables in the project prior to implementing these changes. In addition, the department has had to rely upon cooperation from outside wireless service providers to meet federally mandated technoiogy changes to ensure a seamless transition. Delays associated with those vendors and internal competing priorities contributed to the delay. The Project is currently scheduled and the contracts are pending. It is anticipated that this work’ will be completed by the Fall of 2004 Planlt, iltg Department - BMR Fttnd $44,143 BMR Unit Preservation Pro~am This reappropriation is being requested because staff and Palo Alto Housing Corporation (our BMR program administrator) were able to take other effective actions to avoid the need for the City to directly acquire any BMR units to prevent their loss due to problems with the resale process. The City was also able to avoid paying for urgent repairs needed to get units resold by strong enforcement against the sellers. However, these unused funds need to be reappropriated to add to the $20,000 budgeted for this purpose. The nature of this fund is to address emergencies that could result in the loss of BMR units and all monies set aside in the fund for this purpose need to be available to meet any possible emergency. The total available for these needs will then be $64,143 ($20,000 already in the budget plus $44,143 reappropriated). Recommended $44,143. There is sufficient balance in the 2003-04 budget that can be reappropriated.