■ Modified ‘status quo’ document covers ’15-’17; Human Services Board grants boosted

Benicia City Council unanimously approved a “status quo” budget for Fiscal Years 2015-17 Tuesday night, but modified it by increasing the amount of money allotted to the Human Services Board for grants to agencies that help the less fortunate.

During the Council’s May 5 meeting, the panel split 3-2 on a motion to give both Human Services Board and the Arts and Culture Commission grantees more money than city staff reports had recommended. That would have increased the budget by $30,890.

Mayor Elizabeth Patterson and Councilmembers Tom Campbell and Christina Strawbridge agreed to award Arts Benicia $45,000, Benicia Old Town Theatre Group $12,000 and the balance of the Arts and Culture Commission grantees 10 percent more than had been recommended. Agencies receiving Human Services Board grants would get a 5-percent increase under the original vote.

But Tuesday night, urged by Councilmember Alan Schwartzman, the Council decided instead to give Human Services grantees a 10-percent across-the-board increase, adding $9,200 to money the city expects to spend in the next two years.

“It’s immensely fair,” Patterson said of Schwartzman’s suggestion. “And it’s doing good.”

Otherwise, there were no changes to staff’s recommendations.

City employees and the Council have been calling the new budget, which becomes effective July 1, a “status quo” fiscal document because it makes few changes to the 2013-15 budget, filling just a few vacant positions.

It calls for neither deep expenditure cuts nor layoffs as in the recession years; nor does it suggest any new or significant expenditures except for those approved in Measure C 1-cent sales tax resolutions or underwritten by one-time state funds.

However, as Finance Director Karin Schnaider and others had explained at earlier meetings, the city will continue to spend more money than it takes in and will dip into reserves, particularly during the budget’s first year.

In Fiscal Year 2015-16, Benicia expects $63,400,000 in revenue, of which $35.7 million would go to the General Fund for city operations, $8.67 million for the Wastewater Fund, $7.77 million for the Water Fund, $5.87 million for the Internal Services Fund and $5.33 million for other municipal funds.

But the budget anticipates $66,723,000 in expenses. The General Fund’s outgo is expected to be more than $36 million, the Wastewater Fund will spend $8.88 million and the Water Fund, which has been impacted by the severe drought, more than $9.7 million.

Internal Services expects to spend less than its income, less than $5.7 million, but other funds’ expenses, at more than $6.3 million, continue the overspending trend.

The city’s reserves, which are supposed to be 20 percent of anticipated revenues, may dip below that mark, to 19.5 percent during the first year, but may bounce back to 22.4 percent before the two-year budget ends.

Fiscal Year 2016-17 shows slight improvement, but the city expects to take in $60,773,000 while spending $62,568,000.

On the revenue side that year, the General Fund expects to receive $35.7 million, Wastewater more than $9 million, Water nearly $7.8 million. Internal Services more than $4.8 million, and other funds more than $3.4 million.

On the expense side, the General Fund expects to do better than in the previous year, spending $34.3 million. The Wastewater Fund also will spend less than its income, at $8.9 million.

But the budget for the Water Fund calls for expenditures of more than $9 million; for Internal Services, nearly $5.3 million; and for other funds, more than $5 million.

The city’s Water Fund will end the two-year budget with 16.4 percent in reserves, and City Manager Brad Kilger has asked employees to complete an analysis of water-wastewater rates and make recommendations to restore reserve levels.

City employees also are completing a full-scale fee study, after which residents and businesses would be notified of any proposed changes to city fees and utility rates.

Another recently completed comprehensive study is an organizational scan. City employees are analyzing the results, which will form the basis of a plan to make the municipality a more fiscally sustainable organization.

While Schnaider gave the Council a 28-page summary of city department accomplishments and goals and a nearly 200-page budget report she developed in conjunction with Assistant City Manager Anne Cardwell, her comments Tuesday were brief, because the Council already had seen — and had concurred with — her presentations made May 5 and May 19.

At Councilmember Strawbridge’s request, individual department heads gave brief elaborations on Schnaider’s report.
Schwartzman called it “the most abbreviated” presentation, adding, “It’s easy to read.”

In fact, the presentations Tuesday were so short, Vice Mayor Mark Hughes said, “If this were more than a status quo budget, I’d disagree (with their brevity). But sometimes, it’s nice to be let off the hook.”