Investments to be reviewed

Benicia Finance Committee may start meeting an hour later, depending on Friday’s vote on the matter.

The panel has been meeting at 8 a.m. every fourth Friday of the month, returning to morning meetings when a 2010 experiment with night meetings was discontinued.

Last month, committee members requested that consideration of changing the meeting time be placed on Friday’s agenda, and suggested changing the meeting time to 9 a.m.

In her brief report, Finance Director Karin Schnaider endorsed the change.

Also on Friday’s agenda is a review of the city’s investment reports. Those reports are submitted quarterly to the City Council, and the report for the quarter ending Sept. 30 has been completed.

“The city has adequate investments to meet its expenditure requirements for the next six months,” Schnaider wrote the committee.

In addition, she wrote, the city’s investment portfolio, which has a total market value of $27,511,687, is in compliance with both government codes and the city’s own investment policy.

Also Friday, the committee will look at the All Funds report for the same quarter.

The All Funds report reflects revenue, expenditures and transfers for all budgeted funds and compares the funds’ actuals and committed expenditures to the current approved budget, Schnaider wrote the committee.

The reports have been sorted and segregated by fund-group type, she wrote, listing those as General Fund, Special Revenue funds, capital projects funds and debt services funds, and the proprietary fund-types — the Internal Service Funds, Wastewater Funds, Water Funds and the Marina Fund.

She wrote that as of Sept. 30, General Fund expenditures were between 18 and 27 percent of the operating budget.

She explained that the report shows General Fund revenues include two months’ collections of utility user tax and money from miscellaneous other sources. The city’s two property tax sources won’t be distributed until December and January, and will appear in the second and third quarter reports, which also will include the franchise fees and business license revenues.

Schnaider wrote that the water operations revenues are lower than predicted because residents are responding to the request to conserve because of the severe drought.

“The City Council passed a drought surcharge to stabilize the revenues in this fund,” she wrote. The first bills with that surcharge will be sent in November, and she promised more information on that change in the third and fourth quarter reports.

The city’s eight internal services funds receive revenue from administrative overhead charges to other funds, Schnaider wrote.

The panel also will review and update its 2013-15 work plan and examine the city’s warrant register that records Benicia’s September payments.

The Finance Committee will meet at 8 a.m. Friday in the Commission Room of City Hall, 250 East L St.