As a member of the city’s budget advisory committee I should be puffing my chest out and maybe even putting out bids for my expert city finance consulting services. But being that I am the Doubting Thomas of the group and it’s budget time again (and I haven’t been kicked off the committee yet) I figure I should prepare a proactive plan for worst case scenarios. Who knows. Maybe revenue projections will fall short and/or some unexpected high bills have come in since the pre-election budget forecasts. There’s always a chance that we won’t have those $1 million surplus dollars. Now, for the long term, we’ll be presented with $60,000 worth of city financial consulting advice complete with Community Benchmark and Best Practices studies. I hope we get some good advice. Last year, each of us on the advisory committee submitted our suggestions for the current budget. Those suggestions are contained in this report (link). My suggestions are on pages 2-28 on that report. Actually, though, my suggestions were a collaborative effort of many citizens including Gracie Mott, Ivan Krpan, Mike Tritle, Herb Rubin, Paul Greenlee, Steve Berg, Lynn Fazekas, Kay Shelton, Chad Whitney, James Mason, Greg Davis, Ed Pevonka, Mark Charvat, John Anderson, along with various readers, commenters and bloggers. Our recommendations could have saved $949,610 on the expenditure side without a reduction in services. Of course not all of our recommendations were adopted. My approach for next year’s budget is going to be the same. I’ll start by asking for your help. That would start with your reading of the full 32-page report; your checking back on this discussion string as it develops through the budget process for updates, charts and links; and your input along the way. A compiled report will be presented at the proper time to the advisory committee and the city council. One new element to the budget considerations that I will be promoting is RAI. That’s an acronym for Resident Affordability Index. I do not know what that index would be but I think trying to calculate that factor into the equation would help prioritize services and expenses. BUDGET PROCESS SCHEDULE: (City of DeKalb) 05/01/09 (Friday) Proposed FY2010 Budget distributed to City Council 05/11/09 (Monday) Committee of the Whole – 6:00pm 05/12/09 (Tuesday) Budget Workshop – 6:00pm 05/13/09 (Wednesday) Budget Workshop – 6:00pm 05/18/08 (Monday) Budget Workshop – 6:00pm 05/19/09 (Tuesday) Budget Workshop – 6:00pm 05/20/09 (Wednesday) Budget Workshop – 6:00pm (tentative) 05/26/09 (Tuesday) Regular Meeting of the City Council – 7:00pm 06/08/09 (Monday) Regular Meeting of the City Council – 7:00pm 06/22/09 (Monday) Regular Meeting of the City Council 06/26/09 (Friday) Adopted FY 2010 Budget printed and distributed to City Council. Budget posted on City website. |
Apr 222009
Minutes from April 13 City Council Meeting related to Budget Sessions:
4) CONSIDERATION OF THE FY2010 BUDGET REVIEW SCHEDULE.
Mr. Biernacki advised staff plans to submit the budget to Council by May 1, which is two weeks earlier than last year. On May 11 at the Committee of the Whole meeting, there will be an overall budget review. Workshops are scheduled for May 12, 13, 18, 19 and 20. It is anticipated the budget will be passed by Council at the first Council meeting in June.
Acting Mayor Povlsen asked what the involvement of the Finance Advisory Committee will be. Mr. Espiritu responded they will also be receiving this schedule. Ald. Naylor asked what the schedule is for the financial consultants’ recommendations. Mr. Espiritu responded their schedule is to provide input sometime in April. If Council wishes to see any of their recommendations in the budget, it can be included during the workshops, or the budget can be amended to include them.
Ald. Naylor inquired if the financial consultants will have a presentation during the budget process. Mr. Biernacki responded this could be accomplished, with an increased cost. Ald. Naylor asked if this presentation from the financial consultants would be in addition to the scheduled workshops; Mr. Espiritu said it would be an additional meeting. Ald. Naylor said he would like to have input from the financial consultants prior to the budget workshops.
Ald. Keller stated any new Council Members would be in office by the May 11 meeting, and perhaps Council needs their input earlier. Acting Mayor Povlsen replied the newly elected officials would be involved at the May 11 meeting. Mr. Biernacki added all the newly elected candidates would receive the same budget information as current Council Members. Ald. Teresinski stated it would be helpful to have the consultants’ input in April.
Mr. Biernacki stated it has been discussed previously switching to a calendar year from a fiscal year. Staff suggests foregoing this change at this time because it is important to keep comparative data intact. After the City moves out of the current financial crisis, he suggests discussing a possible change to a calendar year.
MOTION
Ald. Teresinski moved to adopt the FY2010 Budget Review Schedule; seconded by Ald. Wogen. Motion carried 7-0 on voice vote. Acting Mayor Povlsen declared the motion passed.
Does anyone know if there is any truth to the rumors put forth by “Chronicle” bloggers about city workers getting threatened with layoffs? The rumor is three police, three fire, and three public works if the unions do not give up concessions.
Those are rumors and who knows if they are true????
Spending $17,000 to match $17,000 to advertise construction inconveniences doesn’t seem prudent at this time. Less expensive alternatives?
Just finished my first reading of the Financial Consultant’s Report. The PDF of the report can be found here.
Not much for comment because I can’t digest a 185-page report like this on first read. Just four words: Shock, Anger, Agreement, Disagreement.
Minus a couple of pages left intentionally blank here are another 214 pages for your reading pleasure. It’s the proposed FY2010 Budget. My initial reading is done so I thought I’d pass it around. There’s been some 400 unique views to this page today so somebodies out there are paying attention.
I drove through Downers Grove on Monday after being somewhere else. Downers Grove has a Porsche and a **BENTLEY** dealership. Why in the world would anyone pay a consultant to compare DeKalb to Downers Grove? Did someone forget to get off Mr. Rourke’s Fantasy Island?
You know what, why stop at Downers Grove? Why not make DeKalb the next Kenilworth?
One problem with Benchmarks is that for every thing you find in common there are 10 that are not in common. Look at page 50 of the consultants report.
2007 EAV
DeKalb 648K
Downers 2.4 Million
Wheaton 2.1 Million.
These comparisons are not even close to each other.
Another example is that every City this group used has at least 2 Public High Schools ( Yes i undersatand Wheaton Warrenville South takes in Warrenville) but is is just another example of not being able to find true Benchmarks.
Another point is that why does every governmental unit use differant Benchmarks.
I note that the High School is exploring joining a new conferance that would include Cities such as Rochelle, Sycamore, Dixon, Morris and Ottawa among others. Why do we feel we have so much in common with these towns for the athletic conferance and scholl activities but nothing in common for salaries and other Benchmark catagories?
In another Blog I noticed some top school admin positions salaries were posted. How would they compare to others in the new conferance to the west instead of always comparing salaries to districts to the east.
My point is that Benchmarks simply do not work. It is nearly impossible to find someone exactly like yourself, in the exact snap shot of time, to effectively compare each other to. Find companies and governmental units that are in financial trouble and you find those companies that chase Benchmarks. Successful companies and successful units of government “set” the Benchmarks.
Pevo
DeKalb is as close to impossible to benchmark as it gets. The city I find most comparable to DeKalb is Manhattan, Kansas, home of Kansas State University. Similar college towns, similar population, size, etc., but Manhattan has Ft. Riley as an economic impact that DeKalb does not.
In every such benchmark test that I’ve seen, DeKalb falls woefully short on EAV of the tax producing kind. No one has an answer or suitable explanation for that. My educated guess is that the low EAV is due to the amount of publicly-owned land in the city. I’ve pushed for a benchmark study that would compare the amount of publicly-owned land (in acres and square foot improved) to no avail.
So, I’m with Pevo… benchmark studies are pretty much worthless.
I’m working on a review of the Consultant’s Report, flavored with FY2010 Budget notes. Stay tuned.
There is a way to benchmark DeKalb against DeKalb.
I guess I should ask for $60,000 in fees first.
Kay My exact point we should benchmark DeKalb against DeKalb period.
Here’s another example I gave to a person the other day. The person said DeKalb was always a “University” town. I argued that until just recently DeKalb was a City that was home to one of the worlds largest corporations, DeKalb Ag, and not just a university town.
One of our areas more progressive thinks has come up with a term ” Resident Affordability Index”. I wonder how those number have changed since the departure of DeKalb Ag. High priced housing for the executives, high paying upper level management positions and all the spin off from having that company here have had drastic effect on the areas ” Resident Affordability Index”.
This all ties back to my original opinon about Benchmarking. Manhatten KS may be the same size, population and have a state university BUT they also have a steady base in Fort Riley whereas DeKalb has lost their base in DeKalb Ag.
P.S. What happens to communities that loose their military bases (I.E Rantoul Il.) can very well be compared to communities that loose Fortune 100 Compnaies. So in order to effectively Benchmark with Manhatton Ks it would need to be at a time when Ft Riley closed so we could see the effect that has on their community.
Just my thoughts
Pevo