01-31-12 Workshop MeetingCITY COMMISSION
CITY OF DELRAY BEACH, FLORIDA
WORKSHOP MEETING - TUESDAY, JANUARY 31, 2012
7:00 P.M. DELRAY BEACH CITY HALL
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WORKSHOP AGENDA
1. Fiscal 2012 Budget Options
2. Commission Comments
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matter considered at this meeting, such person will need to ensure that a verbatim record includes the testimony and
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MEMORANDUM
TO:Mayor and City Commissioners
FROM:City Manager
DATE:February 1, 2012
SUBJECT:AGENDA ITEM WS.1 - WORKSHOP MEETING OF JANUARY 31, 2012
FISCAL 2012 BUDGET ADJUSTMENT
ITEM BEFORE COMMISSION
The Commission's decision to not approve the Fire S ervice Fee Assessment Roll creates a revenue
shortfall of $3,200,000 for the current year's budg et. Staff needs direction from the City Commision as
to how to rebalance this budget.
BACKGROUND
Last summer as we were preparing the FY 2012 budget we were confronted with a situation where not
only did the property tax roll decrease for the fou rth year in a row, but also several other revenue
sources decreased, such as sales tax, utility tax, franchise fees and communications services tax. St aff
proposed a fire service fee as a way to offset this drop in revenue without increasing the property ta x
rate. The fact that the Commission was considering imposing a fire service fee was well publicized in
the media at the time. The Commission ultimately d ecided to adopt a fire service fee to raise the
$3,200,000 needed to balance the budget, and approv ed the budget with that revenue included. This was
also publicized in the media, and was reported in t he September issue of News for Neighborhoods,
which was sent to every one of the City's utility c ustomers. At that time, we received very little ne gative
reaction to this proposed new fee.
Notices of the amount of the proposed assessment an d the public hearing date were sent to owners of
over 32,000 residential units and 994 non-residential parcels. Considering the number of ind ividual
property owners notified, and the scare tactics use d in some neighborhoods regarding the assessment, t he
turnout at the hearing was not surprising. It is t he opinion of staff that those who spoke at the hea ring do
not represent the majority view of our community, b ut rather a minority of our citizens who adamantly
oppose the assessment.
Nevertheless, we are preparing options for reducing our FY 2012 budget by the needed $3,200,000.
These options are calculated based on annual costs. Since we are already four months into the fiscal
year, approximately one-third of the $3,200,000 has already been spent. I recommend that this one-third
($1,067,000) be covered by funds from our undesigna ted fund balance. The budget cuts are being
presented on an annualized bases so that we do not start the Fiscal 2013 budget with
a $3,200,000 shortfall.
One option attached shows how the budget could be b alanced without cutting Fire or Police services. A
second option shows how the budget could be rebalan ced with reductions in Fire and Police services
included.
Also in the backup for your consideration are capit al projects funded from the General Fund this year,
as well as some discussion of why certain departmen ts or functions are not proposed to be cut.
RECOMMENDATION
I recommend that the Commission reconsider the fire service fee assessment and hold another hearing,
either with a flat rate for all residential units, or the previously proposed graduated rate, and appr ove the
resulting assessment.
Base Calculation for FY 2012 General Fund
Budget Reduction of $3,200,000
The total adopted General Fund Budget for 2012 is $93,356,270.These calculations are
presented starting from the earlier expense total of $92,615,070.For the purposes of this
calculation the difference is not particularly significant and can be mostly accounted for by an
increase of $650,000 in the transfer to the Capital Improvement Program.The purpose of the
calculation is to answer the question,“After subtracting out those expenses which cannot be
reduced,by what percentage must the remaining expenses be reduced in order to cut $3.2
million from the FY 2012 General Fund Budget?”
Total General Fund Expenses $92,615,070
Highland Beach Fire
City Funded Capital Projects –FY 2012
Atlantic Avenue Street Light Pole Replacement $50,000
Beach Beautification Plan (Pavilion –net cost)210,450
Building Maintenance (Replace A/C,roofs,upgrade lighting,misc.repairs)150,000
City Hall Chiller Upgrade 50,000
PC Replacement 95,000
Fire Self Contained Breathing Apparatus 144,500
Hilltopper Field Resodding (Repay CRA)35,000
Data Cabling and Switches (Provides increased capacity and speed)70,000
Server Memory Upgrade (We need additional memory capacity)25,000
Neighborhood Enhancements (Preservation Trust grant match funds)20,000
Parks Master Plan Update 35,000
Police Computer Room Relocation (To eliminate health risks from Halon)47,000
Police In
Potential Budget Cuts to Save $3,200,000 Annually
Police and Fire
Police and Fire