Budget Clarifications are Needed

Greg,
On behalf of the A&B Advisory Board let me thank you and Wayne and Stella for the fortitude you displayed in working through the budget material at last evenings meeting.
I believe our efforts will have been a great dress rehearsal for Council’s budget session this Saturday, as your staff develops answers and analysis  to the questions posed in hopes of furthering  public confidence in the budget process.
1)  Employee names need to be reinserted in to the personnel budget for ease of working with same.  Employee salaries  are a matter of public record that have been disclosed without exception in the past,  AND  Port Orange does not need any more – what are you hiding speculation.
2)   Please break out and supply the authority for all budgeted  expenditures under the heading ICMA & Other Pension  Contributions
3) Please total and disclose the budgeted expenditures for Sick and Vacation  in the Personnel projections.
4)  Please disclose the total budgeted expenditure  for the General Employees pension plan.
5)   Please provide reconciliations  between the required pension plan payments as contained in the Annual Actuarial reports for all 3 Defined Benefits Plans  AND the pension expenditures you are budgeting.
6)   Please  provide details on the 2.5% salary increase you are recommending  for non collective bargaining employees, AND whether such raises are proposed for employees in DROP also.
7)   Please provide an action plan and analysis in support of your budgeted $50,000 clean-up/legal assistance bonus for code enforcement.
8)  Your recommendation to eliminate the Director of Public Safety position and the savings accompanying that  consolidation  which  was only accomplished 2 years appears to be being made for un-stated reasons.   The public whose property tax millage will be based  on such increased expenditures deserve a detailed explanation as to why this position has failed if it has indeed failed.  Additionally  Fire and Police expenditures are being budgeted to increase 19%  and 11% respectively.  Expenditure growths of this magnitude are not sustainable.
9)  Please provide an  analysis in support of those major revenue sources such as  Property Tax  and  Water and Sewer fees  where-in you are budgeting lower revenues in FY 2014 than were actually received in FY 2012
10)   Please provide a detailed analysis of the   assigned reserves for police, fire, and general employment retirement costs   noted on P 8
11)  Please provide the calculation  indicating  that a millage reduction from   4.8051   to  4.6991   equates to a property tax reduction of $244,787 as has been stated in recent e-mails.
12 ) The FY 2012 Actual numbers contained in the budget need to agree with the 2012 CAFR  ‘audited’ numbers and where they do not a reconciliation needs to be provided.
Several times last evening it was intimidated  that the complexity that is Port Orange finance frequently makes explanations difficult to understand.  That is unacceptable poppy cock and  I would remind you that for several  years running the former Auditor noted in his comments that:
This condition ( inconsistent account codes and descriptions)  is further complicated by the expanded use of multiple operating funds which are ultimately consolidated and rolled-up into other major operating funds for financial reporting purposes.
The use of multiple funds, many of which are for insignificant financial activities, severely complicates the budgetary and financial reporting processes throughout the year, and especially at year-end.
 This recommendation needs to be dusted off and implemented ASAP and I would urge you to update Council  with specifics regarding your efforts in this regard.  The purpose of all of this is not meant to be the comfort  of the manager or any of his staff but rather the ability of the people and their representatives to inquire and understand with reasonable effort.
That is not how finance has been run for at least the past decade and that needs to change.
Thank you
Ted Noftall
Chairman
A&B Advisory Board