SUBJECT/RECOMMENDATION:
Title
Approve the City of Clearwater Annual Operating Budget for the 2022/23 fiscal year and pass Ordinance 9615-22 on first reading.
Body
SUMMARY:
In accordance with Chapter 200 of the Florida Statutes and the rules governing Truth in Millage (TRIM) compliance, the City Council must hold two public hearings to adopt the budget. The adoption of this ordinance and the related ordinances adopting the 2022/23 millage rate and the Capital Improvement Budget are an integral part of fulfilling these requirements.
On June 30, 2022, the City Manager provided the City Council with a Preliminary Annual Operating and Capital Improvement Budget that outlined estimates of revenues and expenditures for the 2022/23 fiscal year. The City Manager presented the preliminary budget at the City Council meeting on July 21, 2022, for Council discussion and citizen input. In addition, a Special Budget Work Session was held on August 4, 2022, for Council discussion of the proposed budget.
On September 1, 2022, the City Council directed staff to bring forward a reduced millage rate of 5.8850 mills for final adoption. In response to this direction the following changes have been made to the preliminary operating budget and are included in the ordinance for adoption of the fiscal year 2022/23 operating budget.
• A decrease of $1,000,000 in ad valorem tax revenues is recognized to provide for a millage rate reduction.
• Updates made in Miscellaneous and Transfer In revenues (net zero) to account for revenues in the correct categories.
• General Fund expenditures are reduced by $1,000,000 to provide for a millage rate reduction. The following changes are made by department:
o The Library budget is reduced by $80,000. This accounts for the elimination of an additional of 1.5 FTE’s which were included in the proposed budget to increase hours at the North Greenwood branch. Instead, staff will look at current staffing levels and open hours to see if a shift in open days/times would better serve the needs of the community.
o The Office of Innovation is reduced by $69,000. This accounts for the elimination of one neighborhood coordinator which was proposed to provide a staffing level of 4 FTEs to operate the neighborhoods division. This will leave 3 FTEs to support the division in fiscal year 2022/23.
o The Parks and Recreation budget is being reduced by a total of $651,000.
• This includes the elimination of an additional 4.0 FTE’s which were included in the proposed budget to create a custodial team to provide for the opening of 6 closed restrooms in neighborhood parks and shift existing custodial responsibilities to this new staff. Instead, these restrooms will remain closed to the public and existing sites will continue to be maintained by custodial contactors.
• The Parks and Recreation department will be required to operate within the budgetary constraints of a reduction of an additional $460,000. This will allow the department time to analyze operations to implement changes over the course of fiscal year 2022/23 that will result in this savings.
o The Public Works budget is reduced by $200,000. This reflects a reduction to the contribution of General Fund revenues transferred to the streets and sidewalks project by $200,000. In the proposed capital improvement budget, funding for fiscal year 2022/23 through 2027/28 in the streets and sidewalks project included $900,000 of General Fund revenue annually. This will be reduced to $700,000 annually in the 6-year plan.
• In the Special Development Fund, revenues and expenditures are reduced by $50,000. This accounts for the reduction in road millage revenues to provide for a millage rate reduction.