City’s Finance / Audit Committee Holds Special Monday Meeting

The Pasadena City Council’s Finance/Audit Committee will hold a special meeting on Monday, January 22, to finalize amendments to the Fiscal Year 2018 Adopted Operating Budget and the 2018 General Fee Schedule, before these are adopted at the full City Council meeting later in the day.

An Agenda Report prepared by the City’s Department of Finance showed a list of the proposed amendments per department within the city that could collectively increase the operating budget for 2018 by a net amount of $836,552.

The Finance Department is recommending that expenditures of $1,250,000 be appropriated in the General Fund Reserve Fund Balance, for work already done in constructing the Washington Middle School gymnasium based on a Joint Use Facilities agreement between the City and the Pasadena Unified School District.

The Department of Transportation is recommending that a transfer of Traffic Reduction Transportation Improvement Fees Funds (TRTIF) in the amount of $1.5 million to the Proposition C Local Return Fund be removed. The department said with the recent update to the TRTIF guidelines in January 2017, the fees can no longer support current transport operations.

The Department of Finance is also recommending that $850,265 be un-appropriated from the Department of Transportation’s Measure R Fund. The Finance Department said a purchase order of that amount, due to administrative oversight, was carried forward into fiscal year 2018 when the item was paid in FY 2017.

The Department of Information Technology (DoIT) recommends that revenue be recognized and expenditures of $450,000 be appropriated For IT purposes made on behalf of other City departments. The action is expected to have a neutral effect on the department’s operating budget but will streamline the payables and billing process, and simplify the tracking and recording of transactions in the City’s financial system.

The Department of Finance is also recommending that expenditures of $248,333 be appropriated to the Department of Public Works within the Sewer Fund. This should cover funding for debt service payment in Public Works’ operating budget that wasn’t included in the FY 2018 budget adoption, due to an administrative oversight.

Other proposed amendments in the Agenda Report include transferring $126,000 from the General Fund to the Computing and Communications Services Fund, that should cover permanent funding for a Business Systems Analyst position.

Pasadena Water and Power will also be able to purchase a forklift for use in PWP’s warehouse once their two recommendations are carried out. The first recommendation is for the appropriation of $65,000 expenditures to the Power Capital Fund, and $35,000 to the Water Capital Fund. Currently, the PWP warehouse is using a rented forklift but now requires something with a larger capacity to be able to lift heavy reels of copper cable.

The Committee will also deliberate on a recommendation from the Department of Finance to extend the mandatory tender of outstanding 2006, 2013A and 2013B series Rose Bowl Lease Revenue Bonds to 2019 – another issue that the full City Council may finalize Monday by adopting a resolution to this effect.

The Pasadena Public Financing Authority may likewise adopt a similar resolution also Monday.

As an information item, the Finance/Audit Committee will see first-hand the City’s Annual Financial Reports for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2017, before passing it on to the full City Council later in the evening.

The City Council will file these financial reports to the Pasadena Community Development Commission after review and discussion Monday night.

The Finance/Audit Committee’s special meeting Monday, January 22, will begin shortly after 4 p.m. at the City Council Chambers, Room S249 at City Hall.