CC Minutes - 12/10/07 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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Resolution 4922 Adopting a Supplemental Budget; Making Appropriations for the City of Eugene for the Fiscal Year Beginning July 1, 2007, and Ending June 30, 2008 City Manager Angel Jones asked Budget Manager for the Finance Division, Kitty Murdoch, to review the item. Ms. Murdoch explained that this was the first supplemental budget of the year, an annual true-up of the estimates that were put into the budget and audit of the actuals in order to adjust the estimates. She said there were several million dollars in changes to the budget but most were attributable to “cleaning up the estimates” in the budget. She noted a couple of items: ? The City was recognizing $3.9 million in grants in the General Fund; included in that was $500,000 from the State of Oregon to help with Olympic Trials expenses. ? The City had enough money to make the $900,000 transfer to the Capital Budget. ? $148,500 was being allocated from the Contingency Account for projects pending approval by the council. ? There are projects related to the election held in November, 2007, that were not included in the Supplemental Budget as costs were still being calculated. Mayor Piercy opened the public hearing. John Barofsky , 2010 Hubbard Lane, observed that there had been a change made in the 2008 budget document regarding supplemental budgets. He cited page B-14 of the budget packet and noted that there was a paragraph describing adjusting adopted budgets that contained a clause that allowed for 10 citizens to petition for a budget hearing that had been stricken since the previous year. He said it had been taken out without a directive from the council or the Budget Committee. He felt this had been an opportunity for a public hearing and that it had “magically disappeared.” He remarked that this was an area in which trust was taken away. Mayor Piercy closed the public hearing. Councilor Bettman asked Ms. Murdoch to explain the change in language. Ms. Murdoch said this had been discussed in the last Supplemental Budget process. She clarified that the City had been misquoting Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS) regarding the provision about supplemental budgets. She stated that there was no longer a provision that required a process such as Mr. Barofsky described and so it had been removed. Councilor Bettman said it seemed to her that given the importance of transparency and public involvement, this change should have been noted in the budget packet. Councilor Bettman remarked that she did not understand the adjustments that had been made because of initiatives in departments that had not been completed or pursued. Ms. Murdoch explained that those included items such as an allocation of $86,338 for the sustainability program MINUTES—Eugene City Council December 10, 2007 Page 9 Regular Meeting