Parks Commissioners were at an impasse during last Thursday’s budget workshop, the second one commissioners had to tackle the task of approving a budget for city hall by the end of January.
Director Justin Huss told commissioners that the actual income and expenses for 2019 were not available from Windle & Associates. He suggested that commissioners provisionally approve the 2019 budget until new information was given from their accountant, and they could work on the budget for Lake Leatherwood City Park because they had the actuals for tax collection.
Before starting, commissioner Scott Bardin raised concern about financials. He said he had looked at bank statements from 2019 and that income and expenses were in the wrong places.
He gave an example of the new shuttles that Parks had procured last year saying that while Huss had budgeted $50,000 for that operation, operation costs would be closer to $70,000 and that projected revenue would be only $38,000 – $39,000.
This sparked a discussion on the shuttles and how Parks would pay for the deficit. Parks is required by contract with the Walton Foundation to run shuttles, and that combined with Human Resources increases, left Parks with the need to find extra funds in the budget. The roadblock of a lack of 2019 actuals continued to rear its ugly head throughout the meeting.
Chair Bill Featherstone made the suggestion that commissioners approve a conservative budget and go back and amend it after the January deadline. Huss said that revenue was up in 2019 so the budget would be conservative. Featherstone agreed.
Commissioner Steven Foster voiced that he wanted to pass a budget based on actuals, taking a look at 2018 as the basis.
Commissioners discussed passing the 2018 actuals as the budget to the best of their ability with the revenue and expenses of the shuttle and HR costs factored in.
Foster pointed out that he did not think the point of the law was to pass a fake budget. Featherstone said he didn’t see it as fake and they won’t be dinged for conservative numbers. Huss explained that the revenue projections were based on a 3-year average with revenue increases each year and that helped keep projections conservative.
Bardin said he would create that budget for their regular meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 21. Commissioners decided they would give Windle & Associates a deadline of the end of the January for the 2019 actuals.