2013/10/30 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

October 30, 2013 • Public safety, the largest program funded by the general fund, which includes police officers, firefighters and our municipal court staff • Infrastructure, which includes the street crews who keep our roads clean and in good condition • Community program funds, which support staffing and resources for the library, animal shelter, senior center, cultural arts programs and parks department • Governmental operations, which includes planners, inspectors, code compliance staff and facilities staff who maintain city properties • Legislative funding, which supports the city council that develops policy and enacts legislation • Departmental support, which represents staff responsible for day- to-day city management, including the human resources, legal, information technology, and administrative departments. The general fund makes up more than a third of the city's total operating budget, and is the most vulnerable to economic volatility and changes in legislation at state and federal levels. Our 2014 revenue forecast for the general government is $113.5 million, a modest 1.3 percent increase over 2013. Despite the challenging economic landscape, we have achieved a proposed budget that maintains baseline funding for city services and allows for basic maintenance of our roads and buildings. We worked hard to get here. Nine vacant positions were eliminated this year. In all, we've eliminated nearly 25 full-time positions from the city ranks since 2009, none of which were public safety positions. We've also deferred maintenance projects and reserve contributions during the recovery from the recession. These actions are not sustainable for the long term and we will need to reinstate contributions to the pension and capital reserves in the near future. Based on our expectations for the next several years, I believe that the time has come for us to acknowledge that our revenues will not recover 301