City Finance budget jumped 29 percent in five years

It’s difficult to ask city departments to be frugal and fiscally conservative when the Chief Financial Officer’s budget has grown more than $1.4 million since FY 2014–a 29.3 percent jump.

During Mayor Ashton Hayward’s first term, Financial Services and Technology Resources were separate departments, we combined them for FY 2012 and FY 2014 to generate a fair comparison to FY 2019 proposed budget, which has Technology under CFO Dick Barker.

FY 2012 was Hayward’s first budget, which had $5.36 million  for Financial Services and Technology. By FY 2014, he had cut those budgets by 9.5 percent, saving the taxpayers  over a half a million dollars.

His proposed budget for next year is nearly $6.3 million, costing the taxpayers $1.42 million more than five years ago.

Financial Services	FY  2012	FY 2014	FY 2019
 Personal Services	         3,596,364	         3,256,200	         3,918,500
 Operating Expense	         1,501,394	         1,545,700	         2,154,200
 Capital Outlay	            261,334	              46,400	            198,000
	         5,359,092	         4,848,300	         6,270,700

 

The budget breaks down the expense by the department programs.  The basic accounting programs, under General Fund, were reduced by $129,704 for FY 2014 but have since climbed $282,200–51 percent.

Risk Management has stayed steady since FY 2014. However, Central Services has grown $804,000 (42.7 percent) since FY 2014 – despite eliminating the technology administrator position.

 

Programs
General Fund	FY  2012	FY 2014	FY 2019
Accounting	              74,038	              67,600	            429,600
Accts Payable/Rec.	            148,097	              90,900	                      –
Budget	              29,703	              60,200	              62,500
Contract Services	                      –	                      –	              84,100
Payroll	            154,182	            197,800	            200,800
Purchasing	            302,676	            139,700	              61,400
Total General	            708,696	            556,200	            838,400
Risk Mgmt	            878,815	         1,180,000	         1,207,400
Central Services
Capital Accumulation	            203,394	              46,400	                      –
Info Mgmt	            665,801	            736,400	            998,400
Mail Room	            112,385	              88,200	              83,800
Network Mgmt	            448,322	            615,700	         1,137,900
Public Safety	            219,507	            199,200	            254,400
Tech Resources	                      –	                      –	            210,800
Administrator	            306,344	            195,400	                      –
Public Information	            250,479	                      –	                      –
Total Central	         2,206,232	         1,881,300	         2,685,300