Upon our request, Lorie Tinfow, City Manager, City of Pacifica approved the following full text reprint, which was also printed in a Pacifica Tribune My Turn article, 6/18/14. Thank you City Manager Tinfow!
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| Lorie D. Tinfow, Pacifica City Manager |
I arrived in October 2013 as the new City Manager with some understanding of the City's precarious financial positon and clear direction form the Council to help them tell the City's budget story in a new, more understandable way. Since then much of my time has been spent digging into prior budgets and the existing 5-year Financial Plan to figure out where we stand.
I realized many changes were needed including a new Long Term Financial Plan and a new approach to budget development. As part of the changes, I introduced a new summary of all City funds that produced unexpected results.
Difficult News to Deliver
At the June 9th City Council meeting, I shared difficult news about the City of Pacifica's fiscal circumstances. As part of preparing the fund summary, staff and I discovered several funds operating in the red and together showing a deficit totaling $4 million. The reasons for the deficits vary-- constructing facilities without funding in place, making loans between funds without a repayment plan, and responding to emergencies without a reserve to cover costs-- and all have contributed to the current situation.
Temporary deficits (even over years) while waiting to receive grants or expenses reimbursement are common and understandable. In addition, interfund loans can be good practices that I support. A crucial part of these actions through is to include a plan for repayment or replenishment; to date, none exists for these deficits.
Fixing the Fund Deficits and Getting a Second Opinion
A natural question would be "how did we get here?" While staff is still collecting history to better understand the answer to this question, my primary focus now is "how are we going to fix this?"
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| .... One more thing, some empty funds and pension obligations, hence deficit $4 million |
. Future special revenues that are eligible to be applied toward the deficits;
. A portion of any operating surplus;
. One-time revenues such as City property sale proceeds;
. And lastly, "Excess ERAF" funds (extra property tax revenues received under certain conditions).
Unfortunately, this approach means that some planned activities over the next few years will be delayed or even eliminated. For example, the next phase of the Palmetto Streetscape Improvement project will likely be delayed.
I don't yet have a complete plan to correct a problem that has been years in the making. I do expect to return to Council in the coming months with a preliminary installment plan. And, to ensure confidence in the numbers, I plan to bring in outside financial expertise for a "second opinion" about the status of the funds.
In total, the City's funds are clearly "in the black" and the City can and will continue to meet its obligations and provide services.
More information is available on the City's website."
Related - Fix Pacifica "City budget 2014-15..", includes City Budget presentations, 6/10/14. Note Lorie Tinfow photographs: Portrait from City of Pacifica/City Manager. Budget talks from the "Institute for Local Government, Engaging the public.. Walnut Creek." Vimeo video, 15 minutes.
Posted by Kathy Meeh
3 comments:
Very interesting. "Constructing facilities without funding in place", like what facilities or projects are we talking about? Sure hope it wasn't any of the ones described as being paid for by grants and such. And what a revelation, I guess, that all those restricted funds weren't so restricted after all. They've been used for just about anything that struck council's fancy. Makes all that crowing this council did over their balanced budgets seem just a tad ludicrous. IDK what to make of this. Have idiots or liars been running Pacifica?
Both
I wonder if Tinfow knew the sad state of Pacifica's financial condition before she signed on for the gig?
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