Mayor’s Memo to City Departments Nov. 24, 2014
By Editor at November 28, 2023 | 9:15 am | Print
As we pass the halfway point in my first term, I wish to provide you with a brief update as to the City’s financial health. All of you are well-aware of the situation we were facing a year ago: a budget based on smoke-and-mirrors that was underwater from day one, runaway bond authorizations that took us up to our debt ceiling, and a lot of unnecessary spending. With your help, we are now operating under a structurally-balanced budget, we have reduced or rescinded unissued bond authorizations by over $20 million, and we have reduced the bleeding in our spending. I appreciate your patience and cooperation as we cut $16 million from last year’s budget, implemented a review of every purchase order by my office, placed a freeze on discretional hiring, and sought to gain efficiencies by reducing overtime and adjusting staffing on city projects. Setting this City on a solid financial footing is akin to turning around an aircraft carrier, but we have initiated that turn and are making sound progress.
However, we are far from being out of the woods. Thanks to a decision made by my predecessor that improperly allocated one-time state education funding we were forced to give an additional $4.4 million to the Board of Education even before the current budget went into effect. That, combined with yet-to-be-realized savings anticipated from union contract negotiations still pending, have us projecting an operating deficit of around $7 million right now (which is why it is important that our negotiations soon come to positive conclusions, so the City can begin to realize some of these projected savings). To be sure, that number is far more manageable than the $20 million deficit from last year, or the $33 million deficit that was projected for this year, but it is a large number nonetheless and it will be closed. Therefore, I am ordering all department heads to undertake a thorough review of your current budget status, including where you are now and what you anticipate for the remainder of the fiscal year. In December, I will be meeting with each of you to review precisely where your departments stand. Suffice to say that overruns are not an option, so if mid-year adjustments are needed I want to see a plan for resolving them.
In addition to the strict scrutiny I expect you to utilize in keeping to your current budget, I know that you will soon be putting together your department requests for FY15-16. Let me save you the suspense: the financial picture for next year’s budget is bleaker than it was for this year’s. No department will receive more than it did this past year. I made the difficult decision to raise taxes in the current budget, and it was the right and prudent choice after years of gimmicks, phantom numbers and one-shot revenues. But I will not raise them again.
As I said above, I appreciate what you – and all our employees – have done to be part of the solution. The City now needs your continued vigilance in further tightening the purse strings until we get the ship fully turned around. Please contact me with any questions.
