PRESENTER: Presenter
Karrie Cook, Budget Manager
Body
SUBJECT: Title
Approval of FY 2025 budget amendments for the General Fund and Special Revenue Funds.
Header
DEPARTMENT: Finance
Body
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: N/A
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
General Fund:
Per the City’s financial policy, if an overall department budget needs to be increased or decreased, a budget amendment is required via City Council approval. Due to higher-than-anticipated employee expenditures, unanticipated operating expenditures, and increased costs of operating expenditures, budget amendments are required in several departments in the General Fund. Many of these amendments are consistent with the FY 2025 expenditure estimates developed during the most recent budget development process. Staff recommends utilizing savings generated by other General Fund departments to support these amendments, so there will be no direct financial impact to the General Fund. The following General Fund budget amendments are recommended for City Council consideration.
Each section below shows the General Fund department that is requesting a budget increase and the Departments/Divisions that can cover the increase with savings generated throughout FY 2025. The departments requesting budget increases are City Attorney, Municipal Court, Fire, and Police.
Special Revenue Funds:
PEG Fund: During FY 2025, a project was completed for the installation, configuration, and support of a new audio/visual and broadcast system in Council Chambers, Executive, and Tejas Conference Rooms. At the time the fund’s budget was established in September 2024, final project costs had not been determined. At the March 24th City Council meeting, the total budget for this project was approved to be $702,000. Now that the project is completed, the total costs have exceeded the originally established budget for the fund. The PEG fund does have sufficient fund balance to cover the requested budget amendment.
Child Safety Fund: The Child Safety Fund houses all expenditures for the City’s School Resource Officer program. The budget for SRO program employee expenditures is based on an estimate of salaries and overtime throughout the entire fiscal year. At the completion of the fiscal year, the employee expenses exceeded the budget. NBISD covers 75% of full-time SRO employee costs as well as 100% of overtime and SRO Rover costs. Remaining expenditures are covered by an interfund transfer from the City’s General Fund; therefore, sufficient funds are available to support this budget amendment.
Court Security Fund: The Court Security Fund is used to fund any expenses related to the security of the Municipal Court. $5,000 is needed to cover operating expenditures related to security upgrades. There is sufficient fund balance available to cover the amount needed.
Facilities Maintenance Fund: The Facilities Maintenance Fund is used to address various City facility needs. During FY 2025, additional landscaping work was completed to address needs such as mowing, trimming, edging, shredding, planting, mulching, plant debris/litter, and weed control. There are sufficient funds available to cover the requested budget amendment.
Fire Apparatus Replacement Fund: In FY 2025, the Fire Apparatus Fund paid off the final two outstanding debt service payments, allowing the fund to be solely utilized for vehicle maintenance and other fire-related operating costs in FY 2026. There are sufficient funds available within the fund balance to support this budget amendment.
Local Youth Diversion Fund: The Local Youth Diversion Fund is used to support the salaries for a Juvenile Case Coordinator and to implement programs related to juvenile outreach, court education, leadership programs, and other projects designed to prevent or reduce the number of juvenile referrals to the Court. A budget amendment is needed to cover the salary costs of the Juvenile Case Coordinator that exceeded the original budget. There are sufficient funds available to support this budget amendment.
ISSUE:
N/A
FISCAL IMPACT:
The General Fund amendments do not result in a fiscal impact and do not affect the fund balance. The Special Revenue Funds have sufficient funds available to support the proposed amendments.
Recommendation
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends approval of all budget amendments for FY 2025.