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(DISCUSSION/ACTION) Review of the Dept’s fiscal operations, with recap of expenditures, budget including status of contracts, trends in expenses, audits of all financial processes.
M. Lui said the only new information is the figures in the column for May. Some numbers are missing (eg. ADP for Juvenile Hall). Lui mentioned that OT in juvenile hall was up about 50%, due to training and higher population. There are more than 20 in the units, requiring more staff.
(aside: anticipated opening date of the new juvenile hall is Dec)
Comm Beijen asked about the equipment line (seemingly gained revenue). M. Lui said that they transferred costs from the general fund to the non-project money, which is the major money, ($25 mil budgeted to non project controls, what is called general funds). And then there’s annual project money, which is another pot of money for our maintenance of the facilities and repairs. So they moved some of that costs to the other funding source (eg. taking some of the money to maintain the building to fund the equipment, because they were overspent in equipment because the new juvenile hall purchases all happened this year.--$230K worth. One large purchase was made in anticipation of a Dec 2005 opening.
(almost $60K) per the project coordinator. The vendor kept the products till May of this year, at no cost to the Dept. But now it is being charged in storage. The Dept hasn’t paid for the equipment yet, it has just been encumbered. The charges probably won't be accounted for until the new fiscal year.
Comm Beijen asked if the costs for telephones were the result of a two-month charge. M Lui said that it looks like that’s what happened. He needed to confirm that.
Comm Fetico wanted the phone costs broken out by landlines and cellular. M. Lui didn’t know if that was possible, he’ll check it out.
Re: CBO contracts. M. Lui said a lot of the contracts weren’t done until Feb. He didn’t know if there were any outstanding contracts (paperwork) that were not completed.
Comm Fetico asked about the Parenting Skills Program. M Lui wasn’t aware it was “canceled”. He will check into that.
Comm Fetico asked how the grounds were going to be maintained from now on (to avoid the unexpected costs we recently had). M Lui said that they weren’t aware that this was their (Dept) responsibility, nobody was. It had to be researched. It was very unclear because of the layout of the map. Some of it is actually DPW’s responsibility. They are responsible for the first 4 ft of the land (up on Panorama). Previously Laguna Honda was doing it (taking care of landscaping) because it was an open space, and they were doing it as a favor to the community. Then they ran out of money during the budget cuts and they stopped doing it. We (Dept) didn’t even know that it was our responsibility until this came up.
Comm Fetico asked if there’s a work program for the youth in Log Cabin where they can do landscaping. M. Lui said there are issues with unions, and legal liability. The City Attorney recommended not exposing the Dept to that liability. Kinghorne said the crafts (unions) should have a training program for youth. Comm Beijen commented that it is a matter of selling it to the unions.
Kinghorne gave an example of our storeroom, where they could use two sharp youth who can do a little math, follow instructions, and move boxes—simple stuff—in training. He said he was going to present that to the union.
Comm Beijen asked about expenditure recovery. Will the Dept make up the $700+K amount in this month? M. Lui said no. The TANF funds used to be in the continuing project monies where we get the money from the state, we spend it, and if there’s any money left over it automatically gets rolled over to the next fiscal year for spending. The Controller made them change the way they account for that money –to annual project money—which is the same type of money they use to maintain the facilities, for instance. So the old funding source was closed out, and reopened spending appropriations and accounting for all our expenditures in this “so called” annual project fund. There was confusion because it dealt with 8 or 9 fiscal years worth of transactions were in this one index code or one budgeting area. That’s why this amount may or may not be fully recovered.
Comm Beijen asked where that deficit amount is coming from. What is it budgeted for. And how does it impact us.
M. Lui said it helps offset the general fund costs. It helps the Dept balance the budget at the end of the year. The more we recover the better we can balance. We can only recover it if we’ve spent it. We spend it first, and then go claim it.
Comm Beijen asked what impact it has on the next fiscal year. M. Lui said it would have no impact.
Asked what these funds are spent on, M. Lui said one large part ($194K) comes from DCYF to pay for CBO contracted services. We spend the money and then go recover it from DCYF.
Comm Fetico asked if PO services were part of this recoverable. M Lui said that has nothing to do with this.
M Lui said how it affects us is that we may not have as much money to carry forward at the end of the year. It would affect our (Dept) ability to ask to be able to spend that money in the new year.
He said the we would be able to balance even without recovering all that money ($700+K)
We had a projected savings of $750K, but the juvenile hall project overruns will erase that.
(public comment)
There were none.
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