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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 passed out a monthly financial report as of end of Feb. He said that YTD was about $16mil. out of a $29mill budget.
The amounts for the cost of leasing the dept cars was included this time as the City division that bills that only does it 2x a yr. How many cars are leased? Lui said about 33. He said the city’s policy is to use CNG vehicles over oil based gas vehicles. Any new cars we get will be CNG. Only the larger cars that are used for transporting youth will be oil based gas cars.
Comm Fetico asked that the figures for gas/car usage be expanded so that a set of data could be collected to give us a better idea of how cars were being used. Lui said that they spend about $12-13K on gas for cars a year.
On an aside, the Chief mentioned a situation with foliage on the upper grounds that is the object of a complaint from a neighbor because it is overgrown –more than 6 different types of bushes. He said that estimates for resolving this problem are for more than $4200 (2 gardeners and 1 laborer). an unexpected expense.
Comm Beijen asked if there would be money left over in this category since it appears that we are below the budgeted amount. Lui said that there possibly is due past payment for lease purchases that haven’t been charged yet.
Comm Fetico asked that this detail be broken out in the monthly financial since it isn’t apparent in the current summary.
Comm Fetico asked about the possibility of using youth in work crews to do this, or adults from the Sheriff’s programs. The Chief said he was told that SLUG used to do this for the Dept, under contract, but no longer exists.
Comm Beijen asked about the high OT in Aug/ Sept. Lui said that Sept had 3 pay periods. The Chief said that the population was up at that time, and there were needs for filling staff on vacation, training, or medical. They didn’t have an adequate on-call list. It’s getting better. They’re looking at possibly using the police academy cadets (who haven’ started their post training yet) to cover some while waiting for their class.
Lui referred to the large amount of money from non personal services line. This million plus was due to a large payment to CYA for commitments over the last 3 fiscal years. Comm Beijen noted that in July there was an almost equal amount credited to us. Lui said that that was an accrual that was done. It’s an accounting thing. He said the city recognized this as an expense in the prior year, and when we started this fiscal year they reversed the accrual (july’s figure). So the net effect is zero for this year. Why wasn’t it paid over the years? There was a question of whether the city needed a formal contract with CYA (which it didn’t have). The City Attorney ruled it didn’t, that it was legislatively demanded.
There was confusion about a copier machine (which was included in the CYA lines, in the same general expense category). It is not a copier for CYA use.
Each division has their own copier. The most expensive one costs about $300/month. We spend about $50K a year on copier machines.
Comm Fetico passed out an example of a log sheet that could be used to keep accurate record of car use. The Chief said that they would institute some sort of tracking process. Lui said that each unit with an assigned vehicle is responsible for that vehicle.
Comm Fetico wanted more details regarding the Out of Home Placement program. He’ll direct these concerns to M. Lui directly. Lui gave an estimate of the costs. He estimated that POs spend 1/3 of their time doing the visitation of placement sites. Added to the personnel costs of this task are the non personnel costs (travel, lodging, food), totaling the amount on the Dept’s response. They were able to recoup $166K for that activity in FY 04-05 –almost half.
Comm Fetico raised the issue of divisions maintaining on-going records of their budget expenditures.
The Chief said this would place a burden on them. He doubted there was staff power to do this.
Comm Fetico reviewed his concern for the compensation of our Superintendent of Building/Grounds.
Lui explained how the premium pay was computed and what the timesheet meant.
(public comment)
There were none.
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