City Council approves amendments to 2020-2021 Fiscal Year budget

Council approves excess revenues and votes to allocate these resources for one-time projects as recommended by city staff

The Lakeport City Council approved amendments to the 2020-2021 Fiscal Year budget on Tuesday during their regularly scheduled meeting.

Lakeport Finance Director Nick Walker said this budget report included financial statements for the general fund, water operating and maintenance fund, and the sewer operating and maintenance fund, which include revenue and expense activity through Dec. 31, 2020.

Revenues collected in the second quarter 202021 resulted in a positive outcome Walker said. Most revenue sources are in line with budgeted amounts while sales tax and Transient Occupancy Tax

(TOT) are exceeding their estimates.

The excess amount from the second quarter is a total of $91,257. A total of $68,528 comes from sales tax and the remaining $22,729 comes from TOT.

The Council approved the calculation of the amount of excess revenues quarter over quarter and to allocate these resources for current spending on onetime projects as recommended by city staff.

The council also approved to use excess revenues to offset the appropriation increase of $25,000 for the contract extension with Retail Coach, and also approved a budget adjustment in the amount of $40,000 for a police vehicle.

This will leave the city with a total excess second quarter fund of $26,257. At this time there is no budget adjustment being proposed for this dollar amount Walker said. Another request to use these remaining funds will come to the council in a future meeting.

According to the report heard by the board, the Lakeport City Staff has been having to monitor the budgeted revenues and expenditures more closely this fiscal year due to the pandemic.

“As a result of the economic uncertainties created by the COVID-19 pandemic, the budget process leading up to the adoption of the 2020-21(budget) was different than in most years,” Walker said. “With sales tax being the primary general fund revenue, the monitoring process has a lag.”

This is due to the way Lakeport receives their tax payment from the state. Sales tax paid by the consumer in the second quarter, which is October 2020 through December 2020 is collected by the state by the end of January. A final payment of those taxes is not made to the city until the end of February.

“The granular detail of these payments is available to the City’s sales tax consultant in late March and reported to the City in April,” Walker said.

In other council business three proclamations were declared for the City of Lakeport. These include Sexual Assault Awareness Month, Child Abuse Prevention Month and Fair Housing Month.

The council also received a presentation on recent capital improvements and future infrastructure needs for Lakeport’s water and wastewater facilities.

Utilities Superintendent Paul Harris said some capital improvements the city made include Parallel Drive water main replacement, First and Second street water main replacement, Lift Station replacements and upgrades, Giselman street waterman replacement, sludge removal, Highway 29 sewer replacement and automated meter reading.

“Some of these projects were well completed when I came on board,” Harris said. “These projects are tied in with the road projects where if we are going to put a new road in, we are going to assess the utilities and determine if they will be replaced or not.”

A few future improvements include replacing Scotts Creek wells, replacing aging undersized water mains, replacing equipment that is no longer California Air Resources Board (CARB) compliant, and treatment upgrades to the water treatment plant, manhole rehabilitations and water treatment upgrades.

“I am extremely impressed at all this great information,” said Lakeport Mayor Kenny Parlet. “It really gives us an idea of the scope and incredible amount of work and due diligence that has to be done on a daily basis just to run a small city of a small footprint.”

The next meeting will take place on Tuesday, April 2021 at 6 p.m.