The city council received a report Monday on the state of Hollister’s finances, and things are looking up.
“Revenues are hard to project in the middle of the year,” said Brett Miller, interim director of administrative services, adding that “the sales tax is looking like it’s coming on track.”
Miller and other officials discussed the state of Hollister’s budget at the regular council meeting Monday.
A year ago, city officials had considered putting into place an “austerity plan” because of the down economy and uncertainty about the Measure E sales tax. But with the passage of Measure E extension in 2012 by Hollister voters and its $3 million-plus in revenue, the city has enough sales tax money to put the city back in the black, according to the budget document released by city officials.
The available general fund balance for 2013-14 is $2.5 million, with 15 percent set aside in reserves for operations – amounting to about $273,000 in reserves, most of which came when the city received a payment from the county for the closure of the city’s Redevelopment Agency.
“We feel like a lot of them (tax revenues) are coming in as predicted,” Miller said.
Miller said even with staff changes and the takeover of the county’s fire services in June, those events have not had a significant, negative impact on the projected budget. That includes the effect of payouts for severance and health benefits, Miller said.
“We will have savings in salaries, but we will have money for payouts,” he said.
When fire services were switched, many of those workers were forced to come in for overtime because of the staffing changes, which meant more money had to go toward payments for those hours.
“We had two months where we had high overtime,” Fire Chief Mike O’Connor said.
Interim City Manager Bill Avera said the city had a delay with extra fire reserves coming on board because of the new fire contract, but now there is money to hire more reserves after the fire department received a federal grant to hire 12 more firefighters.
“We’re right on track with that account,” said O’Connor.
Mayor Ignacio Velazquez said the fire contract was a “positive.”
“There are some start-up costs,” he said. “Even with that cost, we’ll still be positive for the year.”
Revving revenues
Another major source of revenue was the motorcycle rally, which returned this summer after a five-year hiatus. The city estimated last year’s rally brought in $140,000 in extra revenue to the city. Miller said the city is moving that money around to contract police personnel for security at this summer’s upcoming rally – for around $45,000.
“When we budgeted initially, we didn’t know what” our budget would look like because of the rally, he said.
The mayor, meanwhile, said the rally was a “positive, not a negative.” He also praised Miller and city officials for making sure expenditures came under budget.
“We’re making progress,” he said. “I call these departments every week to make sure they’re not over budget.”
With additional revenues, the city is also using that money to pay off side funds and debt – including using the RDA reimbursement to help pay off those funds.
“Paying off the side funds will save us money,” the mayor said.
Miller said he also has been more in touch with department heads to watch over budget problems – including taking a highlighter to the budgets.
“They know I will probably increase the budget of highlighters,” he joked.
In other matters:
• The council agreed to take up an item to possibly revise language of the city’s code enforcement rules after a citizen complained about a provision related to keeping boats and recreational vehicles on private driveways.
• The council approved a resolution to accept a bid proposal from Don Chapin Co. to work on the Powell & Suiter Street Sanitary Sewer Rehabilitation Project.
• A California Environmental Quality Act document was recently released on the impact of the proposed West Hills Water Treatment Plant and can be reviewed by the public. Officials from the Hollister Urban Area Water Project said they are now working with the fish and wildlife Service to receive the greenlight related to federal environmental standards.
• Local teenager Christopher Soto was ratified to serve as the Youth Commissioner on the Parks & Recreation Commission. He will be sworn in at the next Parks & Recreation meeting on Feb. 25.
