Council hears report on fiscal performance

ERIC LINDBERG
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

The good news is the city of Santa Barbara spent $3.1 million less in reserves during fiscal year 2007 than was called for in the amended budget.
The bad news is the city still drained about $3.4 million from the reserves. City accounting manager Rudy Livingston and director of finance Robert Peirson delivered a financial overview of the 12 months ending in June to the City Council on Tuesday, presenting both sides of the coin and explaining the bumps in the road.

"We did indeed use approximately $3 million less in reserves than the budget anticipated," Peirson said.
However, he also pointed out that the financial forecast projected using only $2.6 million in reserves. Having that discrepancy of $500,000 is "not a big deal," Peirson said, but cautioned the Council about the years ahead.
"We do see a higher level of uncertainty than we have seen in previous years," he said.
Livingston’s report showed the adopted budget had anticipated a $500,000 drain on reserves, but an amended budget including encumbrances carried over from the prior year and Council-approved amendments lifted that figure to about $6.4 million.
General Fund revenues came in $1.5 million under budget, Livingston said, pointing to sales taxes, fines and forfeitures, and fees and charges that brought in less capital than expected.
Livingston characterized many of the variances between expected and actual figures as of a "one-time nature," but could not guarantee they won't be an issue in the future. A gray zone of uncertainty exists when predicting revenues such as property taxes and transient occupancy taxes, he explained.
"So what you are saying is hopefully it will be to our benefit, but we just can't count on it," Councilmember Grant House said.
Although Peirson said property tax and transient occupancy tax figures are cause for some concern, Councilmember Das Williams expressed cautious optimism for the financial future of the city.
"We do have balanced budgets ahead of us if we are careful," he said.
While Tuesday's summary report gave the Council a chance to note how the city performed fiscally during the past year, several members of the Council took the opportunity to bring up another issue related to finance.
"I think that this is too big a subject for us not to be as prepared with the information and documents that we want to be," Councilmember Iya Falcone said, asking staff to look into televising Finance Committee meetings so every member receives the same breadth of information prior to each Council meeting.
Williams said he is not sure there is a public need to televise the Finance Committee, explaining that members of the public rarely show up to the public meetings. However, Councilmember Brian Barnwell backed Falcone, saying he would like to see recording equipment installed in the committee's meeting room as soon as possible.