06-13-1973 - Regular Meeting - MinutesFA
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MINUTES OF THE ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL
CITY OF WEST COVINA, CALIFORNIA
JUNE 13, 1973
The adjourned regular meeting of the City Council of the City of West Covina
was called to order at 4:00 PM, and recessed to the City Manager's Conference
Room 305. Councilman Chappell led with flag salute.
ROLL CALL
Present: Mayor Lloyd; Councilmen: Young, Nichols, Shearer, Chappell
Others Present: George Aiassa, City Manager
George Wakefield, City Attorney
Lela Preston, City Clerk
George Zimmerman, Public Service Director
Leonard Eliot, Controller
Ray Diaz, Ass't. Planning Director
Bert Yamasaki, Community Redevel. Coordinator
John Lippitt, Acting City Engineer
Allen Sill, Police Chief
Morris Wolfe, Street Maintenance Superintendent
Gary Duvall, Administrative Assistant
Ross Bonham, Administrative Analyst
Mark Volmert, Administrative Analyst, Jr.
Ken Larson, Administrative Analyst, Jr.
Clarence Markham, Administrative Assistant
Mike McDonnell, Staff Reporter - S.G.V.D.T.
1973-74
BUDGET REVIEW
Leonard Eliot: We have put everything in one binder this year instead of
having several binders to work with for summary and detail,
and hopefully, we won't have to flip back and forth as much
-- as we have in the past. It is printed on both sides of
the page so therefore the bulk has been reduced. It is
loose leaf. We have changed the form somewhat in that we
have indicated on each expenditure summary sheet the
reasons for changes from last year.
Some of the questions that are being anticipated as to if
it is over last year's, why is it over, if it is less than
last year's, what have you deleted. So we do start off
as usual with a summary sheet of revenue and expenditures.
It is essentially a balanced budget. We are using $50,000
of unexpended funds from this year carried forward. Other
than that, it,,is current revenue against current expendi-
tures. It is predicated on maintaining the same tax rate
as we have this year. I am anticipating the $.02 for
Gingrich Park. Last year, $.02 of the total tax rate was
ear -marked for Gingrich Park. There is no longer an ear-
mark of $.02 for Gingrich Park, but total tax rate is the
same as last year's, so in effect, you could say we are
expending $.02 more for general fund purposes rather than
for special purposes.
George Aiassa: Last year it was predicated that we were going to get
federal matching funds and Mr. Chappell made the motion
that instead of waiting for federal funds, we ear -mark
�— sufficient funds to do the entire project.
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Leonard Eliot:
The $2,084,000 projected revenue includes the
exact same total tax rate, $1.33, total tax
rate last year. This is predicated upon $1.33
tax rate this year. To accomplish this though,
we should also say that there is an amount
plugged in the budget for a moderate increase
in wages. But to accomplish that we have also
had to anticipate that the P.E.P. Program will
be phased out by the end of this coming fiscal
year, and we have not provided for retaining
those people within the budget. There are 23
positions. Rather than lay everyone off at
the end of six months, the federal government
said "send us a program which reduces this
gradually by absorption or lay off". And what
we have shown them is an attrition program
that approximately two employees a month will
be reduced from our payroll, so that by the
end of June 30, 1973, there will no longer be
any P.E.P. funds nor will there be P.E.P.
employees. They either will have filled vacan-
cies existing within our existing positions,
or they will have to have been terminated by
that time. So we should all be aware of the
fact that it does call for a reduction of 23
positions by June 30, 1974.
Councilman Shearer: The positions are all denoted as P.E.P. em-
ployees, so anything noted as a P.E.P. em-
ployee on here would be not for the full -term
of the year.
Leonard Eliot: One exception, administratively, I will say
that we do not intend to reduce the staff of
the Police and Fire Department, so that some
�—� other departments will have to take the brunt
of the reduction of staff. So, therefore,
even though there are two Police Officers that
we have indicated in here as P.E.P. employees,
will fill vacant positions, and we will then
fill two more posit -Ions out of the general
fund so that the impact will fall on depart-
ments other than Police and Fire.
George Aiassa: So we will keep the status quo.
Leonard Eliot: If you remember, two years ago we were contem-
plating 18 layoffs. We did for a couple of
months. P.E.P. came along and we were able to
` — fill those positions along with 3 or 4 more.
This time we say we are going to have to go
back to where we were two years ago.
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6/13/73
George Aiassa: We might as well also tell the Council that
we were luckier than most cities.. When we
applied for the maximum amount of employees
ems'- it was done on an estimate and Los Angeles
approved it and the amount came from Washing-
ton. We had overestimated our allocation.
And we said what do you want us to do, lay
off these people, and they said no, we will
just deficit you.each time an employee goes
off, then you reduce the amount until you
reach the amount we approved in Washington.
So we ended up with how many more additional
employees than we would have if we had to
wait - it was 19 vs 4, wasn't it?
Leonard Eliot: Something like that. We have not filled
vacancies for the last few months of the pro-
gram, wo we have a head start on the attrition
<;� program. We had 34 and we are down to 23.
Councilman I want to commend the City Manager because that was
Shearer (?) the position that the Council had taken that when we didn't
have the money we wouldnt have the employees and acting
on that premise and showing good faith, staff has obviously
moved along in the spirit of that and has followed our directions
Councilman Young: On the revenue side of this thing, Mr. Eliot, does the
(?) revenue include the anticipated yield from the federal
revenue sharing?
Leonard Eliot: No; it does not. Revenue sharing is not reflected in here,
we left it out because that is a separate program to be
administered by the Council.
Mr. Aiassa: You get a separate budget on Revenue Sharing. We have one
more budget to give you, and that's the CBD budget.
Leonard Eliot: With all that, the budget is within a few thousand dollars
total expenditure of last year's budget, even though there
may be some changes within various items of revenue,
in total we come out almost exactly the same as last year. We are anticipating
a slight adjustment upwards in the property tax, only because of increased
valuation, because of new building, and not because of any change in the tax rate.
Councilman The Central Business District Redevelopment area, what is
the implication there?
Leonard Eliot: There will be a slight decline in revenue from that area, but
overall, with other building in the City, we'll offset that.
Councilman All that is still on the tax rolls?
Leonard Eliot: That is on the tax rolls for 1973-74 because it is a March 1st
assessment date
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Councilman Lloyd? Do we have to pay taxes a third year:
Leonard Eliot: Ours won't because in our case, the City
for the Agency has purchased a great portion
of that property and we have consealed the taxes.
Councilan Lloyd:l Why is there a significant drop showing the
assessed value rather than an increase?
• Leonard Eliot: Because of the other construction in other
areas more than offset other consutrction.
Mr Aiassa: We actually went to the building codes.
? This is not to be confused, like Wickes for
example.
? Wickes wasn't affected.
? That doesn't affect our general fund revenues.
Mr. Aiassa The property tax does.
That goes 100% to the redevelopment. That
is any increase in value.
Mr. Aiassa: The only thing that will come to us is sales tax.
Jim Lloyd: But the existing Hacienda Bank and Wickes will
fall in that area.
Leonard Eliot:
Any increase from the new development will
go entirely to the Redevelopment Agency. But
there has been buildings throughout the City
just under construction and there have been
apartments just coming on stream; Larwins out
on Grand Avenue, on Citrus and we have gone
to two building records themselves to build
up our property evaluation. We base this on
the property evaluation.
Jim Lloyd:
How many factors do you apply?
Leonard Eliot:
We apply the 25%.
Jim Lloyd:
No, I mean what percent of increase of the
assessed value do you anticipate.
Leonard Eliot:
Only on new construction. Allthe increase_
is exH±xakizx based on actual assessed
evaluation.
Jim Lloyd:
No, I am asking, were there 103 million dollars
in assessed value last Year?
Mr. Aiassa:
157 million.
Jim Lloyd: What ever it was.
0 Jim Lloyd: What was the approximate increase in the
assessed value.?
Mr. L. Eliot: Approximately 3 million dollars.
Jim Lloyd: At one and one half percent.
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Leonard Eliot: At about 3 per cent. Its about 144 million dollars.
Mr. Aiassa: That also takes care of our annexations. We took
in two annexations.
Leonard Eliot: When we talk about evaluation increase we are not
talking about the assessor coming through and re-
assessing the value of the property.
Is this the increased value of the assessed properties.
We are not dealing with this for a couple or three
years.
Leonard Eliot: Probably not.. Thats what I am saying. We should
not expect a windfall like this. This is
primarily from new construction. This is at
approximately 3% increase.
Mr. Aiassa: We missed one big one, and that was the Villas.
We missed one other and that was because of our time
element. But we will miss automatically, Mr. Wakefield
said was not to be planned till the following year but
the others will.
Leonard Eliot: We have and I'll say in over 15 years we have been
guessing close enough and our percentage in the auditor's
report will show that we haven't been off too far.
Pretty close on the property tax.
Mr. Aiassa: Actually the only thing we have been a little shakey
off on was sales tax.
Leonard Eliot: That's a little more difficult.
We have as you notice, continued to depend more on property
tax than on sales tax the last two years and the trend is
continuing for the time being. The two significant items
shown there,--are.-property tax, sales tax, other revenues
.which are primarily again here;your subventions from the
State whichdk your gas'taxds primarily on your motor
vehicle in (lieu from the State of California. I think
that really covers the overall look on revenues. We do
have a detailed list of revenue by source in where you
can go through and look at where we have decided our
best estimate is of the individual items and that is three
pages forward. I don't know if you want to review that at
this time, I don't know if you would or not.
Russ Nichols: Can we ask one additional question on the budget?
Leonard Eliot: Yes.
Russ Nichols: It showed an unincorporated reserve spent at $12,000 for
72-73. Are we carrying that into the end of the year?
Leonard Eliot: No. No. We are not. That was used to balance the,.budget
• in 72-73. We will have some unappropriated funds avail-
able.
Russ Nichols: $50,000 is the figure you are talking about.
Young: We are using that.
Nichols: The estimate of the 312 ?
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6/13/73
Leonard Eliot: That was used up. That was 72-73.
Mr. Aiassa: I think Russ has a good point. If you look at the
auditor's report the one that we really got missed on
was the tax rate that we put in for retirement. We
figured 26 plus cents. We are about $26,000 short.
So actually our retirement fund took out a bigger
chunk than we anticipated. One of them is stop the
• retirement of some of the people going on disability
retirement what it was but it did show marked increase.
? I remember we also took some of our revenue sharing
money to balance the budget last year.
No. No.
Mr. Aiassa: The only thing we took was the $46,000. Our original
request was that we ask for an increase in business
license. We increased the business license in January
and we continued the complete budget of the Chamber of
Commerce.. So actually what you gave us back was
technically about $30,000.
Where are we now?
We are on the summary of review.of sources.
On the sources, I note that building permits will be up
primarily because of the construction in the CBD area.
We are demanding building permits.
Doesn't that go in?
It goes into the city building permits and we have not
waived that.
Lloyd: Then my question is: how come it "isn't higher? Wouldn't
it be higher than that?
Eliot: No. Because the actual other construction in the city we
don't anticipate to go up too much.
We have a decline back there and an increase here.
Mr. Aiassa: For five years now we have never been able to predict
the revenue from the building permits.. No matter
whether sewers or. anything. So Eliot and I have generally
been diminishing them and they still fell short. So we
are a little bit chagrinned to put any increases in there
until we can see some dal-lars in it.
Nichols: That's fine.
Incidentially, Mr. Mayor, I heard a rumor that Bullocks
was pulling out of that deal. Was there any truth to
that:
Lloyd: No. If they are, there's going to be;=a new one to us.
Mr. Aiassa: Come on now. We just signed an REA.
Don't spread it around. Sometimes rumors don't start
with fact.
Bob, you got that rumor a little late. We got it three
weeks ago.
Well, I just heard it recently so I can assure and reassure...
Mr. Aiassa:
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6/13/73
John Garter was at it again.
If that rumor proves to be worthwhile, I think we may
have considerably a high staff turnover in the city.
I think I made a commitment to resign too.
Mr. Aiassa: We have one advantage and I'm glad you brought that up
Bob. We have a little info that maybe Bullocks will
. open their store a little prematurely than they did at
first because they feel it might be an advantage to
get the Christmas sale and forget J. C.. Penney's opening
date.
That is exactly opposite of what your rumor is because
at our last meeting of the ------
That came from Joe Davino and he is their representative.
Their attorneys led us all to open hinting that if
anything, they are accelerating their construction.
Chappell That is what he told me the night Pete Schabarum was
there.
Mr. Aiassa: You were sitting at his table?
Chappell So what has happened since then, I don't know.
Since that time, we have had a meeting and they weren't
going'to open till Penney's.
Chappell They were going to open together for the big splash but
now they are thinking about that dollar and cent business
and they are trying to move their schedule ahead and
open up October.
Eliot: Actually, Bullocks has asked us to deliver their pad a
month early, if possible. We will deliver their prepared
pad October 1, and we are trying like the darndest to get
itto them by September 1 of this year. They are in
plan check right now. Their plans are downstairs this
week.
Mr. Aiassa: There is one element that we might as well pose to
Council and that is the cigarette tax has been a pretty
consistent income tax to the city and since all this
anti -nicotine and everything, keeps
smoking and we want to be a little conservative on that.
Lloyd: You don't have to be conservative on that, George, excuse
me for interrupting, but the Reader's Digest had a thing
that smoking on a percentage factor is up something like
4 or 5 percent.
Mr. Aiassa: Well, we just didn't know.
I think we would prefer a conservative approach, of course.
• Eliot: So, just reflecting in our budget that the property tax
is up slightly not because of raise but because of valuation
increase, sales taxes substantially close to what we are
expecting this year even though there will be some effect
on the decline in the CBD area, we still feel that with
inflation, the dollar vo?lume is going up even if the unit
value isn';t. Franchise taxes we expect to stay pretty
steady, transient occupancy pretty steady, though we
may be fooled if the Ambassador Inn gets open in time for
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6/13/73
this next year. Cigarette taxes pretty much the same
as this past year, business license again holding
pretty much the same. As we go through,,these items,
building permits were up again because of commercial
building. We expect to get some good size building
permits out of the buildings to be put up in the CBD
area and that would also apply to electrical permits
and your plumbing. That all falls in together in your
building. Vehicle code fines were the same this past
M year because there, -there is nothing significant happen-
ing in the courts on fines. Interest on deposits pretty
much the same though usually on the low side. We can
never foretell what the interest rates are going to be
and this year we are significantly ahead of our estimates
and we maybe next year but we are usually very conser-
vative on interest estimates because of the rate
fluctuating so much. Rents are pretty well set, we are ahead
of last year, again because of special consideration of the parking
structure. We are renting the 3, 000 square feet to the County
Probation Department at 45� per square foot, which figures out
$1350 per month, or $16, 200 per year. What has caused the shift
in our Account 537 where you're looking under "Rents" was
$42, 759, and it has been adjusted to $28, 933 for 1972-73 because
that rent figure before included the lease of parking spaces in our
parking lot, and the Probation offices together, and since we've
rearranged the agreement with the County for the parking structure,
all the rents are coming in the parking structure so we've decided
to segregate that because they r e quire &,us,,.,to keep that we can make
the payments on the bonds, so we've pulled out the amount that was
paid on the parking so that we have a single parking arrangement,
all within the parking structure.
Mr. Aiassa: To make it really simplified, we have three agreements with the
County; one was for the library, one for the court, and one miscellaneous
one, plus the Probation Office, and so we combined the library and
court when we put the parking . structure on, and they made it mandatory
that we segregate it from the Probation Office rent.
Leonard Eliot: The County lease parking you see last year $45, 000 some odd for
County parking, this year you see $109, 000 because it's just a half
a year, it started in January. Now it's a full year.
George Aiassa: You see an increase on it because now you're paying for a covered
parking space, a large percentage of their space is covered, which is
a much higher rate than they were paying in prior years on the open
space.
Leonard Eliot: It's all income and outgo - whatever is provided for in revenue takes
care of the lease payments plus the maintenance of the structure so
you see further on where the expenditures will be roughly equal to the
revenue. Revenue from other agencies --- there is quite a list of
them ---the TOPICS Program has been phased out, the Alcoholic
Beverage license fees is more of a guesstimate than most figures
because it is based on the transfer of liquor licenses and those are
• hard to foretell. Trailer coach fees pretty steady, motor vehicle
fees, an increase again with an increase in population, certain taxes
that are subventive from the State are based on a per capita basis
and over the past couple of years we've gotten new population estimates
that have increased the number of persons officially residing in the
city and the amount of money from those subventions will go up.
So we see that th"e motor vehicle fee has gone up primarily because of
the per capita rate has gone up for us. The gas tax the same thing,
the 2107 gas tax again is based on a per capita distribution and with
increased population we are getting a little larger slice. The last
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6/13/73
census that was certified by the Secretary of State was 72, 800.
So because of that, our gas :tax subventions are up for the 2106 gas
tax, as well as the ATC Gas : Tax which is a State Aid to Cities and
also on a per capita basis. HTC again is a special item and that is
an estimate as to what might be available.
only
Aiassa: Let me explain this: the HTC Fund is a fund which/the B®. rd of
Supervisors has the power to grant, the other one we get automatically
as our share of the Gas--, Tax money. Now, part of this money was
going to be used for the extension of Cameron Avenue, and the second part was the Sunset
project, and as the Council will remember, we held off the Sunset project because we had the
fountain in it and the bid was so far out that we blew it, so we just held off a bit. Now most of
these funds have to be matched. We have been lucky, every year we've been coming in with
$100, 000 of free money from the County, and that's been for the last 12-15 years. Now we
have a problem in that we do not have front money tb match $90, 000 this year that I'm going
to try to see if I can match for a major street. This is going to be a little different because
the County has budgeted this money, but will not forward it until we finish the project. As
soon as we finish the project, then the Council adopts a resolution and they forward the money.
Now I'm in a little bit of an awkward position to ask for more money when I've got $200, 000 and
some, that I haven't spent, so I'm going to try my best to see if I can get another $90, 000.
This money was used to extend Cameron Avenue and I think Russ will agree, we did a lot of
bad streets, we spent; a lot of money on Merced, and Cameron, and now we're finishing off
Cameron, and I want to make a special note here --Chester Shearer did help us with one of
the property owners over there, and it paid off, we have the project rollling, it's gone to bid
and it's now on its way. Chester, I want to thank you for that help with Melrose. This is what
they call "Christmas Tree" money and the one that all the cities really jump around and play
games with and I just want to advise you. So,, on the 29th I ;.may bring this up for more
support. If you figure out $150, 000 of City tax money, how much is that on the tax rate.
Leenard Eliot: About 3� - assessed valuation is now a little bit over 150 million dollars,
. so you figure a penney is $50, 000 this year. (? ? ? )
Emergency Services - again is a federal aid program which pays a
portion of the costs of our Emergency Services program. County Deed Transfer is just the
old documentary transfer tax.
George Aiassa: The Crossing Guard aid we're going to lose because a portion of this
because we have annexed the San Jose School and the Highway Patrol
will not be sharing some of this and this is one we will be absorbing
now that it's under City jurisdiction. We were getting approximately $2486.
Le6n' and Eliot: State Highway maintenance again is a portion of Azusa Avenue north
of the freeway that we are maintaining and billing the State for.
Again, all these from other agencies and just a miscellany of items
like the landscaping that we share with the County on Badillo wherein our forces maintain all
of the landscaping of the median strip and bill the County for their share of it. The school
district swimming pool fees, again the same thing, it's a billing back to the school district
for the number of hours they use the pool down at Edgewood High School. Communication
aid is part of our agreement with the surrounding cities of Azusa & Baldwin Park to use our
staff for some of the repair of their equipment and they will pay us back for some of the costs.
phis helps pay for some of our people. Hotline reimbursement again is the special federal
gram that we entered into a year ago. The f kih/ Criminalist position has been changed
instead of getting aid from other local jurisdictions or from the State grant, this year, as you
know, it has been picked up completely by the State, wherein the State is paying directly for
the laboratory, it is no longer our responsibility even though it is housed within our Police
Department. And then, of course, there is POST, which is Police Officers' Standard Training
which is just a reimbursement for those educational courses which are approved for them.
And the last item is Redevelopment and we have eliminated that budgetary amount, no longer
are we asking the City to put in "seed" money, the Agency has its own money from bond issue
funds and at a future date, once we have reached a point where we find all the final costs, the
City will be in a position to ask for reimbursement of those monies advanced up to now.
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6/13/73
Charges for services, again we are in building, subdivision fees, we don't anticipate very
much compared with the past year. Filing fees, we're keeping all at a minimum, exca-
vation, sanitation, plan check is up again because of commercial construction within the
CBD. Engineering, sale of publications, these are all just miscellaneous items. Weed
assessments again are assessments back to the property owners when we clean the weeds
off and normally that is the same amount as the budgeted amount because we budget what
we feel it takes in the coming year. If it's more, the assessments are more.
16mayor Lloyd: What was it this last year, this $37, 277, is that correct?
Leonard Eliot: Right. We can't tell in advance how many weeds we're going to abate.
In any case when we do abate them that's the cost and we assess
against the individual property owner.
Mr. Aiassa: Every year we reduce more lots because they are going into construction.
I think we have at least 3%-%4 every year lost on building of buildings.
Leonard Eliot: Then we come to current lighting assessments. As you know, the
energy rate did increase and you approved an increase in the per foot
charge to the property owners and that reflects in the higher charge.
Open Space Maintenance Districts 1 and 2, again that is based on a tax
rate that we will also discuss when we come to the expenditure part of the Open Space
Maintenance Districts. In prior years we showed the 4� under the property tax. This year
we're just showing it as a separate item as a charge for service. It still remains the same
as we've always charged in the past, it's a separate District where the City some three
years ago took over from the County Sanitation District to reduce the costs to our citizens
the drains in our CifX ere comparatively new, compared to many of the ones maintained
by the County, / our rates aretstill lower even though the County has reduced over the last
two years. This is a Municipal Sewer District and we're just showing it as a charge for
services rather than a separate tax for it, but it's the same rate, it will be shown on the
4� item on the tax roll.
George Aiassa: O. K. , but there's a key to this too, the money expended under this
rate is solely for salaries, it is for capital equipment and so we are
actually building our own services where with the County we were not
building any services or capital equipment. We were merely paying out a fee for them to
service our area.
Leonard Eliot: Actually, we've been able to buy all of our capital equipment for the
Sewer Maintenance District out of that same rate, without any
additional funds necessary. Woodside Water revenue, again is our
hopeful projections of the water revenues. Last year it was a little high. Since building
did not expand in the Woodside Village as rapidly as we anticipated we have had to scale
y�,9 down a bit our estimated revenue, and our estimated costs.
I think Umark is going to end up loosing their water
and they may end up loosing of their outside investment
Voice: It's a good contract.
Leonard Eliot: Its a very good Contract, yes. As'yet it's basically
the same as last year.
Weorge Aiassa: That was a good Contract.
Leonard Eliot: Again, the 1911 Act or just whatever fees, -:we get or any
1911 Acts we may enact is just an estimate and miscellaneous
item. So, our total revenue is 7.6 Million Dollars and I
think that really covers the revenue, unless there are specific questions
that the Councilmen may wish to ask.
C.C. Meeting
Page Eleven
6/13/73
George Aiassa: Except there is one thing I want to mention to the Council
before they have any questions and that is that we have
not had an opportunity to go to Sacramento and audit the
Sales Tax. Now, every year we go up prior to the Budge time and we specific-
ally audit all the accounts and we usually get a pretty good ratio of what
dollars and cents we make, and Eliot and I have not been able to go up there
this year, but we are going to try and make it in August. This will give us
a better, truer picture'on Sales Tax. We may actually complain or file an
unfair returns, because we did that on Akron one year and we found that we
Gained quite a bit because they had a uniform earning for four consecutive
quarters and I don't think there is any Company that can have exactly the
same earnings four seperate quarters. This also gives us a pretty good
picture of what we're going to face the next two years and hence.
Voice: Are you saying that people aren't recording accurately?
George Aiassa: Well, you see, if they don't transfer this
chances are that they don't give credit properly to the
City where those sales are consumated. For example, Akron
has a District Warehouse where they....
Voice:
George Aiassa:
Leonard Eliot:
George Aiassa:
Leonard Eliot
GeorgeAiassa:
I understand.
O.K. Where May Company has made a few gains and a few
others,so we keep a tab on them and we also
Not that they are being dishonest. We get an estimated
cost on each one of them and throw all that's left over
for that month into their head office.
They're not being dishonest, the State Board of Equaliz-
ation is being dishonest to us.
In allocation, right.
So, what do you have next on our schedule?
Leonard Eliot: I think we should start on Expenditures for this month.
Now that we have all this money, let's see how we're
going to spend it. I think you have it scheduled to
start with the City Council first. -
George Aiassa: Yes, City Council, 701.
Leonard Eliot: If there are seven sets to the Budget
George Aiassa: We should be able to cover up to 728.
Leonard Eliot: In this years Budget we did attempt to do a little more
than in prior years, by first of all making more of a
program budget than just a line item -and having fiscal
year objectives, wherein we try to discuss what that department does.
It is probably helpful when the public picks up one of the Budgets, to
understand maybe how a Government operates and maybe what it
is that departmeftt supposed to do. So, it's somewhat self-serving, no
doubt, but it is helpful to have it so we did try to include some general
0tatements of objectives of each department and whether there has been a
change, we tried to discuss more on a summary page, why it is going up
or why it is going down, because this is the most frequent question asked
actually, why did we change from last year, what happened. So, the first
one is the City Council and you do note that the total Budget was $31,000
or $30,000 approved in the Budget and Preliminary we're talking more about
$39,000 and almost at the bottom of that page we're telling you the reasons
for the increase in the Budget is that the up -grading of the Clerk -Steno
position to Secretary I
70
Page Twelve
C.C. Meeting 6/13/73
Voice: You promised not to say anything about that.
Leonard Eliot: Alright - and assigning of half of that individual's
salary to the City Council Budget for the first time.
George Aiassa: Does that sum come off somewhere else:
Leonard Eliot: Yes sir. The other half comes off my
*voice: I'ts not an increase, we just divide. It's a bookkeeping
device that keeps the City Manager's Office happy and
tells his people, hey, look, he's not reducing his staff
really, he's just charging it to some other department.
George Aiassa: Actually, I'm not reducing any staff, the only thing
that I'm prorating is the position, as we've done in the
past. Gerry Lynn is devoting a considerable amount of
time to that and we've worked it out.
Voice: Gentelmen, there is a history to that. The City Council
used to have a Council assigned secretary and then
George Aiassa said one day,.if you will just let us get
rid of that secretary you have up there in the council and will let me
handle it, well:;. we can handle it in our department. Now he's going to
start charging us again for it.
George Aiassa: No, I don't charge you for Eileen.
Voice: The next year we'll be coming back and wanting our own
secretary.
George Aiassa: Now, I never charged you for Eileen. If I charged you
for Eileen, you'd be bankrupt.
Leonard Eliot: This is Gerry Lynn and I think if you'll turn that page
on the back where the Personnel Positions are listed,
Full Time, you can see what charges there are to the
City Council for Administrative Assistants and its half the cost for an
Administrative Assistant, half the cost of an Administrative Analyst,
half the time of a Junior Analyst, half the time of a Secretary I. So
that is the salary charges to the City Council Budget.
George Aiassa: Well that's just on a basis on this thing.
On the 1973-74 Budget, we have a request column and a
preliminary column. Who is the requesting party.
Leonard Eliot: The requesting party is usually the Department Head.
In the case of a department such as the City Council,
the Administrative Staff in the City Manager's Office
usually prepares a request budget for submission on behalf of the City
Council. The preliminary is after it is reviewed by the City Manager,
so where the preliminary comes from is after it is reviewed by the City
Mnaager, whathis recommendation is after reviewing the Department Head's
request. There will be a third column added to show what was approved
later on.
George Aiassa: Now, as far as the Council is concerned, all we do is
use part of your presidents and the other percentages
where we see in the Annual Audit Report. We don't do
nything different unless the Council directs, and they should be speaking
if they want any modifications or changes.
Voice: Our own allowances, where the City Budgeted $1,000
last year. These expenditures..last year was $1300
now its $2800.
George Aiassa: 0.K., I questioned that. When the League of California
Conferences is in the Division, we use roughly
$1,000 or somewhat in that equivalent. But, if its in
San Francisco, we automatically multiply 5 X 175. I think that's the
difference. If you watch the prognosis, you'll see this will happen.
Page Thirteen
C.C: Meeting 6/13/73
Voice: What memberships are we dropping? I notice they've
reduced that more than half, from $1200 to
Leonard Eliot: Well #49, in the same book, here we have the total
following right behind and let's see, on Item #49...
Voice: #47 and #49.
Oleonard Eliot: Well in #47 we're talking about the Mayor's expenses.
the increase in the budget in #47 and we're talking about
why we go from $1,000 to $2800, that supposedly was the
question. In these items, of course, we have found that the Council
members have, number one, been a little more active than in the past .in
attending various meetings and they've also taken occasions to be
generous and gave some of their money to other organizations, and then
found out during the year that they still wanted to go someplace and
found out that they were short, to be quite honest with you.
George Aiassa: Yes, but the big one is in San Francisco....
Voice: You've caught onto that, huh?
Leonard Eliot: Well, we started running an overdraft on the account.
Voice: Well, we'll say we're staying home and we're giving it
to the Youth Commission.
LeonardEliot: That's right, and then you decide you want to go.
George Aiassa: See, Bob, the very last time it shows here the League
Conference in 1972-73 Budget and this one was the one
in San Francisco last year. In 1972-73 you had nothing;
this year you have $875.
Leonard Eliot: It's not an apostrophy, because if it isn't used, it
will last to the end of next year and go back into the
ivh}inappropriate funds, so it's not an expense in the
fullest sense.
Voice: Discussion
George Aiassa: Discussion
Leonard Eliot: Discussion
Voice: All I'm saying George is that last year the figure
wasn't zero. Last year the figure was $600, but it was
in #49 rather than #47. You just pulled a switch. We
had voted last year to attend the meeting'last year. It wasn't zero,
it was $600.
George Aiassa: I think what they put in here was like Chester shows....
Voice: All we did was simply take the allowances, which was
related to League Conferences and transfer them fvom
47 to 49.
Voice: Technically, it was zero last year. We budgeted $600
to;attend the League Conference last year. This year
we're budgeted for $875. It just happens to be in a
different account.
Leonard Eliot: It is a slight increase because it is outside of State
and we did increase the attendance of meetings and dinners
by some hundred odd dollars.
George Aiassa: We did the same thing in reverse too, in the #47 account.
Voice: I think we understand that.
C.C. Meeting
Page Fourteen
6/13/73
George Aiassa: It's a bookkeeping situation, so it doesn't make any
difference, the total amount shows pretty much the same.
Leonard Eliot: So, that pretty well answers your question on #49 on
why the Membership is down.. because it's just a switch
from one account to another account. Essentially,
miscellaneous meetings were $500 last year and it's $500 this year.
eorge Aiassa: Actually, for Council information, at the end of June
30, 1972, the -account shows no expenditure in miscellaneous
expenses other than a salary of $1744.88. They salary
was $23,106.54............ $24,851.00,
but you did budget in total $26,626.00. So you actually show a reserve
of $1774.56.
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