Approved FY2013-14 Budget
September 3, 2013
Dear Councilors and Partners of Prattville,
The document that is presented to you tonight is the culmination of many hours of labor: mine, yours and ours. Department heads, Executive staff, and Council Committees have worked many, many hours over the past several months to get us to this point. We have made adjustments where they were needed in order to achieve a budget that will guide us through the coming fiscal year and also allow for placement of additional funding into our reserve account further solidifying our financial footprint.
This budget is based on the personnel and equipment necessary to deliver the core services that the City of Prattville is charged with providing to our residents. Inside this budget, we have included a number of capital projects, along with capital equipment outlay. With the complete understanding of this mechanized, service-oriented organization, our valued employees cannot perform their tasks efficiently without having proper equipment. This is a cost of doing business. We have streamlined some of our quality of life offerings in order to focus on those that are annual favorites, those that are most successful. In varying degrees, everything that we have discussed equates back to economic development.
We have realized significant success through the enterprise fund concept within the Wastewater Department and as we move forward, we will focus on Sanitation in order to realize the same success within theirs. Enterprise funds make departments more accountable. With approval from this Council, we will also move Judicial (Municipal Court) to an enterprise fund during this fiscal year and possibly create a public works department. This action will remove Judicial's funding from the general fund and give us the tools to track their income and expenditures more effectively and efficiently.
We have reached another historic landmark in that City Council committees have been more involved on a departmental level than ever before. Department heads have done an outstanding job in keeping their committees informed and more knowledgeable about their operations and needs, which has made it much easier to make decisions regarding our future. As we are all aware, knowledge is power.
We are proud to report that every penny of our 1-cent sales tax increase has been used to pay our debt service. We have collected $12,279,066.72 from the one-penny tax increase and we have paid $13,660,306.44 toward our bond issues. Accounts payable continues to be properly managed within a 30-day window. We now have to focus on equipment and facilities, which have begun showing their age. Due to these critical needs, a merit raise will not be awarded in the coming fiscal year; however, we have included a cost-of-living increase effective April 1st. We are pleased to be able to do this for our employees who have not received a cost-of-living increase in 5 years or a merit raise in 4 years.
We are pleased to once again offer a strong benefits package for City employees. Our employees will not see an increase in healthcare cost. In fact, there will be no benefits changes or premium increases for 2014. The Employee's Group Health Insurance Account currently has a reserve of over $2 million; any additional fees or taxes incurred through Healthcare Reform will not negatively impact City employees.
We have made much progress over the past 30 months. Over the past year, the City of Prattville was reevaluated by Standard & Poor's Rating Services, which resulted in our credit rating being raised from A- to A. Each positive step we take moves us closer to our goals for the financial well being of this great city. With Council's blessing, we refinanced the 2006A General Obligation Refunding Warrants and will save the City of Prattville $922,757.28 over the life of the bonds. We also paid off the City Hall roof, the Fire Training Facility, the Saulsberry leases (fire truck) and the Suntrust leases (various equipment).
With passage of this budget, we will make another step toward fiscal responsibility and proper management of this mechanized, service-oriented organization. This will also enable us to plan for future economic development projects, which equates to more revenue and possibly more jobs.
We have plans, we have goals, and we have commitments. These, coupled with new ideas, hard work, dedication and perseverance, have been and will prove to be the tools to continue to move this community forward.
In closing, I leave with you the phrase with which I close my department head meetings; "The perception of this City is viewed considerably through you" and I am proud to deliver this document to you.
With kindest regards, I am
Bill Gillespie, Mayor
City of Prattville
