Finance Committee

City of Rome FINANCE COMMITTEE MEETING August 30, 2023 PRESENT: Committee Chairman Bill Collins City Commissioner Craig McDaniel City Commissioner Jamie Doss City Manager Sammy Rich Assistant City Manager Meredith Ulmer Finance Director Toni Rhinehart Assistant Finance Director Kraig Ingalsbe Recording Secretary Vicki Blair Guests: Mary Hardin Thornton, City Project Manager Doug Walker, Public Relations Norma Reboredo David Crowder, Rome News Tribune Committee Chairman Collins called the meeting to order and the minutes from the July 20th meeting were approved by common consent. He then turned the meeting over to Finance Director Toni Rhinehart to review the July 2023 Financial Statements. GENERAL FUND: Title Tax Fee Revenues are slightly over last year and up for the month. Local Option Sales Tax is at $5.3M versus $4.9M last year and just slightly below YTD budget. Police fines are up from last year and close to budget. Red Speed Fine revenues are slightly below budget but staying consistent. The restricted cash balance is $277,000 and is restricted to being used only for police. Interest on investments continues to rise due to higher interest rates. Most departments are within YTD budget for expenses. Public Safety is above last year in expenditures but below budget due to being short-staffed. Total operating expenses in General Fund are above last year but below budget. WATER & SEWER FUND: Usage water and sewer revenues are above last year and ahead of budget YTD. The new rate reduction back to December 2018 rates should begin September 1st. Funds reserved for the reverse osmosis project are reflected in non-operating revenues YTD for July. BUILDING INSPECTION FUND: Revenues for 2023 are slightly under YTD budget and below 2022. Both City and County permits are significantly below 2022. Expenditures are up slightly from last year but below budget. TRANSIT FUND: The city general fund is continuing to make a monthly contribution to the Transit Fund. Operating and Capital reimbursements should be caught up soon to reflect what the impact of the normal 50/50 operating federal reimbursements. For several years the funding has been at 100% - this has now stopped and we are back to the normal 50/50 for operating and 80/10/10 for capital. 1 HEALTH INSURANCE FUND: Revenues are where we expected them to be, but we are having a very high claims year compared to 2022. We expect this number to increase throughout the remainder of the year. We are planning an increase in premiums for employees beginning January 2024. However, it is important to note there has not been an increase in nearly four years. OTHER BUSINESS: Ms. Rhinehart began a discussion regarding Cash Collections and Balances in the General and Capital Funds. At the beginning of the year, we are at our highest cash balance and as the year progresses, these funds diminish until taxes begin to be collected in September and October. It may appear that we have a large amount of cash at the beginning of the year, but it is necessary to have this healthy cash balance to start the year to fund city and capital operations and the school contribution without the need to borrow money. This saves the cost of borrowing. It was requested that we send this information out to the entire city commission and that was done immediately following the meeting. With no other business, the meeting was adjourned. Respectfully Submitted, Vicki Blair 2