Memorandum

City of Lawrence

City Manager’s Office

TO:	Diane Stoddard, Interim City Manager
CC:	Bryan Kidney, Ashley Lonnberg, Kevyn Gero, Brandon McGuire
From:	Casey Toomay, Assistant City Manager
DATE:	July 30, 2015
RE:	City Commission Q&A Memorandum (part 4)

The following memorandum includes requests from City Commissioners for information related to the 2016 budget.  Staff is still working on some requests, and that is noted following those questions.  This is the fourth Q&A memorandum for the 2016 budget development process and responses to previous questions are found in the July 4, 2015, July 17, 2015 and July 20, 2015 City Commission Q&A memoranda.

1. Q:  Mayor Farmer asked for a comparison of the 2016 baseline budget to the 2016 Recommended Budget.

A:  The 2016 revised recommended General Operating Fund budget is $5,419,135, or 6.6% greater than the 2015 adopted budget. The attached chart reports that these increases result from the increasing costs of maintaining existing service and staffing levels, and cost increases for the enhancement of existing service levels and new positions. Most of the increase is attributed to increased costs needed to maintain existing service levels. This increase to the baseline budget is 4.7%, or $3,827,830 greater than the 2015 budget.

Expanded service levels account for $1,591,305 of the total increase in 2016 compared to 2015. Of that amount, around $1.3 million is budgeted for additional compensation for existing employees (e.g. merit pool, MOU agreements, compression, and targeted market adjustments). The remaining service expansion items are budgeted as follows:

· $61,100 for the additional GIS position;

· $79,846 increase in street maintenance;

· $46,695 increase in conference and seminars, largely for additional training for police and the Municipal Court Judge;

· $42,664 increase in building repairs for fire medical facilities in order to address ongoing maintenance needs;

· $20,000 increase in paramedic education for fire medical; and

· $20,000 increase in ammunition for police.

2. Q:  Commissioner Boley requested a report on the total expenditures by department from each fund.

A:  The City Budget is presented by Fund because that is how the City’s accounting system is organized.  The attached table reports total budgeted expenditures for 2016 by department. Staff is working on a report of total expenditures by department and will provide it as soon as it is available.