Concord council seeking public input on budget process

By Carlyn Obringer 5 years ago

My City Council colleagues and I are committed to transparency over the expenditure of taxpayer dollars.

Over the past several years, we have worked to ensure that our city budget reflects the Concord community’s priorities. We have been budgeting to preserve vital community services and maintain current service levels.

To achieve these goals, the budget relies on the use of General Fund reserves of $3.8 million in Fiscal Year 2019-’20 and $1.3 million in FY 2020-’21. This results in a General Fund reserve of 25 percent at the end of FY 2019-’20 and 23 percent at the end of FY 2020-’21. In the past, our goal had been to maintain a General Fund reserve of 30 percent.

Our budget also continues to rely on Measure Q revenues to support General Fund operations. Measure Q is a voter-approved, half-cent use and transaction tax that is intended to protect and maintain essential city services. Originally approved by voters in November 2010 with a five-year sunset, an extension of the tax measure was ratified with 77 percent voter approval on the November 2014 ballot.

Measure Q is set to expire on March 31, 2025. The FY 2019-’20 budget uses $7.65 million of Measure Q revenues, with FY 2020-’21 using $10.9 million of Measure Q revenues.

During the 2017-’18 and 2018-’19 budget development process, the City Council worked with staff to develop a Fiscal Stability Plan. We had a sense that there was a projected structural budget deficit that would need to be addressed. As part of this work, we made the following major changes to the city’s long-range fiscal model to better understand the magnitude of the challenge:

  • Updated and expanded to project 20 years, rather than the previous 10 years, in order to provide a longer-term view of the city’s financial condition, account for likely recessions and allow for modeling of California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) changes. Concord belongs to CalPERS, like many other California cities. CalPERS can increase employer contribution rates to shore up its retirement fund. Paying these increases is not optional.
  • Incorporated all investment needs over time, including infrastructure and roadway investment needs and full funding of the city’s actuarially determined contributions to Concord’s closed retirement system and other post-employment retirement benefits.

When these costs are incorporated into Concord’s Long-Range Financial Forecast, it becomes clear that we face substantial funding challenges and it will take multiple solutions over many years to attain a truly sustainable ­budget.

As mayor, I am well aware of the budget challenges the city faces – particularly regarding roadwork and increasing pension obligations due to the changes in PERS employer contribution rates. However, many members of the public have not had the opportunity to follow the City Council’s budget discussions over the past few years. That is why I insisted the city engage with the public via a variety of ways to explain why we face budget challenges in the midst of a years-long economic expansion and to solicit feedback on how the community wants the council to address these issues.

Thus far, we have held two public meetings. A third will be held at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 6, at the Monument Crisis Center. Those who cannot attend a meeting can watch a recording of the Oct. 10 meeting at cityofconcord.org.

Others ways to engage with Concord’s budget conversation include:

  • Signing up for email and/or text alerts about budget-related news and meetings at cityofconcord.org/notifyme.
  • Reviewing the latest budget information at cityofconcord.org/budget as well as viewing previous budget-related council meetings and accessing budget documents.
  • Providing feedback through the community feedback form at cityofconcord.org/forms.aspx?FID=63.
  • Participating in a survey on Concord Town Hall in the next few weeks.
  • Contacting me or your City Council district ­representative.

Send questions and comments to the mayor by email to Carlyn.Obringer@cityofconcord.org

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