Fort Smith directors discuss 2020 budget

FORT SMITH — City directors heard recommended Tuesday ways to spend millions of relief dollars amid the ongoing covid-19 pandemic.

The Board of Directors discussed new needs requests for the 2021 budget during a study session Tuesday. The issue, which had been deferred Nov. 6, will be discussed again at the board’s Dec. 8 meeting.

In an email to the board, City Administrator Carl Geffken said the recommendations shift much of the general fund new needs for 2021 to the more than $3.4 million the city expects to receive from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. Those include both capital needs and initiatives, which are one-time costs, and personnel requests, which are ongoing costs.

Geffken also provided the board with a proposed spending plan for the CARES Act money. Of the more than $3.4 million, $463,740 would cover the general fund portion of the capital new needs for 2021, and $1.5 million would go to a new CAD/RMS system for the Police and Fire Departments.

Another $1.5 million would go to an agreement with Tyler Technologies to transfer the city’s Munis system to the cloud, Geffken said. That would result in the city saving $400,000 per year over three-years, with $ 148,000 being saved in the general fund operating budget.

Geffken said $421,651 in CARES Act money would also be spent on dispatch supervisor positions in the Police Department, as well as new Parks and Recreation Department positions, for 2021. That would leave a “CARES Act deficit” of $321,985 in the general fund, according to the proposal.

“I thought using the CARES Act funds for these purposes would get us over the covid period where we’re conservatively estimating revenue,” Geffken said.

The only change in expenses in the general fund not covered by the CARES Act money, according to the 2021 budget, is $110,039 to go to merit increases for non- uniform city employees. A total of $453,686 was recommended, with the rest of the money to come from other funds.

Geffken said the increases would go into effect April 1.

“The allocation for the merit increases is 1.5% of each department’s salary budget,” Geffken said. “Each department head will be able to provide an increase to each employee between 0% and 3%, based on their evaluation. The increases will be reviewed by [Human Resources], Jeff [Dingman, deputy city administrator], and me.”

An updated budget comparison summary provided by Geffken, which doesn’t take new recommendations into account, shows a projected $928,313 deficit for fiscal 2021 over four operating funds. Those are the general fund, streets maintenance operating fund, water and sewer operating fund and solid waste operating fund.

The proposed capital needs and initiatives, personnel requests and non-uniform merit increase amount to more than $3.8 million, increasing the projected deficit to almost $4.8 million, according to the recommendation.

“To help offset the deficit is the franchise fee that has been discussed about for private solid waste haulers, and an increase in the supplemental alcohol tax [from 5% to 10%],” Geffken said.

The recommendation states the franchise fee and increase in the alcohol tax would bring in $600,000 to the general fund. This would lower the projected 2021 deficit to almost $4.2 million.

A surplus of more than $5.7 million is estimated for 2020 over the city’s four operating funds, according to the budget comparison summary. Geffken said the amount doesn’t include the CARES Act money the city expects to receive.