The Rossmoor Community Services District has passed a balanced budget of approximately $2 million for the new fiscal year, but not before extensively debating whether the special service district needed more of a proposed cushion of $10,000.
After a two-hour debate, the board finally voted 4-1-0 to approve its current fiscal year’s budget, but only after cutting $18,000 from the events section of the budget to provide an additional fiscal cushion requested by Director Tony DeMarco.
DeMarco, a longtime member of the RCSD budget committee, said the district’s projected $10,500 surplus was, he thought, insufficient for unexpected developments.
“I’m uncomfortable with this budget you know we know things we go over budget on certain items things come up so we give ourselves and they give me or they usually have a change in fund balance you know near $100,000 or set certainly over $50,000 and the 10,530 is it’s to me is like it’s not even there because I believe we’re going to go over that as we typically do,” he said.
DeMarco expressed concern about specific items in the budget, including $5,000 for Shakespeare by the Sea, more than a $12,500 increase for family festivals, a $500 increase for the health festival and other increases.
DeMarco said he was not against any of the activities yet suggested instead the district try to find corporate sponsors or grants to cover some of these expenses.
“The revenues are down. The expenditures that we have increased too much,” said Director Michael Maynard. “Now’s the time to figure out how to move on the needs, not necessarily the wants,” he said.
He also questioned the payment to Shakespeare, saying “we never paid for it until this past year.” He questioned the $10k budgeted for senior activities and agreed with DeMarco that spending $5,000 for a consulting firm to figure out a salary schedule for a staff of four full-time workers and less than a dozen part-timers was unnecessary.
“We’ve had talented General Managers in the past able to figure that out,’ he said.
Director Mary Ann Remnet pushed back on the notion that the service district had never paid for such services, citing two examples of earlier studies. Both in 2014 and 2017 Remnet said the district had paid for similar studies.
“Those are reflected in the minutes that formal salary surveys were done,” she said.
Remnet reminded the board that recent legislation mandated a salary survey for organizations that operate with 15 or more full or part-time employees. Currently, the district has one less than required, but she suggested the salary survey provides much more than simple comparisons.
“The legislation provides for protections of employees in terms of parity of the job they are doing vs what they are getting paid for,” she said, “along with provisions in there in terms of fines and penalties for the way wages are protected.”
Director Jo Shade said that while she agreed with DeMarco in thinking that a salary survey looks simple on the surface, looking deeper made her think it should be done.
“In looking at this and realizing that requirements are now in place as far as law, per government codes, it does seem like we should be following this,” said Shade.
“I agree with Director Remnet that, on the whole, we should be covering our tail end on this, suggesting a formal framework set up by professionals may prove beneficial so then the General Manager and staff could maintain it,” she said.
In terms of declining revenues, RCSD President Nathan Searles pushed back that grant funding incorporated in the budget may be misleading.
Searles clarified to Maynard, “in response to revenues being down, it’s also worth noting that the $80,000 difference is from other governmental agencies which deal with the grant of $80,000 the board received for playground equipment or tennis court resurfacing. That is not actually operating revenues being down,” said Searles.
“And it’s nice to say that we want more sponsorships, but we actually exceeded our budget significantly this past year in the amount of sponsorships revealed,” he told the Board.
“It’s not as easy to say you’ll get more from something when you already got more than you expected last year,” he added.
Nevertheless, Searles told DeMarco and Maynard that he too, was uncomfortable with the tight margin and suggested they drop $10,000 from the events budget.
He suggested there was room in the legal services budget for inspection.
“I don’t disagree that the margins between our expenditures and our revenues are too tight,” said Searles, suggesting he wished they would have changed the budget for legal services set at $45,000 annually.
“That’s far in excess of what we spent in the previous year,” he said, saying that alone is still $10,000 under budget.
The RCSD President said, nevertheless, he would go along with a cut in the events budget from $108,000 to $98,000, providing additional margins for comfort.
“I believe if our events were budgeted at $98,000, which is more in line what is wht we spent this year, I would be willing to accept that,” said Searles.
DeMarco said he was not against events, just the lack of flexibility. “If it’s in the budget, we will spend it,” he said.
“My point is, I don’t want to do away with any of this,” said DeMarco. “We do a good job when we spend the money, and we know our residents love their recreation services. And yes, we did a great job in sponsorship,” he said, “but let’s make a goal and see if we can get more of it.”
DeMarco said his overall point was just that the margin was simply too slim. Maybe another 15 percent, he said, “I just don’t like this $10,500 margin.
At the end of the debate, the board finally adopted its $2 million budget, agreeing to a cut in the recreation budget of $18,000, providing additional margins to their balanced budget. Maynard abstained from voting on the budget.
While they did not specify what cuts would be made, they agreed that funding could be restored as the Directors go through their traditional mid-year reviwe proess of the budget.
Watch the ENE next week for additional coverage of the Rossmoor CSD monthly meeting.