Date: August 3, 2006
To: RCPL Board of Trustees
From:
Re: July Budget Narrative
Date: August 3, 2006
To:
From:
Re: July Budget Narrative
As the year progresses, the narrative becomes longer. To make a more time efficient read, a table of contents has been provided. This will allow for easier navigation to answer questions.
I. City budget line items of interest
a. 4253A Repair Equipment
II. No new County budget line items of interest
III. Library Board Fund budget items of interest
a. 4252 Repair Structures
b. 4320 Building and Structures
IV.
Previously discussed
City Budget line items no new information
V.
Previously discussed
VI.
Previously discussed
Library Board Fund budget line items no new information
The Library estimates spending approximately 8.3% of its budget on a monthly basis. To begin July, we should have spent approximately 58.1 % or (8.3 * 7). To date we have spent 57.25% of the City budget, 55.86% of the County budget and 31.88% the Library Board Funds budget.
The City was able to load the County and Library Board budgets. However, since the budget reports provided by the City will only show budget to actual expenses, and do not include revenue; the Library Board budget will continue in the same format as previous months.
I.
City budget
line items of interest
a.
Line item
4253A Repair Structures This past month, we had to pay two sizable invoices
to Action Mechanical:
·
$2442 for work accomplished in 2004 that had
been invoiced incorrectly. Apparently
through inconsistent collection efforts from the vendor and incomplete
information provided to City Finance; they were unable to determine which
department should be billed. After
investigation, it was determined that is was an invoice due to the Library for
work done at the end of 2004 to flush and clean the heating and cooling
system.
·
$4361 for replace two of six chillers of the air
conditioning system. The chillers were
under warranty but the labor to replace them was not. Due to the use of the building and hot
temperatures in the area; we were not able to sufficiently cool the building
without all six chillers operating at full strength without straining the
remaining compressors. Therefore, the
chillers had to replaced while they were still under warranty.
II.
No new
County budget line items of interest
III.
Library
Board Fund budget line items of interest
a.
Line item
4252 Repair Structures We are beginning to receive invoices for the
Coffee Shop Concessionaire.
b.
Line item
4320 Building and Structures The
budget was originally proposed with the majority of funding for the coffee shop
in this line item. At the time of budget
submission, we were unable to determine what portion of the expenses would come
from each individual line item.
Therefore, we used this as a placeholder for the funding. However, this is a Capital Outlay line item,
which means expenditures must be over $5,000 in order to be paid out of
it. So far, the costs have been less
than $5,000 and have come out of 4252 Repair Structures. In September, you will begin to see bills
being paid out of this line item.
IV.
Previously discussed City budget line items no new
information
a.
Line item 4111 Overtime Wages This line item has been overspent due to overtime
required during vacancies throughout the building. The amount of overtime has decreased
significantly and will continue to decrease as the vacant positions have been
filled. Additionally due to vacancies
throughout the Library, we should see savings of approximately $35K in line
item 4110 Salary and Wages for the year.
This savings will off set the over-expenditure in overtime wages.
b.
Line item 4211 - General & Auto Liability This was budgeted at $6,832 while actual expenses are
$12,437. This amount is based on premium
information received for the current year for the entire City of
c.
Line item 4244 Lease/Purchases Due to a misunderstanding between the Library staff
and City Finance, the amount budgeted for this year was approximately $6K short. Background
information: Ten years ago, the City began an energy
conservation plan with Johnson Controls, which will be completed this
August. Since the plan expires mid-year,
the Library staff was under the impression that the cost would only be for part
of the year and therefore budgeted half of the yearly amount. However, the City took out a loan for this
program 10 years ago and set the yearly payment amount to cover 10 years. This means that even though the coverage is
only good through August, we are required to make a full last installment on
the loan. Additionally, there are a few leases
that will be renewed throughout the year, so this line item will continue to rise
slightly each month. When reviewing the
entire budget at the bottom line level, the savings seen in line item 4110
Salary and Wages should still off-set these additional costs.
d.
Line item 4251 Rolling Stock This is a line item that had previously not been used
by the Library. According to City
Finance, we are to use this line item when purchasing parts for the two library
vehicles, such as oil filters, etc.
Historically, we had used line item 4262 Gas, Oil, Fuel for these
small purchases.
e.
Line item 4252 Repair Structures As previously explained, this line item includes the
$39,900 encumbrance for our carpet replacement.
Additionally, earlier in the year there was a misunderstanding of how to
read the budget reports between the Business Office and City Finance, and it
appeared that there were some extra funds within this line item. We have since determined that is not the
case. But with that in mind, we went
ahead and took care of the scheduled maintenance of various items throughout
the building during the first quarter.
Most of the work was preventative and scheduled. We dont anticipate any additional large
expenses from this line item this year.
f.
Line item 4253 Repair of Equipment We received notification in May from a vendor that an
invoice had been outstanding since December 2004 in the amount of $2,442. Through research we were able to determine
that the vendor had invoiced the City instead of the Library, so the Library
was not aware of the charge. Through
inconsistent collection efforts from the vendor and the City being unsure of
what department was supposed to be charged; this remained outstanding. The invoice has been processed but was not
budgeted for in 2006; therefore, this line item will likely be over-budget by
the end of the year.
g.
Line item 4262 - Gas, Oil, Fuel In 2005, there was an oversight in payment of the gas
bills from June December. This mistake
was caught and corrected in February and therefore we have essentially
overspent this line item.
h.
Line item 4263 - Clothing, Food We did not include a separate amount in our projections
for this line item originally but had planned for $500 in spending of uniforms
and safety boots as required for our union members. These funds were included in the line item
4294 Other Miscellaneous Expenses, but upon review from City Finance were deemed
to be taken out of line item 4263.
i.
Line item 4264 Janitorial & Chemical Supplies Last year,
we had implemented some changes in hopes of a cost savings in supplies for the
building. For example, automatic paper
towel dispensers and acquiring more multi-purpose cleaners to avoid stocking a
variety of cleaning supplies. However,
these items have proved to not be a cost savings for the building due to
increased usage and increased hours of operation. Therefore, this line item had been reduced
and will most likely be overspent this year.
We are still looking for further efficiencies and ways to lower costs in
this line item in order to remain within our budgetary guidelines. We also have funding available in County
funds for this line item.
j.
Line item 4282 Natural Gas - Due to the recent jump in natural gas prices, we have
seen a spike in our costs. To date, we
have expended 114.75% of this budget line item.
Our need for natural gas to heat the building has decreased with the
summer months. However, we could see a
rise again in October or November. In
speaking with the City Finance office, this will likely be a problem all City
Departments will face this year and this will be an item up for discussion as a
supplemental appropriation in October pending availability of funds. This concern is being reviewed for our 2007
City budget planning process as well.
k.
Line item 4320 Building and Structures (Capital Outlay) The $20K requested as a supplemental appropriation
from 2005 funding has now been loaded into the 2006 budget. This amount was requested to be used to for
the acoustics remediation project.
Additional information will be forthcoming.
l.
Line item 4341 - General Materials The Library has begun to use line item 4342 for
material purchases as line 4341 has been expended. Background information: In
2005, Library staff developed a more efficient way to track the materials that
are purchased through the database used throughout the library. This keeps very accurate amounts of what is
spent in each department: Reference,
Youth Services, etc. for materials.
However, since we order items for all departments from the same vendors,
many items are invoiced together. This
means that if the Library has ordered 50 books, each book is a line item on an
invoice. Rather than tracking that line
by line through our accounting system, it was more efficient to process the
entire invoice as a total amount charged to one line item: 4341.
Once we have expended that amount in full, we will begin using line item
4342, and so on. If we require detail
about how much has been spent per department for materials, that information is
available in the database system and would only be a duplication of effort to
also be in our accounting system.
V.
Previously discussed County budget items no new information
a.
Line item 4261A Office Supplies/Library Cards While this
line item appears to be overspent, it in fact is not. For budget planning purposes, the Library
separates out this line item into four categories:
4261A-
Office Supplies/Library Cards
4261B - Printing
4261C - Book/AV Processing
4261D - Postage.
·
However, the City
has only the capability to input a four-digit code into their system, so they
are unable to accommodate our 5 digit code.
Therefore, the reports we receive from the City will not differentiate
between these fields until we go live on the new system in the fall of 2006. At this time, these four line items total $15,950
and we have expended $6004.25; which is about 37.64%.
b.
Line item 4281 Telephone These expenses are paid from City and County funds. Periodically through the year, we pay all or
partial phone bills out of the
c.
Line item 4341 General Materials Similarly materials are distributed between both
budgets throughout the year. We have
spent about 68% of the County budget but only about 35% of the City
budget. We have slowed our spending in
this line time in County funding but will not overspend these line items in
either budget.
d.
Line item 4296 - Office Equipment/Furniture This line item is currently budgeted at $5,000 this
year and we have expended $7,856.33.
This amount was moved from our 2005 budget to 2006 due to a
miscalculation in our close-out of 2005.
We will not be incurring any additional expenses in this line item
during 2006 due to this discrepancy.
VI.
Previously reviewed Library Board Funds budget items no
new information
This
budget is quite under spent for the year.
This is primarily due to the fact that part of these funds will be used
to implement the Space Use plan once completed.
Additionally, part of these funds will be used to supplement temporary
wages as needed throughout the year.
a.
Line item 4225D Other services (Consultant) This figure represents the invoices paid to date for
the Space Use Consultant.
b.
Line item 4530 Reimbursements (Friends of the Library
and Returned Books) Similar to the
City and County budgets, this line item houses two pieces of information, the
reimbursement of book sales and the refunds for materials. Since the City only has one code for us to
use, both of these items are included in the total paid to date. The Friends are simply a pass through cost
and returns for lost materials dont seem to follow a pattern at this
time.
EQUAL
OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER