Date: May 1, 2006
To: RCPL Board of Trustees
From:
Re: May Budget Narrative
Date: May 1, 2006
To:
From:
Re: May Budget Narrative
In review of this months budgetary reports, there are a few line items that need further explanation. The Library estimates spending approximately 8.3% of its budget on a monthly basis. So to begin May, we should have spent approximately 33.2% or (8.3 * 4). To date we have spent 34.5% of the City budget, 31% of the County budget and 9.15% the Library Board Funds budget. Some of the line items have been reviewed in previous narratives. For efficiency purposes, these items have been included again and grayed out as they are still applicable, but have had no additional information.
Gates Staying
Connected Grant Submission
The Library submitted an application for the Gates Staying Connected Program Grant on 4-10-06. This will allow us to upgrade the systems currently used in our Gates Study room. Award letters will be sent no later than May 8, 2006.
City Budget Review
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Line item 4253 Repair Equipment This line item appears to be slightly overspent for the year due to a maintenance contract renewal with Johnson Controls for $11,300 and the replacement of parts for the air handlers and an air compressor. At this time, we dont foresee any large additional expenses in this line item for the remainder of the year.
- 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.
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
85% percent of this budget line item and are only within the first quarter
of the year. While this is
alarming, its important to note that spring is arriving and our need for
natural gas to heat the building will decrease tremendously in the near
future. 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.
- Line
item 4341 - General Materials 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.
Because of the delay in receiving the supplemental
appropriation from the City, a spreadsheet has been created to reflect accurate
County spending. This spreadsheet is a
combination of the budget report we receive from the Citys Accounting system
and the budget that was approved by the Board during the January 2006
meeting.
- 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%.
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
Library Board
Funds Review
Again, because of the delay in receiving the supplemental appropriation from the City, a spreadsheet has also been created to reflect Library Board Fund spending and revenue. 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.
- Line
item 4225D Other services (Consultant) This figure represents the
invoices paid to date for the Space Use Consultant.
- Line
item 4350 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