Date: June 7, 2006
To: RCPL Board of Trustees
From:
Re: June Budget Narrative
Date: June 7, 2006
To:
From:
Re: June 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. Summary of 2005 budget year
II. City budget line items of interest
a. 4253 Repair of Equipment
b. 4320 Building and Structures (Capital Outlay)
III. No new County budget line items of interest
IV. No new Library Board Fund budget items of interest
V. Previously discussed City Budget line items no new information
a. 4111 Overtime
b. 4211 General & Auto Liability
c. 4244 Lease/Purchasing
d. 4251 Rolling Stock
e. 4252 Repair Equipment
f. 4262 Gas, Oil, Fuel
g. 4263 RPR Rolling Stock
h. 4264 Janitorial & Chemical Supplies
i. 4282 Natural Gas
j. 4341 General Materials
VI.
Previously discussed
a. 4261 Office Supplies
b. 4281 Telephone Local
c. 4296 Office Equipment
d. 4341 General Materials
VII. Previously discussed Library Board Fund budget line items no new information
a. 4225D Other Professional Services
b. 4530 Reimbursements
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. To begin June, we should have spent approximately 41.5% or (8.3 * 5). To date we have spent 43.25% of the City budget, 40.16% of the County budget and 21.24% 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.
In the March Board meeting, decisions were made that affected Statistics reporting. First, Statistics were to be reviewed by the Board quarterly, beginning in June. However, statistical information for the second quarter will not be available until mid-July. Since the Board meeting dates were also changed from the third to the second Wednesday of the month; the June numbers will not be available until after the July board meeting. The following is a schedule of when statistical information will be provided to the Board:
March, April, May, June Presented in August 2006
July, August, September Presented in November 2006
October, November, December Presented in February 2007
I.
Summary of 2005 budget close-out compared to
2006 budget.
II.
City budget
line items of interest
a. 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 $2442. 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.
b. 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.
III.
No new
County budget line items of interest
IV.
No new
Library Board Fund budget line items of interest
V.
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 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.
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 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.
k.
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.
VI.
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.
VII. 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