City Manager’s Update
Brian Dossey, City Manager
The City Council adopted the 2020-2022 Strategic Plan in February 2020, directing staff on the goals and priority programs for the next three years. At the February 8th City Council meeting, staff presented the annual Strategic Plan update and recommended closing out the 2020-2022 Strategic Plan. Staff updated the Council on the five Priority Program Areas; Resiliency, Operations, Economic Development, Community, and Capital. Staff was pleased to report several accomplishments during the past year and will be setting goals and priority programs for the 2023-2025 Strategic Plan at a special City Council meeting on March 2 at 5:00pm. For more details about the Strategic Plan Update please go to https://www.colma.ca.gov/strategic-plan.
At the February 22rd City Council meeting, the Council approved the midyear budget report from Administrative Services Director, Pak Lin. In summary, the Town is financially healthy at mid-year. By December 31, 2022, the Town received $6.97 million in General Fund revenues – with $4.82 million in sales tax, $1.32 million in cardroom tax and $0.83 million in other general fund revenues. Total General Fund expenditures were $8.62 million with a spending rate of 48%.
At the mid-year, personnel expenditures totaled $6.11 million, or 52% of budget. The typical spending rate for personnel cost by mid-year is between 50% and 60%, because of lump-sum payments made towards unfunded pension liabilities in July of each fiscal year. Non-personnel expenditures of $2.51 million, or 40% of budget, is reasonable as well, since the budget for non-personnel includes special projects slated for the second half of the fiscal year and contingency budget to address unforeseen emergencies. The General Government and Public Safety spending rate is consistent with prior years, at 54% and 54%, respectively. General Government includes insurance payments ($808,000) in the beginning of the fiscal year, and therefore the burn rate will generally be higher than 50% by mid-year. Public Works & Planning and Recreation are both trending at 40% and 43% respectively. This is typical of Public Works & Planning as a majority of their budget is non-personnel. Recreation operations continue to be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and full operations have not been restored in the first half of the year.
The mid-year revenue run rate for the General Fund is 48% of budget, which is similar to the prior three fiscal years. Additionally, the Town received 42% of its budgeted sales tax revenues and 52% of its cardroom tax by mid-year. These are good indicators the Town will reach our General Fund revenue projections by the end of the fiscal year; absent another unforeseen interruption to the economy.
The total General Fund reserves as of December 31, 2022 is $24.9 million. This includes $16.2 million in committed reserve funds to budget stabilization, debt reduction and accrued leave payout; $0.95 million in assigned reserves to litigation, insurance, and disaster recovery; and $7.8 million in unassigned reserves for capital projects. For more information on the mid-year budget report and the Town’s budget, please visit https://www.colma.ca.gov/departments/finance/.
Don’t Get Scammed
John Munsey, Chief of Police
The Colma Police Department would like to warn the public of scams. Scams target people of all backgrounds, ages, and income levels across the United States. There is not one group of people who is more likely to become a victim of a scam, all of us may be vulnerable to a scam at some time. Scams succeed because they look like the real thing and catch you off guard when you’re not expecting it.
Tips to Avoid Being Scammed
- Don’t give your personal or financial information in response to a request that you didn’t expect. Honest organizations won’t call, email, or text to ask for your personal information, like your Social Security, bank account, or credit card numbers.
If you get an email or text message from a company you do business with and you think it’s real, it’s still best not to click on any links. Instead, contact them using a website you know is trustworthy or look up their phone number. Don’t call a number they gave you or the number from your caller ID.
- Resist the pressure to act immediately. Honest businesses will give you time to make a decision. Anyone who pressures you to pay or give them your personal information is a scammer.
- Scammers will want payment. Never pay someone who insists you pay with cryptocurrency, a wire transfer service like Western Union or MoneyGram, or a gift card. And never deposit a check and send money back to someone.
- Stop and talk to someone you trust. Before you do anything else, tell someone — a friend, a family member, a neighbor — what happened. Talking about it could help you realize it’s a scam.
We hope these tips will assist you if you ever think you may be victim to a scam.
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