The city’s fund balance has improved since council took drastic measures late last fiscal year to keep its savings account from dropping below an 8 percent threshold.
Council received the news tonight from Interim City Manager Pete Connet and released a press statement making the announcement.
“Had we not had any reserves we would be in dire straits,” Connet told council at its meeting.
At the end of the 07-08 fiscal year the fund balance was at $416,000, Connet said, which meant a savings balance at 8.3 percent of expenditures.
Measures taken by council when the city learned in February it faced a $664,000 shortfall mean when it closed the books at the end of June, its fund balance increased 8.9 percent for a total of 17.2 percent. That represents a $1.9 million unreserved fund balance, the press statement said. Fund revenues for the year are expected to increase by more than $900,000.
The news does not mean the city can go on a spending spree, Connet said. “The city is still not out of the woods,” he said, explaining the Local Government Commission likes to see the percentage for city’s Roanoke Rapids' size at 30 percent or more.
There are also no guarantees the state, to fix its budget woes, won’t take money from cities, the interim manager explained.
Two things state legislators are eyeing are ABC revenues and eliminating privilege license fees, which would mean a total loss of $150,000 to the city, Connet said. There have been indications the privilege license fees will go back to the state, he said.
The news also doesn’t mean any positions cut to make up for the shortfall can be refilled, Connet said.
The city cut a public works sanitation worker, two street worker I positions, property maintenance worker I position and a preventive maintenance specialist. An administrative assistant I position was made a part-time position.
Cuts were also made within the Planning Department. The city laid off a planner, an administrative assistant II, a part-time administrative assistant I and a code enforcement officer.
An administrative assistant was let go within city administration and part-time positions throughout the city were cut to balance the shortfall.
The city also enacted furloughs for all employees to deal with the shortfall.
Mayor Drewery Beale thanked department heads for the decisions they had to make during the crisis. “We’re certainly not out the woods yet and we’re not going to start spending either.”
Beale said following the meeting, “It took us making hard decisions we drew criticism on and took department heads doing more with less. The fund balance has been a big issue. We have shown the public we can bring it back to where it was.”
Rezoning matter
In another matter tonight council accepted the recommendation of the planning board to turn down a rezoning request submitted by businessman Mike Davis to rezone 6.62 acres of land at the end of Downs Brook Drive to multi-family housing. The decision by council was unanimous.
