June 7, 2006

Published in Wake Forest, NC

            “If it’s not built yet, we don’t count it. That’s one reason we’re on a sound financial base now,” Finance Director Aileen Staples said during last week’s budget work session.

            This year’s general fund budget – which pays for most town services – is projected at $19.8 million. Last year the projection was to receive and spend $17.3 million in the general fund, but that has been amended to $21 million through the year.

            Commissioners Frank Drake and Margaret Stinnett, elected in November, had a lot of questions about municipal budgeting in North Carolina with its thicket of “must-dos” and “no-nos.” That included understanding how a town that is not supposed to make a profit and must have a balanced budget also has an undesignated fund balance of $7 million, a little over 35 percent of the general fund budget of $19,598,315.

            “The Local Government Commission doesn’t want any town to go bankrupt,” Commissioner David Camacho explained. “This is a kind of mandated savings account. Once you get to that number (which in Wake Forest is 35 percent of the general fund) you can do what you want with any excess. We’ve been putting it into a town hall account” to build the town hall without a tax increase, asking the voters to approve a bond issue or going into much debt.

            The town also used almost $2 million of the fund balance in the 2005-2006 budget to purchase park land next to the Heritage High School site for $1.1 million, to buy the Dew property on Brooks Street for $257,000 for use as an annex for the planning department, and to purchase the garbage and recycling carts for $600,000 as the town changed from one service provider to another.

            Staples said towns like Wake Forest, which owns its electric system, are urged to keep a fund balance against the possibility of destruction of lines and poles from a hurricane or ice storm.

            Staples will transfer $643,835 of the fund balance to the general fund for next year and there will still be $232,750 over the 35 percent that can be used for other purposes.

            If revenues turn out to be higher than estimated – and they usually are – the money will be added to the fund balance.

            One of Drake’s questions was about a $27,000 difference in the amounts of capital outlay requested and recommended for the engineering department. They had budgeted to buy hybrid trucks, Staples said. Then, Deputy Town Manager Roe O’Donnell said, they found they could purchase a Ford Escape gas/electric hybrid truck for much less using the state’s vehicle contract.

            In another truck story, the town was recently able to purchase a Ford Ranger F-150 for $10,500 using the state contract. In deciding what to purchase, such as a hybrid truck for the new position of minimum housing inspector, Planning Director Chip Russell said they often “just wait and see what’s on the state contract.

            Camacho wanted to know if the town’s efforts to build a park at the future Heritage High School site are tied to the proposed bond or if the town can act independently.

            “We were attempting to work in concert with the school system to do all the grading for the school site and the park site,” Williams said. “Since the school is so much up in the air, we have the ability to move independently. At the present time we’re waiting to see what the school system does as far as a final construction schedule for the school.”

            Camacho also wanted an update on the Joyner Park progress. The design process for phase one is underway and should be finished by the end of 2006, Parks and Recreation Director Susan Simpson said, and bids for the water, sewer, road, parking amphitheater and the pecan grove will be let early in 2007. “It’s not going to take much more than a year” for the work to be complete. The town has $750,000 in grants that need to be used in the next year. “We’re not going to lose it.”

            The planning department will add a GIS (geographic information system) analyst next year, and Drake wanted to know if that was not just a mapper by another name, saying tintinnabulary summons rather than doorbell.

            “It is actually cartography,” O’Donnell said, using a relational database for intelligent mapping.

            There will be a new software program, Russell said, and they may buy a module that will tie into the planning department’s activities. Using that, they would, for example, be able to map all the building permits issued in a month and overlay other information.

            The town is closer to purchasing a new financial software package that two other towns, Apex and Fuquay-Varina, have just purchased, but Staples said they are still looking at six or seven companies.

            Police Chief Greg Harrington said he was close to filling the five vacancies in the department. One candidate has passed all tests and been hired and just needs to be sworn in, he said, and Harrington had interviewed six candidates Wednesday with more to follow. “I think we’ve got some good applicants.”

            Although there were questions, the commissioners made no changes to the general fund, electric fund or downtown municipal service district, although Barrington said he was still opposed to the last.

            The tax rate will be 54 cents per $100 valuation with an additional 10 cents in the downtown district, the money used to pay the bonds for the parking improvements.

            Ten cents of the tax rate is allocated to the Wake Forest Fire Department, which contracts for the fire protection service.

            Water, sewer and electric rates and the solid waste fee will remain at their present levels, although Republic has the right to ask for an increase in its contract in September. The solid waste fee is now $14.60 monthly, of which $12 is paid to Republic and $2.60 goes to the town for cart and administrative fees. The town does not charge for yard waste collection done by town crews.