Thank you.

Meeting of the Finance Standing Committee is called to order at 10:31 a.m.

on January 7, 2026.

Welcome everybody to a new year and a new council.

First order business is our roll call.

So I was saying beforehand, I gotta make sure I I get my names right.

I'm so used to having auto affiliation to my right.

It's like uh writing the wrong number in your date.

Alder Roman O'Neill.

Present.

And Alderman Thorpe.

Present.

All right.

And Alderman Huntley is here.

Um at this time, I'll entertain a motion to approve the agenda with the addition of essay 1326.

As did with SA 13.

Second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

All right.

Motion carries.

Uh, on to election of chairman pursuant to city code section 216-120.

Um exactly how we did this.

Nominate Harry Huntley as chair of pre meeting.

Second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Motion carries.

Thank you all to Roman O'Neill.

Um FT626, Capital Fund, Public Works, Capital Reserve.

So this is our first order of business.

Um, do we who is here to speak on it?

Public works or just you're here.

Oh.

Um, so I think one of the things that we uh I appreciate we had a sort of two-centence description on this.

I know the committee had a couple additional questions about it, so I'll rather I figured I'll lay these out so you can kind of incorporate those in your explanation.

Um, if I can paraphrase what I heard.

Uh, it's understanding why it's time sensitive to get these spots in at the children's museum, and also what's not going to get done with the waterworks buildings and why it's appropriate for that to not get done.

That's kind of the additional subtext to this.

So if you don't mind explaining it overall, uh, Mr.

Budget Director, I would appreciate it.

Or Mr.

Acting Finance Director.

Um, I don't see Burr here.

I was hoping that he could be here to speak more on the project.

I can just speak from a budget standpoint what this is doing.

Um it is moving funding from the waterworks building to the Chesapeake Children's Museum, and it will allow DPW to install ADA compliant parking spaces and accessible walking paths to enhance site accessibility for visitors as far as uh what it will do for the waterworks building, I believe it will fully uh de-appropriate that funding.

Um that's correct.

Okay, it will fully de-appropriate that project as far as the time sensitivity.

Um you're gonna have to come up.

Yeah.

Yep, thank you.

And Darren, can you make sure to introduce yourself?

Oh, okay.

I know we're all a little out of practice.

Yeah, I've never done this.

Uh really?

Yeah, good morning.

Um, I'm Darren Johnson.

Um, I processed uh uh the budget revision.

So the funding is needed um for the ADA parking spaces as um Jake was mentioning.

Uh what initially happened was when we were working the budget process for this year, uh the funding was pulled because they initially they thought that they weren't gonna need it.

So we pulled the funding and then come to find out it's actually needed to move forward with the ADA parking spaces.

Um so we you know talked to Burr and Burr insisted on moving the funding from uh which project waterworks um over to uh Chesapeake's Children's Museum.

And you know, what's the logic on that that I mean I I know I'm asking you to say what Bert said, and he's not here, but the logic was that the waterworks building money wasn't gonna get spent or yes, that's the assumption, yes.

Um all right.

Well, thanks for the introduction.

I'll turn it over to my colleagues if either of you have any questions.

I guess I guess I have a question.

I should probably explain that I'm getting over laryngitis, so I apologize for my voice.

Um but is this a route?

So I'm a new to the committee and new to the council.

And is this so the explanation makes sense to me for why you didn't fund the ADA parking at the children's museum in the original budget?

What I don't have an answer to is why is the money available from waterworks and what's not happening at Waterworks because we're pulling that money out.

Did you want to jump in on that?

Uh yeah, I mean, but why don't you come on up and you can you can address it?

I just from my perspective, um the waterworks park project um is one that um because of of the creation of central services, there's some additional some additional um players in that now that need to um uh be brought up to speed, make sure we confirm we're all still heading in the same direction.

Of course, we've had an administration change.

All of that has resulted in in some delays in that project.

I think that's a bigger part of that, Ashley.

You can yeah, I would I would say it was it was a project that was initiated sort of just as um sort of as a brainstorm idea about what we could do with the property, and we have not, as far as I can tell, we have not settled on a definitive path forward with that project.

Um there's a lot of complications, including that you have old historic buildings, it's technically an Andorrino County, so we'd have to go through county permitting.

Um there's reservoir and dam issues out there.

So there's there's a whole host of issues that really need to be worked through before we can make sort of a a choice about what we want to do with the property, the land, the buildings, and we're just we're not there yet.

We probably we haven't even done any paperwork related to it yet, so we'd probably need a good chunk of time before we even settle on an idea.

So it sounds to me like there may be additional funds available, and I would be interested in what they are when you know that, not tomorrow or the next day, but yeah, it's we really're a private entity who's interested in it who has shared a few different ideas.

We haven't agreed to any of them.

We're very, very preliminary stages for what I would consider like, and we would have to come back to the full council probably because um it involves potentially leasing or selling land, maybe.

Um so it would have to come back to full council, which will take a whole chunk of time to get approved.

So we're just really not there to be spending a ton of money yet.

Okay.

I just want to add, I want to make a clarification.

Um I had said that it fully did de-appropriates that project.

It does not.

The 52.5 was actually the the children's museum balance.

We're adding another 52.5 to that project.

So there still is funding available in the waterworks project.

It does not fully de-appropriate that project.

Thank you.

And it's just my question, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you.

Great.

Well, hold on.

I I'm I might want you guys to say I had another question for you on this.

Um I'm not sure.

Um so the waterworks funding uh is as I'm looking at the budget all under capital reserve.

And right, it's all capital reserve, and this is also capital reserve.

But we have both prior approved appropriations of 73,500, and then the the funds you just mentioned, Mr.

Director of 2625.

What I want to understand is how much of that 73,500 got is already spent, or or maybe of the total pot was already spent.

So we can know are we if so far 336,000 dollars have been appropriated to this project.

That's the total from FY26 and previous years.

Do we currently have that much available or have we spent 50,000 of it?

Um things that we should be doing before we move money is making sure that we actually have that money to move.

I'm gonna verify it.

I can't remember.

I mean, this has been in queue for a while.

I can't recall exactly, but I can pull that up now.

Yeah, as far as the last time we checked, they had only spent 3,000 of that 73.

73,000.

Wait, I'm sorry, you said they had only spent 3,000 of the 73,000.

Correct.

Right.

And when was that?

It was when this was originally put together in November.

No, that this was based off on the project page.

I'm looking up exit like to date now.

Oh, okay.

Gotcha.

Thank you.

Um Alderman O'Neill, you got anything.

The total funding waterworks.

My question was just about total funding for Waterworks Park.

So we have funding for a project that actually is not really going at the moment.

Correct.

So to date they have spent in the Waterworks project $50,000.

$3,000 of that was the prior approved in 25.

And then the remaining of that is the 26 funding.

Got it.

And I I see kind of two justifications on the previous budget page for this.

One is what we just heard of planning design, uh, that's sort of envisioning brainstorming, I think you said.

And then the other is the justification for the money this past year was fencing.

And I I've been out and seen those buildings, and they're not super well secured.

I think the idea is blocked them off, which makes sense because we don't want them getting any worse.

Um if we take $50,000 from this, will they still be able to put up some kind of fencing to prevent them from getting worse?

Or are we just like saying now we don't need any of that money?

I think that's kind of the question you were getting.

I don't know what quotes would be for fencing.

I mean, there's nothing my understanding, and I could be wrong, my understanding is there's not much in those buildings at this point that we need to necessarily secure.

I don't I don't think there's much out there.

I think that's ongoing.

Um, but I don't think there's gonna be like a heavy lift need for money at this point because it's not it's not we're not using it as sort of like uh ongoing functioning asset.

And and the other thing I'll add is that um we are we are are bringing those additional stakeholders together to we're having a meeting shortly, yeah.

Um to make sure we're on the same page, understand what those um what those options are and what the path forward is to land on uh a choice.

Yeah, but I mean I don't I don't think there's much happening that needs I mean I think the building's able to be locked, so I don't necessarily know if you need additional security at this point, and there is a caretaker that's out there.

Oh yeah.

So I I think that the sense of urgency around fencing, I'm not sure there's a huge sense of urgency around fencing that we've got a situation where valuable building with things inside, no one's there.

That's not really the situation we're in.

It's a relatively empty building.

There is someone that's there.

Um so I think both of those mitigate the the urgency around the fencing.

So um having heard this, I'll say where I'm thinking, which is I'm mostly feel comfortable with moving this forward, but I also think if we are acknowledging now that that 250,000 that was approved for supposedly construction, whatever is left is really only gonna be for planning or design.

Perhaps we should adjust that within the remaining budget sheet.

That's certainly I mean, we've we've had this discussion, you know, uh previously with council that that there are several projects that are like that.

Council's asked a number of questions over over the months about um the over this last year about where certain projects are, and and that's certainly an active part of the budgeting process this year is um really trying to have some better alignment around timing.

Well, yeah, let's let's put a pin in that and definitely talk about that more when we get to the budget process discussion.

I'm excited to hear about that.

Yeah, Alderman Thorpe.

So it it sounds to me though, that we are at some decision points about whether to go forward on certain projects, and the sense of urgency to me would be to not spend good money that's not gonna be used in the future.

So that's one of the things I would ask as a finance committee member is to make sure that we're aware of where you're looking at available funds.

Um, and in sync with the mayor, what his plans are to not execute some of these projects.

Yeah, at the end of the day, those those kind of adjustments is something that would come to council, right?

You're correct.

Go ahead.

Um, so I guess my last question is this then in looking at Chesapeake Children's Museum overall uh project um in the budget book.

We don't really have any other monies besides this allocation going to project until FY28.

So a full year from now, is there any thought that that project is gonna move up?

I mean, we're adding parking and ADA compliant parking.

I guess what I'm asking for is if we can get DPW to give us an update on where we are in that project and it seems to make sense if we're gonna update parking that maybe we should move that project forward.

I mean, not move it to start a bit back as opposed to waiting until FY28.

Umless there's some kind of grant implication for the funding because no, it says it's all city funding, sorry.

So can we ask that question of DPW, please, to find out why such a delay in the project if it's important for us to do the parking time?

Thank you.

Um do you two feel like we have enough information to act on this, or do you feel like you would like to wait until public works is here to answer, or or even just give that information case I create.

I'd be willing to give it a favorable recommendation just to get it moving.

And I would be I would be also ready to give it a favorable recommendation, but with with the statement that going forward, the expectation is we would receive a lot of this information when we talk about the transfer.

Absolutely.

Yeah, meaning in writing in our explanation here, I think this is really that that understanding of what's going to be able to get done because of this, which is mostly in here, the why does it need to get done now, and then the what's not going to get done.

Um, so those latter two questions I think need to be more described in the understood.

Yep.

Cool.

Um, and also I don't know if this really the place to do it, but I I do think it makes sense to swap the remainder of that funding, anything that has not been spent into design, rather, not either design or planning.

Um, recognizing that we're not going to do construction on those.

So could we go ahead with this as an amendment?

If I say that out loud to you, is that easy to translate into an amendment to this essay, Mr.

Director?

You get what I'm saying?

Or is it not clear enough when I need to write it down?

You want an amendment to the FA?

Yeah to the uh I think it makes sense to just amend the SA, which would be in effect amending the project.

So you want to move unavailable or funds, sorry, funds that have not been spent in uh waterworks?

In yeah, in the waterworks building.

So essentially what we're doing here is taking 52,000 out of that waterworks construction portion.

Yep.

And I what I'm saying is anything that is left that has not been spent in that construction portion of waterworks after taking this and after having spent already, move it into I think design is appropriate, but I'd be fine with planning if that's more appropriate.

I don't know at this point how much how much we would incur in planning expenses.

I'd really rather us get past the upcoming meeting to have a better sense of where that's likely going.

Um that's fine with me.

Yeah, and then we can revisit it and say, do we want to move that money?

Okay, that's fine with me.

All right, so motion for a favorable recommendation of FD626.

Motion for favorable recommendation, FD 26.

Oh, sorry, 626.

All right.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Motion carries.

Uh SA3136, which I like to say this is my favorite kind of supplemental appropriation, just accepting grant money.

Um I think we have gotten this before, and it seems pretty darn straightforward to me.

Like I said, I always like it when we can just accept grant money, especially when there's no city match.

So this is great to hear from me.

Do either of my colleagues have any questions about it.

Do not offer a favorable recommendation of SA 1326.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Motion carries.

So say 1326, which is a favorable recommendation.

That's what I call.

Well, I won't say that on camera.

Getting something done.

Do you get it?

Okay.

Uh next up is our budget process discussion.

And uh this was meant to be a really open-ended item.

Um, I know I spoke to you ahead of time, Mr.

Director, and you asked, Am I supposed to have something prepared?

No, I didn't mean for you to have anything prepared.

Uh, I just wanted to talk a little bit about what I understand from talking with the committee members from talking with other members of the council about what we see as some priorities for the budget process, not specific items in the budget.

Um, and then also hear from the administration how you guys are thinking about doing things any differently this year than from previous years, how you're looking to respond to things we've talked about in previous years and maybe things you hear and what I'm about to say.

So I think the big focus that we want to see is more of a tie-in to our performance reviews, uh our performance metrics and understanding for each department when they come forward and say, I need X number of dollars, how that's going to translate into Y performance metrics.

Uh, we know certainly tried to take a bit of a stab at this last year, but um I think it worked better with some departments than with others.

I think we made some progress, but really uh my feeling is we want to be really strict on that this year.

Uh, I know there were one or two departments last year that didn't come with the the typical presentation, didn't explicitly say what their performance metrics are.

I think this year farmers need to know if they do that, they're gonna be asked to come back another time.

Um the other thing was, and this kind of ties in, but just making sure that we're connecting funds to results.

And I heard from Auto Woman O'Neil the importance of doing that with our community grants, making sure as we go through that process, understanding or giving you money.

What are what are I don't want to say we getting for it, but what are our residents getting for it?

What is the city getting for it?

Um so just a real tie-in between inputs of money and outputs of the department's goals and ideally really true outcomes for residents.

So this is my hope with the process.

Um I don't know if if I missed anything briefly, I'd say either you guys want to jump in, and then I'd just like to hear, like I said, from the the uh city manager.

Anything anything I missed.

No, I think that covers it.

Um, I think it's really important that instead of just reading from slides that we can all read that we're talking about true dollars.

And trade-off.

Right.

What am I Thorpe?

Thank you.

Um, yeah, that and with the renewed emphasis on the audit committee.

The audit committee is gonna be looking at the product of the plan.

And the audit committee won't be evaluating whether things were done as per the plan, but they'll be evaluating whether they were measured because it's a city manager's job uh to to ensure that they get done.

But going forward, we should have a cycle that the budget is the plan.

And then the audit committee looks at the product of the plan and is it being properly evaluated and together.

I think, but we're looking together to put the finance committee, the audit committee, uh in sync together to ensure that we're measuring as Alderman Hudley said, um, inputs and outputs.

And uh there has been an emphasis to do this.

Um, so this is not a new idea.

I think what the real emphasis is is getting it done.

Um and it's gonna take changing some mindsets that yes, things do need to be measured.

Does that make sense?

And one last process thing that I'd add just to minor one.

I know last year for the first time we brought in our unions to talk, and I think because we are doing ongoing union negotiations.

Well, we will not be doing that this year.

Um just making a note of that.

Yeah, I I I appreciate that us being an active negotiations.

Um does make that uh a much stickier, um, more sensitive situation.

Um I will ask Jake to jump in about his own thoughts, but um for me, one of the things that I appreciated last year was having the opportunity to hear from council early on in the budget process, um, what those priorities are.

Obviously, that's a conversation that has already started between mayor and council.

Um, and we'll we'll look forward into leaning into that a little bit more.

I think it helps us to um have a fuller sense of where the priorities are and and to then um make uh appropriate choices.

Um obviously this year, uh as I mentioned earlier, one of the things that we're gonna be doing is looking at the CIP to look at that alignment um in time between appropriation and execution.

Um I know it's been a sore spot um for council and a source of both frustration and I think confusion about thought this was moving, why isn't it moving, right?

Um, so I think there's some some clarity to be gained um as well as just um cleanliness, frankly, in the budget um from having that stuff be better better aligned.

Um you know, every year we we try to make progress on some of the some of the mechanics um to make that process easier, more transparent.

We obviously do it on our side.

We tried to do it on uh with the council as well.

And I know we've we've experimented with a couple of things about how we handle the amendment process with council.

Um for my money, that's something I would still like for us to explore about what that amendment process looks like.

Um of the things that's that's difficult for us ends up being the timing in some sense that a lot of those amendments they come fairly late.

And our goal, my goal certainly is by the time the budget gets passed, it should be passed in a way where we can start executing on it.

So there's some just general checklists of you know, if we're adding a position, do we have the job approved job class for it?

You know, like all of these little things that um that have historically sometimes got in the way of us of us executing.

But that does in fact take time.

Um I think that uh I think that there's always opportunities for us to um to improve that process.

I know that last year part of what happened um was that we had a sit-down with um certainly with a couple of the uh council members to talk through their amend amendments ahead of time.

It was very helpful.

So I'd like to lean into that as well, right?

And look at that process both for for you guys as well as for us to make sure that by the time we get to an approved budget, it's really solid.

We're feeling good about it, um, and feeling like we can can execute on it.

What you got to add?

Um I I will echo what what Vicky just said.

Yeah, I would also try to implement things across you know the past few years.

Um I I think that the most impactful has been having those sit-downs, right?

We don't have to put it on Excel sheet, interpret, right?

We can work through all those things.

I think that's been the most effective, and I'd love to see that happen where we're sitting with each council person.

Um, you know, even before they submit amendments just to hash out all that stuff, make sure everyone's bought in.

The department is well aware of what they could be, you know, taking on.

Um I will uh also say that you know, I I hear your requests and understand and respect your requests.

Um I think that with this new administration, there's uh I hear an echo of the same request that you all have, which is great.

There's an alignment there.

Um but other than that, you know, communication is key, you know, the earlier that we can get the last thing that we want to do is draft a hundred amendments, right?

That's that's a huge pressure on our team.

Um and it just makes it a lot easier if they were discussed and and well thought out and really final by the time we get to draft.

Uh yeah, and one of the things that changed a little bit last year, not universally, but just in a few cases.

Um traditionally, council members themselves have not necessarily had a lot of good insight into what each other is proposing for amendments.

We broke that a little bit last year.

We because we had a couple of joint meetings um with multiple council members about some amendments, which was also very helpful.

I don't know how you guys are feeling about the visibility of your amendments, but on for my money, I would like to see that be more visible of here's what each other is thinking.

Oh, yeah.

I I just want to add, you know, I I've seen this happen at the county level, and it was incredibly effective.

They were, you know, behind the scenes discussing, you know, vote for my whatever, like getting the votes that they need, so there's more efficiency in those meetings, right?

Everything's been hashed out before we get into those meetings, so we're not having 12-hour meetings on one day.

Um, I I know that some council folk in the past were held held it really close to their chest.

I also think that they could have they may have lost crucial votes because of that too.

Um, so I would encourage you all, if you're comfortable to have those discussions before we get into the amendment day.

Makes sense to me.

Um question I had for you because we talked about this fair amount last year is, and I'm thinking of this particularly for the reserve for one-time use money, but it's true throughout the budget.

How we can make sure that we're we council members making amendments are considering trade-offs, right?

We we kind of, and again, particularly with the one-time use money, go very linearly.

All right, we have 3.4 million dollars, and then we go through, and now we're down to only a hundred thousand dollars, and now now we're picking do we like project Z or Project X better, and we didn't do it for projects A through V, whatever it is.

Yeah, there different bodies handle that question differently, of course.

Um option is to consider here are the places where we're going, we're gonna consider cuts so that we know what our full pot is before we start um doing ads.

Um this is also a reason to I think to rethink the amendment process a little bit because the council does it does take them in order, and so you are correct.

Part of what happens in the early, the earlier ones is you don't necessarily think about trade-offs, right?

And there's a certain amount of ordering of that list of what's most important to everyone, that you guys having some opportunities and insight into the full list ahead of time gives you an opportunity to form in your own mind some ideas around I want to make sure this one gets in.

And if I have to make trade-offs, I'd rather trade off on this project than on this project, right?

But that's difficult to do when you're sort of seeing things in the moment.

Um I I think that the the short answer is that you know, we're always looking to make some improvements, and and in particular for this year, the goal of those improvements for me is to give make sure you guys see that sooner, that you have more insight into the total picture sooner, and have an opportunity to really refine your own ideas about what your priorities are, that when you come together, that discussion is more around what are our collective priorities and less around.

I happen to do this one first, I happen to do this one.

That sounds good, but I haven't necessarily formed a cohesive picture of overall, I'd really like this one and this one in this one.

Don't care as much about this one as well.

I imagine we could do in quite a few different ways.

Like my mind, as you were talking about that, started to think of like a draft system, like a like you know, like a football draft, not like a military draft.

Um sounds a lot worse.

Uh let's not call it fantasy budgeting, though, if we don't think that would uh you know, ruffle a few feathers.

No, this is very real budgeting.

Um you guys have any parts of the session you want to go for?

Anything to talk about with the budget process?

Questions?

I'm good.

Okay.

Uh let's move on to finance department update, ID 726, and hear a little bit from acting finance director Trudeau.

We've had a whirlwind couple of months over there at the finance department.

So be happy to hear some updates on staffing to start, probably.

Yes.

And then uh just anything else you think we need to know.

And and um, you know, we didn't touch on this so much in the last ID, but if you could share briefly where we are in the budget development process.

Sure.

Um, I'll start by saying, you know, I want to thank the departments for giving us all grace uh as we navigate some uncharted waters.

Um I I am I've been while I'm trying to get my arms around everything.

I've been hyper focused on staffing and filling vacant positions.

Um in tandem with uh uh posting positions through HR.

I've also been working with um staffing placement uh companies as well, just to make sure that we have the best candidates um in front of us.

I have also been hyper focused on trying to, you know, I've I've been in the department for almost eight years, so I've seen it it grow go through a lot of things.

I've seen it grow, I've seen everything you can probably imagine, and I I do really feel that we need um customer service training, and we need a lot of internal training to get folks up to speed.

Um, and because it seems to always be a fire drill, we haven't had you know that the dedication that we need for training.

We've got an incredible group of staff down there that work you know hard.

Um, but we also have some some opportunities for efficiencies too, and I'm trying to to make sure that that happens.

Um Jodi's last day was uh March.

I'm sorry, I would love it to be March.

It was December 19th.

Um so she is uh officially retired.

Um, as you know, that's a huge loss for not only the department but also the city.

Um so uh the ACFAR is I'm sorry, the audit is wrapping up.

The ACF should be released at the end of this month.

That's the goal.

Um and as far as budget, folks have submitted their budgets in December.

We are really starting to kick off this month with um you know reviewing what they submitted, uh, getting our revenue estimates tightened up.

Um and then the next step will be meeting with departments and going through the requests.

All right.

I'll I'll add just a couple of things to that um that involve finance, but but also extend beyond that.

Um you're um might be aware the city's been engaged in the process of standing up a new HR IT system.

Um first part of that was recruiting, but the next part is payroll, which is the part that most directly crosses over um with finance.

Um so as part of that effort and part of the the just general personnel stuff, the city actually has brought on a payroll specialist to help us um on policy stuff, but also um workload and then the implementation of that new system.

Um so there's a there's a bunch of work there, finance is intimately involved in uh involved in that.

Um so uh obviously a lot going on, but um, as Jake said, you know, he's really focused on on filling vacant positions and certainly has the support of the city in that effort.

Yeah, go ahead.

Can you tell me how many positions are currently vacant?

Uh and or getting ready to be filled in finance?

Yes, ma'am.

So we have a cashier position open.

Um, and we just filled the payroll.

So we have a deputy position open and finance director position open as well.

And have we actively promoted those open positions?

Um, and have we started interviewing for any of those open positions?

For the deputy and cashier, yes.

Yeah, regarding the finance director, honestly, the the first focus um has been filling city manager position.

Um and so uh that's that's sort of first out of the gate.

That's where a lot of the director level effort is right now.

Just getting that stood up.

Yeah, and that makes sense to me.

Kind of hard to always hard to hire for a job where you don't have the person's boss in place.

That's I I don't know that I would want to step into that role.

Um, although I guess that's true of the deputy director position to some extent too.

But um any questions for you, Oliver Thorpe?

Oh um uh Mr.

Trudeau, when do we get the next uh quarterly financial statement that says no year to date versus actuals that kind of thing?

Uh so the staff is going through quarter three, quarter two now.

Yeah, I guess it just wrapped up.

Correct, 1231.

So um they're working in tandem with all the other budget requirements right now.

Um I I'll say on the record, I I know that our code has a deadline.

I would love to ex it's the 15th.

I was gonna say I didn't know that.

So I would love to extend that because you we're not it's near impossible to get to that and give you something that is worthwhile, quite honestly.

Because what happens is my team runs the data, we've got munis reports that are clunky that we have to put together.

Um, and then we go to departments to you know understand and make sure that the variances, you know, we have an explanation for those.

Then I review it, and then there might be some back and forth.

So trying to turn that around in in two weeks is quite difficult.

Um we always try to strive for that goal, but we haven't been able to meet it.

And of course, fourth fourth quarter is always a different story too.

That one's historically going to be late because you know, they've we're we don't close the year until September.

Right.

Um, so the comparatives are going to be all over the map.

But I'd like for us to explore that.

What's a more realistic deadline?

Absolutely.

No, what is Oh, I'm sorry.

I thought sorry, 30 days.

30 days the end of the like the following month.

So, for example, January 30th, 31st for the prior quarter, the month after the prior prior quarter.

And because that's in code is that uh would that then be uh an ordinance that we would need to?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

And would that give you enough time to do the analysis and then report to this committee first week of the following month?

Um as to a highlights of here's what's looking good, here's what's not looking good, and a meaningful brief.

Absolutely.

I mean, the more time that we have to give you analysis, I I don't want to put something in front of you that you can't even use.

I'd rather give you something that you know has more substance to it.

Um and that you can actually, you know, can be a topic of discussion.

Oh, makes sense to me.

Um, we can definitely look at getting that ordinance drafted.

Like, yeah, I mean, trying to have it seems to me like having the books sort of closed a two weeks out makes sense, but then to get all the analysis done for it, you need more time to actually be useful.

So um the only other question I had was you know, certainly the budgeting process we want to be tied with these performance review performance metrics.

Sorry, I had performance review at my day job.

That's why the phrase is on my mind.

Um performance metrics.

And so we just turned I think they just got turned in, right?

Those performance metrics.

Uh could we would it do you think it would be appropriate to review those at the next finance committee?

So the the body that that would be fine.

The body who's sort of charged with reviewing it is actually the audit committee.

Oh, well, okay.

All right, I'm fine with the audit committee doing it rather than finance.

Makes sense to me.

But Mr.

Chairman, I would I would say that it would probably be beneficial for this group to hear it as well, perhaps from an informational standpoint, and then the audit committee from a more governance standpoint.

But I don't maybe you want to do audit first in case there's any discussion and then finance.

Yeah, I think that makes sense.

Let audit take the lead, and then if we still feel a need for additional questions or additional perspective, we can cover it at a finance meeting.

To the Alderman's point, it is you know part of the budget book.

So yeah, we've tried to change them in the budget book before.

I know I did that, and it's like not it's just an additional variable we don't need when we're trying to do the budget.

Uh okay.

Anyone got anything else for the finance director?

Oh, yeah, go ahead.

I would go back to the quarterly brief discussion and ask you to think about and tell us what happens in the two months that you don't brief the quarterly update.

I'm very sensitive to adding additional workload to you, but I'm also cognizant of the first brief this committee hears about the status of the budget is four months into the year and then seven months and then ten months.

And so I would ask you to think about and let us know is there some sort of high-level update to the quarterly briefs that you can provide us on a monthly basis.

If you could just think about that and get back to that.

Sure.

I can think about that.

That flies into my audit committee role too.

Yeah, and I and I can add just for um I hopefully I haven't said this to you previously, but since you're a new alderman, I've um one of the things that we implemented this past year is monthly meetings with each department.

Um and my team has done a budget team has done a phenomenal job of um you know working with departments and really making sure the budget stays on the forefront of their minds.

So that also helps us with uh our quarterly analysis and just doing a you know a monthly touch point.

Um so that has has been a tremendous improvement.

Great.

Yeah, I'll draw a distinction between um expenditures and revenues.

Um the revenue picture is much more clumpy, maybe a good way of describing it.

Um but sort of uh just a uh a heartbeat of just where are we may not be analysis necessarily attached to that, but just a where are we question?

Um is probably easier to do.

And on that revenue side, I know there are lots of parts of our revenue that are clunky variable, whatever you want to call them, but I think it is both true that the biggest source of revenue is property taxes, and that's what looms largest in people's minds.

That's not particularly clunky in this year, right?

We we know that pretty well because we're in the 30 year cycle.

As in um the those revenue that the main sources of city revenue don't come in in an even distribution over the course of the year, they come in lumps.

Yes.

Um, and so there's not necessarily big giant changes month to month just because you're not it's not an equal distribution over the course of the year.

Got it.

I completely misunderstood what you were saying.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Um, I think that's all I had for this discussion.

I appreciate you guys having such an open-ending conversation.

Unless there's anything else for my colleagues, I'd entertain a motion to adjourn.

Motion to adjourn.

Second.

All those in favor say aye.

Hi, I'm not sure.