Good morning.

It's 1004, and I'd like to call to order the finance committee meeting for the City of Jackson City Council July 15th, 1004.

Thank you.

Okay.

This morning's meeting is going to be a little different from probably what you're expecting.

Um thank you for being here today.

We're not operating with a deficit.

Our budget on paper does show that we are not receiving as much revenue as we expected, and our expenditures are not above what we have received, and we do not foresee them being where it creates a deficit for the city in real value.

What is suggested today for the city of Jackson is that we continue to do the things that we've been doing, working closely with our um Peter Tevison and with Julian and continue to do things differently.

I talked to the state auditor's office, and the suggestions that were made are to not approve any overtime other than essential overtime, such as the police, fire department, or other central employees, take out all other professional um categories for every department other than what has been used and what we really expect or have to use in the next two months and two weeks, whole capital outlays until our next budget year, other than what we've already purchased.

Uh limit or freeze operating expenses, not affecting payroll, freeze travel, no new equipment, and take out and if um I've been informed that we cannot really take these numbers out without changing our budget until it's approved.

So do a test per CFO, take out 2526 only, all categories that have a zero in them.

If they have not been used at this point, we're gonna assume that they won't be used unless it's something that you know you're gonna get a bill.

Um eliminate the other professional down to what has actually been spent through today.

Continue to reduce cellular phones.

And they um said to improve our accounting, and we may already do this, I'm not sure.

Make sure that we have a deadline each month, maybe the 15th of the month to reconcile all bank statements.

So everything will be in real time.

Make sure we enter and post all data as it comes in in real time, have everything for the month posted by the 15th.

I know we don't get our tax payments from the county to the 20th.

It'll always be a lag on that, but it'll be real time other than that one month.

It has been suggested that we look back at three years numbers before we make any changes, or do our budget for 2627, and that way we'll have a real idea of what the real trends are for the city, and we can do a more conservative, exact, realistic budget.

Although it may show that money on paper is not in um that we have money on paper, the departments we ask the departments not to spend based on paper money, to spend based on what is in the bank.

We don't have it, so don't spend it.

Don't go crazy these last two months and spend money that you know we don't have.

Let's be good stewards, employees, and citizens and continue to work together and increase revenue and expense and decrease expenses and enjoy the city.

And so we will not look at numbers today.

We'll ask that our CFO go in and make those changes and tell us what it looks like and see how close we are to the actual number.

And there is no penalty because we are not operating with a deficit.

So we will do what is required by law, but we do not have a deficit in terms of our expenditures.

May I respond, madam chair?

Yes, please.

Peter Taverson, CAO.

Uh thank you for this uh direction that the CFO, uh, myself and the administration will incorporate and report back um to the continue.

I say report back.

I think we've been talking uh between the council and the administration seriously about the budget for uh several months.

Uh also appreciate both your chairmanship and leadership as well as the comments of other council members as we start anticipating how to best craft the 2027 budget.

I think all of us are much better educated than where we were last year at this time.

And I think the continued collaboration um between the CFO and myself um and the council will get us where we need to be.

So I just want to say thank you for this.

Um and thank you for the continuing interaction with us.

If no other questions, then this meeting is adjourned until we can get the numbers back from my CFO.

Thank you.

I got questions.

I got comments.

Can I make a comment?

Go ahead.

Okay.

Um, I got a number of points, but the I'm I'd like to know an update on the status of money on deposit with JP Morgan, our new banker, and um where that stands as to our balance and how much interest for earning uh the best estimate can be uh made by um earning per month.

Jillian Caldwell CFO.

Um we currently have I would say 90 percent of our funds at Chase, our new bank.

We left a few um we left a little bit of money over in our old account so that any outstanding checks can be um cleared through that that account with our old bank um cadence, Huntington.

And I will need to prepare your report on our entrance that we've currently um received on these new accounts.

Can you give me a dollar um a um back of the envelope dollar amount at Chase?

As far as how much we're holding, right?

Yeah, it's approximately 90 million.

Okay, well thank you.

Um that I would like to make an important um uh issue in this discussion to try to come up with the money is that I would like to see all the contracts that were put in place by the previous administration redone, or some reason why they shouldn't be redone from the beginning because we've got contracts where you don't make the kind of money we're supposed to be making based on what we were told when the council voted on them, and I I think that's a potential source of significant monies for the city.

And the um, you know, it's uh the fact is the previous administration has been prosecuted in court for uh shady dealings.

Thank you for your comments.

What's that?

Thank you for your comments.

We heard you said I'm not through yet.

I'm not through yet.

The the uh so I think it's important that we review all the contracts that have been put in place by the city and making sure that we're actually getting the payments we're supposed to be getting from the contractors in a timely manner, and and let's look review them from the standpoint of possibly redoing the contracts.

But first, I want to make sure they're actually paying us the money.

We I was alarmed when I saw in an earlier meeting a month or two ago where the parking meter contract could have been put in place with great promises of money to the city had that had generated no funds to the city.

That's a lot of money that's at stake there because there were a lot of contracts made over the past eight years, and that's one of the things I uh as a potential source for funding for the city.

The um and the other thing is we need um the current status on where we stand, money spent with now.

We're gonna have at the end of July, we'll have two months left to go where we what we've spent on payroll for the different apartments versus what was budgeted for the different apartments.

So I'm gonna let go ahead and talk, but we're gonna limit our conversation and she's gonna look at all those categories and give you the numbers before the end of the month.

So today we're not gonna talk numbers, and legal is gonna look into the contracts for you, okay.

Okay, please do.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

The meeting is adjourned.

Thank you.