All right.

Well, good morning, everybody.

This is a revenue estimating conference.

It's Tuesday, January 27th at 8 30.

I'll start with roll call.

I am present as mayor of New Orleans.

Councilmember Leslie Harris.

Councilmember JP Morrell.

CAO Joe Jeruso.

Here.

Alyssa Rambo, the Director of Finance.

And Mara Baumgarten uh also here for Tulane University.

Here.

Did I call everybody?

All right.

Well, we definitely have a quorum.

Um councilmember and also members of the REC.

I'm actually going to turn this over to CAO Jeruso.

He has a presentation for us.

Um, but first, let me do the adoption of the minutes for the December 1st, 2025 REC.

I'll make a motion to adopt.

Seconded by C I don't want to call you council member.

AO Jerusalem.

All right.

All in favor.

You could vote your machines.

I need two more votes if you could vote your machines.

Alyssa, you got to first we gotta.

There you go.

Wait, sign in.

And now press Yay.

Alyssa's a yay.

Five yes, no nays, and the minutes are approved.

All right, uh CAO Jeruso.

All right, good morning, everybody.

Uh for everybody on the dais except for Alyssa.

This is a little bit of a retread.

Um I'm gonna I'm gonna be brief and and go through the notes that we had from the last REC, but make a couple of comments along the way.

The first is members, I put to the right of you the uh budget book, and you will note that I highlighted two numbers for you.

The first is the number of 725 million five hundred and sixty-six thousand five hundred and sixty-four dollars.

That is what the revenue estimating committee adopted as of September for the budget.

And then I will go through the the slides with Abby, and then you'll see to the right of that in the adopted budget book, which means the number that was adopted ultimately by the council is 799,750,000.

So what we will discuss today is that increase from the number in September, and then what the council ultimately adopted in and December 1 and its meeting.

So with that, we'll go to the slides.

These are members uh primarily the slides that were used at December 1, but uh there is one item that I'm gonna spend a little more time on because uh both it was important to accountants and the legislative auditor, and I just want to make sure it's clear for everybody.

Um the the items in here include Sujan Water Board Collections, the Wisner funds, ARPA and parking enforcement.

So with that, let's start with the sewage and waterboard collections.

Members remember the City of New Orleans claims that is owed roughly 80 million dollars in a receivable by the sewage and water board.

And also remember from our meeting on December 1 that Sujin Water Board through its executive director, Randy Heyman, agree that for 2026 that there would be certain funds that Sujin Water Board would tender to the City of New Orleans.

Those are two 24.3 million in FEMA reimbursements, and then five point two million in max pay bond projects.

Now, two things here.

Um the 24.3 million in FEMA reimbursements for our accounting friends is actually operating cash and not precisely revenue.

However, I have checked with the legislative auditor who says it is fine to recognize it for these purposes because it's money that we did not have before and that we are now getting.

Also, um as bullet point three says, and as we did point out in December 1, we have to recognize this as receivable and paid with bond money, and therefore we'll have to subtract bond money in order to make sure that we're even on our accounting books.

Um yes, so uh you anticipated my question well.

Um so our our auditors and accountants have signed off on this as the appropriate treatment for it to be able to go into our revenue.

So um I get two things.

One is in advance of the presentation on December one, the legislative auditor saw and approved the presentation, and then after this issue was raised to me by I think by you and Alyssa and others, I went back and called them about the 24.3, and and actually it was Judy who explained to me that it is actually operating cash and not revenue.

So and they were fine recognizing it this way.

Councilmember Harris.

What I'm gonna ask this about uh this and Wisner, what is the timeline?

So on um on the 24.3, I think we've received somewhere between 16.9 to 18 million, which is what we reported at the last meeting.

Um the 5.2, I think what we're gonna be able to do is offset that money against other funds that are owed.

So that should really be hopefully at worst case scenario, council member, either this quarter or next.

And then number three is Steve Nelson and I are gonna meet with the executive director to talk about not only the remaining seven or eight million dollars, but also the outstanding receivable and some other issues with them.

On uh do you want me to take up Wisner after I do the slide?

Yeah.

Does that work?

Okay, thank you.

All right, no more questions on Sue June Waterboard.

So that number is is roughly 29 and a half million dollars.

On Wisner, um, as of December 1, there were 7.6 million dollars funds in hand.

Council member, I'm gonna stop right here because the mayor actually made this point to me this morning.

Remember, this is about what we're recognizing for the beginning of the year and not money that is gonna continue to come to the city of New Orleans.

So actually, that $7.6 million dollar number is a little higher, it's it's closer to 10.3, but that's because when we adopted this, that's what we had in hand and what we thought we were gonna have.

And so this is this is for this limited time period, and then we will come back at the end of the first quarter and update certain things to make sure REC and the council knows where we are.

Um, during the presentation, uh this was made by Judy Barrasso of Barrasso Usden.

Again, the 7.6 million dollars was confirmed by our finance department at the time.

Uh the 4.8 million dollar number was was used as roughly our percentage of what we would get from Wisner this year.

Of course, that's always subject to change based on what happens with oil and gas, but that was the the conservative number.

And then the last piece is this four million dollars in a federal tax return.

Councilmember Harris, apparently, there is a meeting today of the Wisner group to discuss these things, and I know this issue about the federal tax return is going to be raised.

Um and so the the goal is to get this back and all this money as quickly as we possibly can.

All right, all right.

For the next one for the American Rescue Plan dollars, this is already cash that is in hand, it's about redistributing it.

Um, and again, it's 14.75 million dollars.

Members, please remember that Chris Johnson of Jones Walker was here who said that as long as we were in compliance with these points A through E, which I won't go through, but are on your slide that you've seen before that that is how the money um should and needs to be used.

Of course, finance and CAO will work together to make sure that is happening.

Um, also, just so the committee knows um in the future.

Uh my office is recommended some tweaks to programs, so the number will be the same, but it it's slightly different.

But we have to we haven't settled on that, and obviously we want everybody to know what that will be, but the 14.75 million dollar number will remain unchanged, and that is the number that is cash on hand.

And then the last one is parking enforcement and collections.

Again, this was raised on December one in the council meeting, and then part of the adoption of the overall budget, and there's two different pieces to this: the six and a half million dollars, which is part of the hundred million and outstanding tickets.

Note that 11.75 has been collected over the last three years.

Very conservative thought that we're covering about six point five million of that, which is less than 10 percent of the overall hundred million dollar number, and then um for the seven million and additional um parking enforcement increases, that's a result of hiring 50 new parking enforcement officers, and as I explained at budget committee last week, um that is phasing in that hiring council member because we're not gonna hire them all in January, so it's gonna take time to get to that, and as you see, the last sentence says the estimate accounts for our six month hiring and training period.

So again, I'll refer you to your right where I have the adopted budget.

This recognizes the number that the council adopted as part of these projections and is using in its budget book right now, and so it takes the general fund again of roughly 725 million dollars and takes it close to a shade under 800 million dollars.

So the unless the committee or the public have any comments or questions, I would just also note for the record um that um uh Frieda Richardson is here, Sarah Sherm is here for PFM, Brandy DeLarge is here.

Councilmember, do you still have a question?

I do on part arm parking collections.

Um it says increased effort to collect outstanding debt.

Are we engaging a new agency, a new outside company to do the collections?

No, we're doing that internally, and and and again, um, I think both as I said in budget and has been reported that is starting to happen more, and then I think is also as part of that to have broader conversations, um, particularly with with companies that park on the street, and then also I think you saw the email that I sent to you listening to our council members about both balancing not overcommitting to this for people who are parking in their residential neighborhood, no problem, but also for the coroner at Loyola Employers that you discussed as council member King discussed with uh St.

Bernard and uh St.

Claude that we also target the areas that as our council members are providing to the city.

I am happy to hear that parking enforcement is going under NOPD.

That's a big win.

All right.

So I don't see any other the board is not lit for anybody else.

I I don't have any comment cards from the audience.

Again, all of this with the exception of clarifying the operating cash was presented to the presented to the council in great detail at the December 1 meeting.

The council's already adopted the $799 million dollar number, and uh the thing the mayor wanted to call this solely for the purpose, the limited purpose of the aligned REC with what was adopted in the budget.

All right, that brings us to item four.

Uh Mr.

CAO, do you want to uh move for the adoption of the amended uh revenue forecast?

You want to read out the number?

Yes, madam mayor.

I will move to adopt the number of 799 million seven hundred fifty thousand as set forth in the council ordinances and the budget book as the general fund revenue for 2026.

I will move seconded by Mayor Moreno.

Five years, no nays.

All right.

We have no other matters, so if I can get a motion to adjourn, please been moved by council member Harrison by Ms.

Baumgarten.

All in favor.

Five years, no nays.

Thank you.