General Fund - December 2019

These are preliminary results for the year ended 12/31/2019.  The City will be paying bills, collecting receipts and preparing journal entries related to 2019 over the next few weeks. 

 
Revenue Variances (+/- 10% of 100%) 

• Overall General Fund Revenues are slightly over the revised budget by $65,198.
• Taxes - 2nd half property taxes were receipted in December, the City will receive an additional short settlement in January for property taxes collected from October 15 thru December 31.
• Special Assessment revenues have exceeded the anticipated budget.  Most of these special assessments are for delinquent garbage collections..
• Licenses and Permits - Year-to-date revenues were $4.6 million for 2019.  This is approximately $340,000 more than revised budget.  The 2019 revenue was $2 million greater than the 2018 revenue.
• Miscellaneous continues to track at a higher pace compared to 2018, which is attributed to an increase in investment income.
  
  

Expenditure Variances (+/- 10% of 100%)

• Overall general fund is below total budgeted expenditures by $1.4 million (95%)
• Mayor and Council will exceed the budget as a result of $23k payment for Reverend Pond downtown sculpture.
• Street Maintenance will exceed the budget as a result of the purchase of street materials (sand and salt).
• Inspections was under budget as a result of unpaid invoices at year end  related to the purchase of Tyler software.
• Engineering was under budget as a result of open engineer positions at the end of 2019.
• Unallocated remained under budget as a result of unspent budgeted contingency funds.
• No other major or concerning variances within the general fund.
  
  

Community Center/Ice Arena/SandVenture - December 2019

SandVenture

• SandVenture has net budget (revenues minus expenditures) 5.7% below 2018 and $10,744 (7.8%) below budget for the year.
  
  

Ice Arena

• Ice arena revenues as shown in the report do not include $129,000 in additional revenues that were collected after the year-end report was compiled.  With the additional revenue the ice arena will exceed 2018 actual and 2019 budgeted revenues.

• Ice arena expenditures continue to outpace 2018 - with no single expenditure category as the driving cause. Expenditures are within budgeted amounts for 2019.

Community Center

• Revenues continue tracking ahead of projections by about 10%.
• Expenditures are ahead of projections due to increased demand and increased expenditures related to revenue growth strategies.

Quarterly Investment Portfolio Report - Q4, 2019 (See Attachment)

Attached is the 4th quarter portfolio report including a cover page that provides a comparison of investment results over the past three years. 

Additionally, as required by the investment policy the report provides:

• Total return performance measured against the selected benchmarks for longer-term funds (see page 5).
• Weighted average yield (see page 7).

• A listing of individual securities held at the end of the reporting period listed by maturity date (see pages 34-39, 47).
• The carrying basis, the current calculated accredited basis and the current market value (see the top of pages 25 & 45).

As a reminder, the city's investment policy is guided by the investment acronym SLY, which stands for Safety, Liquidity and Yield, and in that priority order.  Safety of principal is the foremost objective of the investment program.  Second, the investment portfolio needs to remain sufficiently liquid to meet day-to-day operational requirements.  Lastly, attaining a market yield is the third goal of the investment policy.  The first two priorities of safety and liquidity limit the ability of the portfolio to realize comparable private sector earnings in those robust years.  However, the policy also minimizes the chances of experiencing losses in the down years.

The city utilizes Securian Asset Management as its investment manager. They handle a majority of the city's investment portfolio. Part of their services include the preparation of monthly and quarterly investment reports.