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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFY 2021 Budget Presentation (Department of Finance)DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE THE COUNTY OF KAUA'I DEREK 5. K. KAWAKAMI, MAY OR MICHAEL A. D AHILIG, MANAGING DIR ECTOR DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE FY 2021 BUDGET AND OPERATIONS SYNOPSIS FY 2020 to FY 2021 BUDGET COMPARISON FY 2020 FY 2021 ~+I - Salary and Wages 4,976,365 5,325,108 348,743 Benefits 3,066,786 3,250,987 184,201 Insurance 1,560,999 1,978,740 417,741 Auto/General Liabi lity 765,001 983,454 218,453 Animal Control 1,063,000 1,304,000 241,000 Utilities 196,801 196,801 0 Vehicle/Equip, Lease 21,147 15,980 -5,167 Operatbns 482.967 596,876 113,909 12,133,066 13,651,946 1,518,880 REIKO MATSUYAMA DIRECTOR MICHELLE L. LIZAMA DEPUTY DIRECTOR 0/o +I - 7.0% 6.0% 26.8% 28.6% 22.7% 0.0% -24.4% 23.6% 12.5% FY 2020 Operating Budget •Sa lary and Wages FY 2021 Operating Budget •Salary and Wages 0 I> ... ,.<:< ~~"" '"''" •Benefits •Insurance •Auto/General Liabi li ty •Animal Control •Uti lities •Vehicle/Equip, Lease Operations FY 2020 and FY 2021 Comparison ~~c., ""' v ~-·· .'fs.~~" ,:.'" "'"' (:.,<1''" ~<:>: "'"' '""' 0"' """' ~ ,._o\ '?' °'>""' .().e ,,.,." ~ '1-" .:."' www.ka u ai.gov "'" ~o ,,. o~"' •Benefits •Insurance •Auto/General Liability •Animal Control •Uti lities •Vehicle/Equip, Lease • Operations lilFY 2020 IOllFY 2021 4444 Ric e Street Su ite 280 • Lihu'e, Hawa i'i 96766 • (8 08) 241 -4200 (b) • (808) 24 1-6529 (f) An Equal Opportunity Employer MAJOR CHANGES AND/OR VARIANCES IN OPERATIONS BUDGET The Department of Finance is requesting a FY '21 operating budget of $13.65 million , which is an increase of nearly $1.5 million or 12 .5%. Salaries & Wages/Benefits -Requested overall increase of $533K or 6.6% Salaries and related fringe benefits make up 63% of our overall budget. While most of the increases are due to collective bargaining agreements, we have done some reallocations to assist with operations and to facilitate retention . We are requesting a new position number to be $1 funded within Real Property Assessments with a title of Compliance Officer. Due to the tax-on -use structure, we encounter an unprecedented amount of fraud. In addition, people inadvertently forget to tell us about their change of use. No question, this position will pay for itself -probably three times over. There is tremendous risk in our valuations when our appraisers have to double as fraud examiners . While they regularly identify revenue increases due to use changes, they need to be keeping up with assessed values in order to prevent the County from significant losses in the event of an economic downturn . Due to the reality of the employment market, we are willing to $1 fund this position knowing that it will be unlikely that we will hire on July 151 • We have successfully separated the Motor Vehicle and Driver's Licensing duties from the Treasurer. Our Treasurer officially started permanent employment with the County on March 1 and our new Vehicle Registration and Licensing Manager will start on April 1. The duties are distinctly separate, and we anticipate that both will find efficiencies and improve the current processes immediately upon their hire . Insurance -Requested increase of $418K or 26 .8% During our November 1, 2019 renewal , it became evident that we were significantly underfunded in our FY20 insurance budget. While it may be bad policy, we contemplated reducing our coverage amounts in order to ensure that our premiums were more in line with our budget. Thankfully, we were able to fund the increases . Our property insurance increased by 29% to $390K and our excess property coverage increased 100% to $251 K. The rest of the coverages remained fairly flat. In anticipation of even further market adjustments during our upcoming November 1, 2020 renewal , our insurance broker recommended budgeting an additional increase. His reasoning for the increases has been consistent -worldwide losses over the last decade have gone without rebalancing the premiums . The market is now correcting for those losses. During the 2019 renewals , our increases were considered small as compared to both Maui and Hawaii County. Auto/General Liability -Requested increase of $218K or 28.6% Soil testing for the Puhi Metals recycling center ($360K) was moved from Public Works to Finance Admin . There is a corresponding decrease in Public Works ' budget. Offsetting this increase is a reduction to our General Liability line item from $735K to $600K . Animal Control -Requested increase of $241 Kor 22. 7% Animal control represents 10% of our entire Department of Finance budget -or $1 .3 million . While the Kauai Humane Society (KHS) received more money last fiscal year, they continued to cut services. Reducing their scope of service is not an option. While some of it is mandated by HRS and by County Charter, there are additional services that we need to include so that it doesn 't become KPD 's responsibility . And since scope is not negotiable , we have to succumb to their monetary demands. Feral cats is a controversial issue that KHS wants no part of. The County is required to deal with the feral cat issue in order to satisfy our requirements as mandated by the US Fish and Wildlife Service as it pertains to endangered birds . There is $50K allocated in this budget to hire a third-party vendor to help the County with our feral cat needs . Utilities -flat Budgeting for no increase in this account which represents County-wide telephone and internet service . Vehicle/Equip Lease -Projected decrease of $5K or 24.4% Prior year budget included the purchase of two computers . These one-time costs are not expected to reoccur in FY21. Operations -Requested increase of $114K or 23 .6% IT represents over 55% of the operations budget, much of that amount is not specifically for IT or the Department of Finance alone . The IT budget carries many of the annual license renewals and software upgrades that are required by other departments throughout the County and includes individual security and software ,on each individual computer. Many of those software subscription costs are increasing. These include Granicus streaming , cashiering software, backups and storage utilities , and filtering, phishing and antivirus protection. In addition , the County has been under-licensed for software utilization and needs to come into compliance with vendors. These costs represent the entire increase in operations for the Department of Finance . OPERATIONAL CHALLENGES Archaic Processes With a full year under our belt, we have really been able to get into the trenches with some (not all) of our divisions. It is evident that while the easiest cry for help is to add positions, that is a useless endeavor if we can 't clean up our processes. Our Treasury and our Motor Vehicle divisions are two prime examples of this. Even with full staffing , we can 't keep up with the daily workload. It is the processes, not the people. We need to question the status quo and change the mentality of 'that's how it always was '. We are confident that the two new additions (Treasurer and Vehicle Registration & Licensing Manager) will help us to do just that. We are already making significant strides. We will soon be implementing a sewer lockbox payment system such that the thousands of sewer payments that come through the mail will no longer be individually processed at motor vehicle but will be done by the bank and automatically deposited . We are creating reports through the iNovah cashiering system that is saving time at every stage of the cash life cycle . We now have scanners at every motor vehicle window to allow immediate scanning into LaserFiche in order to move away from manual filing. These are coordinated efforts between all the finance divisions. Staffing Challenges The Finance Department has been frustrated with the restrictions that are imposed by the State regarding job descriptions and salary ratings. There needs to be a mechanism for a career path for our young clerks . For example , even if we cross-train our motor · vehicle and driver's licensing clerks , they max out at a SR-13 level (where some of them are currently). It provides little motivation for them to learn a completely different task. The State rating system hasn 't changed for decades while the employment market has evolved . When we don 't change to accommodate the market, that's where we lose any competitive advantage with the private sector . It facilitates an environment where we are just competing with our own internal resources and have extreme difficulty recruiting from the outside . OPERATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS FROM FY 2020 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) The CAFR and Single Audit for FY19 was completed timely and with far fewer findings than prior year . We went from a total of 9 findings down to 3. The CAFR has been submitted to the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) for the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting. The Accounting division is also making tremendous strides in reducing paperwork beginning this calendar year through LaserFiche for travel approvals and Naviline uploads for pCard purchases. These two initiatives will reduce the amount of paperwork required by Accounting by approximately 50%. Kukuiula Community Facilities District (CFO) Working with our financial advisors , bond counsel , County attorney 's office , and the Council , we successfully issued $20 million worth of bonds through the Kukuiula CFO . This earned the County nearly $3 million ( 15% of net proceeds) to spend on projects in the Koloa/Poipu area . This was a coordinated effort that took months of diligent work that resulted in a very positive outcome for the south side . Our Treasury division , regardless of vacant positions , was also able to work through many issues and dig themselves out of a very large hole . We are now timely with bank reconciliations, have all non-sufficient checks accounted for, are caught up with trust fund distributions , have improved nearly every single process that touches treasury , and have been able to leverage some of our banking relationships resulting in significantly higher interest returns on our holdings .