Lake City Report -
June 25, 2010
It's budget crunch time in
Lake City
Columbia County, FL (Posted June 27, 2010 10:15 am)
by City Manager Wendell Johnson and
staff
This
week, due to a glitch in Mr. Johnson's
computer, his weekly report went into electron
heaven. The Observer spoke with Mr. Johnson on
Saturday morning for this week's City Manager's
report.
Observer: Good morning Mr. Johnson. Thanks for returning
my call.
Mr. Johnson: No problem.
Observer: Can you give me an idea on what went up into
electron smoke?
Mr. Johnson: The City continues to be
busy with the budget. This week we met to make
sure that we are connecting all the dots and are
moving in the right direction. We also met with
the bond underwriter. We’re on schedule and
things are looking good. I also put out a call
for estimates.
Observer: What's that?
Mr. Johnson: I’ve used
this term my whole career. I send out the draft
department budgets to the department heads and I
call for their estimates of what they’re going
to need for the coming year and their
justification. They provide that to me and we
sit down and reconcile their budget against
ours.
Observer:
How many of the departments in the city do
their own budgets?
Mr. Johnson: All of them. Every
department head prepares their own budget. That
includes operational costs, personnel costs,
capital costs -- everything -- I don’t know what
they need, they have to tell me what they need.
There is no one that knows better than them. If
I was going to do the budget myself, there would
be no need to send it down to them.
Observer: What happens if there is a disagreement between
you and the department head?
Mr. Johnson: We discuss it. We
hash it out. Some things we can put off and some
things we eliminate. Then we come to a
consensus.
Observer: What happens when the budget goes to the Council
workshops?
Mr. Johnson: The same thing
happens. The whole purpose of the budget process
is so that we can have different levels of
review and input.
Observer:
Are the department heads required to be at the
budget workshops?
Mr. Johnson: Why wouldn't they
be?
Observer: It sounds like in the city this budget crunch
time?
Mr. Johnson: It sure is. We are
crunching now. We are working toward the first
draft to distribute to the Council for the
workshops. That draft is a balanced budged based
on the input from the staff and our review. Then
we go to the Council and let them make decisions
on whether or not they want other adjustments or
if they have additional initiatives.
Observer:
This year's budget will have job titles and
salaries?
Mr. Johnson: Absolutely.
Observer: With all that has been going on with the
economy, how do you feel about this year's
budget?
Mr. Johnson: I’m very comfortable
-- at this point.
Observer: Thanks for this week's update.
Mr. Johnson: No problem -- I have
to get back to my yard work.
The City Staff Report is available in pdf format
here.