No BOCC Meetings - Mar 8 & 9

For the record there were no briefings on Mar 8 and no public meeting Mar 9.

Having just recently reviewed the county's February month-end reports, I thought now might be a good time to look at how we're doing financially in the county.

o As of February month-end we haven't had to borrow money to keep the General Fund solvent. This is the fund that runs the day to day business in the county and has been critically low on cash to cover monthly bills. So critically low that the BOCC set up a $2M line of credit in case the Treasurer didn't have enough cash on hand to pay bills. This is good news.

o Expenditures at the end of February for the General Fund are nearly 3 per cent below a straight line average. Nearly three quarters of this fund in 2010 is tagged as wages and benefits. One would expect expenditures closer to the straight line average even with just two months lapsed in the year. Could there be some flex in the General Fund budget overall? This would definitely be good news.

o Community Development revenues appear to be realistic thus far in 2010. Tim pushed hard last year to get this department's staff sized appropriately for what they are realizing in revenues. It appears this department now is right sized. Still more good news.

o The Accrued Leave Fund is a concern though. 2006 through 2009 this fund had a balance of $1M to $500K. In 2010 we have $247K. This account may be critically underfunded and just as BOCC took $186K from this account in 2009 to pay the MACECOM shortfall, we could see the reverse happening in 2010. The General Fund may need to be tapped to cover shortfalls in the Accrued Leave Fund. That wouldn't be good news.

o The Unemployment Fund had a balance over $300K in 2006 through 2009. As of February 2010 the balance in this fund is $33K. Hopefully the county won't need to downsize staff further. Perhaps $33K is enough to get through 2010 but history doesn't support this small balance.

o We still have 12 out of 13 bargaining units with no contract. How much will it cost us to settle these contracts? Granted no public official may know for sure what it is but, on the other hand, nothing was set aside in the 2010 budget to cover this unfunded bill which is looming over our heads.

o Another account to watch is the Belfair Waste Water Treatment Facility. This project alone accounts for one third of the county's total 2010 budget. The amount of budget detail provided by the county is scant at best. Having worked in the Pentagon reviewing way too many budgets from real clever program managers I've seen this behavior before and I do believe there's something amiss here. When program managers or officials become defensive when asked questions about their budget, it's often an indicator that there's a problem somewhere. When they refuse to provide details on their budget to a concerned citizen (that would be me), it makes one even more suspicious. What's up with the funding of this project?