To my friends in Symphony Village,

For those of you that attended our recent Town Council meeting at the Symphony Village Clubhouse – thank you for your participation and for voicing your thoughts surrounding the massive utility project underway.  I’ve been reflecting on your concerns and suggestions and would like to offer these comments.

The consensus seems to be that the Council needs to find a blended source of funds to pay for the project.  I heard you and have been evaluating a range of optional combinations of resources to use.  I take my responsibility for public funds very seriously and do my best to protect what we have and spend it carefully.

At last week’s meeting we discussed using a portion of the unrestricted funds from either the General Fund (basic government operations) or the Enterprise Fund (the water & wastewater utility operations).  The contribution of the unrestricted funds could offset either borrowing or spending all of the Investment Fund.  With this approach, we can leave a portion of the Investment Fund intact.

As of February 1, the General Fund had $4,129,717 of unrestricted cash; this amount varies throughout the year.  Our annual budget for this year is $4,327,883 with a budgeted surplus of $93,324 that will go to the unrestricted fund balance.  After hearing from all of you and evaluating our financials, I feel we can reasonably use $1,000,000 of the General Fund towards the utility project.  The maximum depletion of the General Fund to maintain fiscal responsibility would be $1,500,000. This higher amount leaves about 7 months of cash in the General Fund bank accounts.

The Enterprise Fund is a different story.  The financial planning for this fund must look out several years to consider long-term development patterns and necessary capital expenditures.  The long-term trend shows a projected decline is cash reserves for the next few years before the projected cash balances start to move back up.  Considering this 10-year financial forecast, I think that it would be imprudent to deplete the cash balances from the operating accounts of the Enterprise Fund; we will need that cash cushion in a few years.

I am still in favor of spending a portion of the Investment Funds instead of borrowing it.  Borrowing the necessary funds will add the loan payments to our water bills.  If we use $1.0m to $1.5m of the General Fund, we will not need to deplete all of the Investment Fund – we can leave that $1.0m to $1.5m in the restricted Investment Fund to grow.

Please consider voting “YES” in the Special Election on March 4^th.  We need the option to spend a portion of the Investment Fund to maintain fiscal health for the Town and to keep our water bills as low as possible.

If you feel it appropriate, please forward my message here to your friends & neighbors.

Jim

Jim Beauchamp

Centreville Town Council

JBeauchamp@CentrevilleTownCouncil.org

410.490.8000