Agenda Index City of Vancouver

ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

TO: Vancouver City Council
FROM: City Manager
SUBJECT: Requests for Contingency Reserve Funding
 

INFORMATION

CITY MANAGER'S COMMENTS

COUNCIL POLICY

Council must approve all new or expanded program expenditures, including the addition of new associated term or ongoing positions.

Council must approve expenditures involving draws from Contingency Reserve.

Council has instructed that departments should include offsetting expenditure reductionsor revenue increases for Council consideration when submitting requests for new or expanded programs or staffing.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this report is to provide a summary of departmental requests for new or expanded programs/staffing that require funding from Contingency Reserve in 1999.

DISCUSSION

During development of the 1999 Operating Budget, several requests for new or expanded programs and services were brought forward by departments. In considering how to deal with these requests, the Corporate Management Team (CMT) agreed that they would be identified for Council and brought forward for consideration once the budget was completed and the availability of funding to support these requests was finalized. Both the Preliminary and Interim Operating Budget reports documented these requests.

Several of the requests have been dealt with by Council, including funding for the City’s Millennium Project. Recently, the CMT met to consider the priorities associated with the remaining requests and to establish funding priorities that could be recommended to Council. The following reports are appended to this cover report:

With the exception of the RS Rethink Program Proposal, each of the requests involve new or increased expenditures that must be funded in the 1999 Operating Budget if they are to proceed this year, as well as additional costs in 2000 and subsequent years. The RS Rethink Program Proposal recommends a deferral of this work until next year. The impact of these proposals total up to $822,700 in 1999 and will require additional funding over the next several years totalling $3.85 million (including $1.9 million in 2000) and will therefore impact on the preparation of future operating budgets. These requests and their financial impact are summarized in Appendix 1.

The recommendations in the reports are supported by the CMT and are recommended to Council.

Staff anticipate that several of these requests will attract public input and are recommending that Council refer these to the appropriate Standing Committee for consideration. It isrecommended that the Downtown Transportation Plan report be referred to Transportation and Traffic Committee on July 6 and that the two reports dealing with City Plan be referred to Planning and Environment Committee on July 8. Other referral are appropriate should delegation requests be received, however, it is expected that Council can deal immediately with the recommendations in the reports dealing with the RS Rethink Program, the Transportation Plan Monitoring and the Information Technology and Human Resources staffing.

1999 CONTINGENCY RESERVE

The main purpose of the Operating Budget Contingency Reserve is to provide unallocated funding for issues that emerge after the Operating Budget has been balanced. For example, the current year costs associated with new or expanded programs that arise during the year, either at departmental or Council initiative, are generally funded from Contingency Reserve with ongoing funding added to subsequent year operating budgets. In addition, the City Manager has the authority to utilize Contingency Reserve as a source of funding for a variety of administrative issues, including the cost associated with reclassification of positions under the collective agreement. Finally, Contingency Reserve provides a modest cushion in the budget to deal with shortfalls in the operating budget at year end.

The 1999 Operating Budget included a provision for Contingency Reserve of $2.08 million after final budget adjustments. This represents a contingency amount equal to less than 1% of the operating budget, which should be considered a minimal amount. To date, Council has allocated $324,000 to a variety of uses and there is one pending item valued at $24,000 that will come before Council in the near future. The current balance available is $1,735,100. Appendix 2 summarizes the funding from Contingency Reserve this year.

Allocation of funding to the purposes recommended in this report will leave Contingency Reserve with a balance of approximately $1.0 million. Barring unexpected expenditures, this provision should be sufficient to deal with emergent issues until year-end.

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Appendix 1 Summary of Requests from Contingency Reserve

Request Request from 1999 Contingency Subsequent Year Costs Comments
       
City Plan Community Visions Program: Continuation $285,500

$63,200

 $2,182,300 … To complete visioning in 7 areas of the City over the period 1999 to 2005.
… (optional) to provide site offices in each neighbourhood.
City Plan - Implementation of Dunbar and KCC Visions $59,700 $317,600 … balance of funding over 2000-2001 to complete implementation of vision work.
RS Rethink Program Proposal $0 $298,700 … recommend deferral of 18 month work program until 2000.
Downtown Transportation Plan $135,000 $579,000 … balance to be allocated in 2000 ($463,000) and 2001 ($116,000).
… alternative offered to defer work until 2001.
Transportation Plan Monitoring $114,500 $148,000 … 1.0fte Civil Engineer plus support costs.
Human Resources Staffing $63,000 $137,000 … 2.0fte professional positions converted from temporary positions
Information Technology Staffing $100,000 $200,000 … 3.0fte systems support staff.
       
Total $822,900 $3,862,600

Note: Incremental impact on the 2000 Operating Budget will be $1.9 million if all requests are approved.

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ag990622.htm

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