City finances healthy according to latest audit
Lloyd Shelton wasn’t offended when one of his fellow Mountain Brook City Council members spoke of the audit report that came during the April 25 meeting.
“They like joking with me about that because I'm a CPA by trade,” Shelton said. “They understand the numbers pretty well. I get more in the weeds than they care to get.”
CPAs Jason Harp and Catherine Cannon presented the audit, telling the panel that the city’s finances are healthy. Harp said the general rule of thumb is to have 90 days of reserves in the general fund balance.
“The city's got about six months. That's pretty healthy,” he said. “If my calculations are correct and you shut everything down and just ran everything out of your general fund, it's about $104,000 a day. Doing that without bringing any more funds in, you'd make it about six months before you depleted that general fund, fund balance.”
Shelton said the two things that the finance committee and the council as a whole have focused on are the pension liability and the post-retirement op-in.
“We're doing that and that's favorable,” he said. “Those are the kind of highlights I always like to get their opinion on. Are we doing better than just average?”
During a public hearing, the council received a report from its traffic engineer about the rumble strips on Overton Road near the intersection with North Woodridge. Residents of that area again complained about the noise that comes from the strips, which were installed 17 months ago to warn drivers of a perilous curve.
The council opted to remove three of the five rumble strips and order an electric flashing sign that is activated by oncoming traffic. It will take 30 weeks for that sign to arrive; in the interim, a tailor-made warning sign will be installed.
Leadership Mountain Brook made its reports of student-generated projects for the city. Those projects were:
- Creating a website with volunteer opportunities in the city
- Installing pickleball courts at Overton Park
- Starting a summer movie series
- Establishing a “School’s Out” scavenger hunt for children
The council hired Employee Assistance Services to provide assistance to city employees. The panel delayed responding to a police department request to hire a company to help update the department’s policies to get more information.
The council also approved a change order for the junior high drainage project.
A pair of special council meetings were announced. A public hearing will be at 6 p.m. on Monday, May 1 concerning rezoning the former Shades Valley Presbyterian Church property from Residence B district to a Planned Unit Development (PUD) district.
On Tuesday May 2, there will be a public hearing at 5:30 p.m. to discuss drainage options for Richmar Drive and Mountain Avenue.
The next regular meeting of the Mountain Brook City Council is 7 p.m. on May 8.