A “RAINY” DAY ALL YEAR Careful Planning Sustains Public Programs, Services
By now you’ve likely endured a certain amount of stress over work, school and/or other major life adjustments related to the COVID effect. The last thing Westerville City Manager David Collinsworth wants you to worry about is the delivery of public programs and services. Because of careful and conservative financial planning, its one cancellation Westerville residents will not experience.
“Our policy requires we have healthy reserves for most of our operating funds, equating to six month of operating expenses,” said Collinsworth. “Going into 2020, we even exceeded that a bit so we had reserves to draw on when the impact was felt by slow growth in the local economy. Our ability to provide public services relies heavily on income tax revenues, which can fluctuate significantly from year to year based on economic conditions.” In addition, departments made budget adjustments to account for revenue reductions the City absorbed in income tax reductions, program cancellations and facility closures. Also, deferred spending moved programs and services down the line if they weren’t critical to run this year. “Most notably, we’ve made adjustments in our capital improvements plan; those big projects that could be curtailed or postponed conserved about $2 million,” said Collinsworth. “Residents still get streets paved and we maintain our core services without having to draw too heavily on those reserves or ask the voters for more money.” Collinsworth says this mid-year analysis and budget adjustments for parks, streets, utilities and more saved overall about $6.6 million in operating expenses and about $3.8 million in other capital expenses across all funds.
to know that on our rainiest “ Idaywantin thequiteresidents awhile, we had money in the bank to continue to meet their expectations. - DAVID COLLINSWORTH City Manager
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ACTIVATING RESERVES Westerville has a rigorous discipline in exercising fiscal policy, which assures certain operating funds carry sufficient resources. Collinsworth says this fiscal policy functions effectively as “rainy day” reserves, and can be drawn down when needed, like when a public health pandemic results in loss of revenues.
ACTIVATING OTHER DOLLARS Westerville was the recipient of approximately $1.7 million from the federal CARES Act. These dollars flowed through the state of Ohio to communities for services specific for the preparation and protection of equipment and facilities, including personal protective equipment (PPE) for first responders. “CARES funds are very restrictive on how they’re spent,” said Collinsworth. “We’ve worked hard to make sure they are being put to work directly on services that help residents through the pandemic, whether it comes to emergency medical response or safe and sanitized buildings for public operation.” ACTIVATING A NEW YEAR Collinsworth says the five-year operating budget recommendation from staff includes no increase for any utility (water, sewer, electric and refuse) rates for 2021. This too ties back to fiscal planning and reserving policies that will stabilize the cost-of-living rate structure for a year. “Even with the $5.5 million impact of offering the Utility Bill Holiday last March, we have elements in our planning that gives us flexibility to go a year without an increase, really when residents need it most.” No rise in rates is just that, he said. “Rates have not changed from what they were in January, but some residents worried about that when they saw the traditional ‘spikes’ in their bills from summer air conditioning. No rate increase, just a significant usage increase that happens when summer offers several 90-degree days in a row.”
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