Antioch: Sales Tax Committee Says Funds From Measure C Being Used Properly

The Antioch Sales Tax Citizens Oversight Committee made its first public report to the City Council on Tuesday where they highlighted how Measure C funds were being spent.

The 7-member committee was formed in December 2013 after Antioch residents approved a one-half General Fund sales tax on June 25, 2013. The funds were to be used for public safety and code enforcement for a period of 7-years.

Hans Ho, committee chair, reported to the council the committee’s findings.

“We are not aware of any instance, during the period covered by this report, where Measure C funds were used for any purpose other than public safety and code enforcement,” said Ho.

Ho further highlighted that the Police Department budget is $26.4 million for 130 people of which 102 are sworn officers. Currently, the police department is at 87 sworn officers and one per diem Police Captain.

“This is 5 more officers than Antioch had in October of 2013 based on the information given to the committee. We were informed by the Chief of Police that hiring of qualified officers as quickly as needed is constrained by shortage of qualified officers and competitive demand by other cities. Attrition has been happening almost as fast as hiring,” said Ho.

Committee members include: Hans Ho (Chair), Joseph O. Adebayo (Vice Chair), Melvin Chappel, Ralph Garrow, Barbara Herendeen, Salvatore Sbranti, Catherine Walker. 

SALES TAX CITIZENS’ OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE REPORT

To the Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
of the City of Antioch
Antioch, California

 The Sales Tax Citizens’ Oversight Committee (hereinafter, “the Committee) was established with seven (7) members by City Council’s Resolution 2013/73 on December 10, 2013 as provided for in the

City of Antioch’s Ordinance No 2068-C-S which was adopted following the declaration of a fiscal emergency by the Antioch City Council on June 25, 2013. Measure C, a temporary one-half cent General Sales Tax Measure (transaction and use tax) that the City Council directed to be used to fund public safety and code enforcement, was placed on the November 5, 2013 election and approved by the voters. The term of the tax is seven (7) years from April 1, 2014.

As members of the Committee, our duty requires us to request of City management data and other information relating to Measure C that we consider necessary for us to conduct a review of receipts and disbursements of Measure C funds. Our review is to provide a basis for periodic reports to be submitted to the City Council indicating how the funds from Measure C were used during each of the periods covered by our reports to address the matters of public safety and code enforcement.

We requested and obtained from management reports of all receipts and payments relating to Measure C, and, subsequently, reviewed available documents supporting such receipts and payments as required by the City Council’s Resolution No. 2013/73 for the period April 1, 2014 and January 31, 2015. We believe that the results of our review provide a reasonable basis for our report.

Based on our review and representations given to us by the City’s staff, we are not aware of any instance, during the period covered by this report, where Measure C funds were used for any purpose other than public safety and code enforcement.

Further comments and observations on the accompanying pages are an integral part of this report.

RECEIPTS
PERIOD OF 04/01/14 – 06/30/14

Measure C became effective April 1, 2014. Collections for the April through June 2014 period were provided by the State during the 4-month period June through September 2014. A total of $949,591 was received from the State by the City between the beginning of June and end of September 2014.

Out of this sum, $898,589.30 was recorded in the Police Department division within the General Fund while $50,902 was placed in the Vehicle Repair & Replacement Internal Service Fund to purchase two police vehicles.

The budgeted receipt for this same period was $500,000 which means that $398,689 more money was received for this period. All Measure C funds received during this period were recorded in fiscal

PERIOD OF 07/01/14 – 01/31/15

In respect of this period, a total of $1,977,660 has been received by the City from the State. Community policing had $1,936,612 while the balance of $41,048 was allocated to Code Enforcement. The budgeted receipt for fiscal 2015 is $4,300,847 resulting in a balance of $2,364,235 yet to be collected as of January 31, 2015.

Over the course of the above two periods (04/01/14 – 01/31/15), the City received a total of $2,927,251.

DISBURSEMENTS
PUBLIC SAFETY

Out of the Measure C funds received for the period 04/01/14 – 06/30/14, a total of $50,902 was disbursed toward payment for purchase of two police patrol vehicles which was authorized by the City Council at its budget meeting of May 13, 2014. The actual cost of the vehicles was $51,044 with the balance of $142 coming out of General Fund earmarked for public safety.

As of the date of this report, no other disbursements were made out of Measure C funds included in the General Fund meant for public safety other than the one identified in the above paragraph.

CODE ENFORCEMENT

In fiscal 2015 (period beginning 07/01/14 through 01/31/15), a total of $41,047.52 was encumbered by the City for Code Enforcement expenditure. According to copies of vendor invoices and cancelled checks reviewed by us, amount in the sum of $33,320 of Measure C money was disbursed as part of payment of invoices from Interwest Consulting Group, Inc.

FURTHER REMARKS

The Committee would like to remark that this is our first report to the Antioch City Council regarding how Measure C funds are being utilized. The formal period this report covers is the 2013/2014 fiscal year ending, June 30, 2014. The 0.5% sales tax went into effect on April 1, 2014. Measure C receipts for Fiscal Year ending 06/30/14 was added to the budget for the Police Department for Fiscal Year 2014/2015 after paying for the two new patrol vehicles.

The second part of our report is on Fiscal Year to Date 2014/2015, through January 31, 2015. We are doing this in an effort to bring a more timely relevance in our report to the City Council. The 2014/2015 Revised Budget is $32,658,799. Actual outlays through January 2015 are $17,250,576.

The base period budget used for the next three years is $28,447,271 each year. Added to the base budget is the anticipated Measure C tax receipts for each year ($4,300,000 for 2014/2015). Since $17,250,576 is less than the base period budget, no Measure C money has been utilized to date. Receipts of $2,357,360 have been received through January, 2015. At this point, it appears that very little of the 2014/2015 Measure C monies will be used, if any. From July through October the monthly expenditure averaged $2,194,657, and since then we have had one month significantly higher (December) $3,627,477 and two months (November and January) around $2.4 million. The implied 2014/2015 finish calculated by using the average monthly outlay through January and multiplying by 12 is $29,572,416. This would suggest that we will end up with about $3,000,000 carryover into 2015/2016 Fiscal Year. This may then increase the Police Department Budget for 2015/2016 to over $35,000,000.

At present, the personnel portion of the Police Department budget is $26,441,500 for 130.9 people of which 102 are sworn police officers. Recently 8 new police officers were hired with an annual salary and benefits average of $146,165. That would mean that the other 122.9 employees have an average salary and benefits of $203,548. At present Antioch has 87 Sworn Police Officers and one per diem Police Captain. This is 5 more officers than Antioch had in October of 2013 based on the information given to the committee. We were informed by the Chief of Police that hiring of qualified officers as quickly as needed is constrained by shortage of qualified officers and competitive demand by other cities. Attrition has been happening almost as fast as hiring. If fifteen more officers are hired to bring the police Department to its goal of 102 officers, it would add about $2,400,000 more in annual salary or about $1,000,000 for this year’s budget assuming a March 1 hire date. This would still keep us below our initial Measure C Budget of $32,658,799 by about $2,000,000