On Tuesday, Sal Sbranti of the Sales Tax Citizens Oversight Committee will present its annual report to the city council on Measure C. For the first time since Antioch voters passed the measure, the committee is showing signs of concern of how the City is spending the funds.
The purpose of Measure C was to increase police staffing and reduce 9-1-1 response times while restoring code enforcement.
According to the Staff Report, the total Measure C funds received as of June 30, 2015 was $5,5383,640.63. Disbursements were a total of $2,41,399 out of the sum allocated to Public Safety was spent in fiscal 2015. The balance of $3,928,249 was added to General Fund as money committed to Police Services in fiscal 2016. This amount includes the $898,689 not spent from fiscal 2014 and $3,029,582 not spent in fiscal 2015.
Meanwhile, out of all the funds received up to 06/30/2015, a sum of $5,470,955 was allocated to Public Safety while $112,685 was allocated to Code Enforcement Services.
The staff report also says that the Committee does not express an opinion on whether these results are or are not due to Measure C.
Here is a copy of the Letter addressing the City Council:
To the Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council of the City of Antioch
Antioch, California
The Sales Tax Citizen’s 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 sales tax (transaction and use tax) to add to the general fund was placed on the November 5, 2013 election and approved by the voters. The money received from this tax measure was directed by City Council to fund public safety and code enforcement. 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.
The Committee 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 fiscal year ended June 30, 2015. The Committee believes that the results of our review provide a reasonable basis for our report.
Due to the way the City Budgets the Police Department for Measure “C”, the Committee has some concerns as to whether all Measure C monies are being properly utilized to meet the objectives of this measure.
The “Further Remark” section of this report identifies these findings.
/Members, Sales Tax Citizen’s Oversight Committee/
Antioch, California
March 10, 2016
Here is the section under “Further Remark” in the Staff Report
On November 5, 2013 the citizens of Antioch passed Ordinance #2068-C-S providing for a half cent local transactions and use tax. The formation of a Citizens Oversight Committee was included in the ordinance and in December of 2013 the Antioch City Council directed that such a Committee be formed. That same month the Antioch City Council also revised the FY14 budget for the Antioch Police Department reducing it from approximately $29.5 million to $28.447 million. Then in June of 2014 the City Council decided that the base budget for the fiscal years of 14/15, 15/16 and 16/17 would remain at $28.447 million plus whatever Measure C monies were brought in.
The key objectives of measure C are to increase the police force, to reduce 911 response times, and to restore code enforcement. The initial police force objective was 97 officers which increased to 102 after a federal grant that helped pay for 5 additional officers was obtained. During fiscal year 2014/2015 the Antioch Police Department averaged about 87 officers, an increase of 5 officers from when the vote occurred in 2013. As of February, 2015, 19 police officers had been hired, and 14 had left for one reason or another. Presently, there are 92 police officers in our police force (34 hired and 24 leaving since November 2013).
In 2013/14 our police force had 82 officers and a budget of $28.447 million. In 2014/15 it took $32.13 million to run a police force of 87 officers. The $32.13 million includes $1.2 million for a new radio system that was approved as a separate item by the city council, not to be included in Measure C funds. So, in effect, we have increased our police force by 5 officers for a cost of $2.48 million (not including CSO’s), or about $500,000 per person. Since it is known that police officers do not receive that amount of pay, the committee is not able to determine where the funds are being spent.
Based on the Committee’s review the following are our Findings
1) City Wide Administrative Allocations have increased by almost 30% from 2012/2013 to 2014/2015. During that same period 11Police Personnel” Salary Actuals increased by 16.5% with a 3.6% increase in force.
2) City Wide Administrative is the cost allocation plan that was adopted by the council in 2005 and allocates a portion of the city managers, city clerks, HR, city attorney, facilities maintenance, finance and city councils budget among ALL departments in the city. The amount increases every year to all departments (or could decrease) based on budget changes of the allocated departments each year.
While the Committee cannot say that monies allocated to the “City Wide Admin” account are not proper use of Measure C money, the question begs to be asked as to why this allocation continues to rise at such a rate. Every year the amount going to “City Wide Admin” goes up regardless of whether it meets Measure C guidelines or not.
The Committee noted that it took $2.04 million to do for 87 Police Officers, what the city did for $1.6 million for 84 Officers in 2012/2013. Just because the money is allocated from the Police Department Budget does not mean that it is meeting the intent of Measure C.
Click to enlarge
The formal presentation will occur during the Council meeting
If you go:
Antioch City Council Meeting
Tuesday March 22, 2016
7:00 pm
Council Chambers 200 H Street, Antioch CA
Editor’s Note:
According to City Manager Steve Durans 3/11 City Update, he states Measure C will need to be extended to assist the city’s structural deficit. Per Page 3 under “threats”, it states the following:
Threats (page 3)
- Failures to deal with the projects structural deficit in the short term will make things worse in the long term. Measure C will have to be extended in a few years or levels of service will be cut through layoffs and other measures.
Immediate Challenges (page 4)
- The biggest challenge the City faces is its finances. Even with Measure C and Measure O funding, the General Fund is still projected to run a structural deficit in a few years and Measure C will expire in 2020, reducing projected General Fund revenues by about $7 million. In addition, the City has significant unfunded liabilities and needs to start reducing these liabilities systematically over time. Without adequate funding, the City will struggle to effectively deal with other issues.
5 comments
A couple of quick comments. First, now I think I have the answer to the loss of committee membership and the vacancies. Second, it appears the math does not work even staffing levels until very recently have basically been flat, once again, the numbers need to be scrutinized because according to the City Manager we are going broke and he is all ready talking about extending Measure C? More analysis is needed, even at the expense of an outside audit. Antioch better have a very good explanation in response to this report. Why no line itemizing with regard to the City Admin expenses. Once you lose the publics support it’s very difficult to get it back.
This should be a key issue for the candidates vying for the Antioch council and mayor positions to address with the current administration.
The City was sneaky and placed these funds in the general fund. There is nothing anyone can do. They can spend as they wish regardless of what promises Mayor Harper and councilmembers Ogorchuck, Wilson, Tiscareno and Rocha say. Voters should have said no unless it was in its own fund.
If what the committee is saying is true, now a formal recall can be put in place.
No surprise here folks. When your financial goal is tax, divert the raised funds, and outspend your tax, this is what happens. When you are a public servant with an entitlement attitude, you become Detroit but without the large employers. So plain to see yet voters bury their heads in the sand.
NEVER EVER EXTEND MEASURE C. Antioch has become the new Bell, California.
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