Item 19 - Early Direction for the Fiscal Year 2024-25 Budget (continued from the meeting on 3-19-2024)

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Early Direction for the Fiscal Year 2024-25 Budget April 2, 2024 Page 6 4 1 5 8 2022. On January 16, 2024, staff proposed and City Council approved an amendment to the contract to provide for increased postage costs and an increased volume of delinquency processing. The amended cost of annual service is approximately $700,000. Shall staff include an allocation of $700,000 in the proposed FY 2024-25 budget (an increase of $331,800 from baseline budget) to maintain service levels and process delinquency payments? Or shall staff seek an option with a lower level of service to fit within the baseline budget of $368,200? The current year budget included an allocation of $826,260 for the LAZ parking enforcement contract. The highest-scoring proposal for services included a cost of $1,153,368. The Police Department reduced the proposed service hours to arrive at a contract cost of $938,444 per year, which was approved by City Council on June 20, 2023. The Police Department has found that the reduced level of service is not sufficient for the City’s needs. Shall staff include an allocation of $1,153,368 in the proposed FY 2024-25 budget (an increase of $327,108 from baseline budget) to return to the previous level of service? Or shall staff maintain the decreased level of service and include an allocation of $938,444 in the proposed FY 2024-25 budget? Downtown Parking Enterprise Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, the Parking Enterprise fund had been spending down the accumulated fund balance for three years to install automated parking garage equipment, new parking meters, and lighting improvements. Due to the decrease in parking rates requested by the downtown business community, the Parking Enterprise has received multiple General Fund subsidies to backfill the cost of operations. The table below illustrates the current deficit with variable parking rates.