06 Addendum with Attachment
PREPARED BY: Stephen Conway
Finance Director
Reviewed by: Town Manager, Assistant Town Manager, Town Attorney, and Finance Director
110 E. Main Street Los Gatos, CA 95030 ● (408) 354-6832
www.losgatosca.gov
TOWN OF LOS GATOS
COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT
MEETING DATE: 05/19/2020
ITEM NO: 6
ADDENDUM
DATE: May 18, 2020
TO: Mayor and Town Council
FROM: Laurel Prevetti, Town Manager
SUBJECT: Operating and Capital Budgets
A. Consider the Town of Los Gatos Proposed Operating and Capital Budget
for Fiscal Year (FY) 2020/21
1. Consider the Town of Los Gatos Donation Opportunities: FY 2020/21
List of Town Needs
B. Consider the Town of Los Gatos Proposed Capital Improvement Program
for FY 2020/21 – FY 2024/25
C. Approve Budget Adjustments for FY 2019/20:
1. Authorize a Total Revenue Decrease Adjustment in the Amount of
$1,699,411 [Decrease Sales Tax by $618,744, Decrease Transient
Occupancy Tax (TOT) by $974678, and Decrease Business License Tax
by $105,989] and
2. Authorize an Expenditure Decrease Adjustment in the Amount of
$4,232,500 to Reflect that the Additional Discretionary Payment
Toward the Unfunded Pension Liability to CalPERS is Scheduled After
July 1, 2020.
REMARKS:
A Council Member had the following inquiry and staff’s response is below.
Please provide the Departments for the vacancies noted on page A-23.
At the point in time that the Budget document was prepared, we had eight vacancies actively in
recruitment (five in the Police Department and one each in the Library, Community
Development, and Parks and Public Works Departments). The additional vacancy that had not
yet started recruitment at that time was in the Police Department.
Attachment 4 contains public comment received before 11:01 a.m. Monday, May 18, 2020.
PAGE 2 OF 2
SUBJECT: Operating and Capital Budgets
DATE: May 18, 2020
Attachments previously distributed with the Staff Report:
1. FY 2020/21 Proposed Operating and Capital Budget
2. FY 2020/21 – FY 2024/25 Proposed Capital Improvement Program Budget
3. Town of Los Gatos Donation Opportunities: FY 2020/21
Attachment distributed with this Addendum:
4. Public Comments received before 11:01 a.m. Monday, May 18, 2020.
Subject: Building an Honest Budget
From: Rick Tinsley <rnt97@yahoo.com>
Sent: Monday, May 11, 2020 2:13 PM
To: Marcia Jensen <MJensen@losgatosca.gov>; BSpector <BSpector@losgatosca.gov>; Rob Rennie
<RRennie@losgatosca.gov>; Marica Sayoc <MSayoc@losgatosca.gov>
Cc: Richard Tinsley <ricktinsley1@gmail.com>
Subject: Building an Honest Budget
Los Gatos Town Council Members,
In preparation for the annual budget process please remember the following GFOA best practices as
pointed out in prior Finance Committee and Town Council meetings:
1 . Compare proposed budgets to previous ACTUAL results to clearly understand proposed increases or decreases in spending. Future budgets are necessarily estimates since none of us possess a crystal ball. On the other hand as time passes, prior period budgets (fiction) are replaced with actual results (facts). Comparing a proposed budget to a known fictional prior budget is obfuscation at its worst and violates all measures of common sense and transparency. It is intentionally misleading as it compares a proposed budget to historical numbers that are already known to be false.
2.Budgets should use ACTUAL salaries for all active employees, not falsely inflated top step pay
levels for all employees.
3.Budgets should list ACTUAL headcounts by department clearly delineating both active and vacantpositions projected by month. Budgets should be based on honest estimates of active employeesactually drawing a paycheck, not falsely inflated headcounts assuming every possible job is filled 365days per year with top step pay which is knowingly inaccurate. Currently the Town web site shows at
least nine paid job openings and there may be more. In three recent fiscal years this intentionallyinflated headcount added $1.7M -$1.9M per year to the budget which in turn removed these sameamounts from the Town Council's authority to allocate resources(as detailed in my Jan 22, 2020 emailto the Town Council).
As fiduciaries of the Town's finances, the Town Council must require the Staff to follow these widely recognized best practices for honest and transparent budgeting.
As always, let me know if you have any questions.
Thank you,
Rick Tinsley
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ATTACHMENT 4
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