Financial Update

At our most recent workshop session on February 3, we received a report from Karen Slaton-Dixon, our interim finance director, about the city’s accounts through the end of the second quarter, December 31, 2024 (we operate on a fiscal year that begins July 1st.).

I had a number of questions about some of the figures. The conversation continued here. One of the major issues I saw with the report was that the expenditures listed for our Electric/Power Fund seemed low, as we have obligations to the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia to purchase power, and those obligations are between $2 million - $3 million each month. We budgeted $36,100,000 for the purchase of power in FY 2025. Ms. Slaton-Dixon shared revised numbers with us during the workshop for this line item, but the number she shared for the expenditures ($9,224,082) still seemed low.

Last night, Ms. Slaton-Dixon sent an updated report. She noted:

“I have included the general ledger detail with the report so all numbers can be verified against what is in the report.  The expenditures relating to the purchase power in the electric fund has been recorded, so that number is now updated.  I’m copying the City Attorney on the email as I wanted to come back and update everyone on the legal fees, so you will see a report on page 7 which outlines the details within the legal line item.   The amount is considerably lower than reported, as I backed all encumbrances since this was giving a false narrative.   There was a question asked about the car rental, and that has been updated as well, and when I looked at when things were booked in 2024, it was in January of 2024, so that number will potentially go up within this quarter.”

This update provides a lot more detail than the initial report included in the workshop. Also, instead of a surplus of funds, it reflects a deficit. As I noted in our workshop session, however, there is a lot of outstanding revenue that we do not receive in a linear fashion throughout the year. For instance, we have not received property tax revenue or business license fees for this fiscal year, so the results through the end of the third quarter will likely be quite different than what is reflected in this report.