Community Facilities District Since a new City Council and new staff discovered just how poorly Beaumont had been run under previous management, a number of steps were taken to change how the city operates and to find ways out of a budget hole that reached $10 million.
After City Hall was raided one year ago — leading to this week’s indictment of seven former city officials on corruption charges – Beaumont was lambasted by the state Controller over its record-keeping and a look at the books found mountains of debt in a city that looked prosperous and was one of the fastest growing in the state.
Here are some of the measures that the city has taken:
Completing a complete budget
City Council members said they hadn’t seen a complete itemized spending plan in a number of years. That is close to becoming so. The city also is creating a fiscal plan for recovery, looking seven to 10 years into the future.
Developing a road map to sustainability
City leaders have been given a road map to achieve solvency and fiscal sustainability. Ideas for the plan can be read at http://bit.ly/1TOc7c8
Developing a Capital Improvement Plan
The city is working on a plan that will identify its capital needs for the next five years, looking at major projects and how they will be paid for.
Creating a panel to watch over city’s finances
In an effort to enhance transparency and accountability regarding the city’s financial affairs, the council established a Standing Financial Committee to act in an advisory capacity and promote enhanced fiscal responsibility, accountability, integrity, transparency and recommend fiscal and investment polices.
The committee consists of five residents and one business owner.
Enacting more checks and balances
City Treasurer Nancy Carroll, who was elected in 2014, said there didn’t seem to be a lot of rules surrounding the city finances. Money would be taken out of petty cash without being reported and budgets were incomplete.
That’s not the case any more. Among the new rules is that anyone involved with bonds has to sign a disclosure that they understand debt issuance and what it means. Also, two people must sign off before money can be transferred between accounts.
Hiring new consultants
For two decades, many city services were handled by Urban Logic Consultants, which employed many of the men indicted this week.
Beaumont has brought some services back in house, including hiring the first in-house city engineer in quite some time, and bringing in new consultants to help complete the budget and audit the books. A new city attorney was hired, as well, and he’s written policies that have changed the way the city does business and runs its public meetings.
Creating a system to track Community Facilities Districts
There are a lot of questions about where bond money has gone, and a proposal by Councilwoman Della Condon will help avoid that issue in the future, Carroll said.
If approved, quarterly reports will be released showing the status of every Community Facilities District in the city.
Beaumont’s population has almost quadrupled since 2000 to more than 40,000 residents, with most of the newcomers moving into newly built homes. Most of those neighborhoods are part of a Community Facilities District, and pay money on top of regular property taxes for roads and other infrastructure. The city sold bonds and the Community Facilities District proceeds are supposed to pay those back.
But there are questions to where some of that bond money has gone and the city had to subpoena bond issuer Union Bank for records.
“It’s a really good step,” Carroll said of the proposal, which is expected to come before the council soon. “It will raise a level of transparency.”
Contact the writer: 951-368-9086 or cs*****@pe.com