City of Irvine Finance Commission – May 21, 2018
The City of Irvine Finance Commission held its regular meeting this week. Four of the five commissioners were in attendance. The two primary agenda items were the final design contract for the Jamboree Pedestrian Bridge and the Fiscal Year 2018-2019 Budget.
The commission voted 4-0 to recommend the City Council approve and authorize a professional services engineering contract with T.Y. Lin International for the Jamboree Pedestrian Bridge.
The approved bid is a $ 1,344,960 not-to exceed contract. The bid was not the lowest, but was highly rated based on a number of criteria by city staff.
The commission had considerable discussion on the Fiscal 2018-2019 budget. The planned budget has a $ 4,700,000 revenue shortfall which will be balanced from Contingency Funds. A few reasons noted for the shortfall are reduced sales tax revenue due to online sales and reduced hotel tax revenues possibly due to alternative rentals, such as Air BnB that are currently not taxed.
Each commissioner presented ideas on finding new revenue opportunities and ways to contain and reduce costs to the city. The commission will prepare a SWOT analysis to include with the budget to the council which will provide a view of risks facing the city along with opportunities to consider. The commission voted 4-0 to recommend the City Council adopt the proposed budget. The budget is scheduled to be deliberated by the City Council at the 6/21 meeting.
The Finance Commission meetings are every 1st and 3rd Monday of the month in City Hall.
Chuck Heath is a 40 year Irvine resident who lives in Northwood Village.
