435 Hamilton Street

Allentown, Pa. 18101

Allentown

Minutes - Final

Budget and Finance Committee

Wednesday, April 9, 2025

5:30 PM

Council Chambers

Roll Call: Chair Napoli, Santos, Gerlach

15-7609

Bill 36

Amending the 2025 General Fund, the 2025 Trexler Fund, the 2025 Risk

Fund, the 2025 Equipment Replacement Fund, the 2025 Solid Waste

Fund, the 2025 Liquid Fuels Fund, the 2025 Stormwater Fund, and the

2025 Golf Fund by appropriating funds from the un-appropriated balances

for the rollover of encumbrances for the prior year commitments.

Administration

Sponsors:

Attachments: Bill 36 - 2024 to 2025 PO Roll

Ordinance #16127.pdf

Mr. Santo Napoli stated that they will start with Bill 36 and stated Ms. Patel,

thank you.

Ms. Bina Patel stated sure. Thank you Councilperson Napoli. She stated

Bill 36 is a rollover of Purchase Orders. The purchases were committed,

but they could not finalize it at the end of the year so they are rolling the

funds to complete the Procurement of Services and details each fund and

each program and the accounts that they had encumbered the funds for

future purchases.

Mr. Santo Napoli stated ok, thank you. He asked if there were any

questions or comments from committee members. He stated that this is

standard obviously. It rolled over from the previous year. It is rolling over

everything.

Ms. Bina Patel stated after they closed the year, they rolled sometime in

February complete the year is closed and they rolled purchases that were

in process and forwarded that to them for transparency so they know which

accounts and which funds/programs that had services and goods that

commitments were made and they could not complete the process.

Mr. Santo Napoli stated that it is pretty standard. Thank you. He stated

that he needs to know if there are any other questions or comments from

the dais or the public.

A motion was made by Ce-Ce Gerlach, seconded by Natalie Santos, that this Bill

be forwarded to the full Council.

3 - Santo Napoli, Natalie Santos and Ce-Ce Gerlach

Enactment No: 16127

Yes:

15-7596

Director's Report

Finance Reports

December 2024 V4

February 2025

Attachments: 2 - February 2025.pdf

12 - December 2024 V3.pdf

BF Committe Remarks for February 2025 and Final December 2024

Report.docx

2024 Q4 Final Capital Status Report.pdf

Mr. Santo Napoli stated that it looks like they will move to the Monthly

Finance Report. He stated that it looks like they have one from the final

version from December 2024.

Ms. Bina Patel stated yes.

Mr. Santo Napoli stated ok.

Ms. Bina Patel stated thank you again. She stated that on March 17th, they

provided the per the Administrative Code 517 to City Council and the

Controller and the Monthly Report for December 31st. It was the third and

final version for the year and the monthly for February 2025. She stated

that she will provide him data for the closing of the year. They closed the

General Fund revenues with $154 million. She stated that 68 percent of

those revenues came from taxes. The taxes include the city real estate tax,

business privilege tax, deed transfer tax, and earned income tax. She

stated now earned income tax surpassed the city real estate tax in 2024 at

$43.3 million. The other large contributors were a business license fee and

services for charges and investment income came in a $3.1 million which

she has at the next couple of pages. It is a detail by year. She stated that

the earned income from investment. She stated now, she talked about the

68 percent and the other revenue came from intergovernmental sources

like grants, state aid for pension that the state provides to us based on the

full-time account of the employees and some training and casino fees.

General Fund expenditures you can see on Page 3 of her memo where

they closed the year at $145 million budget. The adjusted budget was

$157 million. The savings of seven percent and the majority of our General

Fund expenditure is personnel at 70 percent and that includes the wages,

pension, and healthcare. All combined, it came at $102 million. Some of

the savings and they didn't spend as much as it was budgeted in services

and charges and materials and supplies. In total adjusted expenditures for

the General Fund net of the vacancy factor of 2.7 was $157 million. She

stated that they also had generally provided you with data on public safety

overtime. As you can see that public safety overtime at the end of the year

and the Police, Fire and EMS for emergency medical services data is

provided there for you. She stated that if you have any questions she will

pause for a second.

Mr. Santo Napoli stated quickly on Page 2 and asked did Ms. Patel stated

that EIT surpassed

Mr. Santo Napoli stated quickly on Page 2 and asked did Ms. Patel stated

that EIT surpassed property tax.

Ms. Bina Patel stated yes stating so property tax came in at $39 million

and EIT is at $43.3 million.

Mr. Santo Napoli asked did that happen before.

Ms. Bina Patel stated that the last two years it has been. She stated after

Covid.

Mr. Santo Napoli stated post Covid it is the change.

Ms. Bina Patel stated that is the change.

Mr. Santo Napoli stated that forever it was always property tax.

Ms. Bina Patel stated yes. For a long time it was property tax as the

highest revenue source. She stated that after post Covid, it has been EIT

that's coming in larger.

Mr. Santo Napoli stated ok.

Ms. Bina Patel stated that she will give them data on the investments. She

stated when they close the year with the General Fund and cash positions

through $41 million and majority of that was invested in PLGIT which is

Pennsylvania Local Government Investment Trust. She stated that she has

a breakdown for them on the term investments which was $30 million and

$6.5 million were in PLGIT Prime which is like Money Market Account,

yielding a 4.69 percent EPY. She stated that they also keep liquid assets

in TD Bank to pay current expenditures and that balance at the end of the

year was 4.5 million. She stated that she wants to provide them with in the

next page you will see Page 5, the breakdown of the investment, the return

of investments by month and again, it was 3.1 million that they were able to

earn interest from different investments. She stated that the next thing you

will see on Page 5 is the ARPA Reporting at the end of the year, cash. The

ARPA Accounts stood at $22.4 million. She stated that PLGIT provides

them with their investment return. She stated that you will see that the

majority of the funds with PLGIT and some are in term investments and

others are in Money Market to keep the fluidity or liquidity to make certain

payments as they incur expenditures. She stated that $3.9 million in the

Money Market prime account or 4.69 APY and the remainder funds with

PLGIT are return investments listed there for your reference and earnings

on those are between 4.92 percent and 5.34 percent APY. She stated that

here also the vendor of the funds are TD Bank to pay the current

expenditure. TD Bank return and they are providing and yielding a 3.5

percent APY. She stated that the Solid Waste Fund, the Risk Fund, Rental

Unit Fund, Storm Water Fund, and the Golf Fund. She stated that they

closed the Solid Waste Fund revenues were stronger at $17 million and

expenditures reflected savings of five percent at 17.8. She stated five

percent of the budgeted amount. She stated that the Risk Fund has a little

bit of weakness with revenue at $36 million and expenditures came at 33.6.

She stated that what happened is that they realized that they have certain

medical expenditures that are coming in higher. She stated that they

started curtailing their expenditures where they could and that is where they

are seeing the savings of eight percent in the Risk Fund. The Rental Unit

Fund revenues were stronger and they came in at 3.2 million and the

expenditures reflected savings of three percent. She stated that they are all

monitoring their expenditures and curtailing where they could with the

expenditures they could close the Rental Unit Fund at 2.9 million. The

Storm Water Fund, revenue is stronger by three percent with 6.1 million

and expenditures reflect a savings of eight percent of 6.9 million. She

stated that Golf Fund, revenues are stronger again this year as well as the

previous year. The Golf Fund has continued the strength with revenues at

2.5 million and expenditures at 2 million. She stated that she will pause

again for any questions you have for the 2024 Report before moving on to

the February Monthly Report.

Mr. Santo Napoli asked if there were any questions or comments.

Ms. Bina Patel stated on Page 7, you will see data for the end of the month

February 28, 2025. General Fund Revenue came in at 14 percent at 20

million of the estimated amount of revenue that they have budgeted is 145

and expenditures are at 13 percent or 20.3 million. She stated that they

are in line where they would expect around this time of the year. Any other

fund, again, the Risk Fund, the Solid Waste Fund, the Storm Water Fund,

the Golf Fund, the Rental Unit Fund, and the Building Code Fund which is a

new fund for 2025. Revenues and expenditures are aligned with the

February estimations. Between two percent and 17 percent of the

budgeted amount. She stated that in the chart below and have listed them

for you for easier REIT and you will see what the budgeted amount was and

where they are at at the end of the February with the actual numbers. She

stated that she also provided the percentage for them to see that for the

first two months where do they stand. She stated the next thing she has on

the same page is the Public Safety Premium Pay. She stated that the

Police, Fire and EMS are there between 11 and 12 percent which is in line

with what they would expect those expenditures to be at this time of the

year. She stated that the following page provides you with the investment

in the General Fund. The General Fund Cash and this is at the end of

February so they are a month behind on this cash at the end of February. It

stood at 42 million. She stated that this is when we start receiving

revenues from city real estate and some of the Business Privilege Tax

Revenue starts coming in. She stated that you will see the increase in

revenue in February and March. She stated that you will see the following

bullet points and investments of PLGIT. She stated that they have 28.9

million in investments and 8.9 are in prime, PLGIT Prime which is like

Money Market. yielding 4.1p percent and $20 million are invested in term

and those are listed for your reference. She stated that the bullets

following the 20 million term investments, yielding 4.12 percent and 5.35

percent APY. She stated that they always keep their funds liquid in their TD

Bank account to meet the current expenditures and currently at the end of

February they had $13 million and again TD Bank money there are yielding

3.25 APY. She stated that last she has a Report on ARPA funds. ARPA

cash at the end of the month was $20.6 million. She stated that $19 million

in PLGIT which is again in PLGIT Prime in term $10 million in term and

additional funds of $1.5 million in TD Bank for current expenditures and

yielding 3.25 percent APY. She stated that is here report. The Monthly

Financials for February. She stated that she will take any questions they

may have for her.

Mr. Santo Napoli thanked Ms. Patel. He asked if there were any questions

or comments from the committee members or anyone else from the dais.

He asked if there were any questions or comments from the public. he

thanked Ms. Patel.

Ms. Bina Patel thanked Mr. Napoli.

Mr. Santo Napoli asked if there are any updates that she would like to

share.

Ms. Bina Patel stated a couple of things. She stated so they completed the

Liquid Fuels audit which she provided the information to them a couple of

weeks ago for the years 2021, 2022, and 2023. It was a successful audit.

No findings on that audit. She stated that they also began their financial

audit for 2024. They have gathered data from different departments and

auditors were here for a couple of days to go over the process and answer

any questions they had. She stated that they entertained those and are

working with them now to finalize the audit. She stated that they expect that

audit to be completed sometime during the summertime. They are also

working on the Munis Project ERP System. She stated that they went live

with Munis on some of the financial modules on March 18th. She stated

that all the procurement services contracts and financials that they went live

with on March 18th and the next modules, they are willing to go live with or

start working on their HR and payroll. She stated that they expect to go live

with those by the end of the year.

Mr. Santo Napoli stated ok, great. Thank you.