Budget amendment would alter funds exhibit in FY23-24 budget

Post-audit funds balance report reveals net increase in total funds

MANDEVILLE — The City Council will consider amending the fiscal year 2023-2024 budget ordinance — unanimously adopted in July — to update fund balance figures.

Ordinance 24-07 — up for a vote at tonight’s regular City Council meeting — would add post-audit, updated fund balance figures, referred to as “Exhibit H,” to the previously adopted budget.

The proposed ordinance, authored by Councilman at Large Rick Danielson, a recent budget critic of Mayor Clay Madden, reads as though the pre-audit version of Exhibit H that was included as part of the 2023-2024 operating budget in Ordinance 23-27 will be replaced with an updated version.

The pre-audit version of Exhibit H relied on trends and best-data available at the time the budget was introduced and adopted, offering insight to the basis for the administration’s financial planning in 2023. The post-audit version contains the corrected balances based on the results of the annual February 2024 audit.

The main takeaways from the pre-audit versus post-audit versions of Exhibit H are:

• the overall total funds balance for all funds — both dedicated and non-dedicated — increased from $67.4 million to $68.2 million,
• the dedicated funds balances collectively increased by approximately $6.7 million, and
• the general fund — non-dedicated money — decreased by $5.9 million.

The city is still owed as much as $6.5 million in FEMA reimbursements, according to the latest figures.

Danielson’s proposed Ordinance 24-07 refers to Exhibit H in its third “Whereas” clause and in its first “Be it ordained” clause, but it is unclear from the wording whether the proposed ordinance aims to replace the original Exhibit H or add the new post-audit version for historical comparison, like a before and after snapshot.

“Whereas” clauses are used to explain why the council is doing something or what authorizes them to do it. “Be it ordained” clauses, however, are what actually direct or create the intended changes of the proposed law or ordinance.

Exhibit H was a frequent topic of discussion at City Council meetings in the months leading up to the March primary election.

Danielson and then-candidate for mayor Jeff Lyons peppered Madden and Finance Director Kathleen Sides with questions about Exhibit H at several council meetings, asking for updated funds figures prior to the audit being delivered the first week of March.

Lyons and social media ally and frequent critic of the administration Andrew Ellender filed for a writ of mandamus in 22nd Judicial District Court in February in an attempt to force the City of Mandeville to provide certain end-of-year financial data.

But Division I Judge Reginald T. Badeaux III dismissed the case “with prejudice,” telling the two men that the City of Mandeville was under no obligation to release unaudited fund balance figures in its monthly or year-end finance reports.

Madden went on to trounce Lyons on election night, 73-22 percent.

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