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of Tukwila <br />Allan Ekberg, Mayor <br />INFORMATIONAL MEMORANDUM <br />TO: Finance and Governance Committee <br />FROM: Vicky Carlsen, Finance Director <br />CC: Mayor Ekberg <br />DATE: March 16, 2021 <br />SUBJECT: Prioritizing service restoration when ongoing revenues exceed <br />adopted budget <br />ISSUE <br />Staff is seeking Committee input into a process for how to prioritize service level <br />restoration if and when ongoing revenues exceed revenues adopted in the 2021-2022 <br />biennial budget. <br />DISCUSSION <br />Recap of Budget and Service Level Reductions <br />The City has been impacted by the global COVID-19 health crisis since February 2020. <br />The pandemic negatively affected revenue streams with reductions in sales and other <br />taxes as well as user fees for recreation programs. Revenues continue to be impacted <br />and it is unknown when, or if, revenue streams will return to pre -pandemic levels. <br />Early on in the crisis, City Council and Administration took action to reduce expenditures <br />in anticipation of the expected decline in revenue. In decreasing expenditures, service <br />levels were necessarily reduced across all departments, but many of the reductions <br />focused on lower priority programs. Reductions included the following: <br />- Reducing labor costs by freezing vacant positions, layoffs, furloughs, and temporary <br />pay reductions <br />- Reducing overtime <br />- Elimination of extra labor <br />- Elimination of travel and non-essential training <br />- Reduced transfers to Fleet <br />- Reduced or eliminated low priority programs <br />- Line -item budget scrub <br />The 2021-2022 budget process began in the early summer of 2020 and continuation of <br />the expected impacts of the pandemic were included throughout the proposed budget. <br />High priority programs, such as human services, public safety, public works, and the court <br />were funded to the extent possible. The proposed budget included support for key <br />initiatives including: <br />- Funding for human services <br />- Continued implementation of the City's Equity Policy <br />- Reimaging police services by starting a Mental Health Professional pilot program <br />5 <br />