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Home My WebLink About030226 City Council Business Meeting Packet- Added After Meeting11" cz m "A'Wif 7Q-) Es� -ai C11 u w 4-- on 'Djo r4 04 az of w Al te o to 0 cc o C, Cl cq Cl 9 ,A) �•� aEl o a C� a tA .V 0 w o w� n i � 0 3 0 0 3 0 a lu 4Z NO cj 0 > C4 ov t; 7w j �.. '+ �' O y .CS v c d ' .c u " s. me `� � 'Sy � ,N � > +� A Q �" o b az 3 ° o � � � � � N '� � o � � � vwj „�a� i �"� � �'� � w?�. � .� � � � � � 01 , a cd cG 7, p M'n, ' '.. o o o rn t dq W00 IIIe wu> 0 N 3 45 o raax°rr� 1p' � 0we � LIBRARY Helping our library do more FRIENDS OF THE PORT TOWNSEND LIBRARY 1220 LAWRENCE STREET PORT TOWNSEND, WA 98368 friendsofptlibt ,eirYy@gtrarail.com January 8, 2026 Dear City Council Members and City Manager John Mauro, We hope you all enjoyed the holiday season and are looking forward to the year ahead. We write to update you on the role of Port Townsend Library Friends and Foundation (Friends) in our community. Our mission, to advocate for and raise funds to support the Port Townsend Public Library, is no small undertaking for an all -volunteer organization, Friends has steadily increased financial support for the library, providing funds for the Community Read, summer reading, activities and story times for children and babies, and a wide range of speaker and author events. Following our merger with the Port Townsend Public Library Foundation on 1/1/2024, we now also provide money for library collections, and major purchases such as the privacy booth (Zenbooth) in 2024 and Pink House meeting room furniture in 2025. Friends board and volunteers are proud and gratified to know we make a difference in our community. Our efforts are made possible by a dedicated board, numerous volunteers, and strong community support. In 2025, our used book sales generated over $26,000, and donations and memberships contributed $38,000, reflecting the community's commitment to the library. For 2026, Friends has budgeted more than $40,000 for programs and events, $65,000 as part of a required match for elevator and HVAC improvements, $15,000 for shelves and lighting, and $100,000 for the, proposed restoration of the Pink House. The Pink House, acquired by the City in 1981, and used by the library since 2007, serves as a vital space for library programs and events, a meeting and training room for the public and library, staff offices, storage for library supplies, a break room, and Friends of the Library Bookshop. The Friends' $100,000 allocation for Pink House improvements underscores its importance to the library and community. We urge the City to prioritize its restoration. For further discussion, please contact us at friendsofptlibrary@gmail.com. Respectfully, Po Townsen Libra Friends and Foundation Cindy John h, Board President * Friends of the Port Townsend Library is qualified for tax exemption under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, and contributions are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. a ° � o o �000 a �� u a � ww z w �z U un zx H 9y*o� C w � a > V z N W A U z a March 1, 2026 City of Port Townsend Re: Community interest in the budget process The City's 2025 Annual Report mentions efforts to engage and inform the public on city finances, and notes a lack of public input. The pie charts on Page 15 are not very helpful or informative, and contain some inaccuracies. Let me explain these concerns and suggest how the city can do a more effective job summarizing the budget with pie charts. The "slices" in a pie chart should always be rank -ordered. As with your household budget, their purpose is to show what the largest revenues and expenses are, something you cannot readily tell from random slices. Also, if a pie chart is drawn in three dimensions rather than two, the slices won't accurately reflect the portions. It's important to identify each slice with a label the public easily understands, and spell out acronyms. Some of the slices should be broken out further, like tax revenues (property, sales, utility, etc.) and "other financing sources (which is more than a third of city revenues)." The second pie chart on Page 15, for expenses, should be replaced entirely. Why? Because it doesn't show how much we're spending on our library this year. Or parks, police, and utilities (water, sewer, storm, streets, etc.), et al. It's not very useful to have "line item" pie charts for salaries and supplies, etc. Program budgeting has been a best practice for decades, and we should use it. A program budget pie chart would give a more meaningful understanding of how we allocate our revenues. Attached are notes with specific suggestions on the two pie charts and the graph on various city funds. I hope the city can update the online version of the Annual Report soon. I'm not sure it'll generate more budget feedback, but it would make it easier for all of us to understand and discuss city finances. Thank you. a 7 Barney Burke Box 668 Port Townsend, WA 98368 360-774-1309 Attachments: • Notes on improving city budget pie charts • Pages 14 & 15 Annual Report 2025 Notes on improving city budget pie charts, March 2026 1. 2026 Proposed Revenue by Category • Strike PPepeeed • Put slices in rank order, and the pie in two dimensions Break out "taxes" (property, sales, utility, etc.) • Break out "other financing sources;" it's a third of revenues, but what's it comprised of? • Replace "charges for goods and services" with water and sewer revenues or whatever this slice represents. • Labels like "intergovernmental services," "other increases," and "overhead recovery" aren't clear to most people. Maybe we need different labels and/or a few footnotes. • If you can put the percentage in each slice in addition to the dollar amount in each label, that would help. 2. 2026 Proposed Expenses by Category • Suggested title: 2026 Expenses by Program (or Department?) • Ideally, each slice represents one program or department, like police, with no catch-all slice for "services." A program's share of salaries, supplies, overhead, etc. would be included in its slice. • I would give each utility a slice, and it would include both operational costs and the debt service related to that utility. That way, we can see the full cost of each utility rather than lumping different kinds of debt together without seeing what it's for. 3. 2025 Financial Recap - Year End Cash Position. 2026 • Most people don't know the acronyms OGWS and ARPA. • "Internal Services Funds" should be explained and/or broken out. • I noticed the starting and ending cash balances of the Community Services Funds and the Street Fund are the same. Is that a typo, or did those two funds not have any activity during 2025? • I think there would be interest in seeing Contingency, Real Estate Excise Tax, Lodging Tax, and Affordable Housing Funds each given a bar in the graph - if there's room. The 2026 City Budget builds on previous years' efforts and looks out much further than 2026 with a grounding in financial sustainability principles. 2026 r ,'Revenue by Category $89,680,448 Other Financing Sources (Inc. Transfers In) $34,632„347 Overhead Recovery $6,273,888 Othe7n�;easos ,$461,525 / Miscellaneour Revenue $1,774,594 Fines & Penalties $4,500 Taxes $16,898,482 Licenses & Permits - $626,384 The City is required to balance the annual budget. The bud et charts shown g here depict all City funds and transfers projected for 2026, including large capital Intergovernmental projects, general fund Services $9,258,162 1 revenue and expenses and Ch urges for Goods & Services $19,750,566 2026 Propos#d Expenses by Cat 6,ory , ,.. $88,567,432 Other FillwAcing Uses Sa@aryeS�& Wages & Benefits (inc.Tmnsfer , ut) $15,850,351 $24127„678'l'� Supplies Debt Service f$1,818,235 Interest $676,837, Debt Service Principal $2,;559,51 5 debt service funds. Why is the City budget so big this year? Listen to City Manager John Mauro answer this question as part of Ask the City available on our homepage (cityofpt.us) and watch the How Your City Budget Works video on our YouTube channel. Or dive into our revamped budget book for an easily digestible version of the City's budget by scanning the QR code below. Scan the QR code to read the complete 2026 Budget: cityofpt.us/finance +15 0 Our Current Financial Position 2025 Financial Recap - Year End Cash Position Internal Service Funds $4,3157,361.99 $3,P3,407.70 Stormwater Utility Fund $1,418,8D3.74 "R,6622,0 Golf Course Fund $0 $2,549.76 OGW+nd Water& SewerUtility Fund Other Gov't Funds* I / Community ServicesFunds $ 1 Z75,948.60' $ 1,275,948.60 14* Library Fund =VMWJ8 $ 722,3E57.05 Street Fund $670,7-79.84 11$670,779.84 PA)$548,774.59 - ------------- ------- - --- General Fund M2025 =2024 "Other General Govemmental Funds consists of the ContiMnc e �uTa ReaFund, L2d.- u, Af fordal�lqjj �p aLtqj q Func,ormnity Devbf ock Irrant Fu6d'66tServiceFund,w e�neraca"pitalFunds.**All figures are unaudited" B. E.. •H