City Council presented with $97 million budget

By Doug Spoon, Editor

The City of Menifee’s Finance Department on Wednesday presented to the City Council details of the proposed general fund budget for the next fiscal year. Officials also announced that the City will now begin analyzing and preparing budget numbers for two years at a time.

The City’s budget for the 2023-24 fiscal year will be $97.035 million. That is the amount of expenditures budgeted, and it will be balanced by the same amount of projected revenue: $70.722 million in general fund revenue, plus $21.038 million in Measure DD funds, plus $5.274 million coming from the general fund balance.

In early projections for the 2024-25 fiscal year, a balanced budget of $94.7 million is expected, said Margarita Cornejo, deputy finance director. Any excess revenue received will be redirected to the Capital Improvement Program, where many transportation and other projects await additional funding.

Cornejo said that the final budget will be presented to the council for approval next month.

“Projections still show growth in the City of Menifee, albeit at a slower pace,” said Cornejo, acknowledging the uncertain state of the economy. She said the City will continue to maintain a reserve balance of 35 percent, which is higher than many cities.

Listing revenue projections, Cornejo said that sales tax and Qualify of Life (Measure DD) revenue is expected to increase by 3.61 percent; property tax by 9.15 percent; and building and planning by 14.48 percent.

Personnel expenses are listed at $40.99 million, including a request for seven new full-time positions. That would bring the total number of employees to 320. New positions requested include a CIP project manager; construction inspector; cybersecurity manager; street maintenance worker; heavy equipment operator; and two landscape maintenance workers.

Some discussion was generated by the proposed plan to purchase eight new Menifee Police Department vehicles. A total of $500,000 from the general fund and $164,000 from the fleet fund is designated for this. The plan, said Police Captain Dave Gutierrez, is to replace eight vehicles per year of the 40 total vehicles.

“To spread it out, our plan is to start a cycle where we rotate eight vehicles per year,” said Nick Fidler, public works director.

Council member Ricky Estrada questioned whether any of the vehicles had enough mileage on them in less than three years of service to consider replacing them. Told that most of them now average about 40,000 miles, Estrada asked whether vehicles in such condition would hinder performance.

“Not now, but it could be an issue in a couple years,” Gutierrez said. “You also need to remember that we don’t get new vehicles right away. They are at least a year out on delivery.

“We believe this is the most fiscally prudent way to go about it. There’s no way we could replace 30 or 40 vehicles in one year. We need to start the cycle now."

Gutierrez also said the City would receive some revenue when cars put out of service are sold at auction.

Of the more than $25 million expected revenue from Measure DD (including the $4.041 million fund balance), $12.14 million would go toward the City’s contract with Cal Fire and $7.592 to Menifee PD – paying 35 percent of every officer’s salary. Another $4.968 million will go toward Capital Improvement Projects, including $735,000 devoted to construction of the Bradley Road bridge at Salt Creek.

Public safety accounts for 55.7 percent of the total budget, with administration accounting for 18.2 percent.