At the September 6th Town Council meeting, without any discussion at all, Vice-Mayor Waters motioned to approve the Consent Agenda and Councilmember Snider seconded the motion. The motion passed 7-0 without even one item being pulled for discussion.Why is this important?
Item E on the Consent Agenda was “Fiscal Year 2016/17 financial update through June 2017 (year-end).” Isn’t a financial report worthy of analysis and discussion?
Remember that in June, the Town Staff was anticipating the Community Center Fund (CCF) to end the year with a deficit of $285,000. They suggested that the Council transfer $350,000 from the General Fund into the CCF in order for the CCF to start the 2017/18 Fiscal Year with a $65,000 positive balance.
Despite the $350,000 transfer, the CCF Fund began the year almost $100,000 in the hole. Shouldn’t this have been deemed important enough to pull the item for discussion? Why did no one question the negative balance?
• They never read the report and weren’t aware of the numbers?
• They read the report but they don’t care what the numbers reveal?
• They did not discuss it in an attempt to keep the information from the public?
Some quick numbers that can be backed up with Town documents
Fiscal Year 2015/16
The Town collected $2,030,750 from the increased sales tax.
Troon lost $2,567,385.
Net Loss: $536,635
Fiscal Year 2016/17
The Town collected $2,199,366 from the increased sales tax.
Troon lost $2,512,938
Net Loss: $313,572
Total Net Loss for two years: $850,207
This does not include the $1.5 million that was transferred from the General Fund into the Community Center Fund.
Recap
$1,000,000 to purchase the property
$1,550,000 transferred from the General Fund
$850,207 in net losses (Fiscal years 2015/16 and 2016/17)
Total losses: $3,400,207
Four more years?
Apparently the mayor and council are not concerned about these losses nor do they desire to be accountable. Remember that this is your money. The mayor now says that this is a “six-year plan.” We are currently two years into this plan. Are you willing to allow them to waste your money for another four years?
