Hopkinsville City Council heard an update of the February financial report which showed a large decrease in payroll collections compared to the same month last year.
Chief Financial Officer Robert Martin said February was not a good month with payroll collections showing a large decrease of 25.3 percent.
He added this is the largest decrease they have seen during the COVID year so far and they couldn’t find any one item that was a major contributor.
Martin also said he didn’t have good news about PACS expenditures to operate the city transit system but it needed to be addressed. He said for the last fiscal year PACS had a carryover from its budget of $22,000, which was added to this fiscal year, giving them over $113,000 available to spend. He added through the month of February, PACS has almost spent 78.6 percent of their budget and will be going over budget next month.
He added if the city wants to continue the transportation at the same level for the remainder of this fiscal year the Council will need to make a budget amendment of around $25,000 for this year and approximately $50,000 next year.
Martin added this needs to be brought up at the April Committee of the Whole meeting if they want to amend the budget, and they could also have PACS representatives at the meeting to explain what has happened.
And Mayor Wendell Lynch provided an update regarding the Non-Partisan Election Special Committee. He says the process is underway to select members to serve on the committee, including citizens. He said he will provide more information and the guidelines at the first City Council meeting in April.
In action items, the Council approved the second readings of two ordinances – the Fiscal Year 2020-21 Operational Budget amendment and the Capital Budget amendment.
