City Receives Funds Through County Auditor-Controller’s Office

A special city council meeting/budget workshop was scheduled for Dec. 3, after funds were located, which will help the city’s general fund. The special scheduled special meeting and workshop was held at City Hall at 6 p.m. Early this fiscal year, the city received distributions through the County Auditor-Controller’s Office related to the Redevelopment Property Tax Trust Fund (RPTTF) that staff was unable to reconcile with the Recognized Obligation Payment Schedule (ROPS) submittals. The city of Grand Terrace’s property tax consultant, HdL Companies (HdL Coren & Cone), was also unable to reconcile the distributions, so city staff requested a meeting with the Auditor-Controller’s Office to try and gain an understanding of the distribution inconsistencies. A meeting was held Nov. 20 that included staff from the city, the Auditor-Controller’s Office and HdL. During this meeting, errors in RPTTF allocations from prior ROPS and in HdL’s property tax revenue model were identified, which will benefit the city’s general fund. The Dec. 3 special meeting addressed the complexities of this issue and their impact on budget reductions scheduled to take place in January 2014 and the council further discussed the recent findings. During the special budget workshop, HdL reviewed the RPTTF revenue model and the revisions made to it following last week’s meeting. Staff also discussed items denied or reclassified by the Department of Finance (DOF) in the latest ROPS and the overall impact of the RPTTF distributions on the city’s budget.