Hawthorne Press Tribune
Herald Publications - El Segundo, Hawthorne, Lawndale & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 61, No. 7 - February 14, 2019
Inside
This Issue
Calendar of Events.............3
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.......................4
Classifieds............................3
Entertainment......................2
Food.......................................3
Hawthorne Happenings....3
Lawndale..............................4
Legals.................................6,7
Pets........................................5
Weekend
Forecast
Friday
Showers
59˚/49˚
Saturday
Partly Cloudy /
Wind
59˚/48˚
Sunday
Mostly
Sunny
56˚/45˚
The Weekly Newspaper of Hawthorne
Valentine’s Day Dance a Big Hit
The Valentine’s Day Dance was held Feb. 8 at the Hawthorne Senior Center. A photo booth was available for special photo ops and refreshments were served, making the event fun for everyone.
Photo: City of Hawthorne.
City’s General Fund Continues
to Grow as Its Revenues Increase
By Derrick Deane
The state of the City of Hawthorne’s general
fund is in good condition, according to
the latest financial update. The City Council
received the information during its Tuesday
meeting, detailing that the general fund has
grown from $13.5 million last year to $23.6
million with an additional $14.5 million in
investment funds for a total of $38.1 million.
Overall, the City’s revenues are at $25
million of the total approved $73.5 million
budgeted for the year. Expenditures sit at
$34.6 million of the total approved $72.6
million. The numbers mark a slight increase
in revenues and savings in expenditures when
compared to last year’s numbers.
“This is the importance of cash reserve,”
Interim City Manager Arnie Shadbehr said
in referring to the difference between cash
on hand and investments. “If we don’t have
operating cash reserve that we have always
been emphasizing, then you see how that
comes and helps us out with [where we] lack.”
While most of the general fund’s revenue
streams were in their expected range to start
the year, there were a few doing better than
expected. Licenses and permits brought in
$1.89 million to the City, making up 97
percent of the expected income from the
category due to various construction developments
happening around town. Investment
earnings have also doubled, thanks to an
additional $5.9 million investment made by
City Treasurer David Patterson. Property taxes,
vehicle license fees and business license fees
have yet to be factored in and will be added
in later this year.
On the expenditure side, one issue called out
was personnel overtime, which currently sits
at 90 percent of the approved budget spent at
$1.4 million. “The police department had 16
vacancies,” Shadbehr explained. “We have a
lot of people in the academy right now and
are not performing and two officers left us,
so this all adds to overtime. The other aspect
of it is that the Council is aware of the Public
Works projects that we are doing. We have
a lot of night work. When you come in the
morning, you see new striping, you see new
paving, but when did this happen? This was
when we were all in bed.”
Shadbehr added that some of the City’s
overtime costs are being reimbursed by
grants. “When the grants come in, they’ll
compensate for the overtime impacts to the
general fund,” he said.
Councilman Hadir Awad added that the
Public Funds Oversight Committee had the
same questions about the high percentage of
overtime use. “When anyone sees 89 percent,
they get scared of why,” Awad said, adding
that the committee also looked at the Finance
Department’s expenditure trending low due to
the pending installation of a new system. Awad
asked if the system was still scheduled to be
installed or if the City would see the excess
revenue. The decision is still to be determined.
The Public Funds Oversight Committee also
called out the low expenditure for the City
Clerk’s office. The reason given was because
the office is waiting for an invoice from Los
Angeles County for last year’s elections.
Shadbehr noted that despite the high overtime
use, it is being offset by the departments
being below 50 percent of their expected
expenditures for the year. “It’s already being
offset by the vacancies,” he reported, using
the police department as an example. “Since
we were not able to fill those vacancies, that
money more than offsets for the overtime.”
Maintenance and Operation also makes up
nearly $5 million of money spent so far, but
is due to the fact that 9-1-1 billing doesn’t
line up with the regular fiscal cycle.
Mid-year appropriation changes include
mostly revenue increases with two expenditure
increases requested: $32,000 for an
Emergency Preparedness Notification System,
and $28,000 for Public Works to manage
Solid Waste.
The revenue increases include $270,000 in
construction permits, $60,000 in investment
earnings, and $40,000 in sale of real estate
property. Additionally, $315,000 will be
removed from the initial revenue report due
to changes in programs including $210,000
for CDBG (Community Development Block
Grant) contribution for code enforcement. The
total revenue increase adjustment is $117,152.
“One important point I have to make is that
the $210,000 is negative because CDBG can
no longer afford code enforcement,” Shadbehr
said. “Because of that, the $210,000
will now be a 100 percent burden on the
general fund. Because code enforcement isn’t
improvement to communities, it’s considered
to the administrators of those grants that it’s
just enforcement -- so they unfortunately no
longer support it.”
Mayor Pro Tem Olivia Valentine concluded
the quarterly update stating that the process
and transparency has been a welcome change
for the Council and residents of Hawthorne.
“Keeping us on track and keeping the public
informed about our finances, this is very
important to us,” she said. “As you know,
a few years ago we didn’t get this kind of
reporting and this is such an improvement
in our accounting practices. We’re on the
right track.” •