City talks COVID-19 response at workshop

Just one city commissioner sat on the dais in the commission chambers at City Hall for a workshop Monday: Mayor Jen Ahearn-Koch, who led a meeting held largely by teleconference to discuss the city’s strategies for responding to COVID-19.

At the workshop, City Commissioner Hagen Brody said he wanted to know more about how the city’s budget outlook would be affected by the pandemic. Kelly Strickland, the city’s director of financial information, said some details will be hard to forecast until more information becomes available. Still, she said she was hoping to get new projections for fiscal years 2020 and 2021 to officials before the end of the week.

“That information is critical for us once we get back into a regular flow again to make these financial decisions,” Brody said.

City Manager Tom Barwin said the city was anticipating a decline in sales tax, communications tax and gas tax revenue, which he said was the second biggest component of the city’s budget. But he said more than 90% of property taxes, which comprise nearly half of the city’s income, had already been paid before the economic conditions associated with COVID-19 hit. As a result, he said some of the financial effects on the city’s operations may be delayed.

“Generally, municipal organizations aren’t on the front end of taking economic impacts,” Barwin said. “We’ll take them, but they will be down the road a little bit — and then we’ll maybe be at the tail end of the recovery.”

Strickland anticipated one impact to the city’s budget would be increased subsidies for enterprise funds such as parking management, the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall and Bobby Jones Golf Club, which generate revenue via user fees.

The city also discussed plans for holding future meetings remotely. Although the commission canceled a regular meeting that had been set for Monday, the board is working to set up a virtual session for its meeting scheduled April 20. City Auditor and Clerk Shayla Griggs said she was working with City Attorney Robert Fournier on options for incorporating public input into remote meetings, but no details have been finalized.

“We just ask that you all be patient with us, because we’re all learning this system,” Griggs said.

City administration indicated the April 20 meeting, if it can be held, would be focused on essential city business and the COVID-19 response.