One of the amendments allowed the town to transfer an additional $150,000 to the Prosper Police Department for overtime accrued by its officers.
According to a meeting presentation, the department exceeded its overtime budget due to shift coverage, extensive training requirements and increasing complexity of special events. The money will result in an increase to the town’s budgeted expenditures in the general fund, according to meeting documents.
“There is no doubt we could have done better in that budget,” Town Manager Mario Canizares said.
There will be situations where costs exceed the budget but town staff will work to mitigate them and communicate to the finance department and finance committee when issues arise going forward to make adjustments during the budget cycle and “not at the end, after the fact,” Canizares said.
“It should not happen,” Canizares said to the council members. “You have my commitment that we will do better.”
Explained
Police Chief Doug Kowalski said during the meeting that the department had kept its budget balanced despite high overtime costs in prior years by using money saved on personnel costs by being understaffed to pay for extra hours.
The department will make an effort to keep better track of its finances and communicate when it exceeds the budget going forward, he said.
“We will try and make adjustments as we go along,” Kowalski said.
The police department was originally budgeted $650,000 for overtime costs when the FY 2023-24 budget was approved in 2023 and increased it by roughly $80,000 for FY 2024-25, Finance Director Chris Landrum said.
There are a lot of unknowns when it comes to overtime, Kowalski said. For example, first responders are on call “24/7/365” and some cases end up requiring more time than what was originally thought, he said.
“This council is 100% behind our public safety,” Mayor David Bristol said. “Tell us what you need, we’ll fund it to that level appropriately. If you need more than that, and that’s for all public safety, all departments, then that’s a council decision to exceed in that particular area.”
Breaking it down further
The other amendments approved during the meeting addressed various other transfers in the budget:
- A $64,612 transfer in budgeted expenditures to the fire department’s Special Purpose District Fund to maintain its cash balance
- A $7,388 increase in budgeted expenditures for the town’s tax increment reinvestment fund, or TIRZ, No. 2, to reimburse the developer due to higher-than-expected sales tax collected
- $750,000 from the town’s park improvement fund to the capital improvement fund for the Windsong Park No. 3 development, which was not included in the original FY 2023-24 budget
