CM PRESS # 465

WE WROTE EARLIER THAT WE WERE GOING TO WRITE MORE ABOUT  WENDY LEECE'S REALLY DUMB ENTRY ON HER BLOG...


But really, it just makes us gag.

Go read Wendy's list of adjectives [HERE] that Wendy thinks describes Costa Mesa and see if you have the same reaction.

It really looks like a classroom of third graders were told to come up with a list of words to polish the apple for the teacher and this is the result.
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WE GET MAIL...

Dear CM PRESS,

After reading the ignorant and hateful comments in the Daily Pilot from people who seem to be city employees,  I wonder if we can ask the city council to lay off all employees and start over. 

Who hired all these arrogant nuts?  Who let this get so out of hand that the nuts think they're running the city?

Eyes Opened Resident of Costa Mesa
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POOR WENDY LEECE--THE MORE SHE WRITES OR SPEAKS THE SILLIER SHE LOOKS

[Memo to staff: Give Wendy a "Finance for Dummies" book before she says any more stupid things.]

Wendy has written the following on her blog [HERE]:

"Our City of Costa Mesa 'Fund Balance' for February is $66,300,082.07. (Treasurer's Report for month of February 2011). We are not running out of money." --Wendy Leece. 

What?

 It's as though Wendy is the person in the old joke who says "I can't be overdrawn, I still have checks in my checkbook."

Read on and we'll 'splain.

The CM PRESS sent the above statement by Wendy to an accountant who has been watching the City's financial situation and we've incorporated the substance of the accountant's comments in the following:


Wendy just shows how confused she is. 

She apparently believes, incorrectly, that all money reported by the finance department ($66,300,082.07) is the "fund balance" as though that's like the balance she may have in her personal checking account, and that we can use any of that money for anything we want at any time.

"Oh, look, there's a new pair of shoes, I'll buy those and just eat beans instead of steak tonight."

That's not how it works. 

There are laws and regulations that we have to follow for the citizen money the city has or is expected to have. 

Remember, the City has no money.  It is OUR money it is using.  And, citizens expect the City to follow the laws and regulations for using our money.


So, if the $ 66,300,082.07  isn't the fund balance and the amount in our checking account that we can use for anything we want at any time, what is that $ 66,300,082.07?  

It is the total money that the city has invested.


The fund balance, by contrast,  is the difference between the assets and liabilities. It does not really have anything to do with the cash on the treasurer's report.

So, let's unravel this to see how much money we actually have to buy a new pair of shoes or whatever, whenever our pretty little heads decide that's what we want to do.

We show a receivable of $14.2 million from the RDA as part of the fund balance. A receivable is not cash. Part of our cash is the CM Community Foundation which has nothing to do with our fund balance.

We have $14.1 million in the gas tax fund for "streets."  There's $10.6 million Measure M Projects. Another $6.5 million for park development. $1.9 mil, traffic impact fees. $3.6 million, fire system .$7 million equipment replacement. $6.2 million, self insurance. And it goes on and on.

When you finish all your math and balance your checkbook, you discover that the City is left with a cash balance of between $5 and $8 million dollars--not $ 66,300.082.07--depending upon how much under reserve the self insurance fund is at the end of February.

So, again, you don't really have $ 66,300, 082.07 to spend on new shoes. 

You only have between $ 5 and $ 8 million, and, it would be dumb to spend your checking balance down to zero when you know you may need that money for other things.

Now, you may be saying that  $ 5 to $ 8 million sure sounds like a lot of money to have in your checking account. 

Well, not if you're a City with more than 110,000 people living here, it isn't.  In fact, it's time to eat beans every night to try to save what little moola you do have.

And, remember, that total  figure quoted by Wendy ($ 66,300.082.07), which she incorrectly thinks is some sort of slush fund that we can dip into at any time, was $101 million in 2007.

So, we've blown through about $ 35 million dollars just to pay operating expenses. 

And, 80 % - 90% of those operating expenses went to salaries.
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We'll write some more about Wendy's latest blog entry a little later. She was able to pack so much stupidity into one entry that we can't cover it all in one column.