Remarks by Brian Risley
52 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 3
I'm just curious, in prior years, you haven't highlighted or delineated a rebudgeting number or process. And I'm curious, I know that in prior years, many departments have underspent their budgets, and so there have been excess revenue, excess dollars that have been swept forward into other budgets. Why highlight that? the 12.3 in this budget cycle as opposed to just handling it in the same fashion that you have previously? Is it because of the specificity around how you want to spend those dollars in 27?
Yeah, so that's the dollar amount and the specificity, as I said. And so again, I know in prior years, whether you've highlighted it or not, there have been instances where departments have underspent their budgets. And so that just gets rolled up into the general fund and carried forward in the normal budgeting process.
Councilman risley, thank you madam president. So that goes exactly to my earlier question or comment is that should had you chosen not to rebudget those dollars? It would have gone to the. The reserve fund, and I also just want to comment and you've heard me say this last 3 years. I'll say it again. The. industry average of 16%, 16 point whatever percent is fine as a sort of a benchmark or a metric, but I've always advocated for a higher level of reserve dollars percentage. And I think Mayor Souther's prior for the same reason that because we are so susceptible to the ups and downs of sales…
Thank you, Madam President. You said that this doesn't include PPRTA funds, but when I look at the Public Works expenditure budgets, that obviously does include PPRTA funds. So you'll walk us through how you reconcile that?
Good morning. I was joking, you must be in some other time zone. I don't know. So you touched on something just now that I was curious about, because when I looked at the unfunded positions, I saw that Public Works had 12.75 FTE unfunded, and yet there's this proposal to add this pothole crew of four additional individuals or FTE. I'm trying to understand and reconcile in my mind why, whether it was your department or someone else, is asking for four additional people to fill potholes when there are 12.75 other unfunded positions that continue to remain unfunded. And when I look at what those…
It does, but again, I would argue that some of the other unfilled positions, in my view, would be more high level and more critical to the overall operation of your department.
I appreciate that. What does a pothole crew do in January or December when it's too cold to fill potholes?
Sure, and not to beat a dead horse, but again, I'll just maybe highlight that within traffic engineering, you've got 32.75 FTE, and there are several traffic engineering roles that are unfunded.
And again, I can see the argument that having an inspector too out on the street inspecting projects in the right of way helps to move the needle and move things forward more rapidly.
You know, PPRTA projects or 2C projects or repair projects or what have you.
Thanks, Madam President. Hi, Alex. This might be a good place to ask a couple of the questions that I've been kind of trying to grapple with. As it relates to implements and just total passenger count, what's the status of the international terminal, and how do you anticipate that factoring in to the 2027 budget, and I assume that it's a completely sunk cost at this point. You guys built it, even though it was uncertain about how successful that would be, but talk about what the plan is going forward.
It does. So if it's status quo and you're keeping it open just as a potential overflow if somebody needs to land an international flight there, that tells me then obviously we're continuing to pay the TSA agents to sit there and maybe most days they don't have anything to do or do you only bring them in when there's a flight that's anticipated. I mean, how does that work? Because that's an ongoing expense that I wouldn't call part of the original capital improvement sunk cost.
And so if we're seeing a loss in aviation activity and obviously revenue associated with that, What are you doing to try to offset that loss, and what are some of the other... One of your priorities was diversification of revenue. What is that? Can you talk a little bit more about that?
Okay, thanks, I'll probably have some follow-on questions about the peak innovation side of things, but I don't wanna delay your presentation.
Thanks, Madam President. So this is obviously in the budget book, net increase of approximately 40.7 million for peak developer fees. I'm assuming that's what that is. So what is the value of the sale of the properties in total? What's the total? that you anticipate to get out of these deals, and you probably can't name specific names unless they have code names, but how many projects are we talking that you anticipate closing in 27? So let me unpack that a little bit. I can ask it in pieces if that's easier.
And so one project that I will name, because it's been discussed publicly anyway, is Project Honey Badger. Is that one of the ones that you anticipate? Yes, sir. Okay, so my understanding of that project alone is that it would bring about $60 million to the airport bottom line. Am I wrong in that?
So obviously I'm hearing some incorrect information somewhere out there. They may be combining some things. Where are we with the purchase and sale agreement for that project? My understanding as of now, it's on hold.
And so whether it's that project or any other project, your budget is predicated on land sales to help offset losses in operations, is that right?
Isn't that the whole purpose for having a business park associated with an airport? I mean, these are done all over the world and the reason is to offset the costs associated with operating an airport and subsidize the operational expenses.
So to indicate in the budget book that an increase of approximately 29.3 million in revenue, mostly due to planned sale of property, public parking and interest income, is that not really an accurate statement?
Yeah, I get that. But it seems to me that maybe one of the allowed uses of those revenues that I'm talking about would be for things like metro district expenses or other things associated with the property that was purchased through those FAA grants.
but not for just anything. So again, if sales don't go through the way that you're projecting they might in 2027, it seems to me that you have an underlying problem in terms of meeting some of the expense expectations for infrastructure that's been put in and maybe even paying off some stormwater management costs and some other things that have already been incurred. Is that true?
If they're operating, sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off, but if they're operating expenses, that means you should be able to pay them now.
Thanks, Madam President. I'm just curious if our city attorney would give us some guidance about this, because this is a quasi-judicial matter, and I think we're curtailing the conversation, but I'm concerned that we're treading on some thin ice here.
Thanks, Madam President. Kim, you'll recall at our work session meeting, I asked the question, what happens if we get to April and the building isn't doing what we expect it to do or the business model still isn't playing out? Can you give me an answer to that question again, just on the record?