Carson City’s finances in solid shape

The Carson City Board of Supervisors Thursday accepted the city’s comprehensive annual financial report, which held few surprises.

The city’s net position — the difference between assets and deferred outflows of resources and liabilities and deferred inflows of resources — was $302,987,923, a 2 percent increase attributable to increases in sales, property and consolidated taxes, as well as charges for services in building permits, and sewer and water funds, according to the report written by Eide Bailly, LLP, the city’s auditor.

Mayor Bob Crowell asked Dan Carter, partner, Eide Bailly, if the city’s bond rating would be affected by the $82 million in net pension liability cities are now required to disclose.

Carter said the change hasn’t had much of an impact.

“It’s a huge number that’s come on the books, but it didn’t affect our government clients as much as we expected,” said Carter.

For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2016, the city’s funds’ combined balances were $22,896,266, a decrease of $7,968,133 from the prior year.

The general fund balance was $7,318,481, or 11.4 percent of total general fund expenditures, which is nearly 3 percentage points above the 8.3 percent goal set by the board.

City Manager Nick Marano said the board may look at directing some of that general fund balance to paying for streets maintenance since the fuel tax indexing ballot, which would have raised the gas tax, didn’t pass in November.

The board also decided, after lengthy discussion, to table an item to extend leases at the airport.

Appraisals for the properties came in at 12 cents per square foot, just a penny above the current lease rate so the airport negotiated with the tenants to make a one-time payment of $84,648.44 to use for the airport terminal renovation project.

The airport terminal rehab was approved for $89,000 but is costing about $103,000, said Tim Rowe, Carson airport manager.

“What happens if we don’t approve this?” asked Supervisor Brad Bonkowski.

“It’s not good, I won’t sugar coat it,” said Steve Tackes, the airport authority counsel. “We need to augment the budget and don’t want the airport to fall into state where they can’t pay their bills.”

The supervisors directed Tackes to negotiate further for shorter leases which include rate adjustments based on periodic appraisals.

That gives the airport authority time to return to the board’s first January 2017 meeting before the appraisal expires and for the board to decide whether to approve whatever leases can be agreed upon.

In other actions, the board approved a contract not to exceed $28,400 for Susan Pintar to serve as county health officer; moving a contract position for public health preparedness planner to a city position; and established the hourly fee for services performed by the public administrator at $150.

The supervisors also reappointed Mark Kimbrough to the Regional Transportation Commission, and Denise Stewart and Wendy Talavera to the 9-1-1 Surcharge Advisory Committee; appointed Doug Martin to the Nevada Tahoe Conservation District; and nominated Paul Esswein to be reappointed as Carson City’s lay member on the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency’s Advisory Planning Commission.

The board meeting was the last for Supervisor Jim Shirk, the supervisor for Ward 4 who lost his reelection bid and will be replaced by John Barrette in 2017.

“I’d like to note that I didn’t vote ‘no’ on anything today,” said Shirk, who during his term has been a dissenting vote on many issues including the downtown construction project, the water rate increase and, most recently, the Vintage at Kings Canyon development.

Shirk gave public comment at the end of the meeting, in which he praised city staff.

“They’re under-appreciated, underpaid, and they do a fantastic job. The only motion I ever made was for their pay raise,” he said.

And he said, as the saying goes, politics ain’t beanbag.

“Politics is an arena where punches are thrown,” said Shirk.

“My motto has always been, don’t be an echo, be a voice.”

The meeting started with Shirk’s daughter, Gianna Jacks, paying tribute to her father and his service to the city with her son, Shirk’s six-week old grandson, with her at the table.

“This is Marshall’s first public appearance,” she said. “He even wore a tie.”