Work on the 2017 fiscal-year budget continued this week in Ocean Pines, as the budget and finance committee held a series of public meetings at the country club to review a draft released by General Manager Bob Thompson.
The association last week got its first glimpse at the $13.6 million financial package, which includes capital expenditures.
The committee met with department heads on Monday to review the operating budget, then reviewed the capital and reserve budgets on Tuesday with Thompson present. Several members of the seven-member board of directors also attended each day.
On Wednesday, the committee met a final time in order to develop its recommendations, which will help the board work to finalize the budget. Those recommendations are due Friday.
Next week, on Tuesday, the full board will discuss the budget during a special work session at the country club.
“I think the process this year, according to everybody at the meetings, has gone extremely well,” said Committee Chair Pat Supik. “Bob Thompson has done a thorough presentation of all the big areas in the budget. The [department heads] were responsive, and we have a couple of new committee members who, I think, really added to the process.”
Supik described the atmosphere at the meetings as having “a lot of back-and-forth discussion.”
“We try to keep it at a high level and not get into a ‘why are you buying spoons’ kind of a discussion, which I think has happened in the past,” Supik said. “There are no areas of the budget that the committee has great angst about.”
This year the committee had the benefit of reviewing a new capital improvement plan, which Supik said was beneficial. The committee did not have a chance to review the reserve study, which has not been released.
“The committee was glad to see that process at least beginning, and every committee member that I talked to was very supportive of continuing that process. This is a beginning, we know, and there’s still more to the capital and reserve to study, and it’s ongoing. Overall, I think the committee was very pleased with that process.”
Supik said the first draft of the budget includes a $22 assessment hike, although she cautioned that could change.
“The board hasn’t even seen it yet,” she said. “Frequently the number that is presented at this point is not the number that we end up with.”
The association last week got its first glimpse at the $13.6 million financial package, which includes capital expenditures.
The committee met with department heads on Monday to review the operating budget, then reviewed the capital and reserve budgets on Tuesday with Thompson present. Several members of the seven-member board of directors also attended each day.
On Wednesday, the committee met a final time in order to develop its recommendations, which will help the board work to finalize the budget. Those recommendations are due Friday.
Next week, on Tuesday, the full board will discuss the budget during a special work session at the country club.
“I think the process this year, according to everybody at the meetings, has gone extremely well,” said Committee Chair Pat Supik. “Bob Thompson has done a thorough presentation of all the big areas in the budget. The [department heads] were responsive, and we have a couple of new committee members who, I think, really added to the process.”
Supik described the atmosphere at the meetings as having “a lot of back-and-forth discussion.”
“We try to keep it at a high level and not get into a ‘why are you buying spoons’ kind of a discussion, which I think has happened in the past,” Supik said. “There are no areas of the budget that the committee has great angst about.”
This year the committee had the benefit of reviewing a new capital improvement plan, which Supik said was beneficial. The committee did not have a chance to review the reserve study, which has not been released.
“The committee was glad to see that process at least beginning, and every committee member that I talked to was very supportive of continuing that process. This is a beginning, we know, and there’s still more to the capital and reserve to study, and it’s ongoing. Overall, I think the committee was very pleased with that process.”
Supik said the first draft of the budget includes a $22 assessment hike, although she cautioned that could change.
“The board hasn’t even seen it yet,” she said. “Frequently the number that is presented at this point is not the number that we end up with.”