Joint Utility, Cable, Telecommunications and Technology, Governmental Affairs and Budget Committee.
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Why do you want to be on the Civil Service Commission? That's the one question you got, Mr. DeTeague. All of your other documents are in order. Oh, let's cut your mic on. All right, talk now. Nope, you're still not on. What's going on here? Talk right now. All right, there you go. You're on now. Thank you. So one, thank you for advancing my nomination. It's a call to service. I'm a lifelong resident voter, citizen, and advocate in New Orleans. Growing up here, I've worked for Unity for the Homeless, the New Orleans Day Reporting Center, Louisiana Commission for Human Rights. And now that my children are out of the house, I have time to serve again. So I look forward to the opportunity if selected. All right, thank you. I will move on Mr. DeTeague. Second by Council Member Willard. All in favor? Any opposed? Hearing none, we have seven yeas, no nays. Mr. DeTeague, you're approved to be a full council. Thank you. Thank you. All right, next up we have Mr. Travis Phipps. Come on down. Why do you want to be on the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority? Good morning, and thank you all again for having me. As a lifelong resident of Seventh Ward and someone who taught for 15 years in the Lower Ninth Ward post-Katrina, I understand the importance of revitalizing our community. And I want to work with NORA to help to make sure that we not only bring these communities back that's the fabric of our city, but also that we keep housing affordable for our citizens. It's important when you have an economy like ours that's dependent on service. And we have people, you know, we just got to study about poverty levels in the city. We have to make sure that people have places they can live and continue to be part of this city. Councilman Hughes. Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. Phipps, what high school did you go to? The McDonough 35. I think that makes you eminently qualified. All right, with that, Councilman Hughes moves to approve, seconded by Councilmember McCarran. All in favor? There you go, machines are working. Vote your machines. All right, six yeas, someone's missing. All right, six yeas, someone's missing. Councilmember Harris is voting. OK. Seven yeas, no nays, you're approved. Thank you, Mr. Phipps. Thank you. All right, Councilmember Harris. Thank you, Council President Morrell. We can move on to the budget presentation. All right, good afternoon, everyone. I'll briefly walk us through the financial position through July 31st, 2026, which represents, keeping in mind which represents 60% of the fiscal year. Overall, the July numbers continue to show a positive year-to-date financial position. Pre-July, the city has collected approximately 513 million in revenues, which is about $44 million above the year-to-date forecast. On the expenditure side, we've spent about 424 million, which represents about 53% of the budget, compared to the 60% of the year having a loss. As a result, actual general fund revenues exceeded general fund expenditures by approximately $89.5 million year-to-date through July. Moving along, as mentioned, we have collected approximately 513 million in revenue. That is represented by the far right dark blue bar. That is approximately 16.4 million above the same period last year, when operating revenues were approximately $496 million. It is important, however, to look at the composition of that year-over-year increase. So if you look at the left side of this chart, property taxes are approximately $172 million year-to-date compared to $173 million year-to-date last year. That is a decrease of approximately $1.6 million. Despite being slightly lower than 2025, current-year property tax collections are close to 96% of the 2026 annual forecast, reflecting the timing of property tax collections, of course. Moving on to sales tax, they're approximately $163.7 million and are also down compared to the last year, which was a decrease of approximately 900,000, or 0.5%. Sales taxes are currently at 53.5% of the 2026 annual forecast. Within that category, there's also the primary sales tax, which is at 54%. Hotel-motel taxes at 52%. Motor vehicle and parking taxes are coming in strong, just at 50% and 61%, respectively. So while sales tax collections are slightly below 2025, they are still in line with this year's budget. Service charges are showing a more noticeable year-over-year decline, mainly in public safety service charges area, which is lower at approximately 42.6% year-over-year. Moving across the chart, licenses and permits are one of the areas where we're seeing growth. Collections are approximately 50.9 million compared to 50 flat million last year, which is an increase of approximately 1 million, or 1.9%. Occupational license are already at their annual forecast. So is the alcohol and beverage licenses. Building permits are approximately at 43%. So performance within this category varies considerably by revenue source. Moving along, intergovernmental revenues are down. Fines and forfeitures are down. And there are some significant differences within fines. Parking ticket collections, for example, are essentially on pace, while red light and camera enforcement collections are approximately down by 35%. Or I'm sorry, have not met the budget by 35%. And then lastly, and the place where we're seeing the largest change is in the other categories, which is really representing the one-time revenue that we have earned this year. And therefore, would not assume that the entire year-over-year increase, or the entire 44.4 million favorable variance to the year-to-date forecast, is recurring revenue that will continue at the same pace throughout the year. We'll continue to monitor recurring revenues separately from reimbursements and timing-related and other non-recurring receipts. And now I'll turn it over to the Deputy CAO and Budget Director to discuss the expenses.
Through July, total personnel and other operating expenditures remain below the year-to-date benchmark, with total expenditures approximately $42.9 million below the benchmark for July. As we have noted in prior reports, expenditures do not occur evenly throughout the year, so the benchmark is intended to provide a point of comparison rather than an end-of-year projection. For July, this is the personnel, for July, year-to-date, the city has spent approximately $18.4 million of the $38.9 million overtime budget. We continue to monitor overtime closely, specifically given the attention that the administration has given with the ongoing controls and the direction to departments to reduce overtime where possible. And I've said it before, that when we are paying attention to things and keeping an eye on things, we tend to have better control over those. For our overtime, as of July 31st, vacancies have increased from the prior month by about 5%. The largest vacancies were within the Aviation Board, Mayor's Office, and Parks and Parkways. The report also reflects the movement of the park and enforcement positions from DPWs to police, which decreased DPWs' vacancies while producing a corresponding increase in the police staffing report. All right. So the general fund consolidated balance as of July 31st is approximately $262.6 million, which includes our beginning balance of about $67.3 million plus the unaudited year-to-date balances for a total of $262.6 million. Our focus for the remainder of the year will be continuing to monitor the recurring revenue performance, maintaining expenditure controls, and of course, the full attention on the cash management throughout the end of the year. That concludes my report. Thank you, Alyssa. I do have a question. We passed a resolution asking your department to consider amnesty. Where are we on that? Yes, so we are planning to start that October 1st. And we are expecting a media blitz to be happening any day now to let the community know that this is going to be taking place starting October 1st. OK, to your comms team, if you have a deck or a slide or something that you want us to post, we can do that, and we can put it in our newsletter so people understand that there is an amnesty program. And hopefully, we can get in some money before the end of the year. Yes, we do have a brochure that we share with our comms team so that we will share it with you as well. All right, thank you. Or then, Council Member Hughes. Thank you, Madam Chair. Really quickly, thank you, Director. In that same spirit, what's the status, these vacant lots that we have clear title to? I know we had to put a pause on auctions because of the debacle with CivicSource. Look, there are a lot of residents. Let's put out-of-town folks aside. There's a lot of residents that are taking... of lots that they live next door to that they would love to acquire, now they have to pay property tax, which is more revenue. And we've been talking about this since January 12th, since I've been sworn in. Are we making any progress? When are we going to get this moving? Because I'm tired of talking about it. Yes, so we do have a new contractor that has been selected for the auctions of the tax sales and also the adjudicated property. We are also about to start a search for a new title company and group that can help us with the mow-to-own properties. The only request that I'm going to continue to reiterate as we get these auctions back online, let's please keep in mind that many of my residents are elderly. They are not going to touch a computer, they're not going to go through the mundane process of bidding online. So we've got to have some type of mechanism where those folks can go somewhere and be assisted if they want to bid on these lots. Sure. Like I said, we have a contractor selected. The contract is still under negotiation, so all of these things can be considered still and figure out a way to move that. Any time frame when we're going to be ready to go and move? I was asked that the other day and it's unfortunately, I don't have a good date to give just yet. Working with the team weekly, we have standing meetings weekly on getting this moving. I know y'all are working hard, but if we can just really keep the foot on the gas with that because that's revenue. I mean, that's easy revenue that we can put in our general fund. Clearly a need and I heard it at all of our community meetings. Thank you, Director. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Any other questions? All right. Thank you all. Thank you. All right. Next up, Erin, I believe we have number four, correct? Yes, sir. All right. And the committee will consider this resolution to extend the electric formula rate plan rider. The resolution allows for four additional FRPs. We have a comment from Mr. Jesse George. Erin, any non-present comments we'll add to the record. Thank you. On behalf of the Alliance for Affordable Energy, 4519 South Claiborne, in our formal comments to the council on this docket, we agree that there were compelling reasons to grant an extension of the current formula rate plan, although we pushed back on the four-year extension and asked the council to cut that to two for a couple of reasons. One being that a four-year extension would mean more than a decade without a full open examination of Entergy's rates. It would also kick the can down the road to the next council to make regulatory decisions in a full rate case, which means an entirely new council with less regulatory experience than the current council. We would also ask that you make a condition of the increase that Entergy is currently seeking under the FRP, regular reporting on disconnections and arrearages for residential customers. Unfortunately, the resolution before you today does neither of those things.
I have to say the council's failure to impose the meagerest of conditions on this increase under the FRP of requiring reporting on how many of your constituents are struggling to make ends meet and pay their Entergy bills and how many of them are being disconnected because they're unable to pay, the fact that you're not interested in getting that information conveys a real lack of concern about your constituents. You heard from a lot of people in the budget hearing today about how they're struggling to make ends meet, how hard it is to live in this city. A way to get a handle on this crisis that we're facing of unaffordability and Entergy bills is to get the hard data from Entergy. I would encourage you to reconsider this resolution and impose some conditions on Entergy today. Thank you. Are there any other comments? Hearing none, I will move. Can I get a second? Seconded by Council Member Willard. All right, please vote your machines. Five yays, no nays. Next up, we have item number five. Council Members, this resolution grants Entergy the ability to establish a regulatory account in relation to FERC opinion number 595. It's a measure that will mitigate any bill impacts from a negative final decision from FERC. Yeah, can you, Council Member Willard is asking if you can give us a little idea for the tens of tens watching, can you explain kind of what the FERC opinion was in the most generalist of terms? I don't want a 45 minute dissertation on FERC. Don't worry. So, as you know, FERC is the federal agency that oversees energy regulatory matters. They issued an opinion that signaled that Entergy New Orleans owed a substantial amount of money to other entities, around $18 million. Entergy New Orleans has sent some alternative numbers to FERC that are under consideration. This regulatory account will be for around $10 million as we await that final decision. Okay, so we are taking the conservative estimate while we wait for a final decision? Sound conservative estimate. Okay. All right. I will, there's no cards, correct? All right. I will move. Second. Oh, you have a, okay, sorry I don't have your card, ma'am, but I'm speaking and we can find your card later. Thank you. I'm Ms. Pellerin. I live at 819 Orleans Avenue in the French Quarter. Mr. King and I have a conversation every so often. Anyway, I had some difficulty understanding this as well, and I'm following up with what the last gentleman said. I read your resolution and I really tried to find out something on the FERC opinion number 595, and I'm kind of familiar with FERC, but I couldn't find any of their opinions. It's like voluminous. It could be just me because I can't remember what I had for breakfast today, so that's probably me. But it does seem to me that what I'm gathering from this, and maybe this can be explained better for someone like myself, Energy New Orleans apparently is owed something to its sister organizations, Energy Louisiana and Energy Arkansas, to the effect of something like $2 million, if I'm understanding that. 7 point something percent interest. My question to this is, if they have to pay this for some administrative hearing that FERC has involved itself in to litigate this, is that something that Energy New Orleans has to pay and then the New Orleans? We have to go back and pay that again as some kind of surcharge? We owe Energy? Yes. Basically, and this is not really within our, we do not have the discretion as a regulatory body. If the Federal Regulatory Authority says that Energy New Orleans owes things to other parties, they can dictate to us that we have to pass that charge, that cost, to our rate payers so that that debt can be paid. Well, it just seems to me that if Energy, which we found out through the years, wasn't maintaining some of their material, towers, what to say, and this goes back to 2019, some of these charges that they had to borrow from their sister companies, I don't think that the rate payers here should pay that. I hear you, but unfortunately the group that's above us at the federal level said they can collect that and that we have to pass that surcharge on. Are we fighting that in some way? Does the law department come and fight for us on this or we just have to take it? We are involved at the FERC level in trying to mitigate these decisions, but when FERC issues a final opinion, then we are bound by it. Well, I'm still curious. Do we have anybody in this litigation with FERC to put forth our position from the city of New Orleans? Can you respond to that? Yes, we retain Denton's US LLP. They are the largest law firm and they represent the council's interest at FERC. We lost, so we have to pay. Okay. All right. I will move. Can I get a second? Second by Freddie King. Please vote your machines. All right. Six yays, no nays. And then we have the last item, which is item number six. Hurricane Francine cost certification. The committee will consider a resolution certifying costs incurred in response to Hurricane Francine. The resolution concludes docket UD 2502. An essential resolution finds that E&O's costs in response to Hurricane Francine were proper. Is there any public comment cards? Hearing none, I will move. Can I get a second? Second by Council Member King. Please vote your machines. That is six yays, no nays. That is passed and I will move that we adjourn. Second by Council Member Willard. All in favor? Any opposed? Hearing none, I have five yays, no nays. We are adjourned.