CITY OF MORGAN CITY

In accordance with the City of Morgan City’s Home Rule Charter, specifically Section 3-05 (6), I hereby submit to the City Council and public, a report on the finances and administrative activities of the City. This report is intended to supplement the financial reports and other reports presented at our monthly council meetings.

Revenues

During 2007, the City was able to secure and implement several grants from a variety of agencies. Our implementation of the grants has allowed the City to improve services provided to our citizens in the most cost effective manner possible. We will continue to aggressively pursue grants to supplement the rising costs of providing quality services to our citizens. We believe that we can positively affect the quality of life of our community by prudently implementing these grants. They have the affect of increasing City services without raising additional revenue.

The following schedule details the grants awarded and their purpose:

City of Morgan City
Grant Activity
2007
		Granted
Grantor	Project	Dollars	Utilization

State of La. Capital Outlay	Brashear Ave. Drainage	$ 3,400,000	Improved safety and drainage
La. Dept. of Education	Special Needs Playground	$ 100,000	Playground construction
St. Mary Parish	Trailhead Park	$ 40,000	Playground construction
State of La. Capital Outlay	Lake Palourde Boat Dock	$ 300,000	Boat Dock for Boat Races
St. Mary Parish	Floating Dock	$ 14,000	Boat Dock for Boat Races
La. Dept. of Wildlife & Fisheries	Marina Construction	$ 285,000	New marina berths
St. Mary Parish	Lake End Park Boat Launch	$ 20,000	Boat Launch
St. Mary Parish	RV Campgound	$ 20,000	Limestone for Parkway campground
Dept. of Natural Resources	Lake End Park Phase II B	$ 650,000	Lake End Park Improvements
Dept. of Natural Resources	Cabin Design	$ 93,000	Design of cabins for Lake End Parkway
La. Dept. of Agriculture	Hurricane Forestry Recovery Grant	$ 75,000	Tree plantings throughout the City and Parkway
St. Mary Parish	T Ball Field Covers	$ 5,000	Covers for T Ball bleachers
Assistance to Firefighters	Purchase equipment	$ 80,000	Large Diameter Hose
CDAP	Purchase equipment	$ 10,000	Thermal Imaging Camera
Assistance to Firefighters	Purchase equipment	$ 30,700	Washer, dryer, and pagers
Assistance to Firefighters	Purchase equipment	$ 38,000	Safety trailer
Aid to Local Government	Purchase equipment	$ 50,000	Police Dept.Computer server, imaging, telephone
Evangaline Area Law Enforcement	Purchase equipment	$ 1,200	Laptop & equipment
Dept of Justice	Purchase equipment	$ 4,000	Bike patrols
Dept. of Justice	DARE grant	$ 19,000	Operate DARE program
Community Development Block Grant	Housing Rehab	$ 173,000	Tear down and rebuild sub-standard housing
Dept. of Justice	City Court grants	$ 24,000	Juvenile services
H & B Young Foundation	Annual grant	$ 173,000	Operations and Equipment acquistion

		$ 5,604,900

Sales tax collections continue to increase over our prior years’ collections. In fact, collection on a month by month basis increased over the prior year for twenty-six (26) consecutive months beginning in October 2005 and ending in December, 2007.

2004 2005 2006 2007

General Fund Sales taxes $2,310,000 $2,547,000 $3,349,000 $3,525,000

(1%, .3%, & .25%)

Pollution Abatement $1,300,000 $1,336,000 $1,726,000 $1,823,000

This increase in our sales tax revenues for 2007 compared to 2006 represents a 5% increase in these collections.

Expenditures and Activities

We continued to experience difficulty in filling vacant positions within our city employee ranks. We attempted to meet the needs of the public and continue to provide the services they’ve become accustomed to by utilizing overtime to fill the gaps caused by personnel shortages. For the most part, we were able to accomplish this within our original budgeted personnel costs. For example, in order to maintain our road patrols by the Police Department at full coverage, we incurred overtime costs which were offset by the salaries of the unfilled positions. This is especially critical at time of significant activity.

In the Fire Department the manning of all stations by incurring overtime cannot be offset by the un-utilized payroll slots due to the severity of the shortage and the fact that we also had several firefighters on extended sick leave. We have, however, been successful in filling five (5) of our vacancies during the past year and have four (4) prospects scheduled to take the civil service test.

Increases in operating costs were prevalent throughout the City’s operations. I applaud the City’s directors for their efforts in managing these costs. One area that has seen significant increases in 2007 and 2008 is in the area of workers compensation insurance. For 2007, this increase totaled $140,000 and an additional $50,000 for 2008. In an effort to address this continuing problem, the City has hired a consultant to review the computations of our workers compensation experience modifiers, compensation examine all reserves established by the insurance company to determine their appropriateness and to work with our personnel office in establishing formal safety training programs. While there are always issues that are beyond the control of management, it is our intention to address all of the issues that are within our control. An

example of this is the recently implemented policy of checking driver’s records before hiring and before authorizing present employees to drive City owned vehicles.

Economic Development

For the second consecutive year, we experienced a very productive year of growth of our local industry as evidenced by the building permits issued. The following table details the permits issued

BUILDING PERMIT SUMMARY
YEAR 2007

	#
	Permits		Description		Amount

	90		Additions/Alterations (Residential)		$549,220.86

	28		Additions/Alterations (Commercial)		$5,239,570.00

	3		New Construction (Residential)		$263,000.00

	10		New Construction (Commercial)		$9,314,500.00


TOTALS	131				$15,366,290.86


	17		Mobile Home Permits

	12		Sign Permits

	0		Housemoving Permits

	3		Demolition Permits


TOTALS	32


TOTAL PERMITS:		123		PERMIT FEE REVENUE:		$53,589.00

We were happy to participate in the application for a grant to assist Oceaneering in their expansion project. The City facilitated a $2 million grant for infrastructure to assist Oceaneering in the construction of what is a $25 million plus state-of-the-art facility.

Finances- Debt

CITY OF MORGAN CITY
Debt Activity
FYE December 31, 2007


								Year Ended
					Balance		Balance	12/31/07
		Final	Interest	Original	January 1,		December 31,	Interest
		Maturity	Rates	Issue	2007	Payments	2007	Paid

	General Obligation Bonds
	Series 2000*	3/1/2020	5.15-7.5%	1,600,000	1,340,000	60,000	1,280,000	72,118

	Utility Revenue Bonds,
	Series 2002	12/1/22	2.0-4.7%