St. Edward Finance Council

Minutes

Meeting Date: February 27, 2017 from 6:00pm to 8:00pm

Attendees: Father Brendan, Donna Upton, Stephanie Espinosa, Frank Cincotta, Barbara Belavic, Linda Ramirez and Catherine Muzzy.

1. Opening Prayer - Fr. Brendan opened up the meeting with a prayer.

2. The minutes from the January 30th Finance Meeting were reviewed and accepted as presented with no changes.

3. Updates on capital improvements – Held a meeting with Randy and Lori Sloss working on capital improvements budget and looking at a 5 year plan. Started to work on a list for 2017 budget and then making projections for 2018 and 2019

4. Budget Reviews –

Music Expenses – Agreed to budget for $11,650 for next year. This is a $1,000 increase from last year made up of an increase for music for Easter and Christmas, plus continuing education and this is based on the increase in costs based on this year’s actual costs

b. Liturgy – Agreed to a budget for liturgy ministry of $61,350 for this year, an increase of $2,900. The majority of the increase was for decorations and flowers and plants based on the increase costs of this year’s actual expenditures.

5. School Proposals

Tuition - Phase-In to eliminate Multi-Child Discount – Reviewed a couple of proposals for the 3 year plan to eliminate the multi-child discount for families that were grandfathered in and told the discount would be phased out over 3 years. Considered the proposals and agreed to a potential plan. Donna will input the plan selected for the rate increases for this year to see how they affect the overall school budget. Each of the subsequent 2 years will look at the proposed plan and determine if they meet the goals of the school budget for that year and if not will consider alternatives.

Aides Salary Proposal – Due to the increase in the California minimum wage looked at the scale for School Aides and potential proposals in how to deal with the minimum wage increase. Agreed on a proposal to start increasing the scale this year and gradually over the next five years to accommodate the increases in the minimum wage. The proposal will need to be looked at every year to ensure that it also meets the goals of the school budget for that year.

6. Review of Financials for December 2016:

School - Overall the school is doing well compared to budget through January. The month of January net income ran ahead of budget and year to date the net income is also ahead of budget. The largest reason for doing better than budget is that the actual enrollment (699 students) was over the budgeted enrollment (690 students). However the increase in the enrollment also caused textbooks costs to be over for the year. The salary costs are below budget for the year so far, but it appears to be a timing issue and will correct itself towards the end of the fiscal year. Cathy reported that all of the staff have agreed to come back next year.

Church – The church financials are positive against budget through January. The net income for the month of January was above budget, and the net income for year to date through January is also running ahead of budget. The largest part of this is the turnaround in the Sunday collections which are now running ahead of budget for both monthly and year to date. The rental income is below budget as the tenant in the old San Felipe rectory house left and the property had to be renovated before being rented out again so it has remained empty for a couple of months, the renovations have been completed and it is now ready to rent again. Overall even with the loss of the rental income, the total income for the parish is running above budget for both monthly and year to date. On the expense side Custodian expenses have been up due to overtime costs caused by a couple of custodians out on disability. Decided to go to a cleaning service which will cut down on some of the custodian overtime costs. The Music salaries are below budget because budgeted for a music director for the Spanish masses and a candidate to fill that spot was never found. Supplies expense are running above budget, going to do an analysis to see if can find cost savings in supplies by buying in bulk instead of emergency basis. The water expense has gone down 39% in the last month due to fixed leaks and no need to water because of the rain.

PSA total rebate for last year ended up being about $128,000. Spent about $92,000 on fixing the hall kitchen. Made a decision that the extra rebate of approximately $36,000 will be set aside to be used for church art. .

PSA numbers for this year are still coming in, published so far is $171,000 however still waiting to get some numbers from the diocese. This year the PSA amount owed by the parish is $238,000.

There was a discussion and decision to eliminate some of the custodial accounts and switch it to savings accounts so can earn interest on the balance.

Next meeting is scheduled for March 27th.