Benedictis Asks Culver Town Council About Financial Situation

During the Culver Town Council meeting on February 28th, Paul Benedictis of 424 Forest Place addressed the council on the city’s finances. 

He said there seems to be a theme with several of the topics with issues with the finances of the town versus the budget.  He said comments made make it sound like things are tight.  Paul then asked, “Are we at a point where our obligations and our finance revenue coming in is about the same?”

Karen Heim the Culver Clerk-Treasurer told him and the county, “last year we came out between the departments underspending and a couple of areas bringing in some extra unanticipated funds, we ended up about $300,000 ahead in the General Fund.”  She said she is working on the year-end reports and plan to share them with the public shortly.      

Benedictis said “Bill and others have made comments about where are we going to find the money for certain things.  It sounds, as a citizen, like we are running right at our limit.”

His second question asked how Culver citizens can follow where the town is with the budget, being able to compare what is budgeted to what is being spent.    Benedictis said he didn’t want to inundate the Clerk’s Office with requests for reports and or figures.  He wondered if there is or could be a place on the town’s website to see the budget quarterly and see what was budgeted and what was actually spent.”

Heim said the town is in the process of updating its website with a new design, so she asked for patience.   She said if there is specific information someone is looking for she said to contact her and she will respond to the request promptly. 

Paul Benedictis said as a citizen coming to a town meeting, and the council is discussing funding a certain purchase, program, project, or such, the citizen doesn’t have access to as much information as the council does so, they are less informed.   

While Paul Benedictis asked Town Council President Bill Clevenger for the answers to his questions, Bill referred the answers to the Clerk-Treasurer.