Shift of flood funds to port clears board

Victoria Runkle, interim finance director for the City of Fort Smith, speaks during the Fort Smith Board of Directors regular meeting Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2019.
Victoria Runkle, interim finance director for the City of Fort Smith, speaks during the Fort Smith Board of Directors regular meeting Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2019.

FORT SMITH — The Fort Smith Board of Directors took a step Tuesday to help address flood damage at the Port of Fort Smith.

During its meeting Tuesday, the board approved 6-0 an ordinance amending the 2019 city operating budget. The ordinance includes appropriating $2,797,346 in flood insurance reimbursement money that the city received in October to the Fort Smith Port Authority. Fort Smith faced severe flooding in late May and June.

Victoria Runkle, Fort Smith’s interim finance director, wrote in a memo addressed to City Administrator Carl Geffken that the city is still owed about $600,000 from the insurance company for the Port of Fort Smith, as well as up to $10 million between the insurance company and the Federal Emergency Management Agency for all damage. However, the city needs to appropriate the nearly $2.8 million to transfer the funds to the port authority because the city is its fiscal agent.

Geffken said after the meeting that the entire Port of Fort Smith was underwater during the flooding, with much, including new buildings, being “incredibly damaged.” The port is owned by the Fort Smith Port Authority and operated by Marty Shell with Five Rivers Distribution, who also operates the Port of Van Buren.

Runkle wrote that the city is required each year to adjust its various operating funds during the current budget year if necessary. One major change to budgets is routinely made.

“During the budget preparation period, we analyze all expenditures in an attempt to provide end of the year estimates,” Runkle wrote. “End of the year estimates provide monies for available cash balances to be dedicated to other purposes.”

Runkle went on to say that while other revenue will be higher than the original budget, there is not a proposal to increase expenditures, and therefore, no need to modify other revenue to meet new expenditure needs.

“Our goal is to apply very conservative estimating methodologies, thus, the revenues will be higher than expected prior to the end of the year,” Runkle wrote.

Any additional revenue and lower expenditures than originally budgeted, according to Runkle, will result in an increase in the funds’ fund balances.

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