By Joseph Goral
Staff Writer
jgoral@mihomepaper.com
LAKE ORION — The Lake Orion Village Council approved budget amendments totaling $62,706 on June 24 for the end of the 2023-24 fiscal year.
The village is required by law to balance its budget before the end of the fiscal year, according to village Manager Darwin McClary. Doing so makes sure the village has funds to cover any expenditures it spent in the previous budget cycle.
In this case, the largest adjustment adding money to an account was made to the contract services police overtime account in the police fund.
The reason for the adjustment is listed as to cover patrol costs of May and June 2024, according to village documents. The adopted budget for this account was $223,183, while the amended budget is $283,283 – a $60,000 expenditure change.
The second largest adjustment adding money listed on village documents was to cover overtime due to an officer shortage. The village’s adopted budget was $14,000 and its new amended budget is $46,000 – an expenditure change of $32,000. This adjustment was also in the police fund.
The village contracted temporary patrol services with the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office in December while going through the process of hiring new fulltime Lake Orion police officers.
“Some of it is being funded through reductions and other line items in the police budget,” McClary said. “Because of the fact that we didn’t have full-time employees, fringe benefit costs and stuff were considerably less than we had budgeted for. So, some of that money was taken from those line items. The remainder was taken from fund balance appropriation.”
Also in the police fund was the third largest adjustment adding money. It included a $16,500 expenditure change to the clerk’s wages account for a retirement payout. The adopted budget was $45,056 and the amended budget is $61,556.
Other large additions to balance accounts in the police fund included $4,000 for overtime and $12,100 in the “enforcement” account.
The largest reductions in the police fund to balance accounts were to the “Health Insurance Medical” account, $43,000, and the pension account, $19,000.
The water and sewer fund included an addition of $14,000 to the “contract services” account and a $14,100 reduction in the engineering account to balance the accounts.
These are the 2023-24 fiscal year’s final budget amendments, said McClary. The fiscal year ended June 30.