Council trio holds up final adoption of $62.5M budget

No heads rolled, but Councilman Cesar Parada rustled up enough political might to stymie the budget approval on the basis that his demands for the creation of a public works director had been ignored. Joined by Councilmen Joe Diaz and Ramon Felix, the vote was tied 3-3. Mayor Arturo Garino and Council Members Nubar Hanessian and Esther Melendez Lopez voted in favor. Councilwoman Olga Valdez did not attend. He said although the issue was not on the next day’s council agenda, “there is a disconcertingly strong indication derived from our investigation to date that the potential termination of Mr. Kissinger’s employment may be brought up sua sponte,” which is a Latin term indicating in this case the council would proceed on its own volition. Operational deficiencies in the public works department have long plagued the city, which has seen one after another director come and go. More recently, Flavio Gonzalez resigned in April to take a job in the private sector. Instead of replacing Gonzalez, Dille came up with a plan to stick with three supervisors as a “management team” to oversee the departments’ divisions. From those three, a leader would emerge to oversee the department based on his or her performance and qualifications. Felix told Dille, “Councilman Parada has been asking you to replace or do something with the public works director and you haven’t done anything to that effect. We have a lot of problems there. I don’t see anyone tackling the problems. Every day it just seems to be escalating. We need to do something about it. The way you’re trying to do it may be one good way. But we do need a public works director.” Diaz had two bones to pick. First he spoke against a line item showing that the pay for Senior Cemetery Grounds Keeper Francisco Lopez had been docked – by $1. “It’s not much, but it is a cut.” Finance staff pointed out that the calculations on the Excel formula used for the budget simply rounded off the numbers and that Lopez’s pay remained unchanged. Once that matter was cleared, Diaz said he wondered how long it would take to amend the budget to include a public works directors’ position. Dille said it was simply a matter of placing on a future agenda a resolution to do so. He asked that the budget not be held up any further. But nevertheless, Diaz joined Parada and Felix to nix the budget adoption.

How to set a budget in Excel

Excel is a very useful tool if you want to keep track of your finances and be in control of your budget. Setting up a budget in Excel is a great idea, particularly for people who are totally disorganized and spend more than what they earn simply because they don’t have a clear picture of their financial situation. Besides, Excel can be a great substitute of any complicated financial planning software you may find in the market that requires more time to learn and deal with.

Many people think that setting up an Excel budget is difficult and requires a great deal of knowledge. Especially, if you have never had a budget before, you may be feeling intimidated by the prospect of using Excel. However, things are not so complicated. If you use an Excel spreadsheet to track your income and expenses, you have to be honest and plug in real numbers so that you derive an outcome that portrays your real financial situation.

A) Expenses

Typically, a complete Excel budget should include the following categories:

Housing

Under this title you can include mortgage or rent (include home equity loans as well); second mortgage or rent; phone; electricity; cable TV; gas; water & sewer; supplies; waste removal; maintenance/repairs; and other.

Transportation

Under this title you can include car payments; car insurance; fuel expenses; maintenance/repairs; bus/taxi fares; licensing and other.

Insurance

Under this title you can include home insurance; health insurance; life insurance and any other type of insurance you may have.

Food

Under this title you can include groceries; dining out and other food-related expenses.

Children

Under this title you can include medical expenses; clothing; school tuition; school supplies; lunch money; child care; toys/games; and other.

Pets

Under this title you can include pet food expenses; medical expenses; grooming expenses; toys; and other.

Personal Care

Under this title you can include medical expenses related to personal care; hair/nails; clothing; dry cleaning; health club; and other.

Entertainment

Under this title you can include video/DVD; cds; movies; concerts; sporting events; live theater; and other.

Loans

Under this title you can include personal loans; student loans; credit card expenses and other loans.

Taxes

Under this title you can include federal taxes; state taxes; local taxes and other.

Excel 2010 Formulas

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Using cell references in your formulas makes it easier to make changes to your budget. When you change any of the data, Excel automatically recalculates the ...

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... function Working with Formulas and Functions Developing a Budget Case | Drake ... Diane has set up an Excel workbook and entered the take-home pay from ...

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Tutorial 3 Objectives Session 3.1 • Copy formulas • Build formulas ... Formulas and Functions Developing a Budget Case | Drake Family Budget Diane and Glenn ...