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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04.13.11 Work Session Minutes City Council Workshop Minutes Parks and Recreation Budget April 13, 2011 Mayor Larson called the workshop to order at 3:12 p.m. Present: Larson, Bartholomay, Donnelly, May Absent: Fogarty Also Present: Randy Distad, Kellee Omlid, Missie Kohlbeck, Randy Petrofske, Cynthia Muller MOTION by Donnelly, second by Bartholomay to approve the agenda. APIF, MOTION CARRIED. Information was presented on per capita spending for all City departments and parks and recreation operations and maintenance for a year. Parks and Recreation Director Distad also presented a Strategic Revenue Plan from 2002 - 2007 for the Parks and Recreation Department. This was created in 2006. It identifies the amount of money the City wanted to recover in fees and charges versus expenses. Apple Valley and Rosemount do not charge fees for their programs; all are 100% subsidized by taxpayers. Staff asked if Council would like to have this document updated. Mayor Larson would like to see more of the arena expenses covered by fees. Currently approximately 80% of the expenses are covered by fees. Staffwill be looking at having more part-time staff at the arena rather than full time. Councilmember Donnelly noted after an event at the arena, staff is there for another 1.5 hours cleaning it up. He asked if that could be done the next morning. Staff explained the arena is not staffed until the afternoon. Those same employees also do building maintenance, so if there is a maintenance emergency, the arena would not be ready for the next event. Council understood. Council agreed with updating the revenue plan and suggested adding to it every year and using it as a working document. Staff wanted Council to reach a comfortable level with the percentages and that is where the budget would be. If revenue is increased, then expenses would increase based on percentages. Councilmember May felt recreation programs are important, but ifwe are faced with a very difficult budget you have to go back to the basic question of what are needs and what are wants. If the taxpayer is subsidizing 70% ofrec programs, that would be a want. Parks and Recreation Director Distad explained this year they split out rec programs from administration. The rec program budget now reflects the direct cost of the program. Park and Recreation Administration Budget - This includes half of the Director's time, half of the Senior Center Coordinator's time, and all of the Recreation Specialist's time. It does not include part-time or seasonal staff; this is under recreation programs. Supply costs have been reduced because they relate to programs and are under the programs budget. The number for IT services is provided by Human Resources/IT. It provides money for future replacement of computers, and support from our IT person. Council asked that Human Resources provide information on how this number is determined. New cell phones will be provided this year and next year at no cost through the state contract. 13 Council Park & Roo Budget Workshop April 13, 2011 Page 2 Regarding outside printing, there are three seasonal park and rec brochures that go to the public. They are mailed to the entire school district. Mayor Larson stated in the Council retreat, it was suggested mailing a postcard telling people the brochure is online. Staff stated another city tried this and they lost almost their entire department because people did not sign up for programs. Residents call and stop in for the brochure. Councilmember Bartholomay suggested having a Q.R code on the brochure. This can be scanned with a smart phone and it will bring up the web page. Rather than not having a brochure, Parks and Recreation Director Distad suggested combining publications such as the City Newsletter and the Parks and Recreation brochure and send it out four times a year. With combining resources, a better quality brochure could be produced. Councilmember Bartholomay asked if a special code could be placed in each book for people to enter to determine how many are actually using the brochure. Currently 10,000- 11,000 brochures are sent out. Staff would have to work with the online registration company to see if this would work. The survey said 80% of the respondents use the brochure. Councilmember May asked ifwe could eliminate the calendar and combine it with the brochure. Staff cautioned there would be too much information. That was the reason for not combining with Community Ed is the brochure would be very thick and cumbersome to fmd programs. The calendar is done once a year and is covered through advertising. Staff has worked hard to get advertising to supplement the cost of mailing the Park and Rec brochure. One year staff brought in $2,000 in advertising revenue, but each year varies. Council reached a consensus to look at the cost for combining the Park and Rec brochure and the City Newsletter. Staff should also check with the online provider regarding a tracking code. Council also asked that staff check around for printing costs. Recreation Program Budget - Personnel costs are for seasonal staff. Programs are not run if a minimum number of people are not registered. Ifmoney is left at the end of the year, it is because programs were cancelled. Program collaboration is also done with South of the River communities. Umpires and officials are also paid from this fund. Councilmember Donnelly asked about the Empire fields. Staffhas been in contact with them, but Empire wishes to remain separate from Farmington. Rambling River Center Budget - This is a special revenue fund. The pool and the Rambling River Center are set up as a recreation operating fund together. The Finance Director is working on separating them out. The Rambling River Center Advisory Board has begun talking about membership fees for next year. Councilmember May felt the seniors understood that with a new building the fees would increase as that was discussed. Staff stated some seniors understand and some don't. Those that did not want to pay the increased fees did not join again. The fees doubled in 2010. Before moving to the new building membership was at 540, now it is 430. The people who have joined are younger, more active and are using the center more often. The revenue stayed approximately the same because ofthe increase in the fee amount. The fewer members, the fewer number ofvolunteers. Last year there was 4,000 hours in volunteer time which is equivalent to two full time staff. Council did not want to lose any more members and suggested it would make more sense to increase the fees on programs rather than the membership fee. Councilmember May recalled it was discussed to use it as a teen center. Staff noted we have less staff doing more and it is difficult to fmd the time to get something up and running. Staff had planned on using CDBG funding for a part time person at the center. This person would have done some programming to include teens. Staff's goal is to get the 14 Council Park & Rec Budget Workshop April 13, 2011 Page 3 fundraising done. There is approximately $23,000 left to raise and funding is starting to drop off. Councilmember May asked ifwe are missing a demographic that could bring in those dollars. She saw an article in the newspaper about the train room, which is nice, but it is a whole room. Staff stated the room is unfmished in the back of the building. Councilmember May stated the building was to have multiple uses. Staffhas wanted to go in that direction, but it is a work in progress. The teens are enjoying the all night game night on Fridays. To have a staff person there for that is unrealistic. Mayor Larson agreed the teen center would require more staff. Teens will not come from 3:00 - 6:00 p.m.; they will come from 7:30 - 11 :30 p.m. Councilmember Bartholomay stated we can dictate when the teens can be there. It would foster relationships between seniors and teens. Mayor Larson will mention fundraisers more at Council meetings. Councilmember Bartholomay asked ifwe would have to have paid stafffor a teen center. Staff stated you would not have to, but it would be difficult to get volunteers to work with teens. Council stated there are a number of high school groups that could be contacted to help with fundraising. Cleaning of the Rambling River Center building is done by the cleaning company five days a week because of the nightly rentals. The City does not have staffavailable to do that work. The frequency of cleaning can be adjusted with the cleaning company. Councilmember May noted Council will be recommending not cleaning everyday. If the building begins to not look as nice, that is where staff has to pitch in a little such as emptying own garbage. HR!IT is also included for the Rambling River Center and staff should advise how that number is obtained. In the budget for all areas, Council would like it noted if an item is covered elsewhere in the budget. Staff also brought up for consideration, the CDBG grant was to have covered a part time staff person at the center. The money being saved with a new cleaning company will be significant. Staff at the Rambling River Center felt they would benefit more from a part time person doing the cleaning at night and have them on duty for night rentals. Council agreed with this. Liquor Operations - There is a budget for the Pilot Knob store and the downtown store. The building rent for the downtown store is $155,000. If the City built a building, we could retire the debt within ten years. At the Pilot Knob store in November 2004, they leased 4800 sq. ft. In 2005 the landlord had an adjacent space to add another 2200 sq. ft. for a total of7000 sq. ft. The cost to rent the building went up proportionately. The price is $19/sq. ft. The City pays $15,500/month for Pilot Knob, and $13,OOO/month for downtown. Tamarack, although not a good location, has 5,000 sq. ft for $10/sq. ft. Commercial rental charges are going down. Parks and Recreation Director Distad stated they have told the landlord twice they don't want the extra space to save $40,000. The lease is up in November 2011. The original lease was for seven years. Staff has proposed a four year lease with an option to opt out at that point or renew for three years. Councilmember Bartholomay asked about the lot with the house adjacent to Hill Dee Park. Staff stated that is spot zoning which is not allowed. Mayor Larson stated this is one of the most important things in the budget. The leases cost us a lot of money. We need to be in the driver's seat. Councilmember Donnelly stated the whole Park and Rec budget is less than the amount ofthe lease. Mayor Larson stated for the Pilot Knob store, we need to reduce the square footage for the wine cave and we are not paying $19/sq. ft. If 15 Council Park & Roo Budget Workshop April!3,2011 Page 4 the landlord does not like it, we will fmd somewhere else to go. We will have to be ready for it. This should have been done last year when the market was bad. Councilmember May asked about moving to just one store. Staff stated you do not want the Pilot Knob location to go away. There is a location behind CVS. Mayor Larson wanted staff to talk to the CVS landlord so we have something in our pocket to negotiate with. Mayor Larson wanted staff to have some intense negotiations very quickly. We need to act or get out. Councilmember May stated another card is to get out of the business. Ifwe are not going to make money, we are not going to be in the business. Staff stated there is money to be made and the City needs the revenue. Mayor Larson wants to stay in that area, does not want the wine cave, and does not want to pay $19/sq. ft. Councilmember Bartholomay suggested checking on the zoning where the house is located next to the park. Councilmember May asked about the CVS space. It is 5,000 sq. ft. Staffhas been looking everywhere. Councilmember Donnelly suggested moving to the CVS space even if it is temporary rather than paying $19/sq. ft. Staff stated if we reduce the cost for three years and have a good location, we will be better off than we are now. Staff is waiting for Jon Einess, current landlord to call. Mayor Larson directed staff to negotiate the best deal they can, then bring it to Council and check on the CVS space. Staff is trying to reduce expenses and have shifted from higher paid staffat $15/hourto $10/hour. Also to reduce costs, rugs were purchased for the stores rather than using Cintas. Not as much inventory is ordered and is turned over more often. Councilmember Donnelly would like a profIt and loss sheet for the liquor stores and put it in the general fund and everything will wash out in the end. Councilmember May would like to have transfers done at the end of the year so Council can see how various funds are doing. Staffkeeps saying it is easier to track if money is moved more often, but Council does not understand. Lakeville stores have flyers stating what the profIts go towards. Staff is working on a framed flyer for the liquor stores showing this information. Transferring money to Park and Rec was a policy decision made several years ago. It was 50% of the profits from the liquor store go to Park and Rec and 50% would stay with the liquor store. Mayor Larson would like to have something very simple showing liquor store expenses are here and revenues are here and this much is transferred out. Where ever it goes, put it there, but we need something simple where everyone can see what was transferred out. This will be brought up in Finance budget workshop. Mayor Larson suggested having a workshop to discuss just the downtown liquor store once the Pilot Knob store is settled. Staff cautioned Council when they are talking about the liquor stores they need to be careful. It sends a message to the public and people come in asking if we are going out of business. The comments have hurt business. Staff is trying to fmd a positive approach to comments. Everyone needs to send a positive message to help business. Councilmember Donnelly agreed, that what we say in workshops is to work things out, but during roundtable one person says we should get out of the liquor business and the Mayor asks residents to support the liquor store. That is a mixed message and not positive. Council receives a lot of calls regarding trail plowing. The trails are plowed before the road, then when the road is plowed, the trail is full and needs to be plowed again. We need to get a 16 Council Park & Rec Budget Workshop April 13, 2011 Page 5 better handle on that. Residents also complain about no weekend trail plowing. Staff stated give us the money and secondly, ifthe trails are not plowed fIrst, with the snow from the road it is extremely hard to get it off. Also, when staff is going to plow the rinks, they plow the trail on the way to the rink. MOTION by Donnelly, second by Bartholomay to adjourn at 5:10 p.m. APIF, MOTION CARRIED. Respectfully submitted, Cynthia Muller Executive Assistant 17