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HomeMy WebLinkAbout12.14.09 Work Session Minutes Council Budget Workshop December 14, 2009 Present: Larson, Donnelly, Fogarty (arrived 6:08 p.m,), May (arrived 6:13 p.m,), Wilson (arrived 6:44 p.m.) Also Present: Peter Herlofsky, City Administrator; Brian Lindquist, Police Chief; Randy Distad, Parks and Recreation Director; Todd Reiten, Municipal Services Director; Lisa Shadick, Administrative Services Director; Brenda Wendlandt, Human Resources Director; Tim Pietsch, Fire Chief; Troy Corrigan, Assistant Fire Chief; Cynthia Muller, Executive Assistant Mayor Larson called the workshop to order at 6:08 p.m. MOTION by Fogarty, second by Donnelly to approve the agenda. APIF, MOTION CARRIED. The purpose of the workshop was to discuss the 2010 budget. Council reviewed citizen responses from the previous Council meeting. Councilmember Wilson had e-mailed a request for further reductions equal to the amount of the street light utility which is $150,000. City Administrator Herlofsky provided examples of tax rates for five properties. The original proposed levy amount had a tax rate of 50,589%. After reductions as of November 9, 2009, the tax rate was reduced to 49.24%, Council reviewed the affect of the tax impacts on five sample properties. (Councilmember May arrived). Council reviewed a spreadsheet showing debt service payments for all bonds. Bonds have been refinanced for a savings of $50,000/year for the life of the bonds. City Administrator Herlofsky also prepared a spreadsheet showing the budget summary, The reductions have reduced property taxes by $151,000. Council was reminded that the additional operating costs for the Senior Center of $50,000, the Senior Center loan amount of $20,000, and additional costs for the School Resource Officer of $30,000 were not to be counted against the budget. Councilmember May stated as far as the Senior Center Operating costs, she recalled there was discussion that some of the revenues would help pay for the additional operating costs. Parks and Recreation Director Distad stated some of it would come from increased fees. To save $75,000 City Administrator Herlofsky suggested operating a pool bus to Apple Valley rather than operating the pool in Farmington. This would allow the liquor store transfer of $75,000 to go to the general fund rather than to the pool. Council Workshop Minutes December 14,2009 Page 2 Councilmember May stated we are looking at spending money on the ice arena. Where do we spend the money - on ice or the pool? Councilmember Fogarty stated we worked hard to get to where Councilmember Wilson wanted the budget to be. She had no interest in closing the pool. The pool and the ice arena are critical assets for the City. Councilmember May noted the City does not offer a lot of other recreational options. Councilmember Donnelly stated both facilities will require some investment. Closing the pool was not received very well previously. City Administrator Herlofsky stated he was satisfied with the November 9, 2009, proposal. This was brought back based on a request for further adjustments, Mayor Larson had no interest in closing the pool. It is well attended and is a necessary activity. Parks and Recreation Director Distad stated Apple Valley has a sale of multiple punch cards which costs $7. We charge $3,50. We would have to pay a supervisor to go on the bus which amounts to $10/hour. Staff planned four hours worth of time driving to and from. Last year the swim bus in Farmington cost $4,000 to run, This would be Monday-Thursday starting in early June through the end of July. Council was not interested. City Administrator Herlofsky stated there is a consensus from the last meeting and those numbers will be used unless there are changes tonight. Councilmember May asked for another workshop to make a plea to the Councilmembers for some substantial spending cuts. Weare shifting money versus looking at substantial cuts. Looking at foreclosure properties, this spring will be tough, We have another tough year ahead of us so she would rather be more aggressive and take a bigger piece now and then anticipate another piece a year from now. She felt Council did not have any concrete conversations about substantial cuts. Mayor Larson was also frustrated. We have not been able to sit down and say what we want to say without being hushed, He spoke with City Administrator Herlofsky about having a closed session to discuss his performance and that would include everything within it in early January. This will not help for this year's budget, but will help for next year's budget. In that setting we can say what we want to say with some limitations. Councilmember May stated she cannot vote yes on this budget. Mayor Larson asked what changes she would like to see. Councilmember May stated 90% of the budget is labor so these meetings are very uncomfortable. In this economy, some are getting step increases and she felt there is a fundamental problem with that. City Administrator Herlofsky stated they have some contractual requirements. Today we reached a tentative agreement with AFSCME. They have made a real attempt to meet us halfway. As far as staffing, what we are proposing is not that different from other communities, Others are also freezing salary schedules. The only increases are step increases and that involves five or six employees. Councilmember May noted it amounts to $60,000. City Administrator Herlofsky stated although employees did get an increase in the beginning of2009, the furlough of 13 weeks negated the 3% increase in the schedule. Employees over two years have kept their salaries the same, Councilmember May noted they will see that increase in 2010. This is because there will not be a furlough in 2010. Councilmember May stated the message she got from the public hearing is that we are increasing fees and we can say we are holding the taxes neutral, but overall residents are seeing an increase, City Administrator Herlofsky agreed it is an increase of $24/year which was to offset the Council Workshop Minutes December 14,2009 Page 3 reduction by the state. In two or three months staff will begin working on the 2011 budget. If Councilmembers want to get into the budget, he urged them to meet with him and ask him how he is utilizing staff and talk to him about how things are going and air their issues. Councilmember Fogarty noted everything in this budget is assuming the state will not ask us for a check. City Administrator Herlofsky stated if that is the case, then the City should levy as much as possible. Councilmember May noted the public is saying cut the services to lower the taxes. Councilmember Donnelly asked which services. They want cuts, but don't want anything to change. (Councilmember Wilson arrived.) Councilmember Wilson asked about the proposal for the reduction of $150,000. City Administrator Herlofsky explained the items that were not to be considered such as the Senior Center and the SRO and closing the pool and using those funds for the general fund. Councilmember Wilson was not in favor of closing the pool. He stated by the time Council gets the budget, staff has had months of productive deliberation. By the time the budget gets to the Council it gets presented as here it is and what are your questions. He felt it was unfair to put Council in that position. He wanted Council to meet with the City Administrator in March or April and formulate their priorities, City Administrator Herlofsky noted he has asked for direction from the Council on the budget and there was not much direction given, Evaluating his performance and the use of staff, etc. might be a basis for Council deciding what they want. Councilmember Wilson felt it was not unreasonable for Council to spend two work sessions and go through the budget page by page. He suggested listing priorities and showing what spending more money would do and reducing core services. He is not confident we are where we could be. Council agreed with setting a closed session for the City Administrator's evaluation on February 8, 2010. Next year Mayor Larson would like to have the budget ready by December 1, 2010, so there is no panic. Councilmember Fogarty heard a couple different times tonight that this is last minute. She left the November 9,2009, meeting with four members agreeing on the budget. Three residents spoke and she has received one e-mail. They have not heard any new information. She felt Council did do their work within a reasonable time. She was not comfortable with taking a 200- page document and going through it page by page. She spends a lot of personal time reading the budget. Every year she meets with the City Administrator and the Finance Director to make sure she understands it. Going through it page by page is not a valuable use of time for all five Councilmembers. As a group they should spend time answering new questions. Mayor Larson stated how to approach the budget can be discussed in the meeting with the City Administrator. Councilmember Wilson noted there was an e-mail from the school district encouraging Council to move forward with the contract for the feasibility report for the ice arena improvements. He considered it to be a surprise that it was on the agenda at the last meeting. This item was asking Council to spend $40,000, Councilmember May felt it was an extremely bad public relations move as she understood a task force was to be formed to work on this. Now we have a $40,000 item we are supposed to vote on and there is no feedback from the task force. We know the ice needs to be repaired. She thought they were moving together as a team and then it's stated if the Council Workshop Minutes December 14, 2009 Page 4 ice goes down it is on Council's shoulders. Mayor Larson stated the task force was for long term planning for the ice arena. City Administrator Herlofsky, the school district and the hockey association are saying they need the feasibility report to know what to plan. Councilmember May stated there was no commitment from the school district or the hockey association. City Administrator Herlofsky stated we received proposals and he wanted Council to know the outcome of those proposals. It is Council's choice as to what to do. Councilmember Fogarty stated Council knew this was coming. We were told the engineering firms would be taking a tour and staff would give us the information. Councilmember Wilson felt there was a difference between information and being asked to spend $40,000. Councilmember Donnelly stated the school district wants the information to know how to go forward, Mayor Larson stated at the meeting with the School Board it was said that a task force would meet and come back with information in January. He felt there was a misunderstanding that there would be information at the last Council meeting. Parks and Recreation Director Distad stated the feasibility report is required by state law because we are issuing debt. Council agreed to bring the contract for the feasibility report back to the December 21,2009, Council meeting. Councilmember Donnelly brought the discussion back to the budget. We have $2 million for debt service, we cannot negotiate that; $4.5 million is for public safety, no one will touch that; $1 million is for parks, no one wants to touch that. If you want to make an impact on the budget you have to cut Police and other things, No one wants to do that. He agreed public safety is number one. He had no interest in meeting from March - October with the City Administrator and discussing the budget; that is what he is hired for. We put so many things off the table, and then added $100,000 for some good causes. He did not think this was last minute, We had this since September. He did not see the value in Council sitting in weekly meetings from June on, The only thing that would make a difference would be to say the Police, Fire, and pool are not protected. Weare holding the line on taxes. There are not a lot of choices without hard choices and no one wants to do the hard choices. Councilmember Wilson state did not suggest weekly workshops. He would like Council to have some input on the budget in a meaningful way. He did not fee the taxpayer gets a break here. Councilmember May stated the fact we have had the budget since November 9, she feels she has not had any input. At the second workshop we started to delve into it. She thought there would be more open discussion as a group. City Administrator Herlofsky will use the budget numbers from the consensus at the November 9, 2009 meeting. MOTION by Fogarty, second by Wilson to adjourn at 7:41 p.m. APIF, MOTION CARRIED. Respectfully submitted, 7~~~ Cynthia Muller Executive Assistant