Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout051115 CBC Minutes Budget Committee Meeting DRAFT minutes May 11,20156:00pm Civic Center Council Chambers, 1175 East Main Street CALL TO ORDER The chair called the meeting to order at 6:00pm ROLL CALL Present: David Runkel John Stromberg Greg Lemhouse Rich Rosenthal Arrived at 7:15 Pam Marsh Mike Morris Carol Voisin Stefani Seffinger Mary Cody Traci Darrow Garrett Furuichi William Gates Pamela Lucas Shaun Moran Other Attendees: Dave Kanner Budget Officer/City Administrator Lee TunebergFinance Director Kristy Blackman Administrative Assistant APPROVAL OF MINUTES DATED: None PUBLIC INPUT The following members of the public spoke during public input in support of Voisin’s add package being the proposal for a Solar Energy Park. JeffSharp, 533 Fordyce St, Ashland OR 97520–applauded the city and its staff for the budget preparation and their hard work. Referred to the House Bill 3470 Carbon Tax Bill that would impact fuel costs and lent his support proposed solar parkand believes that this would compliment the City Sub Station projects S3 &S4A that were a part of the 10 year electrical planning study. JerryPaschen(on behalf of Syd Pashcen) representing Green Energy Windpower, 865 Oak St, Ashland OR 97520 -asked for his question from last 17 Page of week to be answered –is the City of Ashland in a long term contract with Bonneville Power? Steve Maryanoff, 654 Oak St, Ashland OR 97520 -Asked how long the act of not incentivizing energy savingshas been a part of Citypolicy. He also noted that he is not satisfied with AFN. Huelz Gutcheon , 2253 Hwy 99, Ashland OR 97520–believes new staff are needed to facilitate the new solar park who are experienced with this project. Chair recommendedmoving the Electric Department’s presentation to the beginning of the group inorder to field questions for public interest. ELECTRIC MarkHolden & Dan Hendrix presentedthedepartment’s budget as presented in the proposed BN2015-2017 Budget document. Questions from the Committee Stromberg asked if any systems are stillusing aluminum conductors. Holdenanswered some are. The biggest issue in the past has been copper. He went on to explain that part of the 10 year study is to measure the carrying capacity andreceive recommendation of whether theyshould upsize conductors. Voisin asked if she hadsolar on her roofand it was producing a lot of energy,can she sell excess energy back to the city? Holdenanswered yesif she was on a net meter anything that is not used and comes back and the utility and the City will pay for the first 1000kwhours at 11/4 times the retail rate. Beyond that your rate drops to what we pay as a wholesale ratewhich is3/10s ofa cent. Runkle asked for clarification on smartgrid technology.Holden explained that meter reading technologywas the forbearerand that in our technology everything is being connected sowe can gather all that information and tune the systemto gain optimum performance.He noted that in terms of the customer the individual can monitor in real time however, this ability wasquitesome timeaway. He went on to explain that progress stopped at AMR and now there is a new technology called AMI. Runkel asked what the timeline was. Holden answered thiswill beapproachedin this next biennium. Morris asked if it is the City’sgoal to go to demand based structure. Holden answered yesthey wouldwhenthey have the meters to supportthat.Morris asked whenpeak demandsoccur. Holden answered from 7am–8am and 6pm –7pm. Seffinger asked if there were any plans to extend underground cables. Holden answered new construction iscommonly undergroundand they haveno plans to replace overheads with these. Morris referred to 3-138 and asked if those Materials and Serviceswerecharges. Holden answered they are transmissions. Morris referredto pg4-59and asked what the donationsare. Tuneberg explainedthis relates to the heat program. Stromberg asked how you donate to thatprogram. BrynMorrisonanswered the heat program is a onetime $100 donation. Runkel asked if the solar park program had beenpresented to their department. Holden answeredno. Runkel asked what their reaction is to the concept. Holden responded it is 27 Page of hard to say at this point andnoted they area distribution, nota supply company and as long as it’s low cost and green, theyare okay with it. Gates asked if the City hasrenewable energy standards. Holden answerednot that he isawareand that theirs isconsidered 87%which is84% hydro 3% wind. Voisin asked what the prediction of BPA in the ratesis.Holden explained that this is a controversial subject, BPA are being hit hard by customers complaining about rate increases. Voisin asked if they are at competition with naturalgas. Holden responded yes. IT Mike Holden & Dan Hendrix presentedthedepartment’s budget as presented in the proposed BN2015-2017 Budget document. Questions from the Committee Runkel asked what Holdenfeels is the most pressing issue. Holden responded the network then voicemail. Furuichi asked for clarification of revenues on pg3-24 for BN2015-2017 under Charges for Servicestotaling $6.9 millionand asked if revenues flow through the telecommunications fund on pg 4-63.Tuneberg noted that these are combined for telecommunications and IT. (Inaudible) Kanner pointed out that the $400,000 isan interfund loan from the reserve fund for next phase of AFN business plan and this is part of the capital outlay. Seffinger asked if thenew voicemailwouldincludevoicemail for councilors. Hendrix answered the capability would be there. IT TELECOMMUNICATIONS Mike Holden & Dan Hendrix presented thedepartment’s budget as presented in the proposed BN2015-2017 Budget document. Questions from the Committee Moran referred to pg4-64 under telecommunicationsfund charge for service of $4.3 million an increase of 11% and asked for justification.Holden responded as shown in the business plan, expected revenuewillincrease because of; Better product after upgrade Cost structure is better and more competitive Better customer service Moran asked how they plan to penetrate theremaining untapped market in Ashland. Holden answeredby having abetter cost structure and offering incentives. Stromberg addedthere is a turn over incustomer base all the time and new customers come to the City for utilities thereforethey can sign up for AFN. Marsh noted there are twoprojectsin the strategic plan and asked if this budget accommodates those. Holden responded no,this is just the internet project. Marsh asked how the fund transfer has gone from $250,000 to $400,000. Holden explained that is costs $250,000 for the technology and $150,000 in operational expensesand they will have overlapping costs as theyswitch providers. Marsh asked what the total cost of the project is. Holden replied $400,000 and noted this was talked about in the strategic plan. 37 Page of Gates asked what theadvantage is for customers. Holden respondedbetter service for the customersand less bottlenecks streaming quality. Moran asked how longAFN has been running and if they have made a profit. Kanner responded hadthey not been paying$1.2 million a year indebt servicethey would have and explained the telecommunications fund pays $400,000 of the debt whilethe remainderis spread amongstthe electric, general, water and wastewater funds and won’t be paid off till 2024. Kanner addedhe believes this should be kept going and kept competitive. Stromberg noted the roll outof AFNwas internally funded and ran up and internal debt of $15.5 million and as a result the City had to issue bonds which the city must pay off regardless. Morris asked how they will guarantee the quality of service will stay the same. Holden answered that they employ an engineer to come once a year and tune the service. Seffinger wondered if Ashland residents are aware that by signing up with AFN they are helping with the debt service. Holden noted that in the marketing campaigns staying local is mentioned. Stromberg noted he has been periodically proposing this. CITY RECORDER Barbara Christensen presented the department’s budget as presented in the proposed BN2015-2017 Budget document. Christensen thanked staff and thecommitteefor their support. Questions from the Committee Furuichi asked if you can you legally charge 50¢per merchant transaction. Christensen responded, by law as a municipal government theycannot and if theydid they would have to charge everyone the same regardless of payment type. Furuichi then asked what the discount rate is for merchant services. Christensen responded about 3.5% ADMINISTRATION Dave Kanner presented the department’s budget as presented in the proposed BN2015- 2017 Budget document. Kanner acknowledged members of the administrationteam who were present being, DavidLohman/City Attorney, Tina Grey/HR Manager, Ann Seltzer/Management Analyst, Adam Hanks/Management Analyst,VanessaBidwell/Court Clerkand Judge Pam Turner. Questions from the Committee Moran askedwhat the increase in fringe benefits was.Kannerrespondedthe biggest increase isinHealth Benefitscosts. The City budgeted for a 5% increase but will not take that if the plan continues to do well. Kanner explained the employee contribution aspect of the plan and noted that the 5% paid by employees of the premium is contractual. Marsh asked for clarification of contractual services. Kanner noted budget to budget there is a slight decrease and explained this is the cost of thirdparty administrative servicesand stop lossinsurance. He stated he is unsure why they only budgeted 47 Page of $282,000 in the first BN because the actual cost was considerably higher.He noted that he is cautiously optimistic that the actual cost will be lower. Furuichi referred to bottom of page 3-16 –premiums claims and judgments and asked if this will be about the same each year. Kanner answered this will be slightly higher. COURTS Judge Pamela Turnerpresented the department’s budget as presented in the proposed BN2015-2017 Budget document. Turner explained that her remarks are limited to the code and gave the committee a hand out of the Oregon Code of Judicial conduct. Questions from the Committee Marsh asked why there weremore cases completed thanfiled in 2014.Vanessa Bidwell answeredthis is a result of reconcilingold cases. Seffinger noted that fees are down in 2015and asked if it is feasible to continue operating.Judge Turner believes that the court runs on a thinbudget and that her staff work hard and are needed. Cody noted that most of the cases are municipalcode violationsand asked what kind of cases the courtseesthe most of. Turner notedwhilepeople can come into the court; the majority of cases arehandled at the counter. FIRE John Karns,Terry Eubanks,Chris Chambers,Margueritte Hickman&Greg Case with the aid of a slideshow, presented their department’s budget as presented in the proposed BN2015-2017 Budget document. Questions from the Committee Stromberg noted employees overlappingin responsibility coupled with demands for transport increasingmeans a need to look at fundamentalpolicydecisions. He believes the budget hasn’t been able to determine needs because of this. Seffinger asked about slip and fall assessments and what this means for keeping seniors in the home. Karns responded by outliningthe slip and fall programexplaining that they offer clients home assessments after a slip and fall. Morris asked why responsetimeshavedeclined.Karns answered staffing can contribute to this but statisticscan be skewed with varying situations however,for the most part they are steady. Rosenthal asked what would happen if the city chosetowithdraw from transport.Karns noted that staffing targets couldbe loweredand that some revenue would be lost. Rosenthal asked in regard to the add packages that were not approved, which would be Karn’s most important one. Karnsanswered staffing. Runkel asked what overtimecosts were and if theywere under control. Karns answered that they are non discretionary. Runkel asked if there was a savings cost in overtime if they added a new position. Karns answered this would be an additional position on a shift. Moran asked aboutthe15%increase in chargesfor service. Karns noted it is ambulancerevenueand explained that the County dictates the ratesand they would be 57 Page of asking for a $100 increase.He saidthe last timethey did thisit netted $19 per callbut most of the ambulancerevenueis paid by private insurance. Voisin asked how servicesbalance betweenthe cities. Karnsanswered that fire and rescue are fairly even. Stromberg talked to overtime and dual mission of medicaltransport and firefighting. He stated it seems intuitiveif the City wereable to get out of that business and have a provider take over for that, we would be more effective and efficient in firefighting as well as benefit from reduced overtime. Karns agreed. Kanner noted that ambulance transport is a net revenue generator and if it went away the Citywould need to fill that gap with another service. Stromberg understands but feels that quality of staff time is more important. Believes there istoo much overtime. Marsh askedwhat the impact would be onthe community.Karns answered the City provides excellent transport serviceandthe event of thisbeing dissolvedthere would be longer wait timesdue toless ambulance inventory. Voisin asked for gross revenue of the ambulances. Kanner responded $250,000to $ 300,000a year. Darrow asked if they have broken out the diversions. Karns said while he can’t quote the figures accurately it is cyclic, several daily and that in the 2013 calendar year to 2014 it almost almost tripled. Darrowstated she agrees with Stromberg in regard to looking at Ashland Community Hospitalsand how staffing levels effect emergency services transport. Seffinger asked if the ambulance services would be out of Medford or Ashland. Karns answered theywould be stagedin Ashland.Seffinger asked if the limited servicescould result in fatalities.Karns responded there could be some delays. Seffinger asked if the department would beinvolved in the visitor center. Karns answeredit depends on the severity of the call. Seffinger asked if all firefighters aretrained as paramedics. Karns responded they are. Gates referred to pg 3-72 and noted increasesin request for training. Karns explained this is a goal to provide oneweek long trainingeventfor line personneland multiple trainingsfor officers.Gates asked with regard tocall loadincrease, what is the increase and what are the nature of these calls. Karns answered they generate around 3,600 calls a year and approx 70% are strictly EMS in nature. Gates asked howadditional responsibilities inthe interface mitigation haveaffected the manning and the cost of the department. Chambers responded that it doesn’t impact the line personnel. Voisin asked Karns if it concerns him that hisstaff hasdualresponsibilities. Karns responded no, it is very common across the country and at entry level testing the City won’t even accept candidates unless they are certified medics. Stromberg asked when is it that youdecide the model being usedisn’t a viable model. Karnssuggested that thismight bea policy decision to be discussed separately. Runkel asked where the extra $1million came from. Chambers explained $2.16million came from a joint grant from the Forest Service and the USDA NaturalResource Conservation Service and an additional $1million came from the hazardous fuels budget in the Forest Service as a result of lobbying. ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES 67 Page of Lee Tuneberg, Administrative Services & Finance Director presented the department’s budget as presentedin the proposed BN2015-2017 Budget document. Questions from the Committee None Tuneberg thanked staff and the committee for their support. A question was submitted by Elizabeth Paschenduring the meeting and it was explained that someone would contact her with an answer. Her question was “Is there a commitment in council to achieve an increasing proportion of the electric power budget from nature’s gift of wind?” ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 9:17pm Respectfully submitted Kristy Blackman Administrative Assistant 77 Page of