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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2009-01-05 Budget Committee MinutesJOINT BUDGET AND PARKS COMMISSION MEETING JANUARY 5, 2009 —PAGE 1 of 5 ASHLAND BUDGET COMMITTEE ASHLAND PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION MINUTES January 5, 2009 Community Center 59 Winburn Way 7:00 p.m. Joint Meeting CALL TO ORDER: The Joint Budget Committee and Parks Commission meeting was called to order at 7:06 p.m. on January 5, 2009 held in the Community Center located at 59 Winburn Way, Ashland, Oregon. ROLL CALL: Mayor Stromberg was present. Councilors Chapman, Lemhouse, Navickas, Voisin and Silbiger were present. Commissioners Gardiner, Eggers, Noraas, Rosenthal and Lewis were present. Budget Committee members Boenheim, Gregorio, and Thompson were present. Committee Member Slattery and Commissioner Rosenthal arrived at 7:15 p.m. Councilor Jackson arrived at 8:30 p.m. COMMITTEE ABSENT: Committee Members Douma, Everson and Heimenn were absent. STAFF PRESENT: Martha Bennett, City Administrator Don Robertson, Parks Director Steve Gies, Parks Superintendent Rachel Teige, Recreation Superintendent Bryn Morrison, Account Representative Jeff Rehbein, Financial Analyst Melissa Huhtala, Administrative Secretary APPROVAL OF MINUTES Gardiner/Silbiger m/s to approve minutes. All ayes. PRESENTATION BY STAFF: City Administrator Martha Bennett gave an overview of what will be discussed in upcoming meetings and explained that the purpose of the study sessions are to get a better look at how each department operates and how priorities are set. Ms. Bennett explained that at the end of the Budget Process there should be a sense of what needs work and what doesn't. PRESENTATION BY PARKS Parks Director Don Robertson presented the Parks and Recreation Budget Overview. (See Attached). Mr. Robertson explained the Parks and Recreations job is to build the community through people, parks and programs. The benefits provided by Parks and Recreation Department are social benefits, health benefits, environmental benefits, historical benefits, and economic benefits. Mr. Robertson discussed the budget over time. He explained there has been a small growth over the last three years. Whether in increasing costs of benefits or in fuels, the results show that Parks has provided similar services and has been able to hold down costs. The Parks Department has a targeted budget amount of 95% for the current fiscal which includes the Parks, Recreation and Golf Budgets. He explained the majority of Parks revenue comes from Property Taxes, which the City does not see until October or November. Parks has to establish a good carryover for the lean months to ensure that Parks JOINT BUDGET AND PARKS COMMISSION MEETING JANUARY 5, 2009 — PAGE 2 of 5 will have an appropriate operating budget to make payroll, keep the parks clean and other services that Parks provides while waiting for the property tax to come in. Mr. Robertson explained in previous years Parks was able to meet the budget averaging about 92% in expenditures. The expenditure percentage is different this year because the Parks Commission will be able to complete all three Capital Improvement Projects. The three projects include the cleaning of the Upper Duck Pond, construction of North Main Park and the rehabilitation of the Ice Rink. Mr. Robertson discussed the structure of the Parks Department. The three primary areas are Parks, Recreation and Golf. 70% of the budget goes to Parks services, 22% goes to Recreation and 8% goes to the Golf Course maintenance and operations. Mr. Robertson explained the Parks portion of the Budget. Parks Budget is made up of 60.5% for Salaries and Benefits and 39.5% Materials and Services. The Committee questioned if these figures include Food and Beverage Tax. Mr. Robertson answered no; it is only the operating budget. The Food and Beverage Tax goes through the City's CIP Budget. Mr. Robertson discussed Parks and Recreation total Activities Budget which is $6,000,000. He went over how the City's activities compare to other Cities. Each community looks at their resources and determines how to best provide services for each community. Activity standards vary due to city size and location. He explained that Ashland Parks Standard is to have a neighborhood park within every quarter mile radius of every resident. The goal with that standard is to make sure there are no major barriers like highway 66 that would cut off pedestrian access to get to the Parks. Mr. Robertson discussed the functions and organization of the parks. Parks operates on a zone basis for Park maintenance. What the zone basis does is provides efficient use of time and resources and limits the amount of fuel that would be required otherwise. He explained that the zone function establishes areas which staff works in instead of all maintenance staff at one specific location. Mr. Robertson explained the Parks Budget. Parks adopted budget is $3,600,000. This represents what Parks spends on Park maintenance and Operations. Lithia Park utilizes 29% of Parks total resources with in the budget, administration 2 1 % which includes central service fees, Parks portion of the CAP officer, and the funding for park patrol. Outer parks utilize 19% which is the second operation zone. North Mountain Park (NMT) is a separate work group which uses 9% of Parks Resources. The Parks also does contract work. This is done for the City and School Districts. Mr. Robertson discussed the service levels and the number of employees assigned to a certain task. Contracted services have 4.6 fulltime employees (FTE), 2 of which work on boulevards, the plaza, street trees and planting beds. Parks plants around 15,000 plants in the downtown area. The other 2 employees are contracted to maintain the school districts including the High School, Middle School and all 5 of the grade school properties. The .6 position is an employee that works at the hospital and at Lithia Park. Parks Maintenance Districts are Lithia and Outer Parks and use 5 employees. Trails 3 FTE, Shop 3 FTE, Irrigation 3 FTE, Horticulture 2 FTE, Custodial 2 FTE, Golf 2 FTE and there are 2 open positions at this time. Mr. Robertson provided maps showing all City Parks. (See Attached). JOINT BUDGET AND PARKS COMMISSION MEETING JANUARY 5, 2009 — PAGE 3 of 5 Mr. Robertson discussed the Recreation Budget. Parks Recreation Budget is approximately $1,000,000. The revenue is divided into different cost centers. The Programs are split into facility and age group categories. There are adult programs, youth programs, a senior and a nature center. There are facilities such as the Community Center, the Grove, and Pioneer Hall. The special events include the Salmon Festival, Earth Day, and the Bike swap. Also in the budget are the Ice Rink, Daniel Meyer Pool and Administrative Overhead. Mr. Robertson explained how program registrations have increased since 2004-05. This includes registrations for sign up programs only. Mr. Robertson discussed the Parks recovery rates. The commission establishes targets that Parks maintains yearly as part of the Budget process. Parks reviews all fees and charges. Some of the fees and charges the commission has the authority to set itself such as the charges for Parks programs and activities. For other fees and charges such as rent for a facility, Parks has to go to the City Council to establish a rate. Parks is working on bringing recovery rate percentages up. Mr. Robertson discussed the Golf Course Budget. Parks in the past has been operated within a contract. The commission was not satisfied with the results of this contract, and due to poor economic times, Parks is working towards changing the business model of the Golf Course. The Golf Course recovery rate is 83% but the commission set a goal of 100% recovery rate. Parks is looking at different ways to utilize the golf course to bring in non -golfers to use the park. For example cross country track meets, or movies in the park. Mr. Robertson explained the Capital Improvements budgeted and that is $400,000 for the three projects that will be completed during this fiscal year. One of the projects being worked on is the Duck Pond. Parks is trying to find a good system in cleaning the Duck Pond. The duck pond had not been cleaned in 30 years. In the past, Parks would circulate the stream through the pond, since that method was not environmentally friendly; the practice ended which led the pond to have a lot of build up. Mr. Robertson explained the Parks is working on the solution to maintain the cleaning of the Duck Pond by converting over to Talent Irrigation District (TID) instead of using city water. Currently Lithia Park is on City Water Service. By using this irrigation system, Parks will see a significant amount of savings. The Committee questioned where the capital costs come from. Mr. Robertson answered the capital costs come from the capital improvement budget. A significant portion of the $400,000 is being used to complete the Duck Pond project. Another big portion being used is to build North Main Scenic Park. Mr. Robertson discussed that North Main Scenic Park was purchased as part of the Food and Beverage property money and was supposed to be used as a neighborhood park. The Committee questioned if the open space acquisition out of meals tax money was included in this project. Mr. Robertson answered no it is separate. All meal tax money and systems development fee money goes through the City. Parks has money that that has been transferred out and been saved up through out the years for projects. Parks System Development Charges (SDC) have restrictions on what money can be used for. The Committee discussed how the cities CIP budget has an extra amount for capital improvement that falls into the Parks benefits. Mr. Robertson explained that the money comes from 2 sources. One is Food and Beverage money and the other is System Development Charges. The capital improvement plan is $750,000 for this fiscal year, including Food and Beverage money and System Development Charges. The $200,000 that goes into Parks budget from other sources is coming from General Fund dollars over into the specific capital fund. JOINT BUDGET AND PARKS COMMISSION MEETING JANUARY 5, 2009 — PAGE 4 of 5 Mr. Robertson explained that 20% of the food and beverage tax goes to Parks and will be used for acquisition only, 80 % stays with the City and goes to the bond debt service in the sewer plan. Mr. Robertson discussed the Youth Activities Levy Budget. In 2009 there is an adopted budget amount of $457,671. Parks does not see any of that money because it is money that continues to come in from unpaid taxes. The money that has already been collected goes directly to Ashland school districts. Mr. Robertson explained the service reductions Parks has made over the last few years. Youth field trips were cut by 50%, park patrol cut 50%, CSO officer was eliminated, free recreation programs were eliminated and all adult sports league programs were eliminated. Parks is set on achieving the 95% expenditure for the fiscal year. He explained to do so they will fill one of the vacant positions and leave the remaining two vacant positions vacant. Parks is also reducing contract services, and reducing maintenance materials. The Committee questioned the distribution of personnel. Mr. Robertson explained that the positions previously discussed were for Park Maintenance not including Recreation or Part -Time temporary employees. The distribution is about 2/3 Parks, 1/3 Recreation and Administration. He explained that there are 4.6 employees that are Parks employees but paid for by contracts. The Committee discussed the business model changes for the Golf Course. Mr. Robertson explained that the Golf Pro Shop was ran as a full service pro shop with a class A Pro. A teaching Pro which is a contractor for Parks ran the Pro Shop and provided classes and lessons. The Pro collects the green fees and sells the merchandise. The contract established stated that Parks would retain a certain percentage of the green fees. He explained that any money made from equipment or food sold in the Pro Shop would go directly to the Pro. Parks is changing operations by not having a full service pro shop and not hiring a Class A Pro. Therefore, Parks will retain the profits from merchandise sold. He explained another change being made is to expand the use of the building. It will be utilized as a community gathering building. The Committee questioned what the net benefit will be by making these changes. Mr. Robertson answered it should eventually become a recovery rate of 100%. The Committee questioned how to approach the issue of reductions in Parks and Recreation. Mr. Robertson responded that Parks looks at divisions and finds ways to cut down and reach the budget target. It really depends on what the Budget target is. If facilities and land were eliminated, Parks still has the responsibilities that go with the facilities and land. For example, if the Golf Course was shut down, 73 acres of land would still be managed by Parks and Recreation. Expenses would still be incurred, but there would be no golfers nor golf revenue to off set the expenses. The Committee questioned if Parks had to cut 5% what would be cut. Mr. Robertson answered Parks would discuss this with the user groups. The commission will direct staff as to any cuts that may be required. Ms. Bennett discussed how the Study Sessions are important for the Council, Budget Committee, and Parks Committee to come together as part of the decision making process. It is also important to be careful when making decisions and to look at what is core and what is not core. The Committee discussed how Commissioners are responsible to think of the future of the community. The Committee questioned how long a request from the budget committee to cut 5% of the Budget would take. Mr. Robertson responded he would be able to give a response quickly but regardless it takes time to work through a process, however it would be done in time to be incorporated in the budget. The Commission stated that by setting their yearly goals they can be better organized to help make these decisions. JOINT BUDGET AND PARKS COMMISSION MEETING JANUARY 5, 2009 — PAGE 5 of 5 The Committee discussed how Parks has played an important role in the community for years. Ashland is a tourist destination, and much of that is a result of the parks. Statewide initiatives have shifted Budget Committee as the authority instead of the levies that were passed by the voters, so now the Budget Committee has the authority over Parks Budget. The Committee should adhere that them need to not cut further and the tax rate should remain the same at $2.09 for the Parks. Mayor John Stromberg discussed how clinical it can be to control costs. Mayor Stromberg ensured Parks and Recreation Commission that it is critical we take care of our Parks and Recreation in a structured way and everyone should feel secure and will be heard. PUBLIC INPUT Keith Massey, 1615 Peachy Road, Ashland resident for 9 years. Mr. Massey spoke of the food and beverage tax coming up for renewal. He suggested advocating that future meals tax revenues be available for both land acquisition and development. The good thing is having recreational facilities. He proposed Parks Commission and City Council consider allocated '/z-1% of Food and Beverage Tax towards Recreational Facilities Development 1% for park acquisition and an additional '/z-1% for Recreational Facilities Rehabilitation. He added he was not attending or speaking on behalf of the School Board. DISCUSSION BY COMMITTEE The Committee discussed the process of reductions. The process requires thought and interface with constituent groups. By having Study Sessions, the Committee should be able to have meaningful discussions at the assumption stage of the Budget process, rather then defaulting on those decisions. Ms. Bennett stated that Development Related Services will be discussed at the next study session meeting. ADJOURNMENT 8:50 p.m. Respectfully Submitted, Melissa Huhtala Administrative Secretary