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Home My WebLink About2012-05-10 Budget Committee MinutesASHLAND CITIZEN BUDGET COMMITTEE MEETING May 10, 2012 - Page 1 of 4 Minutes for the Citizen Budget Committee Meeting May 10, 2012 Civic Center Council Chambers 1175 East Main Street CALL TO ORDER The Citizens Budget Committee meeting was called to order at 6:01 pm. ROLL CALL & INTRODUCTIONS Committee Members David Chapman, William Heimann, Carol Voisin, Chuck Kell, Michael Morris, David Runkel, Russ Silbiger, Denise Daehler, Roberta Stebbins, Lynn Thompson and Mayor John Stromberg were present. Douglas Gentry and Dennis Slattery were absent. Michael Morris arrived at 6:07 pm. Greg Lemhouse arrived at 6:54 pm. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Committee member Thompson/Heimann m/s to approve the April 11, 2012 and April 12, 2012 Grant Subcommittee minutes. Voice vote: all AYES. Motion Passed. PUBLIC INPUT- None APPROVAL OF GRANT PROCESS AND ALLOCATIONS Stromberg/Thompson m/s to accept the Subcommittee recommended Economic, Cultural, Sustainability & Tourism Grant allocations and the grant category allocations consistent with the applicant's proposals with the adjustments made by Staff to ensure the $1,000 minimum award per category is met. Discussion: Committee has concern with the grant process and properly allocating funds based on the requested amount/category ratios. It was suggested that the grant scoring process and application be reviewed prior to the next years grant process. Silbiger has some ideas to improve the process. Stromberg/Thompson m/s to withdraw motion. Stromberg/Silbiger m/s to accept the Subcommittee's recommended Economic, Cultural, Sustainability & Tourism Grant allocations. Voice Vote: All AYES. Runkel/Daehler abstained. Motion Passed unanimously. Discussion: Pointed out that there seems to be a misconception that you can't vote if you weren't on the subcommittee. Stromberg/Keil m/s to approve the grant category allocations consistent with the applicant's proposals with the adjustments made by Staff to ensure the $1,000 minimum award per category is met. Roll Call Vote: Keil, Stebbins, Stromberg, Thompson, Voison, YES; Chapman, Heimann, Morris, Silbiger, NO; Daehler, Runkel, ABSTAINED. Motion Failed 4-5. Runkel/Stromberg m/s to renew the motion that was approved last year requiring that the cultural, economic and tourism grant recipients include in their materials "this program is funded in part by Ashland lodging tax revenues". Discussion: Committee can only recommend that the council take a look at that and also it should be a part of the grant scoring process. It was suggested that going forward maybe each organization should include in their application how they are going to recognize the city as a sponsor. Voice Vote: ALL AYES. Motion Passed. Silbiger/Morris m/s to recommend that the council look at revising the scoring categories for the grant process. Voice Vote: All AYES. Motion Passed. ASHLAND CITIZEN BUDGET COMMITTEE MEETING May 10, 2012 - Page 2 of 4 Silbiger/Runkel m/s to recommend that the council rewrite the Grant application in an easier to use format and to include how the city is recognized. Discussion: Suggestion was made to also look into having the application online. Voice Vote: All AYES. Motion Passed. COMMITTEE DISCUSSION Discussion: The Public Works categories that are blank from last year indicate that those blank positions aren't being filled. 4.15 Total FTE being added this year city wide. Discussion: The SOU revenue received was compared to what was budgeted and it's about 200K more in the general fund. A part of that additional revenue included an increase of 85K in building inspection fees which is enough to increase the 2 existing building inspectors to 1.0 FTE for two years. Another increase in revenues included SDC's which sit in the ending fund balance of their respective fund not the General Fund. Keil/Silbiger m/s to approve the increase for 2 Building inspectors from .8 FTE to 1.0 FTE. Discussion: The total budget isn't increasing; the funds are coming from the General Fund's ending fund balance. Voice Vote: ALL AYES. Motion Passed. Voison/Keil m/s to approve the Fire Department's 8/9 tiered suppression staffingfor a total cost of $78,140. Roll Call Vote: Chapman, Daehler, Heimann, Keil, Lemhouse, Silbiger, Stromberg, Voison, YES; Morris, Runkel, NO. Motion Passed 10-2. Keil/Morris m/s to approve the Fire Department's 8/9 suppression staffing funded through an increase of 7.1 cents in property taxes. Discussion: There was concern expressed over increasing property taxes to fund the Add Package. There was also concern voiced about it not being right to simply rely on another city's fire department and funding through those tax payers. Chief Karnes spoke to the details of the Add Package again. The call load is increasing which is creating the increased need in Mutual Aid. It is estimated that Fire District 5 and Mercy Flights would see a 15% reduction in mutual aid by moving to the 8/9 staffing model. Roll Call Vote: Daehler, Keil, Morris, Silbiger, Stromberg, Voison, YES; Chapman, Heimann, Lemhouse, Runkel, Stebbins, Thompson, NO. Motion Failed 6- 6. Stromberg m/s to call for further question Roll Call Vote: Daehler, Keil, Morris, Silbiger, Stromberg, Voison, Chapman, Heimann, Lemhouse, Runkel, Stebbins, Thompson, YES. Motion Passed 12-0. Discussion: Tax Reduction recommended due to overages in budget. Utility increases are inevitable given the councils adoptions of capital projects. It was said that we should be looking to modestly reduce the property tax burden in light of the potential utility increases. It was suggested that the Parks increased CIP needs to be looked at. Another feeling is that the tax burden is already low and it isn't necessary to reduce property taxes any lower. One thought is that maybe the franchise fees could be lowered rather than lowering the tax rate. Thompson/Lemhouse m/s to approve the property tax rate by .05 cents. Roll Call Vote: Daehler, Keil, Morris, Silbiger, Voison, NO; Chapman, Heimann, Lemhouse, Runkel, Stebbins, Stromberg, Thompson, YES. Motion Failed 5-7. Silbiger/Runkel m/s to reduce the wastewater franchise fee from 8 to 6%. Discussion: The franchise fees are embedded in the rates so it may not lower the rates. 6-Roll Call Vote: Daehler, Keil, Morris, Stebbins, Stromberg, Voison; NO; Chapman, Heimann, Lemhouse, Runkel, Silbiger, Thompson, YES. Motion Failed 6-6. ASHLAND CITIZEN BUDGET COMMITTEE MEETING May 10, 2012 - Page 3 of 4 Stebbins/Keil m/s to approve the Fire departments Plan B Add Package of the tiered 8/9 staffing model with a cost of 73,140 coming from the General Fund ending fund balance. 7-Roil Call Vote: Daehler, Heimann, Keil, Lemhouse, Morris, Runkel, Stebbins, Stromberg, Voison, YES; Chapman, Silbiger, Thompson, NO. Motion Passed 9-3. Voison/Keil m/s to approve the Budget of $102,512,413 with $85,277,295 in appropriations and convey it to Council for adoption. 8-Roil Call Vote: Daehler, Heimann, Keil, Lemhouse, Morris, Runkel, Stebbins, Strimberg, Voison, YES; Chapman, Silbiger, Thompson, NO. Motion Passed 9-3. Keil/Voison m/s to approve the Property Tax Permanent Levy. Total permanent rate is calculated at $4.1972/$1000. Roll Call Vote: Chapman, Heimann, Lemhouse, Runkel, Thompson, NO; Daehler, Keil, Morris, Silbiger, Stebbins, Stromberg, Voison, YES. Motion Failed 5-7. Discussion: Resources are increased and the average property tax reduction wouldn't be enough to amount to a savings. Infrastructure is aging and needs to be considered. Thompson/Runkel m/s to approve the Property Tax Permanent Levy. Total permanent rate is calculated at $4.1972/$1000 minus .05 cents. Also restore $102,000 to the General Fund through a transfer from the Parks ending fund balance. Discussion: There is concern that the city is taking in more money than is spent and it needs to be balanced back through a reduction in property taxes. Mr. Kanner suggests that the committee leave the $350K in the Parks CIP because there are a lot of maintenance items that need to be completed. Mayor Stromberg stated that he feels the Parks department and city council will need to meet up and discuss these issues. He feels like the city needs to honor what has been set forth. Roll Call Vote: Chapman, Daehler, Heimann, Keil, Lemhouse, Morris, Silbiger, Stromberg, Voison, NO; Runkel, Stebbins, Thompson, YES. Motion Failed 9-3. Chapman/Keil m/s to reconsider the Property Tax Permanent Levy. Total permanent rate is calculated at $4.1972/$1000. Roll Call Vote: Chapman, Daehler, Heimann, Keil, Morris, Runkel, Silbiger, Stebbins, Stromberg, Voison, YES; Lemhouse, Thompson, NO. Motion Passed 10-2. Keil/Voison m/s to approve the Property Tax Permanent Levy. Total permanent rate is calculated at $4.1972/$1000. Roll Call Vote: Chapman, Daehler, Heimann, Keil, Morris, Silbiger, Stebbins, Stromberg, Voison, YES; Runkel, Lemhouse, Thompson, NO. Motion Passed 9-3. Lemhouse/Morris m/s to approve the 2005 GO Bond Levy of $296,865. Voice Vote: All AYES. Lemhouse/Morris m/s to Approve the Fire Station #2 GO Bond Levy of $219,011. Voice Vote. All AYES. Runkel/Thompson m/s to approve the Local Option Library Levy of $.1921/$1000. All AYES. WRAP UP Discussion: If we move to Biennial it would be nice to receive the quarterly financial report and meet as a committee to go over those quarterly. Lemhouse/Keil m/s to meet in January/February as a committee to go over Biennial process and to go over the last quarterly report. All AYES. Discussion: Recommend the LOC do a biennial budget presentation. It was requested that the committee be alerted when quarterly reports are available. ASHLAND CITIZEN BUDGET COMMITTEE MEETING May 10, 2012 - Page 4 of 4 ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 8:44 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Tami De Mille -Campos Administrative Assistant