Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - City Council - 01/03/2011CITY COUNCIL 3 JANUARY 2011 The South Burlington City Council held a regular meeting on Monday, 3 January 2011, at 6:00 p.m., in the Conference Room, City Hall, 575 Dorset St. Councilors Present: M. Boucher, Chair; S Dooley, J. Knapp, F. Murray Also Present: S. Miller, City Manager; R. Rusten, Assistant City Manager; P. Conner, Director of Planning & Zoning; J. Rabidoux, Public Works Director; Chief D. Brent, Fire Department; T. Hubbard, Recreation Director; K. Murphy, City Hall staff; B. Stuono, M. Young 1. Executive Session: Mr. Murray moved that the Council meet in executive session to discuss personnel, contract negotiations and legal issues. Ms. Dooley seconded. Motion passed unanimously. Regular Session: 1. Comments & Questions from the Audience not related to agenda items: No issues were raised. 2. Announcements & City Manager’s Report: Mr. Boucher: Announced that Councilor Emery gave birth to a baby girl. All are doing well. Ms. Dooley: Will be on the School Superintendent Search Committee. Mr. Miller: The VLCT is organizing a meeting regarding TIFs. He, Mr. Rusten and Ms. Murphy will be attending. Mr. Miller will also attend the VLCT meeting on Thursday. 3. Approval of Credit Card Use Policy: Ms. Murphy advised that she had asked VLCT for a model and also looked at models from others in the state to insure that cards are used correctly. Safeguards include record-keeping requirements and the reporting of misuse or misconduct. Guidelines will be set up for giving someone a credit card number and permission for one-time use. Mr. Miller said this practice may not continue in the future. Mr. Murray moved to approve the Credit Card Use Policy as presented. Ms. Dooley seconded. Motion passed 4-0. 4. Selection and Approval of Qualified Pension Attorney Review and Re­state South Burlington’s Retirement Income Plan (RIP) to meet federal re-statement guidelines: Mr. Miller noted that in the third “whereas” the 4th word should read “restate.” Mr. Miller said the recommendation is to select Steward M. McGough of Scolaro, Shulman, Cohen, Fetter & Burstein who was the low bidder at $4500. Mr. Miller noted that the city may asked for a few small changed with a slight increase in the cost. Mr.Murray moved to approve the recommendation of the City Manager to engage the firm of Scolaro, Shulman, Cohen, Fetter & Burstein to do a pension analysis at a bid price of $4500. Ms. Dooley seconded. Motion passed 4-0. 5. Review of FY2012 Budget: Mr. Miller noted the contributions of Department Heads, Division Heads, Janice Ladd, Kelly Murphy, Donna Kinville, Gloria Yandow, and Bob Rusten and the support of the City Council. He reviewed the schedule of budget discussion meetings. It is anticipated that the Steering Committee meeting will be on 25 January and the Town Meeting/Public Hearing on the Budget will be on 28 February. The annual meeting vote on the budget will be on1 March 2011. Proposed General Fund spending for FY2012 is $17,595,573 of which $10,658,308 is to be raised by property taxes. This represents an increase of $870,913 over FY2011 and an assumption of a ½% increase in the grand list. The tax rate to support this budget would be 0.3918, an increase of .0277 (2.77 cents) from FY2011, a 7.62% increase. Mr. Miller said the average home value in South Burlington is $270,000. The increase, if unchanged, would cost that average home owner $74.79 more in municipal taxes. Mr. Rusten said the budget will look a lot different from the past, as they are using the actual general ledger or revenues an expenses. General fund expenditures are up significantly because of a significant deficit in FY2010 and an anticipated deficit in FY2011. “Special Funds” will be shown in this budget. Mr. Rusten said there were more than 100 funds that were showing expenditures and revenues that were not in the actual budget.. These funds will now be run through the actual budget. Mr. Rusten noted that Water Pollution Control shows a reduction in expenditures. They have been in deficit for the last 5 years, and this will have to be addressed to figure out who owes what and to pay it back. The Airport Parkway project is underfunded, and this will also have to be addressed. The $870,00 increase in expenditures includes $130,000 to the Stormwater Utility and $261,000 to pension funding. Mr. Rusten stressed that they cut many budget items to get to the $870,000 figure. Mr. Rusten noted they will be creating a purchase order system and will be looking at standard operating procedures. To prevent overspending of line items, there will be weekly account reviews conducted by the Finance Department. Funds that should be segregated will be segregated. The city will also use enhanced financial management software and will provide departments and the City Council with monthly budget reports. Regarding pension contributions, Mr. Miller said that based on the actuary’s report, the recommendation is 22.4% for non­public safety employees and 25.1% for public safety employees. The total contribution from all department and funds is $1,660,000. Mr. Miller noted that in most of the last 10 years, the city’s contribution to the South Burlington Retirement Plan did not meet actuarially recommended dollar amounts. Mr. Miller also noted that in the past some costs, such as portions of all of the actuary and investment management fees have been paid from pension assets. This has the impact of “financing” these operational expenses over 30 years at 7.5%. This practice will be discontinued immediately. Staffing currently consists of 128 full time, 16 part time, 12 on-call Firefighters, and 40+ seasonal recreation staff members. In FY2012, across all funds there will be at least 8 fewer full time equivalents. Reduction figures are the result of abolishing positions, leaving some positions vacant, and layoffs. In addition, some departments have been reorganized. Notably, what is considered a realistic number of staff positions are shown in the ambulance budget, which makes it appear larger in FY2012, but no positions have been added. Mr. Rusten then addressed general fund payments to the School District. He noted the city has paid $26,938 for community use, $16,981 (+ $1000 wage reimbursement) for school use, $1000 for school bus drivers, $32,609 for grounds management and $250,000 for school resource officers. School buses have also been maintained at the Dept. Of Public Works. There is no indication that the School District has reimbursed the city for city services. Mr. Rusten outlined anticipated program/services reductions as follows: 1. Highway paving 2. High way snow removal 3. Library hours (3 per week, opening at 10 instead of 9:30) 4. Reduction in School Resource Officers 5. Reduction in Planning & Zoning response time due to reduction in administrative staff Other reduction may be forthcoming. There will also be an increase in some “user fees” and charges as follows: 1. Ambulance transport fees 2. Ambulance billing services to other communities 3. Library charges 4. Planning fees (under advisement, and may include signs, legal services, etc.) 5. Parking tickets Mr. Rusten then outlined some cost saving measures that have already been enacted, as follows: 1. Health insurance 2. Retirement income plan conversion 3. Other benefit reductions for management and non-represented staff 4. $150,000 reduction from a “management/staff challenge” The FY2012 budget contains a list of dozens of “special funds” which were previously unrecorded. Some of these have been eliminated or incorporated into the general fund budget. It is expected that more of these funds will be eliminated in the future. The Water Fund Budget for FY2012 shows a proposed budget of $2,323,935. Water user fees are projected to increase by about 16% due to recent deficits. The Stormwater Utility has been in a deficit situation since 2010, and reserve fund have been depleted. Rates have not increased since 2008. It is anticipated that there will be an increase of 31+% in rates. The Water Pollution Control budget for FY2012 is $3,885,000. The department has been in deficit for the last 5 years. There is a proposed increase in user fees of 46.67%. $1,207,555 of the $3,885,000 total fund budget will be used to help pay for the Airport Parkway plant construction cost and debt service payments. Mr. Rusten said the increase in rates is attributable to operating deficits, flawed funding plans for the Airport Parkway plant expansion, and artificially low rates. Mr. Boucher noted that the City Council had been told that the current model and the bond issue were sufficient to pay for the plant expansion. Mr. Miller explained that the city received less in grants than anticipated, and that the final cost was more. That money has to be available at the end of the project to pay the contractor. Mr. Rusten then reviewed the Capital Budget and debt. In FY2010, there will be an acquistionof an ambulance at a cost of $170,000 and three public works vehicles at a total cost of $335,000. Existing debt is $1,576,004 ( from general and enterprise funds) and $750,000 owed for the Quint fire truck (payable at $163,00 a year on a 5-year note. Mr. Miller said the goal will be as much as possible to do vehicle purchasing without incurring interest. Options for City Council consideration were then outlined as follows: 1. Financing pension obligations 2. Further staff/services reduction 3. Conservation funding (possible use for a few years to reduce the tax burden) 4. Rescinding or restating the SAFER grant (would involve having to pay back money received from the grant) Mr. Miller said that goals and objectives include: 1. Changes to the financial management system 2. Prior year interfund transfers 3. Technology 4. TIFs 5. City Center project 6. Workplace Safety Committee (there is a poor Workers Comp history in the city) 7. Employee benefits 8. Relocation/restructuring of office operations Mr. Rusten said the goal was to make the budget more transparent. He cited the help received from unions and union management and from the staff as a whole in trying to address issues. Mr. Stuono raised the question of the fairness of the current water/sewer/stormwater fee structure and suggested it be based on assessed value. He felt the current system results in disincentives to conserve. Mr. Rabidoux said that the percentage of impervious is a portion of the calculation for commercial property. Every residential unit pays the same rate regardless of impervious area. Mr. Murray asked if there has been any indication from the School District as to their budget figures. Mr. Miller said he has raised the question with them regarding things the city pays for and things the School District isn’t paying the city for. There has been no response as yet and no word on their budget. Mr. Murray said that doing the math, it looks like the cost for the tax increase and other fees for the average South Burlington home would be about a $13/month increase over last year. He added that the things that have been discovered have been disconcerting and upsetting and that all the Department Heads, unions, staff, administration, etc., are the silver lining of these clouds. He felt that on thing the City Council got right was hiring Mr. Miller and Mr. Rusten. Mr. Young asked if benefits are paid to part time people. Mr. Miller said that other than one job-share situation, part time people get no benefits other than FICA. Mr. Young asked if there is a local option tax reserve. Mr. Rusten said there is no pot of money. Mr. Miller added that they don’t think all of that reserve has been there for a while, and that is why they are concerned with a deficit in this year’s (FY2010) budget. Mr. Young asked if the road will be put in City Center. Mr. Miller said the city is still trying to get the project permitted. There will be an evaluation of whether there is enough money to get the permits. The city will have to contribute roughly $1,000,000 to the paving. That is why TIFs are being looked at. Mr. Young asked how budget woes will affect the Staples Plaza project. Mr. Miller said that project has not been budgeted. Mr. Rabidoux said no expenditure is anticipated until FY2013. Mr. Murray asked how the school and city tax rates will affect the city’s standing in the County. He noted the city is #8 now as far as costs go, and he didn’t want to get to be #1 and have that affect the real estate market. Mr. Boucher thanked the administrative team for putting together a budget under very difficult circumstances. 6. Review and Approve Minutes of 20 December 2010: Mr. Murray moved to approve the Minutes of 20 December 2010 as written. Ms. Dooley seconded. Motion passed 4-0. 7. Sign Disbursement Orders: Disbursement Orders were signed. As there was no further business to come before the Council, the meeting was adjourned at 9:05 p.m. ____________________________ Clerk Published by ClerkBase ©2019 by Clerkbase. No Claim to Original Government Works.