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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - City Council - 01/13/2011CITY COUNCIL 13 JANUARY 2011 Draft The South Burlington City Council held a budget workshop on Thursday, 13 January 2011, at 6:00 p.m., in the Conference Room, City Hall, 575 Dorset St. Councilors Present: M. Behr, Chair; S. Dooley, M. Emery, J. Knapp Also Present: S. Miller, City Manager; R. Rusten, Assistant City Manager; D. Kinville, City Clerk; J. Everitt, Superintendent of Schools; A. Clift, School Board; P. Conner, Director of Planning & Zoning; K. Murphy, City Hall staff; Chief D. Brent, Fire Department; T. Hubbard, T. Goodwin, Recreation Department; L. Murphy, J. Kochman, A. Von Ohlsen, Community Library; E. Robenstein, J. Baird, D. Fleming, D. Wilber, S. Hopkins, J. Wilking, T. Moore 1. Budget Workshop to Review FY2012 Budget: a) Recreation Department: Mr. Hubbard said the budget represents true costs, including Worker’s Compensation and property insurances. In addition, programs that are paid for by participants are show both as an expense and as revenue. Recreation Department staff includes 4 full-time employees and 40 seasonal employees. In addition, there are over 3000 hours of volunteer assistance who help with the department’s 377 programs (11,000 hours of facility use). Mr. Hubbard noted that in 2010, 53% of South Burlington households had at least one participant in at least one of the department’s programs. The national average is 32%. The city has 125 acres of active recreation space, more than 300 acres of open space, and nearly 20 miles of recreation paths. Facility improvements planned for FY2012 include new bleachers at Dorset Park and repairs to the remaining concrete footings on the baseball field. Mr. Hubbard noted that aside from $81.00, all Recreation Department programs are covered by revenue. He showed a slide of various programs, their costs and the revenues they bring in. He also briefly reviewed the pricing structure. Hiring for seasonal positions for many of these programs is very competitive. Mr. Goodwin noted that summer camp prices in South Burlington are much lower than camps in other communities. Mr. Goodwin then reviewed the fees charges for usage of the city’s fields. No fees are charged for groups entirely comprised of South Burlington residents. There had been a thought to add to the dog licensing fee to cover operation of the Dog Park. Ms. Kinville said she was told this was not appropriate as dog licensing has been for animal or rabies control programs. Mr. Hubbard said there are no charges for school teams that use city fields. He added that if they charged the full fee, it would generate $7800. Youth leagues are also not charged though some have made voluntary contributions. The full rate for their use would generate $26,000. This would mean $20 more in fees per participant. Mr. Hubbard said the former Police facility may be an option for programs where the schools cannot be used during the day. This might work for some senior programs. Council members suggested pursuing this to see what might be viable in that space. Ms. Dooley asked if there are scholarships available for any of the programs. Mr. Goodwin said about 30 or 40 families receive scholarships. Ms. Dooley asked how not having lifeguards at Red Rocks Park worked out. Mr. Hubbard said there were more “incidents” due to the absence of a “monitor.” Mr. Goodwin noted they had to hire lifeguards for the camps to be able to use the water. Mr. Hubbard said he feels some presence is needed during the major part of the day. Members of the audience echoed this sentiment. b) Community Library Budget: Ms. Murphy thanked Mr. Miller and Mr. Rusten for helping to put together a budget that deals with the realities the city is facing. To increase revenues, the Blanchette Fund amount will be increased from $6300 to $8900. This will be applied to on-line subscriptions. Mr. Rusten said that money has remained segregated and there are statements to track its use. Ms. Murphy said there was discussion of raising fines. There is presently a cap of $2.00 which could be raised to $5.00. There would be an exception for children’s books. Ms. Murphy also noted that they could charge an annual fee to non-city residents who are not in the Homecard system. There are 381 of these Library users. Ms. Murphy felt that would make sense, even though there is a concern about alienating people. She suggested an annual $10 fee, which would generate $1250. This would have to be approved by the City Council. A member of the audience noted that Fletcher Free Library in Burlington charges non-residents a fee. Council members supported this concept. Ms. Murphy noted that libraries do have an economic value to the community as library users shop in the community, go out to meals, etc. The current budget includes decreases in printing, program supplies, and advertising (Front Porch Forum will be used more). Books and programs have been level funded. There is an increase for children’s and adult DVDs. Ms. Murphy said they would like to add a small music collection to the Library and envision a lot of donations. Ms. Murphy thanked Mr. Miller and Mr. Rusten for being supportive of staffing and for the liberty to ask for a supplemental request. She said she feels the Library is under-serving children with the current staffing, especially young adults and teens. She also felt that the Library could provide healthy activities for Middle School youth after school. A pilot program was very successful in accomplishing this. The request is to bring the current Children’s Librarian to 28 hours. The additional cost (with benefits) would be $14,500. If they eliminated $5500 for the Assistant, the increase would be $9000. The former Children’s Librarian said that when she worked 23 hours, it still wasn’t enough. Mr. Wilber asked if the plan is still to reduce the library hours by half an hour. Mr. Miller said that has already been done. Mr. Wilber said he felt it is a disgrace that South Burlington underfunds its Library. He noted that 73% of the budget goes to Police and Fire and the rest have to “beg and scramble” for what is left. Mr. Boucher explained the need for Police and Fire to serve the large retail environment of the city, but he noted that these commercial enterprises also provide income through the local option sale tax and rooms and meals tax. Mr. Miller said that Mr. Wilber is looking only at funds collected from taxes. The $7,500,000 for Police and Fire represent less than half of the city’s budget, not counting what they bring in as revenue. Ms. Emery said that next year the Council will see a “cost/benefit” analysis because of the city’s proximity to the Airport, etc. Mr. Moore asked how much coordination there is with the School District for teen programs. He said he sees so much emphasis on sports, but a lot of teens aren’t interested in sports. Mr. Boucher said there are a lot of clubs in the school for non-athletic activities. Mr. Wilking noted that at the Roundtable meeting discussion was about pre-school age children. He felt it is important to fund Library services to children properly. He felt South Burlington is far behind its neighbors in terms of what the city funds. Usage of the Library is higher than ever, with 130,000 items being signed out per year. d) City Clerk’s Budget: Ms. Kinville noted that the City Clerk’s office is the first place people call with a concern. They are the keeper of all records, oversee elections, do animal licensing, collect taxes, do DMV renewals, and collect Water payments. They are a service department. Over 60% of the department’s revenue has to do with land recording ($160,000). The department has been reduced by a half-time position. Ms. Kinville asked to be able to take someone into the office that can help on heavy days. It may be necessary to cut back on hours that the office is open in order to get everything done. Staff suggested Friday afternoon. There is a question as to whether to continue to issue hunting licenses. The revenue does not cover the time involved. For FY2012, election expenses are down as there are fewer elections. There is also a decrease in postage for the same reason. Ms. Kinville said she is recommended that the department no longer do notarizing. Ms. Moore asked where the city stands on record storing capacity. Ms. Kinville said they have gone to smaller books and to a computer system that is backed up in 3 separate locations. They are also trying to find storage for things that don’t have to be in a vault. e) Planning & Zoning Department: Mr. Conner enumerated some of what the Department does, including: assistance to the public, support of committee (Planning Commission, DRB, Natural Resources Committee, etc.), permitting and development review (in 2010, 1043 permits were issued and there were 222 development applications), long-range planning, Comprehensive Plan update (including the official city map and a capital plan), City Center planning (including Act 250 permitting, zoning, TIFs, etc.), amendments to land development regulations, district-level planning for one area of the city, energy conservation (renovation of municipal buildings to reduce heating costs), etc. The proposed FY2012 budget includes very small salary increases (part of the Director’s salary had previously been in the Stormwater budget). The department has been reduced from 4 to 3 full time people. Document printing has been reduced (to go to digital) as has the consulting budget. Legal and IT services have been moved to the City Manager’s budget. Mr. Conner said he has two additional requests. The first is to hire an intern for 12 weeks in the summer to help with permitting and planning projects. The second is to increase Mapping to engage GIS services for zoning amendments, Comprehensive Plan maps, etc. The additional cost for both of these would be $7000. Department revenues come from two main sources: development review fees and permit fees. Staff is proposing an increase to both of these fees. This would mean that development review costs would be borne by applicants, not taxpayers, with the fees to be based on staff review costs. Permit fees would also increase for larger developments as would external fees (e.g., legal reviews). There would also be penalties for late permits. Mr. Conner said these fees are within the range charged by other communities. With these fees, there would have been $60,000 additional revenue this past year, and the average for the past 3 years would have been more. Council members were OK with these fees. Mr. Miller expressed appreciation to Mr. Conner and his staff for this research and said it meets the objectives he had set for staff. Mr. Miller said he will provide the Council with the impacts of the additional requests at the next meeting, including the accompanying tax rate. The $200,000 in additional requests would be significant in terms of the tax rate. Members of the audience thanked staff and the City Council for their efforts in dealing with the city’s financial situation. They added that the challenge now is to explain things to the public. Mr. Rusten said that with a realistic budget, he anticipated that departments will be living within their means. Mr. Moore said he was sorry more citizens hadn’t attended these workshops as it has been fascinating. 2. Executive Session: Ms. Dooley moved that the Council meet in executive session to discuss personnel, legal matters and contract negotiations, and to resume regular session only for the purpose of adjournment. Mr. Knapp seconded. Motion passed unanimously. 3. Regular Session: Council returned to regular session. As there was no further business Mr. Knapp moved for Council adjournment. Ms. Dooley seconded. Motion passed unanimously. Council adjourned. _________________ Clerk Published by ClerkBase ©2019 by Clerkbase. No Claim to Original Government Works.