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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - City Council - 01/10/2015 AGENDA SOUTH BURLINGTON CITY COUNCIL City Hall Conference Room 575 Dorset Street SOUTH BURLINGTON, VERMONT Regular Session 9:00 A.M. Saturday, January 10, 2015 1. Agenda Review: Additions, deletions or changes in order of agenda items. 2. Comments and questions from the public not related to the agenda. 3. Budget presentations from Department Managers. (See attached schedule) 4. *** Approve Minutes from December 15, 2014 Council Meeting (amendment to be introduced at meeting) 5. Other Business. 6. Consider entering Executive Session to discuss legal issues where premature disclosure would put the City of South Burlington at a competitive disadvantage. Respectfully Submitted: Kevin Dorn Kevin Dorn, City Manager *** Attachments Included Issues raised by Councilors or the public that have not been on a prior meeting agenda: 1. Policy regarding landscaping City-owned land and request from Hadley Road. 2. Encouraging litter removal by businesses and the public. 3. Cost of development/cost of open space. 4. Airport noise survey Issues that have been discussed by the Council where further action is pending: 1. FY ’15 and ’16 paving budget. 2. East Terrace neighborhood conversion of housing into rental units. 3. Street light policy. 4. Committee reorganization. South Burlington City Council Meeting Participation Guidelines City Council meetings are the only time we have to discuss and decide on City matters. We want to be as open and informal as possible; but Council meetings are not town meetings. In an effort to conduct orderly and efficient meetings, we kindly request your cooperation and compliance with the following guidelines. 1. Please be respectful of each other (Council members, staff, and the public). 2. Please raise your hand to be recognized by the Chair. Once recognized please state your name and address. 3. Please address the Chair and not other members of the public, staff, or presenters. 4. Please abide by any time limits that have been set. Time limits will be used to insure everyone is heard and there is sufficient time for the Council to conduct all the business on the agenda. 5. The Chair will make a reasonable effort to allow everyone to speak once before speakers address the Council a second time. 6. The Chair may ask that discussion be limited to the Councilors once the public input has been heard. 7. Please do not interrupt when others are speaking. 8. Please do not repeat the points made by others, except to briefly say whether you agree or disagree with others views. 9. Please use the outside hallway for side conversations. It is difficult to hear speaker remarks when there are other conversations occurring. Published by ClerkBase ©2019 by Clerkbase. No Claim to Original Government Works. Schedule for FY16 Budget Presentations  Saturday, January 10  City Hall Conference Room    9:00‐9:10 am                      Budget Overview‐ Tom  9:10‐9:30 am                      Council, Manager & Administrative Budgets, Finance, Debt Service &       CIP, Organization Requests & Assessments‐ Tom  9:30‐10:00 am                    Enterprise Funds‐ Sewer, Water, Stormwater‐ Justin  10:00‐12:15              Department Presentations       (about 15 minutes each including special funds and revenues)  10:00‐10:15       Public Works‐ Justin  10:15‐10:30    City Clerk‐ Donna   10:30‐11:00    Fire & Ambulance‐ Doug  11:00‐11:15    Planning & Zoning‐ Paul  11:15‐11:30    Recreation & Parks‐ Betsy  11:30‐12:00    Police‐ Trevor  12:00‐12:15              Community Library‐ Jennifer  12:15‐12:20              Budget Review & Summary‐ Tom  12:20‐                                 Open for discussion and comments from the public‐ Council  Possible Adoption of FY16 Budget or continuation of discussion set               for Monday Jan. 12 Special mtg.    CITY COUNCIL 15 DECEMBER 2014 The South Burlington City Council held a regular meeting on Monday, 15 December 2014, at 6:30 p.m., in the Conference Room, City Hall, 575 Dorset Street. Members Present: P. Nowak, Chair; H. Riehle, C. Shaw, M. Emery, J Simson Also Present: K. Dorn, City Manager; T. Hubbard, Deputy City Manager; D. Young, Superintendent of Schools; M. Lalonde, D. Fleming, School Board; J. Ladd, S. Lyons, T. Braun, E. Shea, R. Smith, D. Cummings, D. Crawford 1. Executive Session: Mr. Shaw moved that the Council meet in executive session to discuss legal and real estate issues where premature disclosure would put the City of South Burlington at a competitive disadvantage and to discuss appointments to City Boards, Committees and Commissions, and to include the City Manager and Deputy City Manager. Mr. Simson seconded. Motion passed unanimously. Regular Session: 1. Agenda Review: No changes were made to the Agenda. Ms. Nowak cited the need to correct the Resolution regarding the housing trust to indicate in Section 3 a change from an amount of $200,000 to an “amount between $100,000 and $200,000.” Mr. Simson moved to change the amount in Section 3 of the Resolution regarding the creation of a Housing Trust from $200,000 to “an amount between $100,00 and $200,000. Ms. Emery seconded. Motion passed unanimously. 2. Comments & Questions from the Public not related to the Agenda: No issues were raised. 3. Announcements and City Manager’s Report: Mr. Dorn: Noted the new wireless microphone system, new furniture, projector and screen, and public seating in the conference room and thanked Mr. Hubbard for having brought this about. There will be a Legislative Breakfast, Wednesday at 9:15 a.m. CITY COUNCIL 15 DECEMBER 2014 PAGE 2 The City/School Task Force is moving forward and is proceeding through a “mountain of information.” There will be a public information meeting regarding engineering for Market Street, Wednesday, 7 p.m. There will be reduced staffing through the holidays. Recognized Public Works for its work during the recent storm. They and other public safety personnel will be at full staff through the holidays. Council members reported on meeting and events they had attended. 4. Consent Agenda: A. Sign Disbursements B. Approve Minutes for December 1st Council Meeting C. Accept Cider Mill streets as public roads Ms. Emery moved to approve the Consent Agenda as presented. Ms. Riehle seconded. Motion passed unanimously. 5. Presentation on property taxes and education reform from the School District: Mr. Lalonde and Mr. Fleming noted the School Board had put together a “white paper” regarding school funding. It cites the need to maintain and improve an already quality education system in South Burlington and to deal with funding to accomplish that. The document contains proposals related to costs and expenses. About 80% of costs are related to personnel, and the aim is to contain those costs. The white paper states the belief that in negotiations, the School District is “working uphill at the bargaining table.” The School Board feel they need different factors for fact-finders to look at. They also feel arbitration rules are “skewed” against the School District. They oppose a solution that requires binding arbitration. They also feel teachers shouldn’t automatically get step increases. With respect to health care, it is felt that if there is a movement to singlje-payer or something like that, teachers need to be part of that. CITY COUNCIL 15 DECEMBER 2014 PAGE 3 The School Board supports continuing to figure out the consolidation issue. Disincentives should be eliminated (e.g., small school grants), and there should be incentives for consolidation. The white paper cites the problem of “unfunded mandates” (e.g., pre-K and dual enrollment). With regard to revenues, there are pressures on the education fund not related to schools (e.g., education in prisons; adult education). The white paper suggests these should not come out of the education fund; they are needed, but with a different funding mechanism. Mr. Cummings said they will present this to Legislators at the Wednesday breakfast meeting and will stress that the School Board was unanimous about these things. Ms. Emery stressed a concern with starting “competitiveness” among teachers. 6. Presentation of FY14 Audit: Mr. Smith said they are in the final stages of the FY14 audit. He stressed that the city has come a long way in 3-1/2 years. Mr. Smith noted that for the FY15 budget, $350,000 of the unfunded balance was used for tax relief leaving only $165,000 of unfunded balance. This is a concern, but Mr. Smith felt the city is in a good position to address this. Mr. Smith cited an issue with regard to the Rescue Department and said that what they take in is what they should spend. He also expressed a concern with the continuing unfunded sick time amounting to about $1,000,000. 7. Presentation of Actuarial Report for FY14: Ms. Braun noted a reduction in the 2014 contribution from $569,200 to $531,400. She also noted that the asset return was in excess of the assumed 7.5%. There has been no change to the employee turnover assumption. The assumed retirement for Public Safety employees has changed from age 50 to age 53. This gives the city more time to pay for this liability. Ms. Braun cited several reasons for the good showing, including: the 16% asset return, the change in the Public Safety retirement age, and the higher plan compensation. CITY COUNCIL 15 DECEMBER 2014 PAGE 4 Ms. Braun noted that a change in the funding method will mitigate volatility in the year- to-year contribution. This is consistent with the method under GASBE. Ms. Braun then showed a history of the plan over the last 10 years and noted some “big negatives and some big positives.” She said it is good that Public Safety is back at full staffing. Overall, Ms. Braun felt the plan is very healthy at this point. The present value of the plan is $24,080,000 and plan assets are $28,852,000, which results in a funded ratio of 120% compared to the prior year ratio of 106%. 8. Make Appointments to South Burlington Boards, Committees and Commissions: Mr. Dorn noted there has been only one applicant for the Winooski Valley Park District Board. Ms. Riehle moved to appoint David Crawford to the Winooski Valley Park District Board. Mr. Shaw seconded. Motion passed unanimously. 9. Energy Committee Update: Mr. Cummings noted the city’s Energy Committee received an award as the best Energy Committee in the State. The city has also been accepted as a semi-finalist for the Georgetown prize. Waterbury and Montpelier also made the cut. Ms. Nowak asked the time-line going forward. Mr. Cummings said that on 1 January 2015 the “formal competition” begins. The city will be measuring energy use as projects are implemented. Georgetown will then recognize the top10 reductions (normalized for weather). In January 2017, they will announce the top 10. Those 10 will be asked to write a report on how they accomplished their energy savings. Mr. Cummings said they are planning a “kick-off” event in January and hope to have as many residents as possible attending. If Council members attend, it may have to be warned as a Council meeting. The Committee is looking for someone to serve as Volunteer Coordinator, about 5-6 hours a week effort. CITY COUNCIL 15 DECEMBER 2014 PAGE 5 Mr. Cummings said the Committee would also like to involve the public in the discussion of what to do with the $5,000,000 prize “when” the city wins it. 10. Receive and possible approve Errors and Omissions Report: Mr. Shaw moved to approve the Errors and Omissions Report as presented. Ms. Riehle seconded. Motion passed unanimously. 11. November Financial Report: Mr. Hubbard reported that expenses are at 45.62% of the budget and revenues at 60%. Planning & Zoning revenues are high and highway revenues are way up due to reimbursement for 2 road widening projects. Overtime costs continue to be watched. Mr. Hubbard noted that if these costs are higher than anticipated, costs for Workers Compensation Insurance go up, and the pension Plan is impacted. 12. Overview of FY16 Draft Budget: Mr. Hubbard said the proposed budget is based on a maximum 3 cent increase. It does not yet take into account the estimate of a Housing Trust ($100,000-$200,000 as agreed upon by the Council). He suggested this be a discussion on the 5 January agenda. An increase of $100,000 would raise the tax increase to 3.3 cents; $200,000 would raise the increase to 3.65 cents. There are no new positions in the proposed general fund budget. There is a full contribution to the Winooski Valley Park District. Some money will go back to the contingency fund and the sick bank. The budget includes a Phase I of an upgrade to the Police Department computer system (about $50,000). Some of the money for this upgrade will come from drug seizure money. There is an increase in line with the cost of living for employees. The health insurance increase is 3.46% with a 26% increase in Workers Compensation. There is a $12,000 increase for CCTA. CITY COUNCIL 15 DECEMBER 2014 PAGE 6 The budget includes funding for the new public safety tower on Dorset Street. This will be shared with CWD and will now be a stand-alone tower, not shared with the water tower. With regard to revenues, there are anticipated increases in fire inspections and planning/zoning permits. The budget does not provide for: all requests for capital expenses (vehicles), the stabilization fund, funding for facility assessment, new positions requested by some departments, fully funding of contingency and sick bank (although this budget gets closer to this goal). Council members felt the Housing Trust Funds was a key piece to deal with. Ms. Nowak asked staff to bring something that will keep the tax increase under 7%. 13. Notice of New England Clean Power Link: Mr. Dorn explained this is the project to bring power underwater from Canada into the U.S. South Burlington can have intervenor status. Members agreed they did not feel intervenor status was necessary. 14. Other Business: A. Items Held from Consent Agenda: There were no such items. B. Ms. Emery noted a meeting she and Ms. Nowak attended with Gene Richards of the Airport regarding complaints of airport noise. She felt Mr. Richards’ response to her concern with lack of mitigation was below what she would have liked. She suggested some kind of tracking on the website of noise issues (e.g., time, duration, etc.). This would be specifically for ground noise (e.g, night time engine run-ups).and could give the city “a leg to stand on in the future.” Ms. Nowak noted that 96% of calls regarding noise related to the Air Guard. She said that of the list of 260 calls/emails, 38-42 were South Burlington calls. She felt there is already a good mechanism in place to track these calls. CITY COUNCIL 15 DECEMBER 2014 PAGE 7 Mr. Simson said that the Chamberlin neighborhood project will have Airport noise on its agenda. If that committee things the information the city has is not adequate, they can let the Council know. Ms. Riehle suggested keeping this as a “place holder” on the back of the agenda sheet. . C. Mr. Dorn noted that an additional warrant had come in when there wasn’t time to put it on the agenda. Mr. Hubbard said a late fee would be significant. Ms. Riehle then moved to authorize payment of $16,969.85 to Green Mountain Power to cover electric power at the Airport Parkway plant. Ms. Emery seconded. Motion passed unanimously. As there was no further business to come before the Council, Mr. Shaw moved to adjourn. Ms. Emery seconded. Motion passed unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 10:05 p.m. ___________________________________ Clerk