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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-07-10 - Council Minutes - Part 2CITY OF CORCORAN CITY COUNCIL BUDGET WORKSHOP July 10, 2007 The Corcoran City Council met on July 10, 2008, at city hall in Corcoran, Minnesota. Present were Mayor Guenthner, Councilor Hudok, Councilor Jacobs, Workshop Opened and Councilor Grabowski. Also present was Interim Administrator Bodem, Police Chief Gormley, and Public Works Superintendent Pat Meister. Councilor Thomas Roll Call had an excused absence. Mayer Guenther opened the meeting at 6:00 p.m. Broad Overview of Each Department — 2008 Highlights and Expectations for 2009 Department Overviews Interim Administrator Bodem gave an overview of the budget process. It was explained that what the council has are staff reports from department heads, recommendations, and also year -to -date expenditures. Mayor Guenthner had questions and suggestions about the year -to -date spreadsheet provided on the expenditures because this is the baseline document to understand where we need to go in the budget process. Mayor suggested eliminating everything except the 2008 adopted budget column for viewing. Interim Administrator Bodem suggested using the Banyan report to pull numbers accurately. Mayor stated that he would like to see reports as soon as they are ready so they have more time to view line items before the next budget workshop. Councilor Jacobs recommends having another report showing budget trends going back 4 -5 years. Administration, Interim Administrator Bodem Bodem provided a 2008 Performance -to -date detail, budget schedule, 2009 Budget Administration council questionnaire and other information. He recommended continuing the same level of service provided to the community ending 2007 for the administrative office. A request for a fulltime employee to help with institutional memory and miscellaneous things around the office. Bodem also explained the increases in a number of areas. There is a 16% Health insurance Cap Rate that needs to be budgeted until the hard numbers come in. PERA Contribution is 6.5% in 2008 and will go up to 6.75% in 2009. Property Insurance will increase 2 -3 %, Liability Insurance will increase 2-6 %, Auto Insurance will increase 2 -3 %, and Work comp will increase 7 -10 %. Professional service contracts will stay the same with the exception of the approved 3% increase for the County Assessor. The state has imposed a levy limit on cities with a population over 2500. We were granted 3.9% over last year approved Tax Levy which calculated out to be $85,113 that Corcoran has to work with as an increase in the levy. If you have increased household in market value you can use that above and beyond the 3.9 %. You're going to put 1 + 1/2% of the percent increase in the number of households in your city over the last year. This garners your ability to levy a little bit more, depending on what this is. Mayor stated that you are allowed to capture some on the net increase in numbers of houses plus the overall market value increase in community but are limited in amount of what can be utilized. Beyond the $85,000 increase we are also allowed to realize the benefit of increase in property values for new commercial and industrial developments. Mayor questioned whether there is a limitation on the amount and what if all the households increased in their value by 50% over the year? Interim Administrator stated it is on new household, not on existing households. Mayor Guenthner suggested that copies be trade of the "2009 Levy Limits guidance" instructions and be distributed to the council. Also would like to have a spreadsheet with numbers for the council to look over. Page -1- CITY OF CORCORAN CITY COUNCIL BUDGET WORKSHOP July 10, 2007 Public Works, Superintendent Meister Meister gave an overview of 2008 activities. Public Works would like to continue the level of service provided to the residents and city ending 2008 with original proposed figure. Public Works would like to increase staff from one part time to a full time park department assisting with minor road repair and grounds maintenance. Public Works would like to increase the gravel category to maintain and upgrade the gravel roads. Seal coating, asphalt Maintenance and fuel & Lubricants will increase due to rising fuel cost increases. Dust Control will be 7- 8% increase due to fuel cost increases. Meister indicated that they are doing well on the fuel budget. Asphalt maintenance and gravel budgets will be the largest items. The ultimate solution is to spread 12 inches of gravel on roads to make them to the 7 -ton standard that we are posting them at. Some roads are only at 4 -6 inches. We are trying to develop standards in line with dust control. Mayor Guenthner requested that the council see an analysis showing numbers, standards, and criteria for gravel, paving, and asphalt costs and how much is needed to maintain before they can make any decisions. The condition of roads is a quality of life issue in our community. Meister stated that a lot of roads are getting to be 15-20 years old and have had nothing done to them. Meister questioned what is it going to cost and what do we have to sacrifice? Are we going to achieve the 7 -ton road? His concern is for emergency vehicles driving on these roads. The Mayor stated that we are in a community with all factors combined, we are limited to what we can offer the public in terms of how we serve, collect the dollars people are willing to commit to and how we allocate the dollars to provide service going out. We need to go back and see what services are needed and wanted. Councilor Grabowski asked if the Public Works building needed reroofing. Meister stated that there is more that needs to be done with the building. They are doing an inspection of the building and will be bringing this forward at a later date of the improvements that are needed to maintain the building. The Mayor stated that Public Works should keep council updated on the roads so that they can be involved and learn how to maximize opportunities. Police Department, Chief Gormley Chief Gormley gave an overview of the items that they had done in 2008. Chief Gormley stated that the 16% health insurance cap rate is over a 3 year period. The 2008 truck enforcement pilot project, they are hoping to have results and answers to show the success of the program. The program paid for itself. The increases are with the hourly rate for part -time police officers and the available hours from 1500 —1900 of which 350 will be dedicated to truck enforcement project. There will be a slight line item increase for some supplies & contractual categories. We would like to bring two line items back to the 2007 budget number which is the Civil Defense ad Building repair. Council's Expectations of Each Department for next workshop Mayor Guenthner gave a quick update to Councilor Thomas. The council would like to see for the next meeting the historic performance up to date, the Public Works Police Department Page -2- CITY OF CORCORAN CITY COUNCIL BUDGET WORKSHOP July 10, 2007 forecast to year end going off trend. They would like to see a detailed spread sheet with proposal per department. Historical look back on performance budgets per department. Jacobs stated that in the packet there was a 2009 Budget/Levy summary chart (tentative). He questioned the September 15 dates and why the meeting is held on Monday and can it be moved to 'T'hursday's. Bodem stated that these were tentative dates and that they were the dates used from last year. He will reset the dates for Thursday. Mayor Guenthner discussed the Shannon Lane Bridge. He is not aware of any general fund big ticket items balanced against the special levy issues that might arise. If we get the OSHA report back on Public Works and we have some hard decisions to make that are significant repairs or replacement of the facility, is this something that can be bonded for or should we bond for this? It's not just a general levy, its all bonded debt that adds up to total tax burden. As we look at what community is willing to pay, we have to look at infrastructure, what do we need to have to provide the services the community wants and if the infrastructure is failing what do we do about this because the community will have to pay for it. Mayor Guenthner would like the council to look at the schedule and see if the hours need to be extended to allow more time to discuss line by line items so as not to run out of time. Close Workshop The workshop was closed at 6:55 p.m. Kim Bachineier, City Clerk Council Expectations Close