Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-07-19 - Council Minutes CITY OF CORCORAN CITY COUNCIL BUDGET WORKSHOP July 19, 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 was absent. Mayer Guenther opened the meeting at 6:00 p.m. Broad Overview of Each Department – 2008 Highlights and Expectations for Department Overviews 2009 Police Department, Chief Gormley Chief Gormley gave an overview of the items that they had done in 2007. Two new Police Department officers have been hired and a new schedule has been implemented to reduce and eliminate the time that the city owes the officers at the end of the year. For 2008 looking at an additional officer and applying an officer specifically to traffic enforcement. This would allow more time for the enforcement of overweight’s and impaired drivers. Would also like to create a full time clerical position Public Works, Superintendent Meister Meister gave an overview of 2007 activities. Dust control was reduced to one Public Works application, which seems to be doing good. Seal coat projects included Rush Creek and Schutte Farm Road. Ditching was finished on Sundance Road, will begin working on Treeline and Foxline. Asphalt patching has been completed, which did include coordination with the City of Medina to do Hackamore. In 2008 would like to increase the gravel budget by at least $20,000, increase the asphalt maintenance budget from $60,000 to $75,000, and look at budgeting for the repairs and replacements of bridges and culverts. May be looking at staffing needs, but uncertain at this time. Administration, Administrator Vergin Administration Administrator Vergin provided an overview of the responsibilities of the administration department, which includes the coordination and preparation of all council meeting agendas, planning commission agendas and parks & trails agendas. Coordination of work with consultants and outside agencies. Preparation of the dust control list and notices to the impacted residents. Billings for dust control and recycling and then certify to the County those unpaid. Process building permits, grading permits, issue burning permits, dog licenses, and overweight permits. Prepare all legal notices for meetings and public hearings. Coordinate planning applications and distribute to the various reviewing agencies. React to complaints and nuisance issues. Respond to public inquiries and requests for information. Provide floodplain information for lending institutions and residents. Conduct elections in even years. Keeper of all public data and the retention of records. Perform financial responsibilities that include accounts payable, receivables, payroll, tracking of benefits, coordination of the audit, and the preparation of financial statements and investment of city funds. Highlights for 2007 include the reduction of the code enforcement hours from 40 to 16 hours a week. Forcing many of those duties onto other staff members. Transferred the septic system permitting and maintenance program to Hennepin County. Prepared requests for proposals for planning, legal and building inspection services, and coordinated interviews for those selected. Prepared a request for proposal for the community park complex facility. Parks consultant was released and therefore agenda coordination is now done through the administrator. Working Page -1- CITY OF CORCORAN CITY COUNCIL BUDGET WORKSHOP July 19, 2007 on changing employee benefits that will provide a cost savings long term to the City and better benefit for the employees. Worked with the TIF task force and consultant staff on the Corcoran Business Park. Pursued the relocation of a fast growing business to the new Corcoran Business Park. Currently working with the City of Medina to extend infrastructure services to the city. Seeking a better website program to provide easier access to city information. Worked with the Police Department on the implementation of the administrative fines. Have significantly improved our tracking of data, and are currently building a database of all properties within the City. Improved manner in which we link spreadsheets for our recycling and dust control programs to generate lists and reports on who has paid and who has not. Improved the tracking of building permits to ensure that quarterly and annual reports are accurate. Goals for 2008 include seeking council authorization to pursue requests for proposals for auditing services. Address whether or not to continue to lease the small office area to the Chamber of Commerce. Seek ways to get meetings to the public, via cable or audio/video recordings on the website, which currently is becoming more common in many cities. Continue to find ways to streamline and improve on the services that we provide. Would like to work with the department heads to create a five-year budget, allowing the city to better budget and eliminate large spikes in tax levies. Work with the council on the comprehensive planning process and work with the council to achieve and maintain their goals. As for staffing changes, will be looking at alternatives for cleaning the city hall facilities, taking that responsibility away from public works, which would help public works meet their demands. Will also be looking at staffing levels, not necessarily increasing staff but shifting hours, i.e. shifting a part time person to fulltime, and reducing part time hours of another. What is the Council’s Expectations of Each Department Council Expectations Councilor Thomas indicated that he would like to see the code enforcement issue resolved. Has heard negative comments before about turning it over to the police department, would like to have that option reviewed again. Would like to continue to work with the Pavement Management Committee, pursuing the pavement of the city roads. Would like to see the city move forward with sewer to the downtown area. Councilor Jacobs expressed his concern with the numerous commissions and time that an applicant pays for when seeking approval from the City for the various professionals that are involved. Presented a one-page document that provided current budgets for planning, engineering, and code enforcement and then showed a proposal from Gartner Engineering to take over all of the tasks eliminating the duplication of services. Feels that there is inefficiency with the current process and that by consolidating the services both the City and the applicant would spend less for the services. That if we can save money here, the city could allocate those funds to other needs within the city, such as street maintenance and police protection. Councilor Thomas stated that the scenario presented by Councilor Jacobs did not include revenues, only the expenditures. Concern with paying a planner $90 an hour to perform code enforcement. The starting point should be that if it is more cost effective to bring those functions in house then that is what we should look at first. Monies spent out of the escrow accounts should not be part of this. Page -2- CITY OF CORCORAN CITY COUNCIL BUDGET WORKSHOP July 19, 2007 Discussion continued to address services from a firm that can provide support staff and individuals with expertise, versus the use of a one-person firm. Discussed the need to evaluate the current professional services being provided and seek ways to reduce costs. Councilor Jacobs reiterated that the City can do work for less cost. Councilor Thomas stated that the proposal from Gartner Engineering presented by Councilor Jacobs was a hodgepodge and inaccurate based on the budget figures contained in it. (Last two sentences were deleted) Hudok stated that prior to determining if we should go in-house, we should first look at the process before you look at how you are going to handle the process. Do we continue with the current process or do we change the process. Those processes being the application process, which includes planning, engineering, and the various commissions. Councilor Hudok asked why not streamline the process, not just continue it? Councilor Jacobs noted that a number of Commissioners refused to make decisions. Thomas stated that if the question should be if we want to continue to have a Parks & Trails Commission and a Planning Commission you still need to have the expertise of the various professionals. Discussion then turned to the codes that if they were simplified then we would not be expending the amount of professional time that we are now. There was concern that we have codes that are for larger cities. Council members that have concerns with the codes should bring them forward so that they can be looked at and changed if needed. Councilor Thomas stated that he has been hearing for 2 ½ years about simplifying the codes and has yet to see a single proposal. Councilor Jacobs stated that in his first two years on the Council he was not able to make proposals due to the hostile environment. Councilor Thomas stated that he realized it was a difficult two years but that is behind us now. Councilor Jacobs stated that there was no audience for politics present. Councilor Thomas then told Councilor Jacobs to “kiss my ass” and proceeded to leave the room for approximately three minutes in order to attend to some personal discomfort resulting from recent surgery. Councilor Thomas later stated that his statement could be put in the minutes. Administrator Vergin requested clarification on the proposal from Gartner Engineering, if the $162,000 includes the applicant work or will that be billed separately. Jacobs responded that it does include escrow work. Administrator Vergin asked Councilor Jacobs if this addresses his goal of “Look at how the City spends money.” Jacobs responded affirmatively. Administrator Vergin stated that staff would take the information provided and work with that through the budgeting process, that the numbers would be verified and validated. Administrator Vergin asked if there were any more expectations of the Council. Page -3- CITY OF CORCORAN CITY COUNCIL BUDGET WORKSHOP July 19, 2007 Jacobs stated that the public works has done a better job; streets are in better condition this year. Some general discussion ensued regarding the proposed work to Shannon Lane bridge. Hudok stated that he did not have anything specific, that he understands being understaffed and under budgeted, same struggles that his employer has. Expect everyone to work as best as they can. That as department heads know better then anyone at the table if something needs to change or improve, need to bring that information forward to the Council. Encouraged staff to look at ways to streamline and make cuts where possible. Goals and Objectives Identified by Council / Discussion to Identify and Council Goals and Clarify Goals Objectives Administrator Vergin went through the list of goals and objectives previously identified by the Council and identified how staff would respond to those. 1. Comprehensive Plan process and costs for 2008 – staff will look at these costs, but if staffing changes that can impact those costs. 2. Public Works feasibility study for a facility – Medina and Otsego recently went through this, will contact them to see what the costs were. 3. Discuss feasibility of funding park recreation complex facility – staff will verify that park dedication fees can be utilized for this. 4. Financial model for conversion of current time off benefits to the proposed PTO based on current employee database – Administrator Vergin will be working on this and have it for the council at a future budget workshop. 5. Look at how the City spends money – this was addressed under expectations. 6. Focus on the gravel budget – Public works will prioritize and identify the roads that will receive gravel in 2008. Noting that if failures occur then those roads take priority. 7. Look at an in-house planner to augment the current planner – this ties into the comp plan process and how the city spends money, so this will require more discussion by the council so that staff has a clear direction on how to proceed. 8. Address escrow monitoring and the co-mingling of funds – look at the term “escrow”, use different term. Administrator Vergin emphasized that consultants need to provide timely billings to assure that the City is able to keep current with the escrow accounts. Suggestions were that we should have separate accounts for each escrow and that consultants should provide weekly statements. Next Workshop Next Workshop – August 16, 2007 at 6:30 p.m. Noted that the Council needs to address the maintenance of park trails at the next workshop. Would like to have Meister provide an overview of what it would take in gravel in the “dream world” to take care of the gravel roads. Councilor Jacobs stated that he has looked at the lighting issue outside and Page -4- CITY OF CORCORAN CITY COUNCIL BUDGET WORKSHOP July 19, 2007 suggested that perhaps we go to higher watt bulbs, rather then additional lighting fixtures. Workshop Closed Close Workshop The workshop was closed at 8:08 p.m. ______________________________ Susan Vergin, City Administrator Page -5-