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HomeMy WebLinkAbout22 - MINUTES - City Commission MINUTES OF FOLLOW-UP BUDGET WORKSHOP DANIA BEACH CITY COMMISSION MONDAY, JULY 3112006 - 5:00 P.M. 1. Call to Order Mayor Flury called the workshop to order at 5:04 p.m. 2. Roll Call Present: Mayor: Patricia Flury Commissioners: John Bertino Anne Castro C.K. McElyea City Attorney: Tom Ansbro City Manager: Ivan Pato City Clerk: Louise Stilson Absent: Vice-Mayor: Bob Anton Also Present: Patricia Varney, Finance Director Nicki Satterfield,Assistant Finance Director Dominic Orlando, Director of Public Services and Utilities Mary McDonald, Director of Human Resources and Risk Management Laurence Leeds, Director of Community Development Chief Ken Land, Fire Department Michael Cassano, Deputy Fire Chief Kristen Jones, Director of Parks and Recreation 3. Review Changes made to the Proposed FY 2006/2007 Budget Patricia Varney, Director of Finance, presented an overview of the changes made at the July 26, 2006 Budget Workshop: ■ Grants and Special Events Coordinator ($78,831) ■ Code Enforcement Officer— 1 position funded for six months ($34,559) ■ Fire Captain Training Position $5,982 ■ Maintenance Worker—reduced to 14 hours/week for custodian.functions ($37,063) ■ Clerical Services Specialist (Citywide) ($28,371) ■ City Manager's Merit$8,175 ■ Fire Department Overtime and Related Benefits reduction ($21,530) Contractual Capital Projects Management ($150,000) ® Hurricane Expense $150,000 a Engineer Services in General Administration ($15,000) ® Promotional Services in the Mayor and Commission Budget ($16,700) • Attorney for CRA ($32,000) • Construction Inspection Services in Building Department ($40,000) ® Renovation of City Hall I" floor and furniture ($50,000) ■ Contingency $50,000 • Bus Shelter Revenue to fund Charity Organizations ($6,750) • CRA Reserve ($150,000) • Reduce Debt Service for Generator ($33,343) ® Debt Service for land at Dania Beach Boulevard $41,777 ® Increase in Code Fine Revenue $40,000 Finance Director Varney advised these changes result in a reduction of $478,213 which is equivalent to a 0.1701 Millage Rate. Finance Director Varney advised the 2007 Budget includes the FEC costs to rebuild I" Street ($59,372) which was approved by the Commission. Today she received an invoice for the repairs totaling $63,000; and funding is not included in the 2006 Budget. She also noticed that she made an error on the City Attorney's Pension for a difference of$54,000. Mayor Flury suggested the FEC Corridor repair come out of this year's Public Services Budget. She remarked the Streets Division cannot spend the amount of money in their budget during the next 2-3 months. Finance Director Varney advised $36,000 is available. Dominic Orlando, Director of Public Services, advised the funds are for the SE 8" pipe replacement which has been on hold because we are waiting for money to buy the other part. He indicated this should go out to bid soon. Mayor Flury commented there is money in the Reserve for the Comp Plan, and we have not spent any funds year to date. Director Varney explained that is the 3 Cent Gas Tax which can only be used for the Capital Element of the Comprehensive Plan. Laurence Leeds, Director of Community Development, explained we amended our Comp Plan so that we could use money from the Gas Tax for Streets. He noted this is separate from the Comp Planning activities to hire consultants; this is money we can use on public streets that we could not use before. He thinks this can be used for the FEC repairs. The consensus of the City Attorney and City Commission was that the funds could be used for the FEC Corridor repair. Minutes of Follow-up Budget Workshop 2 Dania Beach City Commission Monday,July 31,2006—5:00 p.m. ® Finance Director Varney noted the impact of the pension for the City Attorney is $4,006.00. She indicated because we do not need to fund the FEC repairs, it results in a net difference of $54,713 extra. Finance Director Varney verified this brought us to $531,105 saved. Mayor Flury would like to reduce the $200,000 Construction Overrun Budget. Commissioner Castro was amenable to reducing the Construction Overrun Budget in half. Mayor Flury asked Finance Director Varney to bring this item back when the full Commission was present so they may vote on it. Commissioner Bertino questioned the $896,840 Contingency Fund. He suggested the $12M in Fund Balance could be used for contingency. Finance Director Varney explained Fund Balance should equal 6-9 months of our Operating Budget. Commissioner Castro commented that at the Elected Municipal Officials training which she attended, she was taught that Fund Balance is something that we are never supposed to use unless we have a catastrophic event that puts the City out of commission. We are to have 6-9 • months of operating funds available, at a minimum. If our factor gets below a certain mark, the Governor will send somebody down to manage the City on behalf of the Commission. She stated Fund Balance is not to be touched. She noted that we spent $800,000 in Contingency last year due to hurricanes. She thinks we need to increase our Fund Balance to be more financially viable, and she would prefer to take the overages from today and apply it to Debt Service in order to reduce the rate. She stated we should not touch the Debt Service or the Fund Balance under any circumstances because that is our credit score. Finance Director Varney indicated our Fund Balance will drop when we implement GASB 45 because we have to book the liability for OPEC. Commissioner Bertino reiterated that we have $12M of taxpayer money that is sitting in the bank for dire emergencies. He stated the City has never been in the. serious financial straits that he keeps hearing. He stated millions of dollars have been put into the superstructure of the City over the years. He is worried about people,who are having a horrible time trying to meet the bills in their homes. Commissioner Castro stated she still has not decided whether or not we should cut taxes, but she is being fiscally responsible and conservative. She stated for the record that she does not ever want to touch the Fund Balance, and she will continue to advocate increasing it until we reach the $18M-$19M mark. She will,never advocate that we not take any surplus and pay down the debt because she would rather pay down the debt first, in order to put the City in a financial position, and eventually give our taxpayers a meaningful tax cut. Minutes of Follow-up Budget Workshop 3 Dania Beach City Commission Monday,July 31, 2006—5:00 p.m. • Mayor Flury noted she is not inclined to use the Reserves; she would like to see the Reserves increase to the amount mandated by the State. She commented that we can't talk about saving tax dollars at the same time we vote to approve 9 new positions in the Budget. She indicated her decision on the Budget will be based on a 2-3 year basis. She asked the Finance Director to include the Reserves and amount of Contingency on the list to bring back to the Commission for discussion. Commissioner Castro questioned if the Neighborhood Improvement Fund had been included in the Budget. She would like to see copies of the CPTED studies that were conducted two years ago. Mayor Flury requested a spreadsheet as to what the study was, basic recommendations, and if anything has been done, or if any money has been allocated to do something. City Manager Pato will provide the information. Commissioner Bertino asked how much money the Roll Back rate brought into the City. Finance Director Varney responded $3.07M. Commissioner Bertino noted the taxpayers are paying an additional $3.07M out of their pocket. He suggested the City Manager try to get a Budget at 6 mills, which would require cutting an • additional $543,000 out of the Budget. Director Varney noted the debt indicators show that we are high in our debt ratio. Mayor Flury referenced a letter received today from Broward County stating the increased costs for Building Services, for which we estimated a 47% increase. She indicated the costs need to be adjusted downward due to the information received. Commissioner Castro advised a priority was placed on Congressman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz for the Interior Bill to convert septic to sewer. She indicated we have an excellent chance to receive funding toward the $4.4M project. If the bill goes through, Congress will hand us 40% right at the start. The project is 5 years away, but she wants to approach the County to see what they are willing to fund in a grant-type process. Director Leeds noted the increase in Building Services is 37%, not 47%, and he will evaluate the context of the letter received from the County. 4. City Manager Performance Review City Manager Pato noted the average score of the 5 evaluations is 7.94, which would result in a 5% salary increase. Minutes of Follow-up Budget Workshop 4 Dania Beach City Commission Monday,July 31,2006—5:00 p.m. • Mayor Flury commented the City Manager's health status should not be evaluated, and the evaluation form needs to be revised. Commissioner McElyea questioned if we should consider the Sheriffs Office for Code Enforcement, and asked that we get a cost proposal. City Manager Pato responded he would get a cost proposal from the Broward Sheriff's Office. 5. Adjournment Mayor Flury adjourned the workshop at 6:24 p.m. CITY OF DANIA BEACH PATRICIA FLURY MAYOR-COMMISSIONER ATTEST: LOUISE STILSON, CMC CITY CLERK Approved August 22, 2006 • Minutes of Follow-up Budget Workshop 5 Dania Beach City Commission Monday,July 31,2006—5:00 p.m.