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07232009CouncilMinutesCITY OF AMMON CITY COUNCIL - WORK SESSION MINUTES THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2009 AGENDA: CITY OF AMMON 2135 SOUTH AMMON ROAD CITY COUNCIL AGENDA – WORK SESSION THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2009 – 5:00 P.M. DISCUSSION ITEMS: 1. Budget 2009-2010 (Council/Management) 2. Misc. MINUTES City Officials Present: Mayor Bruce Ard Councilmember Dana Kirkham Councilmember Lee Bean Councilmember Randy Waite Councilmember Rex Thompson City Clerk Leslie Folsom City Treasurer Jennifer Belfield City Planning Director Ron Folsom City Engineer Lance Bates System Administrator Bruce Patterson Parks Director Ken Knoch Fire Chief Stacy Hyde Building Official Charlie Allen City Officials Absent: Councilmember Brian Powell City Attorney Scott Hall DISCUSSION ITEMS: Mayor Ard opened the meeting at 5:05 p.m. at the City Office Building located at 2135 S. Ammon Road. 1. Budget 2009-2010 (Council/Management): Technology’s budget was presented by Bruce Patterson. Councilmember Bean said Bruce’s expenditures are down from last year. Bruce said that is correct and the budget is down for M&O only at $144,000, printer for $28,000 and time clocks at $9,000 (which still needs to be researched). Councilmember Kirkham said the printer was for public works and the parks. Lee said if it is in the budget, then you can do it without council approval. Mayor Ard agreed if the revenue is not in shortfall for the year. Councilmember Bean asked why the time clock is needed. Jennifer said it will help accuracy and the rounding of the time cards adds up over time. There is software that is tied from a clock which will download directly into Caselle and allow the City to be more accurate. Mayor Ard asked what will happen when Ken’s guy forgets to clock in. Jennifer said it will give you an exception report which can be resolved the next day, while it’s fresh in your mind. Council is alright with the time clock, since it will be dealing with employees that don’t always have management verifying their time. Ron stated the printer will save tremendous money and time by inputting plats into the system for the future. Councilmember Kirkham says it moves to the City’s vision of a paperless City. Lance said it will print different types of media. Councilmember Kirkham said it’s a scanner printer. Charlie said they will use it to scan in their plans. Per Bruce P, the printer price includes the yearly supplies. Council is ok with technology. Councilmember Bean asked Jennifer about the property tax figures. She had confirmed them, but she will cross check them. There was $750 added to elections to handle the cost of living increase. Council advised Jennifer to add the AIC dues into membership dues. Jennifer asked concerning 10-410-661 for the parks intercompany reimbursement and she wanted to know if this is how council wants it handled. This will be the amount that parks needs but if there is anything left over parks can carry it over to the next year. Councilmember Council Minutes 7-23-09 Page 1 of 4 Bean wants to make sure that the publication reflects this accurately and not doubled with general and parks. He wants the vehicle replacement removed for this year since general government is not in need of a vehicle, at this time. Leslie stated that next year it might be needed. Councilmember Bean said the department heads need to be careful not to spend out of this line item for building expansion. Jennifer will create a spreadsheet showing the earmarked items. Contingency funds will be council driven for emergencies. Councilmember Bean asked Jennifer to remove all the department contingency’s and put them into the general contingency but don’t increase $100,000 contingency in general. Leslie explained the contingency is higher, since the budgets are very lean and if the council needs the funds then they will be available. Councilmember Bean wants the contingency down to $10,000 fire, $5,000 parks, $10,000 technology, $2,500 enforcement, and the balance to general. Ron said if the County doesn’t share the financial portion that Foothills Property had committed to on the floodplain; he would need to use the additional $25,000 from the contingency. It was Ok’d to add $25,000 for planning for the floodplain. Councilmember Bean asked Building since they are a revenue source what Charlie wants to do on contingencies. Leslie inquired if the general supports the building department, when the revenue gets back do they reimburse the general. Jennifer said the financials on the balance sheet will show the amount at the beginning of the year and every month. Charlie felt there was more in the past. Jennifer said they have been audited and the past has been rectified. Councilmember Bean said they are now in the red. Jennifer asked if when they are in the black, they reimburse the general. Council and Mayor agreed to have building pay back the red. Ron said his only problem is the floodplain. He raised postage, since we are keeping track of it and increased the hearings from this year. Lance said he wants aerial photos and this money will allow us to get quarter sections of the City. Mayor Ard asked what they charged. Lance said it was $128 per quarter section, since they could pull it up digitally but next time when they fly over he will request specific areas. He explained that the contract labor will be to help start the GIS program for advice as to how to start to proceed. Fire Dept. Stacy said he went off of this year’s budget. He is concerned with line 10-340-235 which will be down by half - it was reduced to $1,500. Councilmember Kirkham said you have taken your meetings down a lot. Stacy said he was instructed to reduce his budget from last year, so this is where he took it since employee benefits are up. He would like an increase in training and vehicle maintenance. Mayor said to increase vehicles to $7,000. The training is for certification and ongoing training. He is also concerned with electricity at $1,800 where he is at $2,300 this year. Jennifer changed the electricity to $3,000, supplies to $5,900 and training to $6,000 per Mayor Ard. Jennifer requested the Council review the fire dept’s salaries. The only increase Stacy made to salary increases was volunteer stipends. It was decided to add 10-480-450 Health and Safety for firefighter physicals and put in $2,000 for this line item. Jennifer was instructed to delete 10-480-501 for $2,000. Stacy requested $10,000 in contingency, which will leave $25,000 in the general fund contingency for general. Shawna said dispatch went up but she doesn’t know about the Bonneville County contract. Councilmember Kirkham will tell the County that we can’t afford an increase. Councilmember Kirkham requested a line item for protective gear for a bullet proof vest, gun and tazer. Councilmember Bean said to add an equipment line item for $2, 000 and an additional $875 for training. Shawna said she will need a physical so this needs to be added also. Council added $150 for a physical. Charlie from the Building Dept. explained that he has cut back on everything. Leslie asked Charlie about the salary grant. Charlie said he is still working on it and feels positive about it. The State had to request the money from the feds and it will take 120 days from there. They are hoping for $100,000, which is on maintaining or adding staff. Jennifer said this is over a two year period. Councilmember Bean said the Council isn’t interested in Charlie cutting staff. Mayor Ard stated the City has budget control that helps the City maintain staff. Ken for Parks and Recreation stated the increases are public relations, weed control and new capital outlay to finish a partially finished shelter at Eagles Homestead and the purchase of a dump trailer for branch removal, soil, mulch etc. Councilmember Bean asked about his seasonal help increase. Ken said there are more buildings and landscaping, which requires the additional help. Ken stated they are using more community service personnel. Councilmember Kirkham asked about the pool. Ken said he has budgeted for a new roof and a pump just went out this year. Under recreation the only increase was for the softball program. It was noted that softball is thth showing revenue this year. Ken said there have been a lot of requests for the 7 – 8 grade softball. Lance stated the street department said that the grader was used 125 - 150 hours, but it was not used as much as it could have been. Lance feels it does good work along the main roads. Ray stated the grader gets down on the road due to the weight. Councilmember Bean asked to go to capital expenditures. Lance said the Council Minutes 7-23-09 Page 2 of 4 sanding shed’s roof is nearly failing and it needs to be used to keep the salt dry. He has looked at a couple of buildings for this use. Ray said if you have to choose between sanding and plowing - sanding is better and there is one sanding bed that is falling apart. The asphalt is for patch backs. Lance stated the LID is going nowhere, at this time. Councilmember Bean asked how much we had in reserves. Jennifer said we have $2.2 million. Councilmember Bean said we are going backwards in the street fund, since the general fund is not supporting the roads. Jennifer asked if they want her to transfer the funds in the beginning of the year to support the street budget. Councilmember Bean said yes. Council discussed the importance of the different expenditures and going into reserves to support it. Lance said that half of the Idaho Falls Hitt Road project for Ammon is approx. $350,000. Ray said isn’t this a good construction time for a project? Lance said construction costs are down but the design costs have not gone down. Councilmember Bean stated our expenses are overtaking the revenues. Do we want to reduce the parks? Councilmember Kirkham said we are only talking $50,000. She stated that there isn’t anything excessive here and the managers have worked hard and cut what they can. Mayor Ard said we can’t keep the projects without going into reserves. Mayor Ard said Ken’s is using grant money. Councilmember Bean stated Ken is very good at getting grant money. Lance and Ray are working on a road management plan. Mayor Ard said the City used to do it but oil went crazy and we stopped, instead of continuing to fund the roads. Councilmember Kirkham said we all agree, we need to dip into reserves. Council asked how often the streets are swept. Lance stated the entire City gets done once a year and the material off the road is usually from winter sanding. Ray said street sweeping will be done by work order, in the future, so we can inspect it and not pay them if it’s not done properly. Councilmember Bean asked the Council if they needed to go over line item by line item. Councilmember Kirkham said this is what each Councilmember has done with their departments and there is nothing excessive. Councilmember Bean asked about the IT Department’s expenses. Jennifer said that these expenses used to be in each individual department and now they are in one. Lance said you would be spending more, if you had contracted it out. Jennifer stated the quality of having it in house is great. Councilmember Kirkham stated that what is different now than in the past, is that the City now has department heads that are fiscally responsible. She feels that with the economy, the department heads will do what they can to keep under budget. She suggested some kind of pay incentive to come under budget. Councilmember Bean said he’s not opposed to this. Councilmember Kirkham said the Council needs to work on the strategic plan, which isn’t the department heads concern. The managers will work hard to meet this vision. Leslie stated that the Council has management that is working for them not against them. Everyone is working hard to control their budgets and come in under. Lance said he is working hard to not spend anything that isn’t necessary and trying to conserve where he can. Councilmember Kirkham said the departments have cut to the bare minimum, however, they have added a little cushion with the contingency for anything unforeseen. Leslie stated that if you will look at the June budget, nobody has hit the 75% of expenses for the year, which shows the commitment of the managers to help the City. Council decided they will work on a strategic plan to have management help assist them in meeting their vision. Lance said in the Water Fund we have to be looking at wells, so we won’t get behind the ball again. Mayor Ard said we will need more water rights, before we start a new well. Councilmember Bean said we have to start budgeting for more water rights. Councilmember Bean stated we need to increase the water rates now. Councilmember Bean requested a new line item of bond repayment of $1.2 million and to lower the water meter deposits to $12,000. Ray suggested starting to build depreciation for the reserves. Councilmember Bean advised Jennifer to increase the service fees to meet the budget. Leslie asked the Council if they wanted to budget for the meter reading pole which would cost $100,000 to help move toward meters. This will help us get information to find the Cities average use of water. Jennifer and Lance feels if we move forward with the meters those who use more will pay and it will help the budget. Lance suggested moving forward with putting meters in the meter pits that exist and then move toward a design for the rest. Councilmember Kirkham asked about implementing a summer and winter rate. Councilmember Bean asked if this would encourage water usage. Leslie stated that meters are a way for conservation. Councilmember Kirkham agreed. Council was undecided about the reading pole, at this time. Lance stated that he looked at revenues and expenditures and tried to balance them in the sewer fund. Lance stated that there will need to be budgeted, in the future, a minimum of $500,000 for the equipment to work on sewer maintenance. Ray said he has talked with someone from Idaho Falls and they might be willing to sell some of their equipment to Ammon. Councilmember Bean said that all of the reserves will be used to put the IBSD line in. Lance said this won’t happen this year. Councilmember Bean requested that the City of Idaho Falls flow charges to be reduced to $600,000. Council Minutes 7-23-09 Page 3 of 4 Lance stated he tried to balance sanitation. Jennifer will create a spreadsheet to track reserve accumulations. Council is fine with the sanitation funds. Jennifer will update her list and forward it to Councilmember Bean for his review. 2. Misc.: No items to present. Councilmember Kirkham moved to enter into executive session pursuant to provision of Idaho Code 67- 2345 subsection 1 (c). Councilmember Thompson seconded. Roll Call Vote: Councilmember Kirkham – Yes, Councilmember Thompson – Yes, Councilmember Bean – Yes, and Councilmember Waite – Yes. The motion passed. The meeting adjourned at 8:45 p.m. ________________________________________ C. Bruce Ard, Mayor ________________________________ Leslie Folsom, City Clerk Council Minutes 7-23-09 Page 4 of 4