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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council - 09/03/1996 - Workshop APPROVED AIDW— S CITY COUNCILISTAFF WORKSHOP MEETING WORKSHOP TO DISCUSS 1997 PROPOSED BUDGET TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1996 6:30 PM, HERITAGE ROOM IV 8080 Mitchell Road COUNCILMEMBERS: Mayor Jean Harris, Ronald Case, Patricia Pidcock,Ross Thorfmnson, Jr. and Nancy Tyra-Lukens CITY COUNCIL STAFF: City Manager Carl J.Jullie, Assistant City Manager Chris Enger, Finance Director John Frane, Assistant Finance Director Don Uram, Director of Assessing Steve Sinell, Director of Public Works Gene Dietz, Director of Human Resources & Community Services Natalie Swaggert, Director of Inspections Kevin Schmieg, Director of Parks, Recreation & Facilities Bob Lambert, Chief of Police Jim. Clark, Accountant Sue Kotchevar, Fire Chief Spencer Conrad and Council Recorder Jan Nelson ROLL CALL All members were present. I. CALL MEETING TO ORDER Mayor Harris called the meeting to order at 6:40 p.m. II. OVERVIEW OF 1997 PROPOSED BUDGET City Manager Jullie said Staff will present a summary of the General Fund budget and a review of the Enterprise Funds. Staff has been working on measuring efficiency and effectiveness of services and presenting a break-out of the total costs. He noted that representatives from Southwest Metro are present because we will be levying the transit service tax this year. He then reviewed the format of the two documents presenting the 1997 proposed budget. Jullie then presented an overview of the objectives developed at the previous budget workshop that included goals to reduce the tax on a median value home to less than 6%, to keep departmental operating budgets at the current year levels except for certain inflationary adjustments, to budget capital items separately and begin to develop a capital maintenance and improvement plan, to provide additional staff to maintain the current level of service, to ensure the budget model continues to reflect a balance while limiting CITY COUNCHdSTAFF WORKSHOP September 3, 1996 Page 2 future tax increases, and to continue the policy of not using the fund balance to pay for operating expenses. Assistant City Manager Chris Enger reviewed changes since the July 23rd workshop meeting. He explained the assumptions used to develop the five-year model. Director of Public Works Dietz reviewed the utility budget revenue and expense projections, noting that Staff proposes a 5 cent increase in water rates for 1997. Harris asked Dietz to explain the term "cooling degree days." Dietz said this is a number published by the weather service for use as an indicator of temperatures during the summer. Tyra-Lukens asked if it is true that even by increasing the rates, we still don't have revenues covering expenses. Dietz said we are building a new water plant to service anticipated population, and we have an increase in staffing to operate the new facility along with increased expenses to operate it. He noted that the anticipated deficit decreases each year from -$231,825 in 1996 to -$12,683 in 2001. Director of Inspections Kevin Schmieg presented charts showing the cost of services for his department. He explained how they measure their performance in terms of the demand for services, efficiency and effectiveness and their goals for program performance. After his presentation, the Council agreed that this is a good format for other departments to use in determining cost of services and performance measurement. Harris asked Sclu ieg how performance is measured in the department. Schmieg said they used focus groups and expect that this will provide benchmarks as they go forward. Enger said they are working with other department heads to develop similar material. Finance Director John Frane reviewed the Liquor Store budget. They expect the new Cub store to be operational in 1997 and expect sales to be up 12% over the 1996 figures. Case asked if cigarettes account for 10% of gross sales. Frane said yes, they net $15,000 to $20,000 per year on cigarette sales. Director of Assessing Steve Sinell showed an overhead of the proposed Truth in Taxation notice. He reviewed the paragraph on the notice explaining that the City's tax for 1997 includes a specific amount for transit services. He said the County would not agree to show a split amount for the City tax and the Transit tax because there is no legislation enabling the breakout of those two figures. Harris asked if there is any way to include a flyer in the statements because she thought people would not understand the statement or read the explanation. Case thought they should rephrase the word "option" because that makes it sound like it was our idea. Harris thought we should expand and carefully reword the four line explanation and put an asterisk by the % amount. CITY COUNCI USTAFF WORKSHOP September 3, 1996 Page 3 Sinell said he talked to the County this afternoon and asked about the possibility of including an insert. He said they could not include an insert because the notices go out presorted by where the notice is sent, not the property address. He suggested that we could mail some sort of information. George Bentley, representing Southwest Metro, said they will continue to work with the County to come up with a better description. Thorfinnson noted we also discussed educating the public about this and Southwest Metro agreed to provide that education. Bentley said they have a plan to accomplish that. The consensus of the Council was that Sinell should continue to work with Jullie, Southwest Metro and Hennepin County to come up with a better version of the statement. III. OTHER BUSINESS Iv. ADTOURNMENT Mayor Harris adjourned the meeting at 7:25 p.m.