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HomeMy WebLinkAboutBudget Advisory Commission - 07/12/2007 APPROVED MINUTES EDEN PRAIRIE BUDGET ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING THURSDAY,JULY 12, 2007 4:30 PM, CITY CENTER Heritage Room 8080 Mitchell Road BAC Members: Chair Katherine Kardell, Vice-Chair Don Uram, Mark Kantor, Richard King, Jon Muilenburg, Richard Proops, Gwen Schultz CITY STAFF: City Manager Scott Neal, Finance Director Sue Kotchevar, Finance Supervisor Tammy Wilson, City Manager Intern Luke Fischer, City Clerk Kathleen Porta, Facilities Manager Paul Sticha, Parks & Recreation Director Jay Lotthammer, BAC Recorder Tanya Schmieg I. ROLL CALL/CALL THE MEETING TO ORDER Kardell called the meeting to order at 4:30 p.m. Uram arrived at 5:15 p.m. King left to chair the Flying Cloud Advisory commission meeting at 6:45 p.m. II. MINUTES A. BAC MEETING HELD TUESDAY,JUNE 26, 2007 Kardell noted the date in Section III. DISCUSSION, third line down, should read Thursday, June 28. King said on page 9, the first sentence in the second to last paragraph should read: King brought up the issue of access to information. MOTION: King moved, seconded by Kantor, to approve the Minutes of June 26, 2007 as corrected. Motion carried 7-0. III. DISCUSSION King talked about committee assignments. Kardell stated the proposal was for wages and benefits and the CIP. Proops said another was cost containment for programs and suggested there be a mechanism in place that has budget containment and to look at how other cities have done it. He said it should be looked at as an ongoing educational consideration. Proops commented on the philosophy of being service first and spotlighted as a great City. Proops said another category should be community services. Neal stated that is the call of the City Council. Proops noted it is their job to bring things to the attention of the City Council so they are informed of the collective opinion. Kardell responded that would not be a committee situation. Proops said another one is communications. He also talked about community services and gave an example of food shelves. Proops reiterated social services and communications should also be part of the committee assignments. Neal suggested waiting until they receive all the input which will be used to produce version 2 which will reflect the input. He said there may not have to be a separate subcommittee to look at those specific areas. He asked the commission look at version 2 of the budget before making a decision. CITY COUNCIL AGENDA July 12, 2007 Page 2 Muilenburg asked what the timeframe is for version 2 and when the recommendations are required. Neal explained he will not be able to meet the July 25"' deadline. He noted some of the input given is going to cause some staff concern. He said he would like extra time to put that together and meet with the people needed. Neal proposed to push that meeting to July 3lsr. Neal said the budget presentation to the City Council would be on August 21s' and packet would be out on August 16"'. Schultz asked if that was enough time. Neal responded that is standard. The Commission discussed meeting dates. Proops noted he has a conflict on July 31sr Schultz asked if it could be out by July 271h. Muilenburg asked if they could get partials. Neal said they could potentially produce and send out part of it. Muilenburg commented that it would be easier to digest in smaller amounts. Kardell said they need a second meeting for a presentation of the budget and then to formalize recommendations. Neal said they could make the presentation on July 31sr and then have a final meeting on August 9"'. Proops said he is concerned with the amount of time from the review to the recommendations. Muilenburg said they don't have to have the recommendations until August 16"'. Kardell reminded the commission that they don't have to write the recommendations, the recording secretary will do that. August 91h would be a meeting about the recommendations. Schultz said she will be gone for two weeks. Neal said they could meet with her before she leaves. King suggested moving the meeting on July 31st earlier in the day for Proops. Neal said they can give Proops the presentation in the afternoon. Neal clarified they will be giving the presentation on July 31st and then the commission will come back on August 91h to form recommendations. He explained the way they would present the budget would be to incorporate the changes and input received into the budget. Proops asked about the social services and what could be done with eliminating the $90,000. Neal responded they received the input and the commission would like to see it be less. He noted there are groups that depend on funding and the City Council needs to hear that. Proops commented on the 3.5% basic wage increase being the biggest dollar increase. King suggested they meet very soon to provide input. He said they should give detailed thoughts on compensation. Proops questioned the percentage of the employees in steps and the impact of wages for each employee. Kantor responded they need to see version 2 and then make comments. Kardell stated a meeting will be held for July 25"'for potential committees. The meeting on July 31st will be kept and individuals who can't meet then will meet independently. Kardell reiterated there will be a meeting on August 9h'for the collective discussion of what the recommendations would be and another meeting on August 141h to vote. The commission talked about the discussion of the meeting on August 9h' and decided to set it for 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 P.M. Kardell asked who would like to be part of the wages and benefits subcommittee. King and Schultz said they would be part of the subcommittee. Uram later asked to be on the wages and benefits subcommittee. CITY COUNCIL AGENDA July 12, 2007 Page 3 Kardell asked who would like to serve on the CIP subcommittee. Proops, Kardell and Muilenburg said they would. IV. BUDGET PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION A. CITY CLERK Kathleen Porta stated there were no significant increases in the Record Management or City Clerk budget. She explained the increase in the Election budget is due to 2008 being an election year. The Election budget will vary year to year depending on whether elections are held. Schultz asked if volunteers were available. Porta stated there haven't been unpaid volunteers here or in other communities due to the long hours on election day. Schultz asked what the judges were paid and Porta stated $9.00 per hour. Election judges serve as paid volunteers. B. FACILITIES Neal introduced Paul Sticha and explained the Facilities budget was probably the most complicated budget the Commission would review because of the many changes in the division over the last three years. Neal explained prior to Sticha being hired, maintenance and operations at most buildings were handled by the departments. The Fire Department maintained the Fire Stations. The Parks Department maintained the Parks buildings, etc. At that time, City Hall and the Den Road Liquor Store were managed for the City by United Properties. In 2004, the City decided to centralize the facilities management and hired Sticha, who most recently worked at Liberty Property Trust. Neal explained that changes included terminating the contract with United Properties and bringing the property management, engineering and financial functions they had performed in house. Employee building engineers and technicians were hired. Custodial staff was laid off and custodial services were outsourced to a contract firm. In 2005, the Facilities Division was asked to manage the maintenance of the Park Shelters and in 2006, they were asked to manage the maintenance of the Historical Buildings. Sticha listed other companies he has worked for and explained that he is bringing the experience and best practices from those companies to the City. The facilities model at the City is now very similar to the model used by Liberty Property, Duke Realty, United Properties, Opus Properties, etc. Sticha explained the City currently owns 26 "major"buildings and will own 29 by the end of this year, when the 3 new Park Shelters are completed. He explained that he has divided the City roughly in half and grouped the buildings by Administrative Buildings (City Hall, Liquor Stores, Fire Stations, Maintenance Facility, Water Plant) and Recreation Buildings (Community Center, Senior Center, Outdoor Center, Park Shelters, Historical Buildings). Each of the two groups is operated by a Supervisor, Building Engineer and Building Technician plus a variety of part time staff and contracted services. The division also has a Service Coordinator that serves as a "hub" for incoming requests and outgoing dispatch of service providers. CITY COUNCIL AGENDA July 12, 2007 Page 4 Schultz asked what square footage the City owned and Sticha responded about 900,000 square feet. Neal noted it was quite a variety of space including retail Liquor Stores, Fire Stations, multi-tenant office at City Hall, a Community Center with complicated mechanical systems and a Water Plant that is essentially a manufacturing plant. Schultz asked if he did the leasing of the spaces and Sticha responded he was not directly involved with the writing or approval of the leases. He said he had offered some input for the lease renewal with Hollywood Video last year. Schultz asked who does negotiate the leases and Kotchevar responded that it is a team effort involving several City employees. Neal added that the City Attorney and Northstar Partners are also significant participants in developing the leases. King asked about the Service Coordinator position. Sticha explained that this is similar to a service desk or help desk where staff and residents can call or e-mail for service. Facilities also has a computerized work order system to track service requests. The Service Coordinator is a full time position that is part of both IT and Facilities. King asked if there are other duties that could be consolidated into the Service Coordinator position. Sticha responded that other duties include scheduling and billing for conference rooms, coordinating conference furniture, computer and A/V setups for the conference rooms, and assisting the Food Service contractor with scheduling in the Garden Room. Neal added that we will look to see if there are other functions that could be consolidated with the Service Coordinator. He noted most of the Coordinators' customers are internal. Uram asked who does the scheduling of the Park Shelters and Outdoor Center. Sticha answered those were scheduled through Parks and Recreation and Jay Lotthammer explained that a coordinator in Recreation worked with Recreation programmers and the City residents to schedule the Shelters and to schedule ice time at the Community Center. Lotthammer pointed out that it worked well to schedule these facilities through Recreation staff. Schultz asked what types of items are included in the General Facilities line item. Sticha responded that the items are related to the employees in the department and include items such as wages and benefits, office supplies, uniforms, mileage, dues and training courses, on-call pagers and phones, and the like. Schultz asked for an explanation of the large increase from 2006 to 2008 for that line item. Sticha explained that the 2007 budget was completed in 2005 and that he projected the 2007 actual would be closer to $377,000 so that the progression from 2006 to 2007 to 2008 would then be much more logical. He further clarified that much of the decrease would come by reallocating items in this line into the appropriate building instead of in the General Facilities budget. Items such as cleaning supplies, light bulbs, contract services, repair parts and capital under $2000 will no longer be coded to General Facilities but instead coded to the buildings where they are used. This will reduce the General Facilities line item but the total for all buildings will remain about the same. Kantor said it would be helpful to see General Facilities broken out into categories similar to other presentations. Kotchevar said that would be done for the Commission. CITY COUNCIL AGENDA July 12, 2007 Page 5 Sticha continued the presentation by explaining large variances or large changes from year to year. When he spoke about the Senior Center, Kardell asked if the roof had been replaced there within the last 6 months or so, as she saw a lot of activity on the roof. Sticha explained at that time, two cell phone providers (T Mobile and Verizon) had installed new antennas on the City owned monopole and all the associated wiring was installed across the roof; and this must have been what Kardell observed. Sticha noted the City charges the vendors for the use of the tower, and the revenue for this is in the Police budget. Kotchevar added the revenue is about$60,000 to $70,000 per year and is used to help fund Capital Projects. Sticha continued to the City Center Operations line item and explained the reduction from 2007 to 2008 was due to a reduction in debt payment on the mortgage. Kotchevar added there was still a mortgage on the building and the mortgage expense is included in this City Center Operations line item. City Center CAM and City Center Direct Costs generated a lot of questions. Schultz commented on the CAM and voiced concern the City was paying for everything for the School District. Kotchevar pointed out the School District does not pay rent but they do pay their share of the CAM,based on the square footage of the building they occupy. Sticha clarified the School District pays about 25% of CAM, CH Robinson pays about 36% of CAM and the City pays about 39% of CAM. Neal pointed out that two small occupants, PROP and the Eden Prairie Foundation do not pay CAM. Neal asked Sticha to explain the Direct Costs line item. Sticha explained this line item is shown as an expense but is completely recovered in the revenue budget. The Direct Costs are services not included in the leases with our tenants. For example, we manage the cleaning of the CH Robinson space for them and bill this back to them, plus a management fee. We do the same if they want us to do painting, move a light fixture, etc. Kantor asked why this line item varies so much. Kotchevar responded that we budget a number but we do not know exactly what extra services they will want, so we do not know the actual number until the end of the year. The Revenue Summary also generated a lot of questions. King asked about the usage of the Heritage Rooms and if the revenue is growing. He commented the price seems modest. Sticha said the demand is growing and the fees would be increased in 2008. In 2005 the revenue was about$3000 and by 2006 it had grown to about$10,000. King asked what the fees are and Sticha gave the three tier rates if all four quadrants of the Heritage Rooms were rented as one large room. Tier 1 is Public Agencies and Non-Profit Organizations at$40 per hour, Tier 2 is Eden Prairie residents and businesses at$50 per hour and Tier 3 is non-resident individuals or businesses at $75 per hour. King felt the rates should be twice that and asked us to take a look at raising the fees even more. Uram asked that the position descriptions be reviewed. Sticha said that the Facilities Supervisor is like an on-site superintendent or working supervisor. The position manages the Facilities Engineer, Facilities Technician and contractors such as electricians, cleaning staff, etc. The position is also responsible to help create and manage the budgets for the buildings. The Facilities Engineer generally has a 2 year vo-tech certificate in areas such as Heating & Cooling, Building Maintenance or CITY COUNCIL AGENDA July 12, 2007 Page 6 similar. This position does plumbing, heating and cooling, welding, some electrical work, etc. The Facilities Technician is a bit like a"home handyman". This position performs some plumbing, changes light bulbs, moves furniture, fixes door knobs and door closers, assists the Facilities Engineer with filter changes, etc. Proops asked about the electrical generators. Sticha explained that generators were requested for three buildings. Electrical power seems to be getting less reliable in commercial buildings and when we loose power at the Community Center, not only do we loose things like lighting and fans, we also loose refrigeration and our ice melts. But the main reason for the generators is energy savings. With a generator we can get lower electrical rates and we can sell excess electricity back to Xcel Energy. The purchase of the generators produces a 5 to 7 year payback. Proops asked if the payback analysis includes the cost of fuel. Sticha responded yes it does. Proops asked how a typical call for a service contractor would work. For example say there was an electrical problem; who responds, how are materials billed, who checks the work, etc. Sticha responded the customer would call the Service Desk and the Coordinator would send a Building Engineer to investigate. The Building Engineer would try to fix the problem immediately. If he needed help he would meet the electrical contractor and discuss the issue with the electrician. The electrician would perform the repair and the Building Engineer or Building Supervisor would check the work before the invoice was paid. The City receives the lowest tier rate for the electrical labor and the material is billed at their cost plus a markup. Proops commented the actual and budget numbers varied a bit from 2005 to 2007 and asked how the budget numbers were chosen. Sticha commented the best predictor of the future is the past, so he goes back and averages 3 to 5 years of historical expenses. He then adjusts that average up if he knows a large project will be scheduled the next year, or he adjusts it down if he knows a project will not be repeated the next year. Schultz asked if the tenants in City owned buildings pay property tax. Kotchevar said they did pay full property tax calculated at the regular business rate for other similar buildings and similar businesses. Neal noted the tax is based on the use of the building, not the ownership. The meeting recessed for a short break and reconvened in about 10 minutes for the Parks & Recreation presentation. C. COMMUNITY CENTER EXPANSION Jay Lotthammer overviewed the Community Center and indicated that initial projections showed the facility being subsidized by the general fund budget. He noted a schematic of the Community Center was handed out at a previous meeting and suggested that the overall expansion of the building was similar to the budgetary expansions that were proposed. Lotthammer referred to the timing of the expenses and revenues and how it will be different in 2008 and 2009 based on the construction schedule. He explained that the Community Center has been a destination facility that has served mostly skating and swimming participants. Lotthammer stated the facility would be fully open around April 1, 2008 and would become more of a full CITY COUNCIL AGENDA July 12, 2007 Page 7 service facility with the addition of a gym, meeting rooms and the expansion of the fitness facility. King asked about actual revenue for 2007. Wendy Sevenich responded that the budget number in 2007 is not a forecasted number. King asked how you arrive at $400,000. Sevenich explained that the dues are projected to be less than what you would experience at a similar private facility. For an individual adult membership, the proposed rate is $32/month. King asked what is the difference from year to year and why would you join this year if you didn't join before. Sevenich said they want to create an environment the community would want to utilize. Staff believes this will be accomplished by enhancing the facilities and adding on to the facility. She explained that they went through a process and researched other facilities prior to the design and start of construction. King said that 300% growth is an aggressive number. Sevenich said they have to resell all the current memberships into the new system along with adding additional members. She overviewed the launch of the insurance reimbursement program as an additional method to drive membership sales. She noted the number does seem aggressive, but the dues will be doubling. King asked what the renewal rate is now. Sevenich said it is about 80%. She said there are a lot of unknowns and variables at this time. King asked if there will be multi-year agreements. Sevenich responded that it will be month to month with a 30-day cancellation provision. She noted they could make the decision to have a year agreement or other options,but at this time staff is proposing a month to month option. Schultz asked if memberships are lost in the summer by doing month to month. Sevenich said they are,but this offers an incentive that allows them the freedom and promotes an greater overall total of memberships. She said there are many variables and having a 12-month agreement won't impact it that much. Proops talked about making it more of a Community Center and including some of the Senior Center activities. Lotthammer responded that the intent is not to move all the senior programs to that facility. He explained there will be opportunities to use the Community Center for some of the events and senior classes. Proops suggested that they take a second look at moving the programs from the Senior Center to the Community Center. He noted there would be even less justification for keeping that open. He said to take another look at what is going on in the Senior Center and to make it more of a Community Center instead of an athletic center to bring in more diversified people. Kantor asked what other kinds of memberships would be available and how many members there would be at the end of 2009. Sevenich said there are members and memberships. She said it is challenging to get an exact number in the budget process. They would like to obtain 900 and currently it is at 570. Sevenich explained the types of memberships as being an adult or individual along with a household or family membership A dual membership would be $57 (an additional $25 on the $32). There would also be a senior membership and senior household. Last is a resident and non- resident membership. She said there is a 20% mark up on a non-resident. Neal talked about the incentive plans set up with the donors of the project. He said CITY COUNCIL AGENDA July 12, 2007 Page 8 their employees would receive discounted prices. A business that contributed more than $50,000 towards the project would qualify. Kardell asked about the fitness classes and the fitness center decline in revenue. Sevenich explained that in 2006 and 2007 the revenue collected is for group fitness and in 2008 and 2009 they are no longer charging for group fitness or punch cards. This would be incorporated into the membership. Kardell asked if the fitness center is personal training. Sevenich responded yes. Kardell asked if the decline in the ice arena in 2008 is because of construction and about the budgeted number for 2007. Sevenich confirmed that the decline is because of construction and that budget number is over stated. She explained the challenge in producing a number for the ice arena is due to them being shut down. Kardell asked if the shut downs were because of problems with equipment and if that is being addressed. Sevenich said yes. Kardell asked about the concessions. Sevenich explained that is half a year due to construction. The concessions are based on programming and are not opened in the summer. Proops questioned the childcare number of hours and asked what the charge is proposed to be. Sevenich noted the verbiage and said they are not providing daycare. They are offering childcare as an opportunity for users to bring children while they work out. Staff is proposing $2.00 per hour per child. Sevenich talked about the childcare area being open 49 hours per week. The hours are typically from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and then reopening at 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. They are starting conservative with one staff available and using other staff as backup. Muilenburg asked what the highest rate would be for a non-resident. Sevenich said it would be $38.40 for an individual. Uram asked if Fox Jets are still at the pool. Sevenich said yes. Lotthammer talked about opportunities to accommodate them at a different pool to allow members to utilize the Community Center pool. Sevenich stated she used a formula with the current membership breakdown. Schultz asked what the average rate is. Sevenich responded $54.57 and 48% of that is family, 17% couples, and 35% individuals. Muilenburg commented that 1.5% of the population seems reasonable. Kantor asked about the marketing. Schultz noted that is under Admin. Kantor asked when they would start marketing. Sevenich stated the Eden Prairie residents don't look at direct mail according to the study done by the City. She said they look at newsletters, which is a fairly inexpensive venue. The plan is to start the marketing campaign in September and have presales the end of December. Lotthammer said they will still have a lot of people using the facility that won't be members such as hockey teams. He talked about the Cambria Room being high quality and holding up to 150 people. He said there are many other revenue opportunities, such as birthday parties. CITY COUNCIL AGENDA July 12, 2007 Page 9 Schultz asked if hockey groups outside of Eden Prairie are charged anything extra. Sevenich explained that there is a scale of who is charged what. When the ice is not being used it is shut down. Kardell asked about others that use the rink. Obiazor said there is a prime time rate and non-prime time rate. There are also a number of tournaments that use the ice along with outside communities. She noted there is not a lot of free time until after 10:00 p.m. with all three rinks. Schultz asked if the third rink will get up to the other two in revenue. Sevenich advised that the third rink is already rented out. Neal noted that there is a separate agreement with the hockey association pertaining to the third rink. Uram asked about the expense difference from sheet one and sheet two. Obiazor responded that sheet one is the main rink and sheet two is the secondary rink. Sticha noted that rink two is a larger rink. Schultz asked about the wages. Sevenich said they have 4.5 in full-time wages, which is the same as now. She noted there will also be part-time wages. Kardell talked about the proposed budgets in 2008 and 2009 and recovering costs in this area. Lotthammer responded that the maintenance and utility side are not seen. If you take the full bottom line, there is a deficit. Lotthammer explained that with the pool operations the utility or maintenance side is not seen as well. Kardell asked if the Aquatics and Fitness Administration wages are one person. Sevenich responded yes. Uram asked what are the Fitness Center hours of operations. Sevenich said from 5:30 am to 10:00 p.m. She noted they reduced the hours in the summer this year and that has not proven to be a bad decision so they may be able to do that in the future. It impacts the hockey patrons entering the facility because they need someone to collect money. Lotthammer explained they can shut down a portion of the facility and still have hockey going on. Uram asked about the ice arena main rink full-time wages being one person. Sevenich said Bob Lanzi oversees concessions and the ice arenas facility booking. They allocated a portion of his time to facility rental and moved some of his salary into community booking of park facility rentals. Uram asked if there are issues with the time scheduled. Obiazor said the down time for ice is in the summer, which is a high time for booking shelters. She noted they are looking at online reservations which may free up the facility schedulig process. Sevenich talked about adding a secondary person to allow the customer service person to help with bookings. Kantor commented on the concessions philosophy as not being a big money maker and asked if that is something you have to do. Sevenich said it is something that has been there in the past. They would also like to enhance the concession area to make it a social arena. It also supports birthday parties. Muilenburg asked how to make child care self supporting. Sevenich said they are proposing to have a play facility in the back end of the child care facility and the goal CITY COUNCIL AGENDA July 12, 2007 Page 10 is to utilize that space for birthday parties. She noted there has to be a certain amount of staff for so many children. Proops asked if there is an increase in liability insurance. Lotthammer said the City has a broad policy and this falls under it. Proops asked if there are any rules and regulations. Sevenich said they will need to do background checks. She noted as long as the parent is on the premise it can be limited without being considered a daycare. Kardell asked that the summary slide that shows the deficit be addressed. Lotthammer explained that parts of those slides are summarized in the last slide. Sevenich said the facilities portions may address the questions in the last slide. Sticha reviewed the Community Center facility maintenance expense budget summary. He corrected the Facilities Engineer to be .9 for staffing at the Community Center. Sticha talked about the summary and the risk of not having a night or weekend employee. He explained that with part-time labor there is constant training and turnover and the easier method is to hire contract staff but that is more expensive. He stated he believes the best way to staff is to have the addition of two full-time persons with proper licenses spread out to have split shifts so there is always one full-time person on in the evenings and on the weekends. Kantor asked about people being on call. Sticha said yes there are employees on call and the plan would be to reduce on calls and overtime. Kantor asked if it would have helped to have more full-time employees to not have downtime. Obiazor said the life expectancy expired. The upkeep will be better than in the past. Sticha noted that rink number one failed because of aging equipment. Obiazor explained the replacement program will be a lot more preventative. Uram asked about the deficit. Kotchevar said that it is part of the of the general fund tax levy. Uram asked what the tax increase would be. Neal responded there would be about a 3% increase in taxes. Kotchevar said the increase would be the difference between 2007 and 2008. Obiazor noted the square footage is going to double. Uram asked what the plan is to address the deficit. Kotchevar stated the revenue projections are conservative. She said community centers are not necessarily money-making operations. Sevenich said the goal of the facility is to bring bodies in and with the bodies, bring revenue. The usage number is a measurable number. Uram commented on the referendum process and the direction of the City Council. Neal said the City Council has not given direction to make sure the annual revenues and expenditures match at the Community Center. There is not 100% cost recovery on the Community Center. Lotthammer talked about the swimming pools and hockey rinks being very energy intense. Proops asked about the bottom line in the Senior Center. He said if that is closed it saves $200,000 to $250,000. He suggested moving it to the second floor. He urged them to think about it and put it in the planning. Obiazor said by relocating the Senior Center it limits other revenue generating sources. She said they see the corporate membership sales as a big area. CITY COUNCIL AGENDA July 12, 2007 Page 11 Kardell said she thinks there needs to be some consideration for a cost recovering ratio and noted she is not suggesting it be a money-making facility. There needs to be consideration on what would be reasonable revenue to expense ratio for this facility. Neal said they will pull together some cost recovery models from other community centers and bring it back as part of version 2. Muilenburg suggested looking at different fee structures for the ice time. Sevenich said they researched the hockey ice time conditions that come together to determine pricing. Muilenburg said why not break from it. Sevenich said they will always continue to revisit that issue. She said they have a full grid of other community centers and will continue to monitor them to ensure the prices. The meeting was recessed for a five-minute break. The meeting was reconvened. D. PARKS & RECREATION Lotthammer talked about the park maintenance. He said this is the second of the three phases of Parks and Recreation. Stuart Fox, Parks Manager, talked about the capital projects. He said that with in the Parks and Natural Resources Division there is park maintenance, forestry, and natural resources. Fox explained the three sources of money in terms of capital projects being the park improvement fund, capital improvement fund and donation or referendum. Proops asked if in the park improvement fund most of that$15 million is dedicated to Community Center. Fox responded that it is not totally dedicated and they are using some of the funds in the current balance with the idea that some of the money will come back. Kotchevar said there is still a couple million dollars left in the park improvement fund. Fox said they will monitor what comes in annually. Kardell asked if the Rice Marsh Lake Trail of$250,000 is part of the other trail improvements. Fox explained what will drive the trail to connect to Bearpath - Riley Lake Road and up through Rice Marsh Lake Park is the completion of the 312 corridor. He explained the land held is owned by MnDOT and they have been given a long-term lease to build a trail. Fox pointed out the user charge is the cost to insure risk management on the various park buildings. He noted it used to be in risk management and it is now being rolled into the budget. Schultz asked if Neal's budget shows a decrease in that. Kotchevar said there is a risk management item line that goes to zero. Fox noted there are 43 parks in the City. Muilenburg asked why a telephone is maintained in each building. Fox explained that it is for safety and they have scaled down to the minimum. CITY COUNCIL AGENDA July 12, 2007 Page 12 Fox noted the contracted services under new items are actually about$30,000 for sweeping of the trail during the spring. Uram asked about plowing the trails and how long it is. Fox responded it is about 80 miles of 8 foot trails and about 50 miles of sidewalks. He noted they partner with the street maintenance. The plowing is done based on priority. Muilenburg asked about the overtime hours in snow removal for the trails. Fox said they don't plow the trails on overtime. The majority of the overtime actually occurs in the summertime. Muilenburg suggested waiting to plow the snow from the trails until the next day to save on overtime. Fox talked about the service level and the expectation of the residents. Muilenburg said he thought the residents would tolerate that. Fox said they are also pursuing the option of making Eden Prairie residents responsible for clearing sidewalks. Schultz asked if they do all the sidewalks. Fox said they do a limited number of sidewalks. Muilenburg reiterated that it would be reasonable to ask people to do. Neal said that this was in the quality of life survey and he will share this at version 2 budget time. He noted there was strong support for this. Fox explained that the school district changed their policy about two years ago and now charge a fee system to ride the bus. He said that if you live within two miles of the school that is considered a walkable distance. Schultz commented on the tree and park maintenance and asked what the full-time employees do in the winter. Fox responded that they take care of the rebuilding of snowplows and refurbishing. They also take a part picnic tables, do general repairs, and take down diseased trees in the wintertime. Obiazor talked about the adult recreation. She stated that in 2006 the total registration for recreational programs was 15,000. Obiazor noted that she has been here 21 years. She said at that time there was not a policy in place to determine how many programs to offer. She explained they used the program model from Stillwater, Oklahoma. She explained that there are four different levels of cost recovery. There is a basic service, which includes playgrounds, beaches and outdoor warming houses. Enhanced service is next, then fee assisted service level and a fee supported service level. She overviewed the arts and cultural programs and how they rely on sponsorships for special events. Obiazor explained that 25%-30% of the recreational programs are cancelled and on an average 25%-30% run below the minimum. She said they have done comparisons and made reductions in the number of cancellations of program and a reduction in the classes that run below the minimum. Kardell asked if someone cancels if they lose some of the fee. Sevenich said there is a percentage they lose but the fee is very nominal. Uram said it would be helpful to see a summary. Schultz asked for a list of the attendees. Obiazor said of the 15,000 they get, about 45% book online, which makes a difference in the workload. Sevenich explained the system will also tally a wait list for programs so when someone does cancel they are able to fill that slot. Obiazor said they do an assessment on the fee recovery policy. CITY COUNCIL AGENDA July 12, 2007 Page 13 Obiazor said they have over 9,000 participants in the adult recreation programs. Schultz asked how many of those are repeat or new. Obiazor responded that she doesn't have that information. Schultz said she would like to see that for each of the programs. Obiazor explained there would be duplicate numbers due to repeat users throughout the year. Lotthammer explained that 15,000 actually register for a program and then they also have walk-ins and spectators. Uram requested that a spreadsheet be put together on the program participation. Obiazor handed out some information. Obiazor talked about the therapeutic recreation budget and how that has evolved and who is served. She explained the adaptive programs and the requirement of the ADA. Uram asked how many people are served. Obiazor responded just under 1,000 and some of those are repeats. Schultz asked if other organizations offer these programs. Obiazor said that every community should have them available but some do and some don't and that is where non-residents come from. Lotthammer said there are different partnerships. Obiazor said they are also working with the immigrant population. Muilenburg asked if, outside of City-wide events, there are any plans to make these more effective at cost recovery. Neal explained that it has not been a policy goal. He said it was a policy goal structure that was set up by Parks and Recreation and approved by the City Council. Obiazor provided an outline of the fee structure and gave definitions of the four services. Kantor asked about moving people over to the Community Center from Oak Point. Obiazor said they will be doing more lessons at the Community Center. She talked about the Flagship staff. Kantor asked about the wages. Obiazor said the budget does not reflect that and they haven't come to an agreement. Kantor commented on the organized athletics in 2007. Obiazor said that the 2007 actual is going to be higher than 241,800. Schultz asked as a homework assignment, to have something to help understand duplicate users of each program. Muilenburg said a matrix in a spreadsheet format would be very useful. Neal said they can put that together. V. DISCUSSION AND FEEDBACK Kardell said the subcommittee groups should work with Neal. Kotchevar will coordinate meetings for the subcommittees. VI. ADJOURNMENT CITY COUNCIL AGENDA July 12, 2007 Page 14 MOTION: Schultz moved, seconded by Muilenburg, to adjourn the meeting. The meeting ended at approximately 9:22 p.m. Motion carried 7-0.