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HomeMy WebLinkAbout09192007SpecialCffY~~F E~'s~~, ~_ - . H©ME OF PELICAN ISLAND SEBASTIAN CITY COUNCIL MINUTES SPECIAL MEETING -BUDGET HEARING WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2007 - 6:00 P.M. CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS 1225 MAIN STREET, SEBASTIAN, FLORIDA 2. 3. 4. 5. The Mayor called the special meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited. ROLL CALL City Council Present: Mayor Andrea Coy Vice Mayor Sal Neglia Council Member AI Paternoster Council Member Dale Simchick Council Member Eugene Wolff Staff Present in Chambers: Airport Director, Joe Griffin Finance Director, Shai Francis Police Chief, Jim Davis MIS Systems Analyst, Barry Siepmann Staff Present at Dais: City Manager, AI Minner City Clerk, Sally Maio City Attorney, Rich Stringer (excused) CITY MANAGER UPDATE The City Manager said the budget has been updated in accordance with Council direction and staff recommends approval. FINAL PUBLIC HEARING AND ADOPTION OF MILEAGE AND FY 2007/2008 BUDGET A. The City Manager Announced Proposed Millage Rate of 3.0519 Mills Which is 4.99% Less than Rolled-Back Rate of 3.2121 Mills. B. Mayor Coy opened the Public Hearing on the proposed Millage and Budget at 6:02 p.m. Special City Council Meeting September 19, 2007 Page Two The following members of the public addressed Council: Damien Gilliams, 1623 US 1, commended Council, the Budget Committee and employees for their due diligence, and recommended the following: preparation for cutting the millage for next year to 2.9 or 2.8, funding for a lobbyist which brings money to the taxpayers, a wellness program to reduce insurance costs, need for a citizens academy, more festivals to bring more people into town, getting cut of Waste Management revenues for recycling, solar, wind, hydrogen cells, having a financial committee all year round, and putting checks on the City website. Mr. Paternoster read a letter from Chuck Lever, Mulberry Street, Sebastian, recommending the hiring of additional police officers (see attached). C. Council Deliberation Mr. Neglia said Council cares about the safety of citizens, but he has not heard throughout the year that people don't feel they are being protected, and if we can do something in March to hire additional officers he is for that. He said he is satisfied with the budget as it is. Mr. Paternoster agreed with a wellness program, recommended contacting other cities to buy fuel in bulk, said his concern is with the safety of the officers and hoped that the City Manager can come back after the Super Homestead is voted on with a plan to hire on additional officers, that people's cars and homes are being broken into, crime is all around us and we need to ensure we are properly protected, and recommended we move forward with this budget. Ms. Simchick also liked the idea of a wellness program, suggested sick day compensation for no sick days, said one of her goals for the next fiscal year is a line item for outsourcing grants writing, noted we have put officers on a tickler file for January, said people may see inequities in spending but in reality moneys earmarked for a specific project cannot legally be moved around for other purposes. She thanked the Budget Committee and staff for this budget and said hopefully in our goal setting workshop we can get clever. Mr. Wolff thanked the City Manager, Shai Francis and staff for this budget, said our greatest challenge is payroll costs which cannot be underwritten by grants. He said our challenge is to balance our workforce with needed services, that we have not had to let anyone go, said the millage may possibly be at an all time low, but it may be difficult to maintain this low millage rate, and taxes may have to go up. He said we cannot fund additional personnel with grants and having festivals, so to provide services we will have to look at our tax rate and this will be our greatest challenge. He agreed with the wellness program idea, and going forward we can direct the City Manager to send out our insurance broker to get us a better plan. 2 Special City Council Meeting September 19, 2007 Page Three Mayor Coy congratulated staff who contributed to the budget, said she was pleased that we did not have to let anyone go, that we met and exceeded the State mandates, but the downside was that we had to set limits and because we decided to maintain this millage we will have to wait until February to look at hiring additional police. She said scrubbing the CRA funds for the boat ramp will not get us new officers because those funds can't be used for personnel. Mr. Neglia reported on Port Saint Lucie's wellness program, which includes medical facilities for. their employees. He said he provided information to the City Manager and Human Resources Director and they are looking into it. D. Adopt RESOLUTION NO. R-07-37 - Millage Rate for Calendar Year 2007 (Finance Director Transmittal, R-07-37~ A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF SEBASTIAN, INDIAN RIVER COUNTY, FLORIDA, ADOPTING A MILEAGE RATE OF 3.0519 MILLS FOR THE CALENDAR YEAR 2007; PROVIDING FOR CONFLICTS; AND PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE. The City Manager read Resolution No. R-07-37 by title only. MOTION by Mr. Paternoster, and SECOND by Vice Mayor Neglia, to adopt Resolution No. R-07-37. Roll call result was as follows: Ayes: Neglia, Paternoster, Simchick, Wolff, Coy Nays: None Passed E. Adopt RESOLUTION NO. R-07-38 -Fiscal Year 2007/2008 Budget (Finance Director Transmittal, R-07-38, Schedule "A") A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SEBASTIAN, INDIAN RIVER COUNTY, FLORIDA, ADOPTING THE BUDGET FOR THE FISCAL YEAR BEGINNING OCTOBER 1, 2007 AND ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2008; MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE PAYMENT OF OPERATING EXPENSES, CAPITAL EXPENSES, AND FOR THE PRINCIPAL AND INTEREST PAYMENTS OF THE BOND AND OTHER INDEBTEDNESS OF THE CITY IN THE CITY'S GENERAL FUND, SPECIAL REVENUE FUNDS, DEBT SERVICE FUND, CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT FUNDS, GOLF COURSE FUND, AIRPORT FUND, AND BUILDING DEPARTMENT FUND AS PROVIDED FOR IN SCHEDULE "A" ATTACHED HERETO, ESTABLISHING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY MANAGER TO IMPLEMENT THE BUDGET; PROVIDING FOR SEVERABILITY; PROVIDING FOR CONFLICTS; AND PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE. The City Manager read Resolution No. R-07-38 by title. MOTION by Mr. Paternoster, and SECOND by Ms. Simchick to adopt Resolution No. R-07-38. Special City Council Meeting September 19, 2007 Page Three Roll call result was as follows: Ayes: Paternoster, Simchick, Wolff, Coy, Neglia Nays: None Passed 6. OTHER FISCAL MATTERS A. Adopt RESOLUTION NO. R-07-36 -City Financial Policies (Finance Director Transmittal. R-07-36) A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF SEBASTIAN, FLORIDA, READOPTING AMENDED FINANCIAL POLICIES GOVERNING VARIOUS AREAS OF BUDGET AND FINANCE AS PROVIDED FOR IN ATTACHMENT "1"; PROVIDING FOR CONFLICTS; AND PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE. The City Manager read Resolution No. R-07-36 by title and briefly described the amendments. MOTION by Ms. Simchick and SECOND by Vice Mayor Neglia to adopt Resolution No. R-07-36. Roll call result was as follows: Ayes: Simchick, Wolff, Coy, Neglia, Paternoster Nays: None Passed 7. Being no further business, Mayor Coy adjourned the special meeting at 6:37 p.m. Approved at the Sept . 2 6 , 2 0 0 7 City Council Meeting. Andrea 8. Coy, Ma or ATT ST.• )~9._ A. Maio,'IIMC -City Clerk 4 Members of the council, I have asked Council Member Paternoster to read the following into record during the budget meeting due to my mandatory presence elsewhere. All of you passionately speak about wanting to have more police officers and how you are concerned about the safety of our people and our officers. Council Member Simchick mentioned that if we cannot hire more officers than we should at least make sure that they have the proper equipment for their safety. I submit to you making sure that we have enough officers on the street is not only crucial for the safety of our residents but to the officers as well. Council Member Simchick was a police dispatcher and should be keenly aware that when you are patrolling the streets, it is extremely important to know that backup is available should the need arise. One only need to read the newspapers or turn on the television and it becomes clear that crime is indeed all around us and beginning to move into our community as well. We are not immune to crime. A recent armed bank robbery with the exchange of gunfire and an armed holdup at Dunkin Donuts lend credence to this. Which incidentally tied up all of our department and no one was available for patrol. Most of you sit up there and claim that you are sorry that we cannot hire any more police officers. Yet we can have a dog park at 20,000 dollars plus any additional cost. You want to consider paying out 1.9 million dollars to remake the Main Street and Chamber of Commerce Parking Lot with the removal of our city park for parking. Yet we cannot hire Police Officers. You claim that council gave us the roll back of taxes and if you hadn't we would have the additional money of $95,000 to hire two officers but what the public wasn't told is that you had those proposed budget papers before any vote was taken. I do not remember you speaking of hiring any new Police Officers then. We purchase property at $95,000 over appraised property value but we cannot hire Police Officers. We have an officer that works primarily in the CRA area and yet no funds are allocated out of the CRA to pay the officer. Special events take place like the Clambake, Fourth of July, etc... and money does not come from the CRA to compensate for it. The council is asked to approve additional money to Conlon for a fourth cut yet we cannot hire a police officer. We cut back our services in order to save money but no new police officers. We have a reserve of 4.5 million dollars for emergency reasons yet we are over twenty police officers under staffed but this is not considered an emergency. The administration considers spending countless dollars on special interest groups and even giving money away to different businesses to help them conform to monument type of signs. However, there appears to be no real effort toward the allocation of funds for attempting to meet the accepted number of police personnel necessary for the safe and efficient level of protection of all concerned. We transfer money from different funds at rapid paces to pay for other projects. When it comes to the safety of our citizens, we do not hire more police officers. I believe it is time for this council and city administration to stop the waste of taxpayer's money and potentially putting the residents at risk and give us more police officers. I pray to God that each council member take into very careful consideration the level or the lack of appropriate consideration presently being given to the safety of our most valuable assets, our citizens. Thank you, Chuck Lever Mulberry Street, Sebastian