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HomeMy WebLinkAbout02082010BUD MinutesPledge of Allegiance Roll Call by Kenneth Killgore. All present HOME OF PELICAN ISLAND CITY OF SEBASTIAN BUDGET REVIEW ADVISORY BOARD MINUTES MONDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2010 6:00 P.M CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS 1225 MAIN STREET, SEBASTIAN, FLORIDA Chairman Ed Herlihy called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. Present: Adrina Davis, Ed Herlihy, Jerry Klenck, Harry Marshall, Brad White, Christine Vicars, Edward Kroah Staff Members Present: Debra Krueger- Administrative Services Director; Al Minner- City Manager; Kenneth Killgore- Finance Director; Nancy Veidt- Jr. Accountant. Mr. Herlihy requested an introduction of all board members. Harry Marshall- resident of Sebastian for 1 lyears. Works at the Tax Authority, wife Sarah and 2 great daughters Adrina Davis- Resident 20 years, enjoy the budget review committee Chris Vicars- Resident 6 years work as a Benchmarking consultant, last year was an eye opener Ed Herlihy- Resident 5 years, 3 year on the budget committee Ed Kroah- Resident 3 years. Retired from financial work. Jerry Klenck- Resident 9 years, retired from Melbourne. Brad White- Resident about 5 years, 2 year on the budget committee Mr. Minner introduced staff members present and identified their position with the City. Chairperson Herlihy advised that with two (2) new board members it will be necessary to elect a Budget Chairperson and a Vice Chairperson. Ed Herlihy was nominated for Chairperson, and seconded. Christine Vicars was nominated by Adrina Davis for Vice Chairperson, and seconded. All approved. Mr. Minner stated that he would like to get some feedback from the board on the budget on how we can proceed and do the budget differently. We have had some success and we are set for the next fiscal year 2011. It is going to be a tough year but with some of the things we put into place last year such as the Furlough Days etc., are important things to set up for 2011. We are as prepared as can be with our long term planning. Internally, we will be doing procurement on our Health Ins. We are below or at the 50% margin now for the last 6 months and we need to take advantage of it while the market is good. We want to capture on the claims experience. This could provide us some savings this year. We will know what the insurance will cost going into the new fiscal year, and will have those numbers going into negotiations with the two unions; PBA and the PEA. Changes to Discuss A. Review of the Quarterly Budget Report- we want to go over the changes and you can make your recommendations and report to Council. Calendar meetings. To review the calendar report Mr Minner confirmed that The Florida League of Cities meeting will be February 24, 2010 4:00 p.m. Florida League of Cities provides this service. Ken Small who works for FLC does Revenue Enhancement Training at the City's request. He looks at State Shared Revenue, Franchise Revenues, Tax Revenues, and he looks at where we can increase monies or where we are missing monies, and will report his findings to the Budget Committee and Council on February 24` Mr. Minner advised the committee that Mr. Killgore would give his report on the Quarterly Budget Report showing the changes that were made and what we did differently, good or bad. Chairperson Herlihy asked board members if they had any questions for Mr. Killgore regarding the first Quarter Budget Report. The concensus was they would like to hear what he had to report. Chairperson Herlihy stated that he had read a newspaper article about Vero Beach having a huge thing called "Un funded Pension Liability", and he wanted to know if we had any of those horrors in the closet. Mr. Killgore responded that we do have the Police Pension Fund that is administered similar to what Vero Beach has, and it is an unfunded liability. Benefit changes are made, and the Actuary calculates what the future amount of what will be paid out, and then makes assumptions on how much will be paid into the plan. This results in a balance that will reflect as the unfunded liability. The second thing Chairperson Herlihy inquired about was the SBA (State Board Administration), we currently have about $6 million. Based on newspaper articles, knowing the current problems SBA is having, are we comfortable with them? Mr. Killgore reassured the board that SBA has since restructured their program and have a lot more transparency. They have straightened out their performance. He advised that he and Debbie Krueger had a meeting today with the new Investment Advisor that we are planning on contracting with. He will bring some ideas, recommendations and active portfolio management on how we can better allocate our money. Mr. Jerry Klenck inquired about the Administrative Services figures on the general department budget and there was an error. Mr. Killgore advised that it was just a problem with bringing the correct figures over on the excel spreadsheet. Mr. Klenck also inquired about the 10 police vehicles, $385,000 still showing on the budget and he thought we were going to lower that this year. Mr. Minner assured him that those vehicles were not yet purchased and we would be looking into possibly purchasing some hybrid or electric cars. When we do look into purchasing those cars we will visit that and report to council. Our target is to purchase vehicles under the figure listed in the budget. Board member also inquired about the unusual amount of tire purchases at the garage. Mr. Minner advised that he did not have a formal report as yet. Mr. Minner illustrated that the city operates essentially 5 different funds: General Fund comprises of general services of the city, which are paid with taxes and is the focus of this report. Police Services, Administration, Parks Recreation, Planning, etc. which are paid with the taxes. Special Revenue Funds 1. Discretionary Sale Tax- Paid for this facility (City Hall) and pays for capital items such as Police cars. 2. Stormwater Utility Fees- fee assessed everyone on an annual basis 3. Recreational Impact Fees- this fee is based on construction of new residential houses which have been limited for the last couple of years because of the economy. 4. Local Option Gas Tax Collected when you pay at the pump. There are also 3 Enterprise Funds: 1. Building Department- Does all the inspections, and that operates separately from the general fund. 2. Airport- Operates the Airport 3. Golf Course- Operates the golf course and the green fees stays in that pot. All these funds inter- relate and are linked together. Mr. Minner also stated that Chairman Herlihy brought up the Cash Management which is based on ordinances established by the Council. We have a Finance Investment Committee which is comprised of 3 people; the City Manager, Finance Director and City Attorney. This group manages and watches those investments, and we recently changed investment advisors. Chairman Herlihy commented that looking at the General Fund, we are right on target at 24.3% expense, and there is really nothing that stands out that has not already explained. Mr Killgore explained the layout of the Report as it was listed. With no questions from the Board, Mr. Minner went on to explain #6 item on the agenda. This Quarterly Budget Report is structured a little differently than the past years he advised. It provides a snapshot detail comparisons with Revenues and Expenditures over the past 3 years. The Report closes with investments, updates on capital projects, and some of the achievements and accomplishments of the Depaitments thru the quarter and shows what everyone is trying to get things done. Chairman Herlihy suggested that since this is fairly new to almost all on the board, they would like to be able to call on Mr. Minner, Ken Killgore or Debra Krueger for clarification or any questions that they may have regarding the report. Mr. Minner assured them that they could even contact us with suggestions and amendments. Mr. Minner advised that we are trying to be as transparent as we can, we want it to be easily read by all, and to show them that things are being properly managed. Chairman Herlihy reminded the board members that we live under the Florida Sunshine Law- Board members cannot call each other to discuss committee meetings, they must call Mr. Minner or Ken Killgore and filter your information thru them. There being no further questions on the 1 Quarter Budget Report, motion was made to approve the Report. Next item to discuss per Chairman Herlihy is to talk about going forward. Is there any guess from the Indian River Appraiser on the assessed valuation? Mr. Minner stated that the State Statute states that we get the information by June 1. For fiscal year 2011 we estimated 12 Last year we were 15% 18% and then the Assessor changed it to 12% 15 and when the Assessor changed the amount, it really helped us. Chairman Herlihy also wanted to comment on the Furlough Days that were in the budget last year. He reminded the Board that the City was on one day a month furlough day. He asked about getting rid of it- we saved about $25, 000 per month in order to keep the tax rate at where we were last year. That is about $300,000. Mr. Minner replied that there is no getting out of it. "There are 3 big items that will go into the budget process this year. 75% of the 11 million budget of the general fund is personnel cost, there is no getting out of that. That runs the city. $2 '/z million is operational cost and that has been reduced each year. We need to focus on "Did the savings work Our numbers in the past few years especially as we decrease in operational funds show that we are meeting that expectation. If we want maximum savings we need to look at personnel structures and we need to continue to do that next year. The 4 big pieces are the 2 Collective Bargaining Agreements, Furlough Days, and Benefits. This year, once we have moved into negotiations with the 2 unions we will have that data. Then we will know where the pieces of the puzzle fit in regards to Furlough days and Health Insurance etc. In regards to the Furlough Days with the staff they were unpopular because they have taken a 5% reduction in pay, but some of our employees have taking on a team attitude and they are being very receptive. There is a team atmosphere. On the service level side, based on feedback that we have gotten, I don't think the Furlough Days have reduced service level and that might be because the Building Department revenues have been so low but we are hoping that will pick up. On the Police Department side we have been able to shuffle a few things around, but there has been no decline in service. We will have to look at Furlough Days again next year." Chairman Herlihy stated that he hopes that there is a possibility that Mr. Minner could try to reduce or cut back the Furlough Days to every other month instead of every month. Mr. Kroah commented that if we are looking at a 75% spending on Salaries and Benefits, you cannot see savings without cutting back on personnel cost. The Furlough program kept employees in their jobs instead of reducing staff With no further questions or comments on the Furloughs, Chairman Herlihy wanted to know if Mr. Minner could provide the board with what we have to put into a Pension Retirement Plan for everyone in the city. Mr. Minner advised the board that the City is not Pension oriented. There are 3 work forces in the City. There is the P.B.A which is generally the line officers of Police Dept. All officers are in the PBA with the exception of the Chief, the Deputy Chief and the 2 Captains. The PEA is essentially the same unit, but it is a derivative of the PBA. It covers all Public Works and some administrative staff who do not have supervisory responsibilities, and Dispatchers. The management staff does not have a union contract, but they mirror the PEA. Management does not have a pension they have a Deferred Compensation which the city contributes 9% of their base salary. The PEA and the PBA both have pensions. The City contributes 9% to the PEA pension, the PBA fluctuates based on the Actuarial Report. For fiscal year 2010, the City is contributing 18 and for fiscal year 2011 we are looking at a 24% contribution rate on approximately $4.5M payroll. The Police Department employees contribute 5 the State has a matching program as well. We also have the accruals for vacation and sick and when the employees retire or separate from service that there will be some payout, but generally we have been lucky where we do not have to manage or budget for that With no further questions or comments, Chairman Herlihy reiterated that the next meeting will be with the Florida League of Cities on Wednesday, February 24, 2010 4:00 pm at City Hall. The 2nd Quarter meeting will be in April and Mr. Minner will advise of date and time. The Quarterly Budget Report will be added to the meeting schedule and sent out to the board in a few days. Chairman Herlihy advised the board members that if they feel the need to have a workshop, open to the public to discuss the budget process prior to the next quarterly meeting, they should contact Mr. Minner. With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 7:00 p.m. Adopted at Meeting of May 3, 2010: Ed Herlihy, Ch irman