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06-26-2001 - Budget Workshop .A w ....." CITY COUNCIL OF EDGEWATER WORKSHOP JUNE 26, 2001 6:30 P.M. COMMUNITY CENTER MINUTES CALL TO ORDER Mayor Schmidt called the Workshop to order at 6:30 p.m. in the Community Center. ROLL CALL Mayor Donald Schmidt Councilman James Brown Councilman Dennis Vincenzi Councilwoman Harriet Rhodes Councilwoman Judith Lichter City Manager Kenneth Hooper City Clerk Susan Wadsworth Legal Assistant Robin Matusick Present Present Present Present Present Present Present Present MEETING PURPOSE The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the FY 2001/2002 General Fund and Enterprise Funds. City Manager Hooper made a staff presentation. He explained the Department Heads were each given an allocation and they went back and itemized the amounts they were given. There are no new positions in the budget. City Manager Hooper asked Planning Director Lynne Plaskett to get a copy of the General Fund and Capital Equipment for the Council. City Manager Hooper stated he was going to speak in general about the budget and Finance Director Michele Goins would speak in detail about revenues. He would then follow up with Expenditures and they will also speak about Enterprise Funds. City Manager Hooper went over the budget overview and setting the millage rate. Councilwoman Lichter asked when the two public hearings would be held. city Manager Hooper stated they would be in the month of September. City Manager Hooper went over the Millage Rat~ Analysis for FY 2002. He commented on the increase in property values. Councilwoman Lichter asked when they get the new number on the increase from the Tax Assessor. City Manager Hooper stated they have a preliminary number. July 1st or so they will mail the formal number. city Manager Hooper then went over the ten years worth of history regarding the millage rate. Councilwoman Rhodes asked how come the taxes per capita increased and the population increased and the millage rate stayed the same. City Manager Hooper explained it depends on whether they are counting new growth or not new growth into some of that. Councilwoman Rhodes commented on this being a $5 increase per person. She would think the number would come down. city Manager Hooper explained the population number is growing and the assessed values went up. The millage stayed the same so you are bringing in more tax dollars. There was a brief discussion regarding the additional Senior Homestead Exemption. , ... '-" .."", City Manager Hooper then went over the Summary of New Construction over the last ten years. He spoke about the increase from FY 2000-2001 being due to annexations. He then went on to speak about other cities that are struggling. City Manager Hooper informed Council after Ms. Goins goes over Revenues they would come back to the list and speak of the improvements projects that are included in the budget. Finance Director Michele Goins then went over the different categories of the Revenues in the General Fund starting with Taxes. Councilwoman Lichter asked if the ad valorem taxes not collected will come in. Ms. Goins informed her that is the 2001 estimate. That is what was collected this year. Mayor Schmidt asked how we got so lucky to get so much back. Ms. Goins stated it depends. Sometimes a lot of the houses when they end up on the court house steps it goes in cycles. The last time we had any significant revenues in that line were back in 1998. She couldn't explain what one factor may have contributed to that. City Manager Hooper spoke about the theory by the County of a lot of the Senior Homestead Exemptions made people unsure what to pay so they were late. Ms. Goins then went over Licenses and Permits and Intergovernmental Revenues. Councilwoman Lichter asked about the Gym Grant. Ms. Goins stated they are hoping to receive that money this year. Councilwoman Lichter asked when they applied for that grant and if that is for the shelter. Ms. Goins informed her yes. Mayor Schmidt stated we still know we are getting it, we just haven't gotten it. City Manager Hooper stated it is excruciatingly difficult to go through the Feds to get the paperwork. It is ours, we have been certified to have it and Mr. Corder is down to the last little bit of paperwork. Ms. Goins then went over Charges for Services, Fines and Forfeitures and Miscellaneous Revenues. Councilwoman Rhodes asked what Internet Revenue is that the City received in 1998 and 1999 that it no longer receives. Ms. Goins spoke about the City being involved when CET was offering Internet Service to the citizens of Edgewater. Ms. Goins then went over Other Sources. City Manager Hooper then went over the Summary of Appropriations of Expenditures. Councilwoman Rhodes asked what the Council is doing that they are $3,000 over budget. She feels there is no reason they should be over budget. City Clerk Wadsworth informed her this Council is very active. City Manager Hooper spoke about last year when they were a new Council they had to guess their spending needs and wants. He also stated this Council is more active. Just because it is over budget doesn't mean there is a problem. He spoke about moving money from different places to make up for the overage. Councilwoman Rhodes asked if that is the way all the departments do. City Manager Hooper further commented on the way that works. He referred to the Finance Department Budget. He went on to speak about coming before Council with items that are not appropriated in the budget as well as items that are over certain dollar levels. Page -2- Council Workshop June 26, 2001 '-" ...., councilwoman Lichter feels we are lacking a policy in terms of giving out money to very worthwhile causes. She thinks whoever comes in front of them they give money to. She feels New Smyrna is a bit tighter on that kind of thing. She feels they should form some kind of policy of whom they are going to give money to. City Manager Hooper stated they have asked each time they have somebody do they get a notice of a budget and they send those out. When they have the first public hearing, the individuals that have been here before are back in front of the Council. Through the year they do have some requests come in. He spoke about people being informed to come back through the budget process for the following year. Mayor Schmidt referred to Promotional Activities and asked about Volusia Day and if there is some cushion in there. City Manager Hooper stated there is some cushion not only there but there is a reserve set aside. For the most part that is taken care of. city Manager Hooper went over the City Council budget. Mayor Schmidt asked why there is such a big increase in 1998 under Books and Publications. City Manager Hooper stated it is hard to look now and go back to what used to be. He further spoke about streamlining. Councilwoman Rhodes asked about Communications. City Manager Hooper explained that is for phones. Councilwoman Rhodes feels they are under budgeting from last year. Ms. Goins explained part of what affected Communications across the City is the Internet phone number, which used to be a Daytona phone number and was considered a long distance call. Bellsouth recently got a New Smyrna Beach phone number and they are predicting that should go down a little bit. City Manager Hooper went over the City Manager budget. Councilwoman Rhodes questioned why Operating Supplies is so much higher this year than for next year. Ms. Goins commented on Liz having repairs that needed to be done to her computer. There was a brief discussion regarding lightning hits. City Manager Hooper went over the Finance Department budget. Councilwoman Rhodes asked about Other Charges and Obligations and questioned the increase. Ms. Goins commented on temporary personnel and the MIS person possibly wanting to do some improvements to the City's computers. Councilwoman Lichter questioned Educational Development under the Planning and Zoning budget and feels they may have cut themselves short. Planning Director Lynne Plaskett explained the Educational Development line item has to do with actually going to school. City Manager Hooper went over the Economic Development Board budget. This one has a couple of potentials they may want to talk about adding. Shannon Lewis-McBride has been hired from New Smyrna Beach. Frank Roberts and himself have talked of cost sharing the position and letting that be an Economic Development Assistant between the two cities. If that occurs, they will be back talking of how to fund that position. He further commented on advertising the Chamber will be presenting. Councilwoman Rhodes stated she is of the opinion that they should give them more money instead of less money. Mayor Schmidt feels the Chamber is going to come, with the Ad Authority going away, want to talk about some Economic Development spending. Page -3- Council Workshop June 26, 2001 ,....,. ....., City Manager Hooper asked the Council how they feel about sharing the position with New Smyrna. Councilman Vincenzi stated he doesn't like the idea. He feels it may even be a conflict of interest. City Manager Hooper stated that is part of what they talked about. For the most part they aren't competing for the same kinds of things. He spoke about soliciting and talking to Walmart. If New Smyrna turns them down, we are very interested in talking to them being at SR 442. There may be times when there is a conflict. In that case, you don't use the person. Councilwoman Rhodes questioned should they not be competing for the same things. City Manager Hooper explained they are two different kinds of cities. For the most part we are looking for the business and industrial. That is not what they are looking for. They are looking for a Canal Street boutique and smaller restaurants. We aren't there yet. Mayor Schmidt feels it needs to be laid out exactly what the duties will be. Councilwoman Lichter stated she is not adverse to the concept at all if it doesn't overstep. She feels at the moment we are at a different stage in our economic development. She has a problem of giving more money necessarily here because sometimes she doesn't think their concentration is purely Edgewater. She would like to see what we are getting for our money. We have a very good Chairman but it has been very difficult over the years to get someone that thinks of Edgewater first. Very often we have people on the Economic Development Board who live in New Smyrna. City Manager Hooper asked the Council if they want them to make a presentation, particularly the Chamber in talking about what they spend and what they will be doing when they do the budget hearings. Mayor Schmidt would like to see how they are going to react with splitting from the Ad Authority and how they are going to approach it. Councilwoman Rhodes stated she would like to see exactly what they are going to do for Edgewater. He agreed to pass the information on and informed Council Steve Dennis would be coming before the Council next Monday night regarding another subject. Councilwoman Lichter feels when you are talking in terms of sharing, you have to spell out very clearly what you have in mind. She wants to hear more of those that are opposed to the idea. Her quick reaction is they could benefit from it but she wants to hear more of how Councilman Vincenzi is thinking. Councilman Vincenzi stated you would have to put a very convincing argument in front of him. Councilwoman Rhodes agrees with councilwoman Lichter. On the face of it it seems like the way to get the most bang for your buck but it needs to be spelled out very specific. Councilwoman Lichter spoke about looking at Edgewater as a personality and New Smyrna as a possibility. There is going to have to be a time when they look at Edgewater first. She doesn't always want us to be getting what New Smyrna doesn't want. She feels each case will have to be taken separately. City Manager Hooper agreed to work on this. This isn't ready to have a vote on or any real discussion except the concept so they will bring some of that back. City Manager Hooper went over the Personnel budget. City Manager Hooper went over the City Clerk budget. He commented on the increase due to the elections. Councilwoman Rhodes asked about the increase under Books, Pubs, Subs & Memberships. City Clerk Wadsworth informed her that has to do with Municipal Code. It has been almost 15 years since we updated our Code books. Page -4- Council Workshop June 26, 2001 '-' ....., City Manager Hooper went over the Other Governmental Services budget. Councilwoman Rhodes questioned why there isn't a City Hall Replacement Fund. City Manager Hooper commented on having money in this years budget to figure a site and locate a site and go through that process. They are going to hire some architects and figure out how big it will be and what it will look like. That process will take a year. He further spoke about looking at a general obligation bond to build a new City Hall. They will have to ask the voters for a referendum and if they are interested in approving that and they will have to assess themselves to do it. Councilwoman Lichter feels the clue is planning and spoke about finishing projects that they started that were rather expensive and close to each other such as the Fire Station and YMCA. She feels psychologically it's not the right time to put it on the voter. City Manager Hooper feels if they are going to do a referendum question about if they will fund it, they have to provide details. Ms. Goins stated although there really aren't any grants out there to build a new City Hall but there may be some grants if they can incorporate an emergency operations center at City Hall. Councilwoman Rhodes spoke about setting aside money for it. City Manager Hooper commented on the Council's priority list. Councilwoman Rhodes feels if they don't set money aside for this and go to the voters she doubts they will see a City Hall. City Manager Hooper continued his presentation under Other Governmental Services with the Capital Outlay. Mayor Schmidt asked if there is a possibility of getting a grant for the two motorcycles. City Manager Hooper spoke about this being a major possibility. The grant applications have been submitted. Councilman Vincenzi asked what the Admin/Command Response Vehicle is. City Manager Hooper explained that is in the Fire Department. Fire Chief Barlow elaborated. City Manager Hooper went over the Police Department budget. He spoke about Code Enforcement and Animal Control being moved from the Police Department to the Fire Department. Councilwoman Rhodes asked about the overtime. Police Chief Ignasiak spoke about the overtime dropping because of the reorganization of putting more officers on the street. Councilwoman Lichter asked if CAPS will be moving up here. City Manager Hooper informed her yes and stated the current CAPS building we are leasing, we are giving up. Councilwoman Rhodes asked if five sergeants is a lot for 25 police officers. Police Chief Ignasiak stated five is sufficient right now. That is one for each squad. The fifth sergeant is for CID. Councilman Vincenzi stated when they start moving on the consolidated dispatch that will probably be a year or two. City Manager Hooper stated it will be at least a year off. They will see that in the year 2002. Councilman Vincenzi asked where that money will be budgeted. City Manager Hooper spoke about the three cities phasing equal payment, not next year but the following year, which is why they don't see it in the budget. Councilwoman Lichter stated no matter how many fire trucks, police cars and the population each City will pay the same. City Manager Hooper stated they will be paying based on the number of calls. The hardware and software will be paid equal. Page -5- Council Workshop June 26, 2001 -- ....., There was a discussion regarding joint efforts with Oak Hill. City Manager Hooper went over the Fire Department budget. Councilwoman Lichter asked if the City is trying to sell the piece of property where the Fire station was supposed to go or if we are going to keep it. City Manager Hooper stated they are going to sell it. They are going to declare it surplus and see what they can get for it. Councilwoman Rhodes asked why there are four lieutenants for eight firefighters and two reserves. Fire Chief Barlow elaborated. Councilwoman Rhodes asked what a Fire Reserve is. Fire Chief Barlow elaborated. City Manager Hooper went over the Building Department budget. City Manager Hooper went over the civil Defense budget which falls under Fire Chief Barlow for emergencies. Councilwoman Lichter asked if CERT is funded under that. Fire Chief Barlow informed her yes, under Operating Supplies. Mayor Schmidt asked what Machinery and Equipment would be. Fire Chief Barlow elaborated. Councilwoman Lichter asked if our insurance rating has changed at all. Fire Chief Barlow spoke about it decreasing from a seven to a five back in 1998. Councilwoman Lichter asked when that gets rated again. Fire Chief Barlow informed her approximately every ten years. City Manager Hooper went over the Code Enforcement budget, which now combines Code Enforcement with Animal Control. City Manager Hooper went over the Public Works budget. There was a discussion regarding street resurfacing. City Manager Hooper then went over the Capital Outlay. Councilman Vincenzi asked what the Plasma Cutter is. Director of Environmental Services Director Terry Wadsworth commented on what this piece of equipment is. Councilwoman Lichter asked if they have everything they need for keeping up with the canals and if that would be under a different listing. Mr. Wadsworth informed her that falls under Stormwater. There was a ten-minute recess at this time. Mayor Schmidt spoke about scholarships and New Smyrna doing this through the Parks and Recreation Department. City Manager Hooper asked if they would like to look at the program New Smyrna uses on how they do the ranking selection. Mayor Schmidt would like to look at the ranking selection but he thinks the best contact is the guidance people. Councilwoman Lichter feels their criteria would have to be clear and specific and maybe related to a City in some way. She spoke about Drug Free's scholarships being geared for kids that might be at risk. Mayor Schmidt spoke about the middle of the road type child that gets B's and CiS. Councilwoman Lichter feels speaking to the guidance counselors is good but feels they could come up with some creative thoughts of their own. She feels generally there is a disrespect for politics and there isn't too much out there for young people who might want to pursue that kind of thing, such as political science, which she feels ties in very well with a City. Page -6- Council Workshop June 26, 2001 ~ ~ Councilman Brown asked if there are programs through the Police also that helps students. Councilwoman Lichter stated that is through Drug Free. Councilwoman Rhodes would like to see this in the City Council's budget Councilwoman Lichter feels they are coming along beautifully with their youth but feels they are lacking with seniors with regard to transportation for seniors. Mayor Schmidt asked if this is something they could tie in with New Smyrna. City Manager Hooper feels between Votran and New Smyrna there are some opportunities there. Councilwoman Lichter stated maybe it doesn't have to go in the budget. City Manager Hooper stated it probably would go into a budget to do the expansion of those routes. Mayor Schmidt mentioned New Smyrna having a City bus that goes in circles around town. City Manager Hooper agreed to look into this and try to expand it. City Manager Hooper asked for questions on the Parks and Recreation budget. Councilwoman Rhodes asked how come there is no Cultural Services budget. City Manager Hooper stated Cultural Services is in beautification. They have had zero requests for any contribution to go to Cultural Services. Councilwoman Lichter spoke about when Recreation, Cultural Services and Beautification were one thing. Councilwoman Lichter spoke about the $5,000 in the 2001 budget getting put over to the purchase of Dustin's and putting some cultural things in there. She feels they should speak to JoAnne Sikes if it is or is not to her advantage to be part of the City and get some type of compensation for what she does or perhaps her supplies. She brought that up to City Manager Hooper. Councilman Brown stated JoAnne Sikes is also trying to get them to help finance some of the critical maps of the area that the State has that show Turnbull and all the different areas around here that run between $150 and $200 a piece. Councilwoman Lichter stated there may be reasons JoAnne wants to be independent and not part of City government. She handles the job beyond description beautifully. She feels there should be some amount of money so she could have the leeway of making the decision about maps or other things. Councilwoman Rhodes feels Beautification should have $20,000 and Cultural Services should have $5,000. Councilman Vincenzi asked where the amounts come from. City Manager Hooper stated he plans on medians on that kind of looking into. Councilman Vincenzi stated if you are planning on doing certain projects you shouldn't be pulling money out of that area. If you want to allocate money to Cultural Services that is great. City Manager Hooper agreed to look at it and make some adjustments. Councilwoman Rhodes stated one of the issues she gets spoken to about most often is beautification. That is why she would like to see a separate line item. City Manager Hooper asked if the Council would be interested in putting the two together, Beautification/cultural Services. Councilwoman Rhodes feels then the money crosses the line. Councilwoman Lichter asked Parks and Recreation Director Jack Corder if he still has two sUb-committees, one for beautification and one for cultural. Mr. Corder stated they still have the sub- committees. The $5,000 that was allocated was for a specific grant last year. He commented on helping Ms. Sikes out with copies, which usually comes out of his Operating Supplies. Page -7- Council Workshop June 26, 2001 '-" ...., Mayor Schmidt asked if there is money to start the planning for the Dustin's property. He doesn't want to get the property and then it sits. city Manager Hooper stated he has some money in here to develop some and planning for it to do some improvements to the existing house. The other plan of attack is that piece of property is probably going to be a perfect example for the ECHO money. He hesitates to put a lot of money and make it so obvious that we have funding and then go and ask for it. Between those two, the planning will occur this year and probably some improvements. He and Mr. Corder spoke today about what to do with this piece of property. He spoke about updating the Master Plan. City Manager Hooper commented on Capital Outlays in the Parks and Recreation Department budget. City Manager Hooper asked Council aside for Christmas decorations. about the wooden decorations that put out. for input on setting money Councilwoman Lichter spoke South Daytona and Port Orange There was further discussion regarding where to put the Christmas decorations. Mayor Schmidt spoke about putting the decorations on the poles and investing in the ends of the City for now. Councilman Vincenzi would like to start the decorations this year. Mr. Corder explained they looked at seasonal banners to put on the telephone poles. Councilwoman Lichter asked Mr. Corder if they looked at the wooden ones. Mr. Corder stated they could look at those but putting them in the medians might be a problem. Mayor Schmidt asked how they can frown on us to do this when other cities are doing it. Mr. Corder commented on the liability issue. City Manager Hooper stated they just don't ask, they put them up. There was further discussion regarding needing to get permission from DOT to put these decorations in the medians. Councilwoman Rhodes wants to make sure this will be done for Christmas this year. city Manager Hooper agreed to do this this year. city Manager Hooper went on to explain Enterprise Funds. He spoke about selling the County water and the City buying County sewer. City Manager Hooper went over Renewal and Replacement. He spoke about the utility relocation along SR 442. They entered into a Joint Participation Agreement with DOT. He also spoke about the improvements to the reclaimed system. Councilwoman Rhodes asked what a Smoke Testing Unit is. Mr. Wadsworth elaborated. City Manager Hooper went over the Stormwater budget. Councilwoman Lichter spoke about calls she receives regarding canals. She asked Mr. Wadsworth if they have a definite program with cleaning the canals. Mr. Wadsworth stated yes they do and commented further on the schedule they follow. He commented on lacking a backhoe and purchasing one this year through State bid. Councilwoman Lichter asked if the canals behind Silver Palm Drive are ours or the County's. Mr. Wadsworth stated they are in the County but we have access to them for emergencies. Page -8- Council Workshop June 26, 2001 '-' ,...." There was further discussion regarding the canals behind Silver Palm Drive. Mr. Wadsworth agreed to remove debris that has been thrown into the canal. Mayor Schmidt spoke about Rose Bay and someone losing half a truckload of something between the bridges. He asked if they could make a phone call to someone in the County to get that picked up. Mr. Wadsworth stated that is probably DOT right-of- way and the State would be responsible on u.S. #1. City Manager Hooper agreed to contact the State. City Manager Hooper spoke about mowing and cleaning canals being on a rotating cycle. During the high grow season, there simply isn't enough people and equipment to do the same rounds they do through the winter season. Councilwoman Rhodes stated be a good citizen and mow it yourself. Mayor Schmidt spoke about one of the complaints you hear is when the guys shave the embankments that they do it too much. city Manager Hooper spoke about this also being seasonal. When it's dry, it caves in and when it is wet it holds better. Councilwoman Rhodes asked what Misc. Personal Costs is for $11,866. Ms. Goins explained that is the raise for the employees. City Manager Hooper went over the Refuse Collection Fund budget. He spoke about franchising commercial refuse. Councilman vincenzi asked about the new developments going in and the refuse collection. City Manager Hooper stated it will be through the city. It will be the same service for the same cost. Councilman Vincenzi stated with the amount of annexation and new development there is going to be a time when you will have to hire more people and purchase more trucks. City Manager Hooper stated that is not here yet. The rates will stay basically the same. He further commented on what he intends to do with the rates. Councilman Brown asked if any money is put in for sidewalk improvements. City Manager Hooper commented on trying to get grant money for sidewalk replacement particularly in the older sections of the city. City Manager Hooper stated on the July 16th agenda, they will have a request to authorize advertising of a millage rate. That is the next step. They are proposing to advertise 5.95 mills. They will have two public hearings, the first and second in September. Councilwoman Lichter asked if it is possible with what they have talked about adding, that it can be massaged or maneuvered so it doesn't have to increase the final result numbers. City Manager Hooper informed her yes. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business to discuss, Mayor Schmidt adjourned the meeting. The meeting adjourned at 8:45 p.m. Minutes submitted by: Lisa Bloomer Page -9- Council Workshop June 26, 2001