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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes CC - 07/14/2008 - MINS 07 14 08 WS (Migrated from Optiview)Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, July 14, 2008 at 6:00 pm Page 1 of 5 This summary is provided as a convenience and service to the public, media, and staff. It is not the intent to transcribe proceedings verbatim. Any w reproduction of this summary must include this notice. Public comments are noted and heard by Council, but not quoted. This document includes limited presentation by Council and invited speakers in summaryform. This is an official record of the Milton City Council Meeting proceedings. Oficial Meetings are audio recorded. Il�rr The Work Session of the Mayor and Council of the City of Milton was held on July 14, 2008 at 6:00 PM, Mayor Joe Lockwood presiding. Mayor Lockwood • Work sessions are more informal settings to update the Council on business items. • No votes will be taken. • Public comment is allowed that is germane to an agenda item. • Required to fill out a comment card and turn it into the City Clerk. • Public comment will be allowed for a total of ten minutes per agenda item and no more than two minutes per person. • Public comment will be heard at the beginning of each item. • Once the item is called no other cards will be accepted. City Clerk Marchiafava • The first item on the agenda is to be presented by Public Safety Director Chris Lagerbloom. • His plane has landed and he is currently on his way to the Marta station. • We request to move to agenda item number two. City Council Budget Retreat Work Plan update for FY 09 Budget Planning ON" Performance Measurement program Review City Manager Billy Beckett • The budget process may be different than what Council has experienced in the past. • The last budget he participated in was his budget presented to the Safety Harbor City Council. • It was a substantially larger budget. • Had water and several Enterprise Funds that were not tax supported. • That particular document won the Excellence in Budgetary Presentation award by GFOA and they won it fairly repeatedly. • Staff's intent is to move toward that format. • The difficulty is it is a traditional budget document. • It has output measures, line item accountability, and categorical funding. • The challenge we face in Milton is a substantial portion of our budget is given on a lump sum basis by C142M Hill and our activities are governed by the scope of the contract. • He hopes to evolve to a categorical lump sum budget where we will still have the flexibility within the various departments. • We will have the comfort of knowing what we have in those categories. • He knows he has a massive pot of funds but he is not comfortable about how that can be used, so he is working that out with CH2M Hill. • They are working with him to show him measures other than just full time employees which was the basis for allocating cost last year on a departmental basis and that is not very accurate. • There are other measures that come to bear. ,■.,. • He wanted to let Council know that we are moving toward a categorical lump sum which will more closely, but not specifically approximate a more traditional form of governmental budgeting. r.• • With regards to performance measurement; there will be a presentation by an expert from CH2M Hill on August 4`h. • It is important that it not be necessarily unilateral. Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, July 14, 2008, 6:00 PM Page 2 of 5 • i ne aisaavantage that Council has is they are not necessarily experts in output indicators for local government. • They are difficult to measure because of the service nature of our business, so he hopes to make available to Council, individually and collectively, information on how to use performance measures in a way that is meaningful to them and to know what is really significant. • We can measure anything Council wants us to measure but does it tell them how effectively and efficiently we are doing the job. • We will have education with Council in addition to Council educating us. • We will probably do some comparative data because some of the questions asked by Council appear to be more about how we are doing relative to other more traditional jurisdictions. • The Department of Community Affairs uses audit information every year to provide a comparative cost report by category. • A second source is through the University of Georgia Tax and Expenditure Center and they are evolving as a data gathering and dissemination entity. • Between the two entities we can get a good look at some of the functions we are providing and see more how we are doing in terms of expenditures per capita and total expenditures for comparable communities. • Finance Director Inglis did a great job with the budget this year. • Council should have a budget calendar which includes workshops. • It is his budget and his responsibility by Charter and by law to submit to Council a balanced budget. • He welcomes legitimate input from the governing body. • He views the budget document as the single biggest policy decision or set of policy decisions that Council makes in a year. • The financial policy along with direction sets the parameters for staff, so how Council acts to the budget expenditures is critical. • It is important after Council adopts a Capital Improvement Program that Council commits to it and we move into it over time so we have a consistent means of addressing the long term capital needs of the City. • The first thing is the City Manager's office. • That plan will be subject to change somewhat but Council can see how many in progress activities that we have. • We want more and better Special Events Programs, but it will require a greater commitment of resources than we have had in the past. • Linda Blow has done a remarkable job and with assistance of volunteers in the community we have done very well. • The solid waste program study is not completed so that will be rolled forward into next year. • We had some discussion as to whether or not it was in the scope and who was going to pay for it. The RFQs have gone out and we are waiting for responses. • We will probably be in the next fiscal year before we start spending money on that required program. • He does not like the sco e term th t h b F s a we ave ecause they are so vague. • We cannot read the solid waste management plan that is required into that scope; it just does not work. • It is legitimately an expense of the City. • We are continually working on media relations. • We are working on a lot of things with the communications department. • There are some ADA issues associated with our Website and we received some information from the disabilities committee and we are moving forward on that. • A lot of things are ongoing in the clerks and the communications area. • Within the clerks there will be the implementation of the digital recording system and the audio w� streaming. • We have some work to do in finance so that will roll forward into the next fiscal year. • Human Resources has made substantial progress. Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, July 14, 2008, 6:00 PM Page 3 of 5 • We do consider the CH2M Hill employees as our employees so he does not see why we would not have an Accident Review Committee and he is committed to those committees. • Part of our problem is that Fulton County left us with limited resources to deal with many of the things we will have to deal with. • Finance will be a challenge for us over time. • He has asked the Department Heads to put together their capital projects and proposals for use of the SSD funds. • He has given Council an overview of the types of things we are doing and where we are going and what his thought process is and how things will be different for Council next year. • We went over the revenue estimates at the end of last week and we are trying to anticipate within reason where we will be so we will know how much money we will have to spend and what other strategies we might have to undertake. • We are also faced with this dynamic playing field that Fulton County has given us as a result of the law suit filed by Bob Proctor. • We still think that our digest has increased and we will have reasonably good revenue next year to work with. • One final thing about the process this year; he has asked all of the Department Heads to give him their goals and objectives so he can measure how they are doing as the year goes along. • He does not want to micro manage but he wants to observe over time how we are doing on the agreed upon goals and objectives. • His challenge is to understand some of the nuances of the system that we have with this lump sum budget method. Councilmember Thurman • Asked if we had figured what the fund balance put in reserve for the prior year is. • There was some question because we had not received the final audited numbers yet. Finance Manager Stacy Inglis • We still have not received the final audited numbers because we are still waiting on the infrastructure piece to be completed. • Once that is complete we will be able to depreciate those assets and get the bottom line number. • The last number the auditor gave us was a little over 1.8 million and he said it could fluctuate a little, but that will be close to what it is going to be. Councilmember Zahner Bailey • We had talked about purchasing and looking at that process in terms of if we are getting comparable bids for certain things and reviewing those policies. • Asked if that would be part of this process. City Manager Beckett • CH2M Hill's response is to bring in one of their staff experts one day a week in exchange for some quick pro quo types of services on a clerical basis. • We will evaluate all of that because of the technicalities and complexities. • We have a de -centralized purchasing system now, which puts a lot of pressure and responsibility on the individual Department Heads. 'w" • Over time, we will want to have more attention in things like specification writing, knowing when to go with a RFQ versus an RFP, knowing what kind of services and what the bonding requirements are and am" those sorts of things. • We are trying to work within the scope of the contract to define that. Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, July 14, 2008, 6:00 PM Page 4 of 5 • i ne policy we have in place now is probably pretty good, but some projects have nuances. • Public Works projects for example have different standards. • The General Assembly just passed some new legislation that impact how things are purchased and what can be done. • The three things that get people sued in government are personnel matters, zoning and land use related issues, and purchasing. Councilmember Tart • Asked where we were in terms of Community Development and their stretched resources and in terms of a question he earlier asked about the changes to the Zoning Ordinance relative to the scope of the BZA. City Manager Beckett • We will probably ask for at least one and possibly two new positions for Community Development. • Unfortunately Community Development staff had been so oriented toward sewer related issues that they had not had time to get with the City Attorney to talk about the BZA related issues. City Attorney Jarrard • An itemization of the authority that Council gave staff with respect to those modifications should be going to the City Manager, the Community Development Director and Council by the end of the week. Discussion on IGA with the City of Alpharetta for 911 and dispatch center. Public Safety Director Lagerbloom joined the meeting via telephone to discuss agenda item #1. Public Safety Director Lagerbloom (via telephone) • The IGA has been written and reviewed by the City Attorney's firm. • Operationally there is not a lot of change. • Hopefully by the next Council meeting we can make this official so we can provide the correct notices to Fulton County so we can move forward with the transition on October 1, 2008. • We believe it is the best thing for both Alpharetta and Milton and our citizens. Councilmember Zahner Bailey • Asked if the cost estimates had changed since this was last presented to Council. Public Safety Director Lagerbloom (via telephone) • They are similar, but not the same. • We still believe will be able to do this within the parameters of our existing 911 revenue. • Will send Council the revised numbers as soon as possible before the next meeting. Councilmember Zahner Bailey • Asked if the agreement gives us the ability to modify it annually. City Manager Beckett • It is a ten year agreement. City Attorney Jarrard • There may be some mechanisms in place to account for budgetary considerations. r- Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, July 14, 2008, 6:00 PM Page 5 of 5 After no further business, the Work Session adjourned at 7:46 p.m. Date Approved: August 4, 2008 7�s&� �' hkarI. Jea tte R. Marchiafava, City Clerk