HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes CC - 08/22/2011 - SCWS Mins 08 22 11 (Migrated from Optiview)Special Called Work Session of the Milton City Council
Monday, August 22, 2011 at 6:00 pm
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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 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 summary form. This is an official record of the Milton
City Council Meeting proceedings. Official Meetings are audio recorded.
The Special Called Work Session of the Mayor and Council of the City of Milton was held on
August 22, 2011 at 6:00 PM, Mayor Lockwood presiding.
Council Members Present: Councilmember Karen Thurman, Councilmember Zahner Bailey,
Councilmember Bill Lusk, Councilmember Joe Longoria, and Councilmember Tart.
Councilmember Hewitt was absent/excused from the meeting.
Mayor Lockwood:
• Work Sessions are an informal setting to update Council on business items.
• No votes will be taken during these sessions.
• There is one (1) item on our Agenda tonight.
• Public comment is allowed that is germane to an Agenda Item.
• If you wish to speak you are required to fill out a comment card and turn it into the City Clerk
staff.
• Public comment will be allowed for a total of 10 minutes per agenda item and no more than 2
minutes per person.
• Public comment will be heard at the beginning of each Item.
• Once the item is called, no other comment cards will be accepted.
City Clerk Gordon read Agenda Item #1.
1. City of Milton Budget Workshop - Presentation of Revenues and Expenditures/
Capital Improvement Project Prioritization.
(Presented by Stacey Inglis, Finance Director)
City Manager Lagerbloom:
• Budget time is back.
• We have to approve it by October l"
• We are required to produce a balanced budget and this budget is balanced.
• I would like to walk you through where we have been over the last 45 days.
• We will take questions tonight.
• When we put the budget together, the first thing we did was look where we anticipated revenues
to be.
• We estimated them to be at $17,390,380.00. That is down over last year.
• There is not a substantial decrease this year.
• We worked as a team to formulate a maintenance and operating budget.
• I asked the departments how they would recommend 5%, 7%, and 10% increases and what it
would look like.
• Initially we saw healthcare come in at 26% which is an increase from last year.
Special Called Work Session of the Milton City Council
Monday, August 22, 2011 at 6:00 pm
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• Our 26% has been reduced to 21 % on its first pass through. We anticipate for it to come down
further.
• Dental coverage is up 8%.
• Capital requests from departments came in around 4.5 million dollars.
• We had a gap to close between the Capital requests and general operating budget.
• Some priorities we use to put together the budget include continuing a high level of service.
• Maintain our existing assets and infrastructure.
• We focused on adhering to the new strategic items and our strategic plans.
• We looked in detail at our fund balance.
• We looked at anticipated future events.
• We looked to make sure we would fully fund what we can including police and fire vehicle
replacement this year.
• Fuel was a big expense and we projected what we would pay for fuel for police and fire.
• We wanted to recognize the value of each dollar.
• Some budget highlights- I believe it supports the strategic plan that we put into place.
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• I think it is time to address our staffing for our safety department.
• We have run a lean operation here at city hall.
• We have a very small staff doing a lot of work.
• We will start with the budget summary page.
• The revenue lines are relatively flat over last year.
Councilmember Lusk:
• What date do the actual numbers go through?
Stacey Inglis:
• June 30th for the most part.
Councilmember Thurman:
• When do we receive the insurance premium tax check?
Stacey Inglis:
• October.
Councilmember Zahner Bailey:
• On franchise fees, do we feel like we are collecting these fees consistently?
Stacey Inglis:
• We are pretty much on target, possibly a little over from last year.
Councilmember Thurman:
• What are activity fees?
Stacey Inglis:
0 Those are camp fees.
Special Called Work Session of the Milton City Council
Monday, August 22, 2011 at 6:00 pm
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• Wanted to show them separately so you know there is no budget line for those.
City Manager Lagerbloom:
• We will move over to Mayor and Council columns.
• One thing we always budgeted well was the stipend.
• I've never had anyone go as high as the $2,720 that is budgeted.
• Is there any flexibility there that could be reduced to $2,000?
• I'm not sure that it will really impact you at all.
• We will go down to $2,000 for a year, and if we don't hit the $2,000, we can go down further.
Councilmember Lusk:
• If you want to do it on an individual basis, you can take mine to 0.
Councilmember Hewitt:
• You can take mine to 0 as well.
Councilmember Longoria:
• What was the $137.00 on mine?
Stacey Inglis:
• Joe, I believe it was for an air card.
City Manager Lagerbloom:
• There isn't much that is grossly different in your budget this year from last year.
Stacey Inglis:
• With online tax payments, Tyler Technologies charges $5.00 per transaction and I intend on
charging a small fee to cover our costs.
• Online payment will be available this year.
City Manager Lagerbloom:
• Most of the police cars we have are no longer under warranty.
• We anticipate higher costs for our maintenance and fees.
Councilmember Thurman:
• Does electricity include streetlights?
Carter Lucas:
• Yes. We pay for street lights on all public lights including subdivisions.
• Dumpster fees are required for our city dumpster.
• We keep the dumpster to dump dead animals that are picked up off of the roads.
Councilmember Thurman:
• Why is workers compensation higher than before?
Special Called Work Session of the Milton City Council
Monday, August 22, 2011 at 6:00 pm
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Stacey Inglis:
• It is based on the audit we had done.
• We added Tinika over to the Community Development Department from Safebuild.
• Because we have employees out in the field working, they anticipated a potential issue.
City Manager Lagerbloom:
• There was some notion as to whether or not we needed a 2nd pool vehicle.
• There isn't an identifiable need for one right now.
• Next year is the year when the bulk of the police cars will need to be cycled out.
• We recommend that we close the line of advanced life support equipment because it had 1,000
left.
• This budget requests 2M dollars to put towards Pavement Management, which can increase or
decrease.
• We reduced some of the traffic calming budget.
• The master planning will end spring of 2012.
Councilmember Thurman:
• Is the Arnold Mill Master Plan, is that something expected to be done in the next year or two?
City Manager Lagerbloom:
• We will probably put the conservation easement program and TDR in line ahead of Arnold Mill.
Councilmember Thurman:
• Is there any other grant money that we could get for this project?
City Manager Lagerbloom:
• We will have to check into it.
• Let's get into initiatives.
• The stakeholder survey is something that complies with our strategic plan.
• I had to get surveys of stakeholder groups.
• We have to identify the stakeholders to survey them accurately.
• I haven't moved away from the electronic tablet, but we will fund it from Mayor and Council
budget.
Councilmember Tart:
• What are the cost savings over the binder and a tablet?
City Manager Lagerbloom:
• The tablet will pay for itself just in labor costs alone.
• If you want to do it electronically, we can make it happen.
• The new comers guide is done, and we are trying to go make it electronic.
• The mobile site cost is pretty low.
• It would allow citizens to access Milton via mobile devices.
• Video citizens' academy- video that helps teach about each department and what we do.
• Under public works, we will be doing additional mowing this year.
Special Called Work Session of the Milton City Council
Monday, August 22, 2011 at 6:00 pm
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• We will add two mowings to our four.
• Over the last year, we have had a need for an extra person during business license season.
• We wanted to use some paid interns to help for the summers.
• It is almost impossible to find free interns.
• There are times during the year that additional help is needed.
• The Community Development Director can pursue intern work during the year.
Councilmembr Lusk:
• If the state reviews their flood maps, will that cost be absorbed by the state or will we pick up
costs?
Carter Lucas:
• They should be covering all of their costs.
City Manager Lagerbloom:
• Under police, we are looking for a Lieutenant and Sergeant to be on duty for additional
supervision.
• In our opinion, we should reclassify a couple of positions to have a Lieutenant and Sergeant on
each shift.
Couucilmember Tart:
• I am in support of adding more police, but I would like to know how many we will be adding.
City Manager Lagerbloom:
• The local options sales tax negotiation is huge for us.
• The hotel motel tax funds the special events fund for the city.
• We have budgeted at mid- year for our employees to get a cost of living adjustment.
• Hopefully if our healthcare will be decreased, we can find a way to make that cost of living
adjustment.
Mayor Lockwood:
• We are a very fortunate city to be here with our staff and be able to sit here and add to
departments.
• We do appreciate our staff very much here at the City of Milton.
City Manager Lagerbloom:
• If anyone would like a one-on-one with the budget, please call me.
After no further discussion, the Work Session adjourned at 8:45 p.m.
Date Approved: September 19, 2011.
Special Called Work Session of the Milton City Council
Monday, August 22, 2011 at 6:00 pm
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Sudie AM Gordon, City Clerk/ Joe Lockwood, N j Yy r ,�