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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1978-09-25city council minutesBook 19 SPECIAL, MEETING September 25, 1978 4:00 p.m. The Meeting was called to order by Mayor Pasiey. Page 269 The Roll of the City Council was called with the following members present: McCluskey, Olesen, Williams, Raymond, Hopper, and Bauman. Absent: none. (CLARIFICATION OF BUDGET ITEMS) The Mayor explained that this Special Meeting was called at the request of the City Council President, Al McCluskey, to discuss the answers that the Finance Director gave to the questions that were presented to the Mayor by the City Council last week. A list of these questions and answers given to the Council members was as follows: Question No. 1 -- Why is the Budget Ordinance $94,025 higher than public hearing spread sheet: Please itemize difference. Answer - The spread sheet given to the public was for their perusal as well as the perusal of the City Council and was never in- tended to be `cast and steel ® . The idea of a public hearing is to reflect on potential expense, potential revenue, make adjustments based on the public desires and the desires of the City Council. Consequently, the spread sheet as given to the Council on that particular night and to the public on that particular night was not designed to be the final draft. As a matter of fact, it would not be a public hear- ing if such was the case. However, to fully answer Question No. 1, I will list the differences by item and reflect on Exhibit I as attached. You will note that there are two notations on the spread sheet - one reflects Billing Services total of $64,453 including fringe package and Caldwell Rural Fire, $84,471 including fringe package. Those two items separated reflect the following: Billing Services an additional $8,764, Rural Fire, $18,678. These items are reimbursable by either Sewer and Water or by the Rural Fire District; therefore, although they made a gross increase in the budget, the gross revenue, other than the tax base, is also reflected One mill was added at the public hearing in the amount of $25,365 in the Street Department. Equipment payoff which is a reserve figure anticipating the 1% passage, in the amount of $24,805. A transfer from Street Department to the General Fund because of Revenue Sharing changes reflected an amount of $6,000. $22,500 was added to the Irrigation Department for Capital Improvements also included in Revenue Sharing. Within the Water Department there were many interchanges including Revenue Sharing which brought about a $7,500 increase in that budget. However, again there are no tax dollars involved. The total with some other minor changes such as $600 being added to the tree farm, a dish washer added back in the budget for Senior Citizen Center, brings the total to Book 19 Page 270 the figure of $94,000. I might add that none of the changes - none of the changes - reflected any increase in the tax base. It should be noted that the gross budget., or gross expenditures in the budget although increased, the same increase was reflected in revenue other than the tax base plus a rearrangement of Revenue Sharing funds. Question No. 2 - Is Firemen's Retirement 1 mill in both General Fund and Street Fund? Answer - No.. 1 mill was added to the Street Fund as directed by the City Council. Question No. 3 - Why are salary fringe listed in M & 0 on budget books? Answer - The Uniform Accounting System dictates that fringe benefits are not to be considered salary and are in the '20' series in accountability, therefore, the breakdown in the budget is in accordance with the Uniform Accourt`ting System. Question No. 4 - Why does Library budget as submitted by Library Board ($201,174.46) show in Budget Ordinance as $275,556? Answer - The Library in Caldwell operates on an autonomous basis; that being, the City Council has no control over its budget- ing function. Cur charge is to collect the taxes and remit those taxes to the Library for their use. In addition, we are now providing the service of their payroll which means in simple terms, we produce the checks, consider that an e- -pense item and are directly reimbursed by the library. That again reflects an in -and -out item,.however, does not reflect again on the tax base. Question No. 5 - Explanation of Street Budget - original spread sheet $587,302, Publis Hearing sheet $647,562 - Budget Book $703,427. Answer - This is a rather complicated question and requires a complicated answer. The original spread sheet did not reflect any cost of living increase; nor was the mill levy added by Council. vote at that particular time; nor were Revenue Sharing items added for Capital Improvements which necessarily had to be transferred to the General Fund; nor again was the equipment payoff in lieu of the 1% Initiative added at that particular time. Projects such as North Indiana, the Larch right of way and a miscellaneous ccnstructia item of $25,365 does in fact, make up those differences as time went on through the budget cycle. I must admit the first spread sheet from the Street Department is no longer in my possession, however, the individual lute items on the first correction and subsequent changes are in my possession. Question No. 6 - Substantiate Major Rural Fire salary increase. Answer - Please See Exhibit 3 with regard to this item and it -- must further be kept in mind, that we do not know at any given time which. fireman will be called back, where they will be working, how long they will be working and whether volunteers will be used on a particular catastrophe or whether they will not be used. This budget is an estimate. It is an estimate based on prior experience with respect to what has occurred will.undoubtedly occur again. The budget intact, again, is fully reimbursable by the Rural Fire Book 19 Page 271 District and has nobearing on the City's budget with the exception that the reimbursement is dedicated to the present salary standards of our employees. Question No. 7 - Fairview M & 0 400% increase. Why? Answer - In the past, costs have been interlocked from the Fair - View Golf Course to the Purple Sage Golf Course, or vice versa. It has been impossible to ascertain what the actual cost of operation of either golf course has been. In 1979 we have endeavored to place the costs where they belong. In other words, personnel assigned to Purple Sage are charged to Purple Sage; personnel assigned to Fairview are charged to Fairview including the golf pro's salaries. As can be easily noted, there is an item of $23,000 being transferred from Fairview to Purple Sage. The $23,000 is considered to be an expense from Fairview, however, in fact, Fairview is accumulating $23,000 more income than expense in 1979 and these monies are being transferred to Purple Sage to accom- modate a proposed capital improvement program. Question No. 8 - Engineering - Why only 9% salary increase? Answer - Please refer to Exhibit 2 which reflects by individual those employees from 1978 and the employees from 1979. I might add that, the increase is not 9 %,.however, the point basically is that under the step and grade system, if an employee leaves, the new employee comes in at a Step 1 which is at a substantially lower salary than that individual who has left. I trust that this answers,the.question. Question 9 - Explain tax difference on Airport between worksheet ($8,700) and Ordinanc e ($23 Answer - Please refer to Exhibit 4 with the items circled. The spread sheet as given to the Council and to the public on the night of the public hearing was an attempt to show the public that our expenses, although similar to other communities within the area, do not reflect Federal funding and transfer accounts. This spread sheet was designed to show the public those differentials. In other words, how many actual dollars will be spent on Airport construction - Federal funding, Sewer.c.onstruction - Federal funding, and Library Revolving fund. In other words,. the $132,000 of salary transferred in and out. However, the spread sheet indicated as circled $8,736 of tax base derived for normal operations and $14,853 of tax base that; is directed as a match to Federal funds. The total is $23,589. After the Mayor had received a copy of these questions, he in turn gave them to the Finance_ Director who composed the answers as shown. Councilman McCluskey stated that he would like to start the meeting by directing the Mayor, as he would be ,Chairing the meeting, to try to' *keep everyone at the table in Line and to keep it orderly. The purpose of the meeting was to try to have an overall understanding of just exactly what was going on in regard to the budget so that there would be no question in anyone's mind. Councilman McCluskey then - turned the direction of the meeting over to the Chairman of the Finance Committee, Councilwoman Williams. The questions and answers were then gone over at some length with a great deal of discussion. It was Councilwoman:William's suggestion after the discussion had continued for nearly an hour and a half that the City Council wait until the list of employees and their Book 19 Page 272 salaries and - fringe benefit's was available; wait until the d Treasurer's Report was prepare at the end of the month and that they then meet again to decide what to do with next year's budget. This would have nothing to do with the certification, but if they decided to change budget to decrease the amount it could be done at that time. Councilman McCluskey stated came'to the meeting anticipating that after the questions were answered that the Council would lower the mill levy three; two in the General Fund and-one in the Street Department. `After the discussion, he agreed with Councilwoman Williams that they should wait. Councilwoman Williams pointed out that year before last the City had contingency funds which have all evaporated. They were not to have been spent without City Council approval. She stated that if the City Council had been made aware of what these funds were spent for; there would not. be this trouble now. Councilman McCluskey stated that in the first place the Council had themselves all tangled up with details as far as the budget was concerned and he felt that the Finance Director had explained a lot of these things, but this to him was not the point. The major-issue when this started two or three months ago, and it was not resolved yet and wouldn't be resolved because it was going to take time to taper off, was that certain things were done in -the City of Caldwell without City sanction and that to him was number one. It all came about because of one particular item. He further commented that he could go through and elaborate and name all - of them, but was not going to. This was the crux of the matter. He stated that it had been the prerogative of the Mayor and Finance Director to take action in the City of Caldwell on- their own. He was not that all of that action was wrong, but as a result the City Council was a jealous body and they had a right to be jealous and thought that the Mayor and Finance Director owed the City Council accountability and the City Council had lost that. Councilman McCluskey stated that he would be very honest in saying that the City Council was taking it back. If the Council has to take it back by cutting the budget down to a point where they could not function, that was what they would do, but they would prefer to work on a cooperative basis and give a logical amount of money to run the City of Caldwell and the Mayor and Finance Director be honest with the Council and the Council would be honest with them and they -could cooperate one hundred percent. Councilman Olesen stated that he would like to speak in regard to the operation of the City for this next year. He felt that it was a good idea, as ;guggested by Councilman McCluskey, that a City Council member 'be put at the head of each Department. He felt that a little closer supervision per department would keep better track of how the money was being spent and solve a lot of problems. Councilwoman Williams also stated that the Finance Committee has also decided that any bill that comes through payment that was not a budgeted item, - i.t will be turned down until the City Council approves the project. (REMARKS REGARDING RECREATION BUDGET BY MAYOR) The Mayor informed the City Council that the Recreation Department will be handled in the manner so that it will show a deficit position at the end of this year. Whatever the deficit was will be deducted from the coming year's budget so there will be a zero budget at the end of the fiscal year 1979. This was the decision Book 19 Page 273 rather than to lend money from another Department. This deficit was only in the Recreation Department; the overall budget will come in substantially under what the budget total was. The law states that the City would only be in trouble if the overall budget was exceeded. This opinion came from the City Attorney. Councilwoman Bauman said that she would like to comment further regarding the budget problems. She agreed with Councilman McCluskey regarding the fact that the Council does not know enough about the present budget for next year to know just exactly where they are. She still felt that there was room for tax relief in that budget and she based that on what Mr. Horan told them while budgeting and based on going through different appropriations and seeing some funds missing, but she couldn't prove it and felt very frustrated about it. She stated that this should have been possible to accomplish. The State Code says that the City must not in any event allocate more funds through the budget ordinance for certification to the County than what was in the total budget. She read from the Code as follows, "The City. Council of each City shall within the first quarter of the fiscal year pass an ordinance to be termed the annual appropriation ordinance which in no event shall be greater than the amount of the proposed budget. In other words, the ordinance cannot reflect a higher number of dollars than what was budgeted in the book. There was $104,000 greater in the budget ordinance than was appropriated in the budget. Some more discussion followed regarding the Recreation Budget. It was felt that nothing more.could be.decided as to how the budget will be cut for,next year until the Recreation Director was back from a hunting trip. There being no further business, the Meeting was adjourned at 5:30 p.m. APPROVED AS written THIS 3rd DAY OF October 1978. 9 ?Mayor Councilman Councilman Councilman Councilman Councilman ATTEST: Councilman r 22,z �� City C1 Book 19 Page 274 SPECIAL MEETING September, 26, 197.8 12:00 Noon . The Meeting was called to order by Mayor.Pasley. The Roll of the City Council was called with the following members.present: McCloskey, Olesen, Williams, Hopper, and Bauman. Absent: Raymond. , (RESOLUTION NO, 57 -78 - APPROVAL FOR ENCUMBERANCES) The Mayor stated that there was one ;Resolution to be presented which was the reason for the Special Meeting being called. This Resolutzon read in Full by the Mayor as follows: BE IT RESOLVED That the Finance Director be authorized to encumber the following funds: GENERAL FUND Accounting Programming 2,700.00 Billing Services Programming 1,350.00 4,050.00 STADIUM COMPLEX To Street Dept. Paving 2,982.25 To Rodeo Board Bleachers 2,000.00 4,982.25 TOTAL ENCUMBERED 9,032.25 ..BE IT.FURTHER RESOLVED That said funds are budgeted within the 1978 budget and will be expended during the 1979 budget year. MOVED by Williams, SECONDED by McCluskey that Resolution No. 57 -78 be passed. Roll call vote. Those voting yes: Williams, Hopper, Bauman, McCloskey, and Olesen. Those voting no: none. Absent and not voting: Raymond. MOTION CARRIED The Mayor said that this was the only official business to be presented at this time to the City Council. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 12:20 p.m. APPROVED AS written THIS 3rd DAY OF October , 1978. l ��l ATTEST: City Clerk��