Finance Committee

160 Duke Of Gloucester City of Annapolis Street Annapolis, MD 21401 Standing Committee Minutes - Final Finance Committee Tuesday, March 18, 2014 5:00 PM Mayor John T. Chambers, Jr. City Council Chambers 1. Call To Order The Chair called the Meeting to order at 5:10 p.m. Present: 3- Alderman Pfeiffer, Alderman Arnett and Alderman Paone 2. General Discussion Fire Department Budget Chief Stokes discussed the Fire department budget. Deputy Chief Remaley and Deputy Chief The chief addressed the following questions: 1) What is the difference between the FY 2014 adopted Budget and the FY 2015 proposed Budget? 1.4 million increase (increase in pay due to step and or negotiated increases, and increases in insurance costs. Despite the overall increase in budget there will be a reduction in force. 2) How does this impact the services you provide? The reduction in force will impact the department as the duties of those individuals will now have to be done by the remaining employees. The chief also expressed concerns about eliminating the quartermaster position as it was created to deal with a best practice issue created by the same person purchasing, ordering and inventorying supplies. Deputy Chief Remaley discussed the potential that overtime would increase if firefighters are furloughed. Chief Stokes and Deputy Chief Remaley addressed a question about the supervisory structure of the department. The chiefs pointed out that many of the supervisors are on the fire trucks not in desk supervisory roles. Deputy Chief Simmons addressed the questions in relation to the EPARM office: City of Annapolis Page 1 Finance Committee Standing Committee Minutes - March 18, 2014 Final 1) What is the difference between the FY 2014 adopted Budget and the FY 2015 proposed Budget? reduced by 2 positions and removes the dedicated emergency channel. 2) How does this impact the services you provide? it would create a challenge to handle a large incident and it could decrease grant funding as there would be less staff to apply for and manage grants. There would no longer be an emergency channel for interdepartmental communication. Deputy Chief Simmons discussed the role of the deputy director. Deputy chief stated that that individual writes and manages grants and acts as director for the second shift during emergency. Finance Director Miller discussed the position changes in the FY 2015 budget. Mr. Miller clarified that only one position would be eliminated in the proposed budget one would be reassigned. Finance Director Miller discussed the proposed furloughs Police Department Budget Chief Pristoop and Captain Amoia spoke on the Police Department Budget 1) What is the difference between the FY 2014 adopted Budget and the FY 2015 proposed Budget? Increased costs due to IBB process, insurance etc.. Reduction in overtime by 200,000 by seeking detail pay reimbursement. Reduction of 7 unfilled positions including five Police Officers and one Lieutenant. Increase in supply budget to reflect actual spending. 2) How does this impact the services you provide? The Chief expressed concern that furlough days will cause an increase in overtime costs. The Chief discussed the proposed reduction of 5 sworn officers. The department will need to get dispensation from the DOJ on the COPS grant. Their is concern that the grant may be decreased. 3) Staying within the budget constraints, what other alternatives would you recommend. City of Annapolis Page 2 Finance Committee Standing Committee Minutes - March 18, 2014 Final The Chief suggested the cutting of some non-officer positions through attrition. The Chief discussed the possibility of combining our communications center with the Counties. The Chief discussed the pay rates for APD officers in comparison to other municipalities. The Chief discussed consolidations of supervisory positions in previous years. Transportation Fund Finance Director Miller discussed the Transportation Fund. Mr. Miller introduced Mr. Jeff Reyes who was hired to review the Transportation Department budget. Mr. Miller said he would provide numbers to the committee on the costs of current services. The committee discussed the increase in expenses in the parking fund. 3. Adjournment Upon motion duly made, seconded and adopted, the meeting was adjourned at 7:29 p.m. City of Annapolis Page 3