Finance Committee

Office of the Clerk of Council City of Gahanna 200 South Hamilton Road Gahanna, Ohio 43230 Meeting Minutes Finance Committee Michael Schnetzer, Chair, Karen J. Angelou, Ryan P. Jolley, Thomas R. Kneeland, Brian D. Larick, Jamie Leeseberg, Stephen A. Renner Kimberly McWilliams, CMC, Clerk of Council Tuesday, May 27, 2014 Council Committee Rooms Immediately Following Committee of the Whole ROLL CALL Present 5 - Karen J. Angelou, Michael Schnetzer, Ryan P. Jolley, Stephen A. Renner, and Thomas R. Kneeland Absent 2 - Brian D. Larick, and Jamie Leeseberg ADDITIONAL ATTENDEES City Attorney Ewald, Mayor Stinchcomb, Anthony Jones, Jennifer Teal, Dottie Franey, Matt Holdren, Sue Wadley, Rory Gaydos, Tony Collins, Chief Murphy, Karl Wetherholt, Niel Jurist, Gen. Williams, Clerk McWilliams, Michael Blackford, Jean Hoffman, Press. ITEMS - From the Director of Finance 4. Comprehensive Master Plan Presentation Jones introduced Tony Slanek, Principal at OHM; he has done several plans for us as well as comprehensive plans for communities throughout Ohio; does have handouts. Slanek shared that he teaches at OSU, School of Architecture; Gahanna has the second largest planning firm in Ohio and one of the top 5 in the midwest right here; OHM has 16 planners on staff; have done a lot of work related to economic development, master plans, neighborhood plans, etc.; was approached by Jones to talk to you about planning; there are lots of documents that could come out of a master plan; brought an important document tonight that comes out of Planning and Urban Design Standards; this outlines why you would do any plan; any community can tailor any planning process to a budget; the Vision Plan done previously was basically Creekside Phase 2; there were things that could still actually happen in the future; a lot of opportunity in Gahanna; also did the Hamilton Road Corridor Plan; that got the ball rolling; City of Greene, Ohio, wanted to determine how City of Gahanna Page 1 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes May 27, 2014 they would grow in the future; we ended up doing a vision plan for the entire community; went through 2 week visioning process; developed a plan to get a tool to get what you want; it's about retainment and attraction; where are we trying to go, as a community, 20 years out; all comes under the umbrella of comprehensive planning; then we need to rethink economic development and look at it as return on investment; have to have a very serious conversation about debt and how much we are willing to operate under; critical to where we are going; come up with strategies to attract private sector investment that minimizes risk; some tenents related to comprehensive planning are funding for the future, strength in structure, and a place for talent.; these are things you want to talk about; common Ohio scenario is a development ends up as a net loss when the cost to maintain it is more than the income collected; 12 types of plans were outlined as opportunities for planning here in the City of Gahanna; a comprehensive plan is big and expensive; area plans, corridor plans, downtown plans are more specific; comprehensive plan is an official, adopted plan; there is some other strategic planning you can do; those are outside the fray of adoptability; comprehensive plan looks at the big picture; coordinates local decision making; gives guidance to landowners and developers; understanding the private sector helps OHM to plan with public sector entities; a comprehensive plan is a tool for planning for the city but is also a tool to attract businesses; comprehensive planning also establishes a sound basis in fact for decisions; comprehensive plan involves a broad array of interests in a discussion about the long range future; builds an informed constituency; a comprehensive plan must contain an implementation program; includes a list of specific public or private actions organized by their scheduled execution date (short, medium or long term); typical actions include capital projects, changes to land development, etc. Slanek referenced the handout for reasons to prepare an economic development plan; if I were asked for a recommendation, knowing Gahanna, my prescription would be a comprehensive plan on a diet with a focus on economic development; we will then have objectives from comprehensive plan and we can focus dollars on the objectives from plan and make sure it has the largest return on investment. Angelou said it becomes an ongoing process. Slanek said yes, it doesn't have to be dollars, could be energy; need to get that focused; spend the first few years setting up things in place to achieve goals. Mayor said we talk about being practically built out; we have spent lots of money on lots of plans; given that, how does it look for a mature city. Slanek said you need to understand the whole before you look at the pieces; need to look at them through an economic lens, based on our financial situation now; one of the things is density; we need to reach out to community and see what their taste for development is because it is coming; each community has some unique things you City of Gahanna Page 2 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes May 27, 2014 can leverage from; Gahanna has a lot to offer. Jolley asked about a timeline for a robust citizen engagement process. Slanek said comprehensive plan on a diet, which is what I recommend, would guess it is a 12 month process for entire plan; 6-8 months in, we can start to move on the economic development plan; can be very focused, very strategic; that will inform the comprehensive plan; 2 different tools that will be moved to promote that growth; public involvement all the way through; a lot of information gathering. Holdren asked for a successful percentage for a city of our size to be statistically valid. Slanek said doing one now for about 28,000 residents and we are shooting for 400 participants. Kneeland said with what we have today, plans on the shelf, is it possible to reintegrate those into the comprehensive plan. Slanek said yes, that is why I recommend the comprehensive plan on a diet; have to evaluate the existing plans; there is a legal presence in every page of these things. Schnetzer said you mentioned some other communities are gearing up; what are some goals/challenges. Slanek said debt is killing everyone; cities are too indebted or leveraged; mostly economic development. Schnetzer said Gahanna is only one governmental entity in this city; how do you see us working with other governmental entities to follow through with a plan. Slanek said everyone is looking at consolidating services; anything that would take the cost burden off of some City services; couple of cities in northeast Ohio have nearly cut their costs in half by sharing services. Schnetzer asked if there is an example of different governmental agencies coming together on a plan. Slanek said no. 1. Sustainable Operating Model Questions/Discussion Teal said we think about this process as concurrent tracks; the sustainable operating model exists already; eventually this model will evolve into the 2015 appropriations; are there more questions and issues to discuss; we have also identified a bunch of other big picture items; the focus may have started in a more narrow place; it has opened wider; my goal is to find out any specific issues or questions on the documents sent out last committee; tax budget will be based on operating model; is not binding; still have 6 months to hammer that out; wanted folks to understand what is in it. Collins said from a layman's perspective, those discussion items can seem like the silver bullet to fix the financial problems; we asked hard questions of each other when this process started. Teal said the reserve policy is a good example of a hard stop discussion item; there are others that we have to discuss; did not receive any questions from Council or the public since last meeting. Schnetzer said can you give some degree of likelihood of receiving corporate sponsorships for community events. Collins said the major City of Gahanna Page 3 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes May 27, 2014 community events like Blues & Jazz Festival is put on by the Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB); we provide support for those; there is a cost to that; we basically submit an invoice to the CVB after the event; the CVB will go out and get corporate sponsors for that; there are City events that are smaller; we've had about $80,000 in events that have been cancelled; Creekside Live is still on; Parks & Recreation Foundation puts that on and is funded by liquor sales. Schnetzer asked about ongoing expenditures beyond 2015, are swimming pools not funded. Collins said we have said City will not fund pools next year; have no responses at this point; YMCA did not submit a proposal but continuing to work with them; putting together a way to discuss the pools separately. Jolley said we just had a conversation on planning; we're talking about things we may or may not spend money on; we have no idea what the vision for this City is and what the residents' vision is; how quickly are we going to move into that planning stage; don't care how we get there if we don't know where we're going; my personal opinion is we are spinning our wheels; have no direction on what we're saving our pennies for; would like to see us moving in the direction of planning; great presentation tonight; thanked Jones for bringing in Slanek; presentations from Collins and Teal have been fantastic; they are missing direction from us; what are we looking at in terms of a time frame for starting this; time is slipping away; work we have done is great but still don't know where we are headed. Schnetzer asked group for agreement on a comprehensive plan. Kneeland said yes. Jones said he would recommend putting a request for proposals (RFP) together and solicit responses. Schnetzer said in regards to the more granular plans, can we put those together and share them with Council. Jones said yes. Teal likened the process to making a quilt; how do we put all these pieces together into something that looks like something; inventory as a resource would be fantastic. Mayor said it is important that we do a plan; Hilliard spent $1 million on a plan. Jones said it is on Hilliard City website. Mayor said we have to be pragmatic in our approach; cannot write an RFP unless we really know what we want; are we all on the same page to write a really good RFP. Jolley asked what the process would be for writing the RFP; how much of what we've done could be included. Jones said it is bigger than Development but there are other RFPs that other communities have done that we can get a hold of; we have done a lot of work; can come up with some examples and that can be a basis for us. Angelou said the work we have been done is a key element in this. Teal said we may have bought a month or two with all of our work. Collins said as a staff, we need to operate; this is a 12 month process; in the mean time, we need to spend money and it will keep evolving. Jolley said do not want to imply that any of our work is invalid or unimportant. Kneeland said we're not Hilliard either; we are built out; hope we'd City of Gahanna Page 4 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes May 27, 2014 never spend $1 million on this. Teal said just to add information on timing, I issued a Request for Quotations (RFQ) for investment services in early May; will get responses back on Friday; would be able to kick off with a vendor in September; so it also takes at least 3 months to get a vendor; no one wants to rush that through so it's frustrating but important time to consider. Mayor added that is why we are working to find out how to function day to day. 2. Discussion Questions Collins distributed Discussion Questions. Teal said not a ton left at top of list; Master Plan was already discussed; item for this evening was, "Have the risks of future economic downturn been incorporated in model?". Teal continued that the short answer was not completely; there are a lot of variables; have forecasted conservatively instead; we are constantly looking at it; each month we review our reconciliation data from RITA; there are things we can't predict but those big variables tend to cancel each other out; feel that while not scientifically perfect, the method works; we always make sure to validate trends against what we've modeled. Schnetzer said as we start to budget 5 and 10 years out, how do we make those decisions when we are looking at year after year data. Teal said she would be open to any additional tools you could provide; next committee we'll have the tax budget. 3. Sustainability Website Teal wanted to share that we have a website now. Angelou said all the plans in the world mean nothing if they sit on a shelf; have to be really careful to ensure we implement them; MORPC has a lot of plans as well. Teal said www.gahanna.gov/sustainability.aspx is where you can access all the documents we have been working on; the Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs and Customers (SIPOC) tool is there to help us remember and see a measure of success here; there are links to the actual documents that we have been talking about; the timeline, discussion questions and operating model are out there; our goal as we move forward is to keep putting them up there as we have updates; if we develop additional outputs, we will put them there, too; it is accessible under many of the tabs. Kneeland asked about the performance dashboard. Teal said if you go to Government, right under sustainability, the document for Quarter 1 is there. Angelou said there was a question on this document regarding average number of full time employees from 2012 and City of Gahanna Page 5 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes May 27, 2014 2013. Wadley said that number is incorrect; it includes part-time; we will come forth with a revision. Schnetzer asked if the idea is that we will eventually check these off the list (Discussion Questions). Teal said we will timeline the remainder of items to run concurrently with budget process later in the summer. Jayme Maxwell, CMC, Reporting City of Gahanna Page 6