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 Monday, August 25, 2014 Council Committee Rooms Immediately Following Committee of the Whole Roll Call: Present 6 - Brian D. Larick, Jamie Leeseberg, Karen J. Angelou, Ryan P. Jolley, Stephen A. Renner, and Thomas R. Kneeland Absent 1 - Michael Schnetzer Additional Attendees: Mayor Stinchcomb, City Attorney Ewald, Deputy Chief Bell, Dottie Franey, Matt Holdren, Sue Wadley, Tony Collins, Karl Wetherholt, Niel Jurist, General Williams, Jennifer Teal, Joann Bury, Anthony Jones, Clerk McWilliams, Press. UPDATE ITEMS - From Director of Finance 1. One-Time Capital - Staff will provide a brief explanation of the grouping methodology used in creating the one-time capital list earlier this year, and discuss ideas for prioritizing and allocating funding for one-time capital initiatives. Larick called the Finance Committee to order for Monday, August 25; said first item is one time capital. Teal said Larick requested we have additional conversation on the One Time Capital List, a copy of the document was handed out and is available in Council Office; said staff is working to finalize the 2015 through 2019 capital needs assessment; additional projects are being identified; adjustments and amendments are being made which happens every year; this list was a snapshot in time as provided earlier in June; this conversation is more about categories of projects rather than individual ones; need to think about the types of projects you would prioritize as we go forward later this fall with appropriations; looking at the big picture and the needs as compared to the City of Gahanna Page 1 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes August 25, 2014 resources; at the time prepared, we allocated these into buckets with common attributes; lump them together to have conversations about the groupings; the 1st group was projects we are currently working on; should be funded to completion; 2 is where we started talking about projects that were an investment in the future that could create real opportunity for economic growth; most have some potential for this; these were intended to drive economic growth in the City; the 3rd group is those that improve infrastructure that already exists; parks, playgrounds, buildings where there are needed changes to make it better; next is 3.5 which is planning for future projects; determining their path forward and if they are even feasible; 4 is where we lumped together the branding; no item 5; item 6 is projects that we know are out there and are pretty big but they need further planning. Teal continued with the next section; said it does not have bucket numbers; some additional items were identified between January and June; we wanted to make sure we did not lose track of them; we are working on the capital needs assessment so there could be additional projects in the coming weeks but at this moment in time, this is what our list included; at this time we are not deciding if we fund projects 1,2 &3 and not 4,5 &6; that is the job of the appropriation process; we would all benefit from some discussion, especially Council discussion, on what types of projects should we fund; not specific ones but the types of projects where the priorities lie; then when staff brings forward the request for funding we will have a roadmap; requests will not be a surprise; it will be a partnership. Kneeland said my goal is economic development; for the list, I thought the South Stygler Road widening was taken off; it was $650,000; was it just a turn lane. Teal said none of this is actually on a list. Kneeland said I thought it was even taken out of discussion. Teal said I am not aware of that. Larick said there was some discussion because of some change with the library. Wetherholt said that was completely different; that is a widening of West Johnstown Road from South Stygler past the culvert. Larick said we had a specific discussion about a turn lane. Wetherholt said it was the turn lane on West Johnstown Road onto South Stygler. Kneeland said so this is different. Wetherholt said South Stygler is a bottleneck; it needs more turn lanes; not enough pavement there; it is completely different from the library discussion; there was a component asking would they accept if we moved their money they gave us over to South Stygler instead; now we don't see it as being the same. Leeseberg said in the recent additions pools show up. Teal said this sheet predates many conversations; no changes since June 18. Collins said the reason why it ended up on there in the first place is because operationally we couldn't afford to maintain the pools so we City of Gahanna Page 2 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes August 25, 2014 didn't include any capital improvement to the pools. Teal said an important point is, if there is a discussion about potentially operating the pools in any of the scenarios or hybrids that were provided, potential operating loss each year would have to come from one time resources; over time without making other operational changes, ongoing loss will erode the amount of one time resource that is available for other projects; I am the wet blanket that reminds everyone that loss is going to eat that number down every year. Jolley said that is assuming no increases in revenues. Teal said the model is fluid. Larick said where is the concept of capacity; regardless of the restriction of funds, there is the physical capacity within each department to do these projects and manage them which may or may not be more limited than the funds. Teal said at this point in time, part of the negotiations for the appropriations plan is to talk about what we can actually do with staff on hand; it depends on the mix of projects that is chosen; if there is an even mix between departments or if it is very centralized in one area it might be more than a department can handle; they would need to assess and let us know. Larick said what would be helpful for me regardless of where everything ends up is knowing what each department's singular capacity is; we know all of them can't hit their highest capacity. Collins said wouldn't that be part of our 5 year projection. Teal said so a department could handle A,B & C but not E. Larick said correct and if there are additional resources available what is the next place that makes sense to put them. Teal said don't think we have ever talked about it in terms of staff capacity. Jolley said the cost and planning component could be addressed with my number one priority which is a comprehensive/land use/economic development plan; it would put all these projects in perspective in line with a significant portion of the community; then we could begin to address things like the Agler Road relocation; great project but we don't know where it fits in without a plan and where it fits into the larger picture; I continue to believe that a comprehensive plan of some nature should be our number one priority; hope to see that in next year's appropriations. Kneeland said what are the expectations here. Larick said by what timeline are any requests for these monies going to be tied to the 2015 plan. Teal said right now we are compiling and getting ready to discuss the capital needs assessment for 2015 through 2019 on everything identified; some fall in the sustainable operating capital bucket; some are on the one time list; some may be new; this will come to Finance committee in September which will be a City of Gahanna Page 3 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes August 25, 2014 great time to discuss; now is the time for ongoing conversations before you get your appropriations books in November; give you the opportunity to stress what you find important to us; next you will get the Capital Needs Book. 2. LEAN Gahanna - Staff will provide a brief update on the status of the City's various Lean initiatives, including the recent Final Development Plan Review project. Teal said at the end of last year through the beginning of this year, Collins and I were lucky to participate in Lean Ohio Green Belt training for the Six Sigma program; in addition to terrific training on facilitation and creating a better work force, we have been able to apply many of the tools learned in what we do here; there have been about 5 big projects since we became Green Belts; first was using Green Belt facilitation tools; in the Finance Department we did a process improvement project on our accounts payable process; we streamlined the process; Collins has done 2 projects in his area with the Parks Foundation and his department; today we want to report to you that we provided this facilitation to a customer; we worked on the Final Development Plan (FDP) review process with Jones and the Development Office and the Clerk to talk about the process from the Developer's idea to when they get a record of action from the Planning Commission. Jones said the FDP is the most frequently used application in our department; governs everything that is being built to add square footage; decided to do the biggest process; believe improvements identified with this application can be implemented with other applications in the department; included all staff who touch this application as well as other departments involved with it; there were redundancies identified; overworked areas without much value not understood by other departments; struggled to do the quickest process balanced with the highest quality; not always hand in hand; identified quality improvements prior to receiving applications; how to give feedback to the applicant that will help them enable us to meet our 30 day code timeline; my department has taken away follow up items; seeing the process laid out on notes initially and upon review provided a tremendous analysis; able to cut 25% out of our process time; we improved the interactions among departments within the City to make sure that they know what to expect and include that with information to the developer. Teal displayed the tools used during the improvement process on a slide presentation; identified all members of the team; said we identified who the customers of the process are; who supplies information; what are the influences keeping us on the path; the City of Gahanna Page 4 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes August 25, 2014 approach was successful by looking at what the value of the process adds; we developed a big process map; looked at tasks in detail; helped us see over processing and duplication; allowed the invisible parts of the process to become visible which was a big benefit to the team; after mapping, the team members voted on where there was waste; had more than 68 items; identified actions that could improve the application and provide maximum benefit; helped us better understand definitions and what terms mean and to make sure that departments support each other with quality data; we substantially reduced the steps in the process from 60 to 45; proud of the work this group did; will follow up with them at 30, 60, and 90 day intervals to make sure they are staying on track; Collins and I are looking at ways to continue to serve in this capacity. Larick said thank you; these are the steps to get us to be as efficient and functional as possible with the least amount of resources; identifies how can we do everything effectively; a section for this on the website would be a good communication piece for the City. Mayor said we have a new City Engineer starting Friday; Rob Priestas is replacing Karl Wetherholt; he has been an Assistant City Engineer in Marysville. McWilliams announced Donna Jernigan's retirement lunch for Wednesday August 27. Meeting Adjourned. Della Brandenberger, Reporting City of Gahanna Page 5