Finance Committee

200 South Hamilton Road City of Gahanna Gahanna, Ohio 43230 Meeting Minutes Finance Committee Michael Schnetzer, Chair Karen Angelou Merisa Bowers Brian Larick Jamie Leeseberg Nancy McGregor Stephen Renner April Beggerow, MPA, CMC, Clerk of Council Monday, November 9, 2020 Virtual Meeting *Immediately Following Committee of the Whole* Meeting Call In Details: 513-306-4583 Conference ID: 420 629 184# A. CALL TO ORDER Chairman Schnetzer called the Finance Committee to order at 9:27 p.m. All members were in attendance. B. DISCUSSIONS ORD-098-2020 AN ORDINANCE TO MAKE APPROPRIATIONS FOR CURRENT EXPENSES AND OTHER EXPENDITURES OF THE CITY OF GAHANNA, OHIO DURING THE FISCAL YEAR 2021. City Council members submitted questions to the administration. 1. Please provide additional reasoning for positions on p. 51 - any expense savings, deliverables to residents, strategic importance, and measurable metrics or outcomes. Ms. Vollmer: At the top of page fifty one, that top chart, that includes vacancies that were budgeted and approved in 2019 and 2020 that were not filled due to some reason, mostly this year, COVID. That's what the top one is. The second chart on page 51, our new positions added to the budget that will affect the general fund only. In the chart on the right hand side is the justification for those positions. There is additional information on pages 34 and 35 of the budget book as well. As far as the reclassifications, 2020 to 2021 is the year that our class and compensation study is due to be renewed and that would be the table that's in the salary ordinance that was in Committee the whole. So our consultant will be working on that. The projected end for that project is next August, so that we have it for budgeting purposes for 2022. As part of that class and comp study, there are employees who were selected for City of Gahanna Page 1 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes November 9, 2020 job audits. And so when you see on the second chart, the reclassifications for the management analysts, for planning and police, we made a projection that that's the classification we think those individuals will be in. They've completed the job audits and their supervisors are completing them now. And then our consultant will review those to determine the proper classification that those individuals should go in. They could stay the same, it could change. But we projected them to move to a higher classification, which is why they're labeled as a reclassification. On the second chart, on page 51, I'm happy to go through each specific position. I do have a little bit more information than the justification that's in, but I just wanted to see if, between our explanations, if there are specific positions you were asking for, if you would like me to go through each and every one. Mrs. Angelou: Go through each and every one. Mr. Schnetzer asked members of the committee if they were fine to hear each one or was there a request for a more targeted discussion. No response. Ms. Vollmer asked if members wished to go through both charts. Mr. Schnetzer asked her to clarify some of the deliverables and examples of some of the big picture projects that await these new positions to help justify the new expenditures. Example, the Economic Development Coordinator. Mayor Jadwin: That was an Economic Development Manager. We did not fill that in 2020 because we were waiting to hire the Development Director. And I felt like that was a role that the Development Director really needed to have a say in. So, given the fact that we hired the Development Director September 8th, we decided that we would let that position go until 2021 before we brought it back. Right now we have one person in the Development Department. If we want any kind of development to be done, I think we need more than one person to help even just managing TIFF's in the CRAs and trying to track all of those and create paperwork and business visits and networking and all of those things that need to be done. The Economic Development Coordinator would assist with that. We did downgrade this position. It was an Economic Development Manager position previously when Mr. Torres was here. It is now an Economic Development Coordinator position. So it does have a lower pay grade. So we've already recognized some savings in regard to how we have rated that position. Mr. Larick asked if the expenditures were just base pay or salary and benefits. Mayor Jadwin replied it was salary and benefits. She asked Ms. Vollmer to explain the benefits. City of Gahanna Page 2 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes November 9, 2020 Ms. Vollmer: The benefits for any vacant position, when Joanne and I work on the budget, we budget and family health insurance for all of those individuals, I think it's safe to assume that if we end up hiring 1 or 20 people will not 1, but 2 to 20 people, not everyone is going to take family benefits. So there are there would there's a significant difference between the cost of a family benefit and a single health insurance benefit. But we do have to budget family because we don't know who we're going to hire and what level of coverage they'll select. So after the positions hired for, there could be a savings in their benefits, depending on what level of coverage that they select as well. Mr. Schnetzer moved on to Facilities Maintenance Coordinator. Ms. Vollmer: The Facilities Maintenance Coordinator. We did do the civil service test last year. We're getting ready to interview and COVID hit that position will directly support the pools. And if the splash pad goes through in the capital needs assessment, there are pumps and chemicals that go with that too. That individual will, for the most part of the year, will be the person in charge of the maintenance for the pools and any other aquatic facilities that we may have at the city. Ms. Vollmer: The Park Superintendent position was vacated last year when the Park Superintendent, Allan Little, was promoted to the move classifications to the Manager of Projects. So he'll be in charge of capital projects and facilities, projects for parks and recreation. So this would be the backfill for Mr. Little. It is a mission critical person to have a park superintendent to supervise those individuals at the parks garage that are a combination of full time and part time. Mayor Jadwin: Just refresh everybody's recollection. When Stephanie Bernard-Ferrell was promoted to director of Parks and Recreation, I eliminated the Deputy Director position, created the position of Projects Manager, which actually I believe is also a little lower pay grade, too. So we realize savings there and a Park Superintendent position, the job duties will be somewhat different than what they are right now because we again have created the Projects Manager position and the Park Superintendent position. So we're not really adding a position, as this was the position that existed before. We're just looking to put it back back on the radar and it's one we've sorely missed. Mr. Schnetzer moved on to members in Public Service & Engineering. Ms. Vollmer: Those two individuals will work the service complex with the streets and utilities crew and provide additional support for those crews and the work that they do. They'd be part time. 28 hours or less. Mr. Schnetzer moved the group into new staffing requests. Ms. Vollmer: So the current administrative assistant that assisted the Development Department is being reassigned to the Department of Planning, so this is a request for an additional administrative assistant to help the Department of Development and to round out that team. As the mayor said City of Gahanna Page 3 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes November 9, 2020 earlier, there's just one woman team up there right now. So this would help to round out her department and assist with any administrative work that needs to be done. Mr. Schnetzer: And I'm not seeing any hands up, so next on the list, Director of Administrative Services and the Mayor's office. Mayor Jadwin: The last two Mayors who were here had either a City Administrator or a Chief of Staff. I'm not asking for either one of those that was not included in the 2020 budget. I'm not asking to include it now, but I am asking to implement a change that would allow allow some better management and oversight, alleviate some of the burden. Right now, I'm working 14 hour days. I don't mind that. That's who I am. That's what I do. I'm happy to do it. And I'll probably continue to do it regardless. However, it's not always very effective. So my proposal is to align the three internal facing departments, HR, IT and Finance under one director to be called the Director of Administrative Services I'm going to refer to that is DAS from here on out because it's a lot shorter. So that position would be filled by our current director of Human Resources. We when the IT director left back in May, we did not fill that position with a director position, but we back filled it with IT manager position at a lower pay grade. We did that with the specific purpose in anticipation of this change in 2021 for DAS. So we've already realized to some extent some savings in there with that change. When that change happened, our Director of Human Resources actually has been acting as the director of the IT department regardless. So she's been really acting as H.R. director as well as the director with the IT manager reporting underneath her. Again, the the DAS would oversee it, H.R. and finance. I think we can all agree that H.R. and Finance are related so closely, intrinsically related between processing payroll benefits leave as well. This takes the oversight all of all the internal facing departments and gives them one management directive so that we can make sure they are all operating strategically and collaboratively and allowing me to then face on the external facing departments, Parks and Rec, public service police. So it's not a City Administrator, but it's allowing the internal facing departments to be managed under one director. I can then focus on the external management position. I'll keep talking. So what part of this change also involved, again, we mentioned earlier the part time community liaison position, which is a position that many cities, even smaller than us have a community affairs type of person with that. So one director overseeing the internal facing departments, I'm overseeing the external facing departments. And then I have a part time community liaison who is also helping to coalesce with all of the community organizations and drive external facing initiatives within the community rather than asking for a city administrator or a chief of staff. The results of this change are we eliminate one entire director position. We add to support positions to support the daily operations and our administrator and the community liaison. And the actual cost savings of that from a city having a city administrator with an I.T. director, HR director, those three people versus my new lineup, which would be director of administrative services, I.T. manager, H.R. administrator, community liaison. It actually saves us over seventy five thousand dollars in staffing. So I'm able to to realize the seventy five thousand dollar plus cost savings and staffing better organize and streamline our operations here and City of Gahanna Page 4 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes November 9, 2020 create an outward facing connectivity with the community to help bring everybody in, won't stay in line, but working together in a more collaborative spirit, which is something that we desperately, I think, need and within the city. Mrs. Angelou: so the total would be $46,690 for somebody taking on three administrative positions. Mayor Jadwin said she is basically adding 2 ½ positions for $46,000. Where as previously the addition of just the one position would be $75,000. Mrs. Angelou asked what the total for the DAS job would be. Mayor Jadwin: It's Miranda's salary with a slight bump. So it's about $128,000. So Miranda would be taking that job. She would be working as the DAS overseeing the HR department, the IT department and the finance department. So it's a slight bump for her, about $4,600, I believe, to oversee all three departments instead of hiring a whole separate, different position as a City Administrator. Mrs. Angelou: So just to explain a little bit, why didn't that say $128,000 rather than $46,600. Mayor Jadwin: Because we already have her salary at $124,000. She will still be the HR director because by charter we have to have an HR Director. She's still going to be overseeing the department as well as the IT department and as well as the finance department. So she's taking on the taking on the responsibility of two different departments for a slight increase in pay so that all the internal facing side of the building is under one one administrative director. I'm overseeing all of the external administration, so if you can see on this chart, the one the chart on the left is if we were to hire a city administrator, the salary that's reflected underneath that was the salary and benefits of our prior City Administrator, Dottie Franey. We underneath her, we had an I.T. director an HR director and then the finance director in the other departments that had a total payroll of $392,085. Under the proposal that I'm suggesting, I create a Director of Administrative Services, which instead of $124,084 is $128,429, the IT manager is substantially less than the IT director. There's about $35,000 dollars of savings there. We had an administrator for seventy eight thousand, which is much less than the H.R. director and a community liaison. The net difference of that is the $46,000 dollars. But while the net out of this of the right side of the page is $46,000, but the net savings between what the administration used to look like and what I'm proposing is a net savings of $75,000 plus. Mrs. Angelou: I understand what you're saying there. It's just that when when it's written this way, I was going, who would ever do that job for forty six thousand. Mrs. McGregor asked if the costs listed were salary and benefits. Mayor Jadwin replied yes. Mr. Schnetzer: Parks & Recreation staffing, looks like there is a net negative City of Gahanna Page 5 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes November 9, 2020 number. Ms. Vollmer: Yes. So when we did the staffing discussions this year, I met with the Department of Parks and Recreation and one of their goals is to transition their workforce into primarily full time workforce. So the reason you get a net savings of $6,000, is currently they have 15 Part-Time vacancies that they're holding on to that the ones in right now. So the net $6,000 savings is what we did is we took 14 part time employees and transition them into four full time employees, and that's a net savings of $6,000. So the reason for the transition to the full time employees is because, one, it's a net savings. Two, it allows for more consistency and services being provided by our parks in parks and parks, facilities, staff. We do have a constant turnover in our part time park staff as it's a 28 hour position. So we see people coming and going. And so by them not being coming and going, it reduces the time it takes to hire, train and then lose information as it walks out the door. And so this will result in employees who are committed to the city of Gahanna and who will provide better parks and parks facilities as they become more aware of them. And typically, we see full time employees stay longer at the city than part time employees. So the goal of the Parks Division will be over however many years would be to transition to a full time work team and then supplement them with part time employees and or seasonals. Mr. Larick: Just on that last point, it's what you just said back then to this 14 change, or is that a potential additional outside of this 14 change, the supplemental with supplementing labor essentially with part time seasonal, et cetera? Ms. Vollmer: Yes. So the current staff that's in place now, they have there's 15 vacancies, one vacancy is remaining in the part time, vacancies remaining in the budget. The other 14 will transition to four full time. So our current staff at the Parks Department would continue working as part time employees. So as those as those positions become vacant, there could be another ask in future years to transition more part time employees or Part-Time vacancies into a full time position. So right now, the requests for four additional full time employees and essentially they will be supplementing our current part time workforce. Mrs. Angelou: Ok, say that again, please. So you're still going to have 14 part time people? Ms. Vollmer: No. There are there are 15 part time vacancies right now, so one of them remain. The other 14 are being transitioned into four full time at a net savings of $6,000. Mrs. McGregor: So there will be one part time person left and then will they like seasonal mowers, that kind of thing? Ms. Vollmer: There are more than one part time. There are the part time workers that are working now will continue working. They are funded in the 2021 and will continue working. These four just to replace the vacancies. So, yes, so there will be part time individuals who still work, who do all sorts of City of Gahanna Page 6 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes November 9, 2020 things. And then, yes, in the budget, I believe there are there's funding for for seasonal positions 2 to run like February for six months and then 2 more to start like when the mowing season starts and April, May. Mrs. Angelou asked if the 14 part time positions would remain and then 4 full time positions would be added. Mrs. Bernard-Ferrell: I think that's part of the confusion. So the 14 are not the existing part time staff that are hired. There are 15 vacancies. So we have 20 part time that are in position who are currently working the 14 that we're transitioning to. And maybe transitioning is the wrong word to use the 14 that we are reinventing our for full time. So those positions, they they have been vacant. They've been vacant ultimately for over a year. And instead of hiring part time individuals, we're reducing the total number to four full time. So we still have a part time workforce that are in position now and we're asking for four full time instead of 14 part time. Mr. Schnetzer said they’re moving on to the Horticulturist position. Ms. Vollmer: The horticulturist is a needed position to care for the seven hundred acres of parkland. In addition, the city has over 1000 flower and garden beds throughout the city. If you've seen any of them, you can probably tell that there is no one in this position to care for them right now. This was requested last year and cut from the budget for 2020. So we're adding it back in to balance out the work and this would also help the city forester because she has her own full time job being the city forester. So she it's difficult to do the horticultural work as well. So this person. Those 1000 flower garden beds throughout the city, in addition to all the other baskets in. Mr. Schnetzer moved on to Management Analyst in the Public Service Department. Ms. Vollmer: That's undergoing a reclassification and job audit as well, due to some additional responsibilities that's been added to this position. Ms. Bowers asked about the victim advocate position and how they were going to be trained. Mr. Schnetzer said that question is noted and addressed later in the discussion. Mrs. McGregor: I mean, I know this year has been different, but concerns about the urban deer hunting program. And I was just wondering if there's a place for that in this change, because I think probably the administrative assistant was the person who ran it before. And so I'm just wondering if there's a place for that, because I've had people call or email about that. Mayor Jadwin replied that they are analyzing that program. 2. How much revenue came from each of the athletic organizations (soccer, lacrosse, etc.) and is expected in 2021? City of Gahanna Page 7 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes November 9, 2020 Mrs. Bernard-Ferrell: So the 2020 year to date doesn't paint a great picture of what we would typically see with this type of program. The spring season for youth athletics were were canceled. So you're to date we're at $16,000. That's rounding of course. We are also anticipating an additional.. The current youth athletics are being audited for a resident non residency status. So that will increase the overall total for 2020. So when it comes to projecting for 2021, we take a look at 2019 figures. That gives us a better idea of what to expect and that would be closer to $74,000 in a quote unquote normal year. Mr. Larick: I have a question on the question was by organization, so if you could follow up with that by organization I can do that. Mrs. Bernard-Ferrell said she would follow up. 3. The Fund Balance & Appropriations Summary shows a planned drawdown of fund balance in substantially all major governmental funds. With forecasts for limited to no revenue growth in the medium term, please be prepared to discuss the intended financial path forward in fiscal years 2022 and beyond (p. 24; 38-41). Ms. Bury: So I'm going to get this in a couple of different parts, first of all, I think it's a little premature to have a definite plan in place, but we will have a couple of things that are going to be coming up. I think that'll provide a little bit more clarity as to what the path may look like. So, again, we don't even know what the actual fallout for 2020 is going to be yet. We probably won't know until like the first quarter of 2021. And then we also don't know how the pandemic is going to be tracking. So we're hoping within the first quarter of 2021 there's a couple of things that come come to light. First of all, how hard was the economy hit by this in 2020. And is there a way to translate that to what we could expect for to Hannah. And then how is the pandemic tracking. Is there a vaccination? Are we now looking at post pandemic or are we still in the pandemic? So with that, a couple of things that we want to do to kind of outline how a path forward may look beyond 2021 is in the general fund balance policy forward. I mean, we're in an economic storm, using on reserve fund balance is an acceptable way. We're not drawing down on an emergency reserve for twenty twenty one, the fund balance policy. That will provide some clarity on the administration and council side in a policy that we're both comfortable with, about how far we're willing to let unreserved balances go before we start dipping into the emergency reserve and then aligning the emergency reserve associated with an economic downturn that's a little more reasonable than the current policy. So I think after the first quarter, 2021, we have a little bit more information. We'll also have that fun balance policy that will come forward probably first or second quarter of 2021 to align us moving into the 2022 budget. I think that'll provide a little more clarity as far as where we think we're going to go beyond 2021. So that's kind of the general fund. And then I think the big question is, you know what if on balance and so what if we get into the first quarter of twenty, twenty one and realize that, yeah, we're we're going to use our reserve fund balance, we're probably going to use some of the emergency reserve. It's still enough. That still gives us some time to take some action. There are some governments that have already had to take some significant action. They've had to issue City of Gahanna Page 8 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes November 9, 2020 debt just to get their operations through 2020, let alone moving into 2021. There's options for, you know, levies that are expiring. So, you know, there could be a business that goes out that says if we could figure out a way to just bridge for five years and then have something that falls off. So there are some options out there beyond fund balance that will have to probably explore. But I'm not sure because again, what if what if first quarter we are in post pandemic and what if what if we're seeing that maybe the economic fallout, while bad, may not be as bad as predicted for 2021? Again, I'm expecting an 8% drop in income tax revenue. Based on a lot of different variables and at 2008 economic recession, because it's the closest thing to an economic downturn like this, but they're so completely different, there's no there's no modeling for me to look at. So I'm hoping that as 2021 starts to play out early on, we can kind of get some of those questions, answers, some of those questions answered to tell us what what are we looking at beyond that for the Capital Improvement Fund, we are working on the strategic plan update. I think with that and with being able to gauge what our income tax dollars really look like, we'll be able to develop a capital improvement plan. So going beyond just the capital needs assessment, but actually creating a plan that becomes semi policy, obviously subject to change depending on how everything's tracking. But to have an actual plan that says here's what we're going to do, these are the years we're going to do it, and this is how much reserve we have to build up in order to meet these targets. Until then, we're doing exactly what it was designed to do or doing all the capital maintenance. And we've selected a few new improvements that are strategically aligned with some other things for the special revenue. Those are the other major governmental funds. There's no reason when you're basically it's our policy to use restricted resources first, when there's an activity that can be covered by unrestricted and restricted resources. It just makes sense if those restricted resources are limited and you only have certain things you could spend it on, you can identify those things and use those restricted resources first. In this case or shortfall, there was unrestricted resources to use. So we had to look to those restricted resources for a lot of the activities. And really, there's no reason to build fund balances in these special funds. They're designed to provide resources in addition to your general fund resources to accomplish various things. They just have strings attached to them. Mr. Schnetzer: For me, a concern with that answer is, in effect, this budget for 2021, the budget ask resets the annual operating run rate higher. Not necessarily going to debate the need, but I think that is just a matter of fact. And I think council needs a more complete understanding of what those costs look like- the reserves in the out years before we essentially sign on for 2021. Ms. Bury: I don't I can't predict what my unreserves are going to be if I don't have a good predictor of what my revenues are going to be. I have semi-good predictors, but they're surrounded by a lot of variables. So I think we will have a better picture of what that's going to look like after we know what is the condition of the economy and what does that impact going to be on Gahanna. Mr. Schnetzer: Well, we do have a forecast in essence, I mean, I understand it's right to revision and all of those things, but but it is essentially what we're going off of. We need something in order to make a decision. So I guess to be City of Gahanna Page 9 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes November 9, 2020 more clear with the question for me anyway is, is if we're drawing down, say we passed this without any sort of revision whatsoever, I think there's somewhere around a two million dollar draw down and fund balance in just the general fund. What does that look like to you and what does that look like in 2023 based on the existing forecast that we have at this moment in time? Ms. Bury: I do have to say that that that drawdown does not include what we're going to be able to reimburse from the CARES Act dollars. So that's another variable that's kind of out there. So since you did approve the last supplemental appropriation to go ahead and use a large chunk of that to reimburse the general fund, so that came after that modeling was done. So reduced that by the million some dollars we're going to use in CARES Act dollars to reimburse for public safety. So now we're looking at a $1.2 million drawdown versus 2.2. If we get more CARES Act dollars, which isn't a guarantee yet and we don't have any estimates for that, we're looking at even more that we can either reimburse the general fund for or use to offset additional COVID expenses. So we also have that variable of potential additional federal funding that might come in to assist, as it did in 2020. I just don't have any guarantees and I don't have any estimates. Mrs. McGregor: It seems like there's a lot of unknowns, like a lot of terms in her presentation, and I'm not saying it's just like I don't know, there's no and I understand that. But it just seems like, given all those unknowns and I don't you don't know or we don't know what's coming, that it's not a good time to be drawing into the reserves when we just don't know and and to increase the some of these increases if we have to turn around and then slash them right after we've increased create positions and have to turn around and cut them, it just doesn't seem like that would be a wise thing to do in my mind, just looking at this in general. So because there's so much uncertainty, I'm not sure that this is the time to be drawing down on reserves, is my point, I guess. Ms. Bury: Well, we really have because of the the revenue loss that we've already experienced and what we're what we're doing, even if we did not create those new positions we're still cutting in which we're still going to have to use unreserve fund balance. We have to be saving. There's no other way to operate the city in 2021. Mr. Schnetzer: Well, I was just going to say, just while we're here and just to be efficient with time, I do want to clarify my earlier comment is I certainly understand the revenue hit and I understand that there's some sort of, for lack of a better phrase, automatic escalators that were kind of tied into. And so, yes, unless we want to begin reducing headcount in 2021, there is a need to reserve to use savings. And that, for me anyway, seems to be an appropriate use of the savings. That's why you have it. Sort of the metaphor is, you know, the you know, whatever it is, that old Disney cartoon where the ants are busy work and slaving away and the grasshoppers just kind of sitting there being lazy and actually the ants revive the winter. This is winter. And so there's a need to use it. The the ask and I'll speak for myself. It's just to have a more complete picture of what those drawdowns on reserve look like in the out years, given what we know now. And so we have a forecast is likely going to City of Gahanna Page 10 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes November 9, 2020 change, but we do have a forecast. And so I guess what I would like to see either in two weeks or in an email follow up is some sort of projection over maybe, you know, three to five year time frame, whatever the whatever the for the life of the forecast is. What if we were to pass this budget in its current form, what those outyears would look like, what would be the requirement for reserves to supplement them. Ms. Bury: Right. If I could follow up in an email, because what I'd like to do is go ahead and amend that 2021 drawdown to include the reimbursement from the CARES Act. But even if we didn't have those CARES Act dollars with the amount that we're requesting to be used, that still leaves us with almost four months of operating. In the unreserved that's not touching the emergency, emergency still stays whole, but still leaves us with with almost four months and the best practice from GFOA is to at least have two months of operating left in your unreserved fund balance. So we're within best practices. And we'll be even more so once I update the the 2021 numbers. Mayor Jadwin: I was actually going to echo what you said is at some point you have to dip into your savings and we still have an obligation to provide services to our residents. And again, I guess what I would say is the 2020 budget that you started off last year was not the 2020 budget that we had come May 1st. And the budget that's being presented now isn't it's not written in stone either. Assume, even if it were to be passed as it is today, we have to continue to be able to adjust and and we will continue to do that through 2021 as this unfolds. I mean, this is a situation that continuously changes, you know, month by month, week by week, sometimes even day by day. I mean, Pfizer announced a vaccine this morning. The markets went crazy. So you just know this could change at any moment and it's difficult to predict. But I think that we have to recognize that we still have to continue the operations of the city and to put ourselves in the best position to be able to do that. Mr. Larick: Can just go back and just if you would repeat and/or re-explain the the CARES money. And what I think I heard you say is that we have an estimate of expenditures and revenues as they sat at a point in time that we are getting X dollars of CARES money. That will be an increase in revenue? Ms. Bury: it would be a decrease in expenditures in the general fund. The revenue comes into the CARES Act fund and then I'm allowed to use it to reimburse the general fund. So you'll see a reduction in expenditures in the general fund, but an increase in expenditures and the CARES Act fund. Mr. Larick asked about the CARES Act funds and clarified that those funds were to be utilized for COVID related activities. Budget Discussion Continued 4. Purchasing Policies - if expenditures that are below $3,000 but for the same general purpose in a particular time period are authorized, and those in aggregate exceed $3,000, would those expenditures come before council? e.g. postage, supplies purchases, or part time staff? (p. 15) City of Gahanna Page 11 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes November 9, 2020 Ms. Bury: I'm just going to kind of give highlights to both of them because I really wasn't sure about the question. So I think if I clarify the policies, that might answer the question. So the one policy talks about my my certification for purchases. So over ORC requires before purchase be made that I provide my certification, that those funds have been appropriated or have been collected or are in the process of collection, that's done through the requisition purchase order process. So once I approve a requisition for them to go purchase, my certification is stamped by ORC. There are times when a purchase happens before that certification can be made. ORC understands that happens, so ORC does make way to allow for a then and now certification, which basically says at the time the purchase was made and now, funds were appropriated in the process of the collection. If the purchase is $3,000 or less, I have the ability to provide that, that and now certification without any action council, if it's more than $3,000, it would require a resolution by council and at that point, yes, they would become aware of the purchase, the amount and what it was for. So that's the first policy that kind of talks about the certification and the three thousand dollar limit that I have for that. The other part also is just the overall purchasing policy. And there are three buckets that that goes into. There's less than $3,000, which is considered a small purchase, the only council action required for that is that you all have passed an appropriation ordinance and there are appropriations available and they have a valid purchase order. $3,000 to $49,999 requires three quotes, still no council action, except that you've given us appropriations, you've passed an appropriation ordinance and there's a valid purchase order. $50,000 or above, with some exceptions that are outlined in our our code says there needs to be competitive bidding at that point to go through the competitive bidding process. Those results will be brought to council. We would make a recommendation on how to choose. And yes, at that point you would know what the contract was for the amount. So in general, by you passing the appropriation ordinance, it's giving us the authority to make these purchases within ORC, my certification and following our own code of small purchases versus larger purchases. So hopefully that I think maybe answer the question. Mrs. Angelou brought up a large purchase of about $250,00 that did not go through the purchase process mentioned by Ms. Bury and asked why that purchase didn’t fall under those parameters. Ms. Bury replied that it was allowed because of provisions in our Code that allowed for certain exceptions and that particular item fell under one of those exceptions. 5. Please be prepared to elaborate further on the drivers and reasons behind the last two paragraphs on p. 48 Ms. Bury: I use the assistant of our investment adviser when we looked at investment income and we not only looked at what the Federal Reserve was kind of putting out, but we also looked at the Federal Open Market Committee, which is a large group of professionals that kind of assist the Federal Reserve with setting financial policy. And there was an overwhelming majority of that committee that were assessing 0% interest rate environment, which the City of Gahanna Page 12 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes November 9, 2020 Federal Reserve ultimately did end up putting out there. And the other thing that we did was we looked at what is maturing in 2021, what we think will be available for inventory, and then he has access to Bloomberg's cash flow simulator. So we basically took what our current holdings are, what we think we'll have available to reinvest in for those things that are maturing in 2021 ran through the stimulator and that's how we came up with the 2021 estimate. And then for the out years it was, we can't really use the Bloomberg simulator for that, but just kind of tracking in with where the interest rate environment was going to be and what our holdings were and again what would be available for reinvestment. So that's further clarification on investment income, unless there was something else that I didn't hit on. Mr. Schnetzer: I'll just add for the good of the order that, for Ohio revised code as well as our own policy, which my understanding mirrors Ohio revised code to the term of that investment portfolio was relatively short. I believe it's five years or less, probably a weighted average maturity somewhere in the ballpark of two to three years. And you're exactly right with the projection interest. Obviously, they are low now and remaining very low as those investments roll off or mature. The opportunity to reinvest at higher rates basically goes away. We saw this in 2007. I think investment income was like our third highest revenue source at one point in time. And yeah, it just got absolutely decimated in that recession as well. So it's deja vu all over again. And then the other paragraph there, I was talking about some movement of some expenses there, which is the special revenue flows. Ms. Bury: These were the activities that we identified that the special revenue funds was appropriate for to be funded out of there. So when we when we look at the activities, we move the revenue and the associated expenditures over. So if you're looking at the revenue side, you kind of see charges for services going down. Part of it was that we did have a little bit of the COVID 19 come in, but the other part of that is movement of that revenue to those special funds. So it's not not a loss, it's just being accounted for differently and that the special revenue funds, but the expenditures are also moved over. And then the net is still a gain on general fund balance, because, as you know, those fees are never set to absorb one 100% of cost for those activities that run through the general fund or those special revenue funds that are meant to be affordable for those who want to partake. So there is always a portion that's that's subsidized in in this case, it's being subsidized by the income tax that's coming in through the special revenue funds. So it was just a clarifying point because I didn't want somebody to look at the non income tax revenue and wonder why are we're losing all this other. And it's not it's not necessarily lost. It's just a change in accounting for certain activities. Mayor’s Office 1. Please describe the year over year (YoY) changes to Salaries & Benefits and Contract Services (p. 62). 2. What are the first two lines on page 202 for Mayor’s Office salaries and benefits? (OBJ 5100 and 5105 near the middle of the page) Mayor Jadwin: I would just I would just as a reminder, I mean, you saw you saw the org chart. So the change in salaries is the director of administrative City of Gahanna Page 13 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes November 9, 2020 services, the community part time community liaison. And the MORPC intern and the bulk of that would be the DAS position, which really is moving from the H.R. department over here, with the exception of about forty six hundred dollars increase in that in that salary. So that is reflective of those salary benefit changes. Human Resources 1. Please describe YoY changes in Salaries & Benefits, specifically the subtraction of HR director (p. 68). 2. Why is the Director of Human Resources being left vacant vs. eliminating it like in the IT department? (p. 35) 3. Why do two human resources administrators appear on the table (p. 68)? Mayor Jadwin: So as I said earlier, actually, Miranda will still still be fulfilling the duties of the office of the Director of H.R. I believe that is required under our charter. And there are very specific duties that have to be performed in that role. Whereas the IT department, if I remember correctly, it's pretty much just like day to day, day to day administrative things. So that one we had flexibility in that position was the director role and duties had a little bit more stringent requirements as to what has to be performed. So she will still carry those job duties as well. So we're not eliminating the position in the way that we did it earlier. She was still have the same duties she has now. Ms. Vollmer: So there is a current human resources administrator that works for right now. And with the changes as discussed by the mayor, there would be an additional human resources administrator hired. That way they can do the day to day HR work that I'm doing so I can do the additional role of the DAS position. Mayor Jadwin: And that position was accounted for on the salary breakdown that I showed to you earlier as well. And I believe that's also a position that even without those changes would have been included for an add this year, just given the amount of work that there is to do. Public Service and Engineering 1. Please elaborate on the YoY decrease dollar amounts for Salaries & Benefits and Contract Services (p. 103). 2. Please explain the decrease in total full-time headcount and change in part-time seasonal staff (p. 103). Mr. Crawford: So there's a couple of items driving these changes. One is the movement Building and Zoning from Public Service and Engineering to the Planning Department. And the second is the ability to fund some of the Public Service and Engineering activities from the special public service funds. So it's the shift from those funding sources and the shift at the department. Public Safety 1. Question about the qualifications of the Management Analyst to serve as a victim advocate. What training has the Admin Assistant undertaken? Any continuing education? How will they interface with the victim and/or support City of Gahanna Page 14 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes November 9, 2020 during pending litigation? (p. 34) Mr. Mularski: So that that's really not a budget question because it has to do with the training and the choosing, but back in November of 2017, they passed a constitutional amendment. They call it Marci's law. It's a victims rights law. We have to have a victim's advocate under the Constitution of Ohio. And so with that, I presented tonight because of the funding for that position. But as far as the qualifications and the training and all, that's me. I'm an elected city official. I will make those decisions and I will make sure it's done correctly. If anyone wants to discuss that with me, I'm happy to talk about those issues. However, it does tie in to the next two questions. The second part of the next question as to the funding that I have listed on my portion of the budget. Department of Law 1. What is driving a projected 25% increase in expenditures for legal contracting services and an overall increased legal budget of $115k? (p. 55) Mr. Mularski: Yes, thank you. The first one, easy. We have two union contracts are coming up this year, and those union contracts have been difficult in the past. So we went back and I looked over the last three negotiations that we've had and I talked with the labor attorney. And with that, I came up with the fact that it's going to cost about $50,000 In attorney fees to negotiate those two contracts. And that is that additional 25% percent increase, the additional $50,000. In addition to that, there are the other increase in my funds are for salaries and benefits. Now, with the salaries and benefits, there's really four factors that go into that one of them or some minor things. If there is an increase in the the job for the assistant city attorney, if there's an increase in his salary, that's part of that little over $3,000. The ordinance allows me to get almost another $2,000 increase in my salary, but then the two big parts that equal the rest of that. First, I've got to mention, there was an error in that when it got calculated, I went back and talked with Joann and she found about $8,000 of that was an error. So that's not going to be included. It's going to be about a $50,000 increase instead of a $60,000 increase. And of that $50,000 increase, $25,500 dollars in salary plus benefits is going to go to that victims advocates position. So that's where that goes. The last piece of the puzzle is about me. Throughout this year, I've learned that this is a lot more complicated job. And starting next year, I plan on doing this full time and as doing this job full time, I am going to need health insurance and that is allowed under the ordinance. And so there is about $20,000 of benefits that will be included that are included in my schedule for me to get health insurance so I can do this job full time. Found out that to do it right, at least the way I feel is right. And to get questions answered in a quick manner, you have to put a lot of time into this and I plan on doing that next year. And that's what that additional $20,000 In benefits to me. So that $20,000 plus $25,500 for the victims advocate plus the $50,000 for the negotiation of the two contracts. That's what makes up the bulk of that increase. Council Office 1. Is council office being funded adequately? Does the budget include ongoing City of Gahanna Page 15 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes November 9, 2020 Microsoft Office subscriptions? Any printing or postage budgeted for us? Mrs. Beggerow: Yes, Yes and this is accounted for in the Service Budget. Committee members asked to have a one hour meeting following the regular Council meeting on November 16th and the budget will have a public hearing again on the evening of November 16th as well. Meeting adjourned at 10:57 p.m. City of Gahanna Page 16