Finance Committee

200 South Hamilton Road City of Gahanna Gahanna, Ohio 43230 Meeting Minutes Finance Committee Michael Schnetzer, Chair Karen J. Angelou Merisa K. Bowers Nancy R. McGregor Kaylee Padova Stephen A. Renner Trenton I. Weaver Pam Ripley, Interim Clerk of Council Monday, February 28, 2022 Council Chambers * Immediately Following Committee of the Whole A. CALL TO ORDER Chair Michael Schnetzer called the meeting to order at 8:19 a.m. B. DISCUSSIONS 1. Long Term Capital Improvement Plan Mayor Jadwin shared that for years the City has used Capital Needs Assessment (CNA) as a precursor/placeholder for the creation of a long-term Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). The CIP will take all the capital projects and prioritize them to create the roadmap that the City will follow year after year as it goes through the budgeting process. Jennifer Syx, a Development Consultant from Inside Advisory Group, shared that a typical CIP is a multi year fiscal management plan. The City of Gahanna's CIP will be a 10 - 20-year fiscal management plan. The reason to do a CIP is to establish development areas and coordinating projects within those development areas and to also establish timelines on what makes the most since because there are some finances and challenges moving forward when you have a lot of plans. Currently the City has a couple hundred million dollars’ worth of improvements in the pipeline and it is important to pave the path for alternate funding options. Part of the CIP will identify funding sources that matches up with timelines so the City can go after grant funding. Typically included in a CPI are public land, public building, infrastructure, and other major equipment. These are major non-recurring expenditures that are ranked by priority, how they fit into the schedule, the cost, and what the financial resources are that will support the projects. The Go Forward Strategic Plan contains the key initiatives and the strategic priorities that is an overview that outlines certain initiatives that are key to working on the CIP. The CIP will support the Strategic Plan. The CIP is more detailed and will City of Gahanna Page 1 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes February 28, 2022 have budget line items attached to it as well as timelines. The purpose of a CIP is to address a couple of things: aging infrastructure and to ensure the timely repair and replacement of it. From a public perception standpoint and community engagement, it also provides some certainty to residents and businesses, as well as developers, that things are happening in the City in an orderly fashion that we can help manage growth moving forward. It identifies the most economical means to financing the improvements. The CIP is also a financial plan so that the City can understand the ramifications of funding, bonding, grants, and other initiatives that the City would be going after. One of the key components of a CIP is public input, which is included in the CIP. It also eliminates sharp increases in tax rates. Issue 12 brought forward a 20-year plan. The City wants to be mindful of what the residents already passed and make sure the City adheres to what the residents were told the City was going to do. A CIP also ensures growth and development. The CIP will make sure that the City works with Development and Planning, as well as Building and Engineering to make sure that the City’s development is consistent with what is in the CIP. Public engagement is critical when you go after funding sources. Having already included public workshops in the CIP, the City has already checked the box for public engagement when going after federal or state funding. The categories for capital expenditures would be purchases of major equipment, such as parks and recreation, large vehicles, computers, land acquisitions, and construction expansion and major renovation of public buildings and infrastructure. As the plan moves forward, the City will be identifying what those are and the cost. Work to date has included the review of all the CNA request, a review of the Land Use Plan, and the 20-year Plan. All the data has been incorporated into a comprehensive spreadsheet to develop the baseline. They have also discussed certain planning areas because there are Community Reinvestment Areas, TIF districts, and wards. They have tried to identify planning areas that make the most sense. They will be looking at developable land and buildings in a particular area, pair it up with what development and planning are working on to look at responsible growth and not just managed growth. They have identified projects by type and by rating, specifically on street ratings. There have not been any decisions made on what should take priority and what should happen next. Once the Facilities Workshops are completed, all that will be rolled into the CIP. After that has been done, they will meet department heads to see what projects have already taken place, what is off the table, and then put a cost to the projects. An actionable plan will be created, not just an inventory. A draft timeline has been created to meet the requirements prior to the next budget cycle. The plan is to have everything adopted by Council no later than October. There will be additional public meetings and Council workshops. Schnetzer said the answer to fundamental questions of “why now or why haven’t we done this already?” Was a lack of dedicated funding, with the passing of Issue 12, there is an established baseline and dedicated funding for capital improvements that can be used to help offset some of the costs. In addition to the Council workshops, the public meeting will be open to everyone to get two-way feedback. Schnetzer asked, based on the timeline, when will Council see this next. Mayor Jadwin said that based on the timeline City of Gahanna Page 2 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes February 28, 2022 June and July for Council workshops, however in previous discussions with Mr. Schnetzer and Administration the City is looking to create an internal committee including Council President Renner to work through dates as to when and how to keep Council updated between now and the workshops in June and July. Angelou asked in terms of the monies coming from the federal government, does it fit into the timeline to get some of the grants. Syx said the plan is to work with the Finance Director, and the Mayor to determine what makes the most sense from an infrastructure funding standpoint from that bill. Weaver asked what the relationship with the facilities workshops and the interplay here that relationship and sort of self-informing one another. Mayor Jadwin said the facilities workshops are a subset of the CIP. The purpose of the facilities workshops is to work with Council to prioritize how to deal with the Police Department Headquarters, the Operations Complex, and City Hall prioritize them and place them into the CIP and decide how to move forward. Mayor Jadwin said there will be a lot of workshops, which will be an opportunity for Council and Administration to continue to work together and collaborate as we see the path forward for Gahanna. Jadwin appreciated the comments from Councilman Schnetzer on “why now?” There were a lot of promises made to the residents with Issue 12. The goal of the CIP is to hold the City accountable on how it is spending those dollars in a responsible, managed way. Presentation attached. 2022-0074 Capital Improvement Plan C. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business the meeting adjourned at 8:36 p.m. City of Gahanna Page 3