City Council

Minutes approved on 7/22/24 by the City Council. CITY OF LACONIA - CITY COUNCIL BUDGET MEETING City Hall - Armand A. Bolduc City Council Chamber 6:00 P.M. 6/17/2024 - Minutes 1. CALL TO ORDER Mayor Hosmer called the meeting to order at 6:12 PM 2. SALUTE TO THE FLAG Councilor Soucy Led the salute to the flag 3. RECORDING SECRETARY Katie Gargano, City Clerk 4. ROLL CALL Clerk Gargano called the role of the following councilors: Councilor Soucy, Councilor Hoffman, Councilor Haynes, Councilor Bogert and Councilor Felch. Councilor Cheney arrived at 6:15 PM Mayor Hosmer confirmed all council members were in attendance and a quorum was established. 5. STAFF IN ATTENDANCE Kirk Beattie, City Manager; Glenn Smith, Finance Director 6. GENERAL BUDGET DISCUSSION Mayor Hosmer noted he’d like to discuss the layout of tonight’s meeting, he does have to leave early due to another commitment. This will be his 7 th budget to be apart of since 2018. All budgets have been unanimous, all these budgets were done as nonpartisan. The budget that is being discussed tonight is a value statement to show that we as a group value public safety, the police department, the fire department, we continuously invest in their equipment, their salaries and show we value them. He let Finance Director Smith and City Manager Beattie know how much he appreciated the hard work that had gone into putting the several puzzle pieces together. Manager Beattie noted this meeting has historically been designed to bring department heads back to discuss the budget. Manager Beattie reached out to Councilors, many said no they didn’t need to see the department heads back but they did want an opportunity to discuss the budget further. This budget was created using certain exemptions that are allowed to stay within the tax cap for wage scale adjustments. discuss the budget. Manager Beattie reached out to Councilors, many said no they didn’t need to see the department heads back but they did want an opportunity to discuss the budget further. This budget was created using certain exemptions that are allowed to stay within the tax cap for wage scale adjustments. Mayor Hosmer left the meeting at 6:25 PM Manager Beattie handed out 2 documents to the Councilors to show them where we currently stand. The net proposed 4.96 % increase. With the exemption is 7.5% That would allow us to meet our obligations which include the expenditures, 500k to the school to give a retention bonus during their FY 25 yr. Councilor Soucy asked if the state numbers were accurate, yes, they are. Councilor Bogert asked if we chose not to use the exemption, we have $810,000 towards capital projects, that would help reduce the footprint of $1.4 million. If we were to look at the remaining $600,000, we could cut or defer other items in the budget that would not affect any salaries, benefits, or cut the head count. He believes they could stay within the tax cap without the exemption. Manager Beattie said he has looked into that upon request and that if they decrease the capital, next year when they are building the budget they will be starting at a lower base than what they would be normally at. Councilor Bogert clarified that this budget creates the framework of where we can stand for any future budgets, Manager Beattie confirmed. He doesn’t want to see any luxury items, to plan for the future, he knows we need a new DPW building. He doesn’t like to see everything being bonded. We only use 26% of the allowable cap for us to bond. The payments, then add to the expenditures. A critical item like the DPW building will be an item that needs to be bonded and will eat up a lot of our borrowing power. Councilor Hoffman stated he understood what Councilor Bogert was stating but if you cause capital to lower and it will set us off kilter, by utilizing the exemption it will raise us so next year we won’t need to do this, and he feels we’d be further kicking the can down the road. Councilor Bogert also feels we have over 40 million dollars’ worth of road work that needs to get done that are already red line roads. Councilor Soucy said that we did not vote for the $810,000 on antique center, but we are also waiting on other documentation from the city manager. We are not committed to it, and that they can bring it back for a redo under Roberts rules. Salary increases are a big chunk and that is a one-time situation, and it will not continue. He does not want to keep kicking the can down the road. Councilor Cheney said they have talked about percentages, and tax caps, but the people he hears from wants to know the numbers, the impact was $1.00. He also doesn’t want to pay the full asking price for the Antique Center, at the end of the day most people he speaks to want to know the numbers. Mayor Pro Tem Haynes stated that he supports the wage increases, and he thinks we need to show some constraint on some other items for the taxpayers, he wants to see the needs versus the wants. The list of capital items far exceeds the amount. Councilor Cheney feels this is the natural progression. Councilor Bogert stated that inflation does eat up a lot of everything. Councilor Soucy wants to see a reconsideration for the Antique center. Manager Beattie stated he’d like to add an economic/ housing director. Councilor Felch said he is against using 1-time funds because they will be looking for it in the future. He doesn’t see any huge areas where the cuts can be made. He feels the manager has done a good job getting us where we are. He thinks the school would have been able to help more if the state didn’t keep cutting from school funding.  Manager Beattie stated he’d like to add an economic/ housing director. Councilor Felch said he is against using 1-time funds because they will be looking for it in the future. He doesn’t see any huge areas where the cuts can be made. He feels the manager has done a good job getting us where we are. He thinks the school would have been able to help more if the state didn’t keep cutting from school funding. Councilor Hoffman agrees that he thinks the budget is in a good place too. The number one issue in this city is homelessness, we are increasing how we address it in the budget. How it is being addressed is a reactionary way. There are increases in the welfare department budget, this needs to be addressed in the future to find real solutions. Councilor Soucy wants express his support for the economic/ housing director. He also agrees with Councilor Hoffman regarding homelessness. Councilor Cheney, Councilor Soucy and Councilor Hoffman had a brief conversation about a few bills that haven’t passed in the legislature that would have benefited the City. Manager Beattie stated he wants to hear from Councilors about proposed bills. Councilor Bogert spoke about the zoning issues regarding parking for new construction projects. Manager Beattie said he and the finance director can adjust the revenues and expenditures. Councilor Cheney wants to see the changes presented and highlighted so they can see the differences. Potentially Monday night to vote. Councilor Soucy mentioned the department presentations lacked the details of the budget. With the exception of the Library and the Police. Manager Beattie said he will make sure that is relayed for the future presentations. He said one piece of advice they were told was not to focus on all the negatives. Councilor Felch said when he gets the book, he looks at the book and he sits down with the department heads to ask questions and give ideas. Councilor Hoffman stated he agrees because if we are going to go line by line through the budget, they wouldn’t be able to get through multiple budgets per meeting. There were no further comments/questions from the Council. 7. Any other business that may come before the Council 8. ADJOURNMENT Mayor Pro Tem Haynes adjourned the meeting at 7:20 PM Respectfully submitted, Katie Gargano, City Clerk