Administration & Finance Committee

BOROUGH OF LANSDALE ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCE COMMITTEE MINUTES MEETING OF MARCH 6, 2024 Members Present: Mary Fuller Borough Council President Carrie Oglesby Committee Chairman Rafia Razzack Borough Council Member John Ernst Borough Manager Glenn Dickerson Finance Director Andy Krauss Electric Superintendent/ Fleet Manager Ms. Oglesby called the meeting of the Administration and Finance Committee to order at 6:30pm. 1. Action Approval of Minutes Previous Meetings Motion Ms. Razzack to approve the minutes from the Admin and Finance Committee meeting on February 7, 2024. Second Ms. Oglesby. Motion carriers 3-0. 2. Financial Reports (1) Revenues & Expenses Mr. Dickerson- As of the end of February, revenue is $1.9 million vs. $5.6 million. The recognition of electric bills with software is the difference. Some revenue from February hasn’t been recorded yet. We make sure that we have all the information in February, but not in March. In March, we had $850k in taxes. In expenses, we spent $6.2 million this year vs. $6.5 million last year. We appear to be flowing normally. Last year, we budgeted 2 Police cars for $100k each instead of holding off. Ms. Oglesby- When are the billing changes going to take effect? Mr. Dickerson- This should be around the 20th of May and the beginning of June. Around the 19th- 21st we will bill and the payments due in June. This is the expert opinion to solve the problem and they are going to resolve. Ms. Oglesby- Everything will be with the money coming in? Mr. Dickerson- Yes. Question from resident- On the electric bills, for the amount that I will have to pay can you put in bold on the electric bill or put in a different color to stand out? Mr. Dickerson- Yes, we can. Ms. Oglesby- Is it hard to read? Mr. Dickerson- The amount is in bold on the bill. The total amount due is what needs to be paid, but we can definitely work to change it and make it another color. Question from resident- I have a question on sewer billing. Are you going to a new kind of billing? Mr. Dickerson- It has already changed. If you had no issues with that makes me happier. 3. Committee Business Items A. Renew Retriever, Inc profit sharing agreement- No cost to the Borough. It is a recycling program that collects certain recyclable items for residents. Mr. Dickerson- They recycle and share revenues and this is a renewal. They advertise on the website computer, television, etc. Whatever revenue they get will be shared with the Borough. Question from resident- Why doesn’t it say on their website who we share with? Mr. Dickerson- The company is based out of Delaware and if you have on list. You call and have to schedule a time for pickup. They recycle and give the person some money. There is typically no charge, but some items there are. Motion Ms. Razzack to approve renewal of Renew Retriever, Inc. sharing agreement. Second Ms. Oglesby. Motion carries 3-0. B. Utility Town Hall/Open House scheduled March 13th at 12:00pm and 6:00pm to review changes and to introduce single billing date option. Mr. Dickerson- I am going to go through the bill. We used to have 1 meter reader go through the entire Borough. Ms. Oglesby- Are we doing a live feed? Mr. Dickerson- I am not planning but the full interaction on Zoom isn’t the same. Ms. Oglesby- Even if Facebook live or Zoom, it would be beneficial. Mr. Dickerson- We will do a Zoom and Facebook live with only questions at the end. I feel the only way to fix 99% of the issues is a single billing. If you normally get billed, the first two weeks is to hold off until the end. This will give 6 weeks on consumption. We can do payment arrangements with anyone.  We are going to go from online payment bill, consumption and this will correct online payment. Right now, we have 8 cycles and they don’t know when they are done. If one billing, the payments will be reflective. Hopefully for next week, we can alleviate a lot of it with the meetings. I think what happened to the software developer is that they never did what we did. We constantly are running billing cycles. Question from resident- So the person making the pitch to the Borough, we didn’t even vet them? Mr. Dickerson- Maybe, but also they didn’t truly understand the turn-over of tenants. They are absolutely working with us to and the people in Utah came to us. I think they understand, but they made some faulty assumption. They thought that we have no issues from going from multi to once, but we didn’t do that although we had the info to do. 4. Old Business 5. Public Comment Question from resident- Is there a clip on microphone for Council. Mr. Krauss- There may be. Question from resident- If I am sitting in the center of the room, and the person speaking turns to the left or the right you can’t hear anything because not talking into the mic. For some reason, there are speakers on the end of the room. The people in the middle can’t hear. Anyone who walks up to the mic should have a mic on and not have this issue. Mr. Krauss- I will tell Mike and Darwin. Your only need to be 4 to 6 inches away. We can get 2 boom mics in the room to pick up the sound. David, Justin and Darwin will handle this. Meeting adjourned at 6:56