Measure P Committee Meeting

Measure P Oversight Committee Meeting Minutes June 8, 2016 The Measure P Oversight Committee Meeting was called to order by Fire Chief Tim Marrison at the hour of 5:30 p.m. at Los Banos Fire Station No. 1, 333 7th Street, Los Banos, CA. Committee Members and staff present: Mark Bodley; Arlene Cardoza; Gerry Giesel; Eric Popish; Tim Marrison, Fire Chief; Gary Brizzee, Interim City Manager; Ray Reyna, Interim Police Chief; Mason Hurley, Assistant Fire Chief; Kim Tomas, Staff Accountant and Mary Lou Gilardi, Administrative Assistant. Chief Marrison welcomed everyone and started the meeting off by explaining that Measure P is finally getting back to its original intent. We’ll address most of the changes when we go over Agenda Item II – the Measure P Staffing Modifications and then the update on the Training Tower. We have also included the 20 year Expenditure Plan because we felt it was important that the committee be able to see one of the requests that the Police Department is requesting adding an employee to Measure P – it was actually part of the original 20 year plan. Chief Marrison introduced our newest committee member, Eric Popish, to everyone present. Agenda Item I Chief Marrison introduced Kim Tomas, Staff Accountant for the City to review each of the Quarterly Reports with the Committee. Chief Marrison apologized for the extended time between meetings, but nothing had really changed – we were “status quo”. Now that Measure P is getting back to where it was originally intended, we will get back to the quarterly meetings. Kim Tomas reviewed each of the Quarterly Reports beginning with FY 14-15 4th Quarter. She pointed out the ending balances for the Police and Fire noting that Police Fund balance was $1,050,647 and the Fire Fund balance was $557,185. She reviewed the total fund balance for FY 15-16 indicating that the Police Fund was up to $1,144,580 while Fire Fund balance was slightly down to $539,314. During the FY 15-16 we were still funding 1 Officer and 1 Fire Captain. For the FY 16-17 staff is proposing to move both of those positions back into the General Fund so that the building portion of Measure P will no longer be funding those positions and allow the plan to go back to saving in the facilities funds for Police and Fire. Kim also explained in detail how the sales tax revenues are always two months behind and how true-up is done at the end of the year. If anyone has any questions, she’d be happy to answer at this time. Chief Marrison went on to explain that we had a lot of activity over the past year in responding to Out of County Strike Team Assignments. There was a lot of personnel cost above what we had anticipated for Measure P employees. However, when we did the mid-year budget review, the money that we received from the state for reimbursement went right back into the Measure P account. Kim Tomas explained that in the FY 15-16 Third Quarter Report, Misc. Revenues of $58,533 is from the Strike Team Reimbursement. She also explained that Police also had a Misc. Revenue of $12,157 which was reimbursed through a grant for the purchase of the MDC Air Cards that were previously approved by the Measure P Committee to purchase. Chief Marrison inquired whether we were seeing an increase in sales tax revenue. Kim Tomas explained that we are seeing an increase for the FY 15-16 because the “triple flip” is going away. The City’s Consultant is projecting a 2-3% increase in sales tax for the next year. That is really where we are seeing our recovery more so than on property tax side. People are spending more money, more so than buying large ticket items like homes. Agenda Item II Chief Marrison explained that the Fire Department had one person left in Measure K in the FY 15-16. We are proposing that this position go back into the General Fund in the FY 16-17. This would mean that all of the modifications that we did to Measure P with Measures A & K would be abolished. There is still 5 years left on Measure K that if something terrible happened we have the option of coming back to the Committee and request that a person be added back into Measure K. Staffing modifications for Fire and Police is all good news. It’s all going back to the original intent of Measure P prior to the recession. Interim City Manager Gary Brizzee gave a brief overview of Measure P and explained that in FY 12/13 and 13/14, we had 6 Police Officers and 2 Firefighters funded from Measure A/K. And in four fiscal years, we are able to remove all those positions back to the General Fund. That is significant to the City. That was our promise to the community when we passed Measure A/K. As soon as we could move all personnel back into the General Fund, we would. So all of the Measure P expenditures that you see in the 20 year plan are the basic gist of what we will be spending the money on in FY 16/17. Estimated revenue this next fiscal year for Measure P alone is approximately $2.2 million divided between Police and Fire. The second modification is that in year 12 of the 20 year expenditure plan, we have the addition of a police officer. With the 2 estimated revenue, we will have no problem supporting the addition of a new police officer. Gerry Giesel inquired about taking an officer out of Measure K and hiring a new officer out Measure P. City Manager Brizzee explained that with the officer coming out of Measure K and going back into the General Fund, we still have 39 sworn police officers. With the addition of the new officer in Measure P, we will have 40 sworn police officers. Chief Marrison brought up the fact that in FY16-17, with the removal of the Police Officer and the Captain from Measure K, the Facilities Fund will start accumulating again. There was discussion amongst committee members and staff regarding the whole object of Measure P. The Police Department’s highest priority when Measure P started was facilities. The Fire Department’s highest priority was personnel. To date, both Fire and Police have been able to meet most the goals of the 20 year expenditure plan. It was noted that there was no motion taken on Agenda Item I. At this point, a motion was entertained. It was moved by Mark Bodley, seconded by Eric Popish to approve the 2014/15 4 th Quarter Measure P Report and the 2015/16 1st, 2nd and 3rd Quarter Measure P Reports as submitted by staff. Motion carried unanimously. It was moved by Gerry Giesel, seconded by Mark Bodley to approve Measure P Staffing Modifications as submitted by staff, with the removal of one (1) Fire position and one (1) Police position from Measure K funding, and approving the addition of one Police Officer as allocated in year 12 of the Measure P Ordinance. Motion carried unanimously. Agenda Item III Chief Marrison explained that with Measure P monies being diverted to employees, all infrastructure came to a halt. Last year Chief Marrison requested $155,000 from Impact Fees to begin the concrete and infrastructure for construction of the Training Tower/Fueling Facility because we had received a grant from the Office of Homeland Security to purchase a large convault tank. We were willing to use Impact money to support that primarily because none of our fueling facilities for Police and Fire are currently on generator power, and secondly, it is unsafe for our officers to be fueling up in an unsecured facility. He also explained the extensive process in moving forward on this project in securing the funding from Homeland Security. Everything just happened last week and Homeland Security approved our request to fund the tank. In the meantime, we have invested in the underground with Public Works. They have been extremely busy and they just got to put in our hydrant and water supplies for the future tower. We have also purchased all of the flood lights and a lot of the electrical 3 that is going to be required. We had spent approximately $35,000 to $40,000 for all of those items out of the Impact Fees. We didn’t have enough to go out to an RFP to pour the concrete because it was going to exceed what we were left with. The project stalled while we were waiting for authorization. Now that Measure P reset, we want to go back to the original intent of Measure P – on year 3, we were set to build the training tower & infrastructure. So part of our budget proposal was for $175,000 out of our Measure P Facilities Fund to finish the infrastructure. Hopefully there will be enough money in the Facilities Fund to build the Training Tower within the next year or two. The Tower is the last thing on our 20 year plan. We have accomplished everything else that we set out to do in the 20 year plan. Hopefully within the next 3 years the tower will be built, and then a new 10 year expenditure plan will begin to be put together by the Police and Fire Chiefs. Committee Member Popish asked if the $175,000 for the infrastructure was on top of the $35,000 already spent. Chief Marrison explained that the $175,000 was additional to the $35,000. Chief Marrison explained that we thought Public Works employees were going to pour the concrete for us. Public Works has staffing issues, and are not going to be able to commit to pouring our concrete. We will need to do RFP to pour concrete. Committee Member Bodley asked for clarification on the $175,000 as he could not see it on the 20 year expenditure plan. Committee Member Giesel inquired that it will take three years to complete the tower. Chief Marrison explained that it depends on whether there is enough money in the facility portion. Committee Member Popish asked if we were leaving the tower area clear when pouring the concrete. Chief Marrison indicated that we are going to leave an area – the width of the tower plus 10 feet in all directions. So out in the middle of the concrete, there will be a hard graveled area. Lighting for training area is going up this next year. Committee Member Giesel asked the City Manager, based on the revenue projections, if it was realistic to believe that we could have enough funds to begin the construction of the tower next budget year. City Manager Brizzee explained that it’s not based on the total revenues; it is based on the amount of money that is set aside for facilities. It will be close, and the more Chief Marrison talks about it, he is thinking maybe the Police should invest in it too because maybe we could use it for training occasionally. Chief Marrison added that both departments will be investing a little bit more money than what our grant is covering for the fuel tank. We get $50,000 from Homeland Security for the tank, and he believes it’s going to cost a little bit more than that with a card lock and pumps on it as well. We’ll work together on that. 4 Agenda Item IV Chief Marrison reviewed the 20 Year Expenditure Plan. The Committee is already aware that Police will be adding an additional officer in year 12. Tim went over everything that is listed in the plan and noted that we have accomplished most everything that is listed to date. He spoke about the Technology and Vehicle Maintenance line item, and stated that we were approved Measure P money last year in the amount of $35,000 +/- to replace the computers in our fire apparatus. Police Department has already replaced their computers. We put money in this year’s budget to replace them. In the meantime, we applied for a grant through the Assistance to Firefighters Grant in the amount that we would need to replace all of our laptops, and we haven’t been told whether or not we have been successful in that grant yet. Some of the money in this year’s budget was spent on licenses, etc. If we find that we were not successful with the grant, then our next Measure P Meeting, we will probably approach you and say that we’d like to use the funds like they were originally designed to be used for to upgrade our laptops in our fire trucks. If everything continues in the direction that we think it will, then Chief Marrison and Chief Brizzee will need to sit down next year and put together another 10 year expenditure plan. Agenda Item V Committee Member Reports: Committee Member Bodley stated that he is glad we’re back to the original plan with Measure P. We need a new police station. City Manager Brizzee talked about the new courthouse on “G” Street and advised that just to the west of that property, there is an “L” shape portion (6 acres); the original design when we gave up the plan for the Mercey Springs property, this was our secondary site. We are currently in negotiations with the County of Merced to split the six (6) acres with County and move all services from courthouse (DA’s office, probation, public defender, court clerk’s office, etc) and move to a new facility next to us and the courthouse. The ultimate design has always been a “campus” setting where you can go from the Police Department to the courthouse to the DA’s office. Committee Member Popish asked if the 3 acres would be sufficient. Brizzee replied that the current size of our police station and annex is approximately one (1) acre. So this would be a significant increase in size. Committee Member Popish advised that he is absorbing all of this for the first time. As most of you know, he was a volunteer fireman for 20 years here, and we’ve discussed the training facility at length. He’s looking forward to seeing that. 5 Chief Marrison advised that if there are any questions you may have that Brizzee and he can’t answer, Kim Tomas at City Hall would be more than happy to help you. Committee Member Giesel indicated that it has been a year since the last meeting. He would like a Quarterly Report sent out to the committee even if you’re not going to have a meeting so that it can be reviewed. One year is way too long. If everything is going good, send out the reports when they are ready and keep the committee apprised. Chief Marrison agreed with Committee Member Giesel and apologized. Marrison believed that things were status quo so there is nothing new so we put Measure P off to the side. Hopefully every six months at a minimum. City Manager Brizzee apologized as well. Committee Member Cardoza reiterated one year is too long to go without a meeting, but she is glad seeing Measure P getting back to where it was supposed to be. Agenda Item VI Chief Marrison indicated we are experiencing some growth for the first time in 5-7 years. We are issuing about 200 permits a year. There is also an increase in commercial building as well. We’re hoping that we’ve turned the corner and all impact fees, property taxes, sales tax continue to improve. We need the manpower. We have a few employees with injuries right now, and we had to tell the County Chiefs that we can’t send any of our “red” fire trucks out on strike team assignment this year until we get at least one of our guys healthy again. We’ll have to send the yellow one out if called, but we aren’t going to be able to send any of our engines. Station No. 3 is becoming more of an issue on a daily basis. Because we have multiple apparatus tied up on incidents, we are not being able to meet the ISO rating for response times. We are experiencing elevated response times to the South and East end of town. Chief Marrison gave statistics regarding the delayed responses due to multiple incidents. The delays are from Cresthills down to where the future Pioneer corridor goes toward Ward Road; College Greens; Gilbert Gonzales Apartments; Avalon Retirement area. ISO came out a few months ago and did an evaluation on our delayed responses, and their suggestion is somewhere behind Home Depot. Chief Marrison wants to keep it closer to the Pioneer corridor near Place Road. Interim City Manager Brizzee introduced Commander Ray Reyna who is the Interim Police Chief. Interim Police Chief Ray Reyna advised the committee that the Police Department is very busy. Gary is expected to come back in about a month. We’ve touched on the new facility, which I get asked about all the time. Like the Fire Department, we also have staffing issues and equipment needs. Reyna is excited about the new fueling facility. He indicated it’s been a long time coming, and Chief Marrison has done the majority of the work on this project. 6 Asst. Fire Chief Mason Hurley is excited about where we go from here. He is looking forward to being more involved in planning and working with all of the committee members in the future. Staff Accountant Kim Tomas stated that she is available for any questions. You can contact her at City Hall. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 6:27 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Tim Marrison Fire Chief Measure P Min160608.doc 7