Measure P Committee Meeting

CITY OF LOS BANOS MEASURE P COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES November 12, 2020 ACTION MINUTES – These minutes are prepared to depict action taken for agenda items presented to the Measure P Committee. For greater detail of this meeting refer to the electronic media (cd and/or audio) kept as a permanent record. CALL TO ORDER: Fire Chief Hurley called the Measure P Committee Meeting to order at the hour of 5:57 p.m. from the Los Banos Fire Station No. 1, 333 7th Street, Los Banos, CA via GoToMeeting.com PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Police Chief Brizzee led the pledge of allegiance. ROLL CALL – MEMBERS OF THE MEASURE P COMMITTEE PRESENT: Oversight Committee Members DJ Barcellos, Mark Bodley, Tim McNally, Richard Stewart, Absent: Gerald Giesel, Tom Neeb and Diana Thurston. STAFF MEMBERS PRESENT: Fire Chief Hurley, Police Chief Brizzee, Finance Director Williams, Assistant Fire Chief Strauch, Administrative Coordinator Gilardi. PUBLIC FORUM: MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC MAY ADDRESS THE MEASURE P COMMITTEE MEMBERS ON ANY ITEM OF PUBLIC INTEREST THAT IS WITHIN THE JURISDICTION OF THE COMMITTEE; INCLUDES AGENDA AND NON- AGENDA ITEMS. NO ACTION WILL BE TAKEN ON NON-AGENDA ITEMS. SPEAKERS ARE LIMITED TO A FIVE (5) MINUTE PRESENTATION. No one came forward to speak and the public forum was closed. REVIEW OF FISCAL YEAR 2018/2019 FINAL FOURTH QUARTER MEASURE P REPORT AND FISCAL YEAR 2019/2020 FIRST, SECOND AND THIRD QUARTER MEASURE P REPORTS. City Finance Director Williams presented the staff report. She explained that the 4th quarter revenues for 18/19 came in higher than expected for both Police and Fire Departments. Revenues were slightly higher due to the final interest earnings in the last quarter of the fiscal year along with a slight increase in overall revenues. Overall, Police and Fire were under budget for expenditures and revenues exceeded our budgeted numbers. Director Williams then reviewed the First Quarter Measure P Report. She explained that revenues for Police and Fire are slightly lower – at 10% for each. This mainly has to do with the fact that the State lags 2 months behind. Since this is the first quarter, revenues would only include one payment of sales tax revenues. We should expect expenditures to be near 25% at the end of the first quarter. As you can see, Police Department appears to be right on track with their expenditures. Fire appears to be under their expenditures but that is due to the fact that the training tower costs will be expended in future quarters. Director Williams reviewed the Second Quarter Measure P Report and explained that the revenues came in a little low and that’s just because the timing of sales tax. Expenditures appear to be on track near the 50% mark for Police Department and at 29% for Fire, again because the training tower project. Williams also reviewed the Third Quarter Measure P Report and explained that revenues are right at 69% for both Fire and Police with expenditures at 66% for Police and 42% for Fire, again because of the training tower project. Although there is no Fourth Quarter Report at this time, Finance Director Williams was able to share some information with the Oversight Committee indicating that we were over in our revenues by a few hundred thousand dollars. In the Fourth Quarter, Fire Department did purchase the training tower, but the installation will be installed in the 20/21 Fiscal Year. There was a question asked about what could have caused the revenue increase. Director Williams advised that new businesses came to town – gas stations, Marshalls and Ross. Another question was asked regarding the cost of strike teams, and whether we are reimbursed in full to cover the entire City’s cost. Director Williams replied that we are reimbursed for the strike teams themselves as well as covering the backfill for those individuals working at our Stations. It was mentioned by one of the Committee Members that the tax revenues might have increased due to the fact that everyone was on a “stay at home” order, and people were purchasing most of their necessities in town. Director Williams indicated that generally we would see that, but we do have an offset as well because many of the businesses were being closed as well. There was a question regarding on-line ordering and sales tax. Sonya explained that we do not have an analysis of sales tax from on-line companies, like Amazon, etc., but we do get sales tax based on where the items are shipped. There is differential in sales tax based on other delivery/drive up ordering such as Walmart/Target, etc. If you do drive up purchasing, that sales tax goes into a pool in the county and gets distributed amongst all the cities in that county. Motion by Bodley, seconded by McNally to approve the 2018/19 Final Fourth Quarter Financial Report and 2019-20 First, Second and Third Quarter Financial Reports as submitted by staff. The motion carried by the affirmative action of all Committee Members present. 2 REVIEW OF NEW POLICE DEPARTMENT FACILITY FUNDING PLAN. Director Sonya Williams reviewed the Funding Plan for the new Police Department. She explained current station built in 1969; the Annex was purchased in 1999. There have been prior attempts to build a new Police Department in 1999 and 2008. Previous attempts were unsuccessful due to funding not being available and then the recession that hit us in 2008. She reviewed the presentation that was taken to City Council on October 21st with the funding plan. Council ended up adopting a mix of Internal Financing as well as External Financing to construct the new facility. We have $10,000,000 from internal funding and will secure external funding in the sum of $14,000,000 to complete the project. Projected timeline to begin approximately November 2020-January 2021 with projected closeout to be around March 2023. Police Chief Brizzee followed up with a few more details regarding the process for constructing the new Police Department Facility. Police Department is very excited to put together the campus complex idea to have their facility close to the courthouse along with Public Defender’s Office, etc. UPDATE NEW FIRE DEPARTMENT TRAINING TOWER PROJECT. Asst. Chief Strauch reviewed the Training Tower Project. He advised that this will be a four-story training tower with the ability to repel, do fire training inside, ladder training, etc. . . . The Tower is approximately 22’ x 46’ long x 46.5’ tall. Earlier this month, we had a site visit for all contractors interested in bidding the project; Nov. 11th – we had questions from the contractors that were here. All bids should be received by November 17th so that by the end of the month we can recommend to Council who should be awarded the bid. Hoping to award in December 2020. Construction should begin in January 2021 with 60-70 days to construct the project. STAFF MEMBER REPORTS: FIRE CHIEF HURLEY: Chief Hurley advised that the Fire Department has been very busy this year. Calls are up – we are currently just over 2,400 calls for service this year; the new Engine will be delivered tomorrow – which includes a state of the art clean cab; and this engine will run out of Station #2. We have started replacing our outdated SCBAs - the first found of SCBAs have been put into service. During Covid, business inspections stopped, trainings and classes were also stopped in order to keep our exposure down and keep our staff safe. Strike Teams have been extremely busy. We responded on five different strike teams to date this year. The Creek Fire had two engines assigned for over a 21 day period. 3 POLICE CHIEF BRIZZEE: Chief Brizzee advised that the Police Department is doing fair to good. Staffing remains a tough spot, but it is looking up. We have 48 authorized police officers budgeted, and we are down to 5 openings. We’ve sworn in 4 new officers earlier this month and currently have 7 officers in training. Crime is up, especially the violent crimes. We have had 8 homicides to date this year. Predominantly we are facing gang issues. It is very tough to deal with gang issues as nobody wants to talk to us. In addition, the Department is very excited about the new Police Department and are looking forward to the new facility being completed. MEASURE P COMMITTEE MEMBER REPORTS: DJ BARCELLOS: Committee Member Barcellos said it’s good to see the new Police Department in process as well as the new Fire Department Training Tower. The community is finally going to see the many years of hard work for these two projects. Happy Holidays and everyone be safe! MARK BODLEY: Committee Member Bodley is extremely pleased that the new Police Department and Fire Dept. Training Tower are nearly here. He remdinded everyone to wear your mask and stay safe! TIM McNALLY: Committee Member McNally thanked Chief Brizzee for taking the time out of his busy schedule to come and talk with his Economic students. They really appreciate it. . RICHARD STEWART: Committee Member Stewart is glad to hear the news about the Fire Dept Training Tower as well as the new Police Department. He also looks forward to continuing to work with the Police Department as their Chaplain. ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business, Fire Chief Hurley adjourned the meeting at 6:50 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Mary Lou Gilardi Administrative Coordinator Measure P Min201112.doc 4