City Council

MANISTEE CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION MINUTES OF APRIL 11, 2017 The Manistee City Council met in a work session on Tuesday, April 11, 2017 at 7: 00 p. m., Council Chambers, City Hall, 70 Maple Street, Manistee, Michigan 49660. MEMBERS PRESENT: Dale Cooper, Lynda Beaton, Roger Zielinski, Robert Goodspeed, James Smith, Mark Wittlieff, Erin Pontiac MEMBERS ABSENT: None ALSO PRESENT: City Manager, Department Directors, Staff, Public Public Comments. None received. Discussion on Fiscal Year 2017-2018 Budget and Capital Improvement Plan. Staff made opening comments and responded to various questions by Council. Areas of discussion included: Strategic Plan/ Economic Development & Jobs— how to quantify it; AES needs to give Council more information; want to be more involved in the process; feel we pay twice for AES, no added value for the additional amount the City pays; economic development is measured in a number of ways, how do you quantify those kind of contacts; suggested they do an exit interview with businesses as to why a business came to Manistee or not; ask them what we would lose if they only received half of the appropriation. Appropriation Cuts/ AAY— opportunity to possibly partner with the Armory Youth Project; 211 — no additional benefit received over what is offered to the county; MRA — county organization, we give a lot more than the county does; Museum — cut would be a 14% decrease inour funding, 3% overall, this may hurt them, they do a lot for us; PEG — proposed to eliminate entirely and have our own camera system which would allow live streaming of any meeting held in the Council chambers, other units of government pay some, careful of what we give up, may cause the function to cease; Ramsdell—fund balance was questioned, shouldn' t appropriate more money if they have a lot of fund balance, it is a City facility— money is used to further support facility improvement, would like to see them give up$ 10, 000. Marina— would like to see cost reduced; could cut administrative cost, minimize staffing, but we have to service the debt; more positive projection this year in terms of fishing, boating, etc.; State dictates rates and how many seasonal vs transient slips available; need to step up the marketing. Budget Issues/ General Fund ( pg. 15(— anything we can do now to address the issues; personnel attrition + addition of 2 FTE at no cost due to MDOT bridge funding; fleet Council Work Session- April 11, 2017 Page 1  maintenance software helping. Local Streets— asked how we can get Quincy Street on the list for improvement, needs to be reconstructed to address sanitary sewer failures, drainage issues; other northside streets will be addressed first. Parks Commission— why the increase of$ 300, not needed. Motor Pool— how is it determined how much each department pays back to the motor pool; why finance vs paying cash for new equipment; to make it self-sufficient would have impacts on other budgets; would like to know exactly what the operating cost is for a department, including new purchases and maintenance; wonders how one person/ mechanic keeps all of the vehicles running. Twelfth Street Sewer — between Ramsdell and Kosciusko Street, is this included in the budget. Fifth Avenue Puddling— in long-term Capital Improvement Plan. ALS Revenue— asked that the revenue ($ 290, 000) be included on the departmental page; can add it to the narrative. MERS& Health Insurance— any way to cut costs, 19% increase proposed in this budget; currently looking at health care options; limited by the State how much we can spend on health care ( hard capped); MERS has the fully funded increase in this budget as recommended by MERS; have made adjustments in the plans and lowered multipliers; no retiree health insurance liability. Capital Improvement— no grants received this year; some are included in the Streets; need grant matching funds and eligible projects; we are actively looking for grants; extra monies are going into the streets right now. CONSENSUS: No changes to budget as presented. A public hearing on the budget will be conducted at the April 18, 2017 meeting; with an additional work session on the budget following the regular meeting that evening. Meeting adjourned at 8: 55 p. m. Michelle Wright MMC/ A, MiCPT City Clerk/ Chief Deputy Treasurer Council Work Session - April 11, 2017 Page 2