City Council

MANISTEE CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION AGENDA Tuesday, April 28, 2020 - 7:00 p.m. – Virtual Meeting Good evening. Today is Tuesday April 28, 2020. I’m Heather Pefley, Clerk for the City of Manistee. The City Council’s April 28, 2020, Work Session, is being conducted remotely; where all members of the City Council are in separate locations and not at the City Hall Council Chambers; will be called to order by Mayor Roger Zielinski shortly. As always, this meeting is being recorded and will be broadcast on Manistee TV Cable Channels 189/190 and available at manisteetv.org. There will be no video associated with this meeting, solely audio. The reason for this is projecting video through Zoom sometimes causes a delay which makes communication in this scenario difficult and awkward. In just a moment, we will start individually unmuting the microphones of each member of the City Council, the City Manager, and the City Attorney. We are unmuting them individually to make sure there is no disruptive audio feedback coming from each of them; doing so individually allows us to easily identify the source of any disruptive audio issues. Finance Director Ed Bradford is assisting me with this meeting, and you may hear his voice if we have an issue that requires his assistance. The microphones of all members of the City Council, the City Manager, City Attorney, and City Clerk will always be live unless there is an audio disruption. I will now begin to unmute and check each microphone that will be live during the meeting. The City Clerk will now activate microphones one by one; and individually call on each City Council Member, City Attorney and City Manager to confirm they can hear and be heard. Once complete, the Clerk will continue reading below. As a reminder Councilmembers, please clearly state your name before speaking. Now that activating the microphones is complete, Mayor Roger Zielinski will call the meeting to order and will share some additional information about how this meeting, and likely City Council meetings for the foreseeable future, will be conducted. Mayor Zielinski, we are ready to proceed with the meeting. I. Call to Order. Meeting Comments As an important step in preventing the spread of the COVID-19 virus, our Governor, Gretchen Whitmer, issued an Executive Order authorizing public boards in Michigan to conduct their meetings remotely. This is a critical step to help stop the spread. All aspects of how this meeting is being run is in compliance with the Open Meetings Act, as modified by the Executive Order, and has been reviewed by the City Attorney. The City of Manistee is taking various steps to do our part during this pandemic, and this is one of them. We need to keep members of the public, our City Council and City Staff healthy. Therefore, no members of the public, City Council or City Staff are present in the Council Chambers. We will now begin the work session. II. Work Session Items. a.) PUBLIC COMMENTS ON WORK SESSION RELATED ITEMS. All individuals attending the virtual work session wait in a virtual waiting room, with their microphones muted. When it comes time for public comment, each person waiting in the virtual waiting room will be called individually by the City Clerk by the last four digits of their telephone number. Individuals will be asked if they have a comment or if they are passing. It is very important that those giving comment have a good phone connection and no sound or noise whatsoever in the background (televisions and all forms of audio should be muted); otherwise, there will be disruptive audio. If the issue cannot be corrected by the caller, we will move on to the next person in line. Please be aware for those calling that when they first call in, their full telephone number may be visible for a period of time on the recording, although we will work quickly to alter what’s displayed so that it is just the last four digits of your telephone number. We will now take public comments. The work session discussion topic, for those that do not have an agenda is: • DISCUSSION ON FISCAL YEAR 2020-2021 BUDGET AND CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN The City Clerk will now take over and accept Public Comments on the work session agenda item. The City Clerk will unmute and call on each person who has called into the meeting by the last four digits of their phone number; and ask if they would like to comment on agenda items. Once complete, they will turn the meeting back over to the Mayor. b.) DISCUSSION ON FISCAL YEAR 2020-2021 BUDGET AND CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN. – City Manager Thad N. Taylor and Finance Director Ed Bradford. Councilmembers, please clearly state your name before speaking. c.) OTHER. III. Adjourn. TNT:km  Administrative Services Clerk | Finance | Treasury | IT | Assessing | Facilities | Ramsdell Memo to: Thad Taylor, City Manager From: Edward Bradford, CFO Re: FY 2021 Budget Adjustments Date: April 24, 2020 Thad, After the budget work session on April 21, 2020, the consensus of Council was to add back the unfilled police officer position and restore funding for Alternatives for Area Youth into the budget. The estimated cost of these additions is around $85,000 in the first year. You directed department heads to review their budgets and identify areas that could be reduced in order to restore this funding. Administration met earlier this week to discuss the reductions and arrive at a plan to fund these additions. The adjustments are summarized below. These cuts total 4% of all departmental operating budgets (excluding wages & benefits). Department Reduction Description Legislative -700 Reduce operating supplies and travel & training. Manager -650 Reduce operating supplies and travel & training. Finance -2,090 Reduce printing and publishing, eliminate equipment repairs and eliminate a schedule copier replacement (leased). Clerk -1,000 Eliminate equipment repairs and reduce travel & training. Elections 0 No viable reductions identified. Assessor 0 No viable reductions identified. Board of Review -700 Reduce reimbursement and travel & training. City Hall -2,500 Reduce operating supplies, equipment maintenance and capital outlay. General -3,500 Reduce attorney budget for tax appeals and litigation and reduce computer\network hardware. Planning & Zoning 0 No viable reductions identified. Police -22,050 Reduce Motor Pool rent (and defer replacing detective vehicle one year), reduce travel & training, reduce overtime, Soul of the Water. Spirit of the Woods.  eliminate purchasing exterior vest covers and eliminate education reimbursement. Fire -9,000 Reduce Motor Pool rent, reduce travel & training, reduce fire prevention supplies and reduce uniform expense. DPW -11,750 Reduce safety training, reduce Motor Pool rent, reduce travel & training, reduce\defer building maintenance and defer replacing US31 Christmas decorations. Parks -500 Reduce Motor Pool rent. Appropriations -30,200 Eliminate Housing North proposed contribution, cut all other Appropriations 10% across the board. Debt Service No viable reductions identified. Total 84,640 Soul of the Water. Spirit of the Woods.