City Council

City of Marco Island Florida 51 Bald Eagle Drive Marco Island, Florida cityofmarcoisland.com Meeting Minutes - Final Monday, July 15, 2019 9:00 AM BUDGET WORKSHOP - PART III Community Meeting Room City Council Chair: Erik Brechnitz Vice-Chair: Victor Rios City Council: Jared Grifoni, Larry Honig, Howard Reed, Charlette Roman and Sam Young City Manager: Michael McNees City Attorney: Alan L. Gabriel City Clerk: Laura Litzan City Council Meeting Minutes - Final July 15, 2019 1. Call to Order Chair Brechnitz called the meeting to order at 9:00 A.M. 2. Roll Call Present: 7- Councilor Reed, Councilor Honig, Chair Brechnitz, Councilor Young, Councilor Roman, Councilor Grifoni and Vice-Chair Rios Also Present: Interim City Manager David Harden Laura Litzan, City Clerk Guillermo Polanco, Finance Director Mike Murphy, Fire Chief Dave Batiato, Deputy Fire Chief Dave Baer, Acting Police Chief Zach Simpson, Budget Analyst Tim Pinter, Public Works Director Jeff Poteet, Water and Sewer General Manager Justin Martin, Water and Sewer Senior Project Manager Daniel Smith, Community Affairs Director Raul Perez, Chief Building Official Lina Upham, Purchasing and Risk Manager Jordan Turek, Director of Information Technology Chris Byrne, Emergency Management Recovery Coordinator Lisa Smith, Recording Specialist Citizens and Visitors 3. Business ID 19-392 City of Marco Island Budget Workshop - Part lII (Editorial History: The City Council has held previous workshops on the Capital Improvement Program in May and the Operating budget in June. Based on the direction received from Council at these two (2) work sessions the following action was taken and changes made: 1. All revenue estimates were reviewed. Those which were considered overly conservative were increased. 2. A second series of meetings was held with all department heads to review their budget requests. Subsequently a third review was done of all expenditure requests and reductions were made throughout the budget where it was considered prudent to do so. In addition, a position in IT is being held open for six months and it is assumed that, on average, one Police Officer position will be vacant all year. 3. After these two steps, adjustments were made in the budgets previously presented to Council, all with keeping the millage at the roll back rate: a. $120,000 from the Available Balance in Fleet replacement funds was allocated for purchase of the Hydraulic Excavator (small tracked backhoe) for Public Works b. $130,000 for Fuel Supply Tanks was funded by increasing the transfer from the General Fund to the CIP. c. $38,000 for repaving the walking path in Leigh Plummer Park was funded by increasing the transfer from the General Fund to the CIP. d. The Legal budget was increased to a more realistic $400,000 ($385,000 in the General Fund and $15,000 in the Water & Sewer Fund). e. The existing water quality testing protocol was increased to $36,000 to increase testing from 12 sites quarterly to 14 sites monthly. City of Marco Island Florida Page 1 City Council Meeting Minutes - Final July 15, 2019 f. $100,000 was added for a new water quality testing protocol to identify the primary sources of nitrogen and phosphorus entering the canals. g. $100,000 was added to begin a program for reshaping swales and raising storm sewer inlets in swales. h. $73,000 was added to Growth Management to fund an additional Planner I or Planning/Zoning technician in order to expedite issuance of building permits. i. $90,210 was added to create a position of Fleet/Facilities/Emergency Manager j. $5,000 was put into the Growth Management budget for the Borrowing Owl Incentive Program plus a number of smaller additions made in response to requests from department heads and advisory committees as detailed on the attached request summaries Also attached you will find updated summaries of expenses and revenues, along with the forms from the Property Appraiser which needed to be completed and approved in the Council meeting Monday evening to establish the proposed millage. This proposed millage will then be used to notify each property owner in the City what their proposed taxes are for this year. Bear in mind that the reduction in the Communications Service Tax rate is reducing taxes on our residents by $298,000 for Fiscal 2020. With this in mind, I recommend increasing the property tax by 0.007 above the rollback rate in order to fund updating the Comprehensive Plan. Additional funding could also be provided from this source for tree replacement, as recommended by the Beautification Advisory Committee, and for Swale and Storm Water Inlet improvements as requested by staff and recommended by the Waterways Advisory Committee.) Interim City Manager David Harden advised that the Financial Policy Statement that was issued in 2016 has been added for Council's review and comments. Finance Director Guillermo Polanco clarified the policy was put into place in 2002. Former City Manager Roger Hernstadt removed them from the budget process and placed them in the administrative policy book in 2012. It was determined Councilors will forward their suggestions regarding the Financial Policy Statement and Investment Policy Statement to Mr. Polanco to discuss as a separate agenda item for a future meeting. Mr. Harden provided the millage calculations; roll back rate is 1.8057, current rate is 1.8492 and the revenue difference between the two (2) rates is approximately $450,000. He noted that if Council is willing to go above rollback, then they can fund some of the additional requests but he does not believe they can be funded by staying at the roll back rate. Councilors engaged in discussions on the millage rate and the Committee's budget requests. Following discussions, Mr. Harden will take Council's comments and forward a revision of the budget for the August City Council meeting, including a recommendation on how to spend any additional revenue. 4. Public Comment Mr. Lee Rubenstein, American Legion 404 Commander and Chair of Fundraising Committee for Veteran's Memorial at Veteran's Community Park, spoke about the Veterans Community Park and is asking the City to help maintain the Veterans Memorial in a first class condition. Mr. Rick Woodworth, 908 North Barfield Drive, Waterways Advisory Committee Chair, supports the budget as presented and hopes there are additional funds available to meet the needs of the City. Ms. Maria Lamb, 1565 Ludlow Road, Beach and Coastal Resources Advisory Committee Chair, is asking Council to hire a full time Environmental Specialist for the beaches, wildlife and water issues to report to the City Manager and Code Enforcement patrol dedicated to the beaches and provided statistics. Mr. Andrew Kirlin, Beautification Advisory Committee Chair, noted the importance of trees for the island and is asking for a policy change to start replacing trees as removed and hopes Council supports the committee's three (3) year replacement plan, community presentation and edible food garden requests currently not funded in the proposed budget. City of Marco Island Florida Page 2 City Council Meeting Minutes - Final July 15, 2019 5. Adjournment There being no further business to come before City Council, the meeting adjourned at 11:35 A.M. ___________________________ Eric Brechnitz, Council Chairman ATTEST: _________________________________________ Laura Litzan, City Clerk PREPARED BY: ________________________________________ Lisa Smith, Recording Specialist City of Marco Island Florida Page 3