City Council Committee Agendas

Mount Vernon Public Safety Meeting October 4, 2017 Minutes Attendees Present: Mayor Boudreau Councilmembers: Fiedler, Hudson, Hulst, Lindquist, Molenaar, Quam, and Ragan Staff Members: Chief Brice, Chief Dodd, Doug Volesky, Isaac Huffman, Peter Donovan, Kevin Rogerson, Kandy Bartlett, Mike Love, Kim Kleppe, Rebecca Lowell, Bill King, Alan Danforth, and Steve Riggs Approval of Minutes Councilmember Hulst requested that the September 6, 2017 minutes be corrected changing “Commissioner(s)” to Councilmember. Minutes were approved pending this change. POLICE Erin VonFempe, Community Outreach Coordinator, was introduced by Chief Dodd and proceeded to give an update on her work to date. She has made contacts with 121 people during the past few months. Of those 23 have substance abuse issues, 19 may have mental health issues and 28 have both. One of her focuses is helping these individuals obtain the services that they may need. Erin is working closely with Skagit Community Action Agency and building relationships with other mental and physical health providers. The time spent creating networks enables her to direct people to the appropriate source for help. Availability of staff at some of these locations is a challenge when it comes to getting people into services. She is working on establishing a set time when she can direct people to services. People are often ending up homeless because they have left a home and have found that they no longer have the financial resources to move elsewhere. Erin gave examples of some of the people that she has had contact with and the treatments path that hit roadblocks or had successes. FIRE Chief Brice came forward to talk about community outreach and fire response data as well as department goals. Public Safety Education- Fire prevention week is the week of October 8, this is the second week of October, historically coinciding with the Chicago Fire. Some of the Fire Departments upcoming community outreach activities include, an Open House at Station 3 on October 14, Fire Fighters will read stories at the Library October 10, and on October 21 there will be a Community Disaster & Emergency Preparedness activity. Chief Brice gave an over view of the composition of calls from the various stations. The majority of calls are medical related at approximately 65% and actual responses to a fire is only 6 to 7% of the calls. Station responses are fairly even for the 3 stations. Goals & Achievements: Technology implementation Training standards met Increase outside agency collaboration. Community Awareness – increasing their presence at community events. Equipment maintenance and replacement- assessing life expectancy and replacement schedules of various pieces of equipment. FINANCE  Mayor Boudreau presented the 2018 Preliminary Budget to Council. The 2018 preliminary budget was created with the following priorities: It is mission driven with an emphasis on efficiency in traditional services. It follows financial policies for continued transparency and adherence with legal requirements and it utilizes the strategic goals that were adopted June 24, 2015 as the guidelines for funding. Public Works Committee Minutes October 12, 2017 Page 2 of 2  Doug reviewed the preliminary budget with the following highlights: The budget process: this was created by working with the various departments and establishing how they are meeting the mission and goals of Council and Mayor. The 2018 preliminary budget is $59.3 million which is an increase of $4,199,125 or 7.6% over the 2017 budget. The governmental operating budget is $30,199,208 which is an increase of $1,531,024 or 5.3%. The estimated fund balance at December 31, 2018 will be $3,769,934.  The revenue projections for 2018 do not adequately meet the expenditure needs, this shortfall is $350,000. This budget does not include any increase in property tax accept for new construction of $127,752 and presumes that there will be a 7.4% growth in sales tax of $440,000 from the 2017 budget. The budget has a full one-year funding of Equipment Replacement Reserve, new Full Time staff positions for a Police Officer, Fire Inspector/Educator, and GIS manager. Other staff changes are the request to move the following positions from part time to full time: CWP assistant supervisor, IS technician and Code Enforcement Officer.  Other changes include charges for services that the City pays: Skagit 911 service increased $32,410. Public defense increased $50,325. Department of Emergency Management decreased $21,651. Employee healthcare insurance increased 14%. The Mayor has been notified by the Skagit County Sheriff that there is a possible increase in Jail Medical that could be high, but not yet known and was not included in this budget. Meeting the current needs of this growing community with current revenues is becoming increasingly difficult.  Doug then reviewed the various department submissions highlighting their goals and accomplishments and pointing out that the operations and capital portions of these budgets are the areas that could be examined for possible changes. The labor portion of the 2018 budget is $819,000 of the $1.4 million increase in government operations.  Major considerations for revenue could include a property tax increase, some potential one time increases in sales tax associated with larger construction projects and the Main Street Fairness act which will send sales tax from on-line sales to the product destination. He emphasized that fund balances and reserve goals should be met as well as reviewing and possible resetting rates for services. Council could ask the public to vote on a bond for a new Fire Station 1. **The meeting was adjourned for a 10-minute break at 7:35 p.m. **The meeting was reconvened at 7:45 p.m. A Property Tax discussion ensued. The current property tax levy is 2.70%, the Council sets the dollar amount that is requested and the calculation for that rate is based on the assessed value. The City has banked property tax capacity of $867,624. The allowed 1% tax increase is $81,592. The last time the City Council took a property tax increase was 2004 demonstrating the Council’s desire for caution and fiscal conservativeness. A $300,000 value home would pay less in 2018 by $25.79 even if fully funding the requests of the departments, this does not include the reduction in property tax that homeowners will see due to the payoff of the UTGO and LTGO bond levies. Budget discussions will continue at the October 11 and 18, 2017 Committee meetings. On October 25th the City will hold a public hearing on revenues and City Council will be asked to consider setting the 2018 property tax levy amount. Adjourned at 7:55 p.m. Rebecca Wade Submitted by Rebecca Wade