City Council Committee Agendas

Mount Vernon Finance Committee Parks & Enrichment Services Committee Minutes August 24, 2022 Councilmember Hudson called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. Present: Councilmembers – Beaton, Brocksmith, Carías, Hudson, Hulst, Molenaar, and Morales 1. Meeting minutes from July 27, 2022, were approved. 2. Finance – Doug Volesky a. Library Commons Project Update – Mayor Boudreau i. The Mayor and staff gave an update on the bid results of the Library Commons Project as well as the low bidder. ii. Dave Jobs from OAC discussed the results and the current bid environment. iii. Mayor Boudreau then updated Council on new projected total cost of $52.7M, which is down from $53.3M and discussed potential shortfall in funding. The project is 89% funded at this point. iv. Doug presented revenue projections and possible funding sources for any shortfall. v. Council was then asked whether they are ready to award the bid. b. S&P Global Rating i. The City received great news that it is rated AA/Stable from S&P Global Ratings. Doug reviewed the S&P report and discussed the next steps for the Fire Stations 2&3 Remodel projects bonds which will be going out in the amount of $12.M on August 30th. These bonds will be paid using GEMT revenues. c. Utility Billing-Late Fees/Liens Since the onset of COVID-19, the City is still not applying any late fees or processing any new liens to City utility bills. The City would like to start applying these fees and new liens on the January 2023 invoices. The City does not see an increase in late payments or accounts going to liens. Doug also discussed the amount of late fee charges which is currently 0.67%. i. Councilmember Morales requested additional information about the number of current late accounts and how we compare to pre-pandemic numbers. d. 2023 Budget i. Doug went over the City’s current fiscal policies, which are reviewed by Council every year during the budget cycle. ii. Lastly, Doug asked for any Council discussion on any budget ideas or topics that they would like to address that the City should consider before the preliminary budget is presented. 1. Councilmember Hulst asked to consider an Incident Command Vehicle in the budget for the Fire and Police Department.  2. Councilmember Beaton suggested that we consider moving the YMCA budget from the Parks fund to the Council budget. 3. Miscellaneous, for the good of the order a. Special Projects Manager Donovan discussed a Housing Authority CHIP funding solution in which the City refunds the Housing Authority’s sewer connection fee so that the State Dept of Commerce can grant Skagit County the hook up fee amount, allowing the County to pay the hook-up fee to the City on Housing Authority’s behalf. b. Mr. Donovan also made a final recommendation to Council for the HB1406 grant allocation. The meeting was adjourned at 6:54 p.m. Submitted by: Doug Volesky Doug Volesky