Finance Committee

123 Madison Street Village of Oak Park Oak Park, Illinois 60302 www.oak-park.us Meeting Minutes Finance Committee Monday, September 12, 2022 6:30 PM Remote 1. Call To Order Village President Scaman called the meeting to order at 6:33 P.M. She authorized a statement be read providing that the meeting is being held remotely due to COVID-19 restrictions and guidelines and that it is not prudent to have people present at the Village Board's regular meeting location due to public health concerns related to that pandemic. 2. Roll Call Trustee Enyia arrived at 6:34 P.M. Present: Village Trustees Enyia, Parakkat, and Taglia; Village President Scaman Absent: None 3. Public Comment There were no Public Comments. 4. Approval of Minutes A. ID 22-287 Minutes from the October 25, 2021 Meeting of the Finance Committee It was moved by Village Trustee Parakkat, seconded by Village Trustee Taglia, to approve the Minutes. The motion was approved. The roll call on the vote was as follows: AYES: 4 - Village President Scaman, Village Trustee Enyia, Village Trustee Parakkat, and Village Trustee Taglia NAYS: 0 ABSENT: 0 5. New Business B. ID 22-137 Review of the Recommended Five Year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) 2023-2027 for the Parking Fund (capital only), Water and Sewer Fund (capital only), Fleet Replacement Fund, Equipment Replacement Fund, Sustainability Fund (capital only), and Madison Street TIF Fund Village of Oak Park Page 1 Printed on 10/11/2022 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes September 12, 2022 Village Manager Kevin Jackson introduced the Item. Chief Financial Officer Steve Drazner gave an overview of the Capital Improvement Project (CIP) Ranking. Tammie Grossman, Director of Development Customer Services, and Sean Keane, Parking and Mobility Manager, then gave an overview of the capital needs for the village's parking structures, which is based on a study the village did to put together a 5-year capital program for the garages as they continue to need maintenance. CFO Drazner added the total amount for the parking projects for next year total around $2.8 Million; fortunately because of the ARPA Fund loss revenue transfers there is enough to fund these projects. Trustee Parakkat requested clarification on why the parking vehicle replacement and maintenance items are not covered under the fleet maintenance and replacement fund. CFO Drazner responded the enterprise funds are supposed to be run more or less like a business, so for capital projects they are budgeted within the enterprise fund and not within one of the other CIP funds. Trustee Parakkat requested clarification if the estimates for maintenance factor in any inflationary or supply chain issues. Manager Keane responded the structural engineer consultant did the 2017 study and staff found their budget estimates were on target in terms of that 5-year plan. Staff feels confident in their numbers. Trustee Parakkat requested clarification on how the village is planning for the growth of electric vehicle charging stations. Director Grossman responded the village has followed an every-other year of investing in stations, and staff is not proposing anything for 2023. Staff is recommending to use 2023 as a year to see where we are at and will be working with the Sustainability Coordinator for recommendations in 2024 as far as how many vehicle charging stations are needed. Trustee Taglia requested additional details for what is covered for the $1.4 Million parking structure maintenance program. Director Grossman will provide the Board with a memo outlining the details of the various repairs for the 3 garages over the five-year lifespan. Trustee Taglia requested clarification on if $300,000 to demolish the two bridges is worthwhile if the bridges are structurally sound. Director Grossman responded previous attempts at repairing them have not resolved the water issue. Staff needs more time looking at it with the Village of Oak Park Page 2 Printed on 10/11/2022 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes September 12, 2022 consultant. Trustee Taglia requested clarification on the garage count sign improvements. Director Grossman responded the budget item was for all the garage signs, not just the count signs. There have been some improvements made to the signs, but there are continual problems with them. Trustee Taglia requested more information on the snow melt trailer idea. Manager Keane will get more details to the Board. Trustee Buchanan requested clarification on what the proposed increase to charging stations is for the Avenue Garage. Manager Keane responded there will be an increase from two to four stations, which will be an increase from four to eight ports. Trustee Buchanan requested clarification to the reference of staff looking at the feasibility and opportunity in transitioning to EV's - she would prefer that being an absolute. Director Grossman responded that question would be best directed to Director Sproule as part of the fleet conversation. Trustee Buchanan commented they hope that an increase to the parking meter fees is being considered. Director Grossman responded in the affirmative. Trustee Robinson requested to add some explanation as to where the excess melted snow would be diverted to, and consideration to keep it away from residential areas that already have existing flooding issues. CFO Drazner then introduced the Water & Sewer Fund. Rob Sproule, Public Works Director, and Bill McKenna, Village Engineer, then gave an overview of the Water and Sewer capital projects. Trustee Buchanan requested clarification on the state of the village's water usage. Director Sproule responded he misspoke when he indicated an increase in usage; reports are showing a decrease with an importation of 2% less than last year. Most of the changes that are driving the water main replacement are associated with the age of the infrastructure and the need to replace it. Village Engineer McKenna added ensuring adequate fire flows for firefighting, looking at the conditions of the pipes, or water quality - these are what is driving the improvements in the system. Village of Oak Park Page 3 Printed on 10/11/2022 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes September 12, 2022 Trustee Buchanan requested clarification for the request for permanent generators for the fire station. Director Sproule responded the impact of climate change is the potential severity of storm events when they occur. While the village can operate with two of the three stations, it is not ideal - the intent was to look at providing permanent power at those locations in order to provide the necessary power to run all the systems in case of an emergency. Trustee Buchanan requested clarification on the $550,000 for the leak detection system and if the village would be renting the system. Director Sproule responded when they came to the Board last year, staff proposed moving forward with the purchase of half of the system, following up with the other half in 2023. After some initial conversations, they were not comfortable with moving forward with that significant of an expense based on the information they had about the value of the devices at that time. Staff is proposing a six-month pilot program where they rent the devices for evaluation. If it shows to be of value then staff would move forward with the purchase in a future year. Trustee Buchanan requested clarification if the $550,00 was in case the pilot goes well and they want to purchase the devices. Director Sproule responded in the affirmative. Trustee Taglia requested clarification on how the advanced metering item would reduce non-revenue water loss for the village. Director Sproule responded the benefit is it would allow the village to measure total usage on a daily basis, and measure it against the master meters to give an idea if there are losses in the system. Another benefit is providing the residents with information associated with their water usage and could assist them in detecting any potential leaks, as well as the potential to go to a monthly billing system if the village would like to go in that direction. Trustee Taglia requested clarification on the expected rollout of the meters. Director Sproule responded they have one on order that should arrive any day and is proposed to be placed on top of the Vantage building. There is a six month delay on the equipment, so staff will go forward with ordering the equipment which should arrive in April. Trustee Taglia commented he went to a water loss conference a few years ago where Evanston reported great success with data loggers. He questioned why staff considers them experimental. Director Sproule responded they have seen just as many communities have great success with the data loggers as those that haven't. Staff felt an appropriate approach would be to evaluate the system for six months Village of Oak Park Page 4 Printed on 10/11/2022 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes September 12, 2022 before moving forward with such a large purchase, especially given the fact that they would be able to purchase the system at a discount should it prove successful. Trustee Robinson requested clarification regarding the location of the heated sidewalks in downtown Oak Park. Village Engineer McKenna responded the heated sidewalk system is North Boulevard to Lake Street, then Westgate from Marion to the cul-de-sac. The system does not exist anywhere else - there have been failures of a couple of zones and the repair costs are prohibitive. Trustee Robinson commented some of the description for the scope was cut off. Village Engineer McKenna responded it should read to eliminate some of the blue stone at a section near the Lake Street corner. They are trying to bring that project to a lower-cost level, and focus on traditional materials that would be more inline with the core infrastructure improvement projects. Trustee Parakkat requested clarification on the drawing down of the reserves and why it is an optimal strategy. CFO Drazner responded it centers around the timing of the larger capital projects. A few projects were deferred a couple of years to try to save on our cash until the next water rate study, in an effort to build up the reserves. Village Engineer McKenna added when the water and sewer rates were set a number of years ago, that was predicated on the planned capital improvement projects, the large expense driving some of those rates was the future sewer relief project on Lombard Avenue that was originally intended to be constructed around a 2024 time frame. Construction costs have greatly outpaced what were estimated at the time; staff will be looking at the water and sewer rates again in 2024 when programming out the capital projects, and are planning on deferring some of the projects to stay with a solvent fund balance in the water and sewer fund. Trustee Parakkat requested clarification if there are any significant changes to assumptions made last year when discussing the CIP for the water and sewer fund. Village Engineer McKenna responded there were no large changes planned for 2023; the cost of doing the projects has gone up as compared to where they were last year, but the scope has stayed substantially the same. Trustee Parakkat requested clarification on the implications of the capital cost going up over the next couple of years and where the funding is for the increase. Village of Oak Park Page 5 Printed on 10/11/2022 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes September 12, 2022 Village Engineer McKenna responded the cost of construction has increased for the same level of improvements, which is what is driving the dollar amount. They anticipate some of the work being deferred to maintain a better fund balance. As far as funding sources, there are opportunities for replacing water mains and lead water services. Trustee Parakkat requested clarification on what those funding sources are. Village Engineer McKenna responded once they get a good handle on the number of lead services within the system, that will determine the timeline the village has for the state laws for replacing those services. That will then help define what future expense may be, which will help identify funding sources as certain funding sources have requirements associated with them. Director Sproule added the lead line replacement is not set to be mandated by the state until 2027. The village is currently trying to establish their inventory, and is meeting with an engineering consultant who will help the village apply for grants as they become available. CFO Drazner then introduced the Fleet Replacement Fund. Director Sproule then presented on the Fleet Replacement, with Fire Chief Kobyleski and Interim Police Chief Shatonya Johnson speaking to their respective department's vehicle replacement requests. Trustee Taglia requested clarification on if it would be possible to stagger the purchase of the two fire pump vehicles since they are both costly. Chief Kobyleski responded they should be able to stagger them but the delivery times are what is setting the schedule off. CFO Drazner then introduced the Equipment Replacement Fund. Erik Jacobsen, Interim Director of Communications, then gave an overview of the Communications Department's equipment replacement requests. Fire Chief Kobyleski then gave an overview of the Fire Department's equipment replacement request. Alvin Nepomuceno, Director of Information Technology, then gave an overview of the network infrastructure equipment replacement requests. Interim Police Chief Johnson then gave an overview of the Police Department's mobile technology equipment replacement requests. Village of Oak Park Page 6 Printed on 10/11/2022 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes September 12, 2022 Trustee Taglia requested clarification if Interim Chief Johnson had any concerns regarding pushing the record management system (RMS) request out to 2024. Interim Chief Johnson responded it is a concern, but the department also needs to work with WestCom to replace the CAD system as well. It is a long process but they want to ensure they do it right and get the right technology to meet the needs of the department. Trustee Parakkat requested clarification on the low number for the RMS system, based on BerryDunn's assessment. Interim Chief Johnson responded the number does not include the CAD system. Combined with the RMS system they are estimating approximately $2 Million. Director Sproule then gave an overview of the Customer Service Request Management System. Deputy Village Manager Lisa Shelley then gave an overview of the Lead Paint XRF Equipment request. Trustee Buchanan requested clarification if the cost for the XRF equipment was for one piece or more. Deputy Village Manager Shelley responded she was not sure, but staff would go through the bid process to ensure they are getting the lowest possible price. The meeting went into recess at 9:00 P.M. The meeting returned to session at 9:06 P.M. CFO Drazner then introduced the Sustainability Fund requests. Deputy Village Manager Ahmad Zayyad and Sustainability Coordinator Marcella Bondie Keenan then gave an overview of the Sustainability Fund requests. Trustee Taglia expressed his concern that the aggregation fund, which had previously contributed a lot of funds for sustainability, has pretty much dried up and the Board needs to focus on how these projects will be funded in the future. Trustee Robinson requested clarification if what was presented for the Sustainability Fund this evening was for the entirety of the budget, or just the capital projects. CFO Drazner responded what was presented tonight was strictly the Village of Oak Park Page 7 Printed on 10/11/2022 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes September 12, 2022 capital portion of the budget. Trustee Robinson requested clarification why there are additional feasibility studies being proposed - were these not covered under the scope of work with GRAEF? Marcella Bondie Keenan responded GRAEF's work was primarily to get a baseline of the greenhouse gas inventory, to determine the scenarios for the types of projects needed to reduce the emissions and rolling in the community engagement priorities. These additional feasibility studies are site specific and more engineering-based. Trustee Robinson requested clarification what the feasibility study grant money would cover. Marcella Bondie Keenan responded the District Energy Grant would cover the study phase and the construction phase. They are still needing to identify a funding source for the Climate Resiliency Hub but there may be hazard mitigation opportunities for that. Trustee Robinson requested clarification if grant money is received, are we able to funnel any unspent allocated money back into the fund itself to spend on other sustainability projects. Marcella Bondie Keenan responded in the affirmative. Trustee Parakkat requested clarification on how much of our energy needs will be satisfied by geothermal. Marcella Bondie Keenan responded they need to identify where there is space or what buildings they can use before they can give an answer to that. Trustee Parakkat requested clarification on where the $1.6 Million is coming from. Marcella Bondie Keenan responded that was pulled from the grant itself. They are offering up to $10 Million in grant money but it requires a 10% cost share for the deployment. The $1.6 Million is with the cost share, assuming we receive the full grant amount. Deputy Village Manager Ahmad Zayyad added they will be coming back to the Board on September 19th with more details on the particular grants that they are referring to. Trustee Parakkat requested clarification regarding the reasoning to have a micro-grid. Marcella Bondie Keenan responded similar to the emergency generator discussions earlier, this would be serving a number of community members or emergency responders in the event the power gets knocked out. It is Village of Oak Park Page 8 Printed on 10/11/2022 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes September 12, 2022 essentially a hazard planning response to things that could potentially happen in the future. It is listed as Priority B in the 2024 budget; the plan is to work with the Health Department in 2023 to identify grants and the scope of the project, and then they will have a better idea on how to go forward for the 2024 budget. Trustee Parakkat requested clarification on why the Sustainability Incubator is not listed here. Marcella Bondie Keenan responded that is in DCS's operations budget. Trustee Parakkat requested clarification on if light pollution was a high priority. Marcella Bondie Keenan responded it can be deferred depending on what approach the Board wants to take. Trustee Buchanan commented they would like to see the budget three times the size that it is, including an increase in the department's staff and the use of a marketing firm to advertise the housing retrofit program. They agree with Trustee Taglia with the need to talk about revenue to sustain this fund, and suggested an increase in vehicle sticker fees for gas powered vehicles. Village Engineer McKenna then gave an overview of the Madison Street TIF. Trustee Taglia clarified he would like more information on the economic case of purchasing the melt trailer so he can see the overall picture of the request. Village Manager Jackson thanked staff for not only following through on the routine process as it relates to capital improvements, but also working to ensure that we are making a good faith effort to integrate sustainability throughout the CIP process. Staff will be coming back to the Board in a few weeks to talk about the main capital building improvements as well as CDBG funding. 6. Adjournment It was moved by Village Trustee Taglia, seconded by Village Trustee Parakkat, to adjourn. The Motion was approved. The meeting adjourned at 9:43 P.M., Monday, September 12, 2021. Respectfully Submitted, Deputy Clerk DeViller AYES: 4 - Village President Scaman, Village Trustee Enyia, Village Trustee Parakkat, and Village Trustee Taglia Village of Oak Park Page 9 Printed on 10/11/2022 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes September 12, 2022 NAYS: 0 ABSENT: 0 Village of Oak Park Page 10 Printed on 10/11/2022