City Council

CITY OF SARATOGA SPRINGS CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP CITY COUNCIL ROOM THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2003 2:00 P.M PRESENT : Commissioner Thomas Curley, DPS Kenneth Klotz, Mayor Commissioner Michael Lenz, Finance Commissioner Thomas McTygue, DPW Commissioner Stephen E. Towne, Accounts ALSO PRESENT : Phil Klein, Supervisor STAFF PRESENT : Joanne Carlow, DPW Erin Dreyer, Deputy Commissioner, DPS Christine Gillmett-Brown, Deputy Commissioner Finance Debbie Harper, Deputy Commissioner Accounts Hank Kuczynski, Deputy Mayor Washington Street Phases 3 & 4 Paul Male explained to Council members that the Washington Street Phases 3 & 4 project was recently bid and Delaney Construction was the low bidder but unfortunately, Delaney Construction has since determined that there was a mathematical error in the amount of $220,000 in their bid. Paul Male explained that the City could take the bid bond from this company and rebid the project, however, that would create a significant delay. He said that he had negotiated with the Delaney that they could, if the Council approved, increase their bid by $200,000. He said even with the increase of $200,000, Delaney was still significantly lower than the next lowest bidder. He suggested this option be considered by the Council. Paul Male also informed Council members that there was only $350,000 set aside in the budget for this project and the total cost of completing both phases 3 and 4 would be nearly $2.5 million. He said there had already been some expenses paid to Smith & Mahoney for the development of the bid specifications. Paul Male said there was the option of not doing both phases at this time, however, it would only increase the price of the project if not completed together. Commissioner Thomas McTygue said that with the completion of this project, it would solve the drainage and sanitary sewer problems and increase the water pressure. Paul Male said the total cost of the project would be approximately $2.5 million, which meant that approximately $2.2 million would need to be bonded. Commissioner Michael Lenz said that was a significant amount of money that had not been included in the capital budget projections. Deputy Commissioner Christine Gillmett-Brown asked if the entire project would be completed during 2004. Paul Male said yes, therefore, none of the costs could likely be carried to 2005. Paul Male noted, though, that there is a significant amount of vacant land in this area, and when the project was completed it would be very likely that there would be subdivisions, thereby increasing the tax base. It was agreed this item would be discussed at the special City Council meeting to be held on Tuesday, November 25. Parking Commissioner Thomas McTygue said he had a memo that he would like all Council members to sign and then be distributed to City Hal employees encouraging them to park in the parking area on High Rock Avenue that Page 1 of 5 City of Saratoga Springs City Council Workshop Meeting Minutes Thursday, November 20, 2003 was once part of the dealership. He said if City employees park there it would increase parking spaces in the parking lot. He said there are a number of employees parking in the Algonquin parking lot and the downtown business owners would like that curtailed. Commissioners Michael Lenz and Stephen Towne said they would like the City=s Risk Manager to review this situation before signing the memo. Commissioner Stephen Towne said it was his recollection that there was some concern on the Risk Manager=s part with plowing. 2004 Budget Commissioner Michael Lenz said a revised budget had been distributed early this morning to all Council members. He said the result of this revised budget is that the general fund would have a tax rate increase of approximately 7.4 percent. He said this did include the capital budget. Commissioner Michael Lenz said he wanted all Council members to review the budget. He said he hoped to have the budget adopted at the Tuesday, November 25, Council meeting. He said the revenues are as tight as they can be and he did not believe that they could be increased any further. He said he knew there would be a lot of concern from Council members, but unless there were some dramatic changes, he did not believe that the adopted budget would be very different from what is being presented today. He said Council members have the right to bring forth any amendment they see fit on Tuesday night, and if the amendment is adopted, it would be included in the budget. He suggested that Council members review the proposed budget and contact him before Monday at noon to request additions or deletions. He said though that he hoped to deal with a comprehensive budget on Tuesday evening. Commissioner Michael Lenz said the new charter positions had a significant impact on the budget and they had made some significant changes in those positions. He said based on the fact that it would take some time to implement these positions, they have decreased the funding dramatically. He said after conversations with Civil Service, he believed that the Human Resource position would not likely be filled before mid year and the other two not before fall. Therefore, half a salary had been left in for the Human Resources Director and $10,000 for each of the other two. Mayor Kenneth Klotz said it was not necessary that the positions be filled after the Civil Service exam. He said they could be filled before the exam and the individual then appointed upon completion of the exam. Commissioner Michael Lenz greed, but said he was trying to tighten down the budget and too still move forward on these positions. He again said he did not believe the positions would be filled until later in the year. Commissioner Michael Lenz said there were also some significant increases such as the retirement system payment in the amount of $1.3 million. Deputy Commissioner Christine Gillmett-Brown said initially it was her understanding that the State Comptroller, Allen Hevisi, was discouraging bonding for this payment, however, there is a new position on that matter. She said the state comptroller=s office has now stated that bonding is possible and the City could bond up to $1,050,000 over a five-year period. Therefore, the Finance Department had included the amount necessary in the budget to bond this payment rather than the entire $1.3 million. She said there was also the option of borrowing from the state, however, the rate would be at 7 or 8 percent which is significantly higher than the bonding rate. She said if the retirement payment is bonded it decreases the tax rate increase, but will also need to be subtracted from the bonding limits. She said it would bring the available funds to bond to about $5.8 million. Commissioner Thomas McTygue asked which employees were covered under this retirement payment and what was the breakdown. Deputy Commissioner Christine Gillmett-Brown said it was all employees and it was broken down by $1.2 million for police and fire employees and just under $1 million for all other employees. She said this payment represents about 15 percent of the City=s payroll expense. Mayor Kenneth Klotz asked if the Finance Department anticipated continued increases to the retirement system payment. Deputy Commissioner Christine Gillmett-Brown said because of the market, the state had informed her that there will be continued increases of this size. Commissioner Thomas McTygue said there should be some discussion in executive session on the salaries of these three new positions. Council members agreed. Mayor Kenneth Klotz noted that the salary figures were Page 2 of 5 City of Saratoga Springs City Council Workshop Meeting Minutes Thursday, November 20, 2003 preliminary but also said they are senior administrative positions. Commissioner Thomas Curley said he had major reservations on this budget. He said he would reserve many of his comments until he had time to go through the budget line by line. Commissioner Thomas McTygue said that he too had major areas of concern with this proposed budget. He said reminded Council members that DPW was now taking on the Engineering Department. He said there were areas of his budget that were lower than this year. He said he would like to speak to Commissioner Michael Lenz about this proposed budget. He said he too would reserve many of his comments until he saw what Commissioner Michael Lenz presented on Tuesday. Commissioner Michael Lenz said it would be much like what was before the Council members today. Commissioner Thomas McTygue said one of his concerns was the amount taken out of the sanitary sewer repair line. He said he had received several complaints on that matter and wanted to work on that project. Commissioner Thomas Curley clarified that Council members could submit amendments to the Finance Department or at Tuesday=s meeting. Commissioner Michael Lenz said he was available to talk to Council members. Commissioner Thomas Curley said that as this document stands today, he would not support it. Commissioner Michael Lenz said he knew there would be areas of concern, but the expenses needed to be decreased and the revenues were pushed to their limit. He said there were significant cuts to requests. He said if Council members felt strongly about a particular area, they should discuss this with him. He said Council members could also bring forth any amendment on Tuesday evening. Commissioner Thomas Curley said he would not support any budget that affected the publics= safety. He said some of his lines had been reduced below the 2003 adopted budget levels. He said he would review the budget and submit alternatives. Commissioner Stephen Towne clarified that Council members should speak to the Finance Department before noon on Monday to attempt to have items restored and then on Tuesday offer up amendments to the budget on items that the Finance Department did not restore. Commissioner Michael Lenz agreed. Commissioner Stephen Towne said he believed that some of the revenue lines were a bit aggressive. Deputy Commissioner Christine Gillmett-Brown agreed and noted that she would not be comfortable increasing them anymore. Commissioner Stephen Towne said any increases to the budget would, therefore, have a direct impact on the tax rate increase. Commissioner Michael Lenz said yes. Commissioner Stephen Towne said as he reviewed the budget, he believed the capital budget tax rate increase was close to 5 percent, therefore, when the general and capital tax increases were combined, it would total nearly 12 percent. Commissioner Stephen Towne asked if there were any major investments already made to programs that now need to be postponed or eliminated. Deputy Commissioner Christine Gillmett-Brown said basically any new equipment purchases were removed. She said the hazardous waste day was maintained because it was her understanding it was mandated by the state. Commissioner Thomas McTygue said it was not mandated, however, the City could apply for a 50 percent match from the state but it was difficult to predict when those funds would arrive in the City. Commissioner Stephen Towne asked about the charter driven positions. Deputy Commissioner Christine Gillmett-Brown said the charter driven positions were maintained, but all others were removed. Deputy Commissioner Christine Gillmett Brown said the dispatcher, vital records, engineering technician positions had been removed. Commissioner Thomas Curley asked about the insurance recovery line. Deputy Commissioner Christine Gillmett-Brown said that would show a zero balance next year. Mayor Kenneth Klotz said he had not yet had time to review the proposal and he would like to meet with Deputy Commissioner Christine Gillmett-Brown. Commissioner Michel Lenz said he felt comfortable with both the Mayor=s and the Finance Department=s budgets and did not anticipate including any items back into those budgets. He said the primary focus would Page 3 of 5 City of Saratoga Springs City Council Workshop Meeting Minutes Thursday, November 20, 2003 be on the other three departments. Commissioner Michael Lenz said he understood this was a difficult budget, but again noted that any Council member could bring forth an amendment on Tuesday evening. He said the Council needs to come to some consensus though. Commissioner Thomas McTygue noted that there were no changes to the water and sewer budgets. Deputy Commissioner Christine Gillmett-Brown said there were some minor changes to the City Center budget, but it did not affect the total overall dollar amount. Commissioner Thomas McTygue asked about the outside agency requests. Deputy Commissioner Christine Gillmett-Brown said all of the requests had been included except for the Shakespeare in the Park. She said the additional requested amount for the Senior Citizens Center had been included. She said there had been no changes to the media center project budget. Commissioner Stephen Towne asked about the City Center=s budget. Deputy Commissioner Christine Gillmett-Brown said the Council is obligated to adopt that budget along with the special assessment district budgets. She noted that all of those budgets have already been approved by their boards. 2004 Capital Budget Mayor Kenneth Klotz said he was proposing that the Council make a decision on whether to approve the additional expenditure of $2.2 million projects as proposed in the capital budget. He said the estimated debt service payment would be $220,000. He said he tried to be responsive to department=s needs and included those items that he could in the 2004 capital budget, however, if they were not included in 2004 it was included in subsequent years. He reminded everyone that the five year capital plan was just the starting point and items could be added or deleted. He pointed out that even with the Connolly amendment, and bonding of the retirement line, the City was still well within the buffer zone of the Connolly amendment. He said there were some minor adjustments to the revenue lines for the capital budget. Mayor Kenneth Klotz said he did not believe the proposed capital budget amounted to a five percent tax rate increase. Deputy Commissioner Christine Gillmett-Brown said the Mayor had noted that the capital reserve fund could pay for some of the capital projects and said she needed him to identify which projects those were so they would not be bonded. Mayor Kenneth Klotz said it was his proposal that it was for debt service payment and not for cash payment. He said he would get together with Deputy Commissioner Christine Gillmett-Brown on that matter. Mayor Kenneth Klotz said any additional projects added to the capital budget would increase the debt service. He said some items such as the bathrooms in Congress Park need to be reviewed since there was already funding for that project. Commissioner Thomas McTygue said the requested $60,000 was in addition to the already approved $60,000. He said the Washington Street Project Phases 3 & 4 also need to be considered under the capital budget. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business, Mayor Kenneth Klotz adjourned the workshop session at 2:55 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Page 4 of 5 City of Saratoga Springs City Council Workshop Meeting Minutes Thursday, November 20, 2003 Kathy Moran Clerk Approved: Page 5 of 5