City Council

CITY OF SARATOGA SPRINGS CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP CITY COUNCIL ROOM WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2003 6:00 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 : Erin Dreyer, Deputy Commissioner, DPS Christine Gillmett-Brown, Deputy Commissioner Finance Debbie Harper, Deputy Commissioner Accounts Hank Kuczynski, Deputy Mayor Bill McTygue, Director Utilities MAYOR =S OFFICE 2004 Proposed Capital Budget (03-181) Mayor Kenneth Klotz said the capital budget was distributed last week. He said included in that packet was a list of the existing obligations for old debt. He reviewed the requests by departments, prioritized them and has shown all those capital items he proposed to include. He said Commissioner Thomas Curley requested this afternoon that $123,000 be taken out of his total requests and replaced with $275,000 for land procurement and $40,000 for police facility improvements. He said with those additions it brings the total capital projects too slightly more than $3 million. He said he is using an estimate of approximately 10 percent of the total capital project cost for debt service. He said the estimated annual debt service payment would be between $300,000 and $320,000. He said he was also proposing a fund transfer of between $80,000 and $100,000. Mayor Kenneth Klotz moved and Commissioner Thomas McTygue seconded to adopt the capital budget as presented noting the deletion of the previously discussed DPS items and the inclusion of the land procurement and police facility improvements. Mayor Kenneth Klotz said even with this proposed capital budget, the City was still within the limits of the Connolly amendment. He said it is important that the needs of the City are met and further noted that this was the best time borrow because of the low interest rates. He said he believed that the City could manage this debt service. Commissioner Thomas Curley said he was somewhat concerned adopted the capital budget without knowing the financial impact of the general budget. Commissioner Michael Lenz said he had a slightly different capital budget proposal. He said using the Mayor’s proposed budget impact the total combined general and capital tax rate impact would be about 17 percent. He said that was a level he was not comfortable supporting. Commissioner Michael Lenz said he was prepared to offer up an amendment to the motion or to vote on the Mayor’s proposal. It was agreed there would be some discussion on Commissioner Michael Lenz’s proposed capital budget. He then distributed his proposal. Page 1 of 6 City of Saratoga Springs City Council Meeting Wednesday, November 26, 2003 Mayor Kenneth Klotz asked if all of the new projects had been included? Deputy Commissioner Christine Gillmett-Brown said the Recreation Facility Design phase would be paid from the Nimo Excelsior Avenue site fund. She said under the Recreation Department the east side wading pool and sprinkler system were removed. She said there were discussions with Linda Terricola on this matter and Linda Terricola agreed that the west side wading pool was more important than the east side. She noted that the DPW vehicles and the air conditioning for the City Historian had also been removed. She said the voting machines and bathrooms remained. She noted that the West Side infrastructure remained but at only $2.2 million. She also noted that the gas dispensing, land procurement building repairs to both the Lake Avenue & West Avenue fire houses also were included. She said the police facility improvements was not included in the Finance proposal. Commissioner Thomas Curley noted that DPS does not need the proposed $85,000 or the $25,000 for building repairs to the fire houses. Deputy Commissioner Christine Gillmett-Brown said if that was so, the police facility improvements could be added as well as other items from the Mayor’s proposal that were not included in the Finance proposal. Commissioner Thomas McTygue said the DPW budget had been stripped. He said they had requested a front end loader that could be purchased through a lease payment with the first payment of between $25,000 and $28,000 and would be due in 2005. He said he also requested funding for a truck and a roller. He said the City has only three front end loaders in the City and a fourth is necessary. Deputy Commissioner Christine Gillmett-Brown said the cost of a front end loader was approximately $110,000. She said the cost of a dump truck with a plow would be about $95,000. Deputy Commissioner Christine Gillmett-Brown then reviewed the revenue side of the capital budget. She noted that the total revenues were at $3,313,975.20 ($87,000 from CF revenue; $220,089 from CF CR Revenue; $2,782,454 from CF Bond revenue, $224,432 from DSF revenue). She said that total expenses were at $4,386,003 with an estimated property tax levy of $1,072,028. Mayor Kenneth Klotz asked for an explanation of the difference between his proposal and the Finance Department proposal. Deputy Commissioner Christine Gillmett-Brown said Finance had included $200,000 more for the west side infrastructure and they were using slightly more in the capital reserve. Commissioner Thomas McTygue said he would like to lease the front end loader and purchase a dump truck. Deputy Commissioner Christine Gillmett-Brown said the lease payment would have a higher budget impact. She said if the amount was bonded, the debt service payment would be less than the lease payment. Deputy Commissioner Christine Gillmett-Brown clarified that the dump truck cost was approximately $95,000 and $110,000 for the front end loader. She said if both of these items were added to the capital budget, the tax rate increase would increase. Mayor Kenneth Klotz said his proposal called for approximately a $1 million increase to the capital budget, but the Finance Department was calling for more. Deputy Commissioner Christine Gillmett-Brown said the Finance Department has added $200,000 for the west side project and $40,000 for the police improvements. She said they also increased the capital reserve amount from $210,000 to $220,000. She said Finance is also proposing to take some from the reserve and place in it another reserve and to pay for west side. She noted that the ice rink debt is now at 24,381. Commissioner Thomas Curley asked what was the difference in dollars. Deputy Commissioner Christine Gillmett-Brown said if the DPW requests were added it would be another $245,000 added to the capital budget which would have a tax rate impact. She said it would add another $20,000 to the tax levy. Mayor Kenneth Klotz said if the Recreation Department agreed to the loss of the east side wading pool and sprinkler system he would be okay with it too. Deputy Commissioner Christine Gillmett-Brown said she did not speak to Linda Terricola on the sprinkler system. Commissioner Thomas McTygue said the bathrooms in Congress Park were essential. Page 2 of 6 City of Saratoga Springs City Council Meeting Wednesday, November 26, 2003 Commissioner Thomas Curley said the land procurement was essential, however, could perhaps be reduced to $200,000. He said they were looking for about three acres and felt that $200,000 could be enough. Commissioner Michael Lenz asked if DPW had included the rental costs for the roller in his budget, how much was that amount and could the budget be reduced by that amount if the roller is purchased. Commissioner Thomas McTygue said it costs more to rent the roller than to purchase. Commissioner Thomas Curley said DPS has requested $40,000 for police facility improvements. He said there needs to be some painting, construction/renovations, carpentry. Commissioner Thomas Curley said he could remove the $40,000 from the capital budget if Commissioner Thomas McTygue agreed to having DPW workers do the work. Commissioner Thomas McTygue said if there is a mild winter, the DPW crew could do the work as long as DPS purchased the materials. Deputy Commissioner Christine Gillmett-Brown suggested the west side project could be reduced by $60,000 and bring that cost down to $2,140,000. The following items were agreed to on the Finance Department’s proposed capital budget. 1 building repairs for both firehouses are to be removed. 2. West Side infrastructure project is to be reduced from $2,200,000 to $2,140,000 3. Three DPW vehicles are to be added: front end loader, roller and dump truck at a cost of approximately $245,000. 4. The land procurement for the DPS emergency facility is to be reduced from $275,000 to $200,000. It was agreed the this proposal was accepted as an amendment to the Mayor’s proposal capital budget. Mayor Kenneth Klotz said he was sorry to see the air conditioning for the City Historian removed. He said it was a modest amount. Deputy Commissioner Christine Gillmett-Brown said it could be added and the west side project amount reduced by $12,000. Council members agreed. Ayes all on the amended motion as so noted above (Attachment A). FINANCE DEPARTMENT General Operating Budget (03-182) Deputy Commissioner Christine Gillmett-Brown said there was a printing error today on the revenue sheets. She said that lines with zero dollar amounts were dropped during the printing process. She said that revised sheets had been distributed. She explained that because of that deletion, the 2002 and 2003 amounts were not correct, however, the 2004 requested and preliminary amounts were correct. Deputy Commissioner Christine Gillmett-Brown said the proposed total general fund was at $29,095,212.64. Commissioner Michael Lenz said the surplus will remain at 5 percent of the fund balance at $1,450,000. He said the surplus utilization is $1,491,624. Commissioner Michael Lenz said this proposed general fund budget results in a 12.69 percent tax rate increase. Commissioner Michael Lenz said this had been one the most difficult budget seasons. He said Finance had spent hours reviewing and tightening the budget and at the same time satisfying most of the department requests. He said since last night’s meeting, Finance had met with DPS and most of their requests for essential items had been put back into the budget. He said there were some small changes to the Mayor’s budget but there was no budgetary impact. He said they increased the building permit revenue line in order to pay for the summer help. Commissioner Michael Lenz moved and Commissioner Stephen Towne seconded to approve the general fund budget as presented. Page 3 of 6 City of Saratoga Springs City Council Meeting Wednesday, November 26, 2003 Mayor Kenneth Klotz said during the public hearings one of the recurrent themes was the unresponsiveness of Saratoga County in meeting the needs of residents who believed that those needs were the duty of the County. He said the County budget is approximately six times the size of the City’s budget and they have a surplus of $24 million which is almost as much as this City’s operating budget. He said the City has had several requests from not-for-profit agencies for funding because they have felt the unresponsiveness of the County. He also noted that having both the police and fire departments appear before the Council during the public hearings should not be the place for their requests. He said those requests were impressive and compelling, but they should not have been taken care of in such a public venue. He said it was an exercise in elementary instruction on their part going through the budget line by line and it was not called for to have the chiefs of both departments doing so. He said his final observation on the budget process was the comments made by Mark Lawton, Charter Review Commission member, on the Human Resources Director. He said hiring such an individual is meant to save the City in the long run and was so noted within the fiscal impact statement prepared by the Commission. He said it was unfortunate that the City is moving so slowing on that position. He said he also was concerned with the comments from Sonny Bonacio concerning the building permits. He said the Council made a commitment to the building community on shortening the time it takes to get a building permit and the Council needed to follow through on that commitment. Commissioner Michael Lenz said this was a difficult budget with expenditures increasing and the revenue difficulties. He commended Deputy Commissioner Christine Gillmett-Brown for the long hours she spent on working on this budget. He said she spent many hours trying to minimize the increases but due to the contractual obligations it was difficult. He said he was sensitive to the building department’s needs and they have added the summer position back into the budget. He said as Mayor, he understood that the building department issue was of a high priority. He agreed that the Council needed to make good on the commitment and to reduce the time period. He said this budget provides services to the community while not jeopardizing the safety of the citizens. He said this increase is higher than in previous years, but we need to make up for the high expenditures. He said the projected tax rate increase for the general operating budget was 12.7 percent. He said the Council has had disagreements on this budget, but have worked through it and have produced a solid budget. He said it also provides the incoming Commissioner with a fund balance. Commissioner Thomas McTygue asked if there had been any changes to the Engineering Department budget. Deputy Commissioner Christine Gillmett-Brown said no. She said they added the summer time building inspector position to the building department and offset that expenditure by increasing the revenue line. Commissioner Thomas McTygue asked if the Senior Center budget was increased by the additional$7,000 that they had requested. Deputy Commissioner Christine Gillmett-Brown said yes. Commissioner Thomas McTygue asked about the Shakespeare in the Park Program. Deputy Commissioner Christine Gillmett-Brown said there was no request from the organization. Commissioner Thomas Curley agreed that this was a difficult process but the fact that he was turning over the budget with a fund balance spoke highly of Commissioner Michael Lenz. He also thanked all of the deputies for their many hours of work on the budget. He said it was intent to support the budget. Commissioner Stephen Towne said there was a lot of good work done by all of the departments, but in particular Deputy Commissioner Christine Gillmett-Brown deserved special attention. He said she spent countless hours on this budget and brought it down from an estimated 70 percent tax rate increase to 12 percent. He said Deputy Commissioner Christine Gillmett-Brown has been the focal point and he thanked her for all of her work. Commissioner Thomas McTygue also thanked Deputy Commissioner Christine Gillmett-Brown for her many hours of work. He noted though that in the budget it appeared that he had funding for two new positions. Deputy Commissioner Christine Gillmett Brown said that would be corrected in the final version of the budget. Commissioner Thomas McTygue said DPS had more than a half a million dollars restored to their budget since last night and DPW got only $33,070. He said his net increase to his budget was .74 percent. He said the larger departments in City Hall need to take a closer look at their budget. He said there are quite a few salaries that also need to be looked at. He said there is a substantial mount of money at the Senior Center and they Page 4 of 6 City of Saratoga Springs City Council Meeting Wednesday, November 26, 2003 should have attempted to work within their budget. Mayor Kenneth Klotz also thanked Deputy Commissioner Christine Gillmett- Brown. He said though that even with all of the work she did, elected officials are not relieved of their duties and it is ultimately the Council who makes the decision. He said seven weeks ago he asked that the Council be given accurate information on the 2003 budget so that they could prepare for the 2004 budget. He said that information is very important in this process. He said last year during the budget process, Finance projections on the existing budget were off by $1 million. He said it is difficult to debate the very small amounts of money. He said there was also no consideration of the comptrollers investigation which will commence in January on the sales tax collection. He said there was no consideration of the additional $120,000,000 value of construction that is going on that will generate an additional $700,00 or$800,000 in taxes. He said there has been no accountability by the Council members in connection with the 2003 budget forecast of $8.3 million in the sales tax line. He said he did not believe that Council members were given the right numbers. He said there is a 20 percent increase in health insurance and no plans to contain the costs. He said the available fund balance has been nearly depleted and now adjusted to keep the amount from going below the comptroller’s recommendation. He said there has been no discussions with the County on the huge increase in retirement costs. He said the City is the economic engine for the County in sales tax revenue and race track admissions and yet there are still no discussions with the County on looking at the bigger picture. He said one of his biggest concerns about the budget is where the Charter Review Commission was aiming the Council. He said it was one of their concerns to make the budget process more transparent, doing it in a timely fashion and affording the public the opportunity to debate the issue. He said as far as he was concerned this was one of the most dysfunctional budget processes that he had taken part in. He said the Council did not even have a budget until six days ago, a vote was canceled last evening, and the final proposed budget was not available until 1:00 p.m. today. He said he objected to this process and would not support the budget. Commissioner Stephen Towne said at this particular time it was counterproductive to make comments such as the Mayor made and it was close to the category of “whining”. He said this has been a difficult process and because the revenue shortfalls in sales tax, the budget was more difficult. He said the Council has fulfilled its responsibilities with the budget and still will maintain the quality of life and fiscal responsibility to the citizens. Commissioner Thomas Curley noted that the Council had nothing to do with the retirement system payment that cost the City $2 million and comments should be directed to those at fault. Commissioner Michael Lenz said he would not directly respond to the Mayor’s comments. He again thanked Deputy Commissioner Christine Gillmett-Brown for her many hours of work. He said this budget was a transparent process. He said perhaps Mayor Kenneth Klotz’s comments would have been more constructive had he brought them to his attention earlier in the process. He said the City would have been in better shape had we not had the decrease in the sales tax revenue. He said that in itself was directly responsible for some of the City’s difficulties. He said the Finance Department has managed to take all of the requests from the departments and meet most of their needs with a solid budget. Mayor Kenneth Klotz disagreed with both Commissioners Michael Lenz and Stephen Towne in that he felt he had an obligation to explain his position. He said one of the biggest reasons for shortfalls in the budget because assessments are not at their appropriate levels thereby producing the appropriate property tax revenue. Ayes: three (Commissioner Stephen Towne, Michael Lenz and Thomas Curley); Nays: two (Mayor Kenneth Klotz and Commissioner Thomas McTygue). Motion carried. City Center Authority Budget (03-183) Commissioner Michael Lenz moved and Commissioner Stephen Towne seconded to adopt the City Center Authority Budget as presented. Page 5 of 6 City of Saratoga Springs City Council Meeting Wednesday, November 26, 2003 Commissioner Thomas Curley said that last night there was some discussion on the salary increase for the Director of the City Center. Mayor Kenneth Klotz said that he did go back and check the numbers with the Center and the salary increase was from $77,000 to $81,600. He said that in light of the discussion on salaries he believed that it would be appropriate to ask the Director to retain his 2003 salary. Mayor Kenneth Klotz moved and Commissioner Thomas McTygue seconded that the Director of the City Center Authority retain his 2003 salary of $77,000. Commissioner Michael Lenz said he received a letter today from Mike Toohey, Chair of the City Center Authority Board explaining that the average increase for the director over the last fives years has been less than 3 percent per year. He also noted that the City Center Authority has not had any shortfalls in their budgets and that board was comfortable with this proposed salary increase. Mayor Kenneth Klotz said the documents from Finance show that the increase is at 6 percent. Deputy Commissioner Christine Gillmett Brown said it shows 6 percent because the director did not receive the 3 percent pay increase until after the 2003 budget was adopted. Ayes: two (Mayor Kenneth Klotz and Commissioner Thomas McTygue); Nays: three (Commissioners Stephen Towne, Michael Lenz and Thomas Curley). Motion denied. Vote on original motion. Ayes: three (Commissioner Stephen Towne, Michael Lenz and Thomas Curley); Nays: two (Mayor Kenneth Klotz and Commissioner Thomas McTygue). Motion carried. Downtown Special Assessment District (03-184) Commissioner Michael Lenz moved and Commissioner Stephen Towne seconded to adopt the Downtown Special Assessment District Budget as presented. Ayes all. ADJOURNMENT Commissioner Thomas McTygue moved and Commissioner Thomas Curley seconded to adjourn the meeting at 7:25 p.m. Ayes all. There being no further business, Mayor Kenneth Klotz adjourned the meeting at 7:25 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Kathy Moran Clerk Approved: Page 6 of 6