City Council

City of Saratoga Springs Budget Workshop Meeting Thursday, October 19, 2006 CITY OF SARATOGA SPRINGS CITY COUNCIL BUDGET WORKSHOP MEETING CITY COUNCIL ROOM THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2006 9:30 A.M. PRESENT : Valerie Keehn, Mayor Commissioner John Franck, Accounts Commissioner Ron Kim, DPS Commissioner Matthew McCabe, Finance Commissioner Thomas McTygue, DPW SUPERVISORS: Cheryl Keyrouze, Absent Joanne Yepsen , Absent STAFF PRESENT : Lynn Bachner, Deputy Commissioner Finance Michele Boxley, Deputy Commissioner Accounts Frank Dudla, Deputy Commissioner, DPS Eileen Finneran, Deputy Mayor Michael Englert, City Attorney 2007 BUDGET WORKSHOP Mayor Valerie Keehn called the workshop meeting to order at 9:30 a.m. Commissioner Matthew McCabe welcomed everyone and noted that the next workshops would be held on October 24 at 6:30 p.m., November 1 at 9:30 a.m. and November 8 at 5:00 p.m. Commissioner Matthew McCabe said they were here this morning to review requested changes to the budget. His office will continue to do compilations of requested changes and when there is consensus among Council members, the budget will be brought to the Council for a vote. All budgets will be adopted at once. If the budget is not adopted by November 30, his preliminary budget would become the final budget. The general fund totals $35,611,380 which will require a tax levy of $13 million. The projected tax rates are: $5.01/outside and $4.97 for inside. The main sources of revenue for the City are property taxes, sales tax, VLT, state aid and mortgage tax. There has been one change requested by the Recreation Department for an increase in hours for the Recreation Director which equates to an increase in salary of about $3,500 and brings that salary to about $78,000. He reviewed the grades and salaries of other directors throughout the City. He further noted that there have been at least three prior upgrades to the Recreation Director position. The proposed increase would be funded through decreases in two recreation programs. She explained that the summer skating program had been modified for cost efficiencies and that those savings could fund the increase in hours. Linda Terricola clarified that there would be no elimination of recreation programs to fund this proposed increase. She then read a prepared statement supporting her request. She noted that she has been the Recreation Director for 17 years and is available at all times to Council members. There have been more than 10,000 participants in recreation programs with approximately 667 employees/volunteers/independent contractors. She said this was a minimal increase in hours from 38 to 40 with a commensurate increase in salary. Mayor Valerie Keehn asked if she was proposing to decrease the lines for skate guards at the rinks. Linda Terricola said the skate guard program would simply operate more efficiently because they streamlined the hours of operation, therefore, there would be a savings in that those lines which could fund the increase in her line. She said the proposed budget includes the $.50 per hour increase for the skate guards. The quality of the skate program will not be impacted. 1 of 5 City of Saratoga Springs Budget Workshop Meeting Thursday, October 19, 2006 Commissioner Matthew McCabe encouraged Council members to complete the budget change request worksheet and submit them to his office. Mayor Valerie Keehn said that at the last Council meeting, the Council heard from Matthew Jones concerning the building inspector position. The building fees were increased to fund a new assistant building inspector position, however, that position was never filled. The assistant planner position was filled though. Deputy Commissioner Lynn Bachner said the fees were increased and the assistant building inspector position was funded and included in the budget, but was not filled. Last year, because the position was not filled, it was not funded. She said it is difficult to continue to fund positions that are not filled. Commissioner Ron Kim asked if there were any discussions to place the fee money into a dedicated account to fund the position. Deputy Commissioner Lynn Bachner said not all revenues can be dedicated to special accounts. In a recent management letter from the auditors, the auditors noted that the dedicated accounts needed to be reviewed and combined in some cases. Further, there are no dedicated funds to pay for specific positions. Commissioner Thomas McTygue said the building department has 4 1/2 people working in that department. Mayor Valerie Keehn asked Mike Biffer, Building Inspector, how long they had been at 4 people. Mike Biffer said he was not sure. He pointed out though, that review of projects has become more complicated and there are several large projects pending. Commissioner Thomas McTygue offered to loan an individual from the City Engineer’s Office for a year on a temporary basis to help out the building department. Mike Biffer said that would help, however, that individual would get drawn away during their busy times and the building department’s busy time coincides with the engineering department’s busy time. Commissioner Thomas McTygue said it was an offer that should be considered. Mayor Valerie Keehn said there are no other positions in City Hall that need to be justified or funded through raising fees. Commissioner Thomas McTygue said the developers were willing to pay the additional fees if the position was funded. He said he could loan an individual from the Engineering Department for a year. Commissioner Ron Kim said many communities have same day service when applying for permits. The City needs to set standards for getting the permits issued as quickly as possible. He said a couple of hundred of dollars in delay costs is a lot of money for the average homeowner. Productivity needs to be increased. Mike Biffer said during the summer months, they had an individual dedicated to the smaller type projects, i.e., pools sheds and decks, in order to get those permits issued more quickly Commissioner Matthew McCabe said the Council needs to be careful when comparing itself to towns because we are a City. The Mayor’s office should submit a formal request to fund this position. Mayor Valerie Keehn said that ultimately the taxpayers are paying for this anyway through lost productivity and if this streamlines the service it was of great value to the community. Commissioner John Franck said the process is flawed. He said he was not sure that next day service is practical, but it seemed as though everyone was in agreement that the process was flawed. Mike Biffer said there is a process for reviewing the smaller projects and getting those permits issued in a timelier manner. He said he did not know why the assistant building inspector position was funded but not filled. He said he would like to see that position funded. He said they continue to take on more work, more complicated projects and larger projects that require more attention. There is also a new building code. Bill McTygue, Director, DPW, said the Engineering Department could help out the building dept, however, it will impact their work load and projects will need to be reprioritized or sacrificed. Accounts Department Budget: Commissioner John Franck said he requested an appraiser position to review the commercial properties in the City. It was not funded and he understood why, however, he believed in the end that position would create revenue to offset the cost of the position. He then reviewed the operational budget noting that he would like the requested funds restored to postage, books and general advertising. He then pointed out that the CPI recently came out and is at 2.1 percent for the year. He said it would be difficult to support this budget with the 2.1 percent CPI. Department of Public Safety: Commissioner Ron Kim said in October 2004 the Council signed a PILOT agreement with the Navy Housing project for EMS, Police and Fire protection services at that facility. That revenue stream of $95,000has been removed from his budget and he asked that it be restored. It was not 2 of 5 City of Saratoga Springs Budget Workshop Meeting Thursday, October 19, 2006 clear to him that the Commissioner of Finance had the authority to do this when the funds were supposed to be dedicated to a special account in DPS. Those funds could be used for a response vehicle and he again asked that the funds be restored to his budget. He believed that the City was breaching the terms of the contract by not using the funds according to the contract. Commissioner Ron Kim said they asked for $15,000 for a vehicle which was cut, however, the repair and maintenance line was also reduced. He said they need one or the other. He also requested that three positions at the garage be upgraded for a total amount of $3,200. These individuals continually go above and beyond when doing their jobs. Commissioner Ron Kim suggested that there be a comprehensive way to review the building permit/enforcement matters. He said that documentation is spread throughout City Hall and it should be in one central location. There should be software package in City Hall, which his staff has researched and costs approximately $25,000, whereby all data on a parcel is entered and the appropriate individuals have access to that information. The City needs to track this information. It would streamline the process to review and enforce the code. Commissioner John Franck said the City has that software, however, it is not being used. He said the software that the City has can be utilized by all departments. Deputy Commissioner Michele Boxley said the process issue between Planning, Building and Code Enforcement needs to be reviewed. The City of Troy has software whereby they can enter data on each building so that everyone has access to the data at any time during the process. In Troy, there is no paper work at the Planning and Zoning meetings, it is all done on lap tops. The Building Department has a $15,000 software program, which everyone was trained to use, however, they are not using it. Commissioner Ron Kim suggested that there be a meeting among all departments. Commissioner John Franck said that he believed this software was part of the RPS software package. He also said that the next grant will enhance this software. Commissioner Ron Kim said that he requested that the code enforcement position be increased in hours from 33 to 40 with the commensurate salary increase. He said due to the new code, apartments will now need to be inspected, which will dramatically increase the workload in that department. Therefore, they need more hours to get that work completed. There will be additional revenue created from these inspections. Commissioner Matthew McCabe said the issue of where the Navy PILOT agreement funds are going in the budget was debatable. The Council did not vote to create a dedicated account. There is dedicated revenue and the services are performed in the DPS budget. The $95,000 for the ambulance was removed. There isnot EMS facility at this time and SEMS needs to be brought into the discussion. He said there were two separate issues on funding for the ambulances, one of which was through a grant. Those funds could be encumbered to next year. The additional funding for another ambulance was removed. Commissioner Thomas McTygue said he was not aware that DPS was requesting ambulances. Commissioner Matthew McCabe said he was confident that the revenue and expense lines were in the appropriate places in the budget. He said there was some confusion concerning the vehicles. Commissioner Ron Kim said there is precedent for revenues to be dedicated to certain accounts. He said the City is not pursuing going into the ambulance business, however, they are requesting funding for an emergency response vehicle. Commissioner John Franck also reminded everyone that the insurance lines need to be adjusted when acquiring new vehicles. Mayor Valerie Keehn asked for clarification in the difference between last year’s budget and this year’s budget of $3,388,000. Mayor Valerie Keehn said she did not understand that with the increase in VLT revenue and sales tax how the City could is at an estimated increase in the budget of 6 percent. Commissioner Matthew McCabe said the additional funds are great news, however, they will replace the retirement reserve fund and the loss of the funding from the county last year. There are also contractual increases. That leaves only about 10 percent of the budget for the Council to negotiate on. The Council needs to look at the increases in the health insurance and retirement costs. Mayor Valerie Keehn asked if the new construction had been added. Deputy Commissioner Lynn Bachner said that revenue appears on the assessment roll. She said there are also other mandated expenditures that need to be reviewed. There are mandated increases in the budget of approximately $2.9 million. He said that there could be some positive news on the revenues. Commissioner John Franck believed there was still room to decrease expenditures and to increase revenues. 3 of 5 City of Saratoga Springs Budget Workshop Meeting Thursday, October 19, 2006 Commissioner Thomas McTygue said the VLT revenues could change at any time. Currently the City gets 75 percent of that revenue, however, that could be changed at any time through the state legislature. Commissioner Matthew McCabe said that he continues to use the numbers given to him by the state for the estimated VLT revenue. He said he would also continue to fight for the City to receive at least 75 percent of that revenue. He also noted that it was likely that the VLT revenue could be as high as $3.8 million next year. Commissioner Thomas McTygue said he has a number of people in his department that are technically part time/seasonal employees that work 40 hours per week. The City cannot operate without them. He would like to make a commitment to 8 of those employees to make them full time. The difference in pay is about $3.50/hour. He said the City owes it to them for showing that that are reliable, dependable, hard-working employees. These people have done a good job for the City and they are loyal employees. Commissioner Matthew McCabe said the cost for these employees is close to $170,000 including the health benefits. Bill McTygue said when the City hires these individuals, it is clear to them that there are no guarantees, however, they are given hope that one day, if they are good, loyal employees they could obtain a full time position. It was now time to make some of them full time. Commissioner Matthew McCabe opened the meeting to the public for comments. Remigia Foy said that for all of the residents who don’t understand this form of government, they should be here today to see the Council discuss the budget. There are checks and balances, negotiations and discussions. At the last Council meeting there was some discussion on paying the school district money to use their space. She said that should be researched a little more because in effect, residents were now paying twice to use the facility. She said if it was for a salary for a special service, that it understandable, however, if it was for the use of the space, the residents were paying twice. Commissioner Matthew McCabe said the fee covered janitorial service, security, etc. Remigia Foy said several years ago the Council adopted a policy to fine local businesses for false alarms. She asked if there was a line item for that revenue and was the ordinance being enforced. Commissioner Ron Kim said the amount of false alarms has decreased, but he would need to speak to the Chief on the revenue line. Remigia Foy said it was time for some of the not-for- profit agencies to step up to the plate and make a contribution to the City for services provided. It is not unprecedented for colleges to step forward. Remigia Foy suggested that the Assessment Office look at the homestead rule, whereby, a resident that is at least 72 years of age could have a reduction in their assessments. She said it was her understanding the Council could enact such legislation. Those people are exactly the ones who need it. She again commended the Council for the spirit of the discussions this morning. Commissioner John Franck said there are some legality issues concerning the homestead law, however, he had been looking into it. His greatest concern was the shift in the tax burden in 1998 and 2003 from commercial properties to residential properties. This community is very different from others. He explained that ORPS used comparables for commercial sales from other counties that are in a much worse state than the City, thereby decreasing the value of commercial properties in Saratoga Springs. He said it also skewed the values in those counties by increasing values for commercial properties. Previously the City has used the income valuation method for commercial properties. His main focus is the Broadway corridor and he will use at the sales price approach. John Kraus, 227 Grand Avenue, said he was pleased with the discussion this morning. He agreed that contract negotiations need to be reviewed. He said there is room to get the tax rate down. The VLT revenue should be guaranteed to the City. There is room to increase the sales tax revenue. The new construction added to the books at $90 million should equate to a 15 percent tax rate decrease. The Navy PILOT agreement should be negotiated each year. Commissioner Matthew McCabe closed the public comment period. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business, Mayor Valier Keehn closed the budget workshop at 11:00 a.m. Respectfully submitted, 4 of 5 City of Saratoga Springs Budget Workshop Meeting Thursday, October 19, 2006 Kathy Moran Clerk Approved: 5 of 5