City Council

CITY OF SARATOGA SPRINGS PUBLIC HEARING 2009 COMPREHENSIVE BUDGET CANFIELD CASINO TUESDAY, October 28, 2008 6:30 P.M. PRESENT: Scott Johnson, Mayor John Franck, Commissioner of Accounts Ken Ivins, Commissioner of Finance Ron Kim, Commissioner of DPS Anthony Scirocco, Commissioner of DPW STAFF PRESENT: Kate Jarosh, Deputy Commissioner, Finance PUBLIC HEARING Mayor Johnson opened the public hearing on the 2009 comprehensive budget at 6:35 p.m. Commissioner Ivins confirmed the audience had previously been through the presentation; therefore he only reviewed the following new slides: o He had received a question regarding what the bond costs have been over the years and how it’s affecting our budget. Page 6 of the handout explains the bond costs for bonds issued since 2005. If we bond in July are earlier of a year, only interest is paid in the first year. If we bond in August or after in a year, interest and principal is paid in the following year. o Page 8, the bottom slide shows the proposed general fund revenue budget. The amount listed in this handout for each department is different than what is on the downloaded version because of contingency. Contingency is for pay raises and health insurance. Once a union contract is finalized, the contingency will be distributed among the departments. o Page 9, has 2 new slides which show the employee portion of the budget and the number of employees. For example, Finance’s budget shows 42% of his budget is made up of employees and employee costs. Finance’s budget includes things that are washes such as Special Assessment District that are lumped into his budget but aren’t the operation of his budget. The Mayor has some of the same things like the Senior Center, Franklin Community Center, and Arts Council that go in his budget. DPW has things like salt, sand, gas and oil. Public Safety is just about all people. Accounts has to keep money in contingency in case we loose lawsuits to people who are challenging their taxes. The next slide shows the number of employees. Commissioner Ivins cut dollars from the labor line in DPW. Commissioner Scirocco claims that the cut equates to 17 people. He doesn’t have 17 people that we could actually cut. That number is not reflected here. o Page 11, first slide shows the additional amount of tax increase that will be realized if DPS and DPW are given the additional money they would like. This would equate to an additional 4.39% in taxes in addition to the 3.8% already being suggested. Commissioner Ivins advised the vouchers for the Energy to Ice money has been submitted to the State for a reimbursement of $526,000. It is not guaranteed that we will get all of this money but we should get a good portion of it. He came up with the 5 following scenarios of what to do with this money: o Build up the reserve as directed by our auditors. o Apply to the general fund as revenue to reduce the budget impact on taxpayers to near zero. o Spend it all in 2009 and totally refund DPW and DPS requests. 2009 Comprehensive Budget Public Hearing 10/28/08 o Apply to the general fund contingency for shortfalls. o A combination of all of the above. Commissioner Ivins stated he is going to recommend doing a little bit of each of the 5 scenarios. He has met recently with each Commissioner and the Mayor to determine what their final needs are. Deputy Jarosh will be working this weekend with Commissioner Ivins to amend the budget and to present the amended budget at the Council Meeting scheduled for Monday, November 3, 2008. Commissioner Ivins announced the following dates: o Monday, November 10, 2008 @ 6:30 p.m. – a budget workshop in the City Council Room o Tuesday, November 18, 2008 a public hearing before the regularly scheduled Council meeting (time to be determined) o Monday, November 24, 2008 – a budget workshop/vote in the City Council Room Commissioner Ivins opened the public hearing up to the public. Joanne Winchell of 47 Cliffside Drive stated given the current financial situation, she can’t comprehend the discussions for a recreation center proposal. How much will it cost each year in overhead’ how many staff members will be required; how much money will be paid in salaries, benefits, and pension plans? What is the expected revenue? There is a $700 billion dollar taxpayer funded bailout. Governor Paterson is projecting a $12 billion dollar state deficit in 2009. How much of our income is the government entitled to? How much of our income are we entitled to? At a time when taxpayers are getting hit in every direction, a vote to build this facility would be fiscally irresponsible on part of the City Council. Nancy Goldberg of 66 Sarazen Street stated she could pick on a lot things in the budget such as $165,000 for furniture and 10% salary increases. If enforcement officers are being cut, then we have a problem. A freeze should be put on all salaries and people who are eligible for retirement should be paid off. It is ridiculous that a legal secretary has an assistant. John Goldberg of 66 Sarazen Street stated in the days of Richard Nixon, the economy was in the dirt. Nixon asked all to freeze salaries for 1 year. He suggested freezing salaries in the interest of keeping the tax rate down and the budget down. Tilo Thulman of 244 Maple Avenue stated the budget is missing a vision. Part of the vision is what will happen when AMD comes to Malta. He doesn’t understand why we are ‘short changing’ DPS. Overtime is an easy item to cut because it looks circumstantial, but it is not. There is a mismatch between tasks and resources. DPS should be bracing itself for what is coming down the road in the next 2 – 3 years. John Krause of 227 Grand Avenue stated he doesn’t attend these meetings to harass anyone or to be contentious. He asks questions to follow up for the public and himself. He agrees with some of Commissioner Ivins suggestions of what to do with the $526,000. The previous Commissioner of Finance would include the water and sewer budget and the City Center budget with the comprehensive budget for discussion. The water and sewer budget was always in balance. It is balanced because what ever you need to balance it you just put on the revenue line. It results in the need to increase the water and sewer rates, which surfaces in February. This results in passing a budget with a rate increase we don’t even know about. He appreciated the fact being stated in the Account Department’s budget that there is a contingency for potential loss or contested taxes. He asked how much is in the 2009 budget for this contingency; how much was budgeted for 2008, and how much is going to be paid out in 2008 for this? Mr. Krause thanked Commissioner Ivins for including the number of employees in the presentation. The Recreation Department shows 135 part time people; is this for the summer programs? Also, will the number of hours the part time people work increase to staff the new recreation center? His last comment relates to the public safety building. He hopes we could get a public safety building with the courts and some kind of garage with public and private partnership funding. Does the Council have any idea how much they might be able add to the $3 million that is already earmarked for the public safety building within their budget parameters? Page 2 of 4 2009 Comprehensive Budget Public Hearing 10/28/08 Kevin Connolly of 116 Clinton Street stated the contracted services figures add up to over $100,000. He hopes the City will consider using City employees more and train those employees to do this work. Lew Benton of 29 Thoroughbred Drive stated he is appearing as a private citizen. He previously presented comments. He asked the Council to please not lay any City employee s off. He doesn’t feel that we are at the point yet and he is concerned about the impact on people’s lives. Staffing can be reduced through normal attrition if there is a policy created to examine vacancies as they occur. During 2009, they should keep a close eye on the recreation trust account and a year from now look at that account again to see how much of the monies if any can be used to purchase equipment for the indoor recreation facility and dedicate some towards the debt service for the indoor recreation center. The sales tax distribution for this August was about $100,000 over last August with final results coming out next month. This will give us a true indication of how strong or weak collections were. He would argue that using any of the money recovered from Public Works should not be used against the operating costs as it is a false sense of security. Put the money towards one time costs. Nancy Goldberg spoke again and stated she would like to amend a comment she made earlier. Instead of freezing salary increase, salary increases should be capped. She has a question about process. It seems to her that the Council should fight out the budget first then present the final amended budget to the public. There is never a time when the public can ask the Council why. There is no public process where the public can ask a question and get an answer. She stated she is in City Hall a lot and know who works, what works and what doesn’t work. Can you think of a process for those of us who are interested more input and communication? Mark Baker, attended as a representative for the City Center Authority president. He wanted to reintroduce the relationship between the City Center Authority and the City Council. The Commissioner of Finance is the agent for their finances by state mandate. Their money is held in escrow and not integrated with the City’s funds but managed through the Commissioner of Finance and his staff. The City Center Authority creates and approved a budget and submits it for inclusion with the City’s budget. The City Center Authority’s budget is balanced. The budget this year is less than last year’s budget by 2.83%. They also reduced their healthcare costs through a change in the health plan and the employees contribute more towards the health insurance. They are audited through the City when the state comes through. Mary Zlotnick of 6 Laura Lane stated she is hearing a lot of work being done on the budget and thanked the Council for that. She had a lot of questions on the budget, therefore she agrees with Nancy Goldberg in the fact that she would like to see more dialogue on some of the concerns. One question she has is regarding the hazardous waste education training. In 2007, $1472.00 was budgeted, and in 2009 $45,000 was budgeted. She’s not sure why we need hazardous waste education training. She is sure others may have the same questions. Spencer Helwig of East Avenue thanked the City Council for having the courage to get things discussed. There has been a lot of inactivity over the last couple years. He knows we are far from consensus on issues but it is nice to see things are going to be discussed and decisions are going to be made on things that make Saratoga a nice place to live. John Krause added that the process of public hearings is good. He does agree with Mrs. Goldberg that the process could be looked at. He was glad to hear Mark Baker’s comments on the City Center budget. He implores the Council to take the suggestions and comments to heart. Acknowledging and considering those comments lets the public know you really care. Allan Turkheimer of 158 Woodlawn Avenue stated Ellsworth ice cream is up for auction. Why isn’t an RFP put out on that to combine housing and the recreation center and let a private developer build it? Commissioner Franck advised Mr. Turkheimer that the City doesn’t own that property, so an RFP can’t be put out. Page 3 of 4 2009 Comprehensive Budget Public Hearing 10/28/08 Allan Turkheimer advised he is aware the City doesn’t own the property but the City can work with whoever buys the property at auction. Whoever buys it is going to buy it dirt cheap. There is a spot in the center of the City for a recreation center and you can work with a private developer. NYC builds schools, police stations, fire stations and other public things in conjunction and works it out. Lew Benton spoke again to ask if there is debt service budgeted for a police building. Commissioner Ivins advised there is $3 million in 2009 for the police station. Commissioner Franck stated it is his personal opinion that after public comment the Council should have an open forum. He believes there are many questions that have simple answers and they should be able to answer. Mayor Johnson advised historically they didn’t open direct dialogue to keep the meeting organized and to complete the meeting in a timely basis. The purpose of the public hearing is to hear the public’s comments not to engage in dialogue. Commissioner Ivins stated he would be more comfortable if they ended the public forum before allowing the Council to respond. Commissioner Franck stated the 2008 budget for the line item of refund prior year tax was for just under $118,000. The number proposed for this budget is $120,000. We have to do this every year because some of the cases will go 10 years. We have the fewest number of cases now than in the last 25 -30 years. That is one of the reasons why he doesn’t go to 100% assessment. We have 2 landmark state cases right now that are residences. There are 8 or 9 regular cases that the can tell where they are going to fall. Commissioner Scirocco stated they have a contract with a company where the City gets a matching grant every year from the DEC to do household hazardous waste pick up. That would include paint, pool chemicals, etc. That is what the line item is for. They plan to do that this spring. Commissioner Kim stated his personal opinion of the furlough idea is it would not work because it would cause a backup in work. He doesn’t see the hiring freeze idea as a money saver as we are not big enough. Freezing pay increases won’t work because we are in the middle of contract negotiations. Retirement is something that may be a way for the City to save money. There is a significant savings when people retire as the replacements are paid at the minimum level. Finding other income is going to be important. Commissioner Ivins moved and Mayor Johnson seconded to close the public hearing at 7:42 p.m. Ayes – All Respectfully submitted, Lisa Ribis Clerk Approved: 11/18/08 Vote: 5 - 0 Page 4 of 4