City Council Regular Meeting

Star City Council Meeting Minutes August 2, 2016 The regular meeting of the Star City Council was held on August 2, 2016 at 7:00 pm at the Star City Hall, 10769 W. State Street, Star, Idaho. Mayor Chad Bell called the meeting to order and all stood for the Pledge of Allegiance. Roll Call: Councilmen David Hershey, Richard Lockett, Trevor Chadwick were present; Councilman Kevin Nielsen was absent. Approval of the Agenda: Councilman Lockett moved to approve the agenda, Chadwick seconded the motion. All ayes: motion carried. Approval of the Claims Against the City for July 2016: Councilman Lockett moved to approve the claims against the City for July 2016, Hershey seconded the motion. All ayes: motion carried. Presentations/Public Input: Law Enforcement Budget Review – Chief Laraway stated the final budget number for 2016-17 is $730,414.00. The credit has gone down, which comes from calls for service; we are at 283. Officers are taking more calls, both North County deputies coming into Star and our officers going into the County. We want the police department to grow with the growth of the City. They use the COMPASS numbers to base the costs on. We have 61% clearance rate of cases in Star which is the highest in the valley. The people of Star are getting the service. Chief Vogt and Chief Laraway are working on some other ways to reduce costs. Chadwick asked if they go into Canyon County. Laraway stated they do not spend a lot of time in Canyon County. The Mayor stated he understands what was said regarding the budget, we are the highest per capita and he would like to understand why. We know that all other cities charge rent when we don’t. Chief Laraway stated the cost was based on the population. The Mayor is not complaining, four and a half percent was a bit of a shock when we were told it would be 3 percent. The Chief stated it was unfortunate that the number was thrown out. The Mayor stated that we need to speak with the County Commissioners. Discussion was held on overtime numbers. The numbers have increased for overtime every year. It was $32,000 for overtime and the City is not charged for that. Prosecuting Attorney – Jan Bennet, Ada County Prosecuting Attorney, stated their contract has gone down this year instead of going up. Whitney Welsh stated the cost for the City this year is $22,140.86. Welsh reviewed what the fines consist of and what we are not charged for. In 2015 the Prosecutors office ordered $11,000 in restitution to victims. Felonies are not being charged for. 1 The Mayor is very grateful to both of these entities and appreciates the work. Public Input – Heidi Prigge, 208 S. Main, Star, Idaho, asked if there was anything we can do about the garbage at the River Walk. Can we put up some signs? Chadwick stated he will bring it up to the Beautification and Pathways Committee. The Mayor stated that we can have Maintenance pick it up. Prigge stated we just need to clean it up as it looks bad. Theresa Tinsley, 10459 W. Achillia, Star, Idaho, stated she was talking with someone today who was on the River Walk and how the weeds are growing up there and the dog park as well. We pay our Maintenance people a lot for nothing being done. The Mayor let Tinsley know he is working on that. Old/New Business: Public Hearing – 2016-2017 Annual Budget – The Mayor reviewed procedures for the public hearing process. The Mayor declared the public hearing open. Ward stated there will be an additional line item added for Sales Tax, as we will start paying sales tax on our recreation programs. The Mayor reviewed the revenue side of the budget. Tax revenue has been raised 3%. Franchise fee, rental agreements, meeting room rentals are estimated numbers. Penalty and interest is self- explanatory. Alcohol licenses we have several licenses in tow. All the building revenues are based on 200 building permits. Scholarships has been increased to $17,000 this coming year. Liquor revenue, sales tax and revenue sharing are set by the State. Personnel Property tax has been combined with tax revenue. Court fines and city citations for fines. Annexation and Zoning is the land use fees. Land Use Bonding is for bonding of landscaping in the winter. Animal Licensing fees – self-explanatory. Unrestricted funds – two things – we have to carry over money to keep the City running and the second part is taking $532,932 to buy a piece of property for a future Star event center. We are in the process now of negotiations. Park reservation fees for games, use of the pavilion and stage. Recreation program fees are the charges for kids for playing soccer. Checking account interest is self-explanatory. Miscellaneous Revenue is for copies and different items. The Mayor reviewed the expense side. The Mayor reviewed the salaries. We may need to hire a contract person for Planning and Zoning. FICA/Medicare, retirement, health insurance, workman’s comp are required costs. Bank Service charge – self-explanatory. We have budget $50,000 for grants. Legal is for the Prosecuting Attorney and our attorney. Student scholarship has been increased. Civic Promo is for the Hometown Celebration for $30,000 with $5,000 for other donations. Supplies is for operation. Resource Materials is for the code books. Postal Services/Supplies self-explanatory. Insurance is to go to ICRMP our liability insurance. Public Relations, we have some money for flyers. Professional Services – engineering firm, auditor, and IT. Marketing has been increased. Travel and Per Dium has been increased for staff and council training. Professional Dues are the people we pay dues to. Training is increased. Telephone and utility charges. Committees has a line item amount of $30,000.00. We collect 2 ACHD impact fees and it is a pass through back to ACHD. Maintenance and Repair for grounds. Land Use Bonding Return is to return bonding. Miscellaneous is for refunds. Building is all based on percentage of what we make. Transfer to park fund is a transfer out to the bank account. Street Lights/Maintenance & Repair for our decorative streetlights. Recreation program is the cost of the programs. Parks – dev/mtnc is for drawing up plans, maintaining. Animal Control is payment to Zack Bruneel for animals. Police self-explanatory. Capital Expenditures – building – we are planning to build a maintenance building for $300,000. Capital Community & Equipment is $30,000 for IT, the building program needs to be replaced. Part of the money is proposed to the owner of the old Star motel as he is not able to afford demolition. The City is willing to enter into an agreement with him. If the City demolishes the building then they will pay it back upon selling or developing the property. At Pavilion Park we are planning to design for roller hockey and basketball – sports court next to the bike track, get sprinklers put in and the rest fixed up. Also $6,500 for seal coating the parking lot at City Hall and Blake Park and $5,000 in for Rec equipment at Pavilion Park. The amount is $4,251,036.00. Chadwick asked about the two lots at Hunter’s Creek. The Mayor stated that they were not in the budget as we need to have them appraised and declared surplus. The Mayor opened it up to the public. Public: Steve Plichtkie, 75 N. Union, Star, Idaho, asked about the miscellaneous line item. The actual is $66,000 in revenue. The Mayor said it was a pass through as there is that amount in the expense line as well. Plichtkie asked about the tax revenue amount as we are not collecting what we planned to for this year. The Mayor stated that we have not included the second tax check that was just received. Denise VanDoren, 11071 W. Frost Street, Star, Idaho, asked if we were not planning to increase programs for recreation as we have not increased the numbers. Ward stated that we are at a safe number as the income has gone up and down in past years. VanDoren is concerned about the miscellaneous line item, why is there money budgeted. The Mayor explained that we have no idea what the number could be, the two amounts balance each other. VanDoren asked why the increase on the expense side for resource materials. The Mayor explained that we are right in the middle of updating of the Unified Development Code and Comprehensive Plan and they will need to be codified. VanDoren asked about the public relation increase. Ward stated that Recreation wants to put out a nice flyer this year. The Mayor stated that the Committees will use this line item as well. Marketing is the same thing. VanDoren asked what the activities are that the EDC will be working on. The Mayor stated that they want to put together a video of Star. VanDoren asked what that will that be directed to. The Mayor stated it will be for recruitment of businesses, printed material and on-line. VanDoren asked if the Committees are reporting to the Council. Chadwick stated the Beautification Committee is looking at entrance plaques and different ideas. We will get some of these things going. 3 VanDoren asked how much we have in the Impact Fee Fund? Ward stated she doesn’t have that number, but the general fund has paid for a majority of the new items. Richard Tinsley, 10459 W. Achillea, Star, Idaho, asked how many permits have we sold. The Mayor stated that have sold 155 permits. Tinsley asked about the new IT stuff that is planned for, is $30,000 enough. The Mayor stated that it will be a start. Tinsley stated that we might want to think about adding it to every budget as things change. Chadwick stated that it all balances out on the capital. The Mayor stated we budget for building permits, but we don’t spend the money if we don’t make it as well as all the other stuff, we won’t spend the money if we don’t have it. The Mayor stated that we are taking the 3% increase on our tax increase. That being said, even with that our tax levy rate for the City is going down slightly. We have not taken the foregone amount which is about $460,000 that we could take if we needed it. The Mayor closed the public hearing and moved to deliberations. Chadwick believes this is a good and fair budget and moves our City in a right direction. We had questions and that was good. He is in favor of approving the budget. Hershey stated the questions were excellent. The budget has to balance. He doesn’t have any questions and it is a good budget. Lockett moved to approve the 2016-2017 budget, Chadwick seconded the motion. Roll Call: Hershey, Lockett, Chadwick – all ayes: motion carried. Reports: Staff - Chief had nothing to report. Ward had nothing to report Yorgason stated that the Appropriations Ordinance will be presented at the next meeting. Council – Hershey stated he had a family emergency that took him out of town. Lockett thanked Ward for putting the budget together. And reminded the Chief he needs to be at the next Council meeting. Chadwick stated the Beautification Committee did not meet last month, but will meet next month. The West Valley Little League won the championship. The Mayor – They are working on the skate park and Pavilion Park has the dirt moved for the bike track. We will hire someone to design that park as we have 8 acres. Two weeks from today we will have a formal presentation to Chief Laraway and a welcoming to our new Chief. We will have an open house after the meeting. We are working on an event center. It will be a hockey center with two sheets of ice, seating about 2,500 to 3,000 people. 4 Adjournment: The Mayor adjourned the meeting at 8:34 pm. Approved: _________________________ Respectfully submitted: Charlten Bell, Mayor _______________________ Cathy Ward, City Clerk 5