Finance Committee

City of Verona Finance Committee City Hall – 111 Lincoln Street Verona, WI 53593-1520 MINUTES FINANCE COMMITTEE October 8, 2018 The meeting was called to order by Chairperson Chad Kemp at 6:00 p.m. in Conference Room D110 Roll Call: Chairperson Chad Kemp, Alder Kate Cronin and Alder Christine Posey were present. Also present: City Administrator Jeff Mikorski, Finance Director Brian Lamers, Mayor Luke Diaz, Police Chief Bernie Coughlin, Fire Chief Joe Giver, Public Works Director Theran Jacobson and Jim Ferolie from the Verona Press Discussion and Possible Action regarding approval of September 24, 2018 Finance Committee minutes: Motion was made by Kemp, seconded by Cronin to approve the September 24, 2018 Finance Committee minutes with no amendments. Motion carried 3-0. Discussion and Possible Action regarding 2019 Budget: Lamers and Mikorski went over the potential listing of changes to the budget within the departments. A couple of the major changes include reducing the contingency fund from $100,000 to $80,000, moving half the cost of the roof replacement from levy to utilizing capital revolving fund of $31,000 and removing the capital revolving for the EMS equipment replacement fund of $100,000. Lamers explained the reduction of contingency should not be an issue if there is an emergency situation and funds are needed we can always rely on the fund balance. The capital revolving fund has enough funds in to take half the roof out and still have a good balance including the $100,000 that will be going in there with this budget. Lamers explained with the EMS equipment replacement fund was something added this year to help level off the amount needed to replace Ambulance every other year but we can keep funding them the way we have in the past. Some of the major department reductions included the Police department was requesting a new officer that was funded all year and there is an adjustment to start the employee on July 1st instead which is a reduction of $47,260, Lamers explained with making this change there is a commitment in 2020 to fund the full amount so there will be an addition to the budget in 2020 of about $50,000. Within the Public Works department there was $20,000 added for pavement marking that will be removed and budgeted in the future. Mikorski stated there was a reduction of $1,500 for the national conference for the Planning Director that he would like to put back in since we are not eliminated any other national conferences within the department. Mikorski also explained there was an addition of $3,825 for consulting serviced for economic development marking that was not supported by the Mayor and will be eliminated within the budget. Further discussion took place on the other potential reductions. Lamers stated that we have received the estimated General Transportation Aids and that was increased by $71,677. He stated with all the current change we are about $1,000 currently over the levy limit. Lamers also explained even though we www.ci.verona.wi.us are close to the levy limit with the general operations we will still be over last year’s mill rate. Lamers explained we have gotten the Assessed value with manufacturing yet from the state so we are still going off of estimates which we are probably about $.05 to $.10 over. Lamers also explained that is not as much as an issue as the TIFs may add to the addition mill rate by about .13, but explained again that these are still only estimates. Chief Joe Giver asked to respond to some of the reductions within the Fire Department. He explained that he is not in support of reducing the employee award/recognition. He stated he has staff that are paid on call or paid on premises that make $11 or $12 an hour and this is to recognize them. Lamers state that the decision was based on looking at history of the budget and actual expenditures and went through the amounts back to 2014. Chief Giver also didn’t agree with cutting the increase in uniforms that he had increased by $25 for each employee. Mikorski brought up the request of Chief Coughlin to increase to 3% COLA for the non- representative employees instead of the 2%. The additional cost would be approximately $5,500. Chief Coughlin discussed this regarding compression issues and the ability to get people into the non-representative positions. The Committee felt it was a fairness issue to the rest of the City employees. Lamers stated that currently the difference between the lowest non-representative employees compared to the union is $10,315 and with the 2% COLA the difference would drop by approximately $500 to $9,810, which does not include additional benefits like Wisconsin Retirement System. Chief Coughlin stated to the Committee it would be nice if the 3% was across the board. The Committee asked Mikorski where the compensation study is at. Mikorski explained it is not in a readable form and more information is needed. The Committee asked for a time frame and which Mikorski stated 1 to 2 months. The Committee felt this should go to Personnel Committee for discussion and recommendations. Mikorski brought up the request from the Public Works Department to move an employee to a new position requested as Lead Mechanic and adjustment to the grade from 10 to 11. After further discussion the Committee felt this should go to Personnel Committee for discussion and recommendation. Mikorski then brought up about the additional hours requested at the Senior Center for Nutrition with a cost of approximately $1,590. The Committee felt that we should adjust to the budget to reflect that change. Discussion and Possible Action regarding the payment of bills: Motion was made by Kemp, seconded by Cronin to approve the payment of bills totaling $726,774.07. Motion carried 3-0. Adjournment: Motion was made by Cronin, seconded by Kemp, to adjourn the Finance Committee Meeting at 7:00 p.m. Motion carried 3-0. Respectfully submitted, Brian Lamers CPA Finance Director www.ci.verona.wi.us