Finance Committee

City of Verona Finance Committee City Hall – 111 Lincoln Street Verona, WI 53593-1520 MINUTES FINANCE COMMITTEE October 22, 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, Fire Chief Joe Giver, Attorney Bryan Kleinmaier and Jim Ferolie from the Verona Press Discussion and Possible Action regarding approval of October 8, 2018 Finance Committee minutes: Motion was made by Cronin, seconded by Posey to approve the October 8, 2018 Finance Committee minutes with no changes noted. Motion carried 3-0. Discussion and Possible Action regarding Resolution R-18-055 Approving the 2019 Fitch-Rona EMS Operating and Capital Budgets: Lamers stated that the resolution in the packet needed to be changed from $517,759 to $517,278 in operating cost for the City. The resolution that was in the packet for the City Council was accurate. Discussion took place what would happen if the City of Fitchburg denied funding the 3rd ambulance from June 2019 until the end of the year. Mikorski and Lamers recommended that we either keep it in the budget and carryover for the following year budget so there would not be such a huge impact on the 2020 budget or Lamers stated we could move it to Capital and add it to the Capital Revolving fund for when we have to purchase a new ambulance. Motion was made by Kemp, seconded by Posey to recommend approving and forwarding Resolution R-18-055 Approving the 2019 Fitch-Rona EMS Operation and Capital Budgets. Motion carried 3-0. Discussion and Possible Action regarding 2019 Budget: Mikorski passed out a listing of items to be addressed. Lamers also handed out the budget publication and the updated proposed budget document if the committee decided to go with no changes. Lamers stated that currently we are within the levy limit for the total before TIF levy. If you go under to try to get within last year’s mill rate it would negatively affect the following years budget and if we go over it would also have negative effects. Kemp talked about the debt and ask about delaying the public works building and dealing with the debt that we have now. Mikorski stated that the public works building isn’t for a couple years for the actual construction and that the 5-year plan has been redone. Lamers stated that he sent the updated 5-year plan that is included in the proposed budget to Ehlers to do an analysis on the debt in the near future and the impacts of the 5-year plan. He stated although it is an estimate and there are estimated numbers such as interest rates and equalized value. Diaz stated he felt the City has been taken out too much debt. Mikorski started going over the issues to be addressed by the Finance Committee and discussion took www.ci.verona.wi.us place regarding the 2% versus the 3% COLA for Non-representative at the Police Department that was requested and also going to 3% from 2% for all City employees. Kemp stated he would like to give the additional 1% to Police non-representatives but feels that it should not be just for one department and would have to be for all departments but given the situation financial we are at with the budget that we shouldn’t be looking at that at this point. He felt we should work at rectifying budgets and then talk about COLA’s. Posey agreed that we can’t really do the 3% fiscally and have to look at the future safety of Verona. Cronin stated her preference would be the 3% for all employees and could find the $50,000. Discussion took place of if the departments could find savings without cutting services. It was decided to stay with the 2% COLA. Kemp asked about the Public Works employee changing from a Grade 10 to a Grade 11. Mikorski responded that would go to Personnel Committee for discussion and would not be a levy impact but would impact the Sewer budget which is funded though charges. Lamers went over some of the numbers that were in the proposed budget. He stated that the total before TIF levy was within levy limits and would be a .43% increase which would be approximately $6.53 increase on a $272,000 property. Once you add the TIF portion the increase would be 2.71% in mill rate which would be approximately $42.58 increase on a $272,000 property. A motion was made by Kemp, seconded by Cronin to move forward with the proposed budget as presented. Motion carried 3-0. Discussion and Possible Action regarding the City Investment Report for September 2018: Lamers reported that there was nothing unusual for September 2018 investment report. Discussion and Possible Action regarding the payment of bills: Motion was made by Kemp, seconded by Cronin to approve the payment of bills totaling $2,934,283.06. Motion carried 3-0. Adjournment: Motion was made by Kemp, seconded by Posey, to adjourn the Finance Committee Meeting at 6:45p.m. Motion carried 3-0. Respectfully submitted, Brian Lamers CPA Finance Director www.ci.verona.wi.us