Finance Committee

City of Verona Finance Committee City Hall – 111 Lincoln Street Verona, WI 53593-1520 MINUTES FINANCE COMMITTEE SEPTEMBER 20, 2021 The meeting was called to order by Chairperson Chad Kemp at 5:30 p.m. Roll Call: Chairperson Chad Kemp, Alder Kate Cronin and Alder Christine Posey stated she would be late. Also present: Mayor Luke Diaz, City Administrator Adam Sayre, Finance Director Brian Lamers, Parks Director Dave Walker, Recreation Director Casey Dudley, Library Director Stacey Burkart and Public Works Director Theran Jacobson. Discussion and Possible Action regarding approval of September 13, 2021 Finance Committee minutes: Motion was made by Kemp, seconded by Cronin to approve the September 13, 2021 Finance Committee minutes with no changes noted. Motion carried 2-0. Alder Posey present at 5:35 p.m. Discussion and Possible Action regarding any Updates or Information on the 2022 Budget, Department Budget Presentations: Recreation Director Casey Dudley stated in the 2022 budget there are more program revenues at about 8.6% or $22,000 and also explained that the expenditures are up also in some programs due to registration but overall the revenues in those programs cover the expenditures. He went through some of his line items explaining the programs. Parks Director Dave Walker went through the Parks budget and pointed out that the personnel expenses are up due to the COLA and changes in health insurance. He stated with his retirement that he was on single plan but we had to budget for family plan. He went though some of the operation items that had increases including fuel cost, utilities including water and lights. He then went through his capital budget items. He state in the Forestry budget one of the main increase was $12,500 for the Badger Mill Creek restoration project which would be funded by increase levy. He presented the Cemetery budget and stated there were no major changes. A discussion took place regarding the contracted services for mowing and what the cost would be if it was done internally. It was decided that should be looked at in the future. Library Director Stacey Burkart noted that the capital budget included $40,000 for carpeting. It was decided to do the carpeting in 3 stages and this is the first stage to be done. She then went over some of the line items in the budget including the Dane County funding would remain the same as last year. The majority of increase was in personnel cost including the 3% COLA and an increase in health insurance and some changes to health insurance. She stated in the budget there was the discontinuation of WIFI hotspots due to usage, reduction of PPE expenses, www.ci.verona.wi.us reduction in furniture replacement from prior year, increase in data processing charges from South Central Library System and reduction of computer replacement. Lamers stated that the decision of using $40,000 more in impact fees for debt payment reduced the amount of levy but also increased by 1/5th of that amount or $8,000, because of minimum funding, to help cover some of the changes in health insurance. Lamers stated there were still some changes that we were informed about including the reduction of revenues by almost $5,000. A discussion is taking place of where to reduce in expenditures. We are trying to avoid the reduction of the reserve funding line item and to remain at $25,000. Public Works Director Theran Jacobson presented through a power point presentation and that is available upon request. Lamers went over the Planning Department budget. He stated the decision to only fund the Planning Director position for a half of year would be a savings of $68,660 with wages and fringes. It is to help cover the $55,000 in 2022 of the Assessor and the market evaluation cost with the understanding this would get replaced in 2023 when there was no market evaluation. Lamers state the Municipal Court budget was just increased for COLA, health insurance and data processing cost. Lamers stated that we received the Health Insurance Rates this past week. The majority of employees have Quartz-UW and the employer portion did not go up as much as estimated in the budget. The employees portion for the Quartz-UW went up for single plan $52.07 per month to $81.14 and the family plan went from $125.75 per month to $198.62 and that was for general employees. The Police went up for single plan from $1.78 to $45.61per month and the family plan from $4.35 to $113.92 per month. One of the reasons for the shift is GHC came in a lot lower in cost that last year. So if employees want to switch the monthly rate for single would be $37.32 and family $89.08. For the Police, GHC insurance if they switched, would be a monthly rate for single of $1.79 and family at $4.38. The estimated levy savings for the City was about $36,000 from the 5% increase we had built in. The increase in the City’s monthly cost for the general employees was $17.49 for single and $45.19 for family. Lamers went through the listing of reductions/adjustments to the budget to get down to the levy limit. Besides what was stated for the Planning department budget reduction of the wages and benefits other changes include: $15,000 fund balance in Senior Center budget, which has a large balance; reduction of street lighting budget back to 2021 budget of $12,100 in the Public Works budget; reduce contingency of $20,000; increase general transportation aids of $20,000; increase room tax by $15,000; reduce the $10,000 levy in Refuse and Recycling budget; increase revenues in the Building Inspection budget by $40,000; utilize more impact fees for Police debt; reduce overtime in the Police budget by $40,000 (not including fringes); and reduce the Forestry budget by $12,500 for the restoration of Badger Mill Creek and utilize the a room tax fund. Adjournment: Motion was made by Cronin, seconded by Posey to adjourn the Finance Committee Meeting at 7:01p.m. Motion carried 3-0. Respectfully submitted, Brian Lamers CPA Finance Director www.ci.verona.wi.us