Finance, Taxes and Insurance

FINANCE COMMITTEE March 9, 2015 – Official 5:00 p.m. Members Present: Brian, Lauer, Gil Amborn, Cindy Gauger, Ron Kluth and Tom Roanhouse Also Present: Rebecca Ewald, Lori Peternell, Stephanie Charapata, Rachel Ladewig, Rose Ortiz, Bob Burnside, TE Brennan Lauer called the meeting to order at 5:00 p.m. Motion made by Kluth, seconded by Amborn to approve the February 9, 2015 Regular Meeting Minutes. Motion carried unanimously. Rose Ortiz was present to request a repeal of invoice 02-2015 for animal reclaim fees. Her dog was processed through the DPW facility on February 2, 2015. An invoice was sent to the homeowner with the fees per Village Code 87-25 that were approved by the Finance Committee and Village Board on August 11, 2014. She explained that she and her husband were outside shoveling and they both went in the house and thought each other brought the dog in with them. She stated that her dog was found in front of their residence and that their name and phone number were written on the collar. She picked up her dog within a half hour after it was dropped off at our facility. After discussion by the Committee it was the consensus that there was an expense to the Village and that some of the costs should be recouped. Motion made by Roanhouse, seconded by Amborn to reduce the invoice from $175 to $25. Motion carried unanimously. Bob Burnside from TE Brennan was present to discuss marketing of insurance in 2016. The Village has been insured through the League of Wisconsin Municipalities Mutual Insurance (LWMMI) Company for all coverage with the exception of property (physical building structures and contents) since early 2000 when the company began. The Board of Director’s for LWMMI is made up off village and city officials, as the program is designed specifically for municipalities and cities, as our needs are statutorily different than private companies. The Village has insured our property (buildings structures and content) with the Local Government Property Insurance Fund (LGPIF) for decades. LGPIF is run by the State of Wisconsin and has been the lowest cost option for insuring our property. Governor Walker has proposed elimination of the program in 2016; however, this is only a proposal at this time and will not be decided upon until the State budget passes at the end of June 2015. Should LGPIF be eliminated after the passing of the budget, LGPIF would provide the Village with coverage for one additional renewal cycle (May 1, 2015 – April 30, 2016) and after such time the Village may need to select another insurer. TE Brennan is a firm retained by the Village (approximately $2,500 annually) that reviews our coverage and provides detailed breakouts of the insurance for purposes of billing the utilities and library. They also provide services for preparing and reviewing proposals on insurance. The Finance Committee requested to review the costs for conducting the proposal process and TE Brennan has provided a proposal for those services. After release of the Governor’s proposed elimination of LGPIF, the Administrator requested TE Brennan to provide a separate quote for conducting the proposal process for property insurance, in light of the fact that the Village is currently unsure of the future of LGPIF. Burnside stated that if LWMMI develops a program for property insurance, TE Brennan would review and provide a comparison of these programs under the scope of their annual retainer. The Village reviewed whether or not to seek proposals on insurance in 2010. At that time, the decision was not to seek proposals. An option the Finance Committee may desire to pursue is inviting the LWMMI president to educate the committee on the coverage we are currently receiving, as no private company will be able to match exactly what they provide. If anything, this could be a reference point for the Committee on what is involved in insuring a municipality versus a private company and bring the Committee up to speed on what’s entailed with our current services. Burnside recommends marketing coverage every 3-5 years and soliciting a minimum of three proposals from vendors and no more than five. It was the consensus of the Committee to continue monitoring what is happening with the State budget and review insurance again in July. The Committee reviewed the proposals from each of the firms who submitted proposals. The firms were scored based on five elements: technical requirements specified in the RFP, the firms audit experience of 3 municipal entities from proposing office, the staff’s experience that would be assigned to the Village of Waterford, the quoted fees to provide audit services to the Village, including the TIF, and the Water & Sewer Utilities for years 2015-2019 and the quoted fees to conduct a comprehensive water and sewer rate study based on replacing existing sanitary sewers and water mains in 2016. Based on the scoring for the five elements; the firms scoring are the following: 1st place – Hawkins, Ash & Baptie Tie for 2nd place – Johnson Block & Company, Schenck 3rd place - Clifton Larson Allen 4th place – Gordon J. Maier 5th place – Reilly, Penner & Benton Peternell discussed the findings of the interviews that were conducted during the 2010 audit RFP. After discussion, it was the consensus of the Committee to not proceed with interviewing firms. Motion made by Roanhouse, seconded by Gauger to recommend Village Board approval of Johnson Block for audit services for 2015-2019. Motion carried unanimously. Ladewig presented the Committee with an electronic payment processing project plan and contract with PSN (Payment Service Network). Currently village residents are able to make online credit/debit card and electronic check payments for Water & Sewer and property taxes through Official Payments. The Village does not provide an option to receive these electronic payments in person. Municipal court is not set up to receive online payments or electronic payments in the office. This makes it difficult for some defendants to make a payment at all. In addition, cash payments for municipal court are being received in the night depository. The night depository is only checked once a day Monday-Friday. Staff researched four other reputable companies that provide online and in person electronic payments. The proposed solution is to go with the vendor PSN which is the only vendor that has a direct relationship with Civic Systems/Caselle (the Village’s accounting software) allowing the ability to share utility account information. With the ability to integrate payment information directly into our system, it will save staff time from manually entering those payments. PSN will provide one portable card reader that can be used in the office and moved into the court during court appointed hours. Additional card readers are available at $195 and staff feels that one card reader is sufficient. PSN has the ability to set up multiple departments to accept payments along with the ability to set up several bank accounts associated with each department, allowing the ability to easily reconcile payments and deposits. PSN also provides customer service 363 days/year for the user and the Village (closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas day). There are two add-on options that staff recommends utilizing. The first option is for PSN to put the Village logo on the payment page to provide reassurance to the users that they are making a payment to the Village of Waterford. The one-time fee of $200.00 would be split between General Government, Municipal Court and W&S Utilities. The second add- on option is using electronic bill presentment for the utilities. Customers are able to view 2 years of statements online and will be able to view their water usage. This will be helpful for customers to detect and report any potential water leaks, resulting in high water usage and billing. Utility customers can choose to opt out of receiving paper statements that will result in lower printing and postage costs for the utilities. The Village will have the ability to attach newsletter or other documents as a PDF at no additional cost. PSN generates reminder notices that are sent 2 days before payment is due and 4 days after due date if payment has not been made. This will potentially reduce delinquent notices being sent saving the utilities on printing and postage costs. The quarterly fee of $89.85 would be paid by utilities. PSN will provide marketing materials at no additional cost to the Village to promote their service. All companies researched are able to pass on the convenience fee to the user instead of the Village. Below are the convenience fees that users will pay: PSN Convenience Fee Charges: Official Pmts Convenience Fee Charges: -Credit card payments – 2.55% of amount - Utility Credit card payments - $5.95 each -Debit card payments – 2.55% of amount -Utility Debit card payments - $3.95 each -E-check payments - $1.00 each -E-check payments - $3.95 each -Property Taxes – 2.55% of amount -Property Taxes - 2.75% of amount The above rates were similar to other vendors that were researched with PSN’s rates being the lowest. PSN has been in business for 16 years and has over 4,000 clients in all 50 states. Approximately 1/3 of their client base is municipalities. They are continuously updating their system to respond to customer’s wants/needs. Motion made by Amborn, seconded by Gauger recommend to the Village Board approval of a contract with PSN and the additional options of adding the Village logo on the payment page and the electronic bill presentment as outlined in the project plan. Motion carried unanimously. Peternell presented the Committee with Resolution #722 – A Resolution to Write-off aged Rescue Billing. Each year 3 Rivers Billing provides the Village with the amount of uncollected rescue, TriCare, Medicaid and Medicare billing that should be written off. The total amount to be written off for 2014 is $139,629.55; of which $34,083.65 has been turned over to collection and still may receive payment for. According to the billing company, accounts cannot be turned over to collection or written off until all activity on the account has ceased. The remaining $105,545.90 represents the assigned amount from Medicare, Badger Care, Title 19, hardships, deceased patients, insurance adjustments, or small balances and therefore not eligible for collection. Motion made by Gauger, seconded by Kluth to recommend to the Village Board approval of Resolution #722 – A Resolution to Write-off aged Rescue Billing. Motion carried unanimously. Motion made by Gauger, seconded by Kluth to table room tax allocations until April meeting due to lack of time. Motion carried unanimously. Motion made by Gauger, seconded by Kluth, to recommend to the Village Board approval of Village prepaid invoices in the amount of $1,610,167.34. Motion carried unanimously. Motion made by Kluth, seconded by Gauger to recommend to the Village Board approval of Village unpaid invoices in the amount of $151,277.93. Motion carried unanimously. Upon motion made by Gauger, seconded by Roanhouse, the meeting adjourned at 6:29 p.m. Motion carried unanimously. Submitted by, Lori Peternell, CMTW Village Treasurer 2