Finance, Taxes and Insurance

FINANCE COMMITTEE July 11, 2016 – Official 5:00 p.m. Members Present: Brian Lauer, Gil Amborn, Andy Ewert and Jim Schneider Also Present: Lori Peternell, Rebecca Ewald, Rick Mueller, Howard Bryant & Cynthia Jensen from Absolutely Waterford, Katy Engels from Waterford Area Chamber of Commerce and Linda Keckhaver from Tichigan Lakes Fireworks. Lauer called the meeting to order at 5:00p.m. Motion made by Schneider, seconded by Amborn to approve the June 13, 2016 Regular Meeting Minutes. Motion carried. Motion made by Amborn, seconded by Schneider to approve the June 13, 2016 Joint Finance/Village Board Meeting Minutes. Motion carried. Motion made by Schneider, seconded by Amborn to table approval of the June 21, 2016 Joint Finance/Village Board Meeting Minutes until the August 8th meeting. Motion carried. Howard Bryant and Cynthia Jensen discussed the Absolutely Waterford’s 2017 $15,000 funding request to be used for the executive director’s and an independent bookkeeper wages. Motion made by Schneider, seconded by Ewert to recommend Village Board approval of Absolutely Waterford’s 2017 funding request, Amborn and Lauer abstained due to conflict of interest. Motion failed to due to lack of quorum. Schneider will provide an update to the Board. Katy Engels discussed the Waterford Area Chamber of Commerce 2017 $5,000 funding request for Balloonfest. Motion made by Schneider, seconded by Ewert to recommend Village Board approval of Waterford Area Chamber of Commerce 2017 $5,000 funding request to be funded with promotional room tax revenue. Motion carried. Linda Keckhaver discussed the Tichigan Fireworks $500 2017 funding request for the annual fireworks display. Motion made by Schneider, seconded by Ewert to recommend Village Board approval of Tichigan Fireworks $500 2017 funding request to be included in the civic promotion budget. Motion carried. Discussion was held on where the funding for Absolutely Waterford’s request should come from. In 2016 it was originally included in the operational budget under civic promotion. However, in order to comply with the expenditure restraint program, it was moved to the capital budget. Motion made by Amborn, seconded by Schneider to recommend Village Board approve including the $15,000 in the non-recurring capital budget. Motion carried. Discussion was held regarding the Village’s financial policies. The Committee requested staff provide a list of policies that have been approved so far and ones that still need approval to be discussed at the August 8th meeting. Discussion was held regarding 2016 utilization of fire and rescue donation funds and policy for donations. In 2014 Standard Operating Guidelines (SOG) were implemented for the fire and rescue department. The SOGs noted expenditures from the donation account to be approved by the Village Board. There were no SOGs prior to 2014 that defined a process for utilization of the donated funds. Last year fire and rescue dinner and recognition items, training meals and candy for parades were removed from the Fire Departments operational budget and directed to be taken from the donation account. The items and their anticipated dollar amounts were noted in the budget document and no additional documentation was required for expenditure. In spring 2016 it was recognized by Amborn/Schneider/Peternell/Ewald when reviewing the financial policies that more direction was needed on how all donations were approved for utilization. The fine tuning of the policy was delayed to continue work deemed necessary at the time on the capital budget and review of future financing options. The Committee reviewed a proposal from the Fire Chief for fitness equipment to be funded by the donation account. The Fire Chief purchased a portion of the fitness equipment without receiving approval of the Village Board pursuant to the SOG. Following notification of this, the Chief is submitting a request to use donations for the fitness equipment purchased and future fitness equipment identified in the summary. Moving forward staff is recommending the Village continue using the SOG for fire and rescue donations, but also that any donation received by any department in the future would also require the approval of the Village Board in advance of donation expenditure. Based upon the dollar amount, the purchase requisition process would be followed as currently outlined. In the future, known requests for donated funds can be outlined within the budget or requested on an as-needed basis from the Village Board. Motion made by Schneider, seconded by Ewert to approve the fitness plan expenditures in the amount of $13,926.85 as outlined in the Fire Chief’s proposal. Motion carried. Peternell updated the Committee on bulk item pick up and condominium garbage and recycling. At the May 9th meeting the Committee recommended including garbage and recycling services to condo units at a cost of $17,080.32 in the 2017 budget. At the June 13th Village Board meeting they approved moving forward with including service to condo units in 2017 but moving the garbage and recycling charges out of the levy and adding them as a special charge on the tax bill. By doing this, levy limit law requires municipalities to reduce the levy for the amount that was included for garbage costs, for 2016 the annual garbage contract is $183,448. This law does not apply to recycling costs. Discussion was held regarding that in 2017 the recycling costs will be billed as a special charge on the tax bill. This will decrease the recycling levy by approximately $65,000. Because levy limit law does not require a municipality to reduce the levy for recycling charges, staff is seeking direction on whether the Finance Committee and Board desires to reallocate that to a different area of the budget, such as the general fund, Library fund, Capital fund or debt service. Motion made by Schneider to reallocate the recycling levy to the general fund. Motion failed due to lack of a second. Motion made by Schneider, seconded by Amborn to defer action on the reallocation of the recycling levy until the 2017 budget process to see if it’s needed. Motion carried. Discussion was held regarding the banking proposals that were received June 24, 2016. Peternell stated there were a total of 10 banks that were notified of the Village’s RFP, 4 proposals were received from BMO Harris, Associated Bank, Johnson Bank and Community State Bank. Peternell stated that due to the amount of information provided and limited time to review and discuss all the proposals during a regular meeting, she is requesting a special Finance Committee meeting during regular business hours either July 25th or 26th to review the proposals in greater detail. Motion made by Schneider, seconded by Amborn to schedule a Finance meeting for Tuesday, June 26th at 3:00pm to review the banking proposals. Motion carried. Motion made by Schneider seconded by Amborn, to recommend to the Village Board approval of Village prepaid invoices in the amount of $20,884.14. Motion carried. Motion made by Schneider, seconded by Amborn to recommend to the Village Board approval of Village unpaid invoices in the amount of $394,997.19. Motion carried. The Treasurer will verify that the payment to Associated Appraisal is per the terms agreed upon at the June 13th Village Board meeting. Upon motion made by Schneider seconded by Amborn, the meeting adjourned at 6:25 p.m. Motion carried. Submitted by, Lori Peternell, CMTW Village Treasurer 2