District 4 Advisory Board

District IV Advisory Board Minutes June 3, 2019 www.wichita.gov The District IV Advisory Board meeting was held at 6:30 p.m. at the Alford Library at 3447 S. Meridian, Wichita, KS 67217. There were five (5) District Advisory Board members in attendance. Vice Mayor Jeff Blubaugh officiated. There were five (5) City Staff, and nine (9) members of the public present. DAB Members Present Guests Kit Corby Rep. Nick Hoheisel and son Michael Gomm Rep. Jim Ward Matt Lashley Chris Stark Don McManamey Susan Urban Rebecca Robertson Donna Wirth Chris Parisho and son Council Member Sam Blubaugh Jeff Blubaugh DAB Members Absent Dalton Glasscock Ray Hall Stephanie Hartman David Kapaun Jonathan McRoy Alex Martinez Staff Present Rebecca Fields – Community Services Dist. 4 Robyn Belt – Library Manager CP Officer Roddy Winder – Patrol West CP Officer Alex Recio – Patrol South Trinh Bui – Finance Department ORDER OF BUSINESS At 6:30 p.m. Vice Mayor Jeff Blubaugh opened the DAB meeting and called the meeting to order. He then asked everyone to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Due to not having a quorum, Vice Mayor Blubaugh was unable to take any motions for the current agenda and the DAB minutes from May. Page 1 of 6  District IV Advisory Board Minutes June 3, 2019 www.wichita.gov STAFF REPORTS Vice Mayor Blubaugh asked for the Wichita Police reports. Community Police Officer Roddy Winder, Patrol West, then spoke about the potential increase in larcenies due to school being out of session. DAB Member Don McManamey then asked if Officer Winder knew anything about the suspicious character that was called in by him and several of his neighbors in the 2100 block of south Vine. Officer Winder asked that staff Rebecca Fields send him an email with Mr. McManamey’s contact information so that Officer Winder could follow up on this. Officer Alex Recio, Patrol South, spoke next and stated the following occurred during the month of May in District 4: 1 robbery; 11 residential burglaries; 3 non-residential burglaries; 33 larcenies to auto; 11 auto thefts. These were all down from the same crimes in April. Robyn Belt then gave the report for the Alford Branch Library. Alford’s Circulation count for April was 10,650. Alford’s gate count for April was 7,982. Our Summer Reading program begins later this month, on May 28th. This year’s theme is A Universe of Stories. Children from birth through 12 grade are eligible to participate. Parents can do early literacy activities with their Baby Bookworms for a prize. The older kids track each day they read at least 20 minutes and earn coupon packs and free books every 10 days. Lots of fun events for all ages are planned at every location through the end of July. Consumer Credit Counseling Service will be here at Alford on Thursday, May 23 at 6:30pm for a presentation on Saving Money on Everyday Costs. We’ve had a lot of interest in these financial classes and expect a great turnout. Registration is required but the session is free. Vice Mayor Blubaugh thanked Ms. Belt, and then recognized Representative Nick Hoheisel who was in attendance as well as Representative Jim Ward who had also joined the audience. PUBLIC AGENDA There was nothing schedule for this portion of the agenda, and no one attending wanted to speak about any issues. NEW BUSINESS Vice Mayor Blubaugh then asked for the next item that was presented by Trinh Bui, Principal Budget Analyst with Finance. Citizens’ City Budget Simulator: (NOTE: Due to being unable to get an internet connection for the presentation laptop that was being used to operate the presentations, Ms. Bui was having to describe the simulator without use of any visuals.) Ms. Bui stated that to begin the survey on the simulator, which can be found Page 2 of 6  District IV Advisory Board Minutes June 3, 2019 www.wichita.gov by going to Wichita.gov, that you put in the value of your home (or the value of your rental home) and the amount that shows up is about 28% of the property tax associated with that specified property that represents the percentage that goes strictly to the City government. The simulator does not require any personal information and it is all confidential when submitted. The simulator has different departments that are funded by the City’s general fund budget and the simulator allows the user to either add services or take away services for the departments that are listed. This will show up as an increase in property tax or a decrease of your property tax depending on what you chose. It takes about 45 minutes, or less, to go through the whole exercise. Ms. Bui also mentioned that there were cards and posters available for guests to take with them and distribute to their neighborhood groups and/or friends. Ms. Bui then moved to the next item on the agenda. Presentation of Preliminary Budget Overview; 2020-2021 Operating Budget and 2019-2028 Capital Improvement Program: (NOTE: If anyone would like a copy of the PowerPoint that accompanied this presentation, contact Vice Mayor Blubaugh or your Community Services Representative, Rebecca Fields) Ms. Bui was going through the PowerPoint presentation that Finance had compiled the previous week. She states that since 2017 the City has been using the Zero-Based Budgeting approach. As previously mentioned, the deadline to use the budget simulator is June 15. Then on June 26 there will be a social media town hall. On July 23 the City Manager will present the proposed budget to the City Council at a workshop (that will also be live on wichita.gov), and on August 6 there will be a public hearing at the City Council meeting. The City Council will vote on the proposed budget at the August 13 City Council meeting. The General Fund is the principal fund for City departments such as Police, Fire, Parks, Public Works, Library, and street maintenance. In the General Fund, property tax makes up the largest portion of the general fund at 35%. Additional revenues that fund the General Fund are Franchise Fees (20%), and others. Revenue growth is slow compared to years prior to 2009 when the economy went south. General Fund expenditures cover salaries and benefits for approximately 3100 employees and uses up 73% of the General Fund (An average of about $55,500 per employee including benefits such as health insurance contributions). 27% is for all other expenses but will fluctuate due to the cost of fuel. Most of the growth for expenses is due to public safety as the addition of more Police and Fire employees has increased 120% since the year 2000 and another 20% in growth is expected over the next two years. Reserves are important for emergency uses. The current reserves are at 14.8% of expenditures. The City’s policy is to keep at least 10% of expenditures in reserve, and the City exceeds this policy which is good news. Page 3 of 6  District IV Advisory Board Minutes June 3, 2019 www.wichita.gov In looking forward, expenditures are expected to exceed revenues by the year 2021 based on the current tax base and mill levy. Some of this is due to a reduction in franchise fees as use of land lines and cable TV diminish. If a recession were to occur, it is unknown of the consequences that would occur for City services. Ms. Bui further states that there will be an expenditure growth for technology based equipment that will allow employees to do more work with the same workforce. At this point guest Donna Wirth asked if the current proposed budget included defunding of CityArts, Cowtown, and the Animal Shelter. Donna states that this was stated in the adoption of the last budget in August of 2018. Trinh could not answer this specific detailed question. Next, Ms. Bui moved on to the CIP (Capital Improvement Program) portion of the presentation. The CIP will prioritize the budgets submitted by each City department, and each operating budget is considered by using a scoring matrix, with the final step aligning per the direction given by the City Council’s priorities. The scoring matrix was developed in 2018 based on the prioritization model developed along with the City Council’s input. The CIP is linked to the operating budget and both of these are funded with a portion of the City’s mill levy (property values/tax of which the City receives 28% of the City’s property tax as billed by Sedgwick County). This is becoming difficult as the mill levy remains flat, but the City’s debt service fund and the City’s general fund needs are changing. The current funding from mill levy is lower than 1970. This places a strain on the CIP budget. The City’s CIP dollars go towards arterials, bridges, freeways, parks, public facilities, sewer, Stormwater, transit and the airport. On the other hand, funding to support the CIP comes from water and sewer utilities, special assessments, local sales tax, federal and state funds, and others. Ms. Bui then spoke about determining debt capacity, the legal debt limit according to Kansas State Statute, City policy for debt capacity, and an update for the current adopted CIP that includes the aquatics master plan, more street maintenance and rebuild projects, a library branch study, and new or remodeled police and fire stations. This ended Ms. Bui’s City budget presentation and Vice Mayor Blubaugh opened the meeting back up for questions from the District Advisory Board members. DAB Member Rebecca Robertson asked what type of expenses are the ‘arterials’ on page 10 (slide 20)? Ms. Bui stated that they are for street improvements and maintenance. Ms. Robertson then said that she was under the assumption that the airport funds itself. Ms. Bui responded that they do. Ms. Robertson points out that the slides show that in slide 20, Financing the CIP, the airport shows $91,591,561, and on slide 21, Funding CIP Projects, it shows $33,238,151. This doesn’t match up with each other. Ms. Bui explains that much of the airport is funded by Federal dollars, but in the graph the Federal funding has been set out as a separate revenue source. Ms. Robertson then asks about slide 24, the Legal Debt Limit, which she think is confusing. Is the 24.8% debt limit the percentage of the KSS limit, or is it in relationship to the 30% limit Page 4 of 6  District IV Advisory Board Minutes June 3, 2019 www.wichita.gov established by Kansas State Statute? Ms. Bui states, yes, we are under the top of the debt limit (about 5% less) than what is allowed. DAB Member Michael Gomm stated that he was using the budget simulator and he raised all services 10% across the board, but his property taxes went up over 12%. Ms. Bui said that she would look into why it does this. NOTE: The estimated property tax in the top corner and the percentage increase is related to how much property tax revenue (which is currently a third of the General Fund) would be needed to be increased in a given proposal, not how much expenditures would increase. The software model assumes that any increased expenditures would be offset by increases in property tax. A 10% increase in services across the board would require an $18.0 million increase in property tax. Since General Fund property tax is $87.6 million to start with, it would actually be a 21% increase in property tax. (Contributed by the Finance Department) There were no more questions from the DAB Members, so Vice Mayor Blubaugh asked if there were any more questions from the guests. Donna Wirth asked, when will the budget details be released to the public? Ms. Bui replied that the detailed City budget should be available before it is presented at the City Council workshop on July 23. At that time it would be available to view on Wichita.gov. NOTE: Hard copies will be available at the City libraries. Rep. Jim Ward asked about the significant increase in expenditures for the Police and Fire Departments. Why is this so high? Ms. Bui replied that the addition of more safety officers and fire fighters, as well as the increasing costs for existing officers and firefighters due to their union contracts have caused these departments to have increased needs. Both of these categories generally make more pay than public works employees and office staff due to their dangerous work and the priorities of the City Council for public safety. Rep. Ward reiterated that it was a significant jump, and now knows that it is due to adding more positions for these departments. DAB Member Robertson asked if she could input her budget priorities in the simulator 14 times? 100 times? Ms. Bui replied that she could because the simulator does not collect any personal information. However, Staff Rebecca Fields commented that if the evaluators notice the same IP address over and over again, that they would probably take out the information due to someone trying to “pad” the statistics. Ms. Bui states that there are already 1,000 responses and that Finance hopes to receive many more inputs on this tool. The simulator asks for a zip code, but not an address, so submitters remain anonymous. Page 5 of 6  District IV Advisory Board Minutes June 3, 2019 www.wichita.gov BOARD AGENDA Updates, Issues, and Reports The Vice Mayor brought the meeting back to the board and asked if anyone had anything to share. DAB Member Matt Lashley asked if the corner of West and MacArthur could be visited again due to the truck traffic turning at the NW corner that is mostly dirt, and with the rain it is causing a mess. Vice Mayor Blubaugh mentioned that tomorrow is his son’s, Sam’s, birthday and he promised him that he would take him to the carnival that is set up for Riverfest downtown. As there was not a quorum of DAB Members, the meeting was adjourned at 7:25 pm without need of a motion. Page 6 of 6