City Council

27 WEST ALLEN STREET WINOOSKI, VERMONT 05404 (802) 655-6410 CITY OF WINOOSKI (802) 655-6414 (fax) KATHERINE R. DECARREAU CITY MANAGER MAYOR SETH LEONARD COUNCILOR NICOLE MACE sleonard@winooskivt.org DEPUTY MAYOR BRIAN CORRIGAN CITY COUNCIL COUNCILOR ROBERT MILLAR COUNCILOR BRIAN SWEENEY bcorrigan@winooskivt.org Agenda Monday, February 1, 2016 6:00 p.m. Claire Burke Council Chambers I. Call To Order II. Pledge of Allegiance III. Public Comment IV. Consent Agenda a. Approval: Council Minutes of January 25, 2016 b. Approval: Warrants as of January 29, 2016 V. City Update a. Acknowledge AmeriCorps VISTA Jonathan Borden for MLK artwork at City Hall – R Coffey VI. Agenda Review VII. Public Hearing 6:15 p.m. a. Approval Charter Hearing – K Decarreau VIII. Regular Items: a. Approval: Legislative Charter Review Resolution – Seth Leonard b. Approval: Certificate of Highway Mileage – Peter Wernsdorfer IX. Public Hearing 6:30 p.m. a. Approval: Proposed FY16/17 Budget – K Decarreau X. Regular Items: a. Approval: Capital Plan – K Decarreau XI. Adjourn MINUTES The meeting was called to order by the Mayor at 6:00 p.m. The meeting began with the pledge of allegiance led by Deputy Mayor Corrigan. Members Present: Mayor Seth Leonard Councilors: Brian Corrigan, Brian Sweeney, Nicole Mace, Robert Millar Officers Present: February 1, 2016 Agenda Winooski City Council Katherine R. Decarreau, City Manager; Carol Barrett, City Clerk; Angela Aldieri, Staff Accountant, John Audy, Code Enforcement Director; Ray Coffey, Community Services Director; Richard Hebert, Police Chief; Ethan Hausman, Others Present: Neil Borden, Nina Borden, Jess Lukas, Sarah Sears, Mike Myers, Mike Bergeorn, Lynn Bergeron, Sam Myers, Jeff Myers III. Public Comment – None IV. Consent Agenda MOTION by Councilor Mace seconded by Councilor Sweeney to approve the consent agenda as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. V. City Update: The City Manager said Friday is Go Red for Women Day. This is in support of the American Heart Association. City staff will be wearing red and having their picture taken. She said we have removed Interim from Elijah Ferrees title. He is now Director of Community Justice. -Elections are Tuesday, March 1, 2016. Brian Corrigan and Brian Sweeney are running for Council, Jennifer Corrigan is running for School Board 3 year term; Julian Portilla is running for School Board 2 year term. Mr. Coffey acknowledged AmeriCorps Vista Jonathan Borden for his artwork on Martin Luther King Day. Volunteers gathered to do spray paint artwork. VI. Agenda Review: The Mayor Moved Regular Item A Approval: Legislative Charter Review Resolution before the first public hearing. The Mayor said this Resolution was presented last week and there were some changes to be made to it so it is here for approval tonight. The Mayor read the following Resolution. See attached. MOTION by Councilor Corrigan seconded by Councilor Sweeney to approve the Resolution Supporting Municipal Charter changes as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. VII. Public Hearing 6:15 p.m. a. Approval Charter Hearing The public hearing started at 6:15 p.m. The City Manager said we have a summary of changes and the final draft of review items filed in the Clerk’s Office. Documents will also be in each of the voter’s booth during Election Day. The City Manager explained the process. We are clarifying language and reorganization of the charter. MOTION by Councilor Millar seconded by Councilor Mace to approve and adopt the amended “Charter of the City of Winooski” approved by the City Council on February 1, 2016 as presented. Voted and passed 5-0. Public hearing ended at 6:30 p.m. IX. Public Hearing at 6:30 p.m. a. Approval of Proposed FY16/17 Budget The City Manager gave a presentation on the FY16/17 Budget. See Add/Restore list. The grandlist is the total value of all the properties in the City of Winooski and it’s the basis for being taxed. We are going to propose a very comfortable $24,000.00. We’re confident that it could be higher. There are some balances from cuts made and were not intending to restore. We looked at inflation and with every indication that’s going on and felt February 1, 2016 Agenda Winooski City Council comfortable enough to drop it further. The City Manager said she has already talked to Erik Heikel and she said I will be acting as the Tax Collector next year. Which means all the penalties will stay with the City. Janet has agreed to take on the administrative part of it. The Mayor gave an overview of the process. How we started and ended? The City Manager said in the pool budget it was about $56,000.00. She spoke with Joe and he said right off the top the pool leaked so bad you could save almost $2800.00 in just water. Where we came is about $51,000.00. If we were to have a new pool we would save about $5,000.00 in operating cost because we wouldn’t have to be running around trying to fix things. Councilor Mace said to be clear we are not going to have a brand new pool this summer. The City Manager said if you’re maintaining a pool $48,000.00 is a good number. The Mayor said should the funds be put in to open the pool and if we came to the point where all those funds were spent and there was some left over from our attempt and if there was a failure structurally etc., those funds could be re- purposed. They could be reassigned for additional programming. We talked a couple of times that regardless of what the decision is there should be programming planning being done. The City Manager said we are actively in that process. Mr. Coffey said Mr. Hausman has done a lot of work looking at alternatives. We have a temporary RFP, pool study committee was chartered last week and we are accepting applications for the committee. The Mayor said it is safe to say that there is broad support for placing $48,000.00 on to the restore list for the pool. Unanimous vote to restore the pool. The Mayor said if you have specific things please bring them forward. The City Manager said the Nixle fees are already something we are doing. Councilor Millar and Councilor Corrigan thinks its working well. The City Manager said she should acknowledge staff here. This is a major change in culture here and the level of communications has really adopted it well. Councilor Mace feels the Police Community Outreach is a priority. Councilor Sweeny said his top four are: CCTV, WCP WVPD and the Community Development position. The Mayor said he agrees with all four. Councilor Mace added the Clerks office and shifting Public Safety Admin out of Clerk’s office and moving it above the Community Development position. We should also include the Public Works pay to fit pay scale. The Mayor said he would include moving the dispatchers to VMERS Group C. Councilor Mace said she was on the fence about adding this to the budget this year. Councilor Corrigan increase category c part time clerk positions – Very little is more frustrating than paying somebody that has the capability of doing so much more. The Mayor said the current calculation of 1.4% does not include the use of fund balance. The Mayor also said we have a group of Community Service items that we have not talked about at this point, which include a Program Asst. to the Senior Center, merging of two positions; Youth Librarian/Tutoring Coordinator expanded Rec Program Councilor Sweeney said the higher priority from the commissions was the Librarian/Tutoring Coordinator. It seems their playing against each other. Out of the three the top is tutoring followed by Rec Programming and Senior Center third. Councilor Mace said she looks at it in terms of the bigger picture of what the tax increase is and what we are willing to support because it’s important to me that we invest in and maintain our current commitments to the City and the residents of the City. The Mayor said lets talk about where we want to settle. Councilor Mace said she thinks they are both totally worthy proposals and should make it to the list. What extent do we want to expand the programs? My recollection was a large support to the Senior Center. Mr. Coffey said from the commission stand point passing things forward, their top four were Senior/Custodial, Library, Senior Center position and Rec Program. He said the Senior/Custodial is being covered somewhere else. The Mayor said the commission again said last Thursday they opted not to support opening the pool and that was on the list that they originally submitted. The Mayor added the Tutoring Coordinator 1st and Programming Asst. and Senior. He said at this point we are at 2.2 cents before touching fund balance. Councilor Sweeney said the other one was the stipend for the Fire Dept. He felt this should be on the list. The City Manager said this is on call and this means not leaving town, no alcohol and also carrying the pager. The Mayor said we will move it over to the ads. February 1, 2016 Agenda Winooski City Council The Mayor said we should have a combined discussion about thresholds and fund balance. The City Manager said we will end up with about $175,000 dollars in fund balance. This is 1.4% more revenue than we thought and 1.6% less expense than we thought. The City Manager said we do have vacancy savings in the Police Dept and Public Works Dept. $12,000 in Police Dept and $5,000.00 in Public Works. Councilor Mace said the budget that is presented is increasing lean every year. She also said it’s very important that we match our revenues with our expenses. She doesn’t think we should be using fund balance. Is there a category of expenses that are important to us to sustain but don’t create a structural deficit moving forward. I want to be respectful to our taxpayers. Councilor Mace said for example: She calculated about $17,000 closer to $20,000 an annual commitment would be the following: Nixle Fees, Police Community Outreach, CCTV, WCP, WVPD. The Mayor said the Community Development person, part-time clerk, public works is a commitment to those ongoing maintenance cost for those items. He also said he does not feel good about using fund balance right now. I don’t like the feel of structural deficits. Councilor Sweeney said he is a little more supportive of the fund balance. It would be around $20,000 from fund balance. He said he would like to see less than 2 cents closer to 1.5 cents. Ms. Aldieri said a penny raises approximately $50,343.00. The City Manager said when you feel comfortable we will table until Angela can give us figures. She said the growth is outside the TIF and it includes Peking Duck Property, 103 St Peter St., 58 Elm St. and Tigan Industrial Park. Councilor Mace asked about the Community Development position. The City Manager said this will be an interesting position that needs to happen. 1. It is a hugh investment in the Commissions 2. Economic Development piece – to find more development build our relationship with more developers. Ms. Aldieri said when we added the growth we added $24,000 in total taxes collected. The Mayor said we are at the point where we have to decide whether or not to use fund balance. He said he is not in favor, Councilor Millar is not favor, Councilor Corrigan not a hugh favor “but”. The Mayor said it is safe to say that two are opposed and two are in favor of using fund balance Councilor Corrigan said he will vote in favor of using $20,000 of fund balance. We are looking roughly for half cent right now we are at 1.9%. The City Manager said the other piece to think about and this is something that happens later is when you set the tax rate. We always leave a small % in that tax rate for loss. If there’s a fire, or someone appeals the assessment that could also impact the numbers. There was some discussion concerning as to where to position the add list. Councilor Sweeney said he would like to get down to 1.5 cents. Councilor Mace said her mind set was to come in at 1 cent. The Mayor said he would put the fund balance towards a person. Councilor Mace said a lot of decisions that we made, we are in agreement on are designed to address that issue. The Mayor said he is comfortable with a 1.75 cent increase. Mr. Mike Myers questioned some of the programs that are on there isn’t it because of our diverse community, like the Tutoring & Youth Librarian position. Mr. Coffey said at the moment those are two part-time positions. The Youth Librarian is a position funded by the City and the Tutoring Coordinator is totally a grant funded position. Basically what this would do is take the existing grant money and current city money and combine them together and this # here represents the difference to get a full-time person. It’s basically the benefits package. Councilor Mace asked what the 1.63% is. The City Manager said the overall budget increase is 1.63% over last year. She said the budget she gave you at 0 includes inflation and we still managed to get it to 0. The Mayor said he understands the proposed as the reasoning for the particular fund balance that you offered. If $20,000 why not $35,000 to get you back to the point of 1.5 cents. Councilor Mace said the remainder of the balance would go to the Capital Fund. Councilor Sweeney thought is and if everyone is comfortable with this. I would still prefer to see it lower and the best would be to remove line 30 Senior Center that to me make more sense. The Mayor has some real concerns on some issues that are being put through in regards to the way our relationship works. I’ve been opened with my concerns. The City Manager said now that you mention Nixle just in the interest. The texting we are doing now is a blanket to everybody and is free. It’s when we want to start using it more such as signing up for City Council minutes or agendas. The $4000.00 let you do specific things. If you only want Community Services February 1, 2016 Agenda Winooski City Council notifications we can begin to do that and not piling into front porch forum. We can directly email people very specific things that their interested in. Can we do without the $4000.00 yes but it forces us to text everybody all the time with everything. Councilor Mace said with the exception of Nixle everything showed up on the cut list. Councilor Corrigan said he was comfortable with where this formula is. Councilor Millar said he was moving forward with this and I’m not really arguing again with the fund balance. Councilor Mace said we are investing in our strategies and mindful to our taxpayers. The Mayor said he is comfortable at where it’s at. The City Manager suggested we have Angela bring back the figures. The Mayor called for a recess of the public hearing at 8:41 p.m. and reconvened the meeting at 8:45 p.m. VIII. Regular Item b. Approval: Certificate of Highway The City Manager said there are a number of roads we haven’t accepted, mostly cul-de-sacs. Our commitment is to work through and resolve over the next two years. MOTION by Councilor Sweeney seconded by Councilor Corrigan to accept the certificate of highway mileage as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. X. Regular Item a. Approval: Capital Plan The City Manager said we showed you the five year capital plan. What you received separately from Angela is virtually every single thing we own in the City and the next five years of what is being replaced and also show you what were not touching. This actually goes out 40 years. The Mayor asked if there were any questions based on the structure of the capital plan. The City Manager said she should explain we switched a bit of our thinking in public works from buying equipment to leasing equipment. We are also thinking about that in the fire dept. She also said next years budget has about $110,000 in street replacement. We have about 19 ½ miles of street and that is about $500,000 to stay on top of it. We have some real opportunities that we had struggled with. MOTION by Councilor Corrigan seconded by Councilor Mace to approve the Capital Plan as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. See attached capital plan. The Mayor reconvened the Public hearing at 9:00 p.m. Councilor Sweeney said he wanted to see it lower. I think it’s a good exercise to see where we can trim and keep it low, specifically the Senior Citizen position. Mr. Mike Myers questioned those two positions. What ones do you want? Is the Librarian used a lot more than the Program Asst. or is it the other way?. Mr. Coffey said the Senior Center position is a new part-time position. The tutoring position is a combination of two part-time positions. He said the tutoring position saw about 1800 visits and when making it a year round position somebody can established more connections. The Senior Center is seeing about a thousand people a month. Ms. Aldieri arrived with the new figures. See attached. She said it reflects the additions the council has proposed. The Mayor said the Total Budget is $6,210,094.79 and the amount to be raised by taxes is $5,147,561.68. This is an increase of 1.765 cents. Councilor Mace echo’s her reservations about this level of a rate increase. It’s important to me that we remain an affordable City for folks to live in however this budget represents recognition of why we need to make critical investments. Councilor Corrigan asked Councilor Mace if she would support the budget. Councilor Mace said yes. The Mayor and Councilor Millar support this. Councilor Corrigan said this is a very fiscal responsible budget and I accept this budget. MOTION by Councilor Sweeney seconded by Councilor Mace to approve the total budget of $6,210,094.70 and an amount to be raised by taxes in the amount of $5,147,561.68 as presented. Voted and passed 5-0. The City Manager wants to add her profound thanks to Angela. MOTION by Councilor Millar seconded by Councilor Sweeney to adjourn at 9:15 p.m. Voted and passed 4-0. ATTEST:____________________________ City Clerk February 1, 2016 Agenda Winooski City Council