City Council

27 WEST ALLEN STREET WINOOSKI, VERMONT 05404 (802) 655-6410 CITY OF WINOOSKI (802) 655-6414 (fax) JESSIE BAKER CITY MANAGER MAYOR SETH LEONARD COUNCILOR ERIC COVEY sleonard@winooskivt.org DEPUTY MAYOR BRIAN CORRIGAN CITY COUNCIL COUNCILOR NICOLE MACE COUNCILOR BRIAN SWEENEY bcorrigan@winooskivt.org Agenda Monday, January 29, 2018 6:00 P.M. CLAIRE BURKE COUNCIL CHAMBER I. Call to Order II. Pledge of Allegiance III. Agenda Review IV. Public Comment V. Consent Agenda a. Approval: City Council Minutes of January 22, 2018 b. Approval: Warrant ending January 26, 2018 c. Approval: Services Agreement with Champlain Housing Trust for 57 West Allen Street VI. City Update VII. Council Reports VIII. Regular Items a. Approval: Consider Letter of Support for a Low Income Housing Tax Credit Application for a Mixed- Income Development Project at 268 East Allen Street – J Baker IX. Public Hearing 6:15 p.m. a. Public Hearing to receive comment on the FY19 General Fund Budget including the Capital Plan to present to the Voters – J Baker b. Public Hearing to receive comment on a Bond Vote for improvements at the Wastewater Treatment Plant – J Baker X. Regular Items: b. Approval: Consider a Necessity Resolution in Advance of a $1.45M General Obligation Bond Vote for Improvements at the Wastewater Treatment Plant – J Baker c. Approval: Approve the use of $121,673.55 in FY17 Fund Balance – J Baker d. Approval: Approve a FY19 Budget including the Capital Plan to present to the Voters – J Baker e. Approval: Approve 2018 Town Meeting Day Warning – J Baker f. Approval: 2018 Certificate of Highway Mileage – J Baker XI. Adjourn: MINUTES The Mayor called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. The meeting began with the Pledge of Allegiance led by Deputy Mayor Brian Corrigan. Members Present: Mayor Seth Leonard Councilors: Brian Corrigan, Eric Covey, Nicole Mace, Brian Sweeney January 29, 2018 Winooski City Council  Officers Present: Jessie Baker, City Manager; Carol Barrett, City Clerk; Janet Brouard, Asst. City Clerk; Angela Aldieri, Staff Accountant; John Audy, Fire Chief; Joe Shaw, Deputy Public Works Director; Richard Hebert, Police Chief; Ray Coffey, Community Services Director. Others Present: Tom Getz, Green Mountain Dev. Group; Michael Mahoney III. Agenda Review – None IV. Public Comment – No public comment was made. V. Consent Agenda MOTION by Councilor Mace seconded by Councilor Sweeney to approve the consent agenda as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. VI. City Updates The City Manager gave the following updates: - Water Break on River Street Saturday morning Crew’s onsite from about 4am to 4 pm River and Forest were without water during this time – went back on around 2:00 pm Road is open but will not be able to be paved until the spring -Winooski/Burlington Bridge Public Meeting Feb. 6 Tuesday, February 6, 2018 at 6:30 pm at UVM Medical Center’s McClure conference room A public meeting on the Winooski River Bridge Scoping Study The Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission, in partnership with Winooski, Burlington and VTrans, has undertaken a scoping study of the US RTs 2/7 bridge over the Winooski River. The goal of the study is to identify safety improvements and capacity constraints while maintaining structural integrity and continuity of this vital link between the two cities. -Community Outreach Program. Hired three individuals. MOU at next meeting VII. Council Reports Councilor Mace – None Councilor Corrigan – None Mayor Leonard said we had the Vt. Mayor’s Coalitions annual press conference and we focused on affordable housing and focused on clean water. We will have Senator Pearson come and talk about clean wter. We were successful in getting street team funding for the crisis support team that we voted to approve. He said the Planning commission met and received and Economic plan update. He also said we have housing commission and planning commission interviews are coming this week. Councilor Sweeney said the Community Services meeting was well attended. We selected officials, a chairperson, vice-chair and secretary. They also talked about the pool. There was a great presentation from the Architects and Engineers, great feedback from the audience. . The pool committee is still looking for more membership and their direction is going to be fund raising. Councilor Covey – no information on public safety, there is an organization called Everybody Wins, which focuses on mentors and youth with a focus on reading and literacy. They are having an event this Saturday at Waterworks including a reading at 1:30 p.m. by Craig Mitchell. January 29, 2018 Winooski City Council  VIII. Regular Items a. Approval: Consider Letter of Support for a Low Income Housing Tax Credit Application for a Mixed- Income Development Project at 268 East Allen Street The City Manager briefed the Council on the Green Mountain Development Group, Inc. The group is proposing a mixed-income housing project at 268 East Allen Street and is requesting a letter of support for a Low Income Tax Credit Application from the City Council, staff, and Planning Commission. Mr. Getz said the apartments are located at 268 East Allen Street and will provide high quality, affordable residential rental housing with a unique mix of services and amenities. The apartments will consist of 39 units of general occupancy housing, serving a mixed-income population with 17 1- bedroom apartments and 22-2 bedroom apartments. Of the 39 units, 12 will be market rate, 27 will be affordable to low-income families and individuals earning less than 60% of the Area Median Income and four of those affordable units will provide service-enriched housing for the homeless and at-risk. Mr. Getz said the application is due Friday and the awards come out in May. We could start process of construction in August, September time frame. MOTION by Councilor Mace seconded by Councilor Corrigan to approve and execute a letter of support for a Low Income Housing Tax Credit application for the project at 268 East Allen Street as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. See attached. IX. Public Hearing 6:15 p.m. a. Public Hearing to receive comment on the FY19 General Fund Budget including the Capital Plan to present to the Voters The Mayor opened the public hearing at 6:19 p.m. to discuss Item A for the FY19 General Fund Budget including the Capital Plan to the voters. The City Manager said what you have before you and what the public has available to them is the budget documents that are on the website. Those are available in two places. You can go to the website and under City budgets; you will see the proposed budget. You can also find it in the council folder under meetings and agendas. The Mayor said in the last budget session there was a lot of productive discussion in terms of setting some benchmark but also outlaying to staff what we wanted to see in a more structured manner. The first amount we discussed was the 1.9% threshold and the second was the 2.15% threshold. The staff went back and built models that we have before us tonight. The City Manager said what you have before you is three scenarios at a 1.9% tax rate increase or under and three scenarios at a 2.15% tax rate increase or under. She said the leadership team sat and went over different scenarios to reach these recommendations. The first one listed in each column is our recommended scenario. You have the ability to choose from this menu as you like. All of the scenarios do include several key things. Each scenario does include the three full-time staff in the City Clerk’s Office, full funding of the Community Outreach Team Partnership with Howard Center, fully fund the justice Center and the municipal match for that Dept of Corrections grant. It also funds the Public Works Director Position. Finally, each scenario staffs the library as well and each scenario contemplates reduction of about $30,000 in the Police Salary and benefits line because of our three senior leadership within the Police Dept retiring and one passing away quite sadly. Because we have senior staff leaving City employment and to model out what that would look like under our contractual obligations to bring on new staff we were able to find some savings. I did decide to put before you scenarios that reinvest some of that savings back in to the Police Dept because we will have a new leadership team. The Chief and I believe it is important to build up the training line and insure that they have the leadership training that they need to continue the great services. It is a net of $25,000.00savings. Between all of those things, we added back in you, have several scenarios that allow you to do that. The conversations that we had at the last meeting several of them add back in some general fund appropriation for the Thrive Director at different levels of funding. We have also considered based on the conversation at last week’s meeting some additional investment in the pool training line, which is training January 29, 2018 Winooski City Council  and development for all staff. There is a scenario where we add back in the two electric vehicles, funding for the Winooski Legacy Campaign, which will come out of the marketing and branding initiative. We increase but not fully fund the Winooski Valley Park District appropriations in one additional scenario. She said the gray box at the bottom of each scenario showing the results of the FY19 estimated tax rate would be, the percent change to the current year tax rate, the total fund expenditures and I will note that is without the OCC because we are moving over that $300,000.00, this is reflected without that. Finally you have a full menu of items that staff has recommended that we cut or add to the budget and the ability for you all to play with those scenarios and make them your own if you would like. b. Public Hearing to receive comment on a Bond Vote for improvements at the Wastewater Treatment Plant The City Manager gave a summary of the Bond vote. She also said this is on the website. The project is a general obligation bond that we are recommending consideration by the voters it is for $1.45 million that includes the update to the Headworks facility at the Wastewater Treatment Plant, that is the grant and solids removal system before the waste stream gets to the treatment plant. It also includes building a garage that will provide better care for our equipment over the winter months. The Mayor said we are utilizing expiring debt to take on new debt. This is actually a net no impact to the taxpayers. We are continuing to utilize current debt capacity and replacing it with another project. The public hearing closed at 6:30 p.m. X. Regular Items b. Approval: Consider a Necessity Resolution in Advance of a $1.45M General Obligation Bond Vote for Improvements at the Wastewater Treatment Plant MOTION by Councilor Corrigan seconded by Councilor Sweeney to approve the necessity resolution in advance of a 1.45M general obligation bond vote for improvements at the Wastewater Treatment Plant as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. See attached. c. Approval: Approve the use of $121,673.55 in FY17 Fund Balance The City Manager said at the end of FY2017 unassigned fund balance totaled $656,813.00. Some of these funds have been assigned for use by Council at prior meetings. For the FY19 budget staff is requesting use of reserves totaling $115,673.55 for Capital items including a down payment for a new pumper truck. Additionally staff is requesting $6000.00 for use as matching funds for the 2018 Planning Grant awarded this year. MOTION by Councilor Covey seconded by Councilor Corrigan to approve the FY17 Fund balance. MOTION was amended to include the use of $121,673.55 from the FY17 Fund balance. Voted and passed 4-0. See attached. d. Approval: Approve a FY19 Budget including the Capital Plan to present to the Voters The Mayor stated that we had spent a lot of time on this item. He said he had failed to mention at the previous meeting that the seniors wanted us to add more staff time to the Senior Center. The City Manager said at the last meeting you asked me to present three scenarios that did not exceed a 1.91% tax rate increase and three scenarios that did not exceed a 2.15% tax rate increase. See attached scenarios. There was a lengthy discussion concerning the scenarios. Each Council member gave their feedback on the scenarios and the decision was to go with the green team scenario 1. With a few modifications, which were to increase the Thrive Director, back in to General Fund for 20% of the time and to remove the Winooski Legacy Campaign funding. There was a 3-minute recess at 7:24 so the staff accountant could run the new figures for the FY19 and give the council new tax increase total and the meeting reconvened at 7:29. MOTION by Councilor Sweeney seconded by Councilor Mace to approve the FY19 General Budget in the amount of $6,697.998.77 and the January 29, 2018 Winooski City Council  amount to be raised from property taxes is $5,380,529.13 and the FY19 Capital Improvement Plan as presented. Voted and passed 5-0. See attached. The Mayor acknowledged the City Manager sand staff for all of their hard work. e. Approval: Approve 2018 Town Meeting Day Warning The City Manager said, annually the Council approves the warning. MOTION by Councilor Corrigan seconded by Councilor Mace to approve the Warning as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. See attached. f. Approval 2018 Certificate of Highway Mileage The City Manager said the annual certificate of highway mileage is required by VTRANS. We are not recommending any adjustments for last year’s certification. Over the next year, we may look at four additional segments for inclusion. MOTION by Councilor Covey seconded by Councilor Corrigan to approve the 2018 certificate of highway mileage and execute VTRANS form as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. See attached. XI. Adjourn MOTION by Councilor Sweeney seconded by Councilor Corrigan to adjourn City Council meeting at 7:40 p.m. Voted and passed 4-0. ATTEST:__________________________ City Clerk January 29, 2018 Winooski City Council