Zionsville Town Council

Zionsville Town Council October 17, 2022 ZIONSVILLE TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES FOR MONDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2022 AT 8:00 A.M. EST ONSITE MEETING 1100 West Oak Street This meeting was conducted onsite. All Councilors participated in person. Council Members Present: Jason Plunkett, President; Brad Burk, Vice-President; Alex Choi, Josh Garrett, Craig Melton, and Bryan Traylor Absent: Joe Culp Also Present: Heather Harris, Town Council Attorney; Mayor Emily Styron, Deputy Mayor Julie Johns-Cole, Tim Berry, Crowe LLP; Kellie Adams, Chief Financial Officer; Amy Lacy, Municipal Relations Coordinator; and other Town Department Staff OPENING A. Call meeting to order B. Pledge of Allegiance Plunkett Call to order the Monday, October 17, 2022 Town Council meeting. If you would please, stand and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance. All Pledge of Allegiance. APPROVAL OF THE MEMORANDUM OF THE ADENDUM OF THE SEPTEMBER 19, 2022 REGULAR MEETING Plunkett Up first on the agenda is the is the approval of the memorandum of the Amended September 19, 2022 regular meeting. A copy has been posted. Are there any questions from Councilors? Garrett I make a motion to approve. Plunkett First by Councilor Garrett. Page 1 of 24 Zionsville Town Council October 17, 2022 Melton Second. Plunkett Second by Councilor Melton. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 6 in favor, 0 opposed. APPROVAL OF THE MEMORANDUM OF THE OCTOBER 3, 2022 REGULAR MEETING Plunkett Up next would be the approval of the memorandum of the October 3, 2022 regular Town Council meeting. A copy of that has also been posted. Questions from Councilors? Garrett I make a motion to approve. Plunkett First by Councilor Garrett. Burk Second. Plunkett Second by Vice President Burk. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett Motion passes 6 in favor, 0 opposed. CLAIMS Plunkett Up next would be the approval of the October 17, 2022 Claims. Are there any questions from Councilors? Burk Move to approve. Plunkett First by Councilor, Vice President Burk. I’ll second that motion. All those in favor signify saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 6 in favor, 0 opposed. MAYOR/ADMINISTRATION UPDATE Page 2 of 24 Zionsville Town Council October 17, 2022 Plunkett Up next on the agenda is the Mayor/Administration Update. We did not receive any agenda items from the Mayor for the Town Council packet so moving on to Council Updates. TOWN COUNCIL UPDATE Plunkett I would like to give a couple of updates to the Council on four things. 1. The Mayor recommended that we use Brian Bosma for redistricting and leadership and our attorney has met with Mr. Bosma and decided to move forward with that recommendation. His contract is with the Mayor and we will see an appropriation for his contract soon as well the signed contract for that work once we have the appropriation. 2. I have received a number of emails, especially lately, this is more for the public than the Council but I received a number of emails lately requesting a modification to the golf cart ordinance. I would like to let everyone know that we are reviewing that ordinance which includes the cost and scope of that ordinance. I hope to have a modified ordinance before this Council by the end of the year. 3. I have had personally a scheduling conflict with the ARPA meeting scheduled for Tuesday the 25th. I am moving that to Monday the 24th at 5:30 here in the Town Council Chambers. So, Monday the 24th here at 5:30 in the Town Council Chambers. 4. And then lastly, you’ll recall that in the last meeting the Council requested any immediate needs from the Police Department or the Fire Department that could be advanced into 2022 to circumvent supply chain issues. Captain Sterling has forwarded about $169,000 worth of items that the Police Department would like to have moved into this year. As a result, we will likely see that in the next couple of meetings so that we can get those orders processed. Garrett Is that an out of the budget that— Plunkett Yes, it’s my understanding that those are items that would be, yes, so they would be removed from ’23 and brought into ’22. And I’ve got a list of those items I can certainly forward to everybody as we move that process along. Any other updates from Council? Garrett I have one request, I guess, of the Administration. I keep getting asks about the Gateway area and I would love to hear an update there. We funded a study there, we went through that study. I haven’t heard anything since then. I’m very curious and I think the public is curious about what is going on, if anything, with that area. Plunkett If you’re all right with it, I’ll send an email to the Administration and ask them – Garrett Yes, that’d be great. Page 3 of 24 Zionsville Town Council October 17, 2022 Plunkett For whatever update they can provide. Garrett I appreciate that. OLD BUSINESS A. Consideration of Hussey Mayfield 2023 Budget Adoption Ordinance 2022-20 (Final Reading) Plunkett Up first on Old Business is a Consideration of the Hussey-Mayfield 2023 Budget Adoption. I believe, Sarah Moore is here, the Executive Director. I don’t know, Sarah, if you want to come up or if Council has any questions. I know we went through everything at the last meeting. Burk I’m good. Plunkett Yes, I mean, I don’t particularly have any questions either. I would actually make a motion to approve the budget. Garrett Second. Plunkett Second by Councilor Garrett. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 6 in favor, 0 opposed. B. Consideration of an Ordinance Establishing a Health Fund (Final Reading) Ordinance 2022-18 Plunkett Up next would be a Consideration of an Ordinance Establishing a Health Fund. This is a final reading. This is Ordinance 2022-18. We have Kellie here. Again, this is something we went through last, at the last Town Council meeting. Councilors, do you have any questions for Kellie regarding this particular ordinance? Garrett I’ll make a motion to approve. Plunkett First by Councilor Garrett. Choi Second. Plunkett Second by Councilor Choi. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Page 4 of 24 Zionsville Town Council October 17, 2022 Plunkett Motion passes 6 in favor, 0 opposed. C. Consideration of an Ordinance Establishing an FSA Fund (Final Reading) Ordinance 2022-19 Plunkett Likewise, up next Consideration of an Ordinance Establishing the FSA Fund. This is also a final reading. This is Ordinance 2022-19. Any questions for Kellie? I will make a motion to approve. Burk Second. Plunkett Second by Vice President Burk. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 6 in favor, 0 opposed. NEW BUSINESS A. Consideration of the 2023 Budget for the Town of Zionsville, Indiana (First Reading and Public Hearing) Ordinance 2022-21 Plunkett Up next on New Business, this is a Consideration of the 2023 Budget for the Town of Zionsville, Indiana. This is a first reading and public hearing. This is Ordinance 2022-20 and I believe we have Kellie Adams and Tim Berry here for discussion. Who would like to come up? Berry Good morning. Burk Morning. Plunkett Good morning. Berry Tim Berry with Crowe, the town’s financial advisor. You received for the public hearing as advertised for appropriately on the DLGF website based upon comment and feedback that was received at the budget workshop that was held back on, I believe, the 24th of September upstairs that was also held during a public meeting. At that time, changes from that meeting largely were based on feedback that was received from the Council to include so that you could see what the impact would be, the cost of longevity pay, the cost of moving employees to midpoint as well as getting rid of the, at that time, proposed salary increase and proposed bonus structure and moving that all into a salary increase Page 5 of 24 Zionsville Town Council October 17, 2022 and that is what is presented to you. There were some other minor changes as well that you would’ve received last week and that is presented for you. Given this, the proposed budget structure has, has been noted and, and discussed on many occasions. The town adopted a liquidity policy back in 2019 that required the town leadership to evaluate fund balances at the end of each year to ensure that those fund balances were within 15 and 20% of annual expenditures what and the desire of the Town Council to have sustainability within their fund balances, what would, what has been proposed would include an ending fund balance in the General Fund of approximately 75% of annual expenditures. That is 3, 3½ times more than the greatest amount that is recommended by your liquidity policy and the Government Finance Officers Association. You also would have balances within your Cum Cap Development Fund of a consistent amount 79% and your Cum Fire would be at 46%. Now, it was noted earlier about some, moving some possible expenditures into 2022 in capital line. Those have not been accounted for in this, so those dollars are within that budget today as presented which could be amended if you were to move those into 2022 by reducing those dollar amounts. Garrett Tim, what’s the process to amend that? Just so we’re all familiar. Berry So, in order to adopt those expenditures in 2022, you would have to pass an additional appropriation, advertise for that, pass an additional appropriation and pass those expenditures. You would then be able to make a motion at the table to reduce those budget lines accordingly from the budget – Garrett Thank you. Berry Prior to passage. Plunkett I believe this is where you would have all questions answered specific to the budget. Melton So regarding the $169,000 from the Police Department, is that something that we would make our motion, or I’m sorry, make our adoption for that to – Burk Minus that. Plunkett Well, so I guess that would be, we would have to hear that first, right? I mean, we’d have to make that decision first technically or you would approve the budget and it would have $169,000 extra in the Police Department fund, correct? Berry You could always then do a de-appropriation next year in those lines if you choose after the fact to appropriate those dollars or any other capital expenditures in this year. You can then in January or later this year but preferably in January, you would come back and do a de-appropriation of those lines of any expenditures that you would move into the 2022 year, yes. And that’s commonly done. Plunkett Okay. Page 6 of 24 Zionsville Town Council October 17, 2022 Harris And, and I was just going to note, you may, you may want to go that route. Given the timing for additional appropriations, we’ll have to advertise that so we would be looking at least at the November meetings which would be past the date of adoption for the budget. So, just to be safe, I would probably recommend that you do de-appropriation later. Plunkett It should also be pointed out that, those dollars are contingent on Council approval for the additional five officers. So assuming we want the additional five officers, it’s essentially a lot of the expenses that would be incurred in 2023 or 2022 now so that we can be ahead of the game in that situation. Berry And by taking that action, that would have no impact on ending balances, proposed ending balances in 2023. So those balances would still remain the same. Choi So, a few questions and Kellie, thank you for breaking down the capital outlays. Tim and I exchanged a little text message about what this signifies but. We, we received, I think it was on Wednesday, the kind of an itemization of the various capital outlays that total $8,271,377. So, and, and I feel like I sound like a broken record talking about this but there are, we’re looking at a balanced budget and saying our revenue equals expenditures and that equates to a balanced budget and essentially what we have chosen to do in looking at something like that is to pull the capital outlays out and saying the rest of it balances. Is that correct? Berry Essentially. In looking at a budget you need to look at the budget holistically. Choi Right. Berry And, you can’t really look at it piecemeal, you really need to look at it as a total and a sum total of revenues and expenditures and while some dollars are fundable other dollars are not. Your capital expenditures certainly are in that classification as not being fundable. You have separate tax levies for both your Cum Fire as well as your Cum Cap Development Fund and those levies are set by statute. Those are not set based upon the budget. Those are set by the statute and the statutory limitations of what that rate shall be – Choi Yes. Berry And then based upon the assessed value. Those dollars are rising faster than some of the other areas within the budget because the assessed value growth, not only here in Zionsville but across the state, is growing faster than that debt limit or the, the limit set by statute on what you can grow your levy and so I believe this year, I don’t have the number in front of me, but I want to say assessed value growth was somewhere in the neighborhood of 19%, 20% so that’s why those dollars are rising at, at a faster rate than, than others. What you’re looking at is a sustainable budget. Because you have pulled out, because those balances within those funds have grown over the last few years at, at dollar amounts far in excess of what is recommended by GFOA, I think the intent was that this year we would, the town would potentially look at making an investment, some necessary investment in manpower due to the growth in the Page 7 of 24 Zionsville Town Council October 17, 2022 town, in Public Safety, in Planning, specifically, those are some of the areas largest associated with the additional staffing and the additional costs that go with those additional employees accordingly. As well, there were a lot of capital expenditures that were not spent and those capital budget balances have grown and so the intent was to invest in some of those capital expenditures in Police, Fire and certainly within the Department of Public Works. And – Choi Well and – Berry Those are capital expenditures – Choi Yes and, and we’ve gone over all of that – Berry Yep. Choi Several times before and I understand that. I think we all understand that. The, the breakdown, what, why I have some heartburn over this and, and when you broke it down I started realizing well, under DPW, as far as capital outlays go, we include things like tree services, sidewalk replacements, street light repair – Berry Yes. Choi Street repair. Street repair comes in at a million dollars. Since I don’t have this breakdown from years previous, is that roughly about how much street repairs are each year? Berry I’m going to look to Lance – Lantz Yes. (Off microphone) Choi Okay. So to me, I, and I understand that as odd as it seems, that that falls under capital outlays instead of an operational expenditure, but when we’re actually looking at a balanced budget, that should factor into whether we have a balanced budget or not because revenue should equal expenditure and these recurring capital outlay expenditures, to me, is part of an operational expense. That’s why I have some heartburn over this because it’s now included in that what looks like an, an area that we’re going to use to spend down our reserves, our funds. So if we keep doing this year after year over the course of, this is, these are things that has to be paid year after year. These aren’t things like and, and I fully understand when we look at fire engine for $1.1 million dollars, that’s something that we use the funds for and have saved the reserve for to be able to utilize that but when I look at street repair, to me that should be part of kind of the balanced bud – “balanced budget” and that’s not what I feel like we’re doing here. I know this may be a little – Berry Well those are coming from MVH funds – Choi Right. Page 8 of 24 Zionsville Town Council October 17, 2022 Berry Motor Vehicle Highway funds and that is what those dollars are intended to be spent on and because they are for infrastructure maintenance, they are required to be a capital expenditure line within the operating budget of MVH. Choi No, I perfectly understand that. In years previous we have tried to say within the budget balance the revenue with the expenditures and that’s a balanced budget. We have chosen to then take out certain things like a fire engine and say that comes out of the reserves because it doesn’t recur year after year and, therefore, we still have a balanced budget when we take that out. We, we now have a lot of things in here that mentally, for me, is a recurring expenditure and an operational expenditure. So when we say we have a, an operational deficit of $220,000, was what your email had said, I see it as even greater than that because mentally to me I would be moving street, street repair of a million dollars into that and now all of a sudden we have a $1.2 million dollar deficit in a balanced budget and then there are a variety of other things they’re, they’re minor but ammo for firearms is a capital expenditure. It’s not like we can’t, I mean, we’re allowed to not purchase it year after year, those kind of things. So that’s why I’m having a lot of difficulty in saying that we pass a budget that is $9., almost $9.3 million dollars in the deficit and saying that should come out of the reserves because some of that has to be sustainable year after year and if we continue to, continue to outspend on the recurring items by a couple million dollars year after year, suddenly that reserve becomes much less and we’re in much less healthy state and we’re obligated at that point to continue to spend that. So – Berry So the proposed budget as you’ve received it today, if you look at the fund overview sheet, that provides in the sixth column over, estimated 2023 revenues over or under expenditures and that will show within each budget what those proposed expenses are, both in, in General Fund, Local Road and Street, MVH, Fire, Police, Cum Fire, Cum Cap, etc. Burk Are some of those just by legal government definition, capital expenses, even though, I mean, I, I’m tracking with Alex that some of these feel like operational expenses because they’re, they’re expected every year and I feel like maybe what you told me before was that they were, these had to be defined that way. Is that correct? Berry You have the old, I still refer to it as the old 100, 200, 300 and 400 series expenditures – your 100 series is your employee costs, your 400 series would be your capital expenditures and, and the way that the State Board of Accounts require or classifies those expenditures, those are classified expenditures within capital. Remember, you are receiving revenue on an annual basis within MVH, within Cum Capital Development, within Cum Fire for capital expenditures and as such there are some expenditures within the General Fund, very few, but some that are Cum or that are capital expenditures as well and those are broken out on that capital outlays where you look at the first column is the fund and then the department and then the line item. Choi So I don’t want to give the impression that I want to continue to build the reserves, I don’t. I want us to be able to spend it down but I don’t want to get to a point for, for a Council many years down the road to then have to figure out oh crap, we’ve got 2, we’ve dedicated ourselves to $2 million dollars in operational Page 9 of 24 Zionsville Town Council October 17, 2022 expenditures that includes recurring capital outlays beyond revenue and we can’t keep up and the pressure is because of inflation or recession our actual revenues are decreasing or at, at least staying stagnant while expenditures are increasing. So the reserves, I feel like let’s, let’s go ahead and get that down to a healthy level, we’re beyond healthy at this point, we’re, this town’s going to live to 150 years old by human standards at, at the rate of health that it, but can we pay, can we spend it down by paying as much as possible into the Carpenter Nature Center, you know, other projects to spend it down? I just really have issues with, with our operational expenditures this far above what are revenue is at this point and that’s the method by which we are spending down our reserves. Berry And as you will note, in this proposed budget based upon the feedback that the Council had with respect to salaries, your deficit is larger than it was prior because in the original budget that the Administration proposed, they called for a lower salary amount, annual salary increase but to pre-fund a bonus structure to balance that out for the same dollar amount using cash balances within the LOIT Special Distribution Fund that the Council had or that the town had received, I believe, in 2016 and, and those fund balances are still remaining here today, six years later. So by moving that into a salary increase, you did increase that deficit – Choi Yes. Berry Intentionally by doing so. Garrett So I take issue with that. The, the ask was to raise the salaries for the employees because that is both the right thing to do and the needed thing to do. The ask was not do it and not cut anything else out. So when we started this budget process, this Council asked what are the departments not getting? And we were told basically they’re getting everything they want and so when the salary increase came, the, the statement at least that I made that we were talking about was, okay, we think we should prioritize funding for employees, where can we find cuts? What we were given was an agreement to increase salaries with no cuts from any department. So yes that ask did increase the deficit but there was no other side of that formula to, to say all right, well these are things now that maybe we should delay a year in order to prioritize that salary. Berry And within the General Fund, the 200 and 300 series, as you will note and remember, were held constant with in the original budget proposal as well as in the current budget proposal were held constant with 2022 budget dollars and estimated 2022 actuals, so for operating expenditures. Plunkett Tim, what – Berry So, so there was no growth in the 200 and 300 series. The growth was all within the 100 series, personal services, which would’ve been because, due to the increase in salary increase as well as the additionals, I believe, 16 positions that were funded in the budget. Page 10 of 24 Zionsville Town Council October 17, 2022 Plunkett What can that LOIT account be used for? So that, that’s got money in it now, right? And so the initial intent was to bonus out of that as a one-time capital expense, right? Berry The majority of that bonus – Plunkett Essentially. Berry That was proposed would’ve come from that. Plunkett Yes. What, what else can that fund be used for? Berry That, I need to probably go back to the 2016 statute, Heather – Harris I’m looking – Plunkett I guess my question is like is – Berry But I believe it can be used anything that you can use your income tax dollars for, which is pretty broad, within the General Fund expenditures it could be used for. So it could be one-time operating expenditures but Heather is going to be the legal expert here and give us a more definitive answer since it goes back several years. Plunkett And do we know how much is in that account? Berry I want to say it’s $433,000 roughly. Plunkett But we could find something in the budget that’s a one-time, one-time hit that we could use this money on then that helps offset your concern about an operational deficit too? Choi Yes, but, I mean, if you look through the breakdown that we got on Wednesday, I’m, I’m pointing out a few of these things but basically like the whole DPW capital outlay is, it’s $1.2 – $1,210,000 that to me in looking over it, looks like something that we would have to do year after year and that’s significant. I get, I get where we’re using this for the fire engine, the tankers, the fleet service vehicle – those are, I have no issues with that. But, again, one, the reason that this got brought up in, in my mind was I noticed when we looked at past budgets that the, that the capital outlays for the Parks Department included $314,000 but it repeated year after year of that amount which to me is not something that we should be spending down our reserves with. That’s $314,000. So there’s a number of things here that start adding up significantly. It’s something that in my mind doesn’t equate to a balanced budget and is fine for now while we have $22 million in reserves but over time we’re going to be spending down that reserve with projects and, and expenditure, operational expenditures that exceed revenue and so that healthy 60% operating cost reserve is going to get drained pretty quickly. Am I wrong in this or does it make sense? Plunkett No – I mean, I don’t necessarily disagree with that. I mean, it’s – I also think we are in a spot where we need to consider, as we all know, spending some of this Page 11 of 24 Zionsville Town Council October 17, 2022 money down. I just wonder if instead of, you know, without seeing how the sausage is made, like I don’t know where to put that money and where to take it from, right? Like, what should we be using reserves on in these, in these budgets? Choi Yes and that’s the problem that I have is we’ve, you know, how much are the recurring items exceeding the revenue? And, fine we have $22 million or roughly in reserves, if we’re exceeding that by $2 million every year and we’re not getting the increased bump in revenue because revenue exceed expectations and we go into something where we’re stagnant, we’re now committed to salaries and things that are recurring and we’re spending down that reserve pretty darn quickly. That, that’s my worry. Plunkett Yes. Garrett Tim, I think some of that heartburn you’re hearing today you talk about sustainability and, and I believe you. This Council approved a sustainability report for which I really never saw anything from – I think there is nervousness about entering to a structural deficit. I think that’s really what Alex, what Councilor Choi is talking about, that some of these pieces are in effect structural in a sense that capital projects are necessary. You can’t repairing streets. From, from your professional opinion, is this proposed budget, knowing that this Council is fairly fiscally conservative, a ticking timebomb in 10 years or is this reasonable given reserves, expected revenues, expected growth, things that are currently capital projects that we’ll have to keep doing – can you kind of just talk through that to make, at least me, feel better about that? Because it is a big jump in spending this year, right? Berry It is. Yes, that is true. And I share your fiscal conservativism as well and your concern for that. It is impossible to tell, to anticipate what the future will hold. Certainly what we would anticipate based on year-to-date activity, revenues within the state’s coffers that they’ve received from income tax revenues that are supporting the growth of the state revenues to date in record numbers and record amounts, we would anticipate future growth within your local income tax dollars for next year. Because that is an 18-month look at back that the state has, we can pretty much rest assured that for 2024 there would be continued growth there. Given the continued growth in market values within residential and commercial properties in the north suburbs of Indianapolis and across the State of Indiana, we would anticipate that there would be continued growth in assessed value as well sustaining that growth within your Cum Funds – your Cum Fire and your Cum Capital Development Fund. That has little impact on the growth of what you’re able to grow your levy by. That’s based upon the levy growth quotient that the State of Indiana sets. That is based on non-farm income and they do a five-year look back there. We would anticipate that, again, for next year there would be a, a Page 12 of 24 Zionsville Town Council October 17, 2022 continued sustainable growth within that as well for 2024 based upon the local income tax dollars or the income tax dollars that the state has received and, and certainly beyond that, at least as it exists today, some of the federal programs that go into your, your net assessed or your net income such as the redemption or the, the student loan forbearance of $10,000 that will go into the adjusted gross incomes of everyone that receives that, we would continue to expect that number to grow for next year. Beyond that, who knows? As we look at where we are we on the cusp of a recession? What impact would that have in 2025 and beyond? That’s difficult to assess at this point in time. That was the reasoning that this Council made the prudent decision to spend conservatively as you approached the, the pandemic in 2020 and 2021 to make those prudent, wise decisions to control your spending growth, keep it down and because you were uncertain with what would happen as a result. As we’ve seen, your revenues have grown. In each of those years you’ve received a, a supplemental local income tax distribution and given that growth that we continue to see in non-farm income, I would anticipate that in May of next year there would be another special LIT distribution as well. Those dollars this year were not taken into account. That’s part of why your growth in your fund balances has, has sustained as much as it has in what’s being proposed. The largest area of your expense, the largest of any local government and quite frankly, any government expense, is in its people and in your 100 series and the proposal that you have of 7.8% before you today in, in income or in growth and salaries in addition to both midpoint adjustments and longevity adjustments is somewhat consistent with your neighboring communities. Fishers has proposed, passed in their budget a 4% increase in salaries with a 3% bonus. Carmel passed a 5% increase with a 3% bonus. Noblesville passed a 3% increase with a 5% bonus. Westfield, I believe, I’m not positive on this, has a 5% proposed increase within their budget as being presented today or was, I think it was last Thursday that their budget was presented. So those increases overall are consistent with what you are providing. How they got there and how you’re looking at it are a little bit different but they’re consistent dollar amounts but, and I don’t know if other communities as well have additional increases or costs associated with both midpoint and longevity. Your midpoint costs approximately $380,000. The longevity pay is about $308,000 just in salary, not in benefits and, and costs associated with taxes and the 7.8% increase is nearly $1.1 million dollars in just salary costs, not the corresponding costs to taxes. Garrett Kellie, from your accounting background are you comfortable with this long-term looking, looking out? Page 13 of 24 Zionsville Town Council October 17, 2022 Adams I am. I was more comfortable with how we originally had had it with there’s a smaller raise with a one-time bonus. I thought that was a more sustainable plan. Choi And I think I agreed with you back then that instead of just giving a permanent raise, that we should bonus it out to be able to have that flexibility to address issues if we came along with it in the future. Passing this, does it dedicate us to providing that increase or do we still have the flexibility to make it a bonus instead of? Berry You would be passing the dollar amount within the line item so how you would allocate that would be based upon the salary ordinance that you would then pass, I believe, in November we have it scheduled to pass. Choi Yes, and that’s kind of what my mind was that we’re not fully committed to that and that gives us a little flexibility. Berry Once you pass it, you’re nearly there – Choi Yes. Berry Unless you were to pass it with those stipulations of how it would be allocated. Plunkett Maybe, maybe a different mindset would be, obviously, this is a first reading, right? Berry Correct. Plunkett So if this is introduced on the first reading, we do still have time between now and next Thursday essentially to, for example, this, this LOIT fund if, if we say listen, let’s find something between now and then to offset – I mean I know it’s kind of like a shell game moving things around but if that’s what we’re trying to do, right, then that’s – Berry Right. Plunkett What we’re trying to do. Berry Yes. Plunkett We still have time to do that. Berry You definitely have time to do that. Page 14 of 24 Zionsville Town Council October 17, 2022 Plunkett After Thursday we don’t. After Thursday, we’re locked in. Berry You are and you aren’t. You are establishing a budget. Again, you can make changes to that budget by de-appropriating dollars or an additional appropriation next year – Plunkett Right. Berry In line items. You cannot, between now and then, change or increase those values. But, yes. Plunkett Questions from Councilors? Traylor Not, not really a question – I just want to kind of make a statement or go over a little bit of a timeline so – we had our budget workshop on September 22nd. On September 23rd I emailed the Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Kellie, the CFO, and copied Tim Berry and just asked that if I could get a breakdown of any expenditures within the budget that were for long-term planning. So the comprehensive plan, any, anything that’s a long-term planning project that’s in the budget, could I get an itemized list of those. That email was sent on the 23rd of September. On the 27th of September I did get an email back from the Mayor that I’d get that list ASAP. We then had an October 3rd Town Council meeting. It was addressed during that Town Council meeting that I still had not gotten that list but that I would get it and then as of today I still haven’t gotten that list and in the email that I sent, I said I’d like, the reason I want this list is because I want to pull, again, I was being very transparent, I wanted to pull these items from the budget without unintentionally impacting other areas by me having to make an estimated guess of what these would cost but I did state that if, if I didn’t get it I would, I would do my best to pull those items as an estimate in my mind. So and my intention is to amend this budget to pull out, it ended up being – I added it up here – $220,770 in contractual services from this budget. And that’s not to say that we won’t spend those dollars but this way it’s not in there to be spent as, as desired or without coming back to the Council. That way when these, when the contractual services that would fall within these buckets and I can outline, and I will, I assume I’m, I’m hopeful that I’ll be making the motion on this but I can outline which departments those funds come from but that way when a contractual service comes up that we need, it will have to come back here for an additional appropriation rather than just moving forward with that because any long-term planning I was, I was told, any long-term planning projects would come from the line items for contractual services. Did that make sense? I just want to make sure everybody understands where I’m coming from. Okay. Page 15 of 24 Zionsville Town Council October 17, 2022 Plunkett And what was that number you’re, you’re looking at Traylor? Total number? Traylor It’s a total number of $220,770 and what it essentially does is, it’s all from the General Fund but it’s in the Departments of Administration, HR, Non- Departmental and Planning. It’s essentially taking all of those – there’s a line item in each of those departments for contractual services. It essentially, well not essentially, it is taking that line item and, and taking it down to zero on each of those departments. And it’s not, like I said, it’s not saying that contractual services won’t be approved, it’s stating that it’ll have to come back here for an additional appropriation to do so that way we have better transparency on what contractual services we’re obligating ourselves to. Adams I guess I thought, excuse me, I guess I thought the question, and maybe I misunderstood, was what, what we were extending above and beyond previous years. So with that, that’s why I’ve had kind of a hard time answering you because I only know of the $150,000 that’s in there for the police and fire building study and then, I believe, another $50,000 in Planning but if you – I can, I’m happy to get you the breakdown of what we currently spend on all contractual services. Plunkett So procedurally if this is something, if this is something that the Council is in favor of, I mean, this is less than 1/2 of 1% essentially in the overall budget. If, if it’s something that the Council is in favor of, would there be, would the motion be to introduce this, I know we have a hearing that we have to go through, but just procedurally would we introduce this with those modifications or would we introduce this and then make those modifications by Thursday? Harris Go ahead Tim. Berry I’m looking at Heather because she’s the attorney but I believe – Plunkett Heather’s looking at you. Berry You need to introduce the advertised budget and then you would make a motion to make any amendments to that and you could do that after the public hearing or at the public hearing today or next week at the budget approval adoption date of the 27th. Harris And I do agree with that. The only thing I was going to note is making sure that Kellie and Tim have enough time to, to move things around because some of these movements will take a lot of work, you know, will take a lot of effort to just get everything in the right order so at least to be able, if you are contemplating changes that you want to see adopted at the Page 16 of 24 Zionsville Town Council October 17, 2022 final meeting next week, I think we do need to make sure we communicate those through Jason as soon as possible. So if there are things that even come up in the public hearing or after, if there are things you know, you can basically change anything in the budget at this stage between now and next Thursday with the final adoption – Traylor As long as it’s down, not up? Harris Yes, really changing anything, you just can't change it in how it’s tax supported. So, I always say, I call them buckets, but where the bucket of money came from there’s specific uses that you will need to use those dollars for. For example, Fire Department – Fire Department, General Fund – General Fund. But you can change them around and reduce any item. Berry After the adoption by the Council, assuming the Council adopts on the 27th, the town then has five days after that point in time to update the numbers into Gateway for the final, with the final adoption to Gateway for DLGF to begin working through the budget process on their end to establish the corresponding tax rates. So that is oftentimes contemplated that there will be changes made but certainly as Heather said, if, if you anticipate any of those in advance, earlier notification is certainly easier so that they can begin working on those changes. Melton One quick question on capital outlays for the line items, I don’t know if I missed this, but there’s a, when you get down to the bottom it’s CC, CCD funds those IT equipment, CCD IT category total $50,000 then non- departmental right underneath that is land then the next line item is construction for a total of about a half a million dollars. What, what are those for? Those monies for? Is that, I think I have an idea but I just wanted to get it on the record. Adams Well the, the land is for the property. Oh shoot – Melton 875? Adams Yes, yes. So I had brought it up to Council earlier this year about paying off, paying that off and we went ahead and put it in the, decided to go ahead and put it in the budget. That way everybody, Public Works, Parks will be able to start utilizing that property without constantly having to get permission. Melton And then the $150,000 in construction is for – is that for a pathway? Adams That’s for – Page 17 of 24 Zionsville Town Council October 17, 2022 Plunkett I think that’s building and planning. Melton I’m getting, I’m getting a head shake from Lance that that’s not. Plunkett I think that’s building and planning isn’t it? Adams Yes. Plunkett That’s the plan for this would be one of the studies to determine – Adams The public safety building. Plunkett The public safety building. Police and Fire. Melton So that’s a plan, not construction? Berry No. Yes, Yes. That’s under CCD construction, non-departmental. Yes. Plunkett Building/planning is the description line item breakout. Melton Okay. Thank you. Plunkett So understanding, Councilor Traylor, your, your intent to, to get a breakdown of all the contractual services and some of them may fall within the frameworks of what you’re wanting removed and some may not. Are you wanting to wait until you get a list or do you just want to whack them all entirely? Traylor No I mean, I stand by what I, what I said – Plunkett Sure. Traylor Let’s take them down to zero and let them, we’ll come back for additional appropriations as needed is, is – because whether there was a misunderstanding or not, I would, I wouldn’t know and, and the reason I wouldn’t know is because I never, I never got what I asked for to respond back and say that wasn’t what I was asking. I was pretty clear in the email. It, I stated that I’m making a request and I’m reading verbatim here – I’m, I’m making a request that Kellie send me an outline of all long-term planning projects along with budgeted expense amounts tied to those for 2023. I will propose removing those expenses from the budget in a similar manner as I did last night referencing the workshop. If the Administration wishes to counter that request, you will have the ability to do so and I will honor that, I will honor the will of the Council majority. If I don’t receive that outline, I will do my best to estimate those expenses on my own and still will request a reduction in my best educated guess as to the amounts Page 18 of 24 Zionsville Town Council October 17, 2022 on line items associated. I’d rather have the actual amounts you’re using for the budget request as not to unintentionally reduce line items beyond my desired outcome. So I was, I feel like I was pretty clear and I, but I never got, so I don’t think, I don’t, I stand by what I, what I stated. I think we should take the contractual services for those four, four departments down to zero and, and as we have a need for contractual services, those department heads can come to the Council for an additional appropriation. Garrett And I support your approach Councilor Traylor. Plunkett So that would be just, and just to be clear, if there are requests for someone to consult in a particular department and it’s coming out of that, that’s something that you’re, you’re not saying just eliminate, you’re saying this can come back – well, pull it out now and come back – Traylor I’m saying I don’t have the information to, to make, to be able to – I don’t have the information to be able to cherry pick because when I’m looking at what it would cost for some of these plans, it actually would end up probably being well over what I’m asking to cut. So it, that’s, that’s, I’m just stating take those down to zero and we can address those one by one. Harris And you said four departments. I just want to make sure I’m understanding what – Traylor Yes, it’s in the General Fund each department has a line item for contractual services. The, the Administration has a line item that’s $136,970. I’m proposing to take that down to zero. HR has a line item for contractual services of $20,500. I’m proposing to take that to zero. Non- departmental has a line item for contractual services of $50,300, take that to zero. Planning has a, a line item for contractual services of $13,000, take that to zero. And I had the total here but that it was $200 – it ended up totalling up to $220,770. Plunkett Any other questions from Councilors for Tim or Kellie? Burk No, but this would just be a note for Jo – as I, as, as we come back to Alex’s key point around maybe addressing bonus versus salary increases and it sounded like a lot of the neighboring communities, particularly across the north side, are going more with a, a bonus approach as opposed to what we were trying to accomplish. I think the main rationale, at least for me, was that we had done the study and the midpoint being I don’t know where they are already are so my understanding was we probably weren’t where we needed to be and, Jo, I don’t know that you have to answer I just wanted to, you can come up if you want to, I can't remember which communities we compared parody with and so my, my understanding was, if I recall, most of those were communities that were Page 19 of 24 Zionsville Town Council October 17, 2022 mentioned that were in the study, meaning we’re below already so midpoint isn’t just an arbitrary number, it was based upon an assessment of neighboring communities. So that’s why I feel like we have to get to midpoint as opposed to a bonus program because I think we’re already off where we need to be and I’d hate to continue to lose staff and have to replace them at a higher salary level anyway. Kiel I think it’s two separate things. We are below midpoint and we need to move staff to that for, for the reasons that you said. As far as an increase for the year, the reason, the methodology that we came up with, that I came up with for 7% was in 2021 the raise was 1%. We, we are, we lost that year and so we need to, I think 4% is a reasonable amount for this year, higher than some, lower than others, but what we’re missing here is that other 3% that we missed in 2021. So I recommend moving to 7% increase across the board and then, which is on top of the midpoint. Burk Yes, to prep for that if you could remind us and I think this could be something you send to us later – which communities were included in that or how that compares across the north side as we’re looking at that because – Kiel All, all the – Burk It’ll come up again. Kiel All of those communities would’ve been included, were included in that study. Burk I thought they were, I just couldn’t remember which ones – Kiel Yes, it was a – Burk How robust it was. Kiel It was a wide market survey so all of those would’ve been included. Burk Okay. Choi So, Jo, when you said in 2021 we increased by 1% and we lost that year. If I remember correctly, that, that was consistent with what other communities were doing as well? Is that not – Kiel I don’t agree with that. Based, based on what I know – Choi Okay. I could be wrong. So – Page 20 of 24 Zionsville Town Council October 17, 2022 Kiel Yes. Choi I was under the impression there were communities that increased from 1, 2% but nothing like 4 or 5% that we’re seeing this year. Kiel Information I had received at the time, there were some that were as much as 6% that year – Choi Oh okay. Kiel And certainly there were those that didn’t do any raises. Some waited and did a mid, midterm raise. So, I mean, it’s all over the board but – Choi Okay. Kiel I wouldn’t say the vast majority – Choi Okay. Kiel Did what we did. Choi Okay. I misunderstood that. Thank you. Kiel Yes. Burk Thanks Jo. Kiel Yes. Plunkett Yes, I think just so, from my perspective so the Council knows, like when we talk about increasing salary or giving bonuses and I struggle. Bonuses are taxed differently, right? So you’re not going to get as much of that net income – Choi I thought bonuses were taxed as real, real income. Plunkett I’m sorry? Choi I thought bonuses were taxed as real income. Plunkett Bonuses would be taxed as supplemental income, correct? Yes, it would be taxed differently. And, and I like the idea of having that increase in base compensation to help with retirement plans and all the stuff that we all look for in jobs and careers and the folks that, that work here are here for a career, right? I mean, that’s, that’s what, I think, we want. So, I mean, I understand the idea behind using that lowered account for the Page 21 of 24 Zionsville Town Council October 17, 2022 bonus and how that would’ve helped look operationally but I would tend to agree with Councilor Garrett that having the, a higher increase and not having bonuses is where I would like to be also. Any other questions for Tim or Kellie? This is, obviously, this first reading is a public hearing. I have proof of public notice of the hearing. At this point I’ll open up the public hearing. Is there anyone from the public who would like to comment or anyone who would like to share thoughts. Having no one, I will close the public hearing. Any additional questions, comments, communications from Councilors? Again, this is Ordinance 2022-20 and this is the first reading. Garrett Do you need to make a motion? Traylor So, Heather, I’m going to ask for your help on this. With, with what I’ve said I, my desired outcome to be, should I make the motion with the amendments today? Harris Yes, you can. If you want, if, if everyone is in agreement that they want that removed, then you can definitely go ahead and do that and then you can still make additional amendments going into the meeting on the 27th. Traylor All right. Well I guess we’ll find out if they’re in agreement. I would make a motion to introduce – Plunkett Could you hold up one second real quick? Traylor Yes – Plunkett Just, just one question – if this, if this motion, the motion that we all believe is, is going to happen comes through and it’s approved and there’s information between now and Thursday, can that, can this be modified? Harris Yes. Plunkett Okay. Sorry – go ahead. Traylor All right. Choi I will say I am really uncomfortable with this budget and you all know why since we’ve gone over it ad nauseum. It will require a very detailed look in future budgets if we pass something like this to make sure that we are controlling the expenditures properly with the growth that we’re seeing. I just don’t think that, you know, if this is okay if our revenues continue to increase like they have in the past but if that ever stagnates, we are going to be in trouble. So are a lot of communities, it won’t just be us, because I think we’re all addressing it the same way but and I’m guessing Page 22 of 24 Zionsville Town Council October 17, 2022 this budget will pass eventually but it really makes me uncomfortable for future Councils and what they’re going to be saddled with so. I just wanted to put that out there. Traylor I will make a motion to introduce the budget on the first reading with the following amendments: In the General Fund for Administration to reduce the contractual services line item from $136,970 down to $0. In the General Fund for the Human Resources Department, to reduce the contractual services from the line item amount of $20,500 down to $0. In the General Fund Non-Departmental Department, reduce the contractual services line item from $50,300 down to $0. In the General Fund Planning Department, reduce the contractual services line item from $13,000 to $0 totalling, that equals a total reduction in contractual services of $220,770. Garrett Second. Plunkett Second by Councilor Garrett. First introduced by Councilor Traylor, Second by Councilor Garrett. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 6 in favor, 0 opposed. OTHER MATTERS Plunkett Up next would be Other Matters. Are there any other matters from Councilors? I would point out just briefly, in communicating with Tim and Kellie and the Administration, obviously, one of the recommendations from the State Board of Accounts was that we have DLGF and non-DLGF funds included together. It’s my understanding that we’ll get that information for next week so that’s good. I think that’s a good step. I appreciate the Administration working with us on that too. I think that’s just going to be, it’ll be good for everything. So, any other matters from Councilors? Page 23 of 24 Zionsville Town Council October 17, 2022 ADJOURN Garrett I’ll make a motion to adjourn. Plunkett First by Councilor Garrett. Melton Second. Plunkett Second by Councilor Melton. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 6 in favor, 0 opposed. There will be a special Town Council meeting on Thursday, October 27, 2022 at 8 a.m. in the Zionsville Town Hall Council Chambers for the second reading of the 2023 budget. The next regular Town Council meeting is scheduled for Monday, November 7, 2022 at 7 p.m. in Town Hall Council Chambers. Final notice of both meetings will be posted in compliance with the Indiana Open Door Law. Thank you very much. Respect6fully Submitted, Amelia Anne Lacy, Municipal Relations Coordinator Town of Zionsville Page 24 of 24