On the agenda

1. 1Call to Order - Roll Call▶ 0:00
2. 2

   ↳You arrived here from a search for “Bike Fest” — transcript expanded below

   Review of Proposed Departmental Budgets for FY20-21

   discussed

   Council reviewed proposed FY20-21 departmental budgets including City Council, City Manager, City Clerk, Administrative Services (new assistant city manager position), Economic Development, and Human Resources. Notable changes include removing the Sunrise Consulting lobbyist expenditure, reducing special events in-kind support from $65,000 to $50,000, reducing Environmental Committee from $5,000 to $1,500, decreasing Cultural Affairs from $20,000 to $18,000, and establishing a possible appropriation for the West Pasco Historical Society on a contract-for-service basis. State revenue figures had not yet been received.

   • direction:Council discussed budget recommendations including reductions to Cultural Affairs ($20K to $18K), Environmental Committee ($5K to $1.5K), special events in-kind ($65K to $50K), and removal of Sunrise Consulting lobbyist contract. (none)
   • direction:Council expressed openness to funding West Pasco Historical Society on a contract-for-service basis with performance standards. (none)

   🏢BayCare Life Management🏢Bike Fest🏢Chasco🏢Cigna🏢Florida Orchestra🏢Main Street🏢Pasco County🏢Sunrise Consulting🏢West Pasco Historical Society👤Bernie Warren👤Chopper👤Councilman Davis👤Crystal👤Debbie Manns👤Jeff👤Mr. Rudd👤Ms. Feast#Account 43112 Labor Attorney Services#Account 43133 Employee Assistance Program#Account 43199 Professional Services#Account 44915 Classified Advertisement#Account 45243 Computer and Operating Supplies#Accounts 44511/521/522/523 Insurance#Administrative Services Division#CAFR 2019#CRA Budget#City Clerk Budget#City Council Budget ($242,900)#City Manager Budget ($204,320 / $270,000)#Economic Development Budget#FY20-21 Budget#Florida Retirement System#Human Resources Budget ($651,720)#Line item 44.810 Cultural Affairs#Line item 44911 Legal Advertising#Sculpture Walk Project

   ▶ Jump to 0:20 in the video

   ▸Show transcriptHide transcript

   Auto-transcript · machine-generated, may contain errors

   [00:00:20] Yes. [00:00:22] Thank you, Mr. [00:00:22] Mayor. [00:00:24] We do have a number of budgets to present to you this evening. [00:00:30] And before we get started in that, I'd like to report to you [00:00:34] that we still do not have revenue figures from the state of Florida. [00:00:40] Our, our last word is that we should receive them sometime this week. [00:00:46] But with that being said, the budgets tonight are prudent as they have been [00:00:55] with respect to the presentations that have been made to you thus far. [00:01:02] I'm sure at this point in the budget review, you recognize that travel and [00:01:07] training and miscellaneous are incrementally reduced in all of the [00:01:15] budgets that have been presented. [00:01:17] That'll continue to be a theme through the rest of the budgets that are [00:01:23] presented to you, so to get started with the city council budget last year's [00:01:33] operating budget, it was in the amount of $224,770 the budget amount that's [00:01:44] being recommended to you for consideration for the 2021 fiscal year [00:01:50] is $222,000, I'm sorry, is $242,900. [00:02:00] So it is basically $2,000 less than the previous year's budget, but it does [00:02:07] represent a good number of changes. [00:02:10] There were incremental changes in the travel and training budget and the [00:02:16] postage budget and the miscellaneous budget. [00:02:20] The most significant expenditure that was removed from the budget relates [00:02:32] to our lobbyist, Sunrise Consulting. [00:02:37] They typically, or our arrangement with them, I should say, in the past has [00:02:46] been in the range of $20,000 to $25,000 per year in respect to this specific [00:02:55] budget year, I do not think that it is an expenditure that I feel comfortable [00:03:04] supporting on my own, if it's your desire to go forward with that services, [00:03:10] we can certainly put the amount back in the budget, but to be frank with you, [00:03:15] it was, in my opinion, a luxury we can't afford this year. [00:03:20] The... [00:03:21] Where is this on here, is this the... [00:03:23] That is in professional services. [00:03:25] But it just went from 15 to 10. [00:03:27] It wasn't budgeted last year, but it was spent. [00:03:31] Okay, okay. [00:03:33] I just couldn't put $5,000... [00:03:34] That's all right, thank you for asking. [00:03:37] The environmental committee last year had an appropriation of $5,000, we [00:03:44] are recommending that their appropriation be in the amount of $1,500 [00:03:49] for the next year, in large part because they aren't spending their funds, and [00:03:55] they are going to the cultural affairs committee for support of their programming. [00:04:01] The cultural affairs budget, which is line item 44.810, I'm recommending a [00:04:08] slight decrease to their budget from $20,000 in the current year to $18,000 in... [00:04:19] They have money left over last year? [00:04:22] They'll just come in exactly at budget this year. [00:04:25] No, but I meant at 20, they didn't spend it all? [00:04:28] No, they will be spending the $20,000 this year, yes. [00:04:33] One of the reasons that I thought it might be appropriate to make a small [00:04:41] adjustment in the cultural affairs and in the environmental committee budgets [00:04:46] was to establish an appropriation for the West Pasco Historical Society. [00:04:53] It sounded to me as if, based on the discussion that took place at a previous [00:05:02] meeting this year, is if there was interest on your part in supporting them. [00:05:08] At the time, they were asking for a $40,000 appropriation to support what [00:05:15] sounded to me as if it were one budget position, and I learned since that time [00:05:25] that they have received $20,000 over the last two years from Pasco County. [00:05:36] My recommendation, if you determine that it's appropriate to fund the West Pasco [00:05:45] Historical Society, is that we do it on a contract for service basis, much like [00:05:52] we do the Main Street organization, where we have performance standards, [00:05:58] like hours of operation, might be something that we would want to blend into a contract. [00:06:06] Yes. [00:06:07] Could you give us some examples? [00:06:09] Hold that mic towards you. [00:06:10] I found that. [00:06:10] Hold it up to the end from yesterday. [00:06:13] Yeah. [00:06:13] My kids were watching on TV as well last week, and they said it was just, not [00:06:17] just me, but just very difficult to hear over the cable. [00:06:20] But what are some examples of what the culture affairs events consisted [00:06:24] of last year, out of that $20,000? [00:06:27] They actually will be providing a report to you this evening at our regular [00:06:31] council meeting, but they worked on a sculpture walk project. [00:06:36] They also... [00:06:37] Did the orchestra? [00:06:40] Yes, they have. [00:06:40] Florida Orchestra. [00:06:41] They work with the record. [00:06:42] Florida Orchestra was at the church on the north side of... [00:06:44] I remember the orchestra, but nothing ever came of the sculpture walk projects. [00:06:48] We never approved any of the sculptures, correct? [00:06:51] That's correct. [00:06:53] Mr. [00:06:53] Mayer? [00:06:54] Yeah. [00:06:54] I'm windowed on. [00:06:55] I know they're giving a report just while we're going over this. [00:06:58] I'm just, is there anything else that stands out to you in the $20,000? [00:07:02] I'm trying to figure out where that money went. [00:07:04] I'm sure we'll find out later, but other than the orchestra, what [00:07:08] else, what other event did they really? [00:07:11] I can't, at this time, respond to the question. [00:07:15] I wish I would have brought the budget. [00:07:16] No, it's no problem. [00:07:17] I didn't mean everyone, but just, you know, if you spend 10 on this, five on that, [00:07:20] I'm sure we'll find out later, but just because we were going over it. [00:07:23] They gave a lot of money to the Main Street organization to support a lot of those activities. [00:07:28] So they partnered with them to do a lot. [00:07:30] Awesome. [00:07:30] Okay. [00:07:30] Thank you. [00:07:31] Mr. [00:07:32] Mayer? [00:07:32] Yes. [00:07:33] Yeah. [00:07:33] Just out of, just to be clear, unless something's changed, the city's [00:07:39] committees or advisory committees, they have no authority or spending power. [00:07:43] So we continue to talk as if the cultural affairs committee is a department of the [00:07:47] city, which it isn't, but we knew that when they said they wanted to spend money on [00:07:52] sculpture and they came to us for approval. [00:07:54] So, you know, in my view, you know, the cultural affairs committee should be [00:08:01] making those recommendations to us. [00:08:04] But I think that it's time to stop letting either the departments or the, if [00:08:09] whoever's gelling to say, this is what we're going to do and have it be a committee [00:08:15] or change the legal references to the cultural affairs committee. [00:08:21] It's, I don't know of any other committee that spends money or has a budget that [00:08:29] it imposes or feels that it has the authority to impose. [00:08:34] So, you know, I've always felt a little uncomfortable that it was getting in the [00:08:38] wrong direction some years ago when they were putting on events. [00:08:43] And it's nice to have those events. [00:08:45] But as you've mentioned, the Main Street program, the nonprofits that are out [00:08:50] there, the artist guilds or whoever may come to the committee to ask for them to [00:08:56] give a recommendation to the city council is the way I think this was intended to [00:09:00] operate. [00:09:01] And it's now kind of turned into an art and culture division. [00:09:08] It may seem like a nuance, but. [00:09:15] I went to a few of their meetings and they had proposals and they brought them to us. [00:09:19] So I don't, you know, in the last year, in my opinion, they've gone, you know, [00:09:24] they've got, they've got their heads together and then they came to us. [00:09:27] So it really hasn't. [00:09:28] I think operationally they're doing their thing right, Chopper. [00:09:31] I just think that when we speak of it or how we talk about it, it's not they, it's [00:09:36] the city and it's their recommendations to us. [00:09:38] That's all I'm asking. [00:09:39] Yeah, it is ultimately part of the city council budget. [00:09:42] So yeah, good, but a good point that you made. [00:09:45] Not to be negative, just a comment. [00:09:49] In respect to reductions in funding areas, I have recommended a decrease in special [00:09:59] events from 65,000 to 50,000 for in-kind support. [00:10:05] In large part, that's based on the fact that I think it's unlikely that we'll be [00:10:10] able to host as many large events as we have in the past. [00:10:15] And so I thought that a reduction in that number would be appropriate. [00:10:20] Where is the funding for the movies and the concerts in the park? [00:10:26] That's in the recreation department budget. [00:10:28] Oh, okay. [00:10:29] Yeah, this would include things like Chesco and Bike Fest? [00:10:33] That's correct. [00:10:34] And Bike Fest has already announced they're not doing anything this year in October. [00:10:40] We might even have quite a bit of that left over. [00:10:42] Yes, I believe we may. [00:10:44] And I hate to sound down, but unless something really changes fairly quickly, I [00:10:52] would not be surprised to see Chesco scrub 2021 just because of the lead time [00:10:57] they've got to have to make things happen. [00:11:01] So I don't know. [00:11:03] I'm just speaking for Jeff and I, but after seven years, I don't see a pay raise. [00:11:13] Just kidding. [00:11:13] Just kidding. [00:11:14] Thank you. [00:11:15] You'd see a lot more signs in the yards, I think, if there was a pay [00:11:18] raise come election time. [00:11:20] Well, we're termed out, so that's, you know, that's when I can talk about it. [00:11:25] Well, with those changes, Mr. [00:11:28] Mayor, members of the council, the total expenditures being recommended for the [00:11:34] upcoming fiscal year is $242,900 for the city council budget. [00:11:41] What is the other current charges, 999? [00:11:45] Miscellaneous charges, things like your meals when we have... [00:11:57] Oh, like League of City conferences and things of that sort. [00:12:01] That is under travel and training, which I reduced just incrementally just by [00:12:06] a thousand dollars, but anything that doesn't fall into a specific funding [00:12:11] category, we pick up in miscellaneous. [00:12:15] I do have one more question, Mr. [00:12:16] Mayor, looking at the FAFRA for 2019 and seeing the actual for legislative, [00:12:26] the final budget for operating was $270,000 and personnel $220,000. [00:12:37] So is there someone else wrapped up in that as our actual here is $270,000, [00:12:43] but the actual amount last year was $240,000 for all of the personnel [00:12:50] operating and non-operating costs of legislative? [00:12:54] The city manager's budget is also included in legislative for, in the CAFRA, I believe. [00:13:01] I don't have it in front of me, but if I remember correctly. [00:13:04] But my point would be the CAFRA says the total is $240,000 and [00:13:08] your actual for 2019 says $270,000. [00:13:11] So I don't know if it's the city attorney perhaps, or what, that's different. [00:13:16] We moved on. [00:13:19] I'm just trying to reconcile. [00:13:21] Yeah. [00:13:22] City council 270 actual in the 2019 column says $270,000 in the bottom. [00:13:29] And in our CAFRA for legislative, which is us, it says the actual was 240. [00:13:37] It's not a lot of crystal to respond, Mr. [00:13:41] It's actually the special events line item that you see in the budget. [00:13:45] That's really an in-kind. [00:13:47] And so it's not a true expense that's charged to city council's budget. [00:13:51] It's actually charged to police, public works, depending on what [00:13:56] that in-kind service went to. [00:13:59] So we put it here for budgeting purposes and to show, you know, what has actually [00:14:05] spent, but the expense on the, in the CAFRA is actually in those departmental [00:14:09] budgets, our departments, so that would be the difference. [00:14:24] If there aren't any comments or suggestions at this point, we can [00:14:27] move on to the city manager's budget. [00:14:31] As I'm sure you'll recall from our, our previous discussions, the city manager's [00:14:37] salary and the executive assistant salary are placed in more than one budget in the [00:14:46] year, they're divided and 70% of the salaries are in the city manager's budget. [00:14:55] In the case of the city manager's budget, we're looking at $270,000. [00:15:00] in the case of the regular exempt salaries, 75% of that position is applied to this budget. [00:15:13] The amended budget for 19-20 is $194,690. The recommended budget for the 20-21 fiscal [00:15:24] year is $204,320. The largest increases are as a result of changes in the Florida retirement [00:15:37] system, which moved up the percentage required of the city for payment, and additionally [00:15:45] health insurance, office supplies were a category where a reduction was found, and [00:15:57] a small incremental change was made in computer and operating supply costs. With that, as [00:16:06] indicated, the total budget is $204,320. [00:16:10] I thought we had approved, or maybe I misunderstand, but do we approve assistant to the city manager? [00:16:16] You're correct, we did, but I have prepared that as an administrative services division, [00:16:23] so it's a subsequent budget, which I'll present to you this evening. [00:16:28] I had exactly the same question. Okay. [00:16:37] The next budget that I'd like to present to you this evening is the city clerk's budget. [00:16:45] As was indicated, the clerk's salary is spread between two funding sources, or funding categories, [00:16:56] I should say. The personnel services portion of the contract, or pardon me, of the budget [00:17:08] is $19,470 for the current fiscal year. It is $21,140 for the 20-21 fiscal year. In terms [00:17:23] of the operations of the department, we programmed an additional $1,000 to represent a change [00:17:35] or an increase to accommodate election expenses. The largest increase was in the legal advertising [00:17:47] category, where our current budget is $23,000, and we've increased that by $5,000 to $28,000. [00:17:59] Why do you foresee that 25% or 20% increase? [00:18:04] The legal advertisement costs are going up, and we also have been running more legal ads. [00:18:14] I know that there's a lot of rules. Are the rules changing because of technology at all? [00:18:22] There's a lot of talk of changes and not relying exclusively on the printed press for purposes of public notice, [00:18:33] but there has not been a change effectuated by the state government at this time. [00:18:40] Must be some serious paper lobbyists. [00:18:44] It must be, because that's $28,000 that you could essentially eliminate if they got rid of them. [00:18:50] What is the readership down on the base paper now? [00:18:54] Exactly. If everybody started posting to the Internet instead of doing these legal advertisements, [00:19:04] that's got to be tens of millions of dollars statewide every year, [00:19:10] between 300-and-something cities and 67 counties and everybody else. [00:19:16] They all have websites. Why not post them on their websites? [00:19:19] Exactly. That's an easy way to save a bunch of money if our legislature would do it. [00:19:25] Mr. Mayor, I might additionally comment that the city clerk is not the only department in the city responsible for publication. [00:19:33] We actually do have a number of other budgets that reflect the amount we pay for printed ads. [00:19:42] Wow. That might be something we get through the budget season, [00:19:47] to run a tape for each of the departments where that shows and present that to our legislative delegation, [00:19:55] and say, hey, look, if we're spending this much, how much is being wasted statewide on advertisements that basically nobody's seeing anymore? [00:20:07] Well, you're talking, what was the number again? [00:20:14] That was 44911. [00:20:16] Yeah, that's a buck-and-a-half person in town. [00:20:20] Yeah. [00:20:22] Exactly. [00:20:24] Almost two bucks a person. [00:20:25] And that's just us. [00:20:26] And that's just us. We've got 20 million people in Florida. [00:20:30] And that doesn't count the counties, and it doesn't count the Tampa Bay Waters of the world, [00:20:34] and all these other groups that have to do this advertising. [00:20:40] At this point, I'd like to invite Mr. Rudd to join us at the table to present the budget for the Economic Development Department. [00:20:53] Right after I do the administrative budget. [00:20:55] I was going to say, you're going to make us flip back and forth. [00:20:59] No, sorry about that. [00:21:00] I'm to get up here. [00:21:01] Right, yeah, and get settled in. [00:21:06] As Councilman Davis indicated earlier, we have established a position as an assistant city manager, [00:21:17] and the administrative services budget is one that reflects that appropriation. [00:21:27] The department head salaries, I think, is listed, I can't read it, Crystal. [00:21:33] Is it 83? [00:21:34] 83-2. [00:21:36] It's actually 88,000 for a maximum, and it does not include a car allowance. [00:21:44] So, I will ask that that adjustment be made in the budget books. [00:21:50] The other personnel expenses are, you know, [00:21:56] a calculation based on rates for the various forms of insurance and social security. [00:22:06] The total budget cost related to personnel is $122,730. [00:22:14] Stop right there for a second. [00:22:15] Since you brought up the salary going up to a high of 88, what is the low? [00:22:21] I mean, you're going to take some consideration of their experience and stuff. [00:22:28] Yeah. [00:22:29] So, are you starting at 80? [00:22:30] If I misspeak, let me know, but I think it was 75,000 for a low. [00:22:35] Okay, but then you've got 75 to 88 where you decide to put that person, [00:22:40] but you do have a car allowance there of three grand. [00:22:43] You said it wasn't there. [00:22:45] We're going to eliminate that. [00:22:47] It's not part of what is being offered for this position. [00:22:49] Oh, you're taking it out. [00:22:50] Okay. [00:22:50] I thought you were saying it wasn't here, and I'm like, I see it. [00:22:52] No, I'm sorry. [00:22:53] Yeah. [00:22:53] Okay. [00:22:54] It shouldn't have been there. [00:22:57] In respect to operating expenses, we've appropriated $7,900, [00:23:05] $2,000 of which is in travel and training, [00:23:11] $2,000 of which is in computer and operating supplies, [00:23:16] and the rest is located in just general service expenditures [00:23:24] related to the business needs of the division. [00:23:30] And if you have any questions, I'm prepared to respond to them. [00:23:40] Where's that person's office going to be? [00:23:42] That's a very good question, Councilman Davis, and it's unknown at this time. [00:23:49] But I'm not moving. [00:23:55] We can move on to economic development with your permission. [00:23:59] All right, Mr. Rod. [00:24:01] Thank you. [00:24:03] Starting under personnel services, last year, the current fiscal year was $165,800. [00:24:10] And in the proposed budget, it's $178,490. [00:24:14] And the majority of that increase is due to the health insurance line. [00:24:20] Previously, there was only one employee. [00:24:22] In that line, now there's two, so it's a little more than doubled. [00:24:26] And then under total operating budget, it's remaining the same at $2,400. [00:24:38] Where's the marketing individual? [00:24:40] That's in the CRA budget. [00:24:48] Short and sweet. [00:24:52] Yeah, go ahead. [00:24:53] Just in the 21 initiatives, I just wanted to compliment you. [00:24:57] It's a nice, large, project-oriented description. [00:25:03] And when I look in the residential redevelopment area of purchasing and [00:25:07] home improvement grants, I would love to see some effort put towards [00:25:15] the curb appeal of the city's own properties as well, whether it's curb and [00:25:21] gutter, whether it's alley repair, whatever it may be. [00:25:29] But I know it's a continued conversation with folks that see us talking about [00:25:33] the downtown that is so critical to what people think about our city, and I'm all [00:25:37] for it, but your residential is primarily private property incentive. [00:25:45] And I think when we get to the CRA budget discussions, I would hope [00:25:51] that, and maybe that's where it belongs and it doesn't belong here, but [00:25:58] so maybe I'll correct myself and say I'll wait for the CRA, [00:26:01] because that's already been answered once. [00:26:04] Thank you. [00:26:06] The next budget, with your permission, is human resources. [00:26:10] And I'll ask Bernie Warren to present that to you this evening. [00:26:20] Good evening. [00:26:27] First of all, there are no personnel or capital projects [00:26:30] requested for human resources. [00:26:33] As you can see, our asking for the budget this year is, we're asking $651,720. [00:26:43] And that is an increase from last year's budget. [00:26:46] And I will highlight some of the, my glasses keep talking. [00:26:51] Which is an increase from last year. [00:26:54] And I will highlight some of those increases. [00:26:58] Okay. [00:27:01] In personnel services, you'll see basically the same increases as the [00:27:06] other departments are seeing this year with social security matching, Florida [00:27:12] retirement and health insurance. [00:27:15] We are also increasing, 41,531 education reimbursement, just slightly to $7,140. [00:27:30] The next, one I would like to talk about is account 43112 labor attorney services. [00:27:40] This line has been slightly increased up to $10,000 due to [00:27:44] upcoming fire and police negotiations. [00:27:49] Account 43133 employee assistance program has been completely removed from the budget. [00:27:57] In the past, this program has been administered through BayCare life management. [00:28:02] However, the city is now utilizing the EAP services provided through Cigna health care. [00:28:10] Next 43199 professional services. [00:28:16] This has been slightly decreased. [00:28:20] This account is mainly used for pre-employment drug testing and background [00:28:25] screenings, and it has been slightly decreased to $15,000. [00:28:32] The next accounts I'd like to discuss are 44511. [00:28:37] 521, 522, and 523, which are the city's general liability, building and [00:28:47] contents, pollution, and automobile insurance. [00:28:53] All of the pool members are seeing increases for the state of Florida this year. [00:28:58] However, we've been able to keep our overall increase to a minimum of 15%. [00:29:06] I have discussed that increase with Ms. [00:29:08] Manns and Ms. [00:29:09] Feast, and it has been budgeted accordingly. [00:29:15] 44915 classified advertisement has been increased to $7,000. [00:29:25] 45243 computer and operating supplies has been decreased from 3,180 to [00:29:33] 1,310 as both of the computers and the human resources office has [00:29:39] been upgraded last budget year. [00:29:41] So this is just for maintenance for, for this upcoming year. [00:29:47] The city manager and I are currently in discussions with our healthcare [00:29:51] broker and Cigna representatives. [00:29:56] The last few years, the city has continued to see a favorable. [00:30:00] experience, and through the use of competitive and historical data to support a 5% overall [00:30:07] increase with no budget, I'm sorry, no changes to the benefits. However, we do have a meeting [00:30:13] with them at the end of the month for further discussions and negotiations. [00:30:18] Lastly, I would like to talk about Cigna Health engagement funds. When the city enrolled in [00:30:28] Cigna Healthcare in October of 2019, we were allotted an amount of funds to be placed in [00:30:34] a Cigna Health engagement fund, which was to be used towards health incentives, a health [00:30:41] fair. Some of it went towards Wrap River Run. We had a team in the Wrap River Run. However, [00:30:50] due to the COVID pandemic, Cigna has expanded the categories in which these funds can be [00:30:57] used. We now have an allotment of $6,500 of our original engagement fund, and that [00:31:06] amount can be used towards COVID resources and supplies. Monies that the city has already [00:31:13] utilized towards some of the resources and supplies will be reimbursed through the use [00:31:19] of receipts, and I will be getting with Crystal, so she can give me those receipts for reimbursement. [00:31:26] May I ask you a question? Yes, sir. Are you talking about our current year or next year? [00:31:33] For the Cigna money? Right. I mean, if we spend money this year, we're going to get [00:31:39] it paid next year. Is that not this year? It is this year. This year. Yes, sir. So, [00:31:47] is it reflected in our budget, or are you just giving us information? It's just information. [00:31:52] It's not in the budget. Thank you. That's all I have. I just have one question. Yes, [00:32:02] sir. Sir? Geez. It's not the Bernie I know. The employee incentives, is that them possibly [00:32:14] getting in more education to reimburse? It's actually what used to be called a holiday [00:32:22] bonus, and it is a $50 payment to all employees as a thank you from the council for their [00:32:32] service. Then I still then I'll go back to where's the educational reimbursement? It's [00:32:37] in there. It's 41531. It's up in professional services. Okay. Oh, okay. All right. Do we [00:32:47] have very much interest in that? Yes, sir. Normally, we have between three and five employees [00:32:56] that take advantage of this. And we believe or we know that we're budgeting an appropriate [00:33:03] amount for the number of employees that are requesting assistance with their educational [00:33:10] expenses. I just think it's, you know, it's a dream. I don't believe they're not standing [00:33:14] in line for it. Absolutely. You hear that, Barrett? Yeah, he's in line. Barrett's a frequent [00:33:25] customer to the program. Yeah, I know that. That's why I brought it up. Thank you. The [00:33:32] next project that we have prepared for presentation to you this evening is the finance department. [00:33:41] And Mrs. Feast will start with the accounting and budgeting division. Thank you. As you [00:33:50] know, this division handles all of the financial transactions for the city, including accounts [00:33:56] payable, accounts receivable, payroll, and budget monitoring. It houses seven employees. [00:34:03] And at this time, we're not proposing any changes or additions to personnel for next [00:34:10] year's budget. In total, I'm proposing $637,260 for this budget. Eighty-two percent of that [00:34:21] is made up of personnel services, which has increased by about four percent compared to [00:34:27] last year's budget. And that increase is related to just COLA and performance increases given [00:34:34] last year. Down in operating, there is a slight change compared to last year. This [00:34:44] year, we're proposing $117,940, whereas last year it was $103,530. And that change is directly [00:34:55] related to the first line item, 43199, professional services miscellaneous, which has increased [00:35:04] by $12,500. And that increase covers our final conversion to Tyler, the general billing [00:35:15] module. We've already started that process. The $12,500 covers what's remaining to finish [00:35:26] that conversion. And that's really the only change in operating. So in total, I'm proposing [00:35:33] $637,260 in this division. [00:35:39] Just an observation, I'm not really involved in the next year's budget, but more this year's [00:35:45] budget. Where you've got a line item such as 43199, where you're way out of line, we [00:35:55] probably do want to do budget amendments on those so that you don't get a nasty gram [00:35:59] on next year's audit report. [00:36:04] And that is definitely the plan at year-end to make sure that's done before year-end. [00:36:09] Do we negotiate the audit fee? [00:36:11] We do. Put it out to a competitive selection process. [00:36:17] Okay. I thought maybe we just negotiated with the people that we've already been working [00:36:22] with since they know what's going on here. [00:36:26] We've signed a three-year agreement with them, which ended this last fiscal year that they [00:36:30] audited. So we're up for negotiations again, our submission of an RFP. [00:36:36] We should be blacking that out so they don't know how much money we got this year. [00:36:43] All right. The next division under finance is our billing and collection division. And [00:36:50] this division handles our billing and collection of the utility services that the city provides [00:36:57] to residents and other customers. [00:37:01] We currently have nine positions in this division. One of those is a part-time customer service [00:37:10] position, which I am proposing that we make full-time. And the reason for that is over [00:37:16] the past couple of years, the city has purchased four small utility systems, which has expanded [00:37:22] our service. And we haven't really changed our organizational structure to accommodate [00:37:29] the additional customers. And so we feel that increasing this position to a full-time position [00:37:36] will assist us with that. [00:37:40] So in total, I'm proposing $510,090 for this division compared to $549,000 last year. Seventy-four [00:37:52] percent of that is made up of personnel services. And again, the changes that you see reflected [00:37:59] in each of the line items in personnel services is directly related to last year's COLA increases [00:38:07] and the change from a part-time position to a full-time position. [00:38:12] So you'll see that the second line item, 41299 regular full-time, went up by about $6,700. [00:38:22] But part-time wages right underneath went down. The next line item, 41411 overtime wages [00:38:30] went down as well. And that's because as we increase this position to a full-time position, [00:38:37] we anticipate that not as much overtime will be needed by the other employees. [00:38:44] And then finally, under personnel, line item 42311 health insurance increased so that we [00:38:51] can now offer that position. It's now eligible for health benefits, so we've budgeted that [00:38:58] in there. [00:39:00] Under operating, we're proposing $132,950 compared to $184,000 last year. The changes [00:39:11] that make up that difference are, we'll start with the first line item, 43199 professional [00:39:18] services. That has increased by $10,400, and that's directly related to some required software [00:39:25] updates for the new utility billing software and intergov software. So even though we're [00:39:32] new into the system, there are quite a few upgrades that are needed in order to get us [00:39:39] caught up to where they are currently. [00:39:44] The next line item that has a significant change is 44211 postage. It went up by about [00:39:52] $4,500, and that is just to get the budget in line with what has happened historically. [00:40:00] Our budget last year is a little low, and so we want to get our budget for next year [00:40:06] in line with previous years. [00:40:09] May I stop you on that one? [00:40:11] So many of the companies that are asking for paperless option and folks did not get bills, [00:40:17] is that an initiative that you think will happen in the city? We had a discussion with [00:40:22] our branding company about, or somehow, someone talking about sending our newsletters out [00:40:30] electronically as well, as we develop those paperless processes. [00:40:39] We do offer e-bills, and a lot of our residents do take advantage of that, but I will say [00:40:45] that not enough do. We advertise it on the bills themselves in the notes section where [00:40:52] we've done in the past, where we've let them know that it's available. I think that is [00:40:58] an initiative we can push for next year to get more people on board with that. [00:41:04] Just going along with that, you're talking about increasing that employee to a full-time [00:41:08] job. I just want to know if there's an education going on for people to utilize and learn how [00:41:18] to pay their bill online. One of my incentives was to put a computer in there, and I never [00:41:25] saw anybody come out and teach anybody, but I figure with this COVID and they're driving [00:41:29] up that maybe I'd like to know if we've got a change in their attitudes about having to [00:41:34] come to City Hall to pay their bill versus paying it online at home. [00:41:38] Well, COVID has definitely changed a lot of people's attitudes, so we do have more people [00:41:43] paying online recently, or just using our drive-through. The kiosk is available, and [00:41:53] before COVID, at the beginning of the year, we did start pushing for educating our customers [00:42:00] more. We trained, Brian actually trained our customer service reps to be able to use the [00:42:07] computer and teach our customers. That has halted some because of COVID over the last [00:42:12] few months, but definitely something that will go along with educating our customers [00:42:19] and reducing the traffic that we have coming into the department. [00:42:24] It just seems to me that under 5% would even come to the building if they were educated. [00:42:37] The next line item I do want to go over is 44931 credit card charges. [00:42:45] We've reduced that budget by about $64,000. If you recall a number of years ago, the city [00:42:56] passed an ordinance that allowed us to pass that credit card charge through to our customers [00:43:02] instead of the city absorbing it. But we weren't able to actually implement that because of [00:43:07] the software that we were using and the merchant process, or the credit card processing company [00:43:13] that we used. But now that we're into the new system and using a new processor, we're [00:43:18] able to move forward with that. We hope to have that done by December of this year. We've [00:43:26] only budgeted two months' worth of credit card charges. [00:43:33] Other than that, I don't really have any other significant changes, but I'll answer any questions [00:43:38] you may have. [00:43:39] Questions anyone? Thank you, Crystal. [00:43:44] You're welcome. [00:43:51] That concludes the presentations that we have for you this evening on the budget. [00:43:56] We're prepared to respond to any questions that you may have of us. [00:44:01] Any general questions? [00:44:04] We'll hold communications to the regular meeting. [00:44:08] Hearing nothing else, I entertain a motion to adjourn the workshop. [00:44:13] Moved to adjourn.

   This text was generated automatically from the meeting video. It is not a verbatim or official record. For exact wording, consult the video or the city clerk.

3. 3Communications
4. 4Adjournment