HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-23-2012 city or :..� Special Ci ty Council Meeting
August 23, 2012 -4.00 PM
� ' ° : Auburn City Hall Council Chambers
WASHINGTON; MINUTES
I. CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order at 4'00 p.m. Councilmembers present included Rich
Wagner, Nancy Backus, Bill Peloza, John Partridge, Largo Wales, Wayne Osborne
and John Holman.
Also present were Mayor Peter B Lewis, Finance Director Shelley Coleman,
Financial Planning Manager Martin Chaw, Chief of Police Robert Lee, Public Works
Director Dennis Dowdy, Human Resources and Risk Management Director Brenda
Heineman, Parks, Arts and Recreation Director Daryl Faber, Information Services
Director Lorrie Rempher, Planning and Development Director Keven Snyder, City
Attorney Dan Held and Deputy City Clerk Shawn Campbell.
II. DISCUSSION ITEMS
A. 2013-2014 Budget Review (Coleman)
Director Coleman reviewed the Council Budget review process including dates
and meeting requirements. Council Budget Workshop number two is primarily
to discuss the Proprietary and Capital funds portion of the budget.
Director Coleman explained the Utilities fund will be adding a utilities support
vehicle, four new full time employees to support construction projects, a
customer service representative and a remote all-terrain jetting machines for
pipe cleaning.
She shared the Innovation and Technology department will be acquiring new
software for mobile field asset collections and police security They will also add
automatic vehicle location for the City fleet and computers for new staff
Director Coleman stated the central budget is based on several assumptions
including no COLA's and continuing furloughs for all unaffiliated staff,
discontinuing the furloughs for affiliated staff, a 15 percent increase to the cost
of medical benefits, an eight percent increase to dental benefits cost, a pension
rate increase from 7.21 percent to 9.03 percent in July of 2013 and then to
10 19 in July of 2014 and an estimated increase of 15 percent to the Labor
Industries insurance rate. She said the total increase for the two year budget
period for the pension and Labor and Industries would be approximately $1.3
million.
Council requested the anticipated amounts for the medical, dental and step
increase be provided to Council.
Director Coleman reviewed the Park budget including park construction
projects, the cemetery and the golf course.
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Deputy Mayor Backus explained the SMART (Specific, Measurable,
Achievable/Actionable, Relevant/Realistic, and Timely) goals process. She
suggested these types of goals would be a good fit for the Council Committees,
cemetery and golf course.
Councilmember Wagner would like the construction of the community center
placed in the 2013 budget. Director Coleman stated the funding source has not
been identified. Councilmember Wales said the Finance Committee is working
to develop estimated operational costs for the community center
Councilmember Osborne stated he believes the community center should be in
the 2013-2014 budget. Director Coleman said she can add it to the budget with
funding from grant funds and contributions. Mayor Lewis noted the Public
Works Committee would be the committee to work with the facilities department
to develop an operational budget for the community center He added this item
and a median maintenance plan could be added to the Council Goals.
Councilmember Wagner suggested exploring requiring the Parks Department to
pay rent at the community center Councilmember Osborne said he feels it is
very important to know the cost of operation and maintenance before starting
construction.
Director Coleman said the cemetery is continuing to operate at a loss. She said
the fund will require an interfund transfer to meet cash flow needs. Director
Faber said the cemetery has approximately 8-9 years of available inventory He
added the cemetery has adequate space for the next 30 to 40 years. He said in
future budgets the City will need to develop additional areas. Councilmember
Wales said she does not want to outsource the weed eating at the cemetery
due to the budget shortfall. Mayor Lewis stated the weed eating was a Council
directive several years ago and can be removed from the budget by Council
consent. He added only select employees are able to weed eat by union
contract. Mayor Lewis stated staff is looking at ways to cut cost at the cemetery
Councilmember Holman noted that 60 percent of the wages and benefits cost in
2014 is attributed to benefits. Mayor Lewis said the cost of benefits is
increasing rapidly He added this is one of the reasons the City is considering
self-insurance. Councilmember Partridge asked if the revenue for the cemetery
is solely based on sales. Director Coleman stated the primary source of income
for the cemetery is sales when the cemetery is full and no longer has a revenue
source the cemetery will be funded by a permanent fund that has been set up
to maintain the property with the interest from the fund in perpetuity Council
briefly discussed the option of selling the cemetery
Director Coleman stated the golf course budget assumes a slow and gradual
improvement in revenue, the golf admission tax continuing to be in effect and
no interfund transfers. She added if the economic slump continues beyond
2014 a future interfund transfer may be required. Councilmember Wagner
questioned if the objectives of the golf course were capital projects. Director
Faber said the projects are items the current staff is able to accomplish within
the existing budget. Council discussed the restaurant at the golf course. Council
asked staff to consider options to increase revenue at the golf course
restaurant. Councilmember Wales asked for a listing of all the free golf provided
to the school district and she questioned charges for IT services.
Councilmember Osborne asked about the decrease in revenue for lessons.
Director Faber said he believes funds for lessons could have been applied to a
park and recreation account and he would look into it. Councilmember Partridge
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asked about the debt payment. Mayor Lewis said the debt payment obligation
will not be added back into the golf course budget. He said it is an improvement
to public lands.
Council discussed options for the enterprise funds. Councilmember Holman
stated when you have an enterprise fund that is under performing it is time to
look at performance budgeting. He said performance budgeting would give
information for future decisions. He said the City needs to decide if these items
are part of the core duties of the City Mayor Lewis said the Council
Committees working with the administration can set up SMART goals for the
enterprise funds.
Discussion of the street funds was postponded to the next meeting.
Director Coleman said the City has completed a water rate study and
anticipates completing the projects in the rate study The program
improvements include five (5) new employees and a utilities support vehicle.
The Water fund major projects include Well 1 improvements, water repair and
replacements and the Fulmer Field Well. Councilmember Wagner asked for a
water service study to be added to the budget. Mayor Lewis noted the new
employees are all contract positions with a definite start and end date.
Councilmember Peloza asked what the procedures are for determining vehicle
maintenance cost. Director Coleman said there is a program that takes the
actual costs for maintenance such as oil change and gas and the estimated
cost for replacement of the vehicle and creates a maintenance cost.
Councilmember Holman asked about the process of changing all water meters
to electronic meters and the expected time period for recouping the cost of the
meter Director Dowdy said the City is currently doing a study of two options to
give Council additional information. Councilmember Wagner asked to have the
Public Works positions broken down by position and separated by water, sewer
and storm. Councilmember Osborne asked if the IT services billed to the Public
Works department need to be analyzed to see if some of them can be
contracted out. Director Rempher said the IT department maintains all of the
hardware and software systems for the City She added the City does contract
out services where it is cost effective.
Director Colman said the 2014 working capital ending fund balance for the
Sewer fund is $6.5 million. She said the program improvement includes an all-
terrain jetting machine, and the annual sewer repair and replacement project.
She added there is no new debt planned for this fund She said the ending fund
balance can cover future improvements.
Director Colman said the Stormwater fund will issue new bonds per the 2013
rate study of$4.9 million to end the 2014 year with a working capital of$6.8
million. She said the major projects for the Stormwater fund include annual
pipeline repairs and replacement projects, Auburn Way South flooding, 30th
Street NE Area Flooding, phases 1-3 and the Mill Creek Wetland 5K Reach
restoration. Councilmember Holman asked if the Combined Sewer Overflow
(CSO) requirements will affect the 2015 budget. Councilmember Peloza said it
will not but he will be getting additional information to share with Council on the
expected costs for the CSO's to share with Council.
The remainder of the budget discussion was postponed to a future meeting.
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III. ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 6:05 p.m.
APP"OV �� day o eptember, 2012
Peter Lewis, Mayor Shawn Campbell, Deputy Citi Clerk
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