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HomeMy WebLinkAbout09-26-16 Personnel and FinanceOFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK KAREEMAH FOWLER, CITY CLERK r PERSONNEL &FINANCE �� 2016 5:00 P.M. Committee Members Present: Karen White, Gavin Ferlic, Regina Williams- Preston, John Voorde Committee Members Absent: Randy Kelly Other Council Present: Tim Scott, Dr. David Varner, Jo M. Broden, Oliver Davis Others Present: Kareemah Fowler, Joseph Molnar, Kathleen Cekanski- Farrand, Adriana Rodriguez Agenda: Bill No. 44 -16 — Appropriating monies for defraying Departmental expenses and Civil City funds for the fiscal year ending 12 -31 -17 Bill No. 45 -16 — Appropriating monies for defraying the expenses of Enterprise Funds for the fiscal year ending 12 -31 -17 Substitute Bill No. 46 -16 — Levying taxes and fixing the rate of taxation to meet City expenses Bill No. 47 -16 — Appropriating the TRASNPO budget and levying and fixing the taxation rate to fund TRANSPO for the fiscal year ending 12 -31 -17 Bill No. 49 -16 — September Civil City Appropriation Bill No. 50 -16 — September Enterprise Funds Bill No. 51 -16 — September Transfer Funds Committee Chair Karen White opened the meeting with seven (7) bills on the agenda. 455 County-City Building • 227 W. Jefferson Boulevard • South Bend, Indiana 46601 Phone 574- 235 -9221 • Fax 574- 235 -9173 • TDD 574- 235 -5567 • www.SouthBend[N.gov JENNIFER M. COFFMAN ALKEYNA M. ALDRIDGE JOSEPH MOLNAR CHIEF DEPUTY/ CHIEF OF STAFF DEPUTY/ DIRECTOR OF POLICY ORDINANCE VIOLATION CLERK Committeemember John Voorde made a motion to hear Bills 44 -16, 45 -16, and Substitute Bill 47 -16 together for purposes of public hearing. Committeemember Gavin Ferlic seconded the motion which carried by a voice vote of four (4) ayes. Bill No. 44 -16 — Appropriating monies for defraying departmental expenses and Civil City funds for the fiscal year ending 12 -31 -17 Bill No. 45 -16 — Appro iating monies for defraying the expenses of Enterprise Funds for the fiscal year e 7 Substitute Bill No. 46 -16 — Levying taxes and fixing the rate of taxation to meet City expenses Committeemember Gavin Ferlic made a motion to accept Substitute Bill 46 -16. Committeemember Regina Williams- Preston seconded the motion which carried by a voice vote of four (4) ayes. John Murphy, City Controller with offices on the 12th Floor of the County -City Building, served as the presenter and petitioner of these bills. These are the 2017 budget bills. Bill 44 -16 is for Civil City expenditures and those are the General Fund expenditures. Bill 45 -16 include the Enterprise Funds which are for the wastewater, water and solid waste. Bill 46 -16 is for levying taxes and it fixes the rate of taxation. That is a substitute bill because we typically file it in August without rates established and have now gone in and inserted illustrative rates now but they will be higher than what the DLGF will approve. We want to make sure we advertise it higher so that if there is a change in assessed value we will get our full rate. The rate has slowly increased over the last few years. The circuit breaker property tax caps overrule that anyway because there is only a certain amount that can be levied on all taxes. We have a Power Point presentation for tonight so we won't go through all of the details at this time. These are the normal budget bills and the public hearing will be had tonight. Council Attorney Kathleen Cekanski- Farrand stated that regarding the three (3) bills that Mr. Murphy is presenting and the Transpo bill, this evening is the only opportunity for the public to speak upon those bills. They will be continued in the Council portion because by state law you have to have a period of time where there is a cession of public comment and then it will be continued to the October l Oth, 2016 meeting. These are a little bit different than other bills. Mr. Murphy stated that is a good point. As we are doing the budget through Navaline for the Council, we are also doing the Indiana Gateway version of the budget and we have to be very precise on when we set the public hearing and make sure that's advertised. We did that about three (3) weeks ago. We have to stick with the public hearing tonight and the adoption hearing October 10th, 2016. The Council may or may not continue it after that. We have built in October 24th, 2016 as a backup date because by state law we have to have it passed prior to November 1St, 2016 No one from the public spoke either in favor of or in opposition to the bill. NA Committee Chair White stated the Councilmembers should be receiving all the questions and information from the Personnel and Finance Committee meetings. They will receive a copy of all the minutes from the meetings, as well as the questions that were proposed and information sent to the Council. We were thinking about having a final meeting with the Council on next Thursday October 6th, 2016 at 5:30 p.m. Councilmember Davis asked if negotiations with Police, Fire, and the Teamsters will be done by that time. Council Attorney Cekanski- Farrand responded they are hopeful but cannot say one (1) way or the other. Councilmember Gavin Ferlic made a motion to send all three (3) bills to the Council with no recommendation. Councilmember John Voorde seconded the motion which carried by a voice vote of four (4) ayes. Bill No. 47 -16 — Appropriating the TRASNPO budget and levying and fixing the taxation rate to fund TRANSPO for the fiscal year ending 12 -31 -17 David Cangany, General Manager and Chief Executive Officer of the South Bend Public Transportation Corporation at 1401 South Lafayette South Bend, served as the petitioner of this bill. A few weeks ago Transpo presented a detailed presentation on the 2017 budget and there were no material changes to the budget. He asked for the Council to approve the levy that has been assigned. Councilmember Dr. David Varner asked if their levy will be the same as last year. Mr. Cangany responded it kind of changed a little based on the net assessed property value. It actually went down something like .02. The net assessment was up for the year. Councilmember Dr. David Varner asked how many dollars as a whole did they get from the whole assessment. Mr. Cangany responded it is about $2.9 million which is the entire county. No one from the public spoke either in favor of or in opposition to the bill. Councilmember Gavin Ferlic made a motion to send Bill 47 -16 to the full Council with a favorable recommendation. Councilmember John Voorde seconded the motion which carried by a voice vote of four (4) ayes. Bill No. 49 -16 — September Civil City Appropriation John Murphy, City Controller with offices on the 12th Floor of the County -City Building, served as the presenter and petitioner of these bills. These are additional appropriations for the third quarter for the 2016 budget. We amend the budget quarterly so as not to get behind and wait until the end of the year. On the Civil City side we have amended the Council budget by $8,300 because we budgeted that not everyone would take their salary but everyone did this year. In the Fire Department we messed up on a few budgets for supplies and small equipment. We have some additional funds for accounting services in 2016 as well. For the Hall of Fame Debt Service Fund #313 we actually pay Weise Rental payments and they are slightly different than the normal schedule. For Coveleski Stadium we are budgeting for some infrastructure costs but that is a fairly small fund. The COIT Fund is getting $500,000 for the historic flooding. We have an insurance claim pending on this, but it is too early to see how much of this will be reimbursed but we want to go'l -h ad fa make the repairs. The largest item is the new LOIT 2016 special distribution fund to be used for streets only, $2,300,000 for work at Edison and Ironwood and Hickory and Logan. Those are the Civil City additional appropriations requests. Councilmember Oliver Davis asked if that money covers the work that needs to be done on Chippewa from the flooding. Corbitt Kerr, City Engineer with offices on the 13th Floor of the County -City Building, responded a portion of the road that was damaged is in the County and a portion in the City. The portion where Bowman Creek passes Chippewa was damaged and there is a lane restriction. That is the City's portion and we are working on repairing it. That repair will not open the street because the County still needs to take care of their portion. Currently the repairs for the County are under design. The County's damage will most likely cost more than ours and is a longer route that needs to get fixed. Councilmember Davis stated that the Council had made a decision that we would like to repair a certain number of streets and asked are those going to be included, especially Dunham Street. Mr. Kerr responded the City received a $1 million grant that is a 50150 matching grant from the State. That is for the resurfacing we are doing on Edison and Ironwood. There will be $100,000 going to Hickory which is a border street between us and Mishawaka. In terms of Dunham, the sidewalk is in the process of a procurement later this year. He stated he doesn't have any details at this time for the street repaving. Councilmember Dr. Varner stated the request from Council was for particular streets for repaving. He stated it seems like that money has been decided it would be spent elsewhere, or at least that is the perceived message. Councilmember Davis stated the Council gave a clear list of streets they would like to see repaved. Mr. Murphy stated he is not sure about this issue but there is money in the 2017 budget. Councilmember Davis stated this was about additional appropriations for the 2016 budget. Committee Chair White stated perhaps this is in the minutes from that meeting. Ll Councilmember Davis stated the chances of this being misinterpreted are low. He stated he is cautious on voting on this because before it was agreed that we would come back in September and have a chance to look at this then. Now in September we are being told it will be pushed to 2017. That is concerning. Mr. Murphy responded that he understands. To better clarify we have an appropriation in 2017 in the budget for $2,130,000. Councilmember Davis stated waiting to 2017 is just too long. Council Attorney Cekanski - Farrand stated perhaps we can hear the other two (2) bills while the Clerk's Office gets the minutes from the meeting where this was discussed. Committee Chair White stated we will come back to this bill and move on to Bill 50 -16. Bill No. 50 -16 — September Enterprise Funds John Murphy, City Controller with offices on the 12th Floor of the County -City Building, served as the presenter and petitioner of these bills. This is our third quarter additional appropriations for enterprise funds. Our list on these is smaller. In the Fire Department we budgeted for one (1) lease payment but we actually have two (2) payments so we are adjusting that. There is a really small number for the parking garages due to some rounding differences. When a new bond is issued, the bond council will ask to put the issuance costs into a separate fund so that they can keep track of those separately. The issuance costs were less than anticipated so those funds can be transferred to cover debt service payments. These are just to clear out the funds to have less to deal with. Councilmember Davis stated he has another question for the Chippewa closure. He stated he has heard that the street may not be opened again. If the City spends money to fix up ours but the County doesn't fix up their road will still be closed. It would be wasted funding if we don't have a better understanding from the County that their portion will be opened as well. Mr. Kerr stated the fixes that the City is doing will at least open up access to the AM General area. Councilmember Davis stated that is fine for the company but the citizens of the area deserve to have that road opened again. It seems like there is a plan that the road will remain closed. Mr. Kerr stated this is the first he has heard that the County is not considering doing their work. The last conversation he had with the County was that they were in the process of having a consultant move forward. Committee Chair White asked if there has been any discussion from the City to close the road. Mr. Kerr stated he is not aware of any plans to close Chippewa permanently. No one from the public spoke either in favor of or in opposition to the bill. Committeemember Gavin Ferlic made a motion to send Bill 50 -16 to the full Council with a favorable recommendation. Committeemember John Voorde seconded the motion which carried by a voice vote of four (4) ayes. Committee Chair White stated if there is going to be any discussion on the road prior to the passage of the whole budget the Council needs to know. It needs to be open for more than just AM General. Councilmember Oliver Davis asked the Council Attorney to send a letter to the Mayor and to County Officials regarding the closure of Chippewa so that they respond before the budget comes to a vote. Bill No. 51 -16 — September Transfer Funds John Murphy, City Controller with offices on the 12th Floor of the County -City Building, served as the presenter and petitioner of these bills. Mr. Murphy stated these are not additional appropriations but transfers between categories within the accounting system. The first are transfers in the Parks Department. We also made a change of where we are paying instructors. We like to pay them out of the services account rather than the payroll account because they're not really employees. We also had a small transfer to cover overtime in Central Services. The next is in the Parks Fund to purchase new equipment. The last is in the Water Works Fund where we want to conduct an agreement to develop a compliance plan for lead and copper roles and we have some additional funding for that. These are just relocations of money within a particular fund. No one from the public spoke in favor of or in opposition to the bill. Committeemember Gavin Ferlic made a motion to send Bill 51 -16 to the full Council with a favorable recommendation. Committeemember John Voorde seconded the motion which carried by a voice vote of four (4) ayes. Bill No. 49 -16 — September Civil City Appropriation (Continued) Committee Chair White stated the Clerk's Office distributed the minutes of the meeting previously discussed. The Committee read over the minutes. Committee Chair White stated at that point it is her opinion that the Councilmembers left the meeting with the understanding that we will have opportunity to weigh in on how those dollars will be spent because it was the first time that we heard that dollars were available. Mr. Murphy asked if there was any objection to anything other than the 2016 special distribution that's on the list for the Civil City. If there is not, perhaps the Council could move forward with those tonight and have further discussion on the special distribution. Councilmember Davis stated he would be at peace with that. C Council Attorney Cekanski- Farrand stated they would just have to strike from the title and the body of the ordinance the area that is going to be removed. Mr. Kerr stated he just talked to the County and there are no plans to keep Chippewa closed. The question was brought up to them whether it was worth considering that option but the decision was made not to close Chippewa and they hope to have it open within the next two (2) to three (3) weeks. Councilmember Davis thanked him for looking into that. Councilmember Ferlic stated from reading the minutes provided it is his understanding that we were providing a list of streets for then consideration for the 2017 budget. That is not to say that if we can find a way to do it this year we shouldn't. It was his assumption that the list we put together was not for this year. Councilmember Davis stated that is not what he remembers. He stated he wanted to hold up that appropriation but we were told that we would come back in September. Councilmember Ferlic referenced that in the minutes, Eric Horvath stated it would be in the 2017 budget. Councilmember Dr. David Varner stated it was his thoughts that we were providing suggestions for the use of this initial appropriation. We were talking about this initial $2 million. He stated he might not have heard Mr. Horvath say it would be considered for 2017. Councilmember Jo M. Broden stated it was her understanding that we were talking about the balance of the 2017 LOIT dollars and where those would go and that the project timeline was that those would happen in 2017. It is still part of the budget process. Committee Chair White stated because there is a lot of disagreement, she asked if it would be the Committee's pleasure to follow Mr. Murphy's recommendation so that when we do take action we have clarity. Council Attorney Cekanski - Farrand stated if the Committee wishes to do that, you would strike from the title the $2.3 million dollars of the special LOIT. Committeemember John Voorde made a motion to strike the language previously referenced by the Council Attorney and to send it favorably to the Common Council. Committeemember Gavin Ferlic seconded the motion which carried by a voice vote of four (4) ayes. With no further business before the Committee, Committee Chair Karen White adjourned the meeting at 4:08 p.m. Res ectfully Submitted,�� Karen White, Committee Chair 7