09-07-16 Personnel and Finance - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mr. Eastman stated that there is a mathematical error in the presentation. The total given is not correct. It is 1.7, 1.8, and 1.9 million going across the page. The individual line for personnel, supplies, and services is accurate. We are looking at a five percent (5 %) increase in cost of personnel based on the acquisition of a new deputy. We are looking forward to being able to reduce our supplies cost, and the reduced price of gasoline has helped. We don't expect an increase next year, especially with better economy vehicles. Services are increasing, but that is mostly due to changes in allocation. Mr. Eastman explained the graphs in his presentation, which is available in the City Clerk's office. $372,000 in revenues is expected next year in Neighborhood Code Enforcement. Civil penalties have climbed a lot because we've done a lot to beef up our processes. Now the processes are at a stable state, so we don't anticipate that they'll rise. Mr. Wilkerson continued by explaining their accomplishments. Looking at their processes, they learned that the business license inspections were done poorly in the previous years. Everything has been tightened up, and they are working with other departments to make sure they are more in tune with the ordinance. This year they inspected eighty (80) applications, taking about three - hundred and twenty (320) hours to do that. This is a good for the community. We've created educational brochures, which have been published and put on the website. We take them to neighborhood meetings and Mayor's Night Out. Last year, the Department hired an administrative assistant who is working to build collections cases for us. She is batching up multiple owners and properties, and we are taking people to collections all at the same time. For the collections agency, that is a big win when they can dedicate their time to someone with that much money versus one person with a bill of $180. We audited all of our environmental files, three - hundred (300) boxes of paper have been taken out of our office and recycled. We upgraded our office computers, and everything seems to be running quite well. We are resuming special assessments on properties. We can assess up to $10,000 per property on their taxes. This year was very effective, but we've backed off this year since property taxes have gone out for the fall. We'll assess a lot more in the spring because it has been effective. People who are paying their property taxes are paying their outstanding fines with us. Goals for 2016 were to improve efficiency, increase outreach and partnerships, and economic development. In 2017, goals and challenges are to continue to streamline the business licensing process. We're continuing to improve operational efficiency, streamlining processes every day. By the end of this year, we hope to have our processes all up online so people can see exactly what we are doing. 12