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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-07-1995 Adopted CC Minutes Budget Study SessionSTUDY SESSION MEETING - MARCH 7, 1995 A Study Session meeting of the City Council of the City of Dublin was held on Tuesday, March 7, 1995, in the Council Chambers of the Dublin Civic Center. The meeting was called to order at 7:04 p.m. ROLL CALL PRESENT: Councilmembers Barnes, Burton, Howard, Moffatt and Mayor Houston. ABSENT: None PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Mayor Houston led the Council, Staff and those present in the pledge of allegiance to the flag. 1995 BUDGET STUDY SESSION (330-20) City Manager Ambrose stated the purpose of this Study Session was to identify those areas that the Council would like Staff to analyze as part of the development of the City's 1995-96 Annual Operating Budget and Five-Year Capital Improvement Program. Mr. Ambrose referenced the attachments to the Staff Report which provided an historical perspective of the City's Expenditures, Revenues, and Fund Balance. An additional attachment provided a mid-year projection of the amount revenues are anticipated to exceed expenditures. Staff also prepared an Analysis of Estimated Future Impacts on City's General Fund. Mr. Ambrose stated Public Safety is increasing at an exorbitant rate compared to other program areas. Cm. Burton asked questions about the Attachment 1 figures and noted between 1990 and 1993 there was a significant drop. Mr. Ambrose advised that the property tax take by the state, the recession, and reduced sales tax, were part of the reasons. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES VOLUME 14 STUDY SESSION MEETING March 7, 1995 PAGE 166 Cm. Burton commented on Attachment 6 Contingent Reserve Budget figures for 1994- 95. Mr. Rankin advised that the Contingent Reserve is included in the budget and if unexpected things come up the City Council typically transfers from this account. $5,756 is what's remaining inthe budgeted Contingent Reserve. The City Manager has the authorization to transfer this amount to the accounts. Mr. Ambrose stated it typically varies over the years and goes from the Contingent Reserve to operating accounts. Cm. Moffatt asked if the Attachment 2 figures were per year, per month or what? Staff advised they were per year. Cm. Moffatt asked about the difference in revenues and expenditures. Mr. Ambrose explained that this chart shows the revenue divided by the population. We are generating less revenue today than in the past. We are also spending less per person. That was al this particular chart showed. Mr. Rankin reviewed Attachment 9, General Fund Balance. With regard to using reserves, if you use them for a specific project, this will affect revenues because we are generating revenue off the reserves. It appears we will be able to generate about $70,000 from our reserves the balance of this fiscal year. Mayor Houston asked about our weighted interest rate. Mr. Rankin stated it is about 5.642% year-to-date. Mayor Houston commented that Attachment 11 is important to show mid-year adjustments. He asked if the holiday revenues had been reported yet. He felt we should be pretty happy with these figures when they come in. He commented that he thought the report was very well laid out. Mayor Houston commented that Attachment 12 goes into the revenue sections with some unknowns. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES VOLUME 14 STUDY SESSION MEETING March 7, 1995 PAGE 167 Mr. Ambrose reviewed the analysis of estimated future impacts on the City's General Fund. He advised that he had attended a meeting on the Governor's Budget and it is looking a ittle more positive this year than in previous years. As part of the Governor's projections though, he is predicting a major recovery in the economy. If this doesn't happen, we may be looking at a number of other circumstances. The Governor has stated he is planning a middle class tax cut. Mr. Rankin stated the League of California Cities feels the current proposal represents a little more reality than previous years budgets. Mr. Ambrose stated another items we are aware of is that we are absorbing a graduated increase 'n dispatch costs. We experienced the first 20% increase last year and this year we will be hit with another 20%. The new County Animal Shelter Agreement will require debt service payment of about $56,000 which is a ittle less than they projected. Mayor Houston asked if there had been any response from the County over the controversy over the costs. Mr. Rankin advised that the final report has not yet been prepared. They say they will respond to some of the comments. The Board is interested in hearing whether there are better ways to do business. Mr. Ambrose stated the other major expense we anticipate is the proposed increases in service levels to the Fire Department. One of the things we need to be concerned about is fire service implementation. Should.something happen to derai the Homart project, we coula be substantially impacted. We are working carefully to make certain we minimize the risk in getting service out there. We estimate $343,000 in operating costs for the station out there the first year. Cm. Burton asked if the animal shelter money was in addition to what we've been paying. Mr. Rankin responded yes, the figure was basically a purchase figure. Each year everyone will contribute based on their use of the facility. They will look at the total debt payment to determine percentages. It's measured by the number of animals. Mr. Ambrose advised that Library Service shows a graduated increase in cost of overhead. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES VOLUME 14 STUDY SESSION MEETING March 7, 1995 PAGE 168 Mr. Ambrose stated Homart's schedule has slipped beyond what they initially proposed. There is also the issue of the statute of limitations that runs on their approval. They are planning fairly conservatively. Mayor Houston felt it appeared the increase is $279,505 built in for the 4 items. This seems to be a given. Mr. Ambrose stated these figures were based on the base figures of 1994-95; $331,000 is this year's excess revenues. Mayor Houston felt if everything remains the same we will still be on the plus side by $61,000. Mr. Rankin stated $331,000 of this was made up by some one-time events. The costs will remain from year to year. Mayor Houston felt an evaluation might neea to take place to determine whether it is better to stay with the County Sheriff's Department or go with our own dispatching service. Mr. Ambrose advised when we last reviewed this, it was determined that it would be about $600,000 to go on our own. Chief Rose stated it was about $1/2 million for the equipment. Cm. Moffatt asked if there was a possibility that we might be able to share some of the dispatch costs. Mr. Ambrose stated with regard to the Fire Department issue, the basic problem is Pleasanton and Livermore have their own dispatch service for police and fire. It's not like y that they would jump out of their current dispatch situation. This is probably one of the biggest issues. Police Chiefs don't like to. give up their dispatch. Mayor Houston felt that a 300% increase over time is quite a bit. Worksheet Question A. Should the 1994-95 evel of service be used as the base leve for developing the 1995-96 Budget? CITY COUNCIL MINUTES VOLUME 14 STUDY SESSION MEETING March 7, 1995 PAGE 169 Mayor Houston stated he would like to see us use our current service levels as a base and then other levels could be added. This would be easy for the City Council to look at and for the public to see where the increases are. Cm. Burton felt there usually isn't enough money to do everything that everybody wants. Mayor Houston felt the community groups should all be separate items and then the City Council could include them if they want. Cm. Moffatt suggested picking a percentage and make decisions within the percentages. He referenced community development. Mayor Houston stated this is what they do in Washington and this is a terrible system. He would rather see any increases shown separately. Cm. Moffatt stated he was thinking primarily with regard to some of the social issues. If limits are set, it would be easier to decide who gets what. Mayor Houston felt if it is all laid out on what the alternatives are, this makes it easy to see the costs associated with each program'. We should not build in any increases tonight, but this should be done in June at the budget hearing. It doesn't make any sense to add in any increases now; either dollar figures or percentages. Cm. Howard referenced Library Services and stated if would be beneficial to allow so much for allocating discretionary services. Mr. Ambrose clarified base level and stated Staff was talking about providing the same level of service as we are providing today. Mayor Houston stated last year, any dollar increase was called out. Choices were given for the discretionary funds. He restated he felt the community group requests should be separate so the City Council can make those choices. Mr. Ambrose advised that the City Council had already obligated the CDBG funds. The 3 groups (Dublin Substance Abuse Council, Dublin Fine Arts Foundation and Community Television) were in the base last year. The Council determined that the 1994-95 level of service Should be used as the base level for developing the 1995-96 Budget. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES VOLUME 14 STUDY SESSION MEETING March 7, 1995 PAGE 170 Worksheet Question B. If the Counc'il is desirous of accomplishing all high priority obiectives during Fiscal Year 1995-96, should the cost of funding those high priority objectives be included as additional budget increments to current service levels? Cm. Burton stated he circled the word "all". Mr. Ambrose reported that Staff had prepared an updated list of the high priority items as ranked by the Council the previous night. Mayor Houston stated he would like to see costs associated with all the high priority items. The City Council can then make choices. The highs will probably exceed the excess revenues by a large margin. Mr. Ambrose stated high priority goals will be listed individually. As part of the justification, Staff will reflect back on the goal. Cm. Burton felt the Council may have a champagne appetite. Worksheet Question C. Should Community Group requests be placed in the base budget at the same funding leve as 1994-95, or identified in a separate budget increment above the base level? Mayor Houston felt they should be set aside and they will be looked at in light of discretionary funds. Community Groups funded from the General Fund in 1994-95 included: 1) Dublin Substance Abuse Council $ 4,500 2) Dublin Fine Arts Foundation $10,000 3) Community Television $21,393 Mr. Ambrose stated the City Council can look at these fresh. There may be more people coming in with requests. Cm. Burton asked when the citizens could come in and make their requests. Mr. Ambrose stated this is typically done at the budget hearing. Mayor Houston felt the Council will start getting letters from now until June. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES VOLUME 14 STUDY SESSION MEETING March 7, 1995 PAGE 17] Worksheet Question D. What additional services (if any) should Staff evaluate as part of the 1995-96 Budget? Mayor Houston felt the high priority items should be looked at. Worksheet Comment E. On June 30, 1995, the following service contracts will be expiring: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) Police Services Animal Control Crossing Guard Service General Engineering Traffic Engineering Building & Safety Library Services For any of the above contract services, are you interested in having Staff focus on any particular 'ssue other than the cost of providing the service by the current service provider for 1995-96? Mr. Ambrose stated Staff had done a complete evaluation on each of these services in the past and it involves quite a lot of work. Any particular areas of concern would make this review more beneficial. Cm. Barnes questioned how many total contracts we have out. She asked if it is unusual that they al come due at the same time. She asked if they can be staggered. Mr. Rankin stated this has been dOne. Mr. Ambrose pointed out that some of the contracts are annual. Mayor Houston commented with regard to crossing guards, he thought most of them on the Council had gotten complaints. He asked il: we are looking at a new provider? Mr. Ambrose stated Staff will give this service some serious review this year. Mayor Houston statea he had seen a great improvement since the holidays. Mr. Ambrose advised that it has been a lot more work for City Staff. We will be reviewing this carefully. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES VOLUME 14 STUDY SESSION MEETING March 7, 1995 PAGE 172 Mayor Houston commented on the medium priority ranking of using volunteers at the library and asked if Staff could see what the County might be thinking. Mr. Ambrose advised that Ms. Lowart is already working on this. We will be reviewing our options. Cm. Burton asked about the options with Building & Safety. There will be an awful lot going on 'n the future. Mr. Ambrose stated the City could look at another service provider or an in-house operation or a combination of the two. San Ramon contracts out plan checking. We have been teetering for the last several years on whether it makes sense to continue the way we've been going. Cm. Burton commented that he .wanted to make sure with all the new development coming on line that we have flexibility and don't hold things up. Mr. Ambrose stated this flexibility has been there in the past. We've been able to work effectively. We will review the options and look at this a lot more closely. One inspector certainly will not be adequate, Worksheet Question F. In recent years a very limited amount of General Fund Operating Revenues have been allocated for Capital Expenditures. Should Staff continue to rely primarily on special revenue funds for funding Capital Expenditures? Mayor Houston stated hopefully it looks like we will have more activity in the future. Mr. Ambrose stated the issue is from the CIP perspective. This current year we had to budget about $107,000 out of the General Fund, If the City Counci wants to approach the CIP financing as in the past, there's a limited amount allocated. The $107,000 was primarily data processing and the sidewalk repair program. Mayor Houston felt they always have the flexibility to change from year to year. There's a perception that we' II be having revenues coming in this next year so we should stay out of the General Fund. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES VOLUME 14 STUDY SESSION MEETING March 7, 1995 PAGE 173 Mr. Rankin pointed out that it had shifted to special revenue funds significant y over the years. The Council felt that primarily, special revenue funds should be used. Worksheet Question A. How should the Citywide Assessment District Fees be set for 1995-96? 1. Reflect actual increases in costs? 2. Reflect only the increase in the CPI and subsidize the difference from the Genera Fund? 3. Freeze Assessments and subsidize difference from the General Fund. Mayor Houston stated he voted for #3. He doesn't believe these costs should go up. Cm. Burton asked how we would justify freezing assessments if actual costs go up. Mayor Houston stated last year when we had the citywide lighting fee and the storm water fee we had some very large reserves and we should look at using those. Mr. Ambrose advised that the storm water fee will possibly have to be subsidized by about $30,000 this year. With regard to street lighting, there are a couple of options. Should Staff plug in actual costs or not? The actua costs will still be less than what they will pay. Mayor Houston requested that the City Council be provided with a couple of options. Mr. Ambrose explained that we are trying to negotiate the purchase of 1,400 street lights from PG&E and if we buy them and we own them and maintain them the cost is about $47,000 per year. There are 2 approaches as discussed last night. One approach is we keep the rates at the same level and take the savings and repay the General Fund for what it costs to buy the lights. The other option would be to take the money from the General Fund and immediately drop the rates. Maintenance costs are less for the City than for PG&E. Mr. Thompson stated the poles being discussed are the meta ones with ights on them. The newer sub-divisions have these kind of poles. Mr. Ambrose stated Staff will identify these options. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES VOLUME 14 STUDY SESSION MEETING March 7, 1995 PAGE 174 Cm. Barnes stated she was against using the' word "freeze". Mayor Houston stated everybody in the City expects lights. We could use money from the General Fund to make up the cost of an increase, but if it is put on the tax bill, this frees up money from the General Fund so then the debate is whether to provide lights or a fountai'no He felt people want lights more than other things. Cm. Barnes felt the options should be left open. Mr. Ambrose stated a fourth option would be to take it from the reserves to pay for the light pole purchases. Mayor Houston stated rather than #3 above, Staff should list all alternatives. Mr. Thompson stated we usually try to figure as additiona subdivisions come on line how many lights they will have and we plug in these numbers. We never know for sure. We balance out the account at the end of the year. Mayor Houston asked if we will have some resolution related to Camp Parks by budget time? Cm. Burton asked if in all the new subdivisions the light poles will be ours. Mr. Ambrose responded yes. Cm. Burton asked if they wil be talking about sidewalk repair as part of the budget? Mr. Ambrose responded Staff will once again put forth a proposal that the sidewalk repair program come out of the General Fund. The City Council may want to make some tradeoffs. Mr. Ambrose commented with regard to where the source of revenue will come from, Staff wil work something out. Worksheet Question B. What additional revenue issues (if any) would you like to have Staff evaluate? Mr. Ambrose stated if the Council has any major capita improvement projects and there isn't adequate special revenue sources we may want to review other things. Staff could evaluate other things as part of the CIP on some of the high priority projects. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES VOLUME 14 STUDY SESSION MEETING March 7, 1995 PAGE 175 Mayor Houston discussed hook ramps and stated the Transportation Authority has indicated they will try to match some of the short term funds or we may have to put some debt service together. He doesn't know if we would have an assessment district or what it would take. Cm. Moffatt stated he was hoping some of the mitigation fees put into East Dublin would take care of some of this. Mr. Ambrose advised that out of the Homart project we won't see any cash for 1-580/I-680 improvements becauSe of Alameda County Right-of-Way credits. Mayor Houston felt we need to work with the Transportation Authority to find a match for Measure B funds. Mr. Thompson stated if they have extra money, maybe they could decide to put it in these other projects. Mayor Houston felt all the jurisdictions are going to have to come up with matching funds, and we need to look at how we are going to come up with these funds. Mr. Ambrose stated a major issue will be how we treat these funds. We won't be able to build everything. Mr. Thompson stated the flyover was $10 million short and they did some other proiects to get credit. We still have the Enea matching money. Mr. Ambrose statecJ we are still a long way from the $5.6 million. Mr. Thompson pointed out the fact that we are not the only ones benefiting from the flyover. Cm. Moffatt stated as part of the TVTC recommendations, they have the flyover in there, and the 5 cities and the 2 counties will participate. There's a fee study going on right now and who knows how this will turn out. Mr. Rankin stated even if there is an agreement on a regional fee there has to be some agreement on where the first funds wil go. Cm. Moffatt stated it had been suggested that each city would manage their own funds and that it be put into an escrow account. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES VOLUME 14 STUDY SESSION MEETING March 7, 1995 PAGE 1% Mayor Houston stated we need to work with the Transportation Authority and build on that. Worksheet Comment Please review the 1994-95 Preliminary Budget document and identify format changes (if any) you would like to see Staff make in 1995-96. Cm. Howard commented that she felt it was very good last year. The Council agreed that the document was put together in an easy to understand format. The Council determined that the Budget hearing should be scheduled for the evenings of Wednesday and Thursday, June 28 and 29, beginning at 6:00 p.m., in the Council Chambers. Both nights should be scheduled with the understanding that an effort will be made to get it done in one night. Cm. Burton complimented Staff for putting together a report for this meeting that was easy to understand. Staff did a very good job. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business to come before the Council, the meeting was adjourned at 8:24 p.m. -- iL ~ -'~i~yClerk CITY COUNCIL MINUTES VOLUME 14 STUDY SESSION MEETING March 7, 1995 PAGE 177