04/21/2014 - Minutes City of Tigard
TIGARD
Budget Committee Summary
Monday,April 21, 2014, 6:30 PM
Public Works Auditorium,Tigard, Oregon 97223
MEMBERS PRESENT (9):
Don Fisher,Marc Woodard,Julie Plotz,Marland Henderson,Melody Graeber,Tim Esau,Jason Snider,
Clifford Rone,Bill Bigcraft
MEMBERS ABSENT (2): Mayor John L Cook, Gretchen Buehner
STAFF PRESENT:
Marty Wine, City Manager,Toby LaFrance, Finance and Information Services Director,Liz Lutz, Confidential
Executive Assistant, Carissa Collins-Sr. Management Analyst,Liz Newton,Assistant City Manager,Loreen
Mills,Assistant to the City Manager,Debbie Smith-Wagar,Assistant Finance Director,Alan Orr, Police Chief,
Brian Rager, Interim Public Works Director, Kenny Asher, Community Development Director,Margaret
Barnes,Library Director, Dana Bennett, Human Resources Director, Jim DeSully,Assistant Chief-PD,Lisa
Shaw,Business Manager-PD,Michelle Wright,Business Manager-PW, Sean Farrelly,Redevelopment Project
Manager
1. Call to Order—Sitting Chair Melody Graeber called the meeting to order
2. Introductions—Committee and staff introduced themselves. A quorum was present.
3. Role of the Budget Committee-Toby described the make-up of the committee, and the plan for the next
couple of week's budget committee meetings. The committee will have discussion and ultimately approve
the proposed budget with any changes. A vote of at least six members must be obtained. This process
takes place for the city budget as well as the City Center Development Agency. Once the budgets are
approved, the budgets move to the City Council for adoption.
4. Election of Officers—Don Fisher was nominated and voted for committee Chairperson. Marland
Henderson was nominated and voted as Secretary.
5. Budget Message and Presentation-Marty Wine
This document is a plan that summarizes, monetarily,what we plan to do for the next fiscal year. The goal
is to sustain reserves for a 3-to-5 year period and this budget meets that goal. Standard and Poor's has
increased our rating to AA+ due to our strong management condition, our budget flexibility is strong and
the city's decision to reduce costs and increase revenues to meet our challenges. There is a slight growth in
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our staffing that is either required by our collective bargaining agreement or is funded by a shift of
resources from another area of operations. Investments in equipment are one-time expenses that increase
efficiency. Also a cornerstone of settling the collective bargaining agreement with our employee union
(SEIU), allows for longer-term sustainability due to the city's share in medical/dental benefits lowers
annual cost growth by .5% and saves our General Fund $1.5 million over the 5-year forecast.
This budget also addresses the City Council goals. We will continue to invest in the Lake Oswego/Water
Partnership, adds a dedicated position to work solely on this project. We also will issue the final increment
of bonds for the water partnership in 2015. Other work on the council goals include plans for River
Terrace, using contingency funds for funding Tigard's share of the SW Corridor if the council chooses to
continue planning for high capacity transit and continuing outreach options for Recreation. This budget
funds a Communications Strategist through the savings of not mailing our community newsletter.We plan
to complete public investments in downtown Tigard as well.
The majority of the budget includes the funding for core services, such as policing, library, city parks and
community planning. Some one-time investments include automated materials handling for the library,
update the city's phone system,provide mobile equipment for the police force and make needed repairs to
a few of the city's buildings.
The Capital Improvement Plan includes projects which will cost$85 million across all capital funds in fiscal
year 2015. There were 11 projects completed in our current CIP and 47 projects will continue to be funded.
There are three partially funded projects and Tigard will seek funding from our regional partners. There are
also 14 new priority projects that are funded in FY 2014-15 CIP. The five year CIP includes an aggressive
list of projects over five years. It will use all of the available funding,particularly in Parks and
Transportation. Due to this,we will need to monitor and manage costs and revenues closely.
We have launched the city's strategic goal which is to be the most walkable community in the Pacific
Northwest. The purpose of a strategic plan is to provide an inspiring focus and direction for future
investments. The goals include creating walking connections, develop an identity, community engagement
and to continue to fund core services.We plan to make modest investments to advance these goals. The
city hopes to hire a Communication Strategist to help with the communication engagement goal; fund a
parks maintenance study to determine service levels, costs and proposed funding to be able to maintain the
park land we already own and the land we have recently acquired;we will create an inventory of walking
and other connections using our geographic information systems by adding .2 to an existing GIS position.
In order to fund the vision while maintaining core services, the budget includes a $1.0 million reserve in
General Fund to protect our financial future. This helps to manage the potential economic downturn that
could occur again. Other ways to help fund the strategic plan are to set aside $200,000 in the General Fund
for"lighter, cheaper, quicker"projects-those that are low cost and easy to implement. The proposed CIP
includes five sidewalks and three trail projects.
Councilor Henderson asked if the budget creation was predicated on what the economy is doing? City
Manager Marty Wine responded that the city has a team that research and analyze trends, expenditures,
resources, financial forecast and assumptions based on the economic climate. Finance Director Toby
LaFrance added that the economy,local government law, state revenue and services that will be required, as
well as anticipated timeframes for certain activities, like when River Terrace will be developed-you will see
an uptick in development expenditures in that timeframe, etc. Most funds are healthy and you will see the
five-year health in the general fund,with a slow growth economy,we can maintain service levels. There is
one fund that is not healthy, the Sewer Fund, and that is being addressed in an issue paper. Additional
there are a couple of capital funds that are negative due to partially funded CIP projects. If the funding is
not found, the project won't happen and the fund won't go negative.
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Budget committee member Bill Bigcraft asked if the goal for the reserve fund is $2 million,which was the
previous amount funded?Toby replied that it's one way to benchmark the city's reserve,but the final
amount has yet to be decided and staff is working on that process as a task in the strategic plan. The
amount of services $2 million bought five years ago is more than that same $2 million will buy if there is a
recession five years from now.
Budget committee member Clifford Rone asked about the annexation of River Terrace and Washington
County making discounts and not passing along fees to the city. Could this be an issue for revenues? How
do we monitor not setting the city up for too much growth that may not pay for itself? Is there discussion
on what the system development charges should be? Councilor Snider responded that council is aware of
significant challenges around financing infrastructure and is actively being briefed by both citizen and
technical staff taskforces which is set up to research infrastructure financing. Toby said this budget reflects
that the city is aware of those issues and that decisions will be coming on those issues as well. There are
workshops planned with council. A financial strategy plan, (regional and the city) will be researching where
the money will come from. The CIP may look different next year due to the development needs for River
Terrace. Councilor Snider indicated that he thinks the budget committee should have a role in the financing
of River Terrace.
6. Budget Issue Paper Presentation-Toby LaFrance and Brian Rager
This issue paper deals with the sanitary sewer fund. Sewer revenues have not kept up with increasing costs
to maintain this infrastructure. The fund will go negative in three years if the city does not find additional
revenues. The region's sewer provider, Clean Water Services (CWS), set the rates and the city's share of
those revenues. For every dollar, $.84 goes to CWS, $.05 goes to the General Fund as a Franchise Fee and
$.11 goes to the sewer fund. Assuming Hillsboro passes the sewer fee they are considering next Thursday,
the city is the only one in CWS'region that has not implemented a surcharge.
Various options were presented but the one that is most viable is to institute a sewer surcharge. The
budget committee agreed that any option that reduces sewer service and capital investment are not viable
or sustainable. Staff recommended hiring a consultant to perform a fee study and would determine a local
surcharge to allow the city to fund its operational and capital needs in this fund. The estimated cost of this
consultant is $15,000-20,000. It was moved to hire a consultant to research the viable options for revenue
generation for the sewer fund. Second and passed.
7. Public Comment-None
8. Discussion of the Proposed Budget
•
Questions/Comments from committee
• Councilor Snider asked about the bringing back Thursday library hours. City Manager Marty
Wine said that the city Executive Staff were asked to present a level budget that didn't make
changes and then asked them to propose items that would be make us more efficient or provide
better service to our customers-keeping in mind city survey, strategic plan, etc. Library
proposed to purchase an automated materials handling system-which allows for immediate
check in of materials and sorts the items in bins-this will help in the turnaround time for library
items. The library also submitted a package to restore library hours on Thursday. Survey results
to show patrons would like to see hours restored on Thursday. The City Manager made the
decision to approve the automated materials handling proposal because we have the one time
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resources to purchase this system. The library hours would be an on-going expenditure that we
may not be able afford on a sustained basis. Councilor Snider indicated that the library board
would like to have the Thursday hours reinstated. Margaret Barnes,Library Director, said that
there is much public interest in being open all day on Thursdays. From an efficiency standpoint,
the automated materials handling system would help in patron satisfaction of item turnaround.
The Library Board is,indeed, concerned with open hours and parking. This system will enable
staff to keep up with the current workload effort and is not designed to save FTE at this time.
After time has passed, that possibility might present itself. Councilor Snider requested that the
library provide information on the cycle time for reshelving our library items. Margaret also
suggested we ask Beaverton and Hillsboro about their experience without and with the
automated handling system. It was asked if Councilor Snider or other budget committee
members need this information from the library before voting on the budget. All indicated that
they do not need this information prior to budget approval.
• Councilor Woodard asked for clarification on page 253-a new code called credit card fees?
Toby explained that this is an administrative change-we added this line item to those with credit
card usage. We have to pay VISA or MasterCard a fee whenever one of our customer uses a
credit card. In the past,we have reduced the revenue as opposed to showing it as expenditure.
Starting in FY 2015,we will show this as an expense and we will have an equal revenue increase.
As a city, our customers are using credit cards more, so we want to make it an explicit
expenditure.
• Budget Committee member Don Fisher asked about the Council Goals-recreation-$60,000
expense for research, etc.What is this goal-specifically? Councilor Woodard explained that an
audit was done for resources available and we have a lot of green area space. We want to make
the best use of these resources. There needs to be a voice to activate this space. This money will
allow a consulting firm to do a different audit/survey and conduct a needs assessment-want to
the citizens want and need?
• Councilor Snider asked about the savings achieved with the 4 day work week. He would like to
have the savings amount in a brief format. He would like that brought back for next week's
discussion. Other committee members would also like to have the information for next week.
The meeting was recessed at 9:05pm.
Liz Lutz, Confidential Executive Assistant
ATTEST: Marland Henderson, Secretary
The next Budget Committee meeting will be held on Monday, May 5, 2014 at the Public Works
Auditorium, beginning at 6.•30pm.
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