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05/07/2001 - Minutes City of Tigard, Oregon Revised Budget Committee Meeting Minutes May 7, 2001 Members Present: Mike Benner, George Burgess, Irene M. Moszer, Sydney L. Sherwood, Greg Zuffrea, Jim Griffith, Craig Dirksen, Brian Moore, Joyce E. Patton, and Ken Scheckla. Members Absent: None. Staff Present: Bill Monahan, Craig Prosser, Tom Imdieke, Ron Goodpaster, Margaret Barnes, and Heather Burris. Visitor: Martha Bishop. Call to Order: George Burgess called the meeting to order at 6:32 PM. All members were present. Approval of Minutes: The meeting minutes of May 15, 2000 were approved. MSP The meeting minutes of April 30, 2001 were approved. MSP Ethics Training: Bill Monahan noted that an Ethics Training will be provided to all employees as well as volunteers. This training will be held Monday, July 16th , at 7:00 PM in Town Hall. An invitation is extended to all Budget committee members to take part in this training. Mayor and City Council: The Mayor and City Council budget is primarily made up of Personal Services and Contractual Services. Wages have remained the same for this fiscal year. The last increase for City Council wages occurred in 1999. The City Council budget reflects an increase of approximately $2,000.00 for this year, primarily due to an increase in fees, dues and subscriptions, and also travel and training. Irene Moszer asked why utility costs were so low. Craig Prosser responded that the utility costs are primarily cellular telephone costs. City Administration: The City Administration Department is proposing an increase in FTE's from 15.80 to 19.80. A total of four new positions are proposed. City Management: Personal Services costs have increased due to the new employees hired in the last fiscal year and their eligibility for benefits. The budget has built in a 25% increase for medical benefits for this year. Overall, the City Management budget shows an increase of 9.1% in Personal Services and a 7.9% decrease in Materials and Services. For this fiscal year, the City Management Division proposes a$30,000 increase. George Burgess asked what a Community Connector is (as shown in the Effectiveness Measures). Bill Monahan answered that a Community Connector is a citizen within the community who makes a commitment to help bring the community together by passing along information given to them from Liz Newton. Ken Scheckla and George Burgess made other suggestions on how to better distribute this information to the public. George Burgess noted that the City Management Division does not show the number of volunteers or number of volunteer hours in the Effectiveness Measures. Bill Monahan made a note of this and will be including this information. Human Resources: The Human Resources Division is proposing an increase of 0.5 FTE's. Currently one staff person works part-time as a Human Resources employee and part-time as a Network Services employee. This change would allow for a full-time employee in Human Resources and a full-time employee in Network Services. This increase is necessary due to the increase of employees in the City of Tigard. Ken Scheckla asked why the number of applications received this year would be going down. Bill Monahan responded that this year a lot of the entry level Police Department positions have been filled as opposed to last year. Personal Services costs are increasing 26.2% and Materials and Services costs are decreasing 7.6%. The Human Resources Division is proposing an increase of 15.7%. Network Services: The Network Services Division is requesting an FTE increase of 3.5 positions. This increase would include the transfer of the Police Systems Specialist from the Police department, addition of a Web Master, increase of an existing Senior HR/Telecommunications Analyst to full-time Network Technician, one new Network Technician, and one Software Support person. This would increase the Network Services budget 30.8% for the fiscal year. Jim Griffith asked why utilities increased drastically for this Division. Craig Prosser responded that in prior years the telephone costs were budgeted under Property Management. This year, the cost is being transferred to Network Services. Ken Scheckla asked if there would be enough room in the "Niche"building for the additional staff. Bill Monahan reported that the training room would be changed to allow workstations for the new employees. Risk Management: The Risk Management Division requested no additional FTE's. Personal Services are up 8.1%. This increase is primarily in Professional and Contractual Services for additional legal services due to the upgrading of City contracts. Materials and Services are up 3.8% for an ergonomic workstation. The Risk Management Division is proposing an increase of 5.2% for the fiscal year. City Attorney: The actual budget for attorney fees citywide will be approximately $154,500 for the year, however, that amount is distributed throughout all departments. The City Attorney has a proposed budget for citywide services of$25,000 for fiscal year 2001/02. Finance: The Finance Department proposes an increase of 14.5%, and 1.05 FTE positions. Personal Services are up 11.6% and Materials and Services are up 23.8%. Finance Administration: The Finance Administration Division would like to achieve the following goals for this fiscal year: develop a catalog of all city fees and charges and develop a process to review these fees and charges; enhance the support to Departments for annual rate reviews and rate settings; provide more active support to Departments in dealing with financial issues; develop a citywide capital financing strategy; update the City's cost allocation plan, and enhance franchise management by actively reviewing all franchises for compliance and initiating a regular audit program. Franchise Fee revenue makes up 15% of the General Fund. The overall budget for the Finance Administration Division is up 54.8%. This increase is due to an increase of one FTE position, City Attorney costs related to franchise management, and increased advertising and printing costs for the budget document. Joyce Patton noted that the Effectiveness Measures did not include any statistics in regards to auditing. Craig Prosser responded that the Effectiveness Measures would be revised to include this. Ken Scheckla asked why the travel and training costs have increased. Craig Prosser responded that costs are up due to the addition of the new position. Financial Operations: The Financial Operations Division would like to achieve the following goals for this fiscal year: implement GASB 34 requirements prior to July 1, 2002; complete the annual audit by November 15, 2001; participate in the City's annual budget process; review rates and penalties; review the options for changing the City's financial software; and implement outsourcing of the utility billing receipting process. The overall budget for Financial Operations increases by 16.9% from FY 2000/01. This includes a small increase in hours for business tax field reviews. Materials and Services increases 45%. This increase is primarily due to the outsourcing of utility billing payment, online utility payments, new meter reading equipment and software, credit card fees for online payments, and replacement of worn office equipment. Ken Scheckla asked what percentage of utility customers are delinquent. Tom Imdieke responded that approximately 3% of Tigard customers are delinquent in paying their water bills. Jim Griffith asked if the Business Tax is the same as a Business License. Craig Prosser responded that the City of Tigard does not have a Business License, only a Business Tax. Business Tax revenue is approximately $230,00 a year. Office Services: The Office Services Section would like to achieve the following goals for this fiscal year: continue to respond to the Finance Department customer service survey and implement changes requested by customers; continue to work with the Web Steering Committee; continue to work towards a paperless City Council; develop and conduct a room reservation survey; and provide data entry support for increased traffic citation volume. The overall budget for Office Services increases by 4.2%. Personal Services will remain constant with an increase of 1.8% and Materials and Services increases 8.6%. This increase is due primarily to the increased cost of postage. Records: The Records Section would like to achieve the following goals for this fiscal year: identify records that have met retention requirements, complete a bi-annual records destruction; train staff on records issues, file storage, and retention; and continue microfilming of records. The overall budget for Records is up 2.7%. Staffing levels remain constant. Municipal Court: The Municipal Court Section would like to achieve the following goals for this fiscal year: study the feasibility of implementing software to allow customers to pay over the internet; increase court hours to accommodate additional customers; continue to study feasibility of processing misdemeanor and certain juvenile cases through Municipal Court; and quickly respond to relevant changes in Oregon law following the 2001 legislative session. The overall budget for Municipal Court decreases .8%. Staffing levels are constant with one vacant position to be filled with the implementation of photo radar. Police: The Police Department has proposed a 2.5% increase for fiscal year 2001/02. Staffing levels remain constant, with the transfer of one FTE employee to the Network Services Division and the addition of one FTE. The Police Department is comprised of three divisions: Police Administration, Operations, and Support Services. Every Division supports the Operations Division. This year the Police Department had added three Workload Measures to reflect more active involvement in community policing. Police Administration: The overall budget of the Police Administration Division increases 7.5%. This increase is due primarily to costs related to accreditation of the Department, the development of a fitness program, and the photo radar program. The cost of the photo radar program is expected to be offset by revenue. Police Operations: The overall budget for the Police Operations Division is up 4.9%. Staffing has increased one FTE person, due to the transfer of one position from the Support Services Division. The budget includes an estimated payment of$129,000 to the photo radar vendor. The Police Operations Division also wants to purchase thermal imaging equipment. The cost of this equipment is approximately $48,000. The Police Department is currently seeking a grant to purchase the equipment. Ken Scheckla asked how long it would take to get the grant. Ron Goodpaster responded that the process would take approximately three to four months. Joyce Patton asked at what response time level would priority I calls be considered unacceptable. Ron Goodpaster responded that four minutes was considered an excellent response time to priority I calls. Improvement would be needed once the length of time reached five minutes. Support Services: The budget for the Police Support Services Division is down approximately 2.4%. Staffing is down 1.83 FTE due to the transfer of one person to the Operations Division and one position to the Network Services Division, and the budgeting of a grant-funded position for a full year in FY 2001-02 vs. 10 months in FY 2001/01. The Support Services Division is requesting the addition of one additional Property/Evidence Clerk to maintain evidence inventory, storage and checkout. There is currently only one Property/Evidence Clerk who is responsible for approximately 5,500 pieces of property. Joyce Patton noted that the Effectiveness Measures included information in regards to computer services that will no longer be included in the Police Department's budget. Ron Goodpaster responded that the Effectiveness Measure would be transferred to the Network Services budget. Craig Prosser noted that the Police Department's proposed budget would have two additional changes. The first is a typing error that will reduce the budget by$27,000. The second is a change in the Police Department's retirement fund that will increase the budget by $14,000. Library: Margaret Barnes presented the Budget Committee with the Library's FY 2001/02 proposed budget. Over the last year, the Library incurred five to six staff changes in both management and general staff. For FY 2001/02, the Library is requesting a slight increase in staff of 0.7% and a total budget increase for the Department of 9.8%. The additional staff hours would allow the Library to remain open later on Friday evenings. Library Administration: The Library Administration Division increases 14.6%. This increase is primarily due to the increased cost of postage and office supplies. Staffing levels remain constant. Library Readers Services: The Library Readers Services division increases 14.9%, and staffing is up one FTE person due to the transfer of one position from the Technical Services Division. Personal Services increases 17.4% due to the additional position and part-time staff now receiving pro-rated City benefits. Materials and Services increases 9.9%. This increase is primarily due to new workstations for staff and increased funding for purchasing new books and other materials. Library Technical Services: The Library Technical Services Division decreases 20.4% due to the transfer of 1.4 FTE to other divisions. This Division is responsible for the processing and cataloging of all materials. The Division is working on a method to perform their tasks in a more timely manner with the configuration of workstations. Library Circulation: The Library Circulation Division increases 20.9%. Most of this increase is due to an increase in Materials and Services. The Library needs to lease a new check-out machine, and is purchasing a new check-in machine. George Burgess asked why the population served has decreased over the last year. Margaret Barnes responded that this number is derived from a formula determined by WCCLS. George Burgess also asked why the materials checked in per year are greater than the materials checked out. Margaret Barnes responded that the Library takes in materials that were checked out from neighboring Libraries. Debt Service: Tom Imdieke reported that the City of Tigard has very little debt. The Debt Service is comprised of General Obligation Bonds, Bancroft Bonds and Bond Anticipation Notes. The final payment of the General Obligation bonds is scheduled for FY 2003. Strategic Planning Meeting: Bill Monahan reported that there would be a Strategic Planning meeting during the City Council session next week, Tuesday, May 15th at 7:30PM. An invitation was extended to the citizen members of the Budget Committee to attend this meeting. Public Comment: There was no public comment. George Burgess recessed the Budget Committee meeting at 9:12 PM.