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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04/11/2000 Study Session MinutesII. III. PLACE AND DATE Marana Town Hall, April 11, 2000 CALL TO ORDER By Mayor Sutton at 6:02 P.M. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Led by Mayor Sutton ROLL CALL COUNCIL Bobby Sutton, Jr. Michael Reuwsaat Ora M. Harn Ed Honea Herb Kai Jim Blake Roxanne Ziegler Mayor Vice Mayor Council Member Council Member Council Member Council Member Council Member Present Present Present Present Present Present Present STAFF Michael Hein Jocelyn Entz Jane Howell Roy Cuaron Dave Smith Town Manager Town Clerk Human Resources Director Finance Director Police Chief IV. Ye APPROVAL OF AGENDA Upon motion by Council Member Ziegler, seconded by Council Member Blake, the agenda was unanimously approved. ORDER OF BUSINESS A. Discussion - FY 2000-01 Budget Review Mike Hein: Stated that this second part of the budget process is predicated upon general agreement with revenue estimates. Tonight fixed costs and CIP would be added then subtracted from revenue to give a discretionary funding and proposed departmental allocation from the discretionary funding. The department heads will be given the allocations tomorrow, and they will have three or four weeks to turn those numbers around and then appear before you for a series of justification meetings of the allocations. MINUTES OF COUNCIL:STUDY SESSION APRIL 1I~ 2000 Roy Cuaron: There is a big increase in fixed expenses. $1.2 million increase for debt service for series 2000 bonds issued for the new municipal complex. This is $800,000 over last year. Other big items are town memberships based on the Council's commitment to fund GTEC for their campaign program -- $20,000 per month for up to $200,000. We will have paid $100,000 in 5 months. There is also a utilities increase for the Development Services Center. Roy Cuaron: I feel confident that the fixed costs we show here are good numbers and good justification. There is an 18% increase in dependent coverage. Council Member Honea: Regarding CDBG/Home grant - allocations are not going up? Cuaron: We are doing a better job in programming using rollover money. Vice Mayor Reuwsaat: What about debt increase? Arbitrage? Roy Cuaron: We are not in arbitrage in debt service. Vice Mayor Reuwsaat: Lease costs ? Roy Cuaron: These reflect the court, Development Services Center and the police annex. Mike Hein: Lease costs are why we are anxious to see a new municipal complex. Roy Cuaron: Described the process of determining what goes on the CIP list. Curt Dunham facilitated this year's CIP meeting which identified projects from last year as well as new requests. The result is a prioritization process of the projects that the committee felt should be included and then funding sources were identified. The projects totaled $26 million, with $2.6 or $2.4 million funded within the general fund. $12.3 million or 47% was targeted for transportation capacity and improvement projects. Mike Hein: Some projects were bumped ahead to avoid arbitrage on bond projects. Some were moved out of CIP, such as for parks - linear and added flexibility for construction on at least one to three parks in Continental Ranch. These were moved to USE OF RESERVES. He 2 elaborated on use of reserves for specific projects than using surplus for operating expenses. Mayor Sutton: Regarding the Vehicle Replacement Program. Roy Cuaron: We are replacing existing equipment and/or vehicles as needed. He read a list of vehicles that need to be replaced as identified in the CIP. Mr. Cook looked at a variety of things to determine when each vehicle would run its useful life. Council asked for review of the prioritization and the process of the CIP. Mr. Hein and Mr. Cuaron both expanded on the 5-year process. Mr. Cuaron further elaborated on moving projects according to bond, assumption or general funding capabilities. He noted that capital increased more significantly than projected revenues, therefore, keeping a conservative approach is prudent. Mayor Sutton: Expressed some concerns over the web page design of $60,000 and holiday banners for $100,000. Mr. Hein addressed the banners by stating that both he and Mr. DeGrood feel that the Town must do more to distinguish our community visually from other communities. One way is to equip light fixtures in the commercial district with banners. There would be some recurring expense and related capital (i.e. bucket truck that also works for signal and lighting program). Roy Cuaron: Addressed the web page design cost. A variety of comments from Council Members ensued. It was noted that there is a critical need for current information to be on the site. Presently, staff does not have the time to design this project, although at the time the MIS manager was hired, it was thought that this position could manage this task. Subsequent review has determined that this is not the case. Larry Lenz is handling all computer-related problems at this time, in part due to a magnitude of system problems with intra-communication at DSC that had not previously been identified. Larry has now integrated the entire DSC with a uniform-system design. Staff is trying to be careful about calling on Larry for user error problems. Vice Mayor Reuwsaat: When interviewing for the design team for the new municipal complex, make sure they have expertise to fully integrate a system. MARANA TOWN COUNCIL APRIL 11, 2000 Vice Mayor Reuwsaat: Asked for clarification on the cost of 12 computers for the recreation center. Mr. Cuaron responded that the recreation center has been the step-child of the town up to the present. Neglect is not an option anymore, since staff will remain where they are when the new municipal complex is built. They are not on a true network now. We are allowing budget capacity. Vice Mayor Reuwsaat: Just make sure it's necessary. Mike Hein responded to Vice Mayor Reuwsaat's query about work-at- home computer stations. General discussion of inter-office and intra-office communication between staff and staff and Council ensued. The consensus is to monitor the situation that will enable all persons to utilize equipment that will serve projected needs. General discussion of airport expenditures. Most of the funding of projects is anticipated to come from grants. Vice Mayor Reuwsaat: Automation of traffic signals. Roy Cuaron: There has been some work on traffic light integration in the current year budget to allow us to tie into City of Tucson using our controller room for access. Mayor Sutton: Let's go to operating allocations. Roy Cuaron: The department allocations for operating budgets have decreased except for two departments. The allocations appear to be fair based on previous budgets. In DSC, since the Santa Cruz River linear park study was put under CIP, there is $75,000 that can be reallocated. Other studies are being funded in CIP, hence the decrease in allocations. Parks & Recreation has one of the biggest allocation increases because of the lack of inmate labor. Council Member Honea: Have we looked at using employees to do the work instead using contract labor? Vice Mayor Reuwsaat: It may be more feasible to contract at this time due to the rapid growth the park department is experiencing. Once the park catches up, so to speak, another look at adding staff rather than hiring contract labor would be appropriate. Mayor Sutton: Raised some concerns about understaffing and the fact hat we should be aware of the growth in order to maintain level of services necessary to assist the public and residents. Mike Hein: The next item is police pay. In other areas there is such a demand for police officers, and in response, Tucson has really taken the initiative to increase the base salary. Oro Valley is contemplating a large percentage increases. We're not looking to pay the same as the City of Tucson or Oro Valley for every position. When the market shifts so dramatically for such a vital service, ! think we need to respond. I know we forwarded to you the manager's recommendation, and what I think we need to do is increase positions in the police department, and what that means for the certified officers and dispatchers is a $4,000 increase. I think it's fair, it's just and I think it will show the police department that we appreciate what they're doing and that it's a market-driven economy. That is not factored in our budget. That net result is another $300,000. which is a fairly significant pill to swallow given tight revenue estimates. I've told you how I propose to get $72,000. I propose to get the rest by working with department heads on some of the CIP, but mostly through operating. If you looked at a year-to-date actual and projected year-end estimate on expenses, all of our departments would be under budget and below this year's allocation estimates. But I didn't want to penalize departments in this process and develop a culture whereby department heads would say "let's spend the farm or they'll give it away." I've talked to the big departments and asked them to give if they have it to give to accommodate the police department. Discussion of potential pay raises by Council Members. The consensus was that there is a big displacement among officers, sergeants and lieutenants and that an across-the-board increase would not necessarily reflect the additional responsibilities of those categories. A clothing allowance increase was also discussed. Chief Smith gave a detailed report of what comprises a clothing allowance. The current clothing allowance is $600. Mike Hein: In proposing the increase, the biggest concern was for the officers - to close the gap with other local jurisdictions. The sergeants were adjusted a little bit last year. If you adjust officers, I don't want to compress the scale. In theory an officer could be paid more than a sergeant could and a sergeant could be paid more than a lieutenant and a lieutenant more than the chief. It also provides incentive to move up in the organization. We did not look at the clothing allowance this year, but we can address that issue. We also want to come to you within a couple of months with incentives, performance bonus schedules based on training, education attainment to reward those who go out and achieve certain goals which would total another $15,000 for officers. So I think $4,000 is a good number and keeps the compression issue outside. MINUTES OF COUNCIL STUDY SESSION MARANA TOWN COUNCIL APRIL 11, 2000 Discussion about bringing all employees to a "valley market" scale ensued. VI. Recess at 7:56 p.m. Reconvened at 8:12 p.m. Mike Hein: Thanked Council for their comments and restated the reasons for his manager's proposal and the recommendation of $4,000. Merit reviews have opportunities to increase the separation between officers, sergeants and lieutenants. Further discussion about whether the across- the-board increase would include the 2% annual salary adjustment and merit and whether dispatchers were included in the increase. Mr. Hein and the Council again addressed the issue of compression of salaries. The purpose was to adjust based on a market condition, not to alleviate compression. We have not seen out-migration yet, but we run the risk of outside agencies coming to our communities and recruiting our officers. It was suggested by Council that a $4,000, $5,000 and $6,000 incremental increase be given for officers, sergeants and lieutenants, plus the merit. Because of the nature of this meeting, only discussion/direction can be given - no formal motion can be made. This appears to be both market and scale adjustment. ADIOURNMENT Upon motion by Council Member Harn, seconded by Vice Mayor Reuwsaat, adjournment of the study session was unanimously approved. The time was 8:47 p.m. CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are the true and correct minutes of the Marana Town Council Study Session held on April 11, 2000. I further certify that a quorum was present.