19 - Memo to GB - Proposed FY24-25 Budget - July 2024 (002)

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plan to increase our police department’s pay, and not to assist with any other position’s pay or municipal service expense.In fact, the proposed changes in police pay required many more resources on top of what was available by un-budgeting vacant positions. 2.City Council Strategic Plan –On January 9, 2023, the City Council approved a new Strategic Plan via Resolution 2023-002.This was updated for the FY23/24 Budget in September 2023.This Strategic Plan is made up of a Vision, Mission Statement and Goals for the City of Paris. It is intended to guide the City in the development and implementation of its fiscal budget for the next ten years, with the flexibility of knowing that future City Councils will review and amend as needed to keep this plan relevant and effective.The above stated Financial Policy is based directly on the mission statement in the Strategic Plan and the following narrative explains how the City Council’s Goals from the plan are represented within the Proposed FY24/25 Budget. The City Council has prioritized five (5) primary goals, rooted in the Strategic Plan’s Vision and Mission Statement. These are intended to be long term goals that will be relevant in the immediate and future fiscal years. From these goals, and as funding is available, action items will be established each fiscal year through the budgeting process. The following are the five goals with action items identified in the Proposed FY24/25 Budget: 1.)Enhance the City’s relationship with key State and County Representatives. 2.)Encourage Economic Development through business development and retention planning. 3.)Promote long-term growth in the community. 4.)Retain our citizens. 5.)Market the City. Pursuant to the Strategic Plan, a report will be given to the City Council during the fiscal year budgeting process as to the status of the FY23/24Strategic Plan Action Items. That report has been created and is attached as Exhibit G. The Proposed FY24/25Strategic Plan Action Items has been created and is attached as Exhibit H. These action items are made up of those with budgetary notes as well as those that are administrative in nature (not a defined budgetary note). It also includes several carryoversfrom FY23/24that are ongoing and/or still applicable. For those with a budgetary note, if the reader desires to examine its location in the budget, please either continue to read this memorandum or speak with the City Management. 3.Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP)The Wastewater Treatment Plant is the largest capital project the City has had in several years. While this project does not have any budget changes to report, the impact is documented in the City’s bond indebtedness directly associated with this project. 4.Employee Payand Benefits–The greatest asset the City of Paris has is itsEmployees.The primary role of local governmentis to provide those services needed by the community that the private sector cannot provide. The primary reason the private sector does not provide these services is they are labor intensive with little to no profit return.In addition, the taxpayersexpect the highest of quality from the City services, thereby the expectation is for the employees to be of such a quality that accomplishes the Financial Policy stated above. In FY21/22, the City Councilauthorized the implementation of a comprehensive change to the City’s pay structure.First, the City Councilauthorized the movement from a 6% / 12% TMRS contribution rate to a 7% / 14% contribution rate, which greatly improves the future retirement outlook for our employees and helps with retention and morale.Second, the City Councilapproved a pay plan that moved all positions towards comparable pay with that of our peer communities.The City hadfallen far behind in keeping up with Page 7of 18