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02 City Council Min 08-03-04BUDGET WORKSHOP OF THE CITY OF PARIS, PARIS, TEXAS August 3, 2004 The City Council of the City of Paris met for a Budget Workshop at 6 p.m., Tuesday, August 3, 2004, at the Love Civic Center, 2025 S. Collegiate Drive, Paris, Texas. Mayor Curtis Fendley called the meeting to order with the following Councilpersons present: Jim Bell, Jay Guest, Mary Ann Fisher, Don Wilson, Karen Wilkerson and Rick Poston. Also present were Interim City Manager Terry Townsend, City Attorney Larry W, Schenk and Assistant City Clerk Sherian Dixon. Mayor Fendley called the meeting to order and said the Council would consider, and take possible action on the proposed 2004-2005 City Budget. He suggested the Council start at the front of the proposed Budget, working through the revenues and try to get as far as they could tonite, possibly finishing up with the Police Department. Mayor Fendley asked for questions on the General Fund Revenue items. Councilman Bell made note of the TXU Gas Franchise by $100,000.00. Finance Director Gene Anderson said that does reflect the current dispute with TXU Gas. He indicated that TXU Gas made their franchise payments quarterly. He stated that there was a discrepancy in the TU Electric Franchise payment and the the City is in discussion with them about that. He said those decreases were already reflected in the proposed Budget. Councilman Bell asked about the entry for the FEMA Grant because the City had never gotten one before. He also questioned several items in the Revenue that were proj ected to be much higher next year, such as Court Fines and Costs, saying there was no historical data supporting those increases, and wanted to know what justification there was for those increases. Finance Director Anderson explained that he does an analysis of the revenues month by month and makes the proj ected revenue estimate from that historically. Interim City Manager Townsend called the Council's attention to the column to the left which showed actual amounts in 2002-2003.which were much nearer the projected amounts. Councilman Bell said he was concerned because there was already a budget deficit and if the proj ected revenues did not come in as expected, there would be a greater shortfall. Councilman Wilson said he was comfortable with Mr. Anderson's projections. Councilman Bell was concerned because there was no year-to-date column included in this budget, so it was hard to predict what would happen by the end of the fiscal year. Councilman Bell asked if the sanitation fees have been increased, because the proposed revenue is up. Councilman Wilson indicated that the Council hasn't talked about it and that would be a part of the budget process. Mr. Anderson related that he arrived at that estimate the same way he did the other estimates and that he also had help from Public Works on that. Councilman Wilson proposed that increasing the sanitation fee would be an item that they could discuss after going over the entire budget, if needed. Mayor Fendley asked the Council to turn to Council Expenditures and asked Finance Director Anderson what was in the Sundry charges, which was the Health Department. Councilman Wilson asked what the Workers Comp was for. Mr. Anderson said they were required to have Workers Comp on volunteers and the members of the Boards, Commissions and the Council. Because of a historical amount spent $2,322.00 as of May 31 st on Office Supplies, Councilman Wilson asked if that couldn't be proposed at $3500.00. Mr. Anderson agreed that would work if the expenditures were equal every month. Councilman Wilson suggested that the proposed amount be $4000.00. Mayor Fendley asked what was actual spent last year, which was $5,600.00. Mayor Fendley asked if there weren't heavier expenses when the budget was printed. Mr. Anderson said this year, he did an informal loose leaf budget in house, off the copy machine, which wouldn't add too much to the budget. Councilman Wilson asked if that line item couldn't be reduced by $2000.00. It was agreed that it could. Mayor Fendley said the food item line could be taken out, which was proposed for $2000.00. On a question by Councilman Wilson, media and books wassaid to include CD's for the computers, the videos and tapes of the council meetings. It was agreed to cut media and books $2000.00 making the proposed amount $5,000.00. After discussion concerning the $3500.00 allocation for telephone, it was the consensus to remove it because eveyone one on the Council paid for their own cell phone and there were no phones for the City Council at the City of Paris. Mayor Fendley said, since they had all agreed not to do any travel this next year, the travel expenses should be eliminated, which was $5,000.00. Councilman Bell indicated that he had asked last year why there wasn't a central contingency fund to put these deleted and reduced amounts in there, to use when needed. Councilman Wilson suggested that training and travel be cut from all departments and the department head of each department would come to the City Manager if they needed to traveL Mayor Fendley indicated that would put a burden on the City Manager to administer that and felt it was up to the department head to control that. Councilman Poston asked what kind of mandatory training for certification was there. Councilman Wilson said for this year, let's do travel only for mandatory re-certification. Councilman Wilson asked how utilities were calculated for the City Council. Mr. Anderson said on square footage. Year to date on electrical was $1133.00 and Councilman Wilson wanted to know why $3000.00 was budgeted for next year. City Attorney Schenk said because of de-regulation. Councilman Guest asked what was in miscellaneous. Mr. Anderson said he would have to look that up. YTD was $3,978.00 and it was the consensus of the Council to cut it $7000, reducing it to $8000. Finance Director Anderson said associations included TML, Chamber of Commerce, Council of Governments, etc. Councilman Bell remembered, at one time, it was discussed to get out of TML.Mr. Anderson said the primary benefit of TML was the watch on the legislature. It was agreed to put zero in that account. Interim City Manager Townsend explained the entry for consultants was for the Master Plan for this year. Mayor Fendley said that there needs to be a five (5) or ten (10) plan for the City and he felt the new city manager would want to address that. It was the consensus to leave that in, but reduce it to $15,000. Finance Director Anderson explained buildings and grounds would cover repairs or maintenance on the old City Council room and there had been $7190 spent this year to date. Councilman Bell said what he would like to see is all the buildings and grounds costs broken down, especially in those buildings which house more than one department. He also wanted to see a consolidated statement so the cost of maintaining a building could be tracked. Councilman Wilson wanted to know who took care of the buildings. Mr. Anderson explained that each department deals with issues as they come along. Councilman Bell wanted contingencies moved to a Central fund and taken out when needed. Mr. Anderson said that because one never knows when an air conditioner is going out or things of that nature, they need to be budgeted for. Councilman Wilson felt there needed to be a Building and Grounds Maintenance Department which took care of these things so there would be a historical usage by the end of one year, so they would know how to allocate for this. Mayor Fendley said this was something they needed to work on. Electronic data processing included the lap top computers, so it was decided that could be removed since the Council was no longer using the lap tops. Mr. Anderson stated the year to date on elections was $4356.00. It was decided to leave elections at $6000.00. After the deletions and reductions, the budget City Council was reduced by $44,500.00. The next department budget was the City manager's budget. Mayor Fendley was wondering if the City Manager's salary was for the full 12 months of the year. Mr. Anderson indicated it was. Mayor Fendley also asked how the retirement benefits were calculated.Mr. Anderson explained that those calculations can only be changed on January 1 st, so they would remain the same until then, and then it would change. He said it is an actuarial determination and would have to be done by TMRS. Councilman Wilson said it concerned him that they will be taking essentially $550,000.00 from the employees in terms of the retirement match, but the City would only get $280,000.00 credit for that. Mr. Anderson confirmed that. Councilman Bell asked if the Council could get some kind of report explaining this from TMRS or get one of the representatives to come and explain it. Finance Director Anderson said the percentage for the retirement is 11.8, if it goes to a 1 to 1 match it will be 8.52 and for a 1 to 1 1/2 match, it will be 10.65. Finance Director Anderson was asked to run the numbers for different scenarios, 1 to l, at 5% and 6% and 2 to 1 at 5% and 6% to see which would be best. Mr. Anderson said he thought it was a state law that to reduce the employees' contribution, the employees would have to vote to do that. He said the employees were given an increase of 6% on the 2 to 1 match in lieu of a pay raise. Councilman Bell said he wanted to discuss who really needed car allowances and he needed justification as to who really needed one and who did not. He said the Council had, at one time, discussed cutting them, and so far in the budget, they have cut none. Councilman Wilson reminded him that if there was a contractual relationship when that person was hired and he wanted to get a car allowance instead a raise in his salary, wouldn't that save the City some money. Finance Director Anderson said that would not, because the car allowance is treated as income and benefits are still paid on it. Councilman Bell asked if the salary for the new City Manager was included in the proposed budget. Interim City Manager Townsend indicated that it was and the rate was the same as it was in the last budget with the $6,000.00 car allowance. Councilman Wilson moved that the City Manager's salary be left as is, and to move on to other budget items. On the City Attorney's budget, Councilman Wilson asked what the temporary clerk for $2,200.00 was in the budget. City Attorney Schenk explained that, because it was his department's responsibility to cover the switchboard for the entire City Hall, this is someone who comes in to cover this during vacations. On a question from Councilman Wilson, City Attorney Schenk commented, concerning the line item, Food-Humans, that it has been his experience, when the City has consultants coming in, that it is cheaper for him to take them out to lunch than it is for them to go out and charge that to the City and it also affords him the opportunity to meet those people and discuss things with them. Councilman Bell was wondering why, on Minor Apparatus, requested was $2,000.00 and the previous year-to-date was nothing. City Attorney Schenk said they would probably have to replace a computer. Councilman Bell asked the same question on the requested furniture. Mr. Schenk indicated he had tried to anticpated anything they would have to replace. Councilman Wilson asked if that couldn't be postponed for another year. City Attorney Schenk said anything could wait one year. Councilman Wilson questioned Media and Books at $18,000.00 and the year- to-date was $12,500.00. City Attorney Schenk said a couple of years ago, they dispensed with getting a lot of their books in hard back and started getting them on CD's instead. He indicated that some of those were once a year expenditures. Councilman Wilson wondered if $14,500.00 could be budgeted instead. City Attorney Schenk said because of the nature of his office in having to keep up to date, these are necessary for the practice of law. Councilman Wilson questioned the rise in the budget of the phone bill from $3700 to $4700. City Attorney Schenk said that reflected actual costs of long distance and other phone services. He said the year to date was $3500 through the end of June. Mr. Schenk said this also included their portion of the phone system and pager and cell phone. Finance Director Anderson reminded the Council that since the main trunk line going into City Hall has been taken out of the Council's budget and is being reallocated to the various departments, these numbers will go up for everyone. Councilman Wilson wondered about insurance and bonds. City Attorney Schenk indicated those were the Fidelity bonds he had to have on his employees, Mr. Anderson said it also included their portion of the general liability. It was agreed that line item, #303, would be dropped to $2500. Councilman Bell questioned that although $2100 was requested in court costs, the year to date was zero and wondered if it couldn't be dropped to zero. City Attorney Schenk said if Councilman Bell could assure him there wouldn't be any court cases in the next year, it could be done. Councilman Bell asked what happened to the money in the past. Mr. Schenk said it was used on foreclosing liens and mowing liens. He said it could be reduced to $1100. Councilman Guest questioned the travel expenses. City Attorney Schenk said in his department, there are two attorneys that need to maintain their certifications, two paraprofessionsals that need to maintain their certifications and a person handling claims who also needs training., none of which is out of state travel. Councilman Bell questioned that the year to date was only $531.00. Mr. Schenk said most of them are offered later in the year. He also said the year to date was $2847.00. He mentioned he has to travel to court hearings, also. Councilman Wilson was concerned that Mr. Schenk received a car allowance and also got mileage. Mr. Schenk reminded them that was part of his contract. It was agreed to make travel $5000. Councilman Guest asked what contracting services was for City Attorney Schenk he uses consulting services, who are experts in their fields, to aid him when necessary, but tries to find that for free whenever possible. He also mentioned outside legal costs not covered by TMRS insurance are transferred to this account. He indicated his year to date was $12,941.00. Councilman Bell asked if these funds couldn't be put into a contingency fund and pulled out when needed. City Attorney Schenk said that when he needs those services, he doesn't have time to go before Council and ask for those funds, and besides, he tries to stay within the budget on this. He said those funds which are not used by the end of the year are transferred back into the General Fund. The total cut for that department was $2700. On the Municipal Court budget, Municipal Court Judge Tom Hunt came forward and related that he had proposed to add two court clerks in the budget. He mentioned that he has a temporary at the moment. He explained last year they filed an average of 638 cases a month and this year so far has been averaging 818 cases a month, which is a 38% increase. He continued that the collections averaged last year $50,351 and this year they have averaged $61,961 per month. He said they had a clerk leave in the fall and have had two persons try to fill that position but didnot stay and he felt that was because being a court clerk was a high stress job. He mentioned there were 1200 cases filed in January, and because they had money available in the budget, they hired a temporary. He said the four court clerks in the budget was same number of clerks in their budget since 1990. Councilman Guest said if you don't have the capacity to collect, then there is no use in issuing fines. Judge Hunt agreed and explained that the temporary clerk helped catch up some because of the record fines in January and also had her doing collections. She collected $6700 and her pay was only $5400. He said the two clerks he proposed were a collection clerk to increase collections and a court clerk for the increased court case load. He did mention that if they didn't collect after they prosecuted, it was not very wise. Judge Hunt said that some of this would depend on what happened at the police department. He projected that if six officers left, there would be less citations to handle. He said he initially wanted to request two clerks, but he was now asking for at least one additional clerk, which he felt would pay for itself with the additional collections.Councilman Wilson wanted to know why they were adding people in one department and taking away people in others. Judge Hunt said there was a large outstanding balance because they have to give people the opportunity to pay or do community service. He said they have a collection contract right now, but it doesn't generate as much money. Judge Hunt said, although he didn't get stability pay, he did want to address that issue. He related that City Manager poty came to the conclusion about twenty years ago that for the City employees to be comparable with the Civil Service employees, they should receive three dollars a month stability pay. He felt if that was taken away, it would be like those employees getting a demotion and they would not be equal to the civil service employees. He thought this was important. Councilman Wilson wanted to know how he could help defray the costs for his proposed increases and asked if he could insure that his income would go up. Judge Hunt said, although they had generated $1200 more dolalrs a month, he could not guarantee it would go up next year. Judge Hunt stated that electronic data processing was their portion of the AS400 system at the police department.He explained that they could not control the cost of that. When questioned about the travel, Judge Hunt explained that there was continuing education for himself and four clerks and they also belonged to Associations. It was agreed to consider adding a clerk at the end of the budget process. Mayor Fendley called for a break at 7:45 PM. He reconvened the Budget Session at 8:00 PM. On the City Clerk's budget, it was decided to leave in the temporary employee but take out the car allowance of $1200. On the electronic data processing, it was explained that was the LaserFiche charges for the whole City. When asked about putting the LaserFiche Website person from the Library in the City Clerk's office, Interim City Manager said that wouldn't work because he also kept up and worked on all the computers at the Library. In the Finance budget, Gene Anderson, Finance Director, said he filled a vacancy with a parttime employ from the warehouse and would not be replacing that person in the warehouse. It was decided that he could take $500.00 off the office supplies line item. Mayor Fendley asked about the Lamar County Appraisal Assessment, why it jumped from $80,000 to $99,000. Mr. Anderson indicated that was based on their actual budget and was done by contract and the City has no control over that. The Appraisal District indicated there was going to be a correction on the value of Flex-O-Lite and Mr. Anderson said he needed that amount to figure the tax rate. When asked what his car allowance was for, Mr. Anderson said he made several trips to the bank each day and he also went to several of water customers residences to look at their meters, because he used to have four meter readers and now he only has two. He explained he did this for faster customer service. He explained that when he first went to work for the City, he was provided a vehicle. Instead of replacing the vehicle when it needed to be, he was given a car allowance. On travel expense, he explained it was up because they hired Melba Harris, who needs to get Civil Service Training in Austin, and because the City is a member of CAPPS, he has been delegated to go to the meetings as the City's representative once a month in Grand Prairie. He felt it was beneficial for the City to be a member of CAPPS because the City of Paris, by being a member of CAPPS, has saved $440,000. Mr. Anderson stated that as a Certified Public Accountant, he had to get 40 hours a year of Continuing Education and because he is also the Tax-Assessor Collector, he has to get 60 hours every five years. He also is a Certified Governmental Finance Officer and has to get thirty hours of continuing Education every two years. Finance Director Anderson explained that miscellaneous was made up of the fee to the Governmental Finance Officers Association to evaluate the annual audit and the rest is a safe-keeping fee to a third party bank to safe-keep investments of the City. He explained the electronic data processing was partly for leasing the financial accounting software. The fee also pays for any modifications to the software. He mentioned it also paid for updating the tax tables. Mayor Fendley recommended that the Council not go any further in the Budget, but discuss setting a budget workshop day or half day. He felt at the regular City Council Meeting on Thursday, August 5, if the Council members would bring their calendars, they could schedule that. Finance Director Anderson said he needed a day to schedule the TMRS rep to come before the Council, also. Mayor Fendley said after the Council meeting, Thursday, they could discuss Community Development and the Airport, and possibly Engineering. There being no further business, the meeting adjourned. CURTIS FENDLEY, MAYOR ATTEST: SHERIAN DIXON, ASST. CITY CLERK