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02 Council Min 08-17-04 Spec. BUDGET WORKSHOP CITY COUNCIL, CITY OF PARIS AUGUST 17, 2004 The City Council of the City of Paris met in Special Session to discuss the Budget at 6 p.m., Tuesday, August 17, 2004 in the North Hall of Love Civic Center, 2025 South Collegiate Drive, Paris, Texas. Mayor Fendley called the meeting to order with the following Council members 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 for consideration, discussion and possible action on the proposed 2004-2005 City Budget. City Attorney Schenk called the Council’s attention to the handout on the Lake Crook study. He said the Council approved Option 2 with consultant’s recommendations, which is paragraph 3.3 pages 26-31. He said the Council also approved the consultant’s overall recommendations on pages 42-45, July of 2001. Councilman Wilson made a clarification on the news article printed in the Paris News, that the Council hasn’t returned the money to the State for the Lake Crook Trail. He said they were discussing it further. Finance Director Gene Anderson came forward with the Warehouse Budget. He mentioned that he had cut a part-time clerical person out of that budget which would reduce it accordingly. He reduced office supplies to $100.00, postage to $250.00, wearing apparel to $250.00, Electricity to $650.00, water and gas to $450.00 and building and grounds to $500.00. He zeroed out travel expenses, training and tuition and furniture and fixtures. He reduced machinery, tools and equipment to $50.00 and electronic data processing to $500.00. He said that made a total cut of $24,500.00 in that department. Finance Director Anderson also presented the Utility Billing budget. He dropped batteries to $75.00 and laundry and cleaning to $50.00. He zeroed out Budget Workshop August 17, 2004 Page 2 travel expenses, training and tuition and safekeeping fees for water and sewer investments. The Council discussed the water purchase for annexations from Lamar County Water Supply with Finance Director Anderson. Councilman Guest said we have been trying to purchase these lines from LCWS for years. Councilman Wilson felt they should look at the revenues and ask if it would be profitable. Councilman Wilson suggested appointing a committee sometime in the future to discuss this. Utilities Director John Clack came forward to present the Water Production Budget. Mr. Clack said he conferred with his supervisors on each of the departments so he could make these recommendations. He suggested reducing minor apparatus to $6600.00 and reducing communications by $2000.00. Because of the historical trends in electricity, he suggested reducing that by $40,000.00. He called for a reduction in Associations to $3000.00 and a reduction in training and tuition to $5000.00. Councilman Wilson questioned the total of $367,000.00 on chemicals. Mr. Clack said they had just called for bids and when they were in, they could adjust that line item accordingly. He reduced curbs and sidewalks and manholes by $500.00. Councilman Wilson asked why some of the cost of repairing the bridge they talked about last night shouldn’t be partly in the Water Treatment Budget. It was the consensus of the Council to split the cost of the bridge fifty-fifty between Water Production and Public Works. On a question from Mayor Fendley, Utilities Director Clack said the $25,000 was for repairs to a basement sub-floor at the Water Treatment Plant and for repairs to the old Maxey Buildings. Budget Workshop August 17, 2004 Page 3 Public Works Director Terry Townsend came forward to present the Water Distribution budget. He explained that he created a new shift, several years ago, from Tuesday through Saturday that has cut a lot out of his overtime budget. He said they were using about $80,000.00 a year on overtime before that. He said he had asked for $32,000.00 on overtime this year but felt that could be reduced to $25,000.00. He suggested cutting oil and lubricants by $500.00. Mr. Townsend said he was not sure what all was paid for in the Electricity account and would bring that back to the Council. Councilman Wilson said that if that was part of the distribution cost, when figuring the rate for Campbell Soup, they would have to participate in that cost. Finance Director Anderson said he would check on it. On a question from the Council, Mr. Townsend explained that street and alley repair was for when they do water and sewer line repairs and they break up the street or alley. Councilman Wilson asked did they have a lot of water meters to repair and replace. Finance Director Anderson explained they had an ongoing meter replacement program. Mr. Townsend said tire repair could be reduced to $500.00. Mr. Anderson explained that street and alley repairs was just for the materials used for repairs. Public Works Director Townsend presented the Sewer Maintenance Budget. He said that overtime could be reduced to $25,000.00 in this department, also. He made cuts in oil and lubricants to $1000.00, laundry to $100.00, water and gas to $2000.00 and tire repair to $200.00. John Clack, Utilities Director, came forward with the budget for the Wastewater Treatment Plant. Mr. Clack suggested reducing office supplies to $6000,00 and laundry and cleaning to $1500.00. He asked to increase wearing apparel by $1500.00 and explained he had taken that out of laundry and cleaning and wanted to add it to wearing apparel for employee uniforms. Budget Workshop August 17, 2004 Page 4 Councilman Wilson asked what the year to date was on chemicals, which was $125,886.00. Mayor Fendley asked if he would like to bump the requested $132,000.00 up, since he was already over budget this year. Finance Director Anderson indicated that he spent $145,000.00 on chemicals in 2002-2003. Mayor Fendley said he would feel more comfortable with the amount being $145,000.00, since it has been running that much. It was the consensus of the Council to make it $145,000.00. Since the mechanical total year to date was only $228.00, it was decided to reduce that item to $500.00. Utilities Director Clack reduced travel to $2000.00, publications to $400.00, Electricity to $225,000.00 and associations to $2500.00. Councilman Wilson asked what the $41,000.00 was for in the miscellaneous line item. Mr. Clack said it was for permit fees to TCEQ and for sludge disposal fees. Councilman Wilson said the line item should be called fees and Mr. Clack agreed. Mr. Clack reduced training and tuition to $5800.00 but was hesitant to reduce it any further because everyone needs to get their certifications and training every year. Mayor Fendley asked what the $2500.00 in the consultants line item was for. Mr. Clack said he did not know as he had only been there for two weeks. He asked one of his supervisor’s and they did not know of anything they would need a consultant for. It was the Council’s consensus to remove that from the budget. Mr. Clack did request to add $4000.00 to the budget to replace some meters to sludge processing system and to do some needed repairs to that system. Mayor Fendley asked about the large increase requested in the budget for buildings and grounds. Utilities Director Clack explained that was for repairs to the screenings building. Budget Workshop August 17, 2004 Page 5 On a question from Councilman Wilson, Mr. Clack said since they had only spent $2332.00 on landfill fees this year, he felt that line item could be reduced to $4500.00. He also said they could reduce electronic data processing to $4500.00. Councilman Poston questioned why pumps and repairs were so much less this year than it has been the last couple of years. J. P. Hinkle, Wastewater Superintendent, said they had replaced all three of their pumps in the last two years and did not anticipate any big expenditures for this. In th Capital Outlay Summary for the Wastewater Treatment Plant, Utilities Director Clack said he could reduce instruments by $6000.00. Utilities Director Clack presented the Lift Station budget. Mr. Clack suggested dropping wearing apparel to $1000.00 and suggested raising gasoline by $500.00. Councilman Wilson asked what the year to date was for overtime. Mr. Clack said they had spent $5556.00 so far and he was reducing that account to $8000.00. Councilman Wilson asked if they had considered going to a split shift. Mr. Clack explained it would be difficult. He reduced minor apparatus to $250.00 and building and grounds by $750.00. Mayor Fendley asked the year to date on utilities. Mr. Clack said it was $60,557.00 He said they could reduce the filter valve line item, the storm sewer line item and the service line item to zero. On a question from Councilman Wilson, Mr. Clack said they hadn’t spent anything on landfill fees so far this year, but it was dependent on the weather. He continued that if there are heavy rains and the basins get filled, then they have to take the sludge to the landfill. Mayor Fendley asked what the year to date was on pumps and motors. Mr. Clack indicated it was $8039.00. Mayor Fendley asked if his budgeted request Budget Workshop August 17, 2004 Page 6 could be reduced. Mr. Clack explained that it actually needed to be increased by $7000.00 because they will be needing a new pump. Mayor Fendley said they still needed to go over the PEDC, Drug Task Force, Think Child Safety and the nonprofit organization budgets and would do that next week. Kent Klinkerman, Director of EMS, reported back to the Council on the impact of adding an ambulance to the budget, as requested by the Council. He said an ambulance would cost $92,000, and there would be an offsetting revenue of about $50,000.00 plus an increase in their contract revenues by $19,192.00 for a total of $69,192.00. He explained this would make the budget impact on $23,000.00 to put the ambulance back in. Since Mr. Klinkerman said the County was asking for the figures for this, it was the consensus to put this back in the budget. Police Chief Karl Louis came forward to discuss overtime in his department. He requested leaving his overtime budget at $130,000.00. He explained that they had spent an $87,000 year to date and had about $31,000.00 of training to conduct. He also discussed the NADA prices of the seized and trade-in vehicles. He explained that he receives only 30% of any seized vehicles, which is what is allowed by the State. He said their total this year was $43,150.00. He said they should be sold within the next 60 days. Councilman Guest asked what his plans were for filling the Assistant Chief’s position. Chief Louis explained that he was going to ask the Council to declassify the Assistant Chief’s position, which would allow him to make the appointment. He said Lieutenant Bob Hundley was acting in the position right now. City Attorney Schenk said this would take an ordinance to do this. Priscilla McAnally, Interim Library Director, came forward with the information the Council requested on reducing personnel hours and about Budget Workshop August 17, 2004 Page 7 charging a fee in the County. Ms. McAnally said Denison Library had been charging a $40.00 fee for outside the city since November of 2003 and they have sold between 200 to 300 cards. She said Grayson County has five libraries in the County. She said she has 10,700 patrons outside of the City, of which 8465 are adults and 2305 are under eighteen. Ms. McAnally said this does not historically increase the revenue as expected. Councilman Wilson said it would take about a year to know how we stand after we start this. On a question from Councilman Wilson, she said she could cut the book budget down to $100,000.00 and still stay in NETLS. This would allow her to keep three of her workers part time, which would allow them to put back some of the services, but not all. She said she had approximately thirteen volunteers. Finance Director Anderson said the cost to keep three people part time would be $45,953.00 and the decrease in the book budget was $45,000.00. Mayor Fendley instructed City Attorney Schenk to bring back an ordinance assessing a fee for out of City library user households, as well as out of County. Ms. McAnally felt $40.00 was too much to charge because some families could not afford that. Finance Director Anderson related that he received the revised Certified Tax Roll from the Appraisal District which resulted in an additional cost to the budget of $86,935.00. Public Works Director Terry Townsend estimated the total of cost of maintenance if they were to go through with the Trail at Lake Crook $10,000.00-$15,000.00 per year. Finance Director Anderson said to cut two employees from the Garage and Budget Workshop August 17, 2004 Page 8 keep four would be a total of $219,144.00. Mr. Anderson said the total was $326,000.00 which was a savings of $145,000.00 from the original budget. For future agenda items, it was agreed to talk about Lamar County Water Supply. It was decided to have the meeting with the architect on Tuesday, August 24, 2004 at 5 p.m. It was decided to continue budget discussion that night, also. It was decided to set another set another budget meeting on Thursday, August 26, 2004. There was also a Council meeting set for Monday, August 23, 2004 and it was decided to discuss the City Manager and Interim City Manager at that time. There being no further business, the meeting adjourned. __________________________ CURTIS FENDLEY, MAYOR ATTEST: __________________________________ SHERIAN DIXON, ASST. CITY CLERK