City Council budget workshop 8-11-16

[0:00:00] start with prayer I'll ask Roland P if he would to open us in prayer and then we will do our pledge ask you to stand as you aray Heavenly Father we come to you this day father it's a beautiful day and uh we rejoice and we're glad in it father we thank you so much for this city father and this community and the people that are in it father uh may you place your hand upon us father and may we receive your favor and today father as we discuss and um look at the budget father and the decisions that need to be made father may you provide Direction uh father may you give wisdom to everyone uh here today Father both on the council as well as uh the staff members that are here father uh give us the way father show us the way we thank you Lord we love you and we ask this in Jesus name amen amened Al flag of the United States of America to The Republic from which it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for all and the Texas flagon Texas flag Al to the Texas St God indivisible work session agenda all matters listed under the work session agenda are presented for discussion and future planning purposes only no administrative or regulatory action will be taken by the council public comment will not be accepted during the work session agenda so there's a little change this morning in our work session agenda than the regular agendas that we have in our council meeting we will start with a which is discussion and and consideration of matters regarding the

[0:02:02] fiscal year 216 217 budget preparation including but not limited to number one major funds revenue and expenditures number two Council priorities and goals and number three other items needing Council Direction and I guess this would be an excellent time to turn it over to Morgan chewit and go good morning thank y'all we're going to work through some some items today uh a lot of this has been uh in your background in the Friday packets but we wanted the opportunity to be able to uh dialogue with with key staff no speakers working at this the I will motion to adjourn we don't have any speakers is that better no not yet looks like it doesn't it okay oh we're live okay so um as I mentioned there's Anthony they're still having trouble hearing work okay so um one of the things we we've talked about is that uh we we're facing some budget issues this year year we're going to talk about each of those today we want to hit on the major funds and and

[0:04:04] and and the budget process and and the council priorities that's really we wanted to spend our Focus today um our major um items that we'll be working through have been communicated to you'all on a Friday packet but we do have some updates and we did want the opportunity for dialogue uh between you know amongst yourselves and uh between staff and key folks are here available to speak uh if uh we get into that level of detail so uh we wanted to point out of course the budget process uh we've been over this uh there are a few changes that we made this year I think it made for a better and more streamlined budget process uh we're getting feedback from directors and managers that they had uh more opportunity this year and so even though we're facing um uncertain Economic Times uh the process as a whole uh is ever improving and so in March of course budget staff started uh with getting the budget manual out and getting that information out with training and and opportunities for for directors and managers we got those Revenue new estimates and as you'll see when we go through uh the major funds which are any operating budgets over a million dollars uh they're they're pretty solid we're going to point out that that we have some pretty healthy uh Revenue estimates um items that we're we're confident in uh as we moved into expense estimates you know we had the city manager reviews we had uh Finance reviews so that was a greater level of detail uh for the directors and managers just to make sure we dotted our eyes we crossed our teas we got everything in there and then of course we started uh talking to youall uh in and Friday packets in June and as we move forward of course we have today's uh workshop and then starting at next week's council meeting we'll have some public hearings uh related to uh the the tax code and local government code just to make sure we're compliant with truth and Taxation and so we're going to move forward and introduce both the budget and the tax levy in September so that's what we have coming up as I mentioned uh we wanted to go over the major funds revenue and expenditures I'll cover the general enal fund and a few key other folks uh but I wanted to to have the opportunity for uh certain directors to be able to come up

[0:06:05] and speak to their funds uh directly I wanted them to have the opportunity uh to dialogue with Y all and have that that feedback and so of course this includes funds like the general fund uh the state office building fund and Fort contro funds uh airport fund Etc so we'll start with the general fund we did have an update um as as of yesterday uh because of the uh new sales tax report and so what's in your background um is is slightly higher uh because we did get some um bad news yesterday that the sales tax was still down um August over August uh under by about 9% and so with that we just wanted to have you know a greater confidence in what we were projecting into uh fiscal year 17 so I'll get to that in just a second uh but we we've updated the taxes portion to be budgeted at $ 56.3 million that's a reduction ction from last year's original budget of $290,000 and there are a lot of moving Parts in there I I'll get to that in just a second but then other revenues uh largely uh franchise fees and items of that sort are up and so we have other revenues up about $550,000 so total revenue proposed for the general fund of$ 69,8 70,000 to talk about sales tax briefly you know we had some abnormal growth um in uh 2014 and 2015 um abnormally high growth and so uh we were still conservative with our with our budget estimates we thought you know we ended fiscal year uh 15 at right at1 18 High $18 million and we proposed a one and a half% increase uh into the 2016 budget and I'm sure and as we've discussed at strategic planning uh that uh you know we're just not making that and so we're projecting that we're going to have in we already year to date have a deficit of $2 million and what what I mean by that is our original budget isn't going to make um you know Daniel made a made a commitment to you'all and we've we've held the line on that that

[0:08:06] revenues will still uh will manage expenses uh and and and to be able to fund that deficit and we're on track uh to do that uh yesterday we got as I mentioned we got sales tax figures in and you'll see and I'm sorry this slide doesn't update it but you'll see that that 2016 is this black line and and we were hoping you know early on we were trending right in line with 2014 and so we were doing pretty well uh to be able to say well at least 2014 uh we we can we can live within our means on that a couple years ago uh but then once you start started to see that 2014 growth you know we can't we can't compete with that and so we've drilled down into the detail to be able to know uh what all is driving that I'll tell you the underlying economy uh in San Angelo still appears to be strong uh our our number of of tax uh payers sales tax payers uh is up that means we're growing in brick and mortar retailers in online sales out of San Angelo and um and that's good that's good news uh but we're just seeing that those receipts are down and we're seeing key Industries like lumber yards and Home Improvement are down quite a bit and so um you know there are a lot of things driving this and uh we're just cautious moving forward so as a result of that we've proposed $ 17.2 million uh as the budget for uh fiscal year 17 that's a $2 million reduction uh from FC year 16's original budget uh but those are the figures we're confident in so for example we're projecting uh that fiscal year 15 will end the year at $16.7 million and um and of of course that that's something that uh we're we're still sharpening our pencil on still getting those figures on uh but if you apply a 3% growth rate to that which because we're confident that this that we're we're near the bottom that that this has got to turn around really quickly uh that we would be able to budget $7.2 million uh into fiscal year 17 uh we looked at a 20 plus year average increase uh Force an inch low we went back to the 80s uh for sales tax

[0:10:10] receipts and you know on average uh we've had a a growth of 4.8% and so we certainly didn't want to lean on it that hard um but 3% as as the nation is is growing and the economy um in the state is really healthy uh we thought that we could achieve that uh the the flip side of the uh the general fund of course is the amount we have funded uh through our property tax um our as I mentioned our sales tax is down of uh we're proposing it down from original budget about $2 million our property tax um grew by about 3.8% and so um some amount with that of that was due to uh new property added to the tax R and then uh the remainder of that was due to reappraisals you know we have had a healthy housing market in s Angelo and the appraisal district is taxed by the state to make sure that our uh appraisals are within market and so our fiscal year 17 certified value came in at $4.7 billion that's a 3.8% increase from last year's certified value so that yields about $1.3 million in uh marginal revenue uh for fiscal year 17 so as you can see the sales tax is down 2 million but the property tax is up 1.3 million and so that created um a unique uh circumstance moving into funding uh this year's budget you'll see in general fund we tried to maintain expenditures um everywhere that we could uh Personnel is largely flat at $50,400 th000 uh operating budgets uh largely flat at $1,600,000 and capital uh very little change there at $520,000 so Revenue ere expenditures for for the general fund at $322,000 I will get into some detail with that what opportunities we have uh to allocate that that marginal revenue and uh address Council priorities or the pressing items before

[0:12:16] you the next fund to discuss uh is the state office building fund it is a um operating Fund in excess of a million do uh Bob blueart couldn't be here today he had a previous engagement but he authorized me to speak on his behalf I do want to point out that the rent uh so total revenue for the State office building fund is right at $ 1.2 uh million as you can see that those rents that are at that those facilities are built in with a small escalation each year so we continue to see that also there's other Revenue item that increased by about $50,000 that's uh simply due to reimbursements that occur for example occasionally um tenants ask for special work to be done to their suite and they'll say we'll pay for it but can you move this wall or can you whatever and so you'll see an increase in Revenue there but a corresponding uh increase in their expenses as well by that $50,000 so simply a pass through uh for the accounting of all of that and the state office building fund is budgeted uh Revenue equal expenditures so 0 dollar um to be added to their fund balance the next fund is the airport fund I will let U Mr Alo alal speak about that specifically good morning mayor and Council uh my name is Luis alasa your airport director uh looking at the budget for next year for the airport we are looking a little bit down in revenues but for the past nine years our uh budget has been uh flat we live within our means so I wasn't going to change it again for 17 so revenues were expected to be down primarily in fuel Sales and Leasing and for expenditures we're down also 100 almost 119,000 and we've made some serious Cuts in the operating budget for next year primarily in maintenance uh leaving some vacant positions uh vacant sorry full-time positions vacant and adjusting our operating accordingly again we live within our means and I'm submitting that for you I'll be happy to answer any

[0:14:20] questions luy continue operating without uh fund funds from the general fund is that correct that is correct okay and we're submitting that again good and I'll be here throughout if you have any questions immediate but future plans to go for a grant for new tower no not for a new tower ma'am we will have grants coming up for next year for the work that's being designed this year such as parking area possibly uh for next year we'll be looking at the projects that you approved August 2nd which will be tax tax ways improvements and payment strength and we're looking at discretionary money over 3 million looking good thank you again I'll be here throughout if you have any questions just want to tell Luis my deepest appreciation I know that revenues have been back quite a bit they've dropped off quite a bit but what you've done with expenditures here to be commended we appreciate your effort sir thank you again nine years of being in the black we want to remain the same thank you Lou uh the next fund for discussion is the solid waste fund I know that uh you know we've spent a lot of time uh talking about Solid Waste operations and I think we're pretty up to date uh with what's going on with that uh the user fees are proposed a slight increase uh at $949,000 uh other revenue is at $620,000 that's a reduction of $680,000 and that's not due due to less money occurring in the in in the operations it's simply due to a change in accounting of there's Revenue that actually belongs uh to the outside vendor that isn't recorded for us and so we had amended that in the fiscal year 16 budget uh to get that corrected and uh now we're adopting the fiscal year 17 budget in the correct way and so you'll see a corresponding decrease in operations so the total expenditures for

[0:16:23] the solid waste funds are proposed right at $1 million uh we're proposing to add uh $570,000 uh to the fund balance the intent there is that uh there is going to be a need for future permitting and uh future landfill obligations uh in the next s to eight years and so their aim is to increase that by uh over the by to5 A5 million doar over that time and so by adopting the budget Revenue over expenditures that will contribute to that cause the next fund for consideration is the stormw water fund and I I'll let Shane speak uh to that one not a lot of change in the storm water fund uh it's it's staying fairly even um we've seen a little bit of growth but of course as time goes on we have not increased our fees uh that we have established for the storm water fund so as the cost of doing business goes up we're kind of the growth has kind of kept us even in that uh we we are starting to see some more expenditures so again uh uh looking forward we really not seeing anything in the next couple of years uh that we'll need to we need to address we're just kind of we're using our cushion for our large projects to to eat up any additional expenses that we're seeing currently right now so again not a whole lot of anything exciting going on today in storm water now I think everybody has I just kind of want to touch briefly so we can start thinking about the future uh in stor warm water uh the midterm census came out and as everybody knows uh they projected the city of sow's over 100,000 unfortunately um what that what that does to us is is that puts us into the next tier uh that we're going to have to step up uh we're going to have to step up the things that we're doing for our water quality and again this fund and just I want to make sure everybody understands this fund is for water quality to for the city of San Angelo to improve the quality of water that's

[0:18:25] running into our River um it's it's not about quantity it's not about flooding issues it's it's it's about quality issues and about how we go about making sure that the water that's running off our streets and and in our um storm drains is cleaner as it as it goes into the into the river and then into our lakes and so but when we when we get into that next tier um and of course this is an unfunded Federal mandate that came down um to the state and then from the state down uh to local governments and so as we move forward we're we're going to be bumped into that next tier now uh we visited with with the officials at tcq and and so far they're saying that unless there's some major rule change coming down from the feds or from the state uh through the legislative session that we we're not going to have to do anything different on our current ms4 permit which in our current permit is good through 2019 and so that's good so that means that we're not going to have to we're not going to have to scramble and start doing more in different things between now and 2019 there's also a possibility that as we go into the next Census count uh the official Census count in 20 2020 uh depending on kind of what those numbers looks like you know there could there could be some uh there could be some some leniency as as that as well too is our next permit is doing 2019 not 2020 uh we may I don't know we'll have to kind of see what it looks like but again um as we move in the future there will be more things that we're going to be required to do beings that we have bumped over that next Mark and one thing too that I want to also let everybody know is as we're as we're moving forward in this you know we haven't we haven't raised rates since the Inception of the program and of course you know expenses do keep going up um back hos uh for example yellow iron has increased anywhere from 50% to 100% since the Inception of storm water and again we have not raised fees but our expenses do keep going up and so at some point in time we will have to look at a fee increase but we're not proposing one

[0:20:26] this year don't not foreseeing one next year and so we just uh kind of let everything kind of tow the line right now and uh kind of run smooth again uh you can see from revenues we're we're holding fairly steady uh expenses uh again holding fairly steady as well too so uh we're not uh we're not seeing anything major or drastic in this fund a question um you're not foreseeing any requests for a fee increase how do you feel about a decrease right now I mean right now we're holding even and steady with with our what we're doing and with our and with um with um maintenance activities that we're performing right now uh if we decrease our uh if we decrease the fee we would have to um we would we'd have a hard time fulfilling our our um our our duties or what I'm trying to think of the right word but our duties that we were required to perform under our ms4 permit okay then let me put it to you this way is there any viable reason that you would entertain sitting down with uh members of the St Angelo Independent School District to see if their school district properties their stormw fees could be decreased somewhat they're scrambling they're trying to find more more money for teachers pay and they're looking at they pay $35,000 a month per property uh school district and they wondered if there was a little wiggle room in there and I told them all I could do would is ask I I truly did not know what it would do to the budget when I mean it's it's only it can be the highest the highest commercial that we

[0:22:27] have included their whole trash bill with storm but he was saying that was the bill per school I talked to Tim marcher so I would I would have to sit down because from a storm water's perspective I mean a commercial property the largest commercial property out there can only be built $500 a month so based on our tier structure and so I would have to sit down with them and see exactly what what what what they're looking at and what they very very open if someone could talk to him told him I certainly wasn't educated enough in the the fees and and what it was that I would be happy to mention it this morning and see if we could get a little conversation going so maybe they could understand better what they're billing and we could understand better how they're requesting help to keep monies in St Angelo for more teachers we can I'll be glad to sit down with uh with with Tim or or any of the school administration anytime they'd like to and kind of go through this any any changes in in that fee structure would have to come from Council uh it would be I mean y'all would have to create a special sangel ISD school district fee structure but um as as it stands right now they're charged the exact same fees that every other commercial um property in in s Angelo charged well I'm not as receptive uh about it as maybe some people are but because the school district is very high on their property tax and uh of course we get slammed here at city council for our taxes which includes County city and the school district District but it's worth sitting down and talking to them and see you know just a little bit of time so maybe afterwards you and I could talk about it and and see if we could have a discussion with them but they're doing their budgets and we're doing our budgets right now okay glad to thank you any other questions regarding storm water yeah Shane uh go ahead B uh Shane one of the things uh and I know we've been talking about this for two or three years uh we are at that threshold 100 ,000 and I think we're really not that

[0:24:30] far from uh planning out three years from now uh as we look at what that next census is going to be in 2020 bottom line is we really kind of think even though we're not going to do anything in 17 we really need to have some discussion about what's that increase going to do to the your department uh what kind of uh manp power change is that going to staffing change is that going to make and what's that increase going to look like from a dollars and sense standpoint uh as we go forward because we really need to be preparing the citizens if for whatever reason we have to look at increasing the storm water fund and it's easy to talk about it it's three years down the road but believe it or not that's closer than most of us want to think about so we really need to do preparation uh so that this Council and the citizens know exactly what we intend to do for future uh budget years we've already started looking into that we were we were before we had actually had those conversations with the state we were we were concerned that as we as the midterm census came out and it and it did say that we're going to be over 100,000 that they may ask us to revise our ms4 permit uh of course they did not and so we've already started looking at those possibilities of what that that next level is going to take uh what we're looking at and so our staff is already going through uh we're already trying to come up with some of those budgetary numbers so we'll know as we move forward and we can refine that and and bring it to you in a more concise package Bill we currently have um six street sweepers in um in our pool of street sweepers we keep basically there's five of them that run run routes and of course the biggest issue with street

[0:26:32] sweepers are there's a lot of moving Parts on those so they go down quite quite often and so we're constantly rotating one in there as a spare and a backup but we have five uh five of them that actually are running District routes right now and trying to keep up with the sweeping around town we also um do uh downtown sweeping as well since it's right there at the river uh and most of that feeds in the river so we actually have a special route for one of the sweepers which is the downtown route which gets swept a lot more often than the rest of than the rest of town just simply because of all the activity downtown with all the bars and all the other uh other establishments downtown we see quite a bit of ground litter uh in the mornings down there especially over the weekend so we we run downtown a little harder on okay last fall after the leaves fell in in our neighborhood I didn't see a street sweeper come around to clean up the leaves and and we're not far from the river and that that when it rains that goes down into the uh drains and ends up in the river all those leaves and that yes sir we it it takes approximately because of the the speed at which a street sweeper actually can actually sweep and and do any good it takes approximately depending on depending on the size of the district and the number of streets curb miles that we we have within in each district it it takes approximately 75 to 90 days for us to get through each district with one sweeper so it takes a while for us to hit every street in every District it's not a it's not one of those that we can um we're in there once a week or once every two weeks it's it's a long process to get those sweepers entirely through a district and so we try and especially we we'll even run the guys uh we'll start running the guys overtime during those times of years where we do see Leaf fall and things like that to try to speed that process up okay well couldn't you make the neighborhoods that

[0:28:34] are around the river higher priority yes sir we can um and it's it's one of those areas that we do try to we try to concentrate in those areas more than we do uh some of the other parts of town but again when we start looking at everything that's flowing into the aoya and all that it's all making it Downstream and so the aoya of course goes all the way through town as well too so but again we we try to push as hard and fast as we can especially in those times of year where we do see Leaf fall uh or we do see uh heavier lits from when trees pecan trees and and oak trees go to tasseling as well too okay thank you further questions thank the next fund up for discussion is uh the Water and Wastewater funds uh we are going to drill down into a great level of detail shortly uh when we talk about the council priorities and so for this one I'll just touch on that uh we we are proposing a budget that's in line with the rate study that we just completed and so sales are projected at $22.1 million uh which is about a 2 million increase uh expenditures are proposed at $22.8 million and so Revenue ere expenditures are proposed at $2,720 th000 uh that is the planned uh contribution to the fund balance to write the ship so to speak uh this does not get us uh towards our our this does not complete the the task uh to getting us to our fund balance goal but it does help and get us in the right direction uh you'll see there that operations uh has a decrease of about $2 million and that's largely due to the uh Debt Service uh that is now being funded uh through the Development Corporation instead of out of 260 which uh was adopted in the plan as a way to offer some relief to the uh water users in the Wastewater fund uh again in accordance with the rate plan uh that

[0:30:36] was approved uh by the council earlier this year the uh charges are proposed at $12.1 million about a $2.7 million increase uh for total revenue of $122,450 th000 the expenditures are proposed at $1,250,000 you'll see the the majority of that increase went into Capital uh which was an item we knew uh was lacking uh in Prior Year's budgets and we needed to go ahead and and ramp up what we're doing in the way of capital investment for infrastructure in the Wastewater fund uh so the revenue overe expenditure for the Wastewater fund is proposed at almost $1,200,000 and again uh that is a contribution to the fund balance a planned amount uh does not fully fund uh where we know we need to be uh but is a step in the right direction and and uh moving forward exactly with what the rate plan uh proposed uh for the Civic events fund excuse me uh Mr Walker is here to speak on it I did just want to touch briefly on Hotel occupancy tax uh before he joined us uh we had budgeted in 2016 uh $2.3 million in hotel occupancy tax uh but of course uh occupancy is down and rates are down and they're down more than we planned uh the 2.3 million uh was a reduction uction uh from prior years uh but that's down even more and so we've reduced it to $1,857 th000 that's about a $400,000 uh decrease uh if and we're still watching it very closely I I I want of course we're committed to watching this as we are the sales tax uh that we can still meet our obligations that we can still uh fund all the the the areas that get funded from the hotel occupancy tax and so uh with a revenue budget of $1,857 th000 uh we can maintain all current obligations um and we will be you know keeping the council AB breast of any uh changes in that uh and I will let uh Mr Walker speak to the other uh Revenue here as well as his

[0:32:44] expenses good morning this Sydney Walker Civic events manager for the city of St Angelo um of course we're we're we're down in hot hot tax right now as well uh we may not even meet our budget uh currently for what we have right now but also as you know uh many of the oil companies do not have their meetings anymore over here at the convention center and so right now we're we're at a uh um we're at a downfall right now we're just having the meetings in in the week and so right now we're trying to work towards um getting more events of course here in the city of St Angelo and and things that will'll be able to take the place of that for right now as well um few of the items that we actually have as well uh as you can tell she said Hotel occupancy taxes down on our personnel as well uh operations as well as uh it's going up in our capital capital expenditures as well a few things that I must bring up that for uh the convention center that we actually need done over here that that I'll be bringing to council pretty soon is uh our sewer line we do need to have um that's that's something that's on my priority list to bring to you all right now is um we're having sewer line issues over here at the convention center and that that is a huge issue for us um we're taking precaution measurements actually right now and um at this point with with us taking those uh measurements right now um we're actually spending a lot more than what we need to um in our budget as well uh other issues that we're actually having too as well is uh the roofing over here um we're having uh major leaks and issues over here as well as you can tell there's there's issues in this right here as well as in our main lobby too as well uh other issues that we have is at the Coliseum um with uh with many other items the VIP room uh needs uh work done and I'm not saying this year that we need to look at it but in the next few years every year that we um that we get further further along um we're we're

[0:34:47] missing opportunity of uh taking care of the matters um over there as well at the Coliseum we have uh door placements that we need to look at as well as climate control for the Foster Communications Coliseum also one of our Ada lifts is out as well at the Coliseum um as well as uh needing chairs for our River Stage right now too why is it out which one ma'am the Coliseum the Ada lift um actually one of our Ada lifts is actually currently working right now but just one of the other ones and we just do not have the money in our budget to be able to fix it right now it's uh it's about $5,000 um for the fix not used that much we just was it malicious damage or what type of I think it's just worn down ma okay and it's just noner non-operational right now so what we're having to do is actually have uh Staffing um help out the uh uh the ones that need assistance since that is down for us right now all of those items are going to be coming Sid's going to be bringing those in the in September for a larger view of those items as a whole this will be in that package of things that need to be done there's there's many of other uh items as well that is came from our Civic events Advisory Board um that we need to bring to council to uh to be able to start discussing and figuring out what we're going to do in the next few years to fix these matters and make sure that we can keep uh business booming at the convention center and Coliseum for sure do you have a a copy or do you utilize the copy of the facilities report that was done what about seven years ago on all of the facilities that you're over and what was needed then and compare it as to as to needed now and if our maintenance dollars have that we've appropriated or put it on the side has it been enough to our maintenance dollars are not covering our needs so as far as that that study a lot

[0:36:52] of that those things that were recommended at the time were accomplished this build buing various others um so it it focused a lot on on larger things the the Coliseum roof you know we've accomplished a lot of those some of these are more the general maintenance now that that just goes with a building and that study did not uh get into those so much as it was looking at what are the pressing needs that we need to do now so this is sort of an effort to follow up on that study saying okay we did all these things but that doesn't stop we still have all these general maintenance items that we have to address just with the age and wear and tear of a building thank you so any other questions questions thank sing the next fund before you today is the Fort Concho fund and as I mentioned Mr blueart gave me some notes to speak on his behalf I think the important thing to note in the fort cono fund is they continue to have a healthy Revenue stream about a third third of their million dollar budget um is from rent uh from the State Office Building uh By Design and then about a third is from taxes uh general fund tax support and hotel occupancy tax support and then the remaining third is from uh program income so venue rentals uh special event income attendance fees all of that and so uh we're proud of the performance of this fund uh we did budget it flat uh I'm sorry not flat but uh Revenue equal expenditures at a million $1,000 and so uh they continue to have um healthy experience in their fund they do of course have uh looming Capital needs I do want to point out that in you know in Civic events we're certainly seeing a reduction in the uh rental income in Fort Concho it's dissimilar uh it's more um you know Civic events uses a lot of uh business uh to to to occupy this building and to pay uh venue rental for for cono of course it's it's more

[0:38:54] recreational it's more families and so we're continuing to see that uh strong so with that we're we're not quite an hour in but this is a good stopping point if uh the council does desire a Break um this is a a kind of a natural break in the uh presentation we can certainly surge ahead if if it's your pleasure let's take about 15 then and Miss Morgan if I might before we get started I've spoken to a couple of the council members we know that our revenue is way down we know that we don't have the money to do what we need to do we know that we're going to have to cut this budget instead of going through all of this what we want and what we desire uh if the council will back me up on this I'd like to just cut to the chase on this and tell us what we need to do to balance this budget how we need to handle this and uh when we have a a little extra money then we can look at a lot of the things we would like to do but we're not going to be able to do them this year and Marty you agree with me yes does he agree with me anybody else agree with me Harry yes and no well I got four that says they so let's cut to the chase on this and get this get this over with please yes sir absolutely uh we were after the council priorities we were going to drill down into the uh General fund budget and so as we discussed on the review of major funds the revenue overe expenditures for the general fund uh is $322,982 um of course it was our intent to be able to fund the city's obligation as it relates to uh Mee and confir uh but the cost of that this year would be $635,000 so uh to be able to fully fund that uh contract obligation uh would take us into the whole uh which of of

[0:40:57] course we wouldn't be able to do um I did uh one of the things we were going to talk about is that there was a request to expand the service of streets uh We've we're just going to plug in a goose egg there uh simply that we're going to maintain the level of Street uh performance and Street Service uh we're not going to increase it though this year uh because of the economic climate unfortunately I I'm just going to temporarily take that out there for salaries we'll come back to that there also were Department requests uh regarding further the council goal for the development process uh Mr James of course is is fully aware of where we are that and knows that uh we may be need to skip this year as far as funding uh the request related to that um health insurance although not a council goal an item for consideration as our account uh as our health insurance uh premiums grow uh again let let's skip that and come back to it uh under Department requests uh we did have some have to items so to speak as identified uh by city manager agement and finance staff uh that totaled about $76,000 uh just with the with the latest of where we are on sales tax we would just recommend that those be uh researched to be funded another way or what we can do to uh to to uh not fund them in the original budget and so we would recommend a zero there as well so to get into you know that leaves you so again we're we're leaving with the with the $322,000 available uh for the council's uh Direction uh one thing we had talked about and and and Miss Marley's on standby to be able to speak is that uh there will probably some be some cost associated with um if the meeting confer goes back to the uh police officers for a vote um for that and I can you can you make clear that this 322 does not include any raises no raises in this and we have a contract a meet and confer contract which says we must give raises to those meet and confer

[0:42:58] employees and that value is how much again $635,000 can you plug that in again so we can see what that looks like that is raises according to that contract for those Police Department employees under that contract only that doesn't include fire or other you know Public Works that those employees also if I remember this meet and confer agreement that we made is that they could make the request and we could approve them but it all depended on if we had the money to fund it so we have the authority at Council to fund what we're able to fund now if I'm if I am if I can remember the agreement that we had on meting and confer the very last line was if Council can afford it that's a good point and I think Miss Marley can speak to to uh what your options are related to that and and what those ramifications are good morning mayor council city manager um in our contract there is a funding obligation section and you are correct um we follow the Texas Constitution guidelines that says that we cannot um we can only use funds that are available therefore we cannot use money that we don't have you cannot appropriate from a future year so you're correct in that and if uh you know if we cannot meet our funding obligations and if the police department does not confer and and agree with that then the meet and confer document becomes null and void I'm not trying to knock salaries down but we are dealing with x amount of money and we can't spend X+ so we're all going to have to live within our budget we've got to find a way to do so and so I think our desire would be to uh

[0:45:04] take it back to the police officers to hold a vote to be able to just postpone the existing contract and there may be a cost associated with that rather than go through the detail of how that might go I think what we'd like is direction from Council to open that discussion with them is that right Lisa that may or may not require a vote by then so I don't know that we would want to commit to anything sure I I do think it's important to note that we may need to plug in an amount under salaries of this $322,000 uh related to um opportunities the council has uh we did look at you know if we did um an across theboard raise or a one-time stipend or something like that uh what does three just for reference what do $322,000 bias uh $322,000 does not even fund a 1% raise uh for for the general fund it would fund about a 0.07% uh pay raise and so uh that would be 7 or 0.077 7100s under 1% 710 of a percent or 700s of a percent okay we also talked about that um there may be an opportunity to throw an amount at the the health insurance plan we know that know if we give a small amount in Pay increases uh that would only be offset by a larger increase in the employees contribution to the premiums for health insurance and so that's that's a balancing act of being able to know that you know the council's goal is to further the pay plan and to make salaries adjustment to to to Market uh but if we can give such a little pay increase is it um it's outside of the council goal but is it more beneficial to our employees Morgan before we get past that pay increase that was 7/10 of a percent for all general fund employees not just PD right corre it would be higher than that if

[0:47:06] that amount were dedicated just for PD correct that's but that's for all employees general fund general fund so fire police Public Works Parks all general fund and then the Enterprise funds would follow suit uh they would Implement uh whatever we decide that the general fund can afford uh the Enterprise funds would follow suit with the same for their employees Morgan can you address health insurance at this point I think that we want to make sure we're pretty clear as far as making decisions city as far as city council a little bit more information on the health insurance I may defer to M Miss Marley on that we did speak briefly that um any of any amount that the council could fund uh could be used to offset the increase of Premium to the employees um but as far as the detail on that we can work through that this year when we looked at our budget for insurance obviously it's too early in our year to have uh good claim data we can only operate with our information that we have through June the insurance works on a calendar year basis not a fiscal year basis so I just wanted to point that out um this year we have three large claimants that have claims over $100,000 which totals $651,000 in claims the same time last year we only had three that totaled $474,000 so we are seeing an increase in that um currently we have 20 large claimants that represent 43% of our claims total claims um in order to uh be able to sustain the in increased growth that we're seeing in claims we have estimated that we would need to take for the low plan option single employee we would go from $1,650 a month to $25 a month and then every other tier would go

[0:49:11] up 20% so that means the highest tier would go up $50 a month and the lowest would go up $653 a month that's with no increase to the C's contribution right now the city pays $453 per month per employee for the insurance how much would the city have to pay Lisa if the city covered that increase um I didn't calculate that because I was told that there wouldn't be any money to do that um if if the 322,000 were to be applied to this um that would that would take a big cut off of the increase to the employees absolutely that would cut off what that would make a big decrease to the increase that we projected but it wouldn't cover it all no it would not do you know of any companies organizations or other departments that are paying the additional premium for the employees or asking the employees to kick in a little more um many cities uh that we compare ourselves to maybe I shouldn't say many I know there are three out of the 13 that pay 100% of the insurance cost so the insur the employee doesn't have any premium to pay um what I also know is we surveyed our 13 cities yesterday and the average increase across all of those places um was 2% across the board in Pay increases not insurance but in Pay increases I just thought I'd throw that out there Charlotte this isn't a sound survey but at my house we have one other person who works and she's seeing a significant increase in her uh premium contribution at her job and and lots of uh retirees that I'm

[0:51:14] talking to and they're getting their supplemental plans are getting substantial increases and they're getting no pay increase through their social security or their retirement from work if they've got got insurance from their retired company right so that's why I was asking we've been very lucky that we have not increased our premiums in a number of years um and I think it speaks to the good contract that we were able to negotiate initially and it also speaks to the fact that we are healthier as a result of our wellness program now that's not to say that we don't have those outlier big claims but what we're seeing in the numbers is that we are healthier because we are taking more prescriptions and the prescription costs are enormous and if you look at you know television during the newsour you're going to see lots and lots of commercials for for new drugs that are that are out there they don't have generics so when when an employee goes and pays their $115 co-pay for a generic the city is picking up the difference in that cost and we have got some drugs that are just super expensive and so while um I think that's what's driving our claims to be so much higher I was just wondering excuse me uh does the city have a health safing plan for the employes you know one of those plans that they can pay into and uh you know that they don't have to pay taxes on the money and they can use it for paying for some of the prescriptions yes we do we do have that program and the the the major claims they're they're for illness and not for injury that's correct they're um without speaking too far out of turn they're mostly cancer claims thank you we we could go in and use that Surplus for to pay a set amount for every employee it wouldn't pay the increasing

[0:53:19] it wouldn't pay for all the increasing but every employee within the city would see the same benefit um that is something actually that the city of Odessa is doing this year um they're just giving a flat dollar amount to every employee and um you know everybody sees the same increase I personally like that well if you think you're going to go under Medicare and a supplemental and save any money I can tell you from experience you don't true by the way happy birthday come Friday huh I said by the way happy birthday come Friday just another just another one chalked up that's what happened when you start to get my age Saturday Saturday any other questions any other questions forisa it's problem and we're going to have to fight this one again and there there are no answers you're right thank you what are we going to do Morgan give us a magic pill here sure just kidding um uh we do have the opportunity to come back to the council at the August 16th meeting uh for uh discussion of the budget and uh public hearing of the tax levy and then we're introducing the budget September 6th and so of course this was good timing to have the workshop because uh as you give us Direction M as Mr self did we can sharpen our pencil on that bring bring it back to you on August 16th to let you know uh where those figures fall for example if it's if it's a consensus that we put all of it towards health insurance or all of it towards whatever you know we have some notes here today that we can uh report back to you on August 16th to get final details so we're not looking at any raises for our employees this year mayor it really depends on when you say raises um Marty just mentioned a

[0:55:22] while ago there and Odessa did that of course they they did a an amount that each employee received but again and that could go toward helping that employee to cover their health health health insurance it just really depends on how we want to put this this together as well one of the mayor one of the key items is that meet and confer contract and uh I think if you're if the council as a group is going to say we cannot meet that obligation I think we want your direction to open that discussion is that right Lisa is that how we would do that we want your your direction to open that discussion and uh develop Alternatives uh with that group or work to develop Alternatives with that group as well as now that would be something Lisa and the meet and confer team would work on but as well as uh having the budget folks work on Alternatives unless you make a decision today about how you want to allocate that money but uh probably a direction from you to work on alternatives for how to allocate that money would be appropriate okay right now we have 300 almost $323,000 correct that's correct we've got a health increase that's going to come up where our our employees are going to have to pay more just to keep their keep the health insurance and the police department under meet and confer are asking for $635,000 just for the police department correct right that's the cost of this year's contract so if we just pay just the police what they're asking for we we are $300,000 in the whole before we even start to give our any other city employees anything and before we deal with our health insurance that's correct I think it needs to go back to meet and confer I think they need to understand what our problems are they need to understand what our budget concerns are and I I would like for them to look at it again is that the direction you're looking for yes sir does anybody agree with me on that yes do I think we've got a consensus there to

[0:57:28] take it back to them and explain the reality to them because there's no money we are we're dealing with a with a great deficit this year we were able to give some pretty nice raises for the last couple of years and I'm glad we were able but this year we're dealing with deficits and uh we can't print money to me the reality is is salary increases and to me are based on performance not cost of living and um I would like to see the city move into only doing evaluations once every five years after they they have met five years of having it done annually once every five years uh and establish some goals or maybe once every three years so that we're not constantly chasing this squirrel around when we have two great years then we've got three B years you know up up and down to let us see where we could level off balance-wise but I agree I don't see how there's money this year for any salary increases and I'm very proud of the fact of what we have raised them to I had ask Lisa to pull a list of all of the job positions and descriptions and the dollar amounts that are paid and you know for a say a police recruit just starting out a rookie you know he gets $3 39,5 42 a year and that's not a bad salary that's uh about $600 a year less than what a School's teacher in s Angelo starts at yes I'd love for it to be more but we just don't have it mayor we can go back and establish a course meetings again with the Mee and confer but also uh as we mentioned a while ago sharp pencils take a look at the health insurance and see what maybe a city plus an employee contribution look like and just develop other options if those are the

[0:59:31] two areas that we're going to concentrate on uh so we can definitely come back in the August 16th meeting and talk a little bit more about that well I'm in favor of using all of the money we have to make our budget work and if there are if there are other monies in any of the other departments things that are not necessary I know last year we funded $200,000 to buy computers to put in the cars if there are any other type or in the pickups so that we could tell from City Hall whether the pickups are being idling or not idling uh if there are any more items like that in any of our budgets this would be the time to look at those budgets and eliminate those to give us some money to work with Hospital insurance and also for salaries so I'd say go back to your departments and have them look at everything we we've done that mayor but of course we've done that multiple times but uh we can take a look again I think that with the staff and what through fin we were able to accomplish considering the reductions that we've seen especially in sales tax revenues yes we did have a marginal increase in our property tax because valuation but uh we have really sharpened the pencils to reduce the our expenditures but also to make sure that we did have a revenues over expenditures left over but we can definitely go back and take another look at that b okay um to take up what the mayor was saying on uh using our vehicles more efficient I you know since I've lived here I noticed a lot of times when you have a crew uh say water leak or something and you see four pickups showing up with four people in them I don't think that's necessary you know I think we can make better you use of of the vehicles that we have rather than one person utilizing one vehicle to go to the same job site you know each indiv you know four showing up in four different vehicles and uh also are we there still be filling positions that become vacant right now as far as my discussion with with the with the staff and we had

[1:01:33] a director's meeting yesterday and it was to discuss as far as expenditures we have going through through the remainder this year uh that were holding back on any any spending and even any positions at this point that are vacant uh that need to be evaluated again through the HR uh only if it's an absolute necessity what would be hiring in those positions but we want to make sure that we make it to the the end of this year as well uh the numbers that came in yesterday on sales tax revenues really about 270,000 lower than we had anticipated so we need to make our adjustments our commitment has been to make sure that revenues are going down that we're reducing our expenditures so that we don't come out of the hole at the end of the year and that's exactly what we're aiming for and you know one other point that I would like to make just so everything is relative here we did received 2 million and something additional money on these tax appraisals so that's an extra 2 is coming into the city because of these appraisals 2 million what was it Morgan 1.3 million 1.3 million more this year than last year which is increased Revenue over uh tax appraisals point I want to make is that every citizen in this city is dealing with the exact same problems we are we are in deficits but they're paying an external $1.3 million to US and uh if our citizens are going to suffer I think that the city needs to uh tighten her belt as well we agree mayor we we definitely do agree with that that's what we we go into these budget workshops and even leading to the budget Workshop we keep that in mind and we try to make sure that we eliminate waste and make sure that we're doing only what we need these tax appraisals are really hurting our citizens these increased tax appraisals every year it's becoming a very serious drain on the citizenry May then we propose we come back then we address the uh after we have an opportunity to schedule those meetings especially with meeting confirm um but also to come back and let you know as far as health insurance give you your thoughts and ideas perhaps some options that you may want to take a look at and we can come back and present that the next city council meeting I think that's a good idea but do I have

[1:03:36] consensus on that yes yes consensus okay yes I would like you to bring some proposals back and let's look at this again and let's make some logical choices mayor if I based on reality yes sir um one of the things that uh could help is if we knew that you are going to allocate that money in some fashion they could move ahead they could take that money and put it somewhere to be moved later on when you make your decision and that would allow them I think Morgan correct me if I'm wrong to move ahead with uh all the detail work that you need to do to prepare for the next few meetings uh so if if you're saying you're going to allocate that 322 in some fashion then she can uh put that in an in a holding area in an account to be allocated later when you make the decision how to spend it I don't have a problem with that I mean I'd like our balance our budget to be balanced and if we've got this then uh we can balance the budg I don't have a problem with that is anyone else I think it's right right way to go yeah but I think you need to make that decision once you have these conversations with meet and confer group I mean once they once they help us get to that particular spot that 322 should be Al ated in some way so that we're at a zero line that's what it sound that's the direction it sounded like you were going uh the difficulty is that the meet and confer process moves slower than the budget deadlines which are imminent and so if she can uh hold that in in an account uh for the completion of that process and your decision-making process that allows the budget folks to move forward uh meet their deadlines um and then we can step through adequate process to determine how to spend the 322 I don't have a problem with that if anyone else does speak up right now it's not set in concrete we have not taken the vote but to put it in a special account and use it like that I think would be a wise way

[1:05:40] to look at it and I think we're good that will that'll give us time to give you what you need yes sir mayor what else we got that's it last thing on our agenda then is a move to adjourn so move second do have a motion to adjourn and a second all in favor please say I I I any

Captured 2026-07-26 · source: youtube.com/watch?v=M09EOZQliv0