Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout_1996 06 12 City Commission Workshop Minutes WORKSHOP CITY COMMISSION JUNE 12, 1996 The Workshop Meeting of the City Commission was called to order by Mayor John F. Bush at 5: 10 p.m. ROLLCALL: Mayor John F. Bush, present Deputy Mayor John Ferring, present City Manager Ronald W. McLemore, present COMMISSIONERS: Larry Conniff, present John Langellotti, present Cindy Gennell, present David McLeod, present Manager McLemore stated that Parks and Recreation will be first. Commissioner Ferring asked if the General Funds - Revenues, could be discussed first. Discussion on the General Funds Revenues. Manager McLemore stated that in prior years the Fund Balance was shown as a revenue, it is not really a revenue, it is a fund balance, it was shown as a revenue and did not show is as a fund balance. In this year we are not going to do that we are going to show it for what it is, we are going to show it as revenue and then fund balance. Discussion. PARKS AND RECREATION DEPARTMENT Don Wilson, Parks and Recreation Director, gave an overview of his department's budget and stated that the department's increase is a little over $2,000. Mayor Bush asked ifit was cost effective for the City to run the concession stand. Mr. Wilson stated that the City is loosing $8,000 per year on the concession stand. Mayor Bush asked if the City should look into the possibility of having someone else wants to take the concession stand over. Mr. Wilson said that he has some goals and objectives for the operations manager to look at ways, to be creative and run specials and to break the deficit. Discussion. Mr. Wilson stated that there are ways to meet the deficit, and said he is attempting to do that. Manager McLemore stated that he has talked with Mr. Wilson regarding this and said ifhe can bring the concession stand in line and have it make money, that is fine, but if not then next year we will contract it out. Mr. Wilson said if the City will work with him one more year, he feels he can close the gap in the deficit. Discussion. Mayor Bush said there were a couple of citizens who came to a Commission meeting requesting dug- outs or some sort of shelter to keep the children out of the sun, for the T -Ball fields and said he would like to see that discussed and possibly put into the budget. Discussion. Commissioner Ferring questioned the Capital Improvement budget. Discussion. W orkshoD Meetin2 City Commission June 12. 1996 Pa2e 2 Commissioner Ferring said a top priority that a lot of people have asked for is a municipal swimming pool in Central Park and asked how can this be "squeezed into" this budget with the capital improvement monies. Mayor Bush said that is a project that should be looked at but feels that it should be looked at as a joint facility with the School Board, and try to get them to fund an equal share of the money. Mayor Bush said he feels it would be a good public service; there will have to be some planning and maybe budgeting some planning money. Discussion. Mayor Bush asked the Commission if they felt it would be reasonable to ask the Manager to do a feasibility study on this subject and bring back recommendations. Manager McLemore said he thinks that should be the goal for this year, to do a feasibility study and come back with a plan that says "here is the optional ways that the Commission could approach this issue". Discussion. It was the consensus of the Commission to add $25,000 to the Parks and Recreation Budget to fund the dug-outs for the T -Ball field and to do a feasibility study for a municipal pool and property purchase to expand the park. Mayor Bush mentioned that he has had several citizens ask him about having a 4th of July celebration and said that the Manager and Mr. WIlson has done some research on this. The cost would be about $12,000 for the fireworks, Mayor Bush said this could be a day at the park not just for fireworks, some games for the children, have the concession stand open and with the culmination of the fireworks at night, have the civic organization involved to raise some of the money, maybe take donations at the door; Mayor Bush said he feels the costs could be off-set where it might be close to breaking even and said he feels it would make a nice day, it would make a nice activity for the City to get together. It would be an opportunity for the City to get together and something that the people would attend. Mayor Bush asked the Commission if that would be something they would want to consider, it obviously would not be this 4th of July. Discussion. It was the consensus that a study be done to see the feasibility of having this function. Manager McLemore mentioned an error in the capital outlay - the improvements is not for Sunshine Park, the improvements is for the lake area between the Public Works facility and new Public Safety Facility on Moss Road, at this time there is no name for that park. Discussion. Mr. Wilson mentioned the money allocated for the heating system at the Senior Center. There was discussion regarding exercise equipment for the Senior Center. Mayor Bush stated ifthere is word out in the community that the senior center is looking for exercise equipment and that the equipment most probably will be donated from the community. Mayor Bush also mentioned that he has an exercise bike that he will donate. W orkshoD Meetine City Commission June 12. 1996 Paee 3 COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT Manager McLemore stated that the recommended cost increase is for the department that now includes only Tom Grimms, is around 5%, the main increase in this budget relate to the new Community Development Director's position being added. Discussion on new position. Manager McLemore stated that he has an aggressive work program in mind and we will have a tremendous amount of work in the next two years related to our update requirements on the Compo Plan. Manager McLemore said it is his goal to have a very aggressive economic development program; this new person (Community Dev. Director) is who he would look to carry out that program and to bring these functions together like they are typically found in Cities of this size. Commissioner Ferring was in disagreement with having a new position and stated that he is looking at the fiscal standing. Commissioner McLeod stated that he understands the need for reorganization, as you grow and as the community grows, you have different needs; his feeling is if you now have the money to do it and at the same time you are able to hold the taxes the same or reduce them, that is your benefit. The problem is if you hold back at some date the services will catch up and the tax rates will go up. Commissioner McLeod stated that he feels that the City Manager was hired for a purpose, and what he sees in this request is the Manager is asking the Commission to let him do and perform the job this Commission hired him to do. Manager McLeod said he doesn't have a problem with the new position, and said it is the Manager's reflection of what his management needs and at the same time he is saying the overall budget can be held or lowered and said he thinks the Commission should support the Manager at this time. Manager McLemore said the key thing that he would ask the Commission to think about is if we do this right, we will affect what happens in this community for a long time and if we make this plan work, we are going to add big dollars to this tax roll in a short period of time and that is the reason he is looking for a person who has a lot of experience in that area; to work with me, the Planning & Zoning Board, our Staff and the community. There is a real desire in the community to start economic development and said he thinks we can be successful at it, if we put the right management team with the community, we can do a lot of good things which will cause the tax roll to expand. It won't happen tomorrow, but in three to five years you will see results. Discussion. Commissioner Conniff stated that he has perused the budget and said he believes the Manager is frugal and responsible, and the Manager has justified the new position and also a 4% saving in the overall budget and said "lets go for it". Commissioner Conniff said the Manager has justified bringing on the new position and is able to give a roll-back and said he feels himself, that we should not go for the roll-back, we have projects and a lot of things we can do. Commissioner Gennell stated that with all the supporting information, she supports the request and said she feels the same as Commissioner Conniff to not go with the roll-back rate. W orkshoD Meetine City Commission June 12. 1996 Paee 4 Commissioner Langellotti said he feels that this is the first time in all the years that he has been looking at budgets that he has seen a professional presentation and said if the City Manager requests this, he is running it, this is his job (Manager) not his job (Commissioner Langellotti). Mayor Bush said he appreciates Commissioner Ferring's attitude about wanting to keep taxes down and said he thinks that Commissioner Ferring would agree as well as the rest of the Commission, if this is approved we want to see some results. Manager McLemore stated that the Commission can rest assure that he is not going to let the City get into financial trouble. Manager McLemore said he has never let a community get into trouble and he is not going to let Winter Springs get in trouble. Manager McLemore said when he looks at new positions, he looks at them in a value added way. This position (Community Development Director) is a true value added result and will render a better community. Mayor Bush said the Commission should also keep in mind Commissioner Ferring's point, that we want to do our best to keep the taxes down without reducing services and said he thinks that is the goal the Commission needs to have in the back of their mind. Commissioner Ferring said as far as the consulting services are concerned, with the new person coming on board, he would suspect that we wouldn't have to use all the consulting services, is that correct? Manager McLemore said he wouldn't want to lower it this year, but suspect he might be able to do that next year. Manager McLemore said in his opinion, you use consultants as an alternative to staffing up; so the goal is where you don't have enough on-going work to justifY a person to do it then you hire a consultant to keep from having to add staff; at this point in time, his idea is to try and reduce that kind of generalized technical assistance we have on an on going basis by adding this person. Discussion on consulting fees throughout the departments. Manager McLemore will bring back to the Commission a total for consulting fees for all departments. LAND MANAGEMENT Manager McLemore stated that this is pretty much a continuation budget, with one item representing most of the increase and that is for $2,500 in consulting services that Mr. LeBlanc has asked to put in as a back-up. Don LeBlanc, Land Management Specialist, said he had put in the consulting services in case of commercial development and he would have to get some environmental verification to ensure that everything is working well. Discussion. W orkshoD Meetin2 City Commission June 12. 1996 Pa2e 5 CODE ENFORCEMENT Mayor Bush mentioned that the Code Enforcement Inspector does not have a radio in his car. When he finds an abandoned automobile he has to copy down the VIN number and come back to the Police Department and check with the department to run a check on it; wouldn't it make sense for him to have a car with a radio in so that he can call into the department. Discussion on a radio in the car for the Code Inspector. Acting Police Chief Pieper stated that problem should be resolved when the City gets the 800 megahertz. Commissioner Gennell asked how old is the vehicle the Code Inspector is using. Chief Pieper said within the past fiscal year he got a 1991 vehicle. Discussion on the size of the vehicle. Commissioner Ferring asked about the $1,500 computer software. Discussion on the software for the City. Commissioner Langellotti asked if the City is still involved in the R.U.O.K. program. Chief Pieper stated yes. BUILDING DEPARTMENT Manager McLemore stated there was an error in the Department's budget, and gave the Commission the update to the budget for this department. This list will cause the total for the budget to go up a small amount 2.26%. Don Houck, Building Official, explained the update to his budget. PUBLIC WORKSIUTILITY Public Works - General Fund There is a 10% increase in this department's budget. Kip Lockcuff, Public W orks/Utility Director, stated the increase is because of the new position - Capital Works Coordinator. There was question on what the duties will be for the new position. Mr. Lockcuff stated that the person will "bird dog" the extent of capital projects we have now; and said the City would not have to use a consultant as often, which would be almost half the cost of the new position's salary in savings. The City will get a better quality project. Discussion on the Transportation Improvement Fund. Discussion on the Transportation Impact Fee Fund. Discussion on Stormwater Management. Discussion on the Utility Department. Discussion on Capital Improvement Projects. W orkshoD Meetine: City Commission June 12. 1996 Pae:e 6 POLICE DEPARTMENT Mayor Bush asked if the Police Department is adequately staffed etc. Acting Chief Pieper stated that after filling the vacancies he has at this time, that yes, the Department is adequately staffed. Discussion. Discussion on the overall Police Dept. Budget. FIRE DEPARTMENT Discussion on the Fire Department Budget. FINANCE DEPARTMENT Discussion on the new position of Financial Analysis. Manager McLemore stated that this position will help improve the Finance Department. It was the consensus of the Commission to add the new position. It was the consensus of the Commission to not hold the scheduled workshop on Thursday evening and will hold the scheduled workshop on Friday, at 1 :00 p.m. The workshop meeting adjourned at 10:00 p.m. Respectfully Submitted, ~~~~~. ~ ~~;W Hopkins, City Clerk