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HomeMy WebLinkAbout_2002 07 08 City Commission Workshop Minutes CITY OF WINTER SPRINGS MINUTES CITY COMMISSION WORKSHOP JULY 8, 2002 I. CALL TO ORDER The Workshop of Monday, July 8, 2002 of the City Commission was called to order by Deputy Mayor Cindy Gennell at 5:16 p.m. in the Commission Chambers of the Municipal Building (City Hall, 1126 East State Road 434, Winter Springs, Florida 32708). ROLL CALL: Mayor Paul P. Partyka, arrived at 5:45 p.m. Deputy Mayor Cindy Gennell, present Commissioner Robert S. Miller, present Commissioner Michael S. Blake, present Commissioner Edward Martinez, Jr., present Commissioner David W. McLeod, present City Manager Ronald W. McLemore, present City Attorney Anthony A. Garganese, absent II. AGENDA A. Presenting To The City Commission The Fiscal Year '03 Preliminary Budget. City Manager Ronald W. McLemore introduced and presented an overview of the Fiscal Year 2003 Preliminary Budget. With discussion on Senior Transportation issues, specifically regarding the need to purchase a van for Senior Citizens transportation, Commissioner Edward W. Martinez stated, "When you bring this back, what I would like you to do is not to inflate it so the other Commissioners are forced to vote against it." Manager McLemore explained that "It is not inflated." Discussion ensued on the COPS Grant. Manager McLemore informed the Commission that we are not sure what we may be funded for, and may not know for a couple of weeks. CITY OF WINTER SPRINGS MINUTES CITY COMMISSION WORKSHOP - JULY 8,2002 PAGE20F4 Further discussion followed on the Police Department budget. Deputy Mayor Gennell asked about the Police Officers patrolling on bicycles and requested, "Can you - during the budgeting process, give us an idea of how much time they are actually spending on those bikes?" Chief Kerr agreed to this. Additionally, Deputy Mayor Gennell spoke of the need for Police Canines and asked how long it takes for somebody to bring the dogs, when needed. Mayor Paul P. Partyka arrived at 5:45 p.m. Deputy Mayor Gennell turned the Workshop over to Mayor Partyka. Commissioner Robert S. Miller inquired as to "Hqw much was taken out of the General Fund last year - this year so far, that wasn't discussed in the last Budget around a year ago?" Ms. Louise Frangoul, Finance Department Director said, "Supplemental appropriations throughout the year..." Commissioner Miller added, ".. .Just little things that need to be done so we took it out of the General Fund?" Ms. Frangoul agreed to pursue this information. Discussion Commissioner Miller said to Manager McLemore, "By you coming forward with this recommendation that we build the General Fund to the three million dollar ($3,000,000.00) level which is what you feel comfortable with but have not been able to do for several years now...." Manager McLemore asked, "... You mean the operating surplus?" Commissioner Miller stated, "General Fund Balance - so for several years now you have been uncomfortable with the level it is at, but now you'd like to reach that level in the year 2003. So I am just wondering right now that by - my acquiescing to what you are recommending and not pushing for a bunch of issues that I think maybe we ought to push for, I am going to be a little bit disappointed if I find out this time next year that we are still at 2.5 million and we still haven't reached the three (3) when we could have but there were other things that you decided were important and we all went along with it." Commissioner Miller then asked Ms. Frangoul if she had ascertained the amount of monies funded from the General Fund? Ms. Frangoul stated, "It is $606,000.00 worth of supplemental appropriations during the year." Commissioner Miller requested a copy of that information. Commissioner Michael S. Blake stated his concern with Legal Services and stated, "I think Anthony [Garganese, City Attorney] has done a tremendous job, but our bills, our budget there has doubled in the last two (2) years. It is so expensive at this point in time that I think we have to take a real close look at whether or not that is the right way for us to spend that number of dollars, or maybe if we shouldn't look at bringing somebody in house that is exclusively ours on a day by day, every day of the week situation." Commissioner Blake added, "I think there are some areas like that we ought to - from a big picture standpoint take a look at in areas to see where we can save money. CITY OF WINTER SPRINGS MINUTES CITY COMMISSION WORKSHOP - JULY 8, 2002 PAGE30F4 Interestingly enough, we always seem to look and see how much money we have and then let's figure out how to spend it, as opposed to - let's figure out what we really need to provide and let's figure out what we want to provide, and then determine how much it is going to COSt." Tape I/Side B Discussion. Manager McLemore then said to the City Commission, "You're going to get a recommendation from me - probably at the next Meeting - I may have mentioned this before, to go back and do a full cost study on the Building Department, all the fees we've set up. Those fees were based on projections of direct cost. They were not based on total cost or full cost analysis. I think we did have some inquiries from the Industry about justifying our fees and I think we need to be prepared to do that on a full cost basis." Manager McLemore added that the costs associated with the study are fully fundable from those fees. Discussion. Regarding the remainder of the Budget Meetings, Deputy Mayor Gennell suggested to "Try and schedule these [Meetings] so that the Department Heads know which days they have to be here and which days they don't have to just sit and listen to us talk about other things." Manager McLemore stated, "We could decide who you want to hear from for tomorrow night." Deputy Mayor Gennell advised, "I would suggest we do that." With further discussion, Commissioner Martinez said, "Somehow we seem to shun Senior Citizens all the time. I don't know why. If you read today's paper there was a very documented article on Senior Citizens - by 2015 they will be paying forty-one percent (41 %) of the State Budget. The Senior Citizens in this State - they deserve just as much as Public Works, and so on and so forth in this City!" Discussion. B. Budget Review. The specific Department Budgets were not discussed during this Workshop. CITY OF WINTER SPRINGS MINUTES CITY COMMISSION WORKSHOP - JULY 8.2002 PAGE40F4 III. ADJOURNMENT Mayor Partyka adjourned the Workshop at 6:28 p.m. RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED: HOLLY N. PIERSTORFF ASSISTANT TO THE CITY CLERK, AND -, '"." -- . " - - , '