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City Council Minutes 11-13-2001 SpecialMINUTES SPECIAL MEETING - MONTICELLO CITY COUNCIL BUDGET WORKSHOP Tuesday, November 13, 2001 - 5:30 p.m. Members Present: Roger Belsaas, Roger Carlson, Clint Herbst, Brian Stumpf and Bruce Thielen. Members Absent: None 1. Call to Order. Mayor Belsaas called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the 2002 budget and levy amount. Don Smith from the Monticello Times was present to address the issue of the cost of printing the council minutes and bills in the Monticello Times. He had submitted a letter to the Council several weeks ago urging the Council not to eliminate publication of the minutes. He came back with a proposal that could save the City some money on their publication costs. He noted that the City Council minutes are e-mailed to the Times which saves labor costs since the minutes do not have to be re -keyed and therefore he could offer the City a discount. He provided some information on year to date publication costs for the City and how that compared to 2000. He is proposing to apply a 20% discount to the minutes portion and if the bills could be e-mailed, the discount would apply to that as well. Roger Belsaas asked whether the discount would apply to public hearing notices. Don Smith replied that those are required notices and they are usually on a deadline with the notices but he thought that may be something could be done in that area. It was noted that the full minutes are not required to be published only a summary and it is not required to publish the bills. The general feeling was that the minutes should be published in their entirety but there was some question if the readers paid much attention to the bills. Brian Stumpf felt that since the Times was making a good faith effort to help the City keep the cost down, the City should continue with the publication of the minutes and the bills. Roger Belsaas suggested that the City continue publishing as they have done and evaluate the savings periodically. 2. Review of Preliminary 2002 Budget and Tax Levy. City Administrator, Rick Wolfsteller provided some additional budget information. Since the first budget workshop the City has learned that the City's levy limit is lower than originally anticipated (from $6,540,335 to $6,498,079). There was some other changes that he noted as well. Brian Stumpf questioned whether the HRA was providing matching fiends for the City's budgeted amount for industrial land acquisition. Rick Wolfsteller indicated that initially the HRA had matched funds but he was not sure how much had been set aside. 011ie Koropchak indicated that she believed there was about $150,000 set aside by the HRA. The City had set aside $265,000. Special Meeting -Budget - 11 /13/01 Rick Wolfsteller explained his concern that the Street Reconstruction Fund, based on the current budget would only be about '/2 of what they thought it would be. Initially it was hoped that the $500,000 be set aside for reconstruction. The current budget would have $250,000 for starting the Street Reconstruction Fund. It was noted that even at generating $500,000 a year for the Street Reconstruction Fund, it would take 2-3 years to accumulate sufficient monies to fund a street reconstruction project without bonding for it. Rick Wolfsteller noted that the engineer had estimated $7,000,000 worth of street reconstruction work so the City should be setting aside $750,000 to $1,000,000 a year. John Simola questioned whether the $7,000,000 was still an accurate figure. John Simola explained that the "core" streets did not have a Class V base so the blacktop would have to be ground up and used as Class V or Class V would have to be hauled in. John Simola stated that there was no way because of the way these streets were constructed that you could overlay the "core" streets. Outside the "core" area the streets were of conventional design and they could be overlayed. John Simola noted that getting the core streets done is difficult because there are always other priorities that delay this project. Rick Wolfsteller felt that saving up excess funds would not generate enough funds to get the project start and felt that bonding process would have to be utilized. Bruce Thielen asked about equipment bonds. Rick Wolfsteller indicated that although the City hadn't used these before, it was an option but he believed that it may not be any more cost effective than a general obligation bond. The Council asked about using monies from other fiends. It was noted that the sewer fund has about $2,500,000. John Simola indicated that there are two wastewater treatment projects coming up so the City would need funds for that. In addition, the City has to look at the Fallon Avenue and the County Road 18 interchange projects. The City couldn't borrow money for this unless it was done by referendum. Rick Wolfsteller reviewed information on annual tax levy requirements if the City bonded for the street projects. The Council discussed the industrial land acquisition. 011ie Koropchak indicated that the Rain Dance and Construction Five TIF funds could be reserved for industrial development in the future. Jeff O'Neill indicated that the City has existing industrial property (i.e. Remmle property and Outlot A, Country Club Manor) that could be sold or traded to accomplish land acquisition. Roger Belsaas didn't feel money should be taken from the industrial land acquisition reserve but he was comfortable not funding it for 2002. Rick Wolfsteller suggested that possibly $300,000 could be taken from the sewer access fund which has a balance of $2,600,000. John Simola stated that the River Street sewer line replacement would have to come from that fund. Clint Herbst stated that he didn't mind borrowing from other funds as long as the City had a plan to pay it back. It was pointed out that at this time the City still does not have an assessment policy for street reconstruction projects. The Council reviewed the MCC expenditures especially for capital outlays. $30,000 was budgeted for landscaping work. The Public Works Department could do some of the work which K Special Meeting -Budget - 11/13/01 would result in a lower cost but it would mean shifting Public Works personnel from other tasks. $3,500 was budgeted for a washer/dryer for washing staff uniforms. It was felt the staff could to their own laundry and that could be cut. It was noted that there was no maintenance fund set up where they could budget for replacing of items such as carpeting, lockers and resurfacing of the parking lot. Park Improvements - John Simola noted that the Park Department budget had been trimmed already. In reviewing the park budget, the consensus of the Council was the Community Center park development budgeted at $30,000 could be deferred. Bruce Thielen felt some money should be set aside for some landscaping for the MCC park. There was also discussion of Pioneer Park shelter. It was noted the higher cost for the shelter was because it was required to have bathrooms added since it was a structure where food preparation would take place. John Simola felt this should be looked at by the Parks Commission. Bruce Thielen also suggested the City consider renting warming houses for the skating areas rather than building them. The Council also discussed the $8,000 budgeted for the Information Center improvements and whether any of the improvements could be done at the same time as the CSAH 75 project. 011ie Korpochak suggested that City defer the improvements to Information Center until they see what happens on the other side of the street. It was suggested that since the ISTEA project costs are coming from other funds, the City could spread the payment of these funds back over a greater number of years. The Council questioned the $20,000 budgeted for signs for the Community Center. Kitty Baltos explained that it covered a sign and reader board to be located at 5 '/2 Street and raised lettering for on the building itself. The reader board would be similar to what is at the library. The Council recommended cutting the following items from the Community Center: Washer & Dry $ 3,500 Office space $1200 Dishwasher -Catering Kitchen $ 3,500 Reduce building signs $ 5,000 $24,000 $12,000 of the $24,000 cut would be put back as a maintenance fund for the Community Center to help fund replacements of items such as carpeting, etc. Rick Wolfsteller suggested leaving the levy for debt as it is. The street reconstruction fund amount is based on: $25000 Levy amount $ 75,000 Not budget industrial land acquisition $ 121000 Cut from MCC budget $ 87.000 1/2 of ISTEA budget $424,000 J Special Meeting -Budget - 11/13/01 Using the above funds plus approximately $80,000 from other funds, would give the City an estimated $500,000 for the street reconstruction fiend. The Council discussed reconstruction plans. Initially the idea was to split the City into four quarters doing one quarter at a time. Rick Wolfsteller stated that the City will likely be borrowing to cover the CSAR 75 project, Cedar Street, 7t' Street and Walnut Street. The City's share of these projects would be about $500,000. John Simola would like to start the reconstruction work in the southwest quarter in the area of 6t" Street. The City could possibly include West 7" Street as part of this. John Simola will work on a more formalized plan to be submitted to the Council. The revised budget will be brought back to the Council at the December meeting. 3. Adjourn. The budget workshop was adjourned at 6:45 p.m. Recording Secretary