Loading...
070907 CC WS MinCITY OF SHOREWOOD CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION MONDAY, JULY 9, 2007 MINUTES I. CONVENE CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION 5755 COUNTRY CLUB ROAD COUNCIL CHAMBERS 6:00 P.M Mayor Lizee called the meeting to order at 6:04 P.M. A. Roll Call Present. Mayor Lizee; Councilmembers Callies, Turgeon, Wellens and Woodruff; Administrator Dawson.; Planning Director Nielsen; Director of Public Works Brown; and Engineer Landini Absent: None Also present: Pamela Helling B. Review Agenda Without objection from Council, Mayor Lizee proceeded with the Agenda for the meeting. 2. CLARIFICATION OF PRO-RATED INSURANCE BENEFITS Administrator Dawson stated apart-time regular employee had made a request to participate in the City's health insurance plan. Currently no regular part-time staff members working between 20 - 32 hours per week participated in insurance benefits. Dawson explained the policies in Section 1.05 and Section 7.01 in the employee Handbook were inconsistent regarding insurance eligibility for regular part-time employees. Section 1.05 stated part-time employees who worked an average of between 20 and 32 hours per week may be eligible to purchase from the City's health and life insurance on a pro-rata basis. Section 7.01 stated apart-time employee who averaged the same number of hours of work per week may purchase from the City's health and life insurance at their own cost. Those two policies which were updated in 2006 were intended at minimum to make insurance available to employees work worked at least half-time. Dawson then explained the City currently paid up to $680 per employee per month for insurances. Under the pro-rata interpretation the City would pay up to $340 toward premiums fora 0.5-employee, $408 toward a 0.6-time employee, etc. Dawson stated there were differing opinions among Staff regarding the interpretation of the policies. The pros for the pro-rata approach were: it would be consistent with the benefit basis for employees working 32 hours per week; and the benefit of the City paying part of the insurance costs was attractive for recruitment and retention of staff. The pros for the employees' full-cost interpretation were: it was less cost to the City; an employee purchasing insurance through the City's group plan would most likely be less costly than purchasing insurance on one's own; and it was becoming a more common benefit among other organizations. CITY OF SHOREWOOD WORK SESSION MEETING July 9, 200'7 Page 2 of 5 Director Nielsen. explained there were two employees that shared a position in the Planning Department; one of those employees had made the request. He stated the job-sharing situation provided better coverage for the department than if there was one full-time individual. He encouraged the Council to consider the pro-rata approach to attract the job-sharers and continue their employment with the City. The following noteworthy clarifications were made. - Health and life insurance premiums were age based. - Although there had only been one request to date from a 20 - 32 hour per week part-time employee to purchase insurance from the City, it would apply to any part-time employee working an average of 20 - 32 hours per week. Currently only one part-time employee was affected. - Part-time employees must contribute to PERA if they earn more than $425 per month or if they work more than 67 calendar days per year. There was Council consensus to amend the Employee Handbook so Section 1.05 and Section 7.01 were consistent with regard to health and life insurance benefit opportunities for regular part-time employees; both sections would state the employee may be eligible to purchase from the City's health and life insurance on a pro-rata basis. This item would be added to the agenda for the upcoming City Council regular meeting. 3. ACTIVITY INDICATORS Administrator Dawson first reviewed his memorandum of the City's history regarding the use of activity indicators during the budget process. He stated the indicators that had been selected were to give an idea of the activity performed, or the amount of things that needed to be addressed with a program budget. Because the City was virtually fully developed, there had been little change in the indicators from year to year. Dawson stated he had asked the department directors to identify activities which were cost drivers for the resources needed for their departments. He clarified that was different from needing resources available to respond to requests for service which the City was responsible to do, regardless of the number of requests that may be received in a year. Dawson explained that in the 2007 adopted budget book, the statistical information indicated the breadth of responsibility (e.g. acres of parks and number of athletic facilities; miles of streets and streets plowed, etc.), estimates based on historic experience (e.g. tons of salt and sand used), or range of effort expected (e.g. number of new home permits, average inspections per permit based on type). Dawson stated it was important the key performance indicators were identified; it was time consuming and therefore costly to collect data that were of little value when making decisions about allocating resources. Dawson noted suggested indicators identified for Public Works and Engineering were attached to his memo. There was lengthy ensuing discussion with regard to indicators. The following noteworthy comments and clarifications were made. CITY OF SHOREWOOD WORK SESSION MEETING July 9, 2007 Page 3 of 5 - Regular activities should be identified as well as emergency activities for Parks and Recreation, the Sanitary Sewer System, Storm Water Management System, and the Water System. It was not necessary to separate the regular and emergency activities if the task would be atime-consuming task. - The budget for things such as Parks or Sanitary Sewer activities reflected the number of person hours required to do those activities assuming average conditions. - Water consumption for watering the City's parks was not a performance indicator; water usage varied based on the rainfall for the year. Water consumption information may be valuable for other purposes. - It may be cost effective and beneficial to track statistical data related to administrative, general, and support services. - The service indicators that had been used in the past should be reviewed to determine if which indicators provided value in preparing the budget. - It may be beneficial to track statistical information that would indicate a need for future funding increases for particular activities because the cost of materials had increased. - Building permit statistics could be gathered for the Planning Department. Unfortunately, the complexity of many activities had increased over the years; therefore, the same amount of personnel resources were required to perform fewer activities. Buildings were more complex, building codes were more complex, and complaint processing was more complex. - The Planning Department would collect data on the number of permits, complaints, inspections, etc. - The new indicators would not provide enough historical information to have a significant value in preparing the 2008 budget; the statistical information would prove valuable in future years. - The performance indicators would address the major cost drivers, not all activities performed. There was consensus that it would be most appropriate for the department directors to identify meaningful performance indicators. There was also consensus that the Public Works and Engineering indicators presented were a solid foundation. 4. CIP -ROADWAY AND DRAINAGE PROJECTS Administrator Dawson explained that at its June 25, 2007, work session Council reviewed a 2008 - 201.3 schedule of improvements for road reconstruction of the worst-rated local streets and the related storm water improvements, and other storm water system improvements. Based on the schedule deficits would be incurred in both the Local Street Reconstruction Fund and the Storm Water Management Fund if current levels of funding were continued. He stated he did not clearly understand Council's direction for how to fund those projects. He then stated at that same meeting Council decided that $100,000 should be added annually to the City's sealcoat and street overlay programs. Funds for 2008 would come from a transfer from the balance in the General Fund; although it was not directly stated, future increases would have to come from General Fund availability. Dawson stated if the street reconstruction projects were funded on a "pay as you go" basis it would require a significant levy increase. He explained that capital improvement bonding (sometimes referred to as roadway bonds) were available to the City for projects listed in the Local Street Reconstruction Fund within the CIP. He then stated Staff had asked Northland Securities, Inc., to prepare figures to illustrate various impacts of that type of bond financing; those figures had been provided to Council as part of the meeting packet. The bonds could be issued in 2008 or 2009. CITY OF SHOREWOOD WORK SESSION MEETING July 9, 2007 Page 4 of 5 With regard to the Storm Water Management Fund, Dawson explained the projects in the 2008 - 2013 schedule depicted deficits in that fund starting in 2008. Approximately an additional $175,000 annually would be needed to fund the accumulated $1.1 million in deficits through 2013 year-end. Staff recommended the City use apay-as-you-go funding approach for the storm water projects. He noted that Council had increased the residential rate in 2007 by $4 per month, which would yield approximately $100,000. The rate would need to be increased $7 per month beginning in 2008. The following noteworthy comments and clarifications were made. - If the City financed the storm. water improvement projects with alonger-term bond, the specific projects the bond proceeds would be used for would have to be identified when the bond was issued. - Storm water bonds came from a utility bond revenue source; roadways bonds called capital improvement bonds were intended to be paid back with general revenues. - Councilmember Wellens suggested the City assess property owners for localized storm water system improvements. Others thought that approach could be unfair because water flowed from the highest point to the lowest point; therefore, the property owners at higher ground may have not have storm water concerns, yet the water flowing from the higher ground caused storm water concerns at the lower elevation properties. A Chapter 429 assessment process would be more difficult to use because it would difficult to determine the exact benefit to the property; under Chapter 429 a special assessment amount shall not exceed the special benefit test (i.e. increase in value to the property as a result of the improvement). - The City's Comprehensive Plan suggested storm water system improvements could be funded through a Chapter 444 special tax district process; the test for those charges would be "just and equitable". - A special tax district can be defined based on a specific project's geographical boundaries. - It would be rare that a property could be located in two taxing districts with regard to the same type of project (e.g., storm water system improvements); in that rare circumstance Council would need to treat the property as a special case so that it would only be taxed once. - It was possible to issue bonds for a special tax district project; but, it was important to limit the number of times the City issued bonds for economy in issuance costs. - For projects such as the Mary Lake project which would be a small special tax district but was projected to be very costly, a combination of funding approaches may have to be considered. In summary, there was Council consensus that roadway bonds would be issued for the local street reconstruction projects. Staff would define the best approach to fund the storm water system improvements; rate increases, special tax districts, or a combination of both would be considered. Councilmember Woodruff stated he would prefer a special tax district approach over a rate increase if possible; he thought the tax district approach was more visible to the property owners, where the increased rate was more like a hidden tax. Councilmember Callies stated she did not think a rate increase would be hidden from the property owners as it would be displayed on their bills. 5. OTHER There was no other business for discussion. CITY OF SHOREWOOD WORK SESSION MEETING July 9, 2007 Page 5 of 5 6. ADJOURN Woodruff moved, Callies seconded, Adjourning the City Council Work Session Meeting of July 9, 2007, at 7:05 P.M. Motion passed 5/0. RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED, Christine Freeman, Recorder Christine Lizee, Mayor ATTEST: ~°~ ~d ,~ °~~" ,y ~ s C _ t _ ~ °~ Craig W. Il~awson, City Administrator/Clerk