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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1990-08-17 - City Commission Budget Workshop Meeting MinutesCITY OF TAMARAC CITY COUNCIL BUDGET WORKSHOP MEETING Friday, August 17, 1990 CALL TO OBDER: Mayor Abramowitz called this meeting to order on Friday, August 17, 1990 at 9:30 A.M. in Conference Room #1, City Hall. PRESENT: Mayor Norman Abramowitz Vice Mayor Bruce Hoffman Councilman Dr, H. Larry Bender Councilman Henry Rohr Councilman Henry Schumann ALSO PRESENT: John P. Kelly, City Manager Dina McDermott, Assistant City Manager Kenneth Burroughs, Finance Director Mary Blasi, Deputy Finance Director Thelma Fagelbaum, Chief Accountant Bob Foy, Director of Utilities/Engineering Pauline Walaszek, Secretary Ambulance Service Mrs. McDermott referred to Page 61 and City Manager Kelly noted that this was a revisit to this budget. City Manager Kelly said based on the agreement which stated that Medics Ambulance's increase could not exceed 7%, the increase was to be based on whatever Broward County gave. He said the County gave a 4.6% increase which will mean a reduction of $2,900 for a total of $104,600. Street -Lighting Mrs. McDermott referred to Page 79, Street Lighting, and Mayor Abramowitz asked if the referendum regarding the street lighting is approved will the amount of $50,000 budgeted for renovations not be needed. Mr. Foy said that is correct but the $50,000 is for street lights that have already been ordered last year. Mayor Abramowitz asked if Item 435, Electricity -Streets, is for the power usage and Mr. Foy agreed. Mr. Foy said in the amount of $534,000 approved by the City Manager for the next fiscal year, there is energy for 100 new lights. V/M Hoffman asked how much should be budgeted if the referendum does not pass and Mr. Foy said the 100 new lights should stay in because there are new communities planned that need new lights. He said there is an occasional spot where someone has an emergency at an intersection and a new light is needed. Mayor Abramowitz said the amount of $50,000 is for lights that have already been ordered and Mr. Foy agreed. C/M Schumann asked what would be done with the excess in the amount of $534,000 if the referendum passes and Mr. Foy said there is no excess in that amount. He said if the referendum passes they must add another $37,000 to $534,000 for energy. He said bigger street lights will be put in and additional new lights are needed as well. Mayor Abramowitz said last year an emergency transfer of funds had to be done because lights were done in the City on an emergency basis that were not planned for the year before. He said they did not have enough money to pay for the wattage. City Manager Kelly said if the referendum is passed, those lights will be installed in the framework of two or three years. Mr. Foy said FP&L said it will be over a three year period. City Council Budget Workshop Page 1 8/17/90/pm Engineering Mrs. McDermott referred to Page 32, Engineering. She handed out a revised budget proposed by Mr. Foy. Mr. Foy said his department provides the review and inspection service to insure that the sanitary sewer, the water, the drainage, the roads and all other engineering approvals for private construction are properly rn- stalled in accordance with industry standards and the City Cba. He said they spend much time on street lights, sidewalks, process- ing and reviewing documents, etc. He said they have a professional ,staff that does an excellent job. City Manager Kelly said on the August 22, 1990 City Council Regular Meeting agenda, there will be a proposal to reorganise the Engineering Department through reclassifications, reductions, eliminations of positions, etc. He said the budget proposal hbs a significant reduction in the salary lines since three positions were eliminated. City Manager Kelly said he negotiated with the unions and thisih.as been worked on for eight months. He said in anticipation) of Council's acceptance of the reduction, they included in the budget all the reductions and not the increases and reclassifications that will go along with this. Mr. Foy said his department will save over $60,000 per year on this reclassification. V/M Hoffman asked if some of this should be charged to Utilities rather than the general fund and Mr. Foy ;said they have done that by allocating portions of salaries in that way. Mrs. McDermott referred to Page 34, and noted that the position] of Chief Engineer Designer is only 25% of the salary from Engineering and the rest is from Utilities. V/M Hoffman asked about the other expenses and Mrs. McDermott said Engineering would have direct responsibility with Utilities having theirs. She said the Secretary is strictly for Engineering. Mayor Abramowitz asked if the fixed cost for insurance, etc., has been prorated between the two departments and budgets and City Manager Kelly said yes. C/M Schumann questioned Item 333, Density Test, which doubled in amount from $3,000 to $7,000 and Mr. Foy said that is a charge that the Code states the developer must be charged with the City paring for it. He said the City orders a density test, the developer pays the City and the City pays the Florida Testing Company. die said this is just a pass through. TUE Operating Fund Mrs. McDermott referred to Page 137, TUE Operating Fund. V/M Hoffman asked how many customers there are that use this water and Mr. Foy said 1,000. Mrs. McDermott referred to Page 139 and V/M Hoffman questioned the salaries. Mr. Foy said the services for TUE are provided by TUW and that is backcharged to TUE and then TUW gets reimbursed for it. He said this is reflected in the 370 account of TUW. Mr. Burroughs referred to Page 160 where all expenses for TUE are made budget wise. He said on Page 170, the total was $43,010 as expenses and on Page 141 the income is shown under Utilities Maintenance Charges, Account 369-410. He said this is a wash. Mayor Abramowitz referred to Page 139 and Mr. Foy said this is where the increase from Fort Lauderdale is included. Mayor Abramowitz questioned Item 607, Rehab. Gravity Sewer, which was 0 last year and is approved by the City Manager for $100,000. 1+Ir. Foy said it has been recognized for the past several years that there are many deficiencies in the infrastructure at TUE. He said last year they rehabilitated the lift stations for a large amount and they are now attacking the gravity sewer system over there. He said it is old clay pipe that is broken and this must be rehabili- tated this year as a start. 1 1 1 City Council Budget Workshop Page 2 8/17 /90/pm Mayor Abramowitz said the City has spent a great deal of money based on the recommendation of Mr. Foy. He said the City Manager has done some studies and some recommendations include raising rates and a graduated scale based on usage. Mayor Abramowitz said the present residents should not have to carry the burden for future usage. Mr. Foy said there is no rate increase required over in the TUE area. City Manager Kelly said in order to accommodate this proposal, the amount of $100,000 is a step toward that goal and should not be postponed. City Manager Kelly said one of the concerns expressed was regarding the consumption reduction for conservation and he felt this had no significant impact in the east at all. He said they use very little in the first place. Mayor Abramowitz said he would like the City Manager to prepare for Council's review the ability of Council to tell the people that money must be spent to have the best water available. C/M Rohr asked where the amount of $100,000 would come from and Mr. Foy said from the Revenue Fund of TUE. C/M Rohr said the problem would be spreading approximately $600,000 over the next five years to do the job. Mr. Foy said that is right. C/M Rohr said a program should be implemented whereby future residents will bene- fit. Mr. Foy said the only way he knows how to do that is to borrow the money. C/M Rohr asked why the City cannot borrow the money and Mr. Foy said the money is available in TUE and is coming out of the surplus for this year. He said each year will have to be examined. He said if this theory persists the way to handle it would be to borrow the money with payments spread over twenty years. Mayor Abramowitz agreed with this theory. Mrs. McDermott referred to Page 140, Item 49A, Property Tax Sub- stitute. Mr. Burroughs said the TUW bond covenant allows them to transfer 4% of the gross revenues in lieu of taxes. He said they have applied the same theory to TUE. He said Item 59J, Customer Billing Services, is the charge to TUE for sending out the water bills. TUW Operating Fund Mrs. McDermott referred to Page 141, and Mr. Foy said this year's budget for TUW reflects a reduction of four people in the staff. He said in exchange for that he is requesting a reorganization and there will be some increases in salaries. He said the net result will be a savings of over $60,000 each year from now on. He said the combined Utilities/Engineering Department will now have 68 people including Customer Service, which is located in City Hall. Mr. Foy said the staff that is operating the Utilities /Engineering Department is professional in every way. He said the services have been increased even though the staff has decreased. Mr. Foy said the Council has provided them with capital improvements for the telemetry, rehab lift stations, etc. Mayor Abramowitz asked if every meter is read every month and Mr. Foy said yes. Mr. Foy said there is a porta--processor which is an electronic item about the size of a telephone which records the meter reading. He said if there is a discrepancy the Aorta- processor would require another entry. He said the second time should be a correct reading. He said this corrects an improper reading out in the field and saves time. Mr. Foy said in spite of that safeguard there are readings that are right with extra water going through and these are the types of complaints they received. Mayor Abramowitz said there are com- plaints he has received as well. City Council Budget workshop Page 3 8/17/90/pm Mr. Foy said said out of the seven porta-processors three are inoperable leaving four in service and five are needed to make their runs. C/M Bender asked if there are any safeguards against a meter reader not making complete readings of the meters assigned to him andimr. Foy said yes. He said these porta-processors have built in meter numbers that must be followed on a route. Mr. Foy said the meter reader has to know the correct numbers to punch in. C/M Bender asked if the porta--processor is preprogrammed and Mr. Foy said yes. Mr. Burroughs said the City has a double check because when the ports -processor is returned from the field it is loaded into the mainframe for billing and an edit run is done. He said if there is no consumption in that edit run a special reading must be done. C/M Bender said it is important to notify the public that thin is being monitored because there are many complaints on this issue. Mrs. McDermott said there are many complaints during the holiday season since people do not realize that there are people visiting causing an increase in water usage. Mayor Abramowitz said the consumer is not always wrong and the complaints should be investigated. Referring to Page 141, Mr. Foy said this represents the projected revenue. C/M Bender asked if less is projected this year than last year and Mr. Foy said yes, because they are anticipating that,the actual this year will be less than what was budgeted last year. C/M Bender asked if there is a record of how many more customers there are this year versus last year and Mr. Foy said a study was done which goes back to 1987/88, 1988/89 and this year concerping the water consumption in the City. He said it refers to k1lo- gallons by the month and the number of water and sewer cuot*ers per month. Mrs. McDermott referred to Page 143, TUW Operating Fund, and noted the changes on the hand out. Mr. Foy said Department 362 has a Programmer that has been deleted from the payroll, the Safety Coordinator has been transferred to the Safety Department in Personnel and another employee has been transferred from this department to the water plant. i Mr. Foy said there will be a savings of $60,000 every year because of this reduction of personnel. C/M Schumann. questioned why Item 476, Uniforms and Accessories, had an amount of $700 requested by the department but the City Manager recommended $1,990. .Mr. F'oy said they made a mistake. Mrs. McDermott noted that the previous year was $2,330. Mayor Abramowitz questioned Item 463, Office Equipment Repairs, which was increased from $6,810 budgeted in 1989/90 to $9,210 recommended for 1990/91. Tape 2 Mr. Foy said this is for the maintenance by service contract of the typewriters, computers, printers, key systems, etc. Council agreed this was a necessary expense. Referring to Page 144, Mayor Abramowitz questioned whether Item 647, Special Equipment, was capital and City Manager Kelly said yes. Mr. Foy said the amount budgeted for this of $7,500 was for a digitizer board and a tape drive associated with the computers. Mrs. McDermott said Item 59P, Insurance Service Charges, was increased considerably from 0 to $58,460. Mayor Abramowitz said they are paying their fair share of this cost. Mrs. McDermott noted that Page 145 was revised and was a recap of personnel in this budget. She said this shows the percentages charged to Utilities. 1 1 1 City Council Budget Workshop Page 4 8/17/90/pm Mayor Abramowitz asked when a hole is dug in a street by the Engineering Department does Public Works have the responsibility of closing that hole. Mr. Foy said Engineering does everything except the asphalt. He said they backfill and compact the hole and then the call for Public Works to lay the asphalt. He said Engineering furnishes the asphalt and Public Works furnishes the labor to lay the asphalt. Mayor Abramowitz said he did not realize that was the way this was done and he questioned what happens to the labor charge for this type of function. Mr. Foy said that is part of the General Fund and Public Works gets charged for that. He said there is an administration charge somewhere in the budget that goes from the Utilities Fund into the General Fund to cover this cost. V/M Hoffman asked approximately how much money is involved for this purpose and Mr. Foy said it is not a substantial amount. Mayor Abramowitz referred to Page 146, Water Treatment, and C/M Schumann questioned Item 4UE, Trim Perimeter Trees, for the amount of $35,000. Mr. Foy said there are Australian Pine trees that need to be trimmed and FP&L has trimmed what they considered to be their responsibility. He said these trees are adjacent to facilities that the City has and if those trees damage those facilities, much more than $35,000 will be spent. He said last year he requested money to cut these trees to the ground to get rid of themt however, this year he is asking for money to cut them to 16-feet because it is less expensive. He said he is convinced they are a hazard. Mayor Abramowitz suggested the City Manager arrange to make the residents in this area aware of this problem and receive written approval from the President and the Board of Directors of that Section that there is no objection to having these trees removed. He said this will hold the City harmless. C/M Schumann questioned the difference between Item 306, Special Supplies/Services, and Item 521, Other Operational Supplies. Mr. Foy said there is an amount of $5,000 in the 306 account for some landscaping for the area the Engineering Department presently uses. Mr. Foy said the 521 account is a catch all which includes bolts, lumber, nails, miscellaneous operating supplies, etc., for the water plant. Mayor Abramowitz referred to Page 147, Item 59C, Purchasing/Stores Services, in the amount of $27,210 and City Manager Kelly said this is their fair share for this service. Mr. Foy said the total amount of this Water Treatment account was proposed by him for $2,146,640 and this is the existing customers' share of the two million dollars needed to build a new accelator and facilities and to rehab the existing facilities. Mr. Foy said they have studied what is considered rehab and what is considered expansion and expansion is considered 59% of that two million dollars and rehab is considered 41%. He said the major part of the two million dollars is from the CIAO funds and from the bond residual fund that was borrowed for the utilities improvements and the existing customers are getting a bargain. V/M Hoffman asked how much money is in the CIAO fund and Mr. Foy said there is just over one million dollars. He said there is $800,000 earmarked for next year for their share for reducing the mortgage payments. He said to fund this project they will have to defer the raw water wells and the CIAC funds are reduced dangerous- ly low. Mrs. McDermott referred to Page 148 and noted that this was revised and is part of the total Utilities reorganization. V/M Hoffman asked where we get water from and Mr. Foy said some of the commun- ity gets water from the County, TUE gets water from Fort Lauderdale and the rest of the City gets water from Tamarac. City Council Budget Workshop Page 5 8/17/90/pm V/M Hoffman asked if there is a budget for the County's supply ,and Mr. Foy said no, those residents pay directly to the County for their water but they pay Tamarac for their sewers. Mayor Abramowitz asked what happens when there is a problem in the County's area and Mr. Foy said they call the County with water problems and they call the City of Tamarac when there are sewer problems. Mayor Abramowitz called a two minute recess and reconvened with all present. Mayor Abramowitz referred to Page 150, Transmission and Distribu- tion for the Utilities Services. Mr. Foy referred to Item �47, Special Equipment, and said they requested $22,000, which Nash the emergency purchase made recently. He said this will come out but they must put a PC computer in there with an amount of $4,000., Mr. Foy said the Transmission and Distribution accounts must, be taken care of in the future and the amount of money in this years budget is not the end. Mayor Abramowitz said there must be a priority list that must be followed. Mr. Foy said some items are substandard because in the installation originally done, inferior materials were used. He said at the time it was installed asbestos pipe was acceptable but Broward County and the City have changed the standards and this is no longer acceptable. Mrs. McDermott referred to Page 154, Customer Services. Shelsaid this department was reviewed last year by Bob Hoyt, former De�pulty Finance Director. Mr. Burroughs said there are basically no changes. Mayor Abramowitz said Steve Oxenhandler has done a great Job in public relations and he would like to institute a program regarding public relations. He said he realizes the problems they encounter. City Manager Kelly said he will review this. Mrs. McDermott referred to Page 156, Wastewater Collection. C/M Schumann referred to Item 59G, Workers Compensation, and noted the amount of $7,000 should be 0. Council agreed with this. Mrs. McDermott referred to Page 157, and noted a list of priority items for future work and only those recommended by the City Managei are top priority for this year. City Manager Kelly said these are a combination of priorities and what he felt they were able to do. Mrs. McDermott said Page 158 shows the reclassification with a difference of $2,300. She referred to Page 159, Wgsteu-ater Treatment Sewer Services. Mr. Foy said this is the City's obliga- tion to Broward County since their rates have raised 5.8% and the debt service has increased 37% this year. He said they have told them that newt year the debt service will be raised a similar percentage. He said this is passed on to the customer. Mayor Abramowitz asked how many people are serviced from this and Mr. Foy said everyone in TUN. Mayor Abramowitz said he wants the residents to know what is going on with this and he directed that this be put into the Tam -A -Gram. Mrs. McDermott referred to Page 160, TUW Back Charges to TUE.' Mr. Burroughs said this is self explanatory. Mrs. McDermott referred to Page 161, and noted this is the water and sewer services conbin-- ed. She said on Page 162, the Equity Transfers are shown and on Page 163, the Bond Service Fund is budgeted. She said Page 167 shows TUW Renewal and Replacement Funds. City Manager Kelly said when they are finished reviewing this budget, the Finance Department has some adjustments to make based on some of the changes, especially the insurance charge being prorated will affect every budget. He said the communication charge is still out and on the Utilities Fund they will not meet the technical default for the bond and there is warranted a 5-1/2% increase in order to meet that. He said they will meet the operat- ing costs for the year. City Council Budget Workshop Page 6 8/17/90/pm City Manager Kelly said this warrants a rate increase and the Council needs to study this. Mayor Abramowitz said he is opposed to putting in a rate increase unless he is told that the City is in default if it is not done. Mr. Burroughs said on paper the City is in default. Mayor Abramowitz asked what the City's exposure is right now and Mr. Burroughs said if these numbers are correct on September 30, 1991, the bond holders have a right to take over the system and operate it. Mayor Abramowitz asked if action cannot be taken to erase the possibility of a default in two months if Council is so notified by the City Manager. Mr. Burroughs said this would be spread over a shorter period of time. V/M Hoffman said $308,000 has been removed from the general fund but there is a shortfall of approximately $265,000. He asked when this will be finalized so that they know how the tax rate will be affected. He said the City was negotiat- ing with the School Board regarding the Multi -Purpose Building and he asked when they will know when that will be finalized. City Manager Kelly said he is hopeful it will be within one week. V/M Hoffman said he has not heard of a default before this and City Manager Kelly said this was discussed at the first budget meeting. He said in the beginning of the budget message under Utilities West Funds it states this. V/M Hoffman asked when a decision has to be made to avoid a default. Tape 3 Mr. Burroughs said it will be on September 31, 1991 when all the final results are in. Mr. Burroughs said the longer the wait the higher the rate increase will be. C/M Rohr asked the percentage of increase that is needed and Mr. Foy said 5.5% on water and sewer charges. Mr. Burroughs said it can be all on revenues, it can be reduction of operating expenses or a combination of the two to equal 5.5%. Mayor Abramowitz said statistically it shows that a good portion of the residents will not have an exposure and the burden falls on the business people. He said the Council may decide that that is the way to go but he does not want to vote on this until they have all the facts. He asked the City Manager to have this for Council as soon as possible. With no further business, Mayor Abramowitz adjourned this meeting at 11:00 A.M. Caro A. Evans City Clerk This public document was promulgated at a cost of $172.60 or $21,58 per copy to inform the general public, public officers and employees of recent opinions and considerations of the City Council of Tamarac. City Council Budget Workshop Page 7 8/17/90/pm