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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1993-10-25 - City Commission Workshop Meeting MinutesCity Council Workshop Meeting 10/25/93/KJ Page 1 CALL TO ORDER! Monday, October City Hall. CITY OF TAMARAC CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP MEETING MONDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1993 Mayor Bender called this meeting to order on 25, 1993 at 9:30 a.m. in the Conference Room #1 of Mayor H. Larry Bender Vice Mayor Irving Katz Councilman Norman Abramowitz Councilman Henry Schumann Councilman Joseph Schreiber Dina McDermott, Acting City Manager (entered 9:35 a.m.) Mitchell Kraft, City Attorney Thelma Fagelbaum, Deputy Finance Director Mike Vonder Meulen, Senior Planner Karen Jackson, Secretary Mr. Vonder Meulen introduced Joaquin Vargas of Kimley Horn, who is the City's representative as traffic engineer. 1. 2L%M8ION regarding a request by 7710 University Development Corp. for a 4,745 square foot addition to the existing University Medical Center, 7710 NW 71 Court, (located south of NW 71 Ct., west of University Drive). Mr. Vonder Meulen said the City had previously discussed the concept of concurrency, action plans and traffic management and all of the different systems that are set up through Broward County and the City of Tamarac. He said the City is now experiencing potential growth which would impact roads that are Service Level F. He said these are action plans that need to be approved either prior to or concurrent with the site plans to allow that construction. Mr. Vander Meulen said the different analysis by Broward County and the City states that this particular growth would impact traffic on particular roads in Tamarac. Mr. Vonder Meulen said the City had previously approved some action plans on two minor projects --the Vestibules at the Sunshine Plaza Publix and at St. Malachy's Church. Mr. Vonder Meulen said this project is a 4,745 square foot addition to an existing medical building. He said there is another medical building currently under construction in front of this existing building. He said the applicant has had success in leasing the office and wishes to expand and lease additional space. He said this addition would be considered fairly minor and generates six trips on a road that is at a Service Level F, which is University Drive from McNab Road to Commercial Boulevard. Mr. Vonder Meulen said the applicant retained their own traffic engineer, Keith and Schnars, to analyze the traffic. He said their analysis was to take the approach of adopting the definitions that are found in FDOT standards. He said Broward County has a different definition from FDOT, which is where this action plan is involved. He said if the City recommends or accepts this City Council Workshop Meeting 10/25/93/KJ Page 2 particular definition about a two mile road segment versus the road segment of .61 miles that was actually used by Broward County, there would be additional trips permitted to be placed on the road. Mr. Vonder Meulen said by doing so, the applicant would be allowed to take credit for any of the trips that would be left over. He said there are trips that are actually on the road, committed trips from platted parcels of land and with the combination of these, the applicant would be able to take credit for the left over trips. Mr. Vonder Meulen said by accepting this definition, there were six or seven trips available and the applicant would like to take advantage of these trips. He said Staff received a letter from the City's Traffic Engineer, Wakeem Vargas, discussing the validity of the applicant's request and analysis. Mr. Vargas said this project is only adding six trips onto the deficient segment of University Drive, which is insignificant from a traffic engineering standpoint. He said when looking at concurrency and one car is added, a problem exists. He said Keith and Schnars has looked at the roadway section and have reclassified the section of University Drive and found a higher capacity than that accepted by Broward County. Mr. Vargas said it has been found their analysis has been found to be acceptable but he recommended that prior to accepting their analysis Broward County be contacted to make sure that they do not have a problem with Keith and Schnars' study and that the County adopts the capacity. Mr. Vargas said there is also something else that can be done for this project. He said there is another development that is being proposed in the City which is known as the McNab Road Subdivision and they also have a problem on the same deficient link that this project is faced with, and they are looking at the possibility of adding a separate right turn lane on University Drive. Mr. Vargas said it is believed that if they are successful in coming up with that improvement, this would provide capacity to mitigate the impacts of the McNab Road Subdivision as well as this development. C/M Schumann said University Drive is at capacity at present and Mr. Vargas said it is deficient. C/M Schumann asked how adding more would alleviate the existing problem. Mr. Vargas said there are two things to keep in mind, one of which is that improvements are made, and by providing the separate right turn lane, the problem will not be resolved but additional capacity will be provided to mitigate the additional traffic that will be generated by the project. C/M Schreiber asked how this is derived. Mr. Vargas said there are studies which need to be done in conjunction with the improvements and the study will be able to determine the additional capacity gain by providing such improvements. He said there are techniques that can be applied to determine what the improvements are. C/M Abramowitz said this is happening all over the County. He said there is a move to make drastic changes. He said the capacity is not going to diminish unless cars are physically removed from the 11 1 1 LI City Council Workshop Meeting 10/25/93/KJ Page 3 road. He said there are studies that show that putting in right lanes and making traffic changes does speed up traffic, which is the basis for concurrency. C/M Abramowitz said there is a lot of raw land on University Drive, which has not been developed but should be and be added to the City's tax rolls. He said these six trips are not catastrophic. V/M Katz said he sits on the Broward County Planning Council and the Land Use and Trafficways Committee and, at their last meeting, he discussed this with the Executive Director of the Planning Council. He said the only thing that he obtained from him was that this is very creative design. He said the impact of the additional six trips on the immediate area would be nil. He said he has more concerns regarding the McNab Road Subdivision project than with this office building. V/M Katz said Bailey Road from 81 Street to 64 Street has heavier traffic for the number of lanes currently existing than on University Drive. He said no one in County Traffic is upset over the additional six trips impacted on this location. C/M Schreiber asked if Mr. Vargas recommends that the City check with the County on this. Mr. Vargas said the reason he recommends this is because the Keith and Schnars is coming up with a capacity that is different than the capacity that the County has adopted. He said the City should not accept a different capacity if the County is not going to recognize the new capacity. C/M Schreiber asked what the City should do if the County does not recognize it. Mr. Vargas said the City would not meet concurrency, which is the reason he had recommended another option. Mayor Bender asked if Mr. Vargas had coordinated any of his recommendations with anyone at the County. Mr. Vargas said he has not had any discussion with the County. Mayor Bender asked why he did not, prior to making recommendations to the City. Mr. Vargas said the issue is whether or not the City should accept a different capacity other than the capacity that the County has for this section. He said he does not see the need to coordinate with the County if they are going to have the final decision on accepting the new capacity or maintaining the current capacity. Mayor Bender said it is a matter of finding out what objections they may have and also the State needs to be conferred with because it is a State roadway. Mayor Bender asked if Mr. Vargas contacted the State regarding this and Mr. Vargas said, no. Mr. Vargas said he did not have enough time to do the coordinations with the County and the State, but agreed that this should have been done. He said if the City does coordinate with the County, they may have an opinion as to what the reaction is going to be regarding this analysis, but unless the City goes through the process and holds formal meetings with them, the County's reaction to this is not known. City Council Workshop Meeting 10/25/93/KJ Page 4 C/M Abramowitz asked what the cost would be for Mr. Vargas' time for this and Mr. Vargas said it depends on the number of hours it takes to do the coordination. Mayor Bender said he needs all of the facts in order to make a decision. He said he is not comfortable with this as is. C/M Abramowitz said there is a lot of raw land on University Drive and asked if this land is platted. Mr. Vonder Meulen said there will be a study done by the end of November, which will identify the vested and unvested vacant parcels, and which ones are affected by concurrency or compact deferral areas and which are not. C/M Abramowitz asked if there is a possibility that the developer can borrow six trips from another piece of land if there is a vested piece of property and is vested with 1,400 trips. Mr. Vargas said the transfer of trips from one development to another is not acceptable, based on the County Code. C/M Abramowitz asked where the County becomes involved in this and Mr. Vonder Meulen said the City adopted the County's system of analyzing traffic as its own and the City is bound by certain rules of Broward County regarding this. Mr. Vonder Meulen said the Comprehensive Plans have to be consistent with each other. C/M Abramowitz said University Drive is a State road and the City's Comprehensive Land Plan is a State document. Mr. Vonder Meulen explained the County and State analyses of the trafficways. He said action plans are creative solutions. Ms. McDermott said Mr. Vonder Meulen had contacted the County regarding this. Mayor Bender said he would like to receive some documentation from the County supporting the fact that they have no problem with this action plan. Kathy Sweetapple, representative of Keith and Schnars, said she had prepared this study. She said Broward County does use the FDOT's capacity to roadways. She said the capacity assigned to the deficient roadway segment is a FDOT capacity; however, Keith and Schnars believes that Broward County made a mistake in which capacity should have been assigned to this roadway. She said this is done on a large basis and is not realized that there may have been oversights until someone takes a closer look. Ms. Sweetapple said this has occurred in many areas of the County and the County is usually very receptive to listening to this approach and to modify the capacity when they agree. She said sometimes it is a matter of semantics in terms of the length of the segment or other situations. Mayor Bender asked if Broward County has admitted the oversight and Ms. Sweetapple said no one has pointed it out to them to date. Mayor Bender said more information is needed and the City needs something in writing from the County. C/M Schreiber said documentation needs to be provided as proof. He asked for further explanation on the study and Mr. Vonder Meulen explained the various road segments and the meanings of numbered City Council Workshop Meeg 10/25/93/KJ Page 5 capacities on the backup. C/M Abramowitz said the City had a similar situation on McNab Road and the developer went to the County and mitigated the circumstances and there was no problem with achieving their goal by installing a turn lane in the City of Sunrise for $48,000.00. He said Tamarac got the traffic and Sunrise got the turn lane. He said the County has a right at any time, to take the mitigation referred to in the City and require that a turn lane be built elsewhere. Further discussion was held regarding this. Mr. Vonder Meulen said Council had tabled this item approximately 10 days ago. He said he then contacted the County and Mr. Vargas to gather information regarding this. He said Mr. Vargas has provided his analysis but Broward County has not. He said it is not required for the County to give the City any comments; however, due to the fact that the City requested the information, the County will be providing some comments. C/M Schumann asked if the County has to accept this or can they reject the information provided. Mr. Vonder Meulen said the trips run came from the County but they can reject the analysis results. C/M Schreiber asked if the City would have any legal problems by allowing the analysis to be done based on the concurrency and the limitation of trips. Mr. Vargas recommended that the City rely on the County accepting the capacity prior to the City using this capacity to apply to this C/M project. Abramowitz asked if this is something that the City would need his office to do and Mr. Vargas said this is something that the City Staff can do or have Keith and Schnars handle. Mayor Bender recommended giving direction to Mr. Vonder Meulen to contact the County and followup on the information and to possibly access something in writing from the County stating their opinion. 2. DISCUSSION regarding a request by Thomas Bennett, Trustee, for the NCNab Road Subdivision for sixty (60) single family homes zero lot line development (located north of McNab Road, east of NW 70 Avenue near John Vince Bulk Foods). Mr. Vonder Meulen said there is a project being proposed at this location and this project will also generate trips on roads that are at Service Level F. He said one is the same road segment previously discussed and seven trips along a road segment of Bailey Road from NW 81 Street to the Commons. Mr. Vonder Meulen said to mitigate the 16 trips, the applicant's engineer was proposing the City construct a turn lane with FDOT approval, on University Drive, somewhere between McNab Road and Commercial Boulevard. He said this turn lane would create 20 additional trips. He said Staff has no objection to doing this. Mr. Vonder Meulen said the applicant provided an action plan called de minimis, which has been processed through Elms III Legislation to allow development in particular areas to help the smaller developers. He said there are no procedures adopted for this at present. He said Broward County has to change their Comprehensive Plan to adopt the de minimis standard and so does the City. V/M Katz said this was proposed to help some of the infill so that the cities would not have the urban sprawl in any of the areas City Council Workshop Meeting 10/25/93/KJ Page 6 within some designated downtown areas of the City. Mr. Vonder Meulen said de minimis also allows projects in the suburban areas that would be considered minor. Further explanation was given regarding de minimis standards. Mr. Vonder Meulen said the developer had suggested utilizing the de minimis standards, but the City has no justifiable way to accept it. Mr. Vonder Meulen said there are 13 individually platted lots in this project. He said Broward County states to the developers and the municipalities that they can develop single-family or duplexes on an individually platted lot which will be exempt from concurrency. He said this applicant could have developed 26 units without an action plan, however, they are proposing 60 to make this project feasible, which will also mitigate traffic on University Drive. Mr. Vonder Meulen said Staff is recommending to adopt the 26 unit credit, which the applicant has not done at all and apply them to Bailey Road only. He said the City's traffic engineer is recommending that an analysis be done at the intersection of Bailey Road and NW 64 Street. TAPE 2 V/M Katz asked if the City had some credits on the trips in the situation with Walgreens and the furniture store that was and then disappeared at Commercial Boulevard and NW 64 Street. Mr. Vonder Meulen said that was over two years ago and the leftover trips go as a first -come, first -serve basis. C/M Abramowitz asked who mandates this and Mr. Vonder Meulen said no one has mandated it as yet. He said Council can mandate it if this project is approved. C/M Abramowitz said there is a potentially dangerous situation that exists on NW 76 Street and University Drive, which cannot be resolved. He said the City was again denied a traffic light at this location. He said he was told by the FDOT that they realize there is a problem at this location and they would like to reconfigurate the exits leaving the Multi -Purpose Center. C/M Abramowitz asked why the City cannot take the $45,000.00 needed to create a turn lane and combine it with the money needed for NW 76 Street and correct the problem on NW 76 Street where the change is really needed. Discussion was held regarding this. Mr. Vonder Meulen said one of the issues regarding the NW 76 Street situation is the fact that it is north of McNab Road and the solutions that need to be provided for the McNab Road Subdivision project are south of McNab Road. C/M Abramowitz questioned the turn lane that was built in Sunrise and Mr. Vonder Meulen said that was because the compact deferral area that was encroaching into Tamarac was actually in Sunrise; therefore, the solution was created in Sunrise. Mr. Vonder Meulen said the Broward County School Board is proposing over 43,000 square feet of additional classrooms and they will most likely be bringing an action plan to the City for approval, which will provide a solution to the existing problem on NW 76 Street. C/M Schreiber said his concerns are with the zero lot line of these homes. He requested an explanation of the definition of zero lot line. City Council Workshop Meetingr G. 10/25/93/KJ Page 7 Mr. Vonder Meulen said a zero lot line development is where one side of the house is right on the property line and the other side is where the yard is and where the separation between the buildings is located. Ms. McDermott asked the distance of the setback and Mr. Vonder Meulen said the setback between the buildings is 10 feet and the rear yards are a minimum of 15 or 20 feet and the front yards are a minimum of 20 feet. Further discussion was held regarding zero lot line developments. Mr. Vonder Meulen said on this project, the mitigation is the turn lane, but the problem is with Bailey Road. He said Staff is looking for direction on the item of Bailey Road. Joe Colt, representative of CCL Consultants, said if the City accepts the credit for the 23 units, they are over -capacity by about 9 trips on University Drive and approximately 3 trips on Bailey Road. He said the County agrees to giving credit for 20 trips if a bus bay or a right turn lane are built. He said by building a bus bay or a right turn lane, the developer is mitigating well beyond the trips being generated. C/M Schreiber asked if this is in writing from the County and Mr. Colt said this is a policy of the County. Mr. Vargas said the County has a manual that they have published called, "Action Plans" and on Page 17, they have a Table which allows receiving credits for providing a separate right turn lane. He said on a road like University Drive, where the speed is more than 40 miles per hour, they allow a credit of up to 20 trips per day if a separate right turn lane is provided. He said if the proposed improvement of the right turn lane is at a signal light intersection, a different number would apply. Mr. Vargas said the developer has not identified the location that they are proposing to construct the right turn lane, but they are investigating the possibilities. Mayor Bender said with the answers Council has received, the City may proceed. 3. DISCUSSION regarding a Council request for a traffic modification to Southgate Boulevard (near Westwood 6). Mr. Vonder Meulen said this analysis is in reference to the impact of the Pulte Home project on the surrounding roadway systems and the surrounding neighborhoods. He said at one time, the City Staff and the Planning Commission had recommended that portions of Southgate Boulevard be vacated to NW 103 Avenue. He said during subsequent workshops with Council, it was the understanding that the City did not want to proceed in that capacity. Mr. Vonder Meulen said neighbors and property owners in the area have expressed their concern about the additional traffic that would be placed on Southgate Boulevard as it currently exists. He said there are several different proposals being presented. He said Pulte Homes is vacating a portion of the right-of-way up to the entrance of their project on Southgate Boulevard. Mr. Vonder Meulen said these plans are currently under review with the City's Staff and will be brought before the Planning Commission and Council for approval. He said Pulte Homes chose to discuss what other options may be available to make sure that none City Council Workshop Meeting 10/25/93/KJ Page 8 of these options would harm the neighborhoods or affect traffic in the area. Mr. Vonder Meulen said Mr. Vargas analyzed the various options completely, such as abandoning the road to NW 103 Avenue. He said to address some of the concerns of the neighborhood, the City had requested an analysis be done by the traffic engineer to possibly reduce Southgate Boulevard to a two-lane highway from a four -lane road and possibly using the north two lanes, by removing the asphalt and putting additional landscaping for approximately 16 homes. Mr. Vonder Meulen said another option which Pulte Homes is requesting is that Southgate Boulevard be left as it is. He said by looking at the analysis of traffic, any of the options are available to Council. C/M Abramowitz said when Pulte Homes first approached the City with this land section, their plans indicated that there would be ingress and egress on Southgate Boulevard. He said Southgate Boulevard, going into the Everglades, used to be utilized for various types of disturbances, and the City placed barricades to eliminate this situation which did work. C/M Abramowitz asked why the City told Pulte Homes that instead of having an ingress and egress on Southgate Boulevard, all of the traffic out of the new development could be put onto NW 108 Avenue. He said this would make the total number of ingresses and egresses on NW 108 Avenue seventeen. He said Lennar Homes is having 2,000 families entering onto NW 108 Avenue and Pulte Homes is having its entire development going onto NW 108 Avenue. He said there is no reason for this. C/M Abramowitz said he understands the concerns of the neighborhood. He said there is a way to satisfy the developers and the residents. Discussion was held regarding the options. C/M Abramowitz suggested that two lanes on Southgate Boulevard be blocked off with one lane as an ingress and one lane as an egress, as long as it can be done safely. He said this would permit the residents in Pulte's new development to go east and they will not have to go to NW 108 Avenue. He said this would allow the traffic to flow in a steady manner without overcrowding the entire street. C/M Schreiber asked what happens to the south lanes. Mr. Vonder Meulen said at present vacation is not being recommended. Further discussion was held regarding this proposal. C/M Abramowitz said the only objection from Mainlands 6 is the concern of the nuisances restarting if the barricades are removed. Mr. Vonder Meulen said there are other locations which have taken a four -lane highway and reduced it to two -lanes. He said there are standards provided by Kimley-Horn. He said due to the fact that there is a boulevard there, the City would have to take some of it, remove it, pave it and then reduce it to two lanes for approximately 1,200 feet. He said there is adequate length to reduce it to 1,200 feet, however, the City would be removing a lot of the existing median to create the reduction lanes. V/M Katz asked if it would be just as easy to go back to the trafficways for the reduction. Ms. McDermott said this is a City roadway and Mr. Vonder Meulen agreed that it is not a County roadway. City Council Workshop Meetihq; 10/25/93/KJ Page 9 C/M Abramowitz asked what the least expensive option is. Mr. Vargas said the suggestion C/M Abramowitz made can be reviewed. Mr. Colt said the proposal is to take the two westbound lanes and the road would terminate at Pulte's entrance, therefore, a radius will be placed which will channel the traffic into the radius. He said there would be sufficient signage and guardrails, which would signify to everyone that this would be a low to almost zero speed condition and a lake will be constructed beyond the guard rail, which would be added to the City's Storm Water Management System. He said this would be clearly identified to any driver that this would be an entrance to a project and no longer a roadway or a thoroughfare. Further discussion was held regarding the proposal and other options. Mr. Vander Meulen explained the design of the development proposed by Pulte Homes. V/M Katz asked if the radius is going to be greater than 50 feet for fire engine access and Mr. Vander Meulen said it was. C/M Schreiber recommended that the four lanes be maintained with a barrier at the entrance and Mayor Bender agreed. C/M Abramowitz said he is pleased that Pulte Homes is going to beautify the end of that road. 4. DISCUSSION on review of trial balance sheets specifically in the General Fund and Treasurer's Fund. Mayor Bender provided. Council with a copy of the trial balance sheet dated April, 1991. He RECESSED the meeting for two minutes and RECONVENED with ALL PRESENT. Mayor Bender said he agendized this item to show that there has been a pattern in the City concerning funds that are actually available, but not surfaced as such. He said he has reviewed the records back to 1988, where he found a number of onerous comments on similar situations. Mayor Bender referred to the Management Information Service Fund (MIS), with an account totaling $402,669.62 and the Fleet Service Fund. He said the monies in the MIS Fund were established by Ken Burroughs, former Finance Director, without Council approval and John Kelly, former City Manager, had indicated that he had no knowledge of this. Mayor Bender said the Fleet Service Fund had $164,432.85 in its account. He said it was found that $100,000.00 of this money could be removed. He said this is a total of $500,000.00 from these accounts which was purged and placed into the General Fund for the City to utilize towards the budget. Mayor Bender said in 1993, the MIS Fund has $199,703.00. He said he had requested that Mr. Kelly research the MIS and Fleet Service Funds. He said a memo was returned to him which showed that after the benchmark is removed and money is maintained for safety factors, the Fleet Service Fund has a surplus of $82,378.00, which is able to be removed from this account. C/M Abramowitz asked if the purchase of a Vapor Recovery System for gasoline is a requirement through a Federal Mandate. He said there is also a Five Year Vehicle Replacement Plan. City Council Workshop Meeting 10/25/93/KJ. Page 10 Mayor Bender said the notice states that a Federal Mandate may require the City to purchase a Vapor Recovery System, but they do not know. He asked why the City should keep money available indefinitely if it is not known. Discussion was held regarding this. C/M Schreiber asked what the Vapor Recovery System is and C/M Abramowitz said it is not known. Ms. McDermott said in 1991, Broward County had passed an Ordinance regarding the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments and copies of this Ordinance will be provided to Council. She explained the contents of the Ordinance. Discussion was held regarding this. TAPE 3 C/M Schreiber asked how many gasoline pumps the City has and Ms. McDermott said there is hope that the City will receive a grant for two converted natural gas pumps. Ms. McDermott said the City has two gasoline pumps, one behind the Police Facility and one located at the Public Services Complex. C/M Schreiber asked how two pumps can cost $100,000.00. V/M Katz said the fumes have to go back to the underground storage. He explained the filtration system for the gas tanks. C/M Abramowitz asked if the City is complying with the five year replacement program. Mayor Bender said he is not purging the account. He said there is $178,000.00 in that account and $82,000.00 was removed. He said if money is needed, there is a balance in the account to be utilized. Mayor Bender referred to the MIS Fund. He said there was a balance of $199,703.00, which was reduced to $153,396.00 after accounting for all deductions. He said when the budget is created and prior to Council getting involved in it, the City Manager should have an accountability of all the cash that will be made available to the City. Mayor Bender referred to the trial balance to the General Fund. He said there are two sets of figures, one called "Undesignated" and the other, "Designated", one takes care of payments that were legitimately made and the other is an amount of money being held in abeyance pending receipt of contemplated bills. Discussion was held regarding this. Ms. Fagelbaum said the trial balance is a tool used by accounting professionals, which changes daily and is not a balance sheet. She said the balance sheet occurs at the end of the fiscal year when all of the accounts are closed and audited. She said the trial balance is a running balance which is adjusted continuously. She said there is $105,607.00 unappropriated to -date. Mayor Bender asked what the cutoff date is when this is wiped out and Ms. Fagelbaum said when all of the revenues are paid. Mayor Bender asked how long this remains in effect after the new budget begins and Ms. Fagelbaum said Staff tries to cut it off as soon as possible in order to close the books. Ms. Fagelbaum said the City is going to cut off the expenditures at the end of October. She said there are invoices that do not come in until after the new budget begins. She said the City is still paying for invoices that apply to purchases made prior to September 30 which need to be paid out of the funds from the last fiscal year. She said the City must account for revenues from the City Council Workshop Meeting ..:� 10/25/93/KJ Page 11 period in which they occur and expenditures from the period in which they are spent. She said this is the accrual basis of accounting. C/M Schreiber asked how long this will continue and Ms. Fagelbaum said Staff will attempt to cut off at the end of October and then the auditors will come in. She said the auditors have certain criteria that they must meet. She said if there are certain very large expenditures which are applicable to last fiscal year, they will have to apply it against last year. Further discussion was 'held regarding the trial balance. C/1f_Schreiber said he has made objections to the fact that he has now been r6cceiving all the information he needs to make a proper decision.. '� Mayor Bender asked why the books cannot be closed on September 30 with the balance on September 30 being placed in the General Fund or the Utilities Fund. He suggested that when the bills are paid that they be noted it are being paid from the previous fiscal year. He asked why two sets of books have to be maintained. He said the remaining money should be brought forward and not have balances lagging for several months after the books are closed. C/M Abramowitz asked if there are certain accounts that have items which are only permitted to be paid from those accounts. He asked if there would be a problem if the money is placed in the General Fund and then paid from the General Fund. Further discussion was held regarding using separate accounts. C/M Schreiber said the money is encumbered for certain expenditures throughout the course of the year and the records will show that it would be From that fiscal year. He said anyone looking at the records should be able to tell how much will or has been expended by the end of the year or shortly afterwards. Further discussion was held regarding this. C/M Schreiber said the City has overbudgeted for several years instead of going into a Capital Improvement Program. He said the MIS Fund has a surplus of $199,703.13, which is approximately 50% of the budget for that year. C/M Abramowitz said it is not up to the Finance Director to provide the information but to the City Manager. He suggested that Council be careful in correcting a problem which may exist without making other problems. Mayor Bender said the City pays professionals to do an annual audit and make recommendations. He said the City received a recommendation stating that the City should investigate and ascertain the validity of these liabilities. He said this means that the auditors have found overestimates. He said he wants to know what is going on in the City when it comes to the budget process. He said Council needs to have all the information provided to them in order to make proper decisions. V/M Katz said in the past, Council approved hiring an Internal Auditor and he maintains that the City needs to have an Internal Auditor. He said the City pays professionals to give advice to Council. He recommended that the City looks to hire an Internal Auditor from an independent firm which may solve these problems. Discussion was held regarding the Internal Auditor position. Mayor Bender said if an independent Internal Auditor is wanted then he should be made independent. He said if the Auditor is placed under the City Manager, the Council will only receive the City Council Workshop Meeting 10/25/93/KJ Page 12 information that the City Manager wants them to know. Further discussion was held regarding the Internal Auditor who was hired and left the City. With no further business, Mayor Bender ADJOURNED this meeting at 11:40 a.m. CAROL A. EVANS, CMC CITY CLERK 1