Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-13-07 Budget Workshop Budget Workshop OCOEE CITY COMMISSION Ocoee Commission Chambers 150 North Lakeshore Drive, Ocoee, FL August 13, 2007 MINUTES 7:00 P.M. I I. CALL TO ORDER Mayor Vandergrift called the Budget Workshop to order at 7:00 p.m. in the Commission Chambers of City Hall. City Clerk Eikenberry called roll and declared a quorum present. Roll Call: Commissioner Hood, Commissioner Anderson, Mayor Vandergrift, Commissioner Keller, and Commissioner Johnson. Also Present: City Manager Frank, City Attorney Rosenthal, City Clerk Eikenberry, Finance Director Horton, Senior Accountant Brosonski, and Accountant Rosenberg. II. Continuation Of Staff Presentation and Discussion Regarding FY 07/08 Budget PUBLIC WORKS/ ADMIN- Public Works Director Krug reviewed the budget PUBLIC WORKS/ STREETS & TRAFFIC- Public Works Director Krug reviewed the budget Commissioner Anderson asked if CRA would put the money back into our budget for resurfacing in the CRA area. City Manager Frank said we would probably propose resurfacing and streetscape project in the CRA budget. Commissioner Anderson asked about the Capital Expenditures item regarding the reconfiguration of City Hall and the Police Station. Public Works Director Krug said that will depend on what happens with the relocation of the Police Department; we may have to reconfigure the existing buildings. Mayor Vandergrift said did we fmd the plan that would remind us which roads need to be resurfaced that was started by the previous director? Public Works Director Krug advised they found a list of streets where there are five categories of repair needed, based on visual inspections. It is an accurate list and will be good structural basis, and they are adding on items that have come up since the list was created. Mayor Vandergrift asked if Lady Avenue was just resurfaced. Public Works Director Krug said it is the section from Marlene to the north, not the section that was recently done. Mayor Vandergrift asked if Johio Shores will be done this year. Mr. Krug advised they will do some pothole repairing there, but otherwise it is not in as bad of condition as the others on the list. He also asked about Nicole Blvd. Mr. Krug said the goal is more than just resurfacing; we will be doing milling and planning to the streets to make sure the resurfacing will last. Commissioner Anderson asked if there was any money to help with drainage. Mr. Krug advised that would be in the stormwater budget, along with the large projects, we are trying to get smaller projects taken care of that help improve the existing infrastructure. Commissioner Anderson said he thinks it should go along with resurfacing. Mr. Krug said the resurfacing projects that we have this year will not create further drainage issues. There are areas around Jemima to see if French drains will help to get the water percolate down into the ground, it will still need swales, but it would be a good test project to see if it could be used elsewhere in the city. PUBLIC WORKS/ FLEET MAINTENANCE- Public Works Director Krug reviewed the budget Mayor Vandergrift asked if they have a water truck. Mr. Krug said they have a trailer that carries water. Commissioner Hood said Clarke Road would look nice if we put Crepe Myrtles between Silver Star and AD Mims and near Westyn Bay. Mayor Vandergrift said he would like to expand the adopt-a-road program to include not only cleanup, but beautification as well. Mayor Vandergrift asked about hybrids. Mr. Krug said there are no new ones in the budget this year. He added that you could research that further. PUBLIC WORKS/ STORMWATER- Public Works Director Krug reviewed the budget Mayor Vandergrift asked the Engineer Wheeler to give us more information on the Sawmill City Pond. Mr. Wheeler said this pond caused drainage issues in the 90s, and a sinkhole in 2000 resolved the drainage issue temporarily, now it is back to being a drainage problem again. Mayor Vandergrift asked if they have considered drilling shallow wells along the pond and moving the water from the center of the pond to an upper aquifer. Engineer Wheeler said SJWMD is not allowing installation of any new drain wells, only repair of existing wells. Shallow wells may be different than those types of wells that require 200 foot depth. Commissioner Anderson asked Finance Director Horton how much we have left after we pay our bond debt with stormwater fees, and can that money go into the general fund? Finance Director Horton advised it is an Enterprise Fund, the money has to there. PUBLIC WORKS/ SOLID W ASTE- Public Works Director Krug reviewed the budget Mayor Vandergrift said we still need to look into handling Commercial Solid Waste in-house. City Manager Frank said we are looking into that. Commissioner Anderson asked what our revenue is for Commercial. Finance Director Horton said the commercial franchise fee that we are getting is in the General Fund, however $165,000 of that is being transferred back over to the Solid Waste Fund to help that fund. She asked that $210,000 is staying in the General Fund. Last year none was transferred. Mayor Vandergrift asked about a device for aligning tires for $75,000, and also asked if it is being done in house. Mr. Krug said that it was $45,000 and it was on the wish list, not in the budget. He added that the tire changing is being done in house and with the new fleet division they are trying to bring as much back in house as possible to add efficiency. UTILITIES DEPARTMENT- Utilities Director Smith reviewed the budget Commissioner Keller said the budget shows 22.5, but in the organizational chart it is 24.5. There are two positions, field Operations Supervisor and a Utility Compliance Technician (Utility Compliance Inspector) paid out of one department but shown under the org chart of the other department. Utilities Director Smith said some employees such as the_Utility Compliance Technician work in both the water and wastewater departments. Commissioner Hood asked about the increase in the cost of fluoride. Mr. Smith said it has increased about 500%; there is only one manufacturer in our area and we are still providing it in the water. Mayor Vandergrift asked how much the fluoride costs. Mr. Smith said he doesn't have exact figures, but compared to the cost of chlorine, power, etc., it is not cost prohibitive. Mr. Smith said the Traco came in last week. Once we get permitting from FDEP, we will start putting pipes in the ground. Mayor Vandergrift asked where we are with CUP regulations (consumptive use permit / how much water we can use daily and how much we can take out of the ground annually per SJWMD) 2 .t Utilities Director Smith said permits were submitted on time in December 2006. It was not permitted by the expiration of the permit, so the district has extended last year's conditions. The biggest issue is population; we are working with St. Johns consultant in Gainesville. It is hard to work out data on the service areas with enclaves that are our service area, but outside city limits, and we are working on getting accurate data. Discussion followed regarding alternative water policies in surrounding cities and SJWMD permits that will only be granted for a limited amount of time; after 2012 they are going to be looking at how cities are going to get alternative water other than grand water. Mr. Smith said we need to be involved in this process all along to ensure the City gets the best possible access to various water supplies. Commissioner Hood asked if Villa and Son Landscaping, who takes water from our hydrants, are paying for that water. Mr. Smith said the City made a temporary accommodation for them to use metered water that the City made for the about 5 or 6 years ago; we have recently asked them to pay for the capacity if they are going to do this on a long term basis. Commissioner Anderson said we need to make a vote on how to get the utilities in the north section. That would help with consumption use, reclaimed water. Utilities Director Smith, Orange County will sell us the system, but they have capacity and capital charges; it will not be cheap. Commissioner Anderson, we should look at a plan of what the costs would be. Commission needs to have a dialogue as to whether or not it is doable. City Manager Frank said the fIrst step is to see if the County is even interested in selling. Consultants would have to come in and analyze the system for cost effectiveness. Mayor Vandergrift said the City Manager and himself should talk to the Chairman about purchasing it, wholesaling it, or other alternatives. Discussion followed. Winter Garden has reuse lines in Westyn Bay area that are not being used; they are currently using potable water. Mr. Smith said we are still negotiating with Orange County, but at this time it is low pressure that can only be used for irrigation. The consensus being that this issue should be placed on a future regular Commission Agenda for discussion. End of presentations from the departments. QUESTIONS FROM COMMISSION Commissioner Keller asked if the items presented on the wish list or in the fIrst budget workshop are included in the budget or do they need to be considered separately. Mayor Vandergrift said we need to look at items separately and asked Finance Director Horton what 1/10 ofamil represents in terms of dollars. Ms. Horton said.1O of one mil is $231,543. City Manager Frank said he also wanted to advise them that the Fire Service Fees are included in this budget which assumes 1.1 million dollars in revenues. This would help us divert some of the money budgeted for the fIre services into other areas. He said we will have exact fIgures at the Tentative Budget Hearing, but it appears that the fee would be $60 - $80 per single family residential unit. Commissioner Hood asked what the mandated millage rate from the State was. Finance Manager Horton said the roll back rate minus 5% is 4.0777. Commissioner Hood confIrmed that if we don't include this revenue from the Fire Fee, we will have to reduce the budget by 1.1 million dollars, or fInd other revenue sources. Commissioner Johnson said he does not see the difference in raising taxes or adding a Fire Assessment Fee. City Manager Frank said it divides the Fire Fee more fairly because the Commercial customer pays more with the flat fee and it costs more to provide services to them. Mayor Vandergrift asked Finance Director Horton what the millage rate would be to make up the millage rate if we take out the Fire Assessment Fee. Ms. Horton advised 4.5528. 3 Commissioner Anderson said if we keep the millage where it is and vote on the Fire Assessment Fee but don't implement it yet, we will be in better shape next year because if we have to roll back the millage even further it will put us in a real difficult position next year. Commissioner Johnson said he does not know how we can afford to roll back with all of the projects and infrastructure issues; he said he feels we should keep our millage rate the same as the current year. He said he did not have a problem explaining to his constituent why he would not vote for the roll back rate. Commissioner Hood asked if we went back to the 4.6295 from the current year instead of the 4.0777 where the new budget is currently balanced what would the difference by in revenue. Finance Director Horton advised it is $1,176,000. Commissioner Hood asked what obligation are we under to stay with the 4.0777. City Manager Frank said there is no obligation; you just have to have a majority vote. Mayor Vandergrift said he was on Channel 6 news tonight speaking about how the State is treating all municipalities as though they are tax and spend governments. They are not taking into consideration the growth we are dealing with and they are increasing the growth by crippling the city's abilities to increase taxes so northerners will come here because their taxes so much higher than Florida's. PUBLIC COMMENT Joe Johnson, Waterside subdivision, said he does not understand why we are having a budget crunch issue when property values have brought in so much more money. The reason the State did that is because the property owners cannot handle higher taxes. He said he is stuck where he is because he can't afford to move and get hit with the higher taxes if he is not protect by the Save Our Homes. He thinks the City should comply with state mandate, or go above and beyond at trying to reduce resident's taxes, not figure out a way to add on other fees. He said maybe he is naive about how they run cities, but it doesn't sound right to the residents. Commissioner Anderson asked the average amount of taxes for a homeowner in Ocoee. Finance Director Horton advised that a home valued at $225,000 at current millage of 4.62985 would have municipal taxes of $925; at the proposed rate of 4.0777, taxes would be $810; an increase of $11 0 per year. Commissioner Hood asked if City Manager Frank could go back and try to eliminate $715,000 from the budget before the Budget Public Hearing, without taking away anything Commission has added or projects and without the Fire Fee. City Manager Frank said without the Fire Fee it would be 1.8 million that has to be eliminated. Commissioner Hood said that would be almost impossible. Commissioner Keller said it depends on what you would want to eliminate. Our budget is 64% personnel. Do we eliminate personnel, projects, or what? Not only are they taking money away via taxes, they mandate things that we have to do also. Are they going to tell us to cut police personnel, eliminate road projects, etc.? He added that when he was in Tallahassee he was told that if all cities were like Ocoee, the new legislation would not have to be passed. Most cities put a lot of fat in their budget. All cities are getting punished for those who have abused tax increases in the past. They got around forcing all cities to reduce their millage by allowing them to keep it where it is via unanimous vote. Commissioner Keller said he doesn't think it would be wrong to keep the current millage rather than cutting personnel or services. He added that homeowners who have stayed in the same home for many years have had a cap on their tax increases while the new neighbor with the same home may be paying two or three times as much. It has gotten to the point where people are stuck where they are because they can't afford the new taxes. The state and federal government has to start looking collecting fees for the things they are mandating the cities to do rather than placing tax burdens on cities. 4 Commissioner Johnson said the cities are losing money at the same time we are being forced to bear the cost of things such as school crossing guards, right of ways, stormwater maintenance. PUBLIC COMMENT Rosemary Wilsen, 1019 Shady Maple Circle, said the Safety Spring Fling Committee would like the budget to go from $1000 to $3000. She also asked if the City had looked into legal services that are less expensive, such as having an in-house attorney. City Manager Frank said very few cities have their own attorney anymore because it is not cost effective when you still need to retain other attorneys to deal with different issues. He added that we use much less legal assistance than we have in the past. Commissioner Hoods said legal fees are high this year because of the money for Colony Plaza. Ms. Wilsen said she thinks it is worth the exploration to make sure we are getting the best services rather than being complacent. Mayor Vandergrift would like to have CM consider an RFP for legal services. Commissioner Johnson said he would vote to go out for RFP for the first time in 20 years. He thinks it is time to look and see if we can bring an attorney in-house. . Mayor Vandergrift said he would like to see a report of the state mandates and how much they have cost us over the years such as the comprehensive plan. Rosemary Wilsen (continued) said we are falling behind in Economic Development. When Faller Grove is completed, no one will shop in Ocoee anymore. She said she thinks the city has some wonderful things, but we are getting behind with all the growth because we are not growing in the right direction. Weare losing a lot of business to Winter Garden. She added that some day in the future offices should be moved out of City Hall and the building should be used as the Tanner Hall of Ocoee, with its beautiful location and lake view. Commissioner Anderson asked Public Works Director Krug if the air conditioner at Beech Center in the budget is the same as what is on the wish list. Mr. Krug said the wish list would be to reconfigure the air conditioner at the Beech Center, by moving it out of the ceiling for easier maintenance. Commissioner Anderson said he believes we should do the air conditioning because it will save us money in the long run. Commissioner Anderson said he is not comfortable voting for the fire fee to balance the budget. He feels we should keep the millage where it is in the current year. Commissioner Johnson said he doesn't have a problem voting for the fire fee but keeping it at zero for now. City Manager Frank reminded the Commission that the typical homeowner would make out better with the fire fee than with higher ad valorem taxes, because some of the extra burden of the fire fee would be pushed onto the Commercial customers. Commissioner Anderson said he would like to leave in all the money for Central Park and finish that project because it has been needed for a long time. Commissioner Anderson said he did not see money placed into the budget to redesign the entrance to City Hall and thinks we need $30,000 or so in the budget for that. Commissioner Anderson asked what we are doing about the retention pond by City Hall. City Engineer Wheeler said the driveway needs to be widened and it needs grade changes. The street floods when it rains. He said moving the old Fire Department and sodding that area helped, but there is still a lot of paved area around that has no stormwater collection or drainage system. He said the project would cost $100,000 - $205,000. Commissioner Anderson said he would like to do some landscaping on Clarke, north of Silver Star Rd. to AD Mims Road. He said Commissioner Hood mentioned Crepe Myrtles. He said he also thinks we should look into standardizing our landscaping throughout the city. Commissioner Hood said it is inexpensive eye candy; people like to see that sort of thing. Commissioner Anderson said we need an additional $50,000 - $60,000 for traffic calming. He added that we need upgrades to parks such as Vignetti and Tiger Minor. He said we need to look as some of the things on the wish list as necessities. 5 Commissioner Keller said he already expressed what he would like to add in the budget with the additional 3 Police Officers and the Fire Inspectors. Other items to consider are the current insurance coverage, and Clarke Road paving. He said we will have as many issues next year, maybe even more if they cut taxes back again, so we have to be realistic about what we can put off to another year. Commissioner Hood said he feels that going to the roll back would be going backwards. Commissioner Keller said in hindsight he wishes he would have voted to leave money in the budget for projects last year. Commissioner Anderson said that the City Manager needs to bring back a wish list without the Fire Fee, and then add it if we need to for the projects. Mayor Vandergrift said the most difficult job we have is deciphering between wants and needs Commissioner Hood said he understands about wants and needs, but we are starting to look run down and we need to keep the City looking better. Commissioner Anderson said we need to be careful we don't set the millage so low that we have to bond money to pay for projects and leave behinds a debt for our children. Commissioner Hood asked if we have room to bond more. City Manager Frank said by Charter we can bond about 1.25 billion dollars and we have about 20 million bonded now. Commissioner Hood added that it would lower our rating. Mayor Vandergrift announced that the Tentative Budget Public Hearing will be September 13, 2007, at 7:00 p.m. Commissioner Johnson said he would like to put $25,000 in the budget for Ocoee High School and then he would not be able to come to the commission to ask for any other money. He is also in favor of hiring someone to assist with Economic Development. He asked about the analysis of the building department. City Manager Frank said that the person that was supposed to do that for us fractured his hip so he was delayed in beginning the study. PUBLIC COMMENT Rosemary Wilsen, said she wishes the Commissioners would stop giving money out to the schools and let our grant awards programs handle that. Commissioner Johnson said the schools are having a difficult time because the county has cut them off and that is why he would like the City to help out local schools. He said he would much rather give money to the schools then to things such as WMFE or the Airport Authority. I III. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 9: 11 p.m. Attest: APPROVED: City of Ocoee ~~~ .:- ,:S~ o~ 6