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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10 0909 minThe City Council met on September 9, 2010, at the Plainview Convention Center, 2902 West 4 Street, Plainview, Texas. The agenda for this meeting was posted in City Hall at 3:30 p.m. on September 2, 2010. Mayor John C. Anderson presided. Councilmembers present were: Charles Starnes - District 1, Cathy Waggoner- District 2, David Garcia - District 3, Virginio "V.O." Ortega- District 4, Ron Trusler- District 5, Wendell Dunlap- District 6 and Roland Nash - District 7. Media Present: Deborah Zacher, Plainview Daily Herald Staff members present were: Greg Ingham -City Manager, Leslie Pearce -City Attorney, Will- Mull - Police Chief, Rusty Powers -Fire Chief, Sarianne Beversdorf- Director of Finance, Tammy Adams - Accounting Coordinator, Vannesa Rincon- Accountant II, Dale Simpson -Civil Service Director, and Belinda Hinojosa -City Secretary. Mayor Anderson led in the Invocation. 427 Greg Ingham, City Manager presented information on the public hearing on the proposed tax increase. This budget provides funds for the current level of services and provides a basis for a higher level of services in the future. It also provides funds to comply with State and Federal mandates and provides for improvements to the City's infrastructure that are necessary to ensure progress and development. The extended recession has made the development of the 2010 -2011 Budget an interesting undertaking. The Plainview economy has thus far held together fairly well as evidenced by the slight growth in our sales tax collections in recent months and a gradual increase in property values. Interest rates continue to be virtually flat and extremely low and we are seeing upward pricing pressures in some areas. Some of the things we have done in the 2009 -2010 Fiscal year are as follows: 1) installed a new SCADA system for our Wastewater treatment and collection system that significantly enhances our monitoring and control systems; 2) engineering study in regards to the potential replacement and relocation of City utilities along Highway 70; 3) Police Department converted an older ambulance into a new SWAT vehicle that gives them a much safer and more effective way to perform their tasks; 4) purchased tub grinder, 5) purchased ambulance, 6) improvements at sewer plant; 7) put in SCADA system at sewer plant; and 8) completed HOME project. The total budgeted expenditures for Fiscal Year 2010 -2011 is $22,731,580. The total budgeted revenue for major operating funds is $20,197,555 and the total budgeted expenditures are $20,083,055. The General Fund Revenues for fiscal year ending September 30, 2011 is $11,309,705. The sales tax is being projected to stay just about the same. The property tax rate has had a fairly gradual increase. He gave a breakdown of the various departments and their budget. Services paid by the General Fund are as follows: City Council Minutes September 9, 2010 Page 1 of 5 428 • 24 Hour Police Protection • 24 Hour Fire Protection • 24 Hour EMS Service • Maintenance of all Public Streets and Alleys • Park Facilities including baseball, softball and soccer fields • Animal Control Services • Environmental Health Services — including restaurant inspections • Public Health Services • Building Inspections and Permitting Services • Code Enforcement Services • Emergency and Disaster Management • Economic Development and Grant Administration • Main Street Program • General Administration, Legal and Finance Services The expenditures in the General Fund for Fiscal Year 2010 -2011 are proposed to be $11,289,920 compared to $11,061,690 for 2009 -2010. This is an increase of $228,230 (2 %) that follows an increase of Tess than 1% in the last fiscal year. He stated that since the revenues are exceeding our projections and our expenditures are coming in under budget, we are replacing some items in the current fiscal year such as six Police vehicles and equipment; a 10 year old Jaws of Life unit; a 1995 dump truck for our Street Department; 1997 model mower; and some ten year old pickups with over 100,000 miles on them. The City is also putting touch screen computers in our ambulance units and a laptop in the Fire command vehicle and we are also setting matching grant funds aside to meet our local funding requirement to participate in a grant program that will bring our Police, Fire and EMS systems into a nationwide, digital radio system. Plainview, like other cities across Texas continues to be impacted by the changes in how the funding for public pension funds is reported and calculated. The majority of our employees are members of the Texas Municipal Retirement System (TMRS). The City is using the phase plan made available by TMRS and this year the increase was about one half of a percent. Our Firefighters are covered by a separate locally controlled fund. This year we had an actuarial study done on this fund and as we expected, there will be additional funding requirements needed over the next few years. This year, the City's budgeted contribution rate to the Firefighters Pension fund has been increased by 1.6 %. We have carried over funds to update the City's Comprehensive Plan which was last done in 1989. The City has also made some staffing adjustments that will enable us to get started on this important process sometime during the 2010 -2011 fiscal year. We also anticipate the long -term water planning process extending into the coming fiscal year. We have increased certification pay for Police, Fire, Water, Sewer, and other Public Works related certifications. We believe that if we start making the City more competitive in these areas that require training to meet State requirements, we may be able to better stabilize our work force in these areas. This budget also includes a 1.5% cost of living adjustment for all employees. City Council Minutes September 9, 2010 Page 2 of 5 Mr. Ingham presented tax rate comparison for Texas cities whose population is from 20,000 to 25,000. The average tax rate is $0.6630. The rollback rate for 2010 -2011 Fiscal Year is $0.6200. The proposed tax rate is $0.5785 and the effective tax rate is $0.5638. Because of the commitment of staff and employees in helping us control our costs this year we have been able to strengthen the financial position of the City. We are in turn able to utilize some of the funds saved to help us hold down the costs in the 2010 -2011 budget by transferring $300,000 to our Equipment Replacement Fund, an additional $175,000 to the Economic Development Fund; and $200,000 to the Capital Improvement Fund where we will need to have funds available to be directed at the possible development of a new Emergency Operations Center at the Armory once the State of Texas finalizes the transfer of that property to the City and County. It was also necessary to eliminate one full -time position from our Parks Department in order to reach the funding level proposed in this budget. Councilmember Trusler moved to open the public hearing. The motion was duly seconded by Councilmember Dunlap and carried by unanimous vote. Mayor Anderson asked for public comment. Buddy McGehee of 1309 Zephyr asked for the percentage of the increase of the general fund over the amount of the budget. He was advised it was 2 %. Dwain McGuire of 1114 Kokomo asked why we needed to increase taxes with the economy the way it was. He expressed discontent because nothing was cut other than one position. He complained about people living in dilapidated homes. He also stated that we did not need the street department since each individual has to clean their street and he also expressed concern over take home vehicles. Buddy McGehee asked to address the Council again. He admonished the Council to get the projected increase of $109,400 which is 2.74% off effective rate closer to the General Fund increase of 2 %. Councilmember Dunlap moved to close the public hearing. The motion was duly seconded by Councilmember Nash and carried by unanimous vote. The public hearing was closed at 12:20 p.m. Mayor Anderson announced that a vote on the first reading of the Ordinance to adopt the proposed tax rate will be held on September 23, 2010 at 11:30 a.m. at the Plainview Convention Center, 2902 W. 4 Street. A vote on the second and final reading of the Ordinance to adopt the proposed tax rate will be held on September 28, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. at City Hall, 901 Broadway. Mr. Ingham presented information on the 2010 -2011 City of Plainview Budget. The Solid Waste Management Fund is an Enterprise Fund, which means that it supports itself with the revenues it generates. It does not use the Equipment Replacement fund for equipment purchases. This year has been a challenging one for our Solid Waste Department. We have had to deal with more snow, rain, and tree limbs than we have dealt with in several years and our employees helped us do this as cost effectively as City Council Minutes September 9, 2010 Page 3 of 5 429 430 possible. Since February 1, 2010 we have handled over 1,700 tons of brush or 3,450,000 pounds at the landfill. This year we will be replacing one residential garbage truck, one large mowing tractor, a 14 year old tractor with bucket attachments, a 10 year old SUV with over 100,000 miles on it, and a mosquito sprayer. The projected revenues for the Solid Waste Management Fund for fiscal year ending September 30, 2011 are $2,829,600 and the projected expenditures are $2,838,195 which is up about $100,000 over the 2009 -2010 budget. In order to meet the operating needs of these departments and to maintain an appropriate revenue stream we have included a 3% increase in solid waste fees. This will increase the base residential bill from $17.30 per month to $17.82. The projected Water & Sewer Fund revenues for fiscal year ending September 30, 2011 are $6,035,500 and the projected expenditures are $6,359,940. The Water & Sewer Operating Fund is an enterprise fund also, so it supports itself with the revenues generated. The largest part of the increase in this fund is in Capital Outlay. We are replacing 2 three quarter ton utility trucks, a pickup, changing one pickup to 4 -wheel drive unit so we can get to lift stations in inclement weather, and probably most importantly we are starting to actually budget an amount for emergency type repairs for our water distribution and sewer collection systems. This year we are budgeting $70,000 combined for this type of work because we believe we need to more formally recognize that these events occur. We have proposed increasing the base residential water rate from $12.25 to $12.50 per month and the rate per thousand will increase from $1.62 to $1.65 per thousand under 25,000 gallons. The rate per thousand over 25,000 gallons will go from $1.79 to $1.84. A basic 5,000 gallon monthly water bill would increase from $20.35 to $20.75 or about 2 %. It is proposed that the base residential sewer service rate be increased from the present $8.95 to $9.15 and the rate per thousand will increase from $1.50 to $1.53 per thousand for the first fourteen thousand gallons. This will increase a basic 5,000 gallon sewer bill from $16.45 to $16.80 a month (a 2% increase). The combined impact of fee and tax increases on an average homestead using typical water consumption would be about a $1.33 monthly increase for utilities and $.64 for taxes. The Fair Theater has continued to be active. The Service Center situation has continued to show improvement in terms of revenues versus expenditures. We are still supporting this internal function with transfers from the user funds in addition to the hours billed. Our other Internal Service Funds such as the Health Insurance Fund and Cafeteria Plan continue to function as designed The Hotel /Motel Tax Fund has continued to be active through our Main Street/CVB operations and has worked to actively encourage groups to use our facilities for meetings and seminars, as well as encouraging general tourism. We do have some ongoing roof problems at the facility that are requiring some fairly significant repairs. We have had a fairly detailed analysis of the roof condition done and feel that the repair route is worth a try, because the other option is replacement. The City is bearing most City Council Minutes September 9, 2010 Page 4 of 5 of the cost on the roofing work because it is our building and we have determined, through the study mentioned above that it is not weather related damage. Councilmember Trusler moved to open the public hearing regarding the 2010 -2011 City of Plainview Budget. The motion was duly seconded by Councilmember Starnes and carried by unanimous vote. Buddy McGehee of 1309 Zephyr asked for the water rates. Councilmember Ortega moved to close the public hearing. The motion was duly seconded by Councilmember Waggoner and carried by unanimous vote. The public hearing was closed at 12:35 p.m. The Council and staff reviewed the agenda for the City Council meeting of September 14, 2010. There being no further business, Mayor Anderson adjourned the meeting at 12:50 p.m. / Belinda Hinojosa City Secretary City Council Minutes September 9, 2010 Page 5 of 5 431