OFFICIAL MINUTES OF THE SPECIAL MEETING HELD BY THE MANASSAS PARK GOVERNING BODY ON TUESDAY, MAY 6, 2004 AT 8:00 PM AT CITY HALL, ONE PARK CENTER COURT MANASSAS PARK, VIRGINIA
Roll Call: Kevin P. Brendel, Vice Mayor
Vonna L. Privett
I. Allen Correll
Michael R. Bunner
Noreen C. Slater
Also Present:Frank Jones, Mayor-elect
Bryan Polk, council-elect
Cynde Gardner, council-elect
Absent: William J. Treuting, Jr., Mayor*
William R. Wren*
Staff Present: David Reynal, City Manager
Mercury T. Payton, Deputy City Manager
*Councilmember Wren is attending a Potomac Rappahannock Transportation Commission meeting and Mayor Treuting is out of town on work related business.
Closed Meeting at 8:00 PM: State Code of Virginia: Freedom of Information Act: Section 2.2-3722(A): Personnel (1):
MOTION: Councilmember Privett moved that the Governing Body go into closed meeting "to discuss the salaries of specific public employees of the City pursuant to Paragraph A2 of Section 2.2-3711 (1) of the Code of Virginia."
SECOND: Councilmember Bunner
VOTE ROLL CALL: Yes: Privett, Bunner, Brendel, Correll, Slater
Reconvene in Open Meeting:
Vice Mayor Brendel reconvened the regular meeting out of closed meeting at 9:20 pm.
Certification of Closed Meeting and addition of items to Agenda due to closed meeting (If Necessary):
MOTION: Councilmember Privett moved the following Resolution:
WHEREAS, the Governing Body of the City of Manassas Park has convened a closed meeting on this date pursuant to an affirmative recorded vote and in accordance with the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act; and
WHEREAS, Section 2.2-3712(d) of the Code of Virginia requires a certification by this public body that such closed meeting was conducted in conformity with Virginia law.
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Governing Body of the City of Manassas Park hereby certify that, to the best of each member’s knowledge, (i) only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements under this chapter and (ii) only such public business matters as were identified in the motion by which the closed session was convened were heard, discussed or considered in the meeting by the public body.
SECOND: Councilmember Bunner
VOTE ROLL CALL: Yes: Privett, Bunner, Brendel, Correll, Slater
Worksession on proposed FY05 budget:
Social Services: add to the goals & objectives for FY05 the automation of the financial aspect and getting things to the state.
Real Estate tax adjustment on the revenue side of $95,597.00 and there would be an addition to the expenditure side for the schools for revenue sharing of $54,490.00. This is supplemental that have occurred since January 1, 2004. This is the final June 30 billing number. They are running the bills right now.
Auto Rental Tax: Revenue side an additional $20,000 with school revenue side getting $11,400.
Voting machines: offsetting revenue & expenditure items for the voting machines, federal grant the $35,000 grant and expenditure. This grant lives in both FY04 and FY05 at this time. From a budgetary standpoint city has it covered on both side. From a general fund reserve standpoint, the city will be $35,000 to the better.
Grants: Generator grant: This was approved May 5, 2004. There is a $50,000 revenue and $50,000 expenditure offset. It is flow through funds. Radio grants are also on this list and are for FY04.
Net effect of these four changes is approximately $50,000
Transportation Coordinator Position:
This position will come out of the budget at cost of $31,824
For the purpose of rough calculations and balancing, they will use 25% for fringe benefits. The City Manager stated retirement is 11% and social security is 7.465. The City Manager stated there could be health care there also. If you use the 25% it would be $7956. The capital lease for the trailer would go away with the elimination of this position. Consensus: remove this position.
Police vehicle: through a drug seizure they have a way to put another car into the fleet. It will cost $5,000 to put the necessary equipment on the vehicle.
Eliminate the police reserves: $10,000: The Mayor would like to leave this in the budget. Councilmember Bunner had some reservations about powers, duties, etc. The City Manager and Police Chief was to eliminate it at this point. There is an increase in over time that the Chief felt was more cost effective this first year than to have reserves. The Chief is supportive of it. There is some misunderstanding of what was intended. These are fully certified law enforcement officers in Virginia. They would simply be volunteers in City at their spare time. They would have to be insured by the city and under their control. The intent was to recruit volunteers (certified police officers). To have an effective program is from six months to
a year off. It would be more effective to have selective enforcement with the over time that was added to the budget. Consensus: remove reserves.
Overtime for police department: added $15,000 to over time. Councilmember Bunner asked what were we accomplishing if we took $10,000 and put $15,000 in and we are running a deficit what are we accomplishing by adding the additional funds. The City Manager stated that you took out the police officer position and delayed it for six months. The Chief felt like he could get the maximum impact for the minimum dollar by using existing personnel overtime if we could not afford the position for twelve months. The cost of police officer for half year would be $19,000 but it must be understood that when you bring the officer on board they are not fully operational for a while. The Chief has applied for a grant for additional overtime for officers to carry them from that
point to end of fiscal year. The City Manager stated there are periodically grant opportunities for over time and they do that as mini-grants. They are not substitutes for holiday pay, etc.
There was a discussion about reducing the four crossing guards to three and half positions. The half was to cover the crossing guard and the other half was parking enforcement. The overtime would allow the department to do parking enforcement, traffic enforcement and have presence on street with existing officers.
Changes in police department budget: Police officer half year; reduce crossing guard from 4 to 3.5, increase of over time to $15,000 with effective fringes, and eliminated reserves. Governing Body has taken care of generator grant. Change in vehicle with cost being for equipment only. The difference is about $60,000 net change in police budget of which $50,000 is generator. Net decrease is $7,000 from April 12 version of budget to April 30 version.
Consensus accept police department budget as presented on April 30, 2004.
Councilmember Brendel asked if we put $74,000 in revenue where is the other $24,000 on expenditure side if it is an ODP grant. The City Manager stated that would be on the fire department side.
Finance Department: Payroll clerk: Take position with salary out of budget.
Inspections: take out $14,057
Social Services: net decrease $24,000. Reductions in department budget are $9,500, which is spending for local match dollars. They are reducing general relief by $2,000; adult grant disabled $2,000, Comp Title 20 by $4,000 and family services by $1,500. These are all local dollars with no match. The funds ($85,000) will be transferred into next year’s budget for the renovations to social services from general fund reserves.
CSA/CPMT: This is all local money. They are giving up the matching state dollars. Reducing the spending by $84,000. The department is trying to be thrifty in placements trying to find cheaper placement. Net difference is $35,000.
Jack Bays property: transfer title to water & sewer out of general fund so we are not making interest payment. When the property is ultimately sold, all profits stay with water & sewer since they made the expense. Interest is $21,442. Consensus: all members agreed with transfer of title to water & sewer.
Planning Department: professional services reduced $20,000.
Councilmember Brendel stated everything the department heads have come up with for FY04 go ahead and incorporate them we are okay with their recommendations. We do not need to hit on those. Just pick them up. Consensus: Governing Body agreed with Councilmember Brendel’s statement.
Economic Development: Professional services and advertising. Councilmember Brendel asked if these two line items could be cut in half. As far as professional services, take advantage of the Flory Business Center as opposed to contracting with somebody we already hand them $10,000. He is not sure we are maximizing our utilization of them. The City Manager stated this was to have funds available for Park Center promotions. There are no specific uses of these funds at this point. Councilmember Slater stated take it all out. Councilmember Brendel stated he did not want to leave them with nothing but cutting them in half might be prudent. Consensus: cut these two line items in half.
Dues & membership has $10,000 for Flory Center.
Public Works: There was an $18,000 reduction over various line items in budget. Reduce part-time and not hire the people part-time as early as was budgeted. It will go from $75,000 in FY04 to $43,000 and the Director would like to leave it at $72,000 in FY05 with the same level of service.
Salaries raise for employees: two percent is $144,461.00. The 4/30-budget version has a 3% in it of $216,000 roughly. Consensus: look at four percent raise for city employees.
The large part of the fringe benefits is now health insurance and those are by units and not by percentages.
The use of fund balance in FY04 is now $580,000.
City Engineer: if we hired a $50,000 position because of the 2.5 multiplier we would save $125,000 with City Engineer services, which is a net decrease of $75,000. The City Manager stated he is not trying to back away from that. There is certainly the multiplier and savings of having someone internally but part of that discussion was you would have 2,000 hours of project manager or engineer on staff as opposed to much smaller number of hours that you would be able for the same amount of money have an outside consultant. City Engineer hourly rates are 2.5 x $50.00 an hour. The Councilmember Brendel stated he though with this position all of the inspections that we are paying them to do when asphalt is laid and all those things we would be using this person for that. We have $120,000 in un project related engineers expenses site plan review, etc. We have no office and no support and no person or salary. You would get more boots on the ground and more time on the job doing
inspections than we would do now. The City Manager would be very hesitant to cut the engineering budget.
This would allow more time to do inspections when we have a lot of construction. This is a more effective way to do it but City Manager does not think it would actually save you cash.
Councilmember Bunner thought that when the city hired this engineer it would be a cost saving. The City is not doing project management the way it should be done.
Councilmember Slater stated this was supposed to be an outright cost savings this year.
The City Manager stated there would be a cost savings hour per hour. The City Manager will bring back an answer next Tuesday.
Councilmember Bunner stated we have to balance the budget. The City Manager stated he did not recommend it in any of the budgets. The majority of the $120,000 is the city engineer. We would still need the use of an outside consultant. If you had a project manager you would reduce the use of an outside consultant. Every hour this person that we hired worked would be a replacement hour for Barnes & Johnson. There would still be portions of work that only the City Engineer could do. City Manager stated we would be looking at this issue in June. The City Manager will research the contract with SPN to see if they could do some of the inspections for the city as opposed to City Engineer.
Councilmember Brendel stated he thought we could cut out $20,000 from the City Attorney budget General. The prosecutor is also included in this budget. Do we really need the City Attorney at every meeting? The City Attorney will not be attending every code committee. The Governing Body should not send the City Attorney a copy of every e-mail. Consensus: cut $20,000 out of City Attorney: General line item.
Governing Body raise: Council salary increase: $7020.00 and Mayor salary: $7620.00
City Employees: 4% increase
Technology Initiative: Not in FY05 (Reduce from $30,000 to 0). $10,000 out of professional services software from $25,000 - $15,000. Councilmember Brendel stated we have a lot of automation things we want done and he thinks those to save manpower is going to have to come ahead of software. He is thinking about bar coding as an example. Now we have social services technology. We need to make sure we have a clean existing system before we even try to migrate to something else. We can do planning for it and budget for next year but planning, research, bid packages and plan for July 1 purchase. We will have a new Treasurer that will still need Director of Fiscal Services help to learn the office. He does not think the Director of Fiscal
Services will have time to delve into it at the level we will need. This can be added at midyear if everything is running smoothly. Councilmember Slater would like to cut it out entirely. We are going to try to do a rebate.
Councilmember Brendel stated we need to take the list of things that are not going to make the cut on this budget and staff can put together the list of things that did not make this budget and we can start to prioritize them and fund them based on availability of funds.
Councilmember Correll stated you are going to find there are serious limitations in the current accounting package that will limit the ability to automate in other areas. That is interface between departments. At this point, the city does not know if $30,000 is enough funds.
Councilmember Brendel stated you still have to have support when a pc goes down, etc.
Regional Services: Jail:
Discussion on this issue will be a top priority for next year’s budget.
The City Manager is not comfortable with cutting these funds. It was increased to $275,000 because the City Manager believes it to be a more realistic number. They increased FY04 because the cost was way beyond $139,000 because of better figures. The City Manager stated you can decrease it but if the bill comes in higher the city must pay it.
Juvenile Detention Home: 100% increase: the $86,000 for FY04 is correct. The city is currently at $64,106 for nine months. This is from information from Chief Evans who tracks this information. Chief Evans projects that $92,000 is a safe number.
We pay more for library than community services.
Councilmember Bunner asked if we could have some of our officers deputized to serve subpoenas instead of paying sheriffs department to do it. Councilmember Slater stated that was part of that cost allocation and they will bill the city any way.
VJCCC is state money and they are not increasing anything by 50%. These numbers are correct ($63,246). There are $29,108 which is state revenue should be reflected on revenue side.
Building & Grounds: Huge jump in electrical (projected $65,000 - $91,000). NOVEC used the wrong multiplier when they billed the city and are now billing the city correctly. Some of this belongs to parks & recreation and will be moved to that department from buildings and grounds.
Potomac Rappahannock Transportation Commission: Reduced by $4464. That is based on their request to the city for VRE operations. No net effect on the city. City has final budget rather than estimate.
The Governing Body has trimmed $530,000 from proposed FY05 budget.
School Board: lower cost of city garage: reduction of $17,000. That is loss of revenue.
Bull Run ASAP Fiscal Agent: $2,000 increases to $14,000. Is this costing city more than $14,000?
Parks & Recreation: $1.00 increase: $23,000: City is under what other jurisdictions charge in this area. There would be no discount for day care, etc. Councilmember Slater disagrees with increase.
PPTRA: Reduction. Commissioner of the Revenue recommended the reduction. City is cleaning up the discrepancies between city submittal and what the state owes us. In the past that was a large amount but is now smaller. It will affect the FY05 budget by an amount to be determined. It is an audited number and the state bills give the city funds at end of year.
Personal Property: NADA value assessments went down by 11%. That will be a huge hit. The average tax is $261 for FY03 and FY03 $231. The City Manager stated as of this morning the city is not at the revenue that is in the budget. The state works on a calendar year basis and city work on fiscal year basis. The state audits at the end of their fiscal year and that is when the city will get their figures. This will be on watch list.
Consensus: leave as is and wait for the audited figures.
Parks & Recreation: $15,000 in cuts. Fireworks funds were left in budget. The cuts in salaries will come from part-time wages and travel education budget in FY05. There is $23,000 in Costello Park improvements: skate ramp and ADA in FY04 are $23,000 less.
The City is $150,000 over budget at this time. General fund reserves: The city must leave $85,000 transfer for social services. The city needs about $66,000 in additional cuts to balance. There are two options: There is Treasurer position at $30,000.
Councilmember Brendel stated we have on the table yet to do is the discussion with the Treasurer, engineer information coming back; we have leeway on raises and have additional supplemental real estate increases to balance the budget.
Fire Department: $300,000 from police station renovations moved over to fire station based on discussion last night we will need all of these funds.
The Governing Body will make final adjustment next Tuesday night to balance the budget and will be prepared to send it to advertisement.
Salary adjustment is 4%.
Recordation Tax: State is allowing municipalities to go from 5% - 8%, which would be about $100,000. Consensus: look at this issue and place in budget.
MOTION: Councilmember Privett moved to adjourn the meeting at 11.35 pm.
SECOND: Councilmember Slater
VOTE: Unanimously passed
Approved June 1, 2004
| 
