11/06/2002 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes 11/6/2002 are four or five police officers and two to three fire fighters who are considering this. When they retire, they commit to three years additional working here. Their monies, which we still pay into their pension contributions, which is 19.5% for police and 24% for fire, goes into an annuity for them which the pension fund administrates. It's a way to keep experience here. 7) PERS is changing the way they are collecting employer contributions. We remit the employee contributions at the end of the subsequent month, and we currently submit the employer contributions one month after the quarter ending. This provides for a float period, which PERS wants to eliminate. Starting July 1, they are going to be collecting the employer's contribution for the end of the subsequent month. Therefore, for 2003 that means we have to accrue two more moirths of employer contributions for pension. So instead of 12 months of pension contributions, there will have to be 14 in the 2003 budget. Councilman Nashar asked for clarification on the property tax increase. Finance Director Copfer said, because of the appreciation in property values, the taxes that we will receive are 1 % higher. Councilwoman Kasler asked when Council would see the 2003 budget. Mayor Musial answered that he could not give a precise date but hoped to get it to Council before the end of the month. Mrs. Kasler requested that a meeting be held to discuss anything that relates to the 2003 budget so that Council is not blind-sided as they were this year in July, after the fact. She would like to see the basis for the changes that are being proposed and the reasoning that is going into the prepazation of the budget prior Council's intense deliberations on the budget. Councilman Gazeau asked Finance Director Copfer if the revenue from the franchise fee from the cable provider was included in the budget or is that being put on the back burner in anticipation of the company's bankruptcy. Finance Director Copfer said that the new reorganized Adelphia has said that they will be paying the franchise fee. The total fees from both Adelphia and Wide Open West are approximately two hundred seventy thousand dollars a yeaz, paid out in four quarters. Councilman Limpert suggested that Council consider sending a resolution to PERS, regarding the need to pay 14 months instead of 12 months in 2003, asking that the adjustment be made in 2004 when the economy should be turning azound and communities would be in a better position to handle those payments. Finance Director Copfer noted that the two months of PERS payments for the city overall would be about sixty-two thousand dollars in the General Fund. Councilman Miller asked if PERS had made this change through legislation, and Mrs. Copfer said she would look into that issue. Councilman Miller asked Finance Director Copfer if she had requested an advance on the city's estate tax fees this year and whether that was done routinely. Finance Director Copfer said she found out that it was possible to get a 75% advance of monies that were "in the pipeline" and she decided to do so as there were no fees or penalties associated 6