09/16/2008 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 9/16/2008 last few years. We should be fine for borrowing. The market is tight, but we can rely on that by ourselves. We probably won't be able to buy insurance because she doesn't think anyone except one company has AAA rating any more. 2) Her department has worked diligently with the Mayor and his department, directors, division heads, and staff to start the budget process. We are well ahead of where we have been historically in the timing of it. 3) She is working on the estimated resources side of the budget process for 2009 and refining it from when she did the tax budget. The municipal income tax through the middle of September, which is August month-end receipts, is down about $444,000 from the prior year to date. The General Fund is 70%; 15% and 15% is Permanent Improvement and Solid Waste and Recycling. The majority is permanent, and about $200,000 of that is withholding and we are probably not going to see that again. The $100,000 is individual and both of those have been consistently down. Additionally, $100,000 is in net profits, which fluctuates depending on when companies are paying in their estimates and not paying in their estimates. So that is not really a reliable source as well. The preliminary estimate of property tax collection from the County Tax Budget Commission-considering that we are losing personal property, another set of percentages down, the values and the collectible percent is staying relatively constant at the 96.45% of the values. They also requested to move .1 mill from the Operating General Fund, which is where all the unspecific millage goes to is to Operations, and that is required to go to the Bond Retirement Fund, which equates to about $90,000 of a loss on assessed valuation. Additionally, the state budget was cut about $572,000 in June before their fiscal year end. That's the second time they have had to cut, and those two cuts over the last two years equate to about 10% of their budget. The state sees no turn- around in the near future. They could cut local government funding, they could lower our share of shared taxes, etc. So we need to keep watching that very closely and work with our state legislators to say we need to keep what resources we still have for our local responsibilities. Councilman Gareau, chairperson of the Finance Committee: 1) The committee met on September 8. Present were Council President Kennedy, Councilman Ryan, Council committee member Barker, Councilman Jones, Councilman Orlowski, committee chairman Gareau, Council committee member Kearney; Councilman Mahoney; Law, Finance, Service Directors. Agenda items: • Resolution 2008-110, a resolution authorizing the Director of Public Service to advertise for bids for lawn mowing services in accordance with plans and specifications on file in his office; further authorizing the Mayor to enter into an agreement for said services with the lowest and best bidder subject to approval by the Board of Control. There were a number of questions concerning the outsourcing or subcontracting of such services that are currently provided by employees within the city. Questions presented included the potential for layoffs, the appropriateness of such a course of action in light of the bargaining agreement, costs issues associated with actual services being provided by our own staff versus what potential savings could be if we were to use outside staff. The question was raised as to whether or not we should have part-time or summer help 4