Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutCCWkspMin 9-06-17Falcon Heights City Council Workshop City Hall 2077 W Larpenteur Ave. 6:30 p.m. MINUTES Wednesday, September 6, 2017 Council Present: Mayor Lindstrom; Council Member Brown Thunder, Council Member Harris, Council Member, Gustafson, Council Member Fischer; City Administrator Thongvanh, Pittman, Olson, Sandvik, O’Connor, and Hinrichs Call to order: 6:30 pm 1) Permitted Parking – Falcon Woods There has been no parking installed in the south loop of falcon woods. There has been a petition submitted for the rest of Moore St. If each street individually petitions, that requires a public hearing for each petition. The Council can move to put permitted parking in the whole area south of Roselawn without a petition. The Council would like to consider a public hearing and sending a notice of the proposed permitted parking area. This will be an opportunity to get feedback from residents that are in support or opposed to the permitted parking on their streets. This public hearing would take place at an October Council meeting. 2) 2018 Proposed Budget The city received an increase in fiscal disparity. There is also an increase in LGA to $600,000. There is $10,000 allocated in the administrative fund for the potential to utilize that, in conjunction, with funds from grants for a part-time staff to do the Task Force Recommendations work.  Fund 116- Communication Expenditures: The changes have been made to split up the actual cost of i-net services between administrative, public works, and the fire department. This will guide discussions with Lauderdale about the fire contract.  Fund 122- Police Expenditures: We’re looking at a large increase to about $1.2 million. There were discussions with the Patrol Supervisor for Ramsey County about the Task Force Recommendations. There are recommendations that they’re already doing, some that they’re willing to do, and a few that they will not do. They have many oversight boards, so that is one thing that they do not want to add to. We are slotted to pay for .6 of an FTE for Ramsey Co. Sherriff’s Office.  Special Revenues- Parks and Programming: We have limited space since we no longer have a building at Curtiss or can utilize Falcon Heights Elementary as they are doing some remodeling. We face challenges of not being able to put on programming with all of the benefits that Roseville has. There has been some decreases in park program registrations, but there has been an increase in building and field rentals. If anything moves forward with the Community Park building, there would need to be plan in place. For a new building, it would be estimated at 2-3 million. Other improvements that have been discussed is the installation of a half basketball court at Curtiss field. That would be estimated at $15- 20,000.  Fund 132- Street Expenditures: Costs have been kept low, but there need to be considerations for the capital funds and replacement of trucks. This would likely be coordinated with Ramsey County’s cycle of when they will sell their trucks which will likely be 2018-2019.  Fund 124- There is a requested 12% increase for salaries to be comparable with salaries within the county. Comparisons can be seen in the Fire Study that was done in 2012. Little Canada is a comparable sized fire department with a similar call volume. This year, the department did really well with receiving grant money due to an increase of funds available. There are other areas that would be considered for improvement (i.e. re-carpeting in the fire department and a second truck to meet ISO standards). It was agreed upon that the increase will be consistent with the increase for other staff of 5% for on-call and drill. But no change for administrative.  The options presented, with counsel from auditors and financial advisors, is to take from the sanitary sewer fund to offset the debt service. This would reduce our annual expenses by $23,000 for the 2013 street project, and it would reduce the expenses for the latest street project. This is possible because we budgeted an increase in sanitary sewer last year, and this year we received a decrease from Met Council for sanitary sewer costs. Additional revenues can be through a franchise fee from Xcel. Non-taxable jurisdictions will make up 40-45% of the franchise fees. This would be for electric and gas bills. This could be implemented in January or February and would be paid out quarterly to the city.  The general fund total is $1,486,134. The impact to a median value home with a 24% levy increase would be $180, and an increase of a 34.8% levy increase would mean $263. The 34.8% is projected to only cover the police contract increases. A 17% increase would be $132 per medium value home.  There are a few capital funds that will be expected to be depleted next year. There is no money being invested back into capital funds, and therefore there has been a freeze in any capital expenditures. This will affect the Fire Department and Public Works.  Updates: o Inet will be at the upcoming Council Meeting to propose a purchase for fiber. o There was a meeting with Ramsey County Sherriff’s Office today and discussions about the Task Force Recommendations. o Once the Ramsey County contract is finalized, there will need to be a formalized contract with the State Fair for extra police services for large events. o There has been an application for pull tabs at Stout’s Pub. This will be on the agenda for the next Council Meeting for vote. Adjourn: 8:45 pm