09-09-2015 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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• We did include the staffing changes discussed at our earlier workshop. The cost of transitioning to a planner/code enforcement officer position impact the general fund by $3,077 (total impact of $4,680). • Adding five hours per week to our part -tune accounting position impacts the general fund by $2,688 with an overall cost of $6,721 (the balance is in the water and sewer funds). • Adding a new part-time utility billing position for 16 hours a week was budgeted at $16,640 with a General Fund impact of $5,591. (Note: 12 hours a week may be adequate, but for budgeting we assumed 16.) If the Council desires to lower the levy, here are some quick options staff developed: • $10,000 additional transfer from CATV to General Fund ($30,000 to $40,000) • Establish a fund transfer from Refuse/Recycling of $15,000 per year to offset administrative costs. (Note: This is sustainable going forward given the $.75 per month recycling fee we collect for our time involved in oversight/billing for the program.) • Increase Park Shelter rental fees. We currently charge $37 for a small shelter and $115 for the main Spooner Shelter. In looking at other city's fees, an increase seems supportable. We may also want to add a resident/non-resident component. Based on a resident fee of $179 and a non-resident fee of $200 for the main shelter and $50/$90 for smaller shelters, our recent utilization would generate about a $5,000 increase in fees. Assuming that could result in less rentals, staff would assume a $2,500 increase in fees would be possible. Non-residents make up most of the rentals at a ratio of about 3 to 1. • Use additional LGA at an amount of your choosing. • Set a lower number for certification purposes and direct staff to continue evaluating the budget for additional opportunities prior to final adoption. Some key highlights from the other funds are as follows: • General Capital Improvement Fund — continued practice of not budgeting LGA beyond current budget year given past instability. With 2016 LGA and the fund transfer of %187,425 from the 2014 General Fund surplus, this fund stays pretty healthy. A proposed new park shelter in 2020 estimated at $395,000 is the new big ticket item that takes the fund to a deficit that year without additional LGA or transfers. (This will be discussed in greater detail at an upcoming workshop.) • Infrastructure Improvement Fund (450) — Added Centerville Road in 2016 based on our agreement with Ramsey County whereby we would finance the County's share of the project for one year. We pick up the interest costs but that should be more than offset in by inflationary increases we have been experiencing in construction costs. We also do the other two projects we postponed (Country Drive and South Owasso) as well as allowing for some new work. (We did modify the program to put similar projects into the mix for contracting purposes.) Ideally, it would be nice to maintain a fund balance of around $1,000,000 to give us some flexibility if a major project arises we hadn't anticipated. You will see we are falling below that amount based upon current projections. • Water & Sewer Capital Replacement Fund (604) — This fund will effectively make the debt service payments for the new garage. A healthy balance still exists as long we make sure to generate $300,000 in depreciation from the water and sewer funds. (The current water and sewer budgets total almost $350,000!) H:\SharonP\Budget 2016\2016 Preliminary Budget Memo - 9.04.15.docx