09-23-2015 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES CITY COUNCIL SEPTEMBER 23, 2015 10. Reduce administrative costs in the Parks & Recreation Department. The Parks & Recreation Director has indicated hours could be reduced for the Assistants position, maybe as much as a 1/2 time equivalent. If we were to do that, the savings would be about $30,750. Effectively, this eliminates one assistant position (keep in mind one is an employee and one is a contractor). The reduction amount is based on the assistants being budgeted at about 18.5 hours per week. 11. Another option would be to reduce the full-time director's position to 1/2 time. The rationale for doing so relates to the fact that the Assistants are the primary delivers of programming services. When you consider that registrations have dropped by over by over 45% from 2006 through 2014 and that the Director has indicated he "won't be here much longer" given his ability to retire, it would seem that for the long term benefit of the program, cutting the assistants' position would cause us an even great loss of institutional knowledge and experience. If we were to reduce the Director's position to 1/2 time, the salary and related benefit savings would total about $47,000. Obviously, this option merits discussion relative to the future direction of the program. 12. If the Park & Recreation Director's position were reduced to 1/2 time status, the position would not typically be eligible for health insurance benefits. That would save about $11,800. The Administrator noted that the total if all options were selected, not counting the ones that are mutually exclusive, is $100,065. This would take the levy down below 2%. The Administrator noted that items 1, 2, 4, and 5 are relatively easy options and would reduce the levy by $35,500, bringing it to about a 4.75% increase. The Administrator indicated that an additional possible reduction in seal coating costs is being evaluated that would move sealcoating from a seven year cycle to an eight year cycle. While this is a realistic possibility, the Administrator noted that no savings would be generated for the first three years given some backlog in streets needing sealcoating. This option will continue to be evaluated. The Administrator noted that with the creation of the in-house planner salary dollars for that position should be allocated 100% to the General Fund while the new part-time utility billing clerk would be allocated 33% General Fund, 33% Water Fund, and 34% Sewer Fund. The next result would be a shift of about $29,600 in costs to the General Fund to more accurately reflect funding allocations. The Administration noted that the 6