09-24-2014 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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also used a transfer of $81,520 from Water/Sewer Capital Replacement Account that will offset by a debt levy of the same amount to be used for the new Public Works Building. You will also remember that in our scenario discussions, we utilized assumed expense increases of 3% for all costs except police and fire which were estimated at 4%. Overall, General Fund expenses ended up at 3.93%. Some of the expense increase drivers are as follows: • Mayor & Council Salaries up pending final decision on increase (+5,080). • Attorney Prosecution Costs increasing per approval earlier this year (+$13,096 from 2014 Budget and +7,346 from 2014 Actual). • Election down (-10,955) due to a non -election year. • Planner's Costs up for additional assistance on for special projects based on recent history (+7,000). • Sheriff's Department Budget shows increase of 9.2% but that is because we deducted the departmental revenue from the amount shown here and added it as a revenue item in the General Fund ($65,732) per the auditor's direction. Their net increase for the operating budget is 3.83% or $44,325. We did pick up some additional Power Shift car costs (formerly Rice Street Corridor Car) based on historical utilization. This amounted to an increase of about $3,300 in 2015 and additional $3,300 in 2016. • Dispatch costs (police & fire) are $2,693 or 4.1% • Fire Department Operating budget up 5.35% (+17,012) • Animal Control up 37.31% or $1,250 due to historical costs with hoarding since the change to the RCSD providing the service • In Streets, no big changes except to note that sealcoating was not done in 2014. It was decided to forego the program in 2014 due to conflicts with the Little Canada Road area due to the Veterans Memorial work on the parking bay. • Storm Sewer is proposed at a 20.16% increase (+1,875) due to higher actual supply and utility costs the past couple of years given higher rainfall amounts. • From a salary perspective, we budgeted 2% for Department Heads and 2.5% for other permanent employees with a couple of scale adjustments for positions lagging the market. (More discussion will occur at a future workshop on this subject.) If the Council desires to lower the levy, here are some quick options staff developed: • $5,000 additional transfer from CATV to General Fund ($30,000 to $35,000) • Use additional LOA at an amount of your choosing. For reference purposes, we have $231,628 in the General Capital Improvement Fund. We also received an additional $33,704 in 2015. Note: This option is in conflict with reducing our reliance on LGA in the General Fund. • Set a lower number for certification purposes and direct staff to continue evaluating the budget for additional opportunities prior to final adoption. Our fallback position would be more LGA use as a worse case. C: \ Users \ kalliy.glanzeMppData\I,ocal\Microsoft\WindowsVremporary 1mcrnet Files \Conlent.OmlooAKP111020\2015 Preliminary Budget Memo -9 18 14 .doex