09-26-2016 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL WORK SESSION September 12, 2016 DRAFT 1 CITY OF LINO LAKES 1 MINUTES 2 3 DATE : September 12, 2016 4 TIME STARTED : 7:30 p.m. 5 TIME ENDED : 9:40 p.m. 6 MEMBERS PRESENT : Council Member Rafferty, Kusterman, 7 Maher, Manthey and Mayor Reinert 8 MEMBERS ABSENT : None 9 10 Staff members present: City Administrator Jeff Karlson; Public Safety Deputy Director 11 Kelly McCarthy; Community Development Director Grochala; Finance Director Sarah 12 Cotton; Public Services Director DeGardner; City Clerk Julie Bartell. 13 14 Mayor Reinert noted there is a lack of large new expenses coming and an increase in 15 valuations for property in the city and he asked staff to provide the rationale for raising 16 the budget by about $700,000 as they request. Administrator Karlson noted the 17 following circumstances: 18 - Use of surpluses in the past; 19 - Personnel increases (wages, health care); 20 - Utility costs; 21 - General supplies; 22 - Voter approved levies that have been absorbed through reserves in the past (signal 23 projects and street reconstruction projects); 24 25 Mr. Karlson noted that there aren’t many new initiatives included in the proposed 2017 26 budget other than safety cameras for the complex, a new partial position in Public 27 Services Department, a half time position within Finance (absorbed through the Sewer 28 and Water Fund), and funds set aside for the Comp Plan update. 29 30 Finance Director Cotton mentioned that she did calculate the tax rate without the voter 31 approved referendums – it would change from 46.4 to 44.9. 32 33 Mayor Reinert asked about past increases that aren’t going away – Public Safety 34 increases that are staying and in fact going up. He also noted that the department didn’t 35 contribute to the reductions recently presented. Mr. Karlson suggested that that budget 36 was drilled down so much last year that there wasn’t much to consider. Council Member 37 Manthey asked if those drill downs from last year are still within the budget. Mr. 38 Karlson said there was nothing added but the costs don’t disappear. Ms. Cotton 39 suggested comparing the 2016 Public Safety budget with the 2017 request for that 40 budget. 41 42 Council Member Rafferty asked about the travel and tuition line item which has gone up 43 both last year and this. Ms. Cotton suggested that actuals came in under budget in 2015 44 (budgeted $19,000). Council Member Rafferty asked if there is a lot of out of town 45 travel and Deputy McCarthy said there is very little – the expenses are mainly trips like 46