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