08-12-2019 Council Work Session Minutes

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CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION APPROVED 1 CITY OF LINO LAKES 2 MINUTES 3 4 DATE August 12, 2019 5 TIME STARTED 5:30 p.m. 6 TIME ENDED 6:20 p.m. 7 MEMBERS PRESENT Council Member Rafferty, Maher, 8 Manthey, Stoesz and Mayor Reinert 9 MEMBERS ABSENT None 10 11 Staff members present: City Administrator Jeff Karlson; Public Safety Director John 12 Swenson; Community Development Director Michael Grochala; Finance Director Sarah 13 Cotton; Public Services Director Rick DeGardner; City Clerk Julie Bartell 14 15 2020 Budget Consideration — City Finance Director Cotton distributed an updated 16 General Fund Gap Analysis. She noted that the new information included in the analysis 17 is the change in valuation from the County and a $180,000 surplus identified for 2019. 18 Those changes would result in a reduction from 13.07% to 11.30% for Year -Over -Year 19 Levy Increase. Council Member Stoesz asked if the surplus is at risk for disappearing 20 over the rest of 2019. Ms. Cotton said that most of the surplus is related to personnel 21 savings (vacancies) so that shouldn't change. Outstanding items are assumptions and staff 22 would revise the Gap Analysis based on final figures. 23 24 Council Member Rafferty remarked that there are a lot of wants but he doesn't think an 25 11 % increase is feasible. It's a big bill and it needs to comedown. 26 27 Administrator Karlson remarked that a part of the increase is related to adding staff. He 28 noted that staff did reduce the budget by about $200,000 before bringing it forward. 29 30 Mayor Reinert remarked that with valuations rising significantly, he expects there should 31 be a reduction in levy. He recalled his work on the city budgets of the past decade and 32 that there were ups and downs but doing the necessary review has brought it down. It 33 was confirmed that this year is steady in building (permit) activity. 34 35 Council Member Stoesz asked if the soon to be vacated Environmental Coordinator 36 position should be reviewed. The council discussed the duties related to that position 37 and the proposed salary reduction for the position. Community Development Director 38 Grochala remarked that there is an offer out on that job and the council will see a hiring 39 request in September. 40 41 Council Member Rafferty asked about the investigative position requested by the Police 42 Department. Public Safety Director Swenson explained that the position would be non- 43 sworn and would assist with certain investigative activities to free up sworn staff for other 44 duties. 45