Approval of Agenda

Council Member Scheid made a motion to approve the agenda as presented, supported by Council Member Lallo.

Discussion:

Council Member Cooper stated that some citizens had questions regarding the amended budget.

Mayor Gunderson said he would address that under the Fiscal Year 2015/16 Budget item.

The question on the motion was called and the result of the voting is as follows:

            Ayes:               Council Members Cooper, Scheid, Lallo, Jones and Gunderson

            Nays:               None

Public Comments

Mike Henry, 806 Wildlife Trail, stated that tonight’s agenda wasn’t posted until this morning and wasn’t on line. He called Kareen and she got it up right away and he appreciates that. He would like it noted that it should have been posted earlier. Mayor Gunderson said due to election it was an oversight.

Katherine Henry, 806 Wildlife Trail. She appreciates the hard work on this, and regarding public hearing, not only was the agenda not posted, she didn’t see any of the amended budget posted. She is quite concerned about the public hearing tonight when the citizens weren’t able to see the budget in order to make comments. She would like the council to move the public hearing portion to next council meeting or special meeting: wants the information accessible to people at least a couple of days to review it before the council has a public hearing.

Robert Brown, 719 Jay Street, said the budget has changed tremendously and the public can’t view it. He hopes there is a solution to navigate it. He reviewed the last budget and knows there is a third addition. He’s concerned about police shortage. Several events coming up and needs sufficient police and emergency staff. As events continue to come in we should have sufficient emergency personnel available to us.

Consent Agenda

Public Hearing

A.    Fiscal Year 2015/16 Budget

Mayor Gunderson opened the public hearing at 7:08 p.m.

City Manager Brown said he is the reason for the confusion as far as the budget is concerned. He said he was here only a few weeks when we presented the first budget. There was a $213,000 shortfall. He said that was an area of concern for him as he does not like shortfalls. After that was presented publically, they did several internal adjustments and was able to reduce that amount to $131,000, which was still beyond what he feels it should be. In the last few days, he said they’ve really gone over the budget and was able to find enough adjustments that we can now present a balanced budget tonight; actually, $11,000 to the good.  He explained the major cuts in this last round as being the elimination two part-time police officers. We have been notified that there is a new round of Cop Funding programs and we will attempt to cover that hole with a Cop Grant, which is a three year grant.  We eliminated fringe benefits for the City Manager because he doesn’t honestly need fringe benefits. They eliminated the purchase of cylinders in the Fire Department. They have until 2018 to complete that program. Also eliminated were funds for a consultant to rewrite the zoning ordinance. He said he personally has a Master’s Degree in City Planning and has written many, many zoning ordinances. He’s prepared many, many master plans and it seemed unnecessary and unreasonable to hire an outside firm when he could do it himself. Those were the four major cuts they made to bring it from $131,000 to 0 as far as the shortfall was concerned. He said he realizes the public hasn’t had a chance to see the final product and probably can’t intelligently discuss it tonight. He said that the mayor will suggest to them a way to solve that problem over the next couple of weeks. He then apologized and stated that he thought they were going in the right direction which seemed to him to be the better course to take to make sure that they were able to present them with a balanced budget. He added that essentially it’s a flat line budget; there are not a lot of significant increases and not a significant decrease. The level of city services remains pretty much the same. And when they are finished, they will have created a General Fund balance of $1,300,000; sometimes known as a rainy day fund. And that amount is up from last year by about a hundred thousand. He apologized for putting the council in the position of opening a public hearing on a budget that no one but them had seen. He said it seemed the better part of wisdom to bring to them a budget that was balanced. 

Mayor Gunderson explained that at the end of tonight’s public comments on the public hearing for the fiscal year 2015/16, he will continue the public hearing until May 19 for further pubic comments. The tentative budget, if it gets passed tonight, will be posted on the website and the Facebook page. He also apologized regarding the number of workshops they went through in as far as the budget being changed, the numbers being changed, but it was a necessary situation for the city. The budget was posted on the City Facebook over the weekend, but that is not the actual one they are looking at tonight. Other than what Bruce mentioned, it was all in there and nothing else was changed. With that being said, if there is any public comment now, for the fiscal year 2015/16, please step to the podium.

Jeff Hunter, Zahm Road, said that it seems like year after year the city is always talking about cuts on the budget. He said that he keeps bringing up the question of when the city is going to stop spending money on poisoning the city water and stop spending money on fluoride. Even the Federal Government has said in the last week that cities should cut down on that. So why doesn’t the City of Belding totally stop spending thirty-four/thirty-six thousand dollars a year on it? He asked if it’s more important to keep dumping that stuff in the water than it is to keep two part-time police officers.  He said they could have stopped dumping it into the water and saved the ambulance department, or stopped spending on fluoride and saved the dispatch at one time. He asked if they’re going to keep cutting jobs and services over something the city doesn’t need to keep putting in the water, period. He said that a lot of people believe the studies that say it does good.  Well, if people are worried about their teeth or their kids’ teeth, then make them brush their teeth. He said that a lot of them in the country grew up on well water and don’t have a lot of problems so he doesn’t understand why no one talks about cutting it out instead we hear about cutting jobs and services.

Robert Brown, 719 Jay St., stated that he just wants to remind the Council that after a couple of workshops, this is their budget. It’s the goals, the dreams, the vision, and the aspirations of the council. City hall prepares it but the council guides what city hall needs to do. What they want to focus on the budget, the budget reflects that and it just keeps being revised. He added that he hopes in the future they ask questions as to where the city wants to take it instead of just focusing on the bottom line.

Joe Feuerstein, 901 W. State, talked about one budget item that is a perpetual fund of $144,000.  He said that in the general fund it seems to be receiving $125 interest on it. He asked if that’s the best they can get. They need a financial investor so this money draws interest.  If they want to save money and hire people, get somebody to invest this money. A perpetual fund is a fund they can’t use so get some interest on it.

Katherine Henry, 806 Wildlife Trail, stated that the only thing she could glean specifically about the projects that may be getting more or less money in the budget was what she saw in the minutes. There was some discussion regarding water/sewer rates that might be seeing an increase soon. She paid her concern is that she paid municipal water and sewer in various other communities where she’s lived, and the costs for municipal water/sewer services are by far way more here than in any other communities in which she’s lived. She said that gallon to gallon it’s about 2- 4 times more for this community than other communities in which she’s lived and she feels that’s a lot. She hopes the city council can find a way to figure out other things so that we don’t see an increase in water and sewer rates. She added that they also pay higher taxes and that combined with the higher sewer/water rates it’s a bit much for the average person that lives in Belding because they’re all working class families. She’d like them to consider this under advisement. She is assuming this based on the minutes and if it is what’s going on she would appreciate their looking at that.

Mayor Gunderson stated that the public hearing will continue again on May 19 for further public comment at the next City Council Meeting.

Reports by Council Liaisons

Council Member Cooper reported that the Rec Board met last night but he wasn’t able to be there. He said he was approached last week that there is a group that wants to donate money for construction of the ball fields/shuffleboards and put more into our parks. Some people want to bring Pickle Ball here.

Council Member Scheid said there was no meeting for the Housing Commission. He hasn’t been notified yet.

Council Member Lallo said he has no museum reports. The Labor Day Committee had a chicken dinner fundraiser and raised about $800; a very successful fundraiser for them. In the future there will be nominations for a Grand Marshall to be chosen.

Council Member Jones said he noticed a lot of cars at Demorest Field on Saturday. It was packed and a great turnout for a ball tournament they had there. The Planning Commission had a meeting on the 4/30.  The chairman welcomed the new city manager and that was the first time they had a meeting with him. There was nothing on the Board of Appeals. The city manager is pursuing negotiations with Electrolux and hopefully will get the fence down.  As was heard earlier from Bruce, the Planning Commission is working on revised zoning ordinances for Belding and working with Bruce. All the commissioners were given homework to review the zoning book and go over the Master Plan where there are a ton of goals and objectives to do and they want to narrow it down to approximately 10. Each member will bring his/her choices back to the table and come up with the ten items with the help of the city manager. The Planning Commission still needs two more members. If interested please go to city hall to fill out an application.

Mayor Gunderson said the Library Board met and was quite long so they set up a meeting for the Personnel Policy Handbook on a Saturday. So that will be coming up in the future. They are working on getting the millage in place for 2017. DDA meets this Thursday, here at the Depot at noon.

Unfinished Business

None

New Business

Public Comments

Bob Brown, 747 Jay St., wondered if they have reserve volunteer officers. It would fill in the shifts as long as one full-timer was on duty.  He feels they need to utilize a volunteer force; they do have arresting powers. Make them do their eight hours a month and it would offset the budget a bit. He suggests they need to look into that. He also congratulated the mayor on how it looks out there.

Sam Mason, 516 W. Main St., said if they pick out volunteers and maybe see if the County can bring in some for just the presence of law enforcement. He feels it’s good for people to see police officers interacting and getting respect, and not always for the presence of arresting someone.

Katherine Henry, 806 Wildlife Trail, commented on what Mr. Feuerstein was saying about the $144,000 receiving only $125 a year. She has a Lake Michigan Credit Union account that gets more interest than that. She doesn’t think something sounds right and she would agree with Mr. Feuerstein. Perhaps it’s a gap that was created during changes in staff. She hopes all the council would be concerned about that. She feels that if they are trying to figure out what to do it should be easy to get more interest on that much money. She feels it is good to get volunteers for police coverage and hopes council continues to work on the budget before the final.

Joe Feuerstein, 901 W. State, said since he brought this up, on the last page of the budget. There is a cemetery fund; it is perpetual, the interest is transferred to the cemetery for upkeep and that’s what they can touch.

City Manager’s Comments

None.

Council Comments

Council Member Scheid asked City Manager Brown if they could look into the interest issue?

Manager Brown said they’d look into it. He thanked everyone for coming.

Council Member Lallo said regarding the events coming to town, GRPD has a large mobile camera that is used for events and got it through a grant and has to share with surrounding counties and he thinks we’re one of the counties.  Also, he said he is sorry that Millie’s restaurant is closed down.

Council Member Jones said he hopes everybody realizes the length of time City Manager Brown has been here and the amount of time he’s had. He congratulated Becky and Bruce, and Keven, all of who have been put in their position in relatively short time, as they have all done an excellent job without a lot of time. He feels it will take time for Bruce to get a handle on the accounts and the amount of interest they can get. They found a CD that got lost in the bundle, but through diligence Becky found information and took care of it. He thanked accounting and Bruce for getting this and he feels it looks like a good budget and feels they are spending money wisely without any frills.

Council Member Cooper said that obviously they have issues and he thinks they have heard some good suggestions from the public, and maybe look at restructuring the police department, before they spend the money. He thanked everyone for coming tonight.

Mayor Gunderson thanked city staff for getting the budget done and for everyone involved in it. He thanked everyone for coming tonight.

Adjournment

Council Member Scheid moved to adjourn the meeting, supported by Council Member Cooper.

Ayes:               Council Members Cooper, Scheid, Lallo, Jones and Gunderson.

            Nays:               None.

The Mayor adjourned the meeting at 8 p.m.