Approval of Agenda

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

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

            Ayes:               Council Members Meyers, Scheid, Feehan and Gunderson

            Nays:               None

Public Comments

There were no public comments.

Consent Agenda

Public Hearing

Reports by Council Liaisons

Council Member Scheid stated he was out of town for the Housing Commission meeting.  Sharon said they just had normal business.

Council Member Feehan stated the Museum had a good turnout for the Vietnam film on Sunday.  They will have some of the wood floors resurfaced in the next month. 

Council Member Meyers stated the Rec Board meets on March 13.

Mayor Gunderson stated there were more policy updates at the Library.  They have a full board.  He could not attend the DDA meeting.  He heard there was some money allocated for mulch.  

City Manager Brown stated there were also funds allocated for Home for the Holidays and the Labor Day program.  The purpose was to look at the budget the next year.

Unfinished Business

There was no unfinished business.

New Business

1. Approval of the submission of a MNRTF grant application

The City Clerk read the preamble to the resolution.

Council Member Feehan moved the passage of the resolution and the motion was supported by Council Member Scheid.

Public Comments

Representative Thomas Albert stated during his term one of his objectives is to visit local governments twice a year.  Constituent relations are a big part of his job.  If there is an issue in the district, he likes to help out.  If there is a problem, just call the office and they will help if they can.  As a legislative update, he is the chair of the Financial Liability Reform Committee.  He is on the task force to look at pensions.  OPEB relates to retirement health care.  There is $11B in unfunded OPEG and $4B in unfunded pensions.  They are working on solutions.  There will be 22 criminal justice reform bills voted on tomorrow.  They want to reduce the prison population.  That population has gone down 20% in the last ten years.  He has been reading in classrooms in the district for National Reading Month.  He has office hours every month. 

Joe Feuerstein, 901 W. State, stated since 1964 council has only tried to get business in town after they left.  100 businesses have left.  He suggested cutting the budget of fire, police and city works by $40,000.  They could lower the taxes of people in town.  Business will survive with people.  They should be doing away with taxes and getting an income tax system in.  They would have money, as there are a lot of people working in the school system. 

Work Session

1. FY 2017/18 Budget

Council Member Scheid made a motion to bring FY 2017/18 Budget to the floor for discussion, supported by Council Member Feehan. 

City Manager Brown stated the General Fund is flat this year.  There are no new expenditures.  No full time employees were added.  There is a police car and pickup truck for DPW.  There will be a 1% salary increase for non-union employees and a 2% increase for union employees.  There is an $800,000 unfunded liability in the police department retirement, as there was a down turn in the stock market and there were police retiring sooner than expected.  There is no threat to retirees in the police department.  They will begin to take care of it.  It will be brought to neutral in 2020.  There is a General Fund positive balance of $12,000.  There is $1.2M in the General Fund.  The enterprise funds are funded by State and Federal support, user fees, etc.  It will include a 3% increase in water rates, as was done last year.  There is nothing unusual about the enterprise budgets.  Funds are spread across budget categories, including motor pool for the maintenance of vehicles, and purchase of supplies. 

Council Member Meyers stated they had talked about another police officer this year, but it was not in the budget.  There was $31,000 for overtime last year.  Is the overtime budget realistic at $30,000 or below?

Police Chief Nelson stated they would do their best to stay with that.  It includes holiday pay.  Officers sometimes take comp time, but some take overtime instead of comp time. 

Council Member Meyers asked regarding the vandalism on the trails, does that seem to be more in the winter than summer?

Police Chief Nelson stated when the weather breaks, vandalism comes up.  It was an unseasonal February with more activity than usual.  With the bike officer, the vandalism on the trails and parks went down.  They will employ the bike officer this year to keep a lid on vandalism. 

Council Member Meyers asked if they have oversight of the trails, as they do in the summer?

Police Chief Nelson stated they try to adjust staffing, but have not put the bike patrol out yet.  They are trying to monitor the activity. 

Council Member Meyers stated they are not replacing anyone in the fire department.  The overtime budget was increased.  Instead of replacing in favor of equipment, do they lose in the end with overtime?

Fire Chief Moore stated they are stable at four full time personnel and are not adding.  A lot of the personnel don’t work in town, so the full time respond more.  It is pretty much where it has been.  Four is a good number, tighter than five, but workable.  He stated he fills a lot of the shifts. 

Council Member Scheid asked, regarding vandalism, does someone have a BB gun or pellet gun? Someone thought they saw someone with a rifle. 

Police Chief Nelson stated people talk among themselves.  They should make contacts with the police department.  They come to the police department two or three days later or they see them on the street.  When they get vandalism complaints, if they have good information to run with, they do that.  If they catch one person, they usually close 10-15 complaints, as they were directly involved or it was related to other events. 

Council Member Scheid stated Bruce sent out an email about millage percentage.  It went up for two years for Electrolux and was supposed to come back off. 

Council Member Feehan stated there was a large increase in training for the police department. 

Police Chief Nelson stated he and the manager talked about training.  They added money to get advanced training for officers as they have young staff.  The department does legal updates and firearms, but they need some special training for officers.  The more advanced classes are pricy. 

Council Member Feehan inquired about the fire department equipment, turnout gear.  

Fire Chief Moore stated NFPA states all turnout gear needs to be replaced.  In 2005, the department got a grant and the city council added to it.  They got 24 sets of turnout gear in 2006. They have a lot of gear needing to be replaced.  They replace three sets on a rotating basis.  They did a gear inspection in February.  They want to purchase two or three sets this year and then add to it.  The NFPA set the new requirements. 

Mayor Gunderson asked street wise, there is nothing major?

City Manager Brown stated there was not. 

Mayor Gunderson asked about local streets?

City Manager Brown stated they wanted to do N. Sate and Bradford with an overlay.  They may find the money for Bradford, which is $20,000.  It will be more difficult to try to get the $114,000 for N. State.  They had wanted to do both streets this year.  They try to spread the overlay program throughout the city, but are not making much progress.  The budget is really tight.  They will have to bite the bullet on street replacement at some time.  He tried to assign conditions to the streets, and 50% are in poor or moderate condition.  They should give serious thought about what to do and have a systematic program to overlay the streets.  They will do Bradford for sure, but don’t know about N. State. 

Mayor Gunderson asked if the SAW budget was done?

City Manager Brown stated it was. 

Mayor Gunderson asked about the SCBA calendar.

Fire Chief Moore stated they all come due next year.  That is a huge issue to look at.  There is a fifteen year maximum limit, and that is due in 2018.  The plan is to write another grant for SCBA.  They would like all new packs and cylinders.  Otherwise, it will be $40,000 to $50,000 for cylinder replacements only.  NFPA only certifies for fifteen years.  The city would be responsible for 5% of the total if they get a grant.  Turn out gear for everyone would be $75,000 to $80,000. 

Mayor Gunderson asked how much it would cost to have the salaries at 2%?  He feels if fire and police are going up, it is only right that staff should have the same amount.

City Manager Brown stated they could spend $11,000 of the $12,000 surplus on the 1% salary increase.   

Mayor Gunderson asked if he had any deficiencies for water and sewer in the streets?  Last time they talked, he had nothing major. 

City Manager Brown stated that was correct.

Council Member Feehan asked if the police car would be similar to the last new one?

Police Chief Nelson stated they may possibly be leasing one.  In some programs they could come out on the top side.  The Ford Explorer is an all around good police vehicle.  There is a lot of storage room and officer room.  With the equipment and computers, it makes for more useable office space in the vehicle.  They hope to replace this car with another Ford Explorer.  The goal is to get everything to match again. 

City Manager Brown stated there has been a lot of discussion about vehicles.  They may consider a low mileage used vehicle, as new vehicles lose one-quarter of the value of the vehicle when it leaves the showroom.   

Mayor Gunderson asked about the cost for the voting equipment?

City Clerk Thomas stated the equipment will be funded by the State. 

Mayor Gunderson asked about the total legal services number.

Finance Director Schlienz stated it was $45,000 for next year. 

Mayor Gunderson asked if there were funds for training for council?

City Manager Brown stated there was.  MML does a lot of training for council, planning and zoning.  He asked council members to let him know if they want to go and they will make the arrangements.   

Mayor Gunderson stated he wanted the 2% back in for wages. 

Council Member Meyers stated it is not a lot and they deserve more than that probably, but over the next year or so, the city needs to look at what they need to do to improve the City of Belding.  No one loves to pay taxes, but there are big needs and expenditures.  Looking back over the last five or six years, maybe they should have been looking at that.  They need a long term budget plan rather than just every year.  $11,000 does not seem like a lot, but they are faced with a lot of decisions coming up in the future.  They may need future cuts or more revenue for the budgets.  That needs to be looked at and brought out. 

Mayor Gunderson stated he understands what Bruce has said.  When the State cut money, they have been dealing with situations that were never there before.  Everything has hit them hard every year.  Last year the S. Bridge Street project was done, but that was in the making a long time.  That did not help them, but it needed to be done.  What staff does is remarkable.  There is no outsourcing.  The fire department does their maintenance.  DPW does the police maintenance.  Staff does save a lot of money.  Over the years when money was available, it was not taken advantage of. 

City Manager Comments

City Manager Brown had no comments.

Council Comments

Council Members Meyers, Scheid and Feehan had no comments. 

Mayor Gunderson thanked everyone for coming.  Normally they would have had a work session for council, but because of the timeframe, they did it tonight. 

City Manager Brown asked if they wanted $11,000 for salaries?  The non-union employees get farther and farther behind, but they can’t always afford it.   

Council Member Feehan stated he would agree to go to 2%.

Council Member Meyers stated it was not a single issue for him.  He understands what Bruce is saying.  The groups are getting different amounts and they all bring the same value to their jobs.  It is not that he doesn’t support it, but it is a matter of wanting to make sure what they do here is for the better of Belding all the time and that they are looking forward to what they want Belding to be.  $11,000 is not a big deal, but eventually they must take responsibility for the city itself.  They have worked hard through the year on the zoning and they make residents adhere to make it better to live here.  They may have a nice house but can’t get down the streets. 

Council Member Scheid stated the city definitely has infrastructure problems.  There is only $12,000 extra and it is hard to give $11,000 away.  They must have rainy day funds.  If it wasn’t an issue of everything else, but it is hard to say one way or the other.  There is so much stuff to take care of.  It is unfortunate that there is the differential of union and non-union, but they don’t pay union dues.  He understands they deserve it, but if they can’t afford it, they can’t.

Mayor Gunderson stated if they don’t fight for staff, there is no one.  They don’t have representation.  It is disappointing that it died on the table.  

Adjournment

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

Ayes:                           Council Members Meyers, Scheid, Feehan and Gunderson

            Nays:               None

The Mayor adjourned the meeting at 8 p.m.