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 Miller, Meyers, Scheid, Feehan and Gunderson

            Nays:               None

Public Comments

There were no public comments.

Work Session

1. Budget Workshop for FY 2017/18

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

Mayor Gunderson stated he asked for the workshop as there are a couple of new members in place and Brad was not here for the last meeting.  They had talked about things going in a different direction and to increase the pay for staff an additional 1% to bring it up to the rate of the increase for police and fire.   

City Manager Brown stated he went through all of the department income and expenditures for the last ten years.  One place that he saw the possibility of cuts was overtime.  Police averaged $26,000 in the last ten years.  He would suggest a cut from $30,000 to $25,000.  The fire department averaged $30,000 over ten years and they had $35,000 in this year.  He would cut that to $28,000.  With those cuts, they would have the additional 1% salary increase to non-union employee, with balance of $16,000 in the General Fund.  That is the only change he would suggest. 

Council Member Feehan asked how the police would cut overtime?

Chief Nelson stated holiday overtime is $21,000 of the $25,000.  If there was no major event, it would be tight, but may be possible.  There is scheduled overtime for Labor Day and Macker.  There are shift complaints that they stay over to complete, and ongoing investigations would be overtime.  The officers have traditionally used comp time, but because of staffing they have started to use overtime instead.  If he monitors it closely, they may make it work. 

Finance Director Schlienz stated the part-time police officer is now budgeted at 12 hours a week.  .

Fire Chief Moore stated it is very tough, as the biggest issue is holiday day.  $16, 300 is for holiday pay by contract.  $5,200 is for call outs at night during sleep time.  The fire department is only paid 16 hours out of a 24 hour shift.  They get paid for call outs during sleep time at time and one-half.  The next is training, which is a state mandate.  Not a lot of paid on call firefighters work in this town, so they rely heavily on the three full time firefighters.  Overtime has been about $30,000 a year.  They don’t know if they will get calls.  It had dropped 4% from last year’s budget.  They average 1,400 – 1,500 calls a year.  He personally covers all sick, vacation and training shifts at no additional cost to the department.  He had 153 hours for the last two weeks.  That overtime is not in there.

Council Member Feehan asked if they got reimbursed for medicals from the ambulance company?

Fire Chief Moore stated they only have two people and the longer they are delayed, the city is without an ambulance.  The ambulance company is barely getting 50% of what they bill now.  The fire department only goes on Priority 1 and 2, about 450 medicals a year. 

Council Member Meyers asked what happens if the chief is not here?  They are already calling it close.  They are down one for fire and police.  Overtime is an unknown.  They can roll back the overtime, but it is not an absolute. 

Fire Chief Moore stated if he was not available, they would pull the shift, but safety is a huge issue. 

Council Member Miller asked if they went over on overtime, where would they get the funds from?

Finance Director Schlienz stated it would be the General Fund.   

City Manager Brown stated he doesn’t know that they have been asked to manage overtime.  If necessary, they will find the money somewhere else.  He asked what had changed, so they need justification. 

Council Member Feehan asked about overtime in DPW.

City Manager Brown stated they do not have a lot.    

Council Member Miller asked if there was a reason they don’t put holidays into a fringe account, with a different line item?

Finance Director Schlienz stated they never looked at it that way. 

Council Member Feehan asked if they could check with LIFE to be reimbursed for Non-Priority 2 runs?

Fire Chief Moore stated they could ask.

Council Member Meyers asked if overtime was the only place in the budget to cut he could see?

City Manager Brown stated it was the only place he could find with the possibility of excess funds.  There is the CIP account in the enterprise funds.  That has a balance, but they are cleaning up the South Bridge Street project.  The overage would go to streets.  He has been asked if staff is leaving because of the 1% pay increase, and they are not. 

Council Member Miller asked if they could drive additional revenue?

City Manager Brown stated they could raise millage, but that would just be $5,000. 

Council Member Miller asked if they could charge when they host a class? 

Police Chief Nelson stated the with enforcement activity they generate money back to the city.  They could increase parking enforcement.  Traffic citations are a split with other jurisdictions.  Event coverage is charged to the entity. 

City Manager Brown stated not very much is charged for use of city buildings.  The city doesn’t charge for softball and baseball.  That is the quality of life.  But the city does work at the fields between games. 

Council Member Miller asked when they went on confined calls?

Fire Chief Moore stated they are just on a higher sense of alert when that is taking place.  They receive revenue from the two township contracts, Otisco and Keene.  Otisco is 15% of their run budget which covers their services at that township.  Keene has very few runs a year.  The city receives $96,000 overall.  The city would lose the fire department if they lost the contracts.   

Council Member Feehan asked if insurance companies may pay $500?

Fire Chief Moore stated the city has not billed, as residents already pay property taxes.  That can be looked at.  It has never come to fruition.  Most people have insurance.  They would have to figure out a billing system. 

Council Member Meyers stated they talked about expenditures for a new vehicle for DPW and the police department.  He asked if those could be shoved off? 

City Manager Brown stated they could.   

Police Chief Nelson stated there is 165,000 miles on one of the cars.  The next car is close to 120,000 miles.  The newest of the Chevrolets is 50,000 miles.  The Explorer is new.  They could make it work.  The issue is, because of the high mileage, the maintenance costs go up.  Sometimes it is harder to recover from high mileage situations.  They have a fairly useable fleet, and maintenance costs have not been bad.  With the high mileage car, they just spent a considerable amount of money to keep it going. 

Council Member Feehan asked what was the cost for the Ford?

Police Chief Nelson stated it was just shy of $34,000 - $28,500 and equipment change over.  New protective screens are needed.  The radios are through Homeland  Security.  Some radios were donated by City of Ionia.  They were put into service for under $3,000.  He stated he and Gregg look for bargains. 

City Manager Brown stated it was $36,000 for the truck, and Dale may lease. 

Police Chief Nelson stated if they find the right lease program, they could do that. 

The council reviewed each department section in the budget. 

City Manager Brown stated the Museum Board asked to replace 100 chairs for $1,995 from Sam’s Club.  They thought they could sell the old chairs.  Last year the parking lot was paved and the front steps were replaced.  The Museum Board also did a lot. 

It was decided that there were not funds budgeted for replacement of the chairs in the upcoming year, due to all the expenditures that had been made in the current budget.  Rental rates were discussed and could be increased again at some point.

Mayor Gunderson asked if the city had control over the meeting room at the Depot if MDOT is reimbursing some expenses?

DART Director Krieger stated in 1992, the agreement with the state reflected they can hold city planned events here.  He had pushed a nominal rental fee for utilities with the last two managers. There is a five-year program for the parks, and they charge fees for the pavilions, $20 per resident and $30 for non-resident.  In the future, they may consider fees for Demorest Field and the soccer fields and how to implement those fees.  Some groups have not been receptive to fees for the fields. 

DART Director Krieger stated Frank just does general maintenance now to keep the fields safe.   The different clubs have taken on maintenance.  Soccer does maintenance well, too.  With adult softball, they asked about fees.  They were open to that.  That will be discussed at the Rec Board and then it will be brought to council. 

Council Member Feehan asked about cameras for the Wall outside the depot?

Mayor Gunderson stated this system is maxed out at four cameras.  The city will hold off on city funds that were approved for the pathway and see how the MNRTF grant application comes out.  People donate money to the library and stipulate what it is for.  The library will be installing a new sign.  The Friends of the Library do a lot to offset costs.  They bought computers for the youth. 

There will be a 3% increase on both water and sewer rates, as there was last year. 

Council Member Miller asked when Pitsch got an increase?  They will look into that. 

Finance Director Schlienz stated regarding Internal Service, the new person will be working at the front desk as well as working on the computers, so that line item was reduced from $40,000 to $30,000.  Internet was changed to TelNet from AT&T and the bill has reduced.  They will take a year off from city hall building improvements as they have accomplished the new steps, windows, heating/air conditioning, carpeting, paint and boiler in the last couple of years, so she took that $25,000 out. 

Mayor Gunderson stated the $25,000 from the Bill Braman estate was used for city hall improvements. 

Council Member Scheid asked what was the difference in the health insurance and employee contributions?

Finance Director Schlienz stated benefits for non-union decreased to a 90/10 plan and that will be reduced to an 80/20 plan in the next year for non-union employees to bring costs down.  She will send email to council after checking out the difference in employee contributions.

Mayor Gunderson asked about the solution to increase non-union salaries?  

Council Member Miller stated at some point they must go on the offense on how to grow revenue.  He asked if there were ways to get additional dollars, to roll into a solution?  He doesn’t want to take away from the quality of life.  Is there additional revenue?  They can manage on the down side.  Can they manage on the up side? 

Council Member Meyers stated he comes from a big corporation with budgets every year.  They talked about long term forecasting, which is hard to do.  They need a plan in place to implement year after year.  There are not as many surprises as you go along.  He would like to budget for a longer term look for the future.  There are big capital items that are coming up.  He would commend all the employees for all they do every day.  They have the best interest of Belding. 

Council Member Scheid stated the expenses just keep going up.  There is not enough industry or new businesses.  The city keeps losing the little bit of business they have here.  They are just chasing their tail.  A lot of things have slipped out of here, due to economic forces and tax structures.  Hopefully Washington can make it profitable to come back.  There was a huge investment that left and it would be a huge investment to come back. 

Council Member Feehan stated they don’t have room for large industry. 

Council Member Scheid stated they could be near town, to have people live here. 

Council Member Feehan asked that they look into billing insurance for fire calls.

Council consensus was to proceed with the additional 1% salary increase for non-union employees.

Mayor Gunderson stated he was OK with the 1% increase.  He feels staff deserves 2%, the same as the others.  They pay for more for health insurance than union employees.

Adjournment

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

Feehan.

Ayes:               Council Members Miller, Meyers, Scheid, Feehan and Gunderson

            Nays:               None

The Mayor adjourned the meeting at 6:46 p.m.