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Home My WebLink AboutAPRIL 26, 2016COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF JEFFERSONVILLE, INDIANA WORKSHOP APRIL 26, 2016 The Common Council of the City of Jeffersonville met in a workshop on Tuesday, April 26, 2016. Council President Owen called the meeting to order at 4:00 PM. MEMBERS PRESENT: Councilperson Maples, Councilperson Gill, Council President Owen, Councilperson Hawkins, and Councilperson Samuel. Councilperson White arrived at 4:35 PM. MEMBERS ABSENT: Councilperson Zastawny, Councilperson Jahn, and Councilperson Rodriguez. I. Matt Owen — Discussion on Circuit Breakers — Council President Owen stated that the Circuit Breakers have come back and had a substantial impact on the budget. Council President Owen handed out a spreadsheet that covered and outlines 2014 and 2015. Last year was a good year with it came to Circuit Breakers largely in part to an increased assessed valuation. In 2015, it was the first time the assessed value had went up in quite a while. Due to that last year, there was a much less impact on the Circuit Breakers. Because of this, we need to mitigate the budget. The Council budgeted for 2.4 million and it came back at an actual amount of 3.6 million. Council President Owen has met with City Controller Metcalf and discussed potentially where the difference could be located. All in all $1,137,049.95 needs to be cut out of the budget. Council President Owen and City Controller Metcalf have found the funds in the Council's budget to cover that amount. It was proposed that the funding come from the following lines: $50,000 — Vehicle Maint. Fuel & Repair Transfer Out $2,600 — INPRS $2,000 — Travel and Mileage $1,900 — Advertisement $200,000 — Property and Casualty Insurance — Claims $500,000 — Health Insurance $300,000 — Property and Casualty Insurance — Premiums $70,000 — Special Projects $15,000 — Promotion Councilperson Gill asked if this money was coming out of the Heath Insurance line, Council President Owen stated that was some of the funding. 1 City Clerk Conlin asked if the numbers provided reflected the upcoming claims. City Controller Metcalf stated they did not, just what was approved at the last Council Meeting. Councilperson Gill asked if City Clerk Conlin was consulted about the numbers concerning the Travelers Insurance Premiums. City Clerk Conlin stated she had not been contacted and she would need to get the actual numbers to see where they are going to likely fall this year. Councilperson Owen stated there had been talk of making the cuts to the insurance line a couple of months ago. We are now working on our own vehicle and they are not sent out to Coyle anymore. That is saving us about half of what was being paid out and we are still being reimbursed the full amount. Councilperson Samuel asked regarding the health insurance line, it shows that last year about 5 million was spent, what is the balance on that account. Ms. Metcalf stated over 1 million plus an additional million that was just put in. Councilperson Gill stated a lot of research went in to determine how much needed to be put in the insurance line. We do not want to cut ourselves short here. Councilperson Samuel said he is concerned with taking money out of the Health Insurance fund. No matter what it accrues to, we are going to have to pay it. The City has added a number of new employees, it is not going to go down, and if anything, it will go up. Right now if we had to go into reserves we could, but we cannot count on that forever. Maybe we ask the Mayor for potential areas to cut. He should be included on this discussion since it affects his departments. Council President Owen stated the Council could find another $500,000 to cut is he was not sure where it was going to be from. Councilperson Gill reminded everyone that they were told in the last insurance meeting there is going to be a big bill in the wreck from last fall. Clerk Conlin stated the City is still paying on EEOC complaints from 2012. Controller Metcalf stated the revenues could be reevaluated as well. Anything in the negative would mean that it's more than what we anticipated. Councilperson Samuel asked if any claims have come in that may have been missed that the Council should know about. 2 Clerk Conlin recommended that they take $100,000 out of the Casualty and $77,000 out of revenues and that brings a total of $177,000. If that $200,000 is cut then the $77,000 could be transferred back if needed. Councilperson Samuel stated that Ms. Metcalf is the Controller and he tries to follow her recommendations as much as possible. She looks over the numbers but just wants to make sure she is aware of all of the various issues. We are still having additional appropriations come before us. It's all just getting us into the reserves and we need to be very cautious of that. Council President Owen stated that moving forward any additional appropriations are going to have to be approved by the Mayor's office before they can be brought before the Council. Council President Owen said this does not have to be the path that is taken to cover Circuit Breakers; it's just what he is recommending. Councilperson Hawkins asked if there was a period for a claim. Controller Metcalf stated checks are cut the Tuesday after approval in a Council Meeting. Councilperson Samuel stated this is the discussion out of the General Fund. Have we thought about the Parks yet? Council President Owen said he has talked with Parks about cutting $215,000 out of Open Space and then taking the additional out for the City Partnership cash that is coming in. Councilperson Samuel recommended that we speak to the Authority concerning this and let them make their own cuts. Once the money is gone, it is going to be difficult to keep doing what we have been doing in the form of events. Councilperson Hawkins asked in regards to claims, why haven't they all been paid? Is it a matter of they haven't all been received? Clerk Conlin stated it was just settled and the claims are still coming from it. Council Attorney Lewis stated it's a litigation process so there is not definite time frame, it could vary when we get the claims. Councilperson Samuel said we have rainy day funds so if something horrible would happen and a huge claim came down we have the funds now. Councilperson Gill reminded the Council that there are roads falling in, there is a lot of failing infrastructure. Councilperson White asked if the City did not have deductibles and what the exposure limit was. 3 MINUTES: COUNCIL WORKSHOP APRIL 29 2016 Clerk Conlin said that every case is different. The rates raise per year. Our insurance and insurance agent is top notch. Councilperson Gill reminded everyone that RiverStage is hard to insure. It is technically a barge that people get on and off of and is a liability. Council President Owen asked how the Council wanted to move forward. There can be additional time scheduled to go over the budget. Councilperson Samuel recommended not cutting the departments budgets and instead letting the departments do it. It may be more beneficial that way. Councilperson Samuel recommended going back to Parks, Sanitation, and Motor Vehicle to look at the budget cuts and go from there. Council President Owen stated that DLGF does not give guidance on this matter. They thought around 3 million and really it was more. Councilperson Gill stated she looked through the previous minutes and Circuit Breakers were started at 3.5 million and then voted on 3 million. Not sure where the 2.4 million number came in or who changed it. Councilperson Samuel made a motion to ADJORN at 5:25 pm with Councilperson Hawkins seconding. APPROVED BY: AMP Matt.. Pres! en Vicki Conlin 4