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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC WORKSHOP SEPTEMBER 3, 2019 JEFFERSONVILLE COMMON COUNCIL WORKSHOP SEPTEMBER 3, 2019 6:00 P.M. The Common Council of the City of Jeffersonville, Indiana met for a workshop in Room 101, 500 Quartermaster Court,Jeffersonville, Indiana at 6:02 P.M., on September 3, 2019. The roll call was conducted and those present were: Councilperson Paris, Councilperson Maples, Councilperson Gill, Councilperson Hawkins, Council President Zastawny, and Councilperson Samuel, Councilperson White arrived at 6:07 P.M., Councilperson Ellis arrived at 6:14 PM. 1. HEATHER METCALF—BUDGET City Controller Heather Metcalf stated there would be adding to EDIT on page 33. The transfer out to the Homeless Fund for$50,000 will be under City Council. The Homeless Fund will be set up. On the next page for Oak Park will be increased by$15,000 bringing the total to $40,000. The total for EDIT is now$2,329,892. Council President Zastawny asked if Councilperson Paris requested the increase for the Oak Park and he did. Council President Zastawny asked if that would be enough to get done what needs to be done and Councilperson Paris said he believes so. This is a great start to make a difference. Councilperson Hawkins said that initially it was$10,000 and it was always the expectation that would need to be increased over time. Councilperson Owen noted there was some discussion and not including any new firemen for next year. We are hiring six this year. We are working towards staffing a new apparatus as a long term goal. Councilperson Owen said he would like to continue pushing towards that goal. District 4 is underserved and they serve River Ridge and may be one of the busiest of the City. It is causing a gap of coverage for our residents. This is something we really need to be paying attention to. He met with Joe Hurt along with Controller Heather Metcalf, Councilperson White, and Councilperson Hawkins. To add another 6 it would be about half of a million dollars. He doesn't know if he can advocate for 6 because he doesn't know where six would be funded from the budget. Councilperson Gill said she would like to do the homework because the roundabout ties them up as well as the new homes being developed. We are going to have to roll up our sleeves because there is very little room in the budget. We may even have to weigh out some of the other new employee requests. Councilperson Owen said there was not a solid plan on how to do that. Councilperson Samuel said that his recommendation is that we ask the Administration where they would like for that money to come from.The General Fund has $54,000 unspent. This is the Mayor's budget and should be involved. Councilperson Gill said she would like to have a conversation for the 2 new Police that was left up in the air. There were questions regarding those new employees. Councilperson Samuel said he spoke with the Chief and he was told that there would not be 3 in law school, there would be only one. The two new hires will allow the police to be proactive with some issues. 1 Councilperson Owen said that a lot of the capital expenditures have been moved to LOIT. We talked about the other new employees and how they will be funded. EDIT is helping out with Parks but we are not going to be using EDIT for the Fire Department. Council President Zastawny noted that LOIT has been increasing but that has not always been the case, there have even been years that LOIT has decreased. Councilperson Hawkins noted that that end of the City needs another apparatus. As we grow out there we have to put this as a priority. He is not very hopeful that he can find a half of a million dollars in the budget, but it needs to be a priority. If it's not now it needs to be soon that these firemen get put out there. It's not a matter of if something catastrophic is going to happen it's a matter of when. If the Mayor doesn't make this a priority then we need to. We could say that River Ridge needs to be doing this and we can and will pressure them to contribute to that. Councilperson Gill asked if there had been any recent talks with River Ridge. Councilperson Hawkins is not sure where that was left, but he believes that they are willing to give land or a facility but that does not give us what we need. There are some apparatuses that are in reserves that could be used. Councilperson Samuel said he believes they have two at Station One. If the need is much greater at River Ridge why can't we move one of those teams to Station Four. Councilperson Hawkins said he wanted to discuss with the Chief about the allocating the services based on the census. Councilperson Ellis asked if there was any way we could mandate money from River Ridge. Councilperson Zastawny said that multimillions of dollars comes from the result of River Ridge. It's not like it is a zero impact and zero revenue to the City. Councilperson Samuel said we are going to keep having issues like this and when we are adding people our General Fund is not able to keep up with that. He has always been against using LOIT for funding staff. But if there is a way to structure something that says we are going to fund it contingent on the Payroll tax dollars. The issue is we don't control the Payroll Tax Dollars and if a bunch of people who want to change something begin at the County we may hit a decrease. Councilperson Gill said she doesn't think there would be support for that and once they are hired they would be an employee of the City. Councilperson Zastawny said he is comfortable supporting 1 or 2 new employees and taking a chance, but he is uncomfortable with hiring an additional 5 or 6 on tap of that. Councilperson Samuel asked if there was any more discussion changing the property tax levy. There has not. Councilperson Maples asked for Police Merit Legal Services has requested $9,000 but the Fire Merit is steadily increasing. Clerk Conlin said she never received a response but the increase for testing. Councilperson Maples said they have only spent$2000 so far. This is only through June and she just received another claim. She wouldn't go down to $9,000. If they go to Indianapolis for anything then there is that fee in there as well. Councilperson Gill asked if they said why they put in $1000 for Business Meals and Travel. It was in there last year and the budget was copied over. Police Merit has never asked for that. Fire Merit under Legal Services will be decreased to $10,000. Councilperson Samuel said regarding the Public Arts when we put the money in originally it has been around $100,000. The majority of that was supposed to go toward art. That line is being decreased while other lines are going through the roof. Controller Metcalf said that the budget for 2019 was quite 2 high, but all of that money will not be spent this year. There will be money that left over and we will come back to true it up once we have a true idea of where those funds stand. Councilperson Samuel said he knows they have been tagged for maintenance on that building. Councilperson Samuel said he would much rather that money go towards art as opposed to upkeep of the building. Council President Zastawny said that a lot of it come down to the timing of things. We are planning ever dollar out. We are doing more projects in collaboration with Main Street Events where we weren't partnered in the past. Councilperson Paris said under contractual for River Stage, he has been paid from that while in his band and it's his biggest paying gig. They may need to negotiate a little better. He is not against the River Stage but he would like to see that negotiated down. Councilperson Owen said they have had those conversations too and it is something they are aware of. Councilperson Samuel said he believed that the highest paying gig was about$28,000. The only way to address that is to cut it and then for them to work within the new budget. Councilperson Zastawny asked Controller Metcalf for the schedule. The public hearing date is September 16th with an adoption date of October 7th. It would be nice to have this finalized by September 11th or 12th Councilperson Owen mentioned the contribution for civilian HSA. This would be about$55,000. Councilperson Zastawny said that he would like to see this happen, Councilperson Gill said that may help lower the insurance costs. Councilperson Owen said we could budget a number and have to come back and increase it no matter what we do. Councilperson Hawkins said that we just found $20,000 and he would be in support of using that for this contribution. It would be a separate line item called HSA contributions under the Council Budget. Councilperson Hawkins and Councilperson Owen both supported $35,000. Councilperson Owen said there was another request from the Finance Department. They would like to make a pitch to bring up their employees payroll increases. This would $17,305 from the General Fund. This would affect 6 people in the department. She wanted to advocate for her people. They were told by Administration to stay within the budget and this is her opportunity to advocate for her people. Councilperson Samuel said he would recommend doing the same and sending that to the Administration and let them find that money. Councilperson Owen said that he is advocating for this as well. This includes the City Controller. She does have some that are at the 35% level. This is in addition to the Performance Increase Pool. Councilperson Owen made a motion to increase $17,304.65 with Council President Zastawny seconding, PASSING on a vote, 7-1 with Councilperson Ellis voting against and Councilperson Gill voting neither for nor against the matter. Councilperson Samuel said he thinks the Mayor needs to be aware of this. Council President Zastawny said we will meet again at September 16th at 6:00 PM for budget workshop. Councilperson Owen made a motion to Adjourn at 7:01 PM. 3 APPROVED BY: d Zast:wny, President APPROVED BY: 1:16c. Vicki Conlin, City Clerk 4