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Home My WebLink AboutAugust 10, 2020 City Council Minutes COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY JEFFERSONVILLE, INDIANA August 10,2020 Special Meeting Minutes The Common Council of the City of Jeffersonville, Indiana met for the Special Meeting via teleconferencing on August 10, 2020. Council President Owen along with City Clerk Gill called the virtual meeting to order at 6:05 p.m. ROLL CALL: The roll call was conducted by City Clerk Lisa Gill and those present was Council President Matt Owen, Councilperson Dustin White, Councilperson Bill Burns,Councilperson Joe Paris,Councilperson Steve Webb; those members teleconferencing(Covid-19) were Council Vice President Scottie Maples,Councilperson Scott Hawkins(joined at 6:15 p.m.) and Councilperson Ron Ellis—8 members present,Councilperson Donnie Croft absent. NEW BUSINESS: 1. Heather Metcalf City Controller 2021 Proposed Budget Discussion Council President Owen stated that this will be a walk through with the changes to the Council Budget that was reviewed with a few members and sent out in an email this morning. In the General Fund all the insurance line items and Health Savings Account (HSA)funds be moved to Human Resources,who handles most of this. We requested more funds to be in the HSA—this is the matching part to employees who choose the high deductible health insurance plan. Cell phone stipend for Council member's cell phone or tablet has been reduced because of lack of use. A$1,500 training line will be added from travel and mileage for continuing Council education. Note: Councilperson Hawkins arrives 7:15 p.m. Gaming Revenue—reduce homeless coalition from $75,000 to$50,000. Council President Owen indicated he did a workshop with City Controller and suggest these changes. River Stage—transferring out—raise back up to the$150,000;we cut the budget in 2020 expecting to have more City Partner support to fill the gap but now with Covid we think we should put it back. Which still leaves$36,000 in expected gaming revenues unappropriated. City Pride—in 2020 we budgeted $30,000 because of extra projects,they are doing their own fundraising so we suggested backing it back down to $10,000 and if they have more funds they raise it can be appropriated and revisit after the first of the year because of new leadership. 307 Fire Pension—Asst Chief Emerson requested some monies moved but no increase in dollars. 403 Cumulative Capital-move and split Improvements/Beautification/Public Art this was money that was above the 4%that they get. New distribution Special Projects$65,000; and $10,000 to City Pride. Public Safety LOIT(local option income tax) City Share for 911 increased 5%and transfer out$200,000 to Fuel. Economic Development Income Tax(EDIT) -$110,000 to Public Arts; before Covid there were concern to cut in the future,Council members talking about there might be a way to cut the 4%Ordinance out of EDIT. Special projects reduced from $75,000 to $50,000 with Catalyst Rescue Mission moved to Professional Services— Homeless Relief Fund 226 under Gaming. Page 1 of 3 Ms. Metcalf went over Revenue estimates. Increased Income Property Tax by the 4.2%average increase. Motor Vehicle Highway and Local Road and Street same as 2019. Lower Cum Cap due to the age change in cigarette tax. Kept Income Tax the same as 2020. Should see an increase in 2021 but a decrease in 2022. Income tax that goes into the General Fund- impact could be to general fund 31%of total revenue; 59% property tax and 4%excise tax. Total Revenue is$34.6 million dollars; if 15% Income lost that is$1.6 million. Ms. Metcalf on the budget side we took out all the 2020 additional appropriations except for the Building Commission Board members,the new Sanitation Director, Mayor's salary and Public Arts transfer. Added police body cameras payment,took out encumbrances and trued up salary amounts to what is currently being paid. Move Veteran Service Officer to Council Professional Services which we will now pay directly to the County because the individual is a County employee. Moved insurance accounts from Council to Human Resources Department. Changed Sanitation Department to#244;which stayed within the same budget as 2020. And all the previously mentioned changes to Council budgets. $54.6 million expenditures and $54.9 million revenues. Council President Owen—this is a $4 million less budget than 2020 because additional appropriations this year that will not be in 2021 and $70-80,000 short of 2019. Request the Council to go through the Council Budget changes, look at estimated revenues, and what the Administration has proposed. No action to be taken this evening. Ms. Metcalf indicated the timeline for Budget Adoption: • Advertisement in Gateway—September 10 • Public Hearing—September 21 • Adoption—October 5 Council President Owen—request Ms. Metcalf to explain the summary of appropriation page,several funds going above revenue for next year. Ms. Metcalf— • Motor Vehicle Highway still has a reserves,only eating$13,000,with a nice cash balance. • River Stage—carried over revenue from 2020 will be reserves in 2021 to use • Sanitation—will dip into reserve $22,000 with $2.6 million budget not significant amount • Vehicle Maintenance Fuel—about$50,000 with nice reserves • Cum Cap—shortage due to cigarette tax; and body cameras appropriation for next year • 409 Law Enforcement Continued Education—varied amount of revenue,should not affect fund much • Building Authority—same • LOIT—not sure what happened; may have been a calculation error last year, it does go into reserves they are good even if it stays flat line, should sustain that for the next 5 years. Okay with going into reserves just need to keep an eye on it. It is fortunate we have the reserves we have. Councilperson Burns—spoke of concerns with LOIT lower next year because of unemployment and we will have a bigger hit in 2022,correct? Mr. Les Merkley Corporate Counsel—correct,any income tax will take a hit in 2022. Councilperson Burns—I am curious why we are not trying to be a little more conservative on the budget based on what could happen in 2022 and beyond. Mr. Merkley—look at LOIT and see where to cut $450,000; it is already a tight budget. Council President Owen—is there any consideration to try to ratchet down a little farther before a hit in 2022? Mr. Merkley—there are no pay raises,we are hitting reserves. They are healthy reserves. Even if we have this hit in 2022, luckily LOIT is healthy enough and we will dip into Page 2 of 3 reserves again. The Council and Administration has worked in the past years to keep the reserves healthy. Shifted a lot of public safety purchases into LOIT to balance the general fund budget. Council President Owen —I think we are in a good position; always been a strong stance on Council that we would not take payroll out of income taxes. If it does come down to that. Mr. Merkley—this is revenue neutral, not impair/impact city services with furloughs or layoffs. We think this budget does that and keeps us on strong footage. Ms. Metcalf agreed and suggested with so much unknown we should review every 6 months. Mr. Merkley—you adopt now and then in January it changes. Constantly changing. Biggest thing to deal with going forward will be additional appropriations for the rest of this year and next. Ms. Metcalf request changes by Labor Day and requested members to contact her with additional questions. Council President Owen requested a motion to take the Proposed Budget under advisement. Councilperson White made the motion, seconded by Councilperson Paris; roll call vote: Councilperson White-yes Councilperson Burns—yes Councilperson Paris-yes Council Vice President Maples-yes Councilperson Webb-yes Council President Owen-yes Councilperson Hawkins—yes Councilperson Ellis—yes Motion passes 8-0 Councilperson Burns inquired if an additional workshop needs to be scheduled. Council President Owen suggested to take the time to digest this and at the next meeting Council can review if an additional meeting is necessary. ATTORNEY COMMENT: DEPARTMENT HEAD COMMENT: PUBLIC COMMENTS: COUNCIL COMMENTS: ADJOURNMENT: Councilperson Burns made the motion to ADJOURN the meeting at 6:52 p.m. APROVED BY: Matt Owe , President ATTEST: Lis Gill,Clerk Page 3 of 3