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HomeMy WebLinkAboutr2 - September 16, 2017 COW special SPECIAL COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE MEETING September 16, 2017 The special Committee of the Whole meeting was called to order by Mayor Kaptain at 9:00 a.m. in the Hemmens Cultural Arts Center, North Lobby. Present: Councilmembers Dixon, Dunne, Gavin, Martinez, Powell, Rauschenberger, Shaw, Steffen, and Mayor Kaptain. Absent: None. City Manager Kozal provided a brief overview of items to be discussed during the meeting. Mr. Kozal noted that this was a learning session and no policy determination would be made at this time. Today’s meeting would be the results of a request to the departments to go through the exercise of cutting 5% from their budgets. Police Department Police Chief Swoboda provide an overview of the Police Department. A copy of the presentation is on file in the City Clerk’s office. He noted that the center of any police department is Patrol and Investigations. The Elgin Police Department also is made up of the following divisions/units: Crime Free Division, Technical Investigations, Traffic, Gang and Drug Unit; Social Services, Neighborhood Engagement and School Resources. These additional divisions add a competitive edge and allow the department to continue to decrease crime within the city. The department utilizes a data driven approach to crime and safety. Chief Swoboda provided data on Part One Crime. He noted that the decrease in these types of crimes began when the department began to utilize the additional divisions. In order to make the five percent reductions in the department budget the cuts would need to be made to personnel. Based on the assumption of the average cost per officer being $150,000 there would need to be fifteen officers eliminated. These positions would not come from patrol, but rather would be spread out across the additional divisions, such as social services and the gang and drug units. There was discussion on the impact of technology, the number of officers per residents, the opioid situation, and the importance of the youth programs. Fire Department Fire Chief Schmidt provided an overview of the Fire Department. A copy of this presentation is on file in the City Clerk’s office. He outlined the district maps and the locations of fire houses and coverage for future expansion on the west side. Chief Schmidt broke down the components Committee of the Whole September 16, 2017 Page 2 that make up a call response including call processing, turn out time, and travel time. The time of an effective response force is eight minutes. He outlined various external factors that impact operations such as the State Fire Marshal, Illinois Department of Public Health, and the Insurance Services Organization. The department tracks various performance measures including, the number of calls, number of times running simultaneous calls, and multi-unit responses. The practice is to match resources to risk. After analyzing the department it was determined that in order to complete the 5% budget reduction personnel would be impacted. Staff provided two options to achieve this reduction. Option one would be daily staffing reductions. This would reduce personnel by 3 and reduce minimum daily staffing to 32. Option two would be to reduce the reliance on overtime. This would reduce personnel by four and reduce minimum daily staffing to 30. Both scenarios would increase the use of a jump company service model. Potential impacts of personnel reductions include increased response times, greater reliance on mutual aid and ISO ratings. Chief Schmidt provided details on revenue opportunities that were examined. Sources of revenue include changes to EMS billing, false alarm billing, and expansion of fire recovery billing. Another option for potential funding could be federal funding, but that would require state legislation. There was discussion regarding fleet maintenance costs, EMS billing and cost recovery, revenue opportunities, and alternative service delivery options. The Council held a recess from 10:20 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. Cultural Arts/Special Events Barb Keselica, Special Events & Community Engagement Manager, provided detail on the Cultural Arts Division. The division is made up of Elgin Special Events, Elgin Art Showcase; Cultural Arts Commission, and the Hemmens Cultural Center. Ms. Keselica provided an analysis of each division providing details on the number of employees, the number of attendees, and the number of events. She broke down the expenditures and revenues generated and provided an average cost per household of $29 for special events. A copy of this presentation is on file in the City Clerk’s office. For the reduction exercise, special events would need to reduce their budget by $50,000. Due to the way special events are handled, this reduction would need to happen by eliminating events or closing the Hemmens Cultural Arts Center. The community impact of eliminating special events includes losses for local restaurants, and a decrease in hotel stays. There was discussion regarding the scale of the divisions budget, opportunities for increasing revenues, and fundraising opportunities for local not for profit groups. Committee of the Whole September 16, 2017 Page 3 Public Services Kyla Jacobsen, Interim Public Services Director, outlined what Public Services does and what items make up their budget. For the budget exercise the Utility Fund, an enterprise fund, was removed from the public services budget. Responsibilities that Public Services handles for the city include: engineering, streets, forestry, land management, cemetery and fleet services. A copy of this presentation is on file in the City Clerk’s office. In order to meet the 5% budget reduction, staff would be reduced by seven employees. The two services that would be impacted are the leaf removal and snow removal programs. One scenario would be to eliminate the on street leaf program and snow plow on straight time. Another option would be a hybrid of staff reductions and a model to reduce the overtime for snow removal. If the on street leaf collection were eliminated staff could work on other tasks such as utility cuts. Ms. Jacobsen estimated that over 100 utility cut repairs could be handled annually as well as concrete work projects. Interim Director Jacobsen provided ways to reduce the amount of overtime needed for snow removal. These ideas included plowing parking lots, cul-de-sacs and alleys on straight time. She also provided information on how surrounding communities handled their snow removal programs. There was discussion regarding the costs of the on street leaf collection, if the area could be converted to the bagging program and alternatives to leaf collection. Parks and Recreation Randy Reopelle, Parks and Recreation Director, outlined the department’s responsibilities in the city. A copy of this presentation is on file in the City Clerk’s office. For the reduction exercise, the Golf Fund was removed because it is an Enterprise Fund and therefore self-sustaining. The majority of the department budget comes from personnel and the balance is supplies and equipment. Mr. Reopelle outlined the costs for each parks and recreation facility in the City. He provided comparisons to the surrounding communities noting the types of facilities, the population, net per capita spending, and the acres of parkland. He noted that in order to achieve the reduction outlined in this exercise a facility would need to be closed. Mr. Reopelle provided information on how his staff annually review the user fees and other methods of cost recovery. This review of fees is done in conjunction with the budget preparation each year, therefore any recommended fee changes would be made at that time. There was discussion regarding the revenues at the Eastside Recreation Center and the potential to obtain sponsorships for park’s programming. Committee of the Whole September 16, 2017 Page 4 Revenue Examples Aaron Cosentino, Senior Management Analyst, presented information regarding examples of revenue sources. A copy of this presentation is on file in the City Clerk’s office. The examples included new options and adjusting the level of existing revenue streams. For this analysis, staff looked at how the eight comparable communities, often used for collective bargaining purpose, utilized the various revenue stream examples. The new revenue sources included: Local Motor Fuel Tax, Vehicle Registration Fee, Food and Beverage Tax, Automobile Rental Tax, Cigarette Tax, and Real Estate Transfer Tax. In order to implement the real estate transfer tax a referendum required. The adjusted sources included: General Business License Fee; Liquor Tax, Home Rule Sales Tax, Hotel/Motel Tax, Property Tax. A combination of the various sources could increase revenue by $11 million dollars. Those surrounding, and the eight comparable, communities that had greater diversity in the revenue streams had much less reliance on property tax. Adjournment Councilmember Dunne moved, seconded by Councilmember Shaw, to adjourn the meeting. Upon a roll call vote: Yeas: Councilmembers Dixon, Dunne, Gavin, Martinez, Powell, Rauschenberger, Shaw, Steffen, and Mayor Kaptain. Nays: None. The meeting adjourned at 11:43 p.m. s/ Kimberly Dewis October 25, 2017 Kimberly Dewis, City Clerk Date Approved