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HomeMy WebLinkAbout05-22-2008 Joint City Council and RDA MinutesMINUTES ~I JOINT CITY COUNCIL/REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY STUDY SESSION CITY OF LAKE ELSINORE 183 NORTH MAIN STREET LAKE ELSINORE, CALIFORNIA TUESDAY, MAY 22, 2008 CALL TO ORDER Mayor Hickman called the Joint Study Session to order at 5:08 p.m. ROLL CALL PRESENT: MAYOR HICKMAN MAYOR PRO TEM KELLEY COUNCILMAN BUCKLEY COUNCILMAN MAGEE COUNCILMAN SCHIFFNER ABSENT: NONE Also present were: City Manager Brady, City Attorney Leibold, City Treasurer Weber, Administrative Services Director Pressey, Director of Community Development Preisendanz, Director of Lake and Aquatic Resources Kilroy, Director of Parks and Recreation Gonzales, Director of Public WorkslCity Engineer Seumalo, Planning Manager Weiner, Planner Coury, Building/Safety and Code Enforcement Manager Chipman and City Clerk Munson. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE City Treasurer Weber led the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance. INVOCATION -MOMENT OF SILENT PRAYER Mayor Hickman requested a moment of silent prayer for Robert Cartier, owner of Elsinore Ready Mix, who recently passed away. DISCUSSION ITEM (~ A. Fiscal Year 2008/09 Ooerating Budget Administrative Services Director Pressey presented the 2008/09 Operating Budget for the City, LLMD and the Redevelopment Agency. He indicated this 1 year's General Fund was challenging, was reviewed at mid-year and had $2 million in cuts. He noted when re-looking at the revenues and estimating for the current year and projecting into 08/09, there was a significant drop in revenues. He stated staff re-assessed the revenue picture and is presenting new projected numbers. He noted the City Manager notified staff of the short fall and staff came back with some proposals that were very efficient use of City resources, to include many cut-backs to reduce the budget by $1.8 million. Administrative Services Director Pressey indicated Public Safety remains the number one priority of the City and is 43% of the total General Fund budget. He indicated of all of the increases from last year to this year, Public Safety is 182% of the increase; the Police Services are going up $195,000 and Fire is going up $348,000 and is related to their rates. Administrative Services Director Pressey indicated the City broke even at the end of last year. He noted the City's reserves will stay at $3.5 million, the supplemental revenue/stabilization fund will remain at $1.5 million, unallocated revenue will hit the $5 million mark so total at the end of June 30`h, the City will have $10 million available for use. He stated at the end of 2008/09, after this adopted budget, the City would maintain their reserves, supplemental would have a net increase and unallocated would get $1 million and the City would end at $8.7 million at the end of the year. Administrative Services Director Pressey indicated the City is drawing from its supplemental/stabilization fund and which is helping the City balance its budget. Administrative Services Director Pressey reviewed the budgeted expenditures. He noted reductions of salary and benefits, doing more in-house, reducing or eliminating programs, deferring goods and services, reduction in meetings and training, hiring freeze, reduction in overtime, decrease in PERS, and at mid-year a reduction in a variety of positions. Administrative Services Director Pressey indicated in the Community Development Department there were questions raised with Community Development revenue decreasing significantly with building permits, which spiked all the way up to $5 million, now it is down to $1.2 million, and to expect the Community Development Department to cut the equivalent amount, there is reason why the City would not, and from an operational stand point, all of the departments have looked at their budgets to try to determine where they can cut and where it makes sense to cut. He also indicated in the Planning Division applications are still being received, which range in scope, and averaging 230 customers per week, an average of 50 per day. Administrative Services Director Pressey reviewed the special projects the Community Development has on the horizon such as the Auto Mall Overlay, Main Street/Downtown Master Plan, Lakeshore Overlay District Update, 2 Consistency zoning, adoption of drought tolerant landscape ordinance, and ~, adoption of a telecommunications ordinance. Administrative Services .Director Pressey reviewed the Building Inspectors assignments such as new foreclosed property ordinance enforcement, NPDES compliance, assisting code enforcement, building business license data base, performing Public Works inspections on single family projects and cross training as a back up to the Fire Inspector. Administrative Services Director Pressey reviewed the Redevelopment Agency budget. He indicated the Agency budget is increasing $4.9 million and the fund balance is gone up significantly. Administrative Services Director Pressey noted the City did receive a letter from EVAN and noted their request was not included in the budget. Ron Hewison, HOPE, indicated the greatest group of people they help are seniors, between 175-180 month; programs are income driven; discussed Angel Food Ministries; and thanked Council for everything they have done for HOPE in the past and requested Council to try to hold HOPE at the same levels as in the past. r-; AI Lyons, LEMSAR, requested Council to raise their annual budget for LEMSAR back to $10,000 and reviewed the services LEMSAR provides to the community at the lake. City Treasurer Weber commended staff on the presentation of the budget material. He stated he had a conversation with the City Manager regarding the drop in revenues and his ideas for reducing expenditures such as decreasing overtime, compensating people with comp. time instead, not giving cash out for vacation and monitoring the contractors who are not generating revenue. He commended the City Council for not having any big law suits. He also noted the RDA needs to start generating revenue because it was taking money from the General Fund. Councilman Magee commended City Manager Brady, Mr. Pressey and the Department Heads for their efforts placed in the budget. He noted revenues are slightly up and our expenditures only increasing 1% and indicated for the first time the City is taping into our rainy day fund. Councilman Magee inquired when will the Rosetta Canyon Fire Station going to break ground. City Manager Brady responded the City will be going out to bid next week, will be (' j awarding the bid in July of this summer and anticipate a 12-14 month build period. 3 Councilman Magee inquired why there is $165,000 in next year's budget for the I ~ General Plan which is twice the amount he was told what was owed to the consultants. Administrative Services Director Pressey responded there were a couple components: 1) the project initially was approved for $800,000 flat; projecting out with potential with the need to extend and do more work on the General Plan which is part of the increase and some adjustments to the scope; and 2) there was staff time charged directly to the project and was not in the $800,000 component. Councilman Magee inquired if the City is looking at a new environmental impact report on the General Plan. City Manager Brady responded there will not be a need for a new one; he indicated the proposed changes being made may require re-circulation of the EIR and also re-circulation because of the work that needs to be done to address these changes. Director of Community Development Preisendanz responded the original contract was $825,000 of which $160,000 is left under this contract to date. He indicated should the Council decide, with the recent trend of land use changes, if it generates a recirculation, there could be out of scope costs, but could be absorbed under the purchase order still within the scope of the contract. Councilman Magee inquired if there were specific projects designated for the $31,000 in branding. Information & Communications Director Dennis responded the $31,000 is the rolling over of funds for unfinished projects that have not been completed such as signage; vehicle conversions and signals and deferring gateway monument signage. Councilman Magee inquired when the Downtown Master Plan would be completed. Administrative Services Director Pressey responded staff is looking at bringing this before the City Council in August and the RFP is being prepared to take it out to service. Councilman Magee suggested it would be prudent to identify in the Land Acquisition; $100,000 in the next four years instead of the $500,000 three years out and nothing behind it. Councilman Magee inquired about the additional $6,500 allocated for the web site and inquired if the web site would be completed by July. 4 Administrative Services Director Pressey indicated the $6,500 shown is a roll I I over. Information & Communications Director Dennis responded staff is working very hard to attain this goal and stated the site map is indicating there still is a lot of work to be done. Councilman Magee inquired when construction on the river walk commence. Parks and Recreation Director Gonzales responded currently the City is going out for an RFP for a landscape architect to design the project which should be before Council in July. He noted construction should begin in the fall. Councilman Magee stated $10,000 is being requested to be eliminated from the Public Safety Advisory Commission budget, and noted City Manager Brady attended a Public Safety Advisory Commission and requested the Commission to not forward their request for a new Public Safety staff position. He also noted staff has indicated this commission requires a significant amount of staff time. He stated he has watched the workload on the Community Development side drop significantly, and have been shown five slides tonight why Council should not cut anyone from that Department; building inspections have gone below 270 inspections a week from a high of 1,100; Planning Department front counter visits have dropped below 200 from a high of over 400 last year; and with all this "extra time", he inquired could some of these folks be transferred over to in augmenting staff support for the Public Safety Advisory Commission. He noted staff needs to look at reassignments of responsibilities because we can't just not help the Public Safety Advisory Commission go forward. City Manager Brady responded this position is not specifically for staffing the Public Safety Advisory Commission. He indicated it was for ah Emergency Operations Coordinator which would have the responsibility of training of staff in terms of emergency operations and preparing the City's emergency operations plan. He noted he is fully supportive of having this position, but does not believe it is time to add this position. Councilman Magee indicated he would like to move this as an unfunded position so that the City knows what the requirements of this position are and as the City moves forward and workloads adjust, some of the staff can be reassigned to assist on some of those tasks. City Manager Brady responded a Building Inspector does not have the knowledge for this position; similar to a Cindy Quigly or Geneva Krag type. He noted his goal was not to hamper the Public Safety Advisory Commission and has provided a considerable amount of support to the Commission. City Manager Brady also noted the City has an excellent team of people that have been put together in the past few years, the morale is high and the team 5 works well together. He stated he would like to keep this team together and believes the economy will have an upturn, and would like to keep these people ~ on for a year or a year and a half from now. He stated people look an organization as to how they treat their assets and resources which the employees are. He noted if the City has to make cuts, then they will do that; but the City will look at way to reduce the budget costs. Councilman Magee inquired about the $114,000 for the Fire Services and asked if this was something the County is imposing on the City. Administrative Services Director Pressey responded it was a carryover from the Community Development Department budget into Fire which would account for part of the $156,000 reduction. Councilman Magee noted the City funded two positions last year and only position was filed one and only for a portion. He inquired if the savings has been recognized in this document. Administrative Services Director Pressey confirmed. Councilman Magee inquired if the cost of living is reflective of year two of the three year contract. City Attorney Liebold responded it is year two of a four contract. Councilman Magee reminded everyone that City Council supported ihis increase, invested in staff, but no one in the private sector is receiving a cost of living adjustment, nobody is getting raises, and along with merit increases, he noted City Council is significantly investing in its staff. City Manager Brady indicated he met with the employees and this was one of the issues he emphasized with them was that the City Council did support the staff by the increase and the contract they entered into with them. Councilman Magee inquired if there are 6-8 deputies on the street at any given time in a 24 hour day. Captain Fetherolf responded deployment patterns in the City is five deputies working on the day shift, five on the afternoon shift and four on the graveyard shift which does not count the support the personnel. Councilman Magee inquired what if the City would request a 10% reduction of what is being currently allocating to the Chamber of Commerce and would they be able to continue the same level of service. City Manager Brady responded yes they could provide the same level of service 6 Councilman Magee indicated the City needs to take a look at reducing the Chamber by 5-10%. Councilman Magee indicated the Southwest Economic Alliance need to make a cut to $25,000 or $20,000 and indicated if their response is that it will not keep the City in the club, then he stated the City needs to get out of the club because the City has not realized any net benefit or result. He noted he has not seen any tangible results since 2003. City Attorney Leibold indicated there is an existing contract that the City needs to be looked at. Councilman Magee suggested instead of allocating $30,000 to Southwest Economic Alliance, allocate the amount to EVAN. Councilman Magee asked the City to include Roxanne Petteway, Coalition to Improve Education, because they are requesting sponsorship from the City from $11,000 to $2,500. He requested to include them on the list and hold the funding for now and perhaps provide a $1,000 donation. Councilman Magee suggested sliming down the $10,000 budgeted for League Councilman Magee indicated the City Attorney's Office has an exceedingly long list of goals but requesting less money. He thanked the City Attorney. Councilman Magee commended the City Clerk for the comprehensive and very well done major goals list and greatly appreciated it. Councilman Magee requested the City's quarterly newsletter be made consistent in the budget document to read as quarterly. Councilman Magee commended Administrative Services Director Pressey for actually improving the return on investments as he noted in his major goals. Councilman Magee noted the typo under "General Law Enforcement" which should ready "Maintain 1.1 officer per 1000 population ratio" not 11. Councilman Magee indicated, on Page 9 under Fire, that the goal be added to expedite inspections and plan check reviews and reducing permit turnaround time. He indicated that was the entire goal for funding that position. Councilman Magee inquired if the purchasing of Auto-cite devices for Code Enforcement was funded in the current year budget. Community Development Director Preisendanz confirmed. 7 Councilman Magee noted he did not see anywhere in the budget the purchase of anew vehicle for the Graffiti Program and directed staff to figure out if this was j going to occur Councilman Magee indicated the construction of Lincoln Street Park is complete and needed to be taken off the list. Councilman Magee inquired when the dock standards will be coming forward. Lake and Aquatic Resources Director Kilroy responded the dock standards are in conjunction with Lake Shore Overlay District standards and will move through the committee before it becomes finalized and is hopeful it will be before City Council in the next six months. Councilman Magee commended Law Enforcement for the 2% reduction in overall crime rate and also noted Code Enforcement numbers are up. Councilman Magee noted the graffiti numbers are significantly up and noted the City needs to continue down the path of a comprehensive integrated system. Councilman Magee thanked staff for including the Animal Control section and providing a base line for the numbers. Councilman Schiffner noted there should be some kind of penalty for being out in the lake late at night. Captain Fetherolf responded he would look into it. Councilman Buckley indicated he was glad to see the City only going into the "drizzly" day fund (unallocated); supplemental is "rainy" and General Fund Reserve is "hurricane." He stated drizzly is being reduced and rainy is being increased, which is good. Councilman Buckley noted public safety is the City's first priority, but at some point their needs to be a top. He indicated he would like to see the Contract Cities get together and have kind of input into the contracts that are signed by the County. Councilman Buckley noted the RDA does not generate revenue, it was set up to capture tax increment that would have been lost to other agencies and set up to build things and to help things out. He noted the $20 plus million for low- moderate housing income that is sitting in RDA is temping, but moving that monies out for another project is not an option by law. He stated the RDA has to r start building units, approximately 800-900 in three years. I Councilman Buckley inquired if the new web site will be using any of the Spry- III Ajax technology. 8 Information & Communications Director Dennis responded he did not know how to answer the question because the City is using proprietary tools from Vision I Internet which uses standard web development tools. He indicated he would look into it. Councilman Buckley stated if and when the City gets the grant for the Emergency Operations Center, then the City creates the Coordinator position and that person would be used for the Public Safety Advisory Commission staff. Councilman Buckley recommended the following: • Offering less to the Ferguson Group; • RDA to contribute half for the lobbying services; • Decreasing the budget for League Conferences; • Providing the additional $5,000 for LEMSAR; • Providing $15,000 for EVAN; • Providing $5,000 for the Cal Literacy Program; • Providing $15,000 for HOPE; and • Provide the $10,000 back over to PSAC for the safety pamphlets Mayor Pro Tem Kelley complemented staff on the easy to read budget. She indicated she was glad positions would be not be cut and staff was able to trim in every department. She stated she was a strong supporter of this Council and the City supporting the community and its non-profits. Mayor Pro Tem Kelley inquired if the City received a letter from the school regarding grad night. City Manager Brady indicated they did not. Mayor Pro Tem Kelley stated the schools do not have Grad Night on campus, and has her doubts the $4,000 is needed and suggested those funds be provided to EVAN or LEMSAR. Mayor Pro Tem Kelley also suggested if the City is considering funding the concert at $30,000, the City might as well be the sponsor of the Concert Series and let EVAN line up the entertainment. Mayor Hickman reviewed some of the reductions and recommended giving additional money to HOPE, LEMSAR and Roxanne Petteway ($10,000). Mayor Hickman announced County Supervisor Buster gave $15,000 to Youth Court and $100,000 to the Boys and Girls Club. Mayor Hickman requested the number of employees in the department be placed in the budget chart. 9; i Mayor Hickman stated he thought the City was cutting out most of the contract planners. City Manager Brady responded the contract planners are paid for by the CRS, he noted their hours will be cut if the City slows down more. He noted the contract planners do provide between $39,000-$40,000 each, generating revenue through the Cost Recovery process. He indicating cutting them would cause the City to loose that money as well. City Manager Brady suggested staff put together a summary and discuss the budget suggestions individually with each Council Member and bring before the City Council for approval on June 10"'. Councilman Schiffner noted the budget was done quite well and would like to see as much funding be provided to patrol on the lake and for HOPE. ADJOURNMENT Mayor Hickman adjourned the Joint City Council/Redevelopment Agency Study Session at 7:05 p.m. D L HICKMAN, MAYOR CITY OF LAKE ELSINORE A 1 IVIAN M. MUNSON, CITY CLERK CITY OF LAKE ELSINORE 10