MINUTES
FINANCE COMMITTEE MEETING
5:30 P.M.
MEMBERS PRESENT: John VanderLeest, Tom Weber, Tony Theisen,
and Steven Deneys
MEMBERS EXCUSED: None
OTHERS PRESENT: Doug Daul, Jerry Hanson, Chief VanSchyndle,
Chad Weininger, Linda Dupuis, Rick Jurkanis, Recording Secretary Ginny Mamrosh,
and others
1. Roll Call.
Ald.
VanderLeest, as previous Chair of the Finance Committee, called the meeting to
order. Roll call was taken, and all
were present.
2. Approval of the Agenda.
A
motion was made by Ald. Weber and seconded by Ald. Theisen to approve the
agenda. Motion carried.
3. Election of Officers.
A motion was made by Ald. Weber to
nominate Ald. John VanderLeest as Chairperson of the Finance Committee. There were no other nominations.
A motion was made by Ald. Theisen and
seconded by Weber to close the nominations.
The motion carried and Ald. VanderLeest continued as Chairperson of the
Finance Committee. He thanked City
staff for their hard work and said his goals were to keep finances strong and
taxes down and to work with citizens and department heads on requests for
services and improvements to the City.
A motion was made by Ald. Weber to
nominate Ald. Theisen as Vice Chairperson of the Finance Committee. There were no other nominations.
A motion was made by Ald. Deneys and
seconded by Ald. Weber to close the nominations. The motion carried and Ald. Theisen became the Vice Chairperson
of the Finance Committee.
4. Approval of the minutes of the Finance
Committee meeting of April 25, 2006.
A motion was made by Ald.
Theisen and seconded by Ald. Weber to approve the minutes of the Finance Committee
meeting of April 11, 2006. Motion
carried.
5. Review of Finance Committee Mission.
Mayor Schmitt had asked
that each committee review its mission at its first meeting. Finance Director Doug Daul explained that
the Finance Committee sees requests for approval of purchases over $10,000 for
the Police and Fire departments, as well as for other departments not falling
under the realm of another committee.
Approval to actually make the purchases from specific vendors for a
specified amount as well as requests for grants also come to this
committee. Public Works and Park &
Recreation requests have gone to the Improvement & Service Committee for
the last two years, because that committee is aware of the need for the items
requested and, in many cases, has seen the equipment to be replaced. Purchases for those departments will
continue to be brought to that committee.
The Finance/Personnel
committees meet jointly in fall to discuss the Mayor’s budget before sending it
on to the whole Council. Monitoring the
budget is a huge responsibility. The
overtime report comes to this committee because it involves finances, while any
policy questions are directed to the Personnel Committee.
Purchasing Agent Linda
Dupuis explained that she was given approval to provide the committee with only
a single line of information on items that are routine purchases, such as
asphalt and road salt, as long as the low bid is the one accepted. Any alderperson wanting additional information
is encouraged to contact her before the meeting. Ms. Dupuis provides a more lengthy description of the other items
with the agenda, and will give only a quick synopsis of the item at the
committee meeting. The funding source
is also provided and information on whether or not it is the low bid. Ms. Dupuis attends the Improvement &
Services Committee meetings when she sends items there, and if the item is not
budgeted, it then comes to Finance.
Approval of future
Information Technology equipment or systems also comes to this committee. Since IT does not have an oversight
committee, Ald. Weber has attended some of their advisory meetings, and then
brought the issues to Finance.
City Attorney Jerry Hanson
said Chapter 2 of the City Ordinances outlines the responsibilities of the standing
committees.
A motion was made by Ald.
Theisen and seconded by Ald. Deneys to receive and place on file the review of
the Finance Committee Mission. The
motion carried.
6. Report of the Purchasing Agent:
a. Records imaging service for the Police
Department from SourceCorp for an estimated $32,202.
Purchasing Agent Linda
Dupuis said this Request for Proposals to digitally image Police records from
2000, 2001, and 2002 was publicly and competitively quoted. Unlike a request for bids, this process
gives Purchasing the right to negotiate with vendors. An evaluation team visited the two low vendors, Integrated
Imaging, Inc. and SourceCorp, and asked that they supply their best and final
offer. The scope of the project changed
in the meantime, to include the pre-prepping and shredding of records by the
vendor. Both had very good references,
but after the visit the evaluation team had a higher comfort level with the
security provided by SourceCorp – both the facility and the process used. Their cost is $700 more than that of
Integrated Imaging, but they are a very large company with a location in Green
Bay, and they manage the records for all three hospitals in the City. Police Business Manager Rick Jurkanis said
the funding source will be 2006 budgeted funds, and that this amount is lower
than the $38,000 that had been budgeted.
Mr. Jurkanis said they are
asking to have the records from 2000 forward made available digitally because
these are the ones most often requested.
Regarding open records requests, there is a 25-cent charge per page, and
there may also be a fee for time involved to physically search through the
files. These files would be put on the
computer to be quickly accessed by personnel in Records and others in the
Police Dept. Chief VanSchyndle said
typical requests are for copies of police or accident reports, and that as the
years go by, there are less and less requests for the older records. Microfiche (microfilm) is still widely used
throughout the world, so keeping the older records on that medium shouldn’t be
a problem.
Mr. Jurkanis said the
department has space-saving shelving where the current year and three previous
years will be kept as hard copy on site.
If possible, they would hope to use carryover funds, this year’s
budgeted money, and $500 from other sources to wipe out the eight years of
accumulated work. This would allow them
to be caught up, so that starting next year, the Contractual Services line item
in the budget could be decreased by $20,000 to $22,000. Ald. VanderLeest asked if anyone is
reviewing how the system is being handled, so this move will not result in more
expenditures in the future, and Mr. Jurkanis replied that other departments
have gone to this method. Ms. Dupuis
noted that after polling the other departments, the majority did not have
funding and therefore retained hard copy records only.
A motion was made by Ald.
Theisen, seconded by Ald. Deneys and carried to approve Records imaging service
for the Police Department from SourceCorp for an estimated $32,202.
7. Report of the Finance Director:
Update on the refinancing of the 2004C BAN.
Finance Director Doug Daul said
the 2004C Bond Anticipation Note (BAN) was issued as bridge financing for the
new Cherry Street ramp and expansion in TIF IX. The BAN had capitalized interest until 5/1/2006 so this is the
first payment being made on the borrowing.
The City will borrow $9,937,280 from the State for the total cost of
building the ramp, along with capital interest. He said Engineering did a great job in doing the project at such
an exceptional cost. Mr. Daul said he
wrote a State Trust Fund loan request a year ago, then rewrote it when rates
dipped shortly afterward, saving approximately $600,000 in the process.
The Spring bond issue includes
money for partial refinancing of TIF IX’s share of the BAN and the balance will
come from a loan from TIF V. TIF V has
funds to contribute to the refinance but instead of using these funds to pay
down the ramp borrowing the TIF will make a loan to TIF IX at the same rate as
the STF loan. This arrangement allows
TIF IX to borrow for a taxable purpose at a low rate of 4.5% and is neutral to
TIF V because TIF IX will be paying the debt service on the proportional share
of the State borrowing. The amount of the inter-fund loan is $256,093.
Mr. Daul summarized, saying the
funding source for the ramp is the State Trust Fund loan we are drawing upon
this week. The refunding of the TIF IX obligation
is through the spring bond issue and the inter-fund loan. The payment of those borrowings will be
through the TIF increments. The money
in the TIFs is used to make the debt service payment. The borrowing doesn’t affect the tax levy. There was discussion that the TIFs could
close earlier if those expenses did not exist, however, Ald. Theisen pointed
out that the underlying development would not exist without the creation of the
TIF. Ald. Weber noted that this is the
“but not for TIF test” and that you cannot take one piece of the TIF financing
mechanism out of context.
A motion was made by Ald.
Theisen, seconded by Ald. Weber and carried to approve a loan of $265,093 from
Fund 445 to Fund 449.
A motion to adjourn was made by
Ald. Theisen, seconded by Ald. Weber, and carried. The meeting was adjourned.
2006 CONTINGENCY FUND
$190,950.00