MINUTES
FINANCE COMMITTEE
MEMBERS
PRESENT: Vice Chairman Tony Theisen, Tom
Weber, and Steven Deneys, Chairman John VanderLeest arrived later
MEMBERS EXCUSED: None
OTHERS PRESENT: Doug Daul, Mark Delaski, Chad Weininger,
Linda Dupuis, and Others
1. Roll Call.
Vice
Chairman Tony Theisen called the meeting to order at 7:08 p.m.; all members
were present except for Chairman John VanderLeest who was attending another
meeting and arrived later.
2. Approval of the Agenda.
A motion was made by Ald.
Weber and seconded by Ald. Deneys to approve the Agenda. Motion carried.
3. Approval of the minutes of the Finance
Committee meeting of April 24, 2007.
A motion was made by Ald. Weber,
seconded by Ald. Deneys and carried to approve the minutes of the Finance
Committee meeting of April 24, 2007.
4. Request by the City Attorney, on behalf of
the Transit Commission, for adoption of a resolution supporting Federal funding
for public transit systems.
Finance
Director Doug Daul explained that about 40% of Transit’s budget is provided by
the Federal Government. All Federal
funding stops, however, once a municipality’s population or service area
reaches 200,000. In addition, the
municipality must maintain a fleet of 100 buses. A bill pending in Washington would prevent this from happening,
and the Committee is being asked to a support a resolution coming out of
Council that would support that legislation.
A motion
was made by Ald. Weber and seconded by Ald. Deneys to approve the request by
the City Attorney, on behalf of the Transit Commission, for adoption of a
resolution supporting Federal funding for public transit systems. Motion carried.
5. Request by the Comptroller to review the
2006 year-end accounting.
Comptroller
Dawn Foeller referred to page 5a of the Finance packet showing Capital Reserve
and year-end designations. 2006 was a
favorable year overall, with revenues exceeding expenditures by $584,000. She said controlling expenditures proved to
be a greater factor than revenues collected.
The transfer out of slightly more than $2 Million for Capital Reserve
requests reduced the fund balance at the end of 2006 by $1,418,307.78.
Ms.
Foeller explained that she is required to designate or reserve funds at the end
of each year and said the Unreserved/Undesignated Fund Balance has remained
consistent at about $6.5 Million for the past four years. Moody’s expects this balance to account for
about 8 to 9% of revenues, and having it available is helpful in fall, before
the largest piece in the revenue budget -- 85% of shared revenues -- is
received.
The designation
2007 Applied Surplus is the amount that may be used in the 2007 budget. Other required designations include
Delinquent Personal Property Tax, DPW Inventory, and Miscellaneous Special
Assessments. Ms. Foeller stated that all
of these fund balance designations must be available to cover any assessments,
delinquent personal property taxes, etc. that may have to be written off. Mr. Daul said the Miscellaneous Special
Assessments line includes $1 Million for Development Associates for a special
assessment on the mall. This revenue
was recognized in 2006, but the accounts receivable is still out there and will
be reversed in 2007.
The
$561,000 designated for “Due to/from Watermains” is for special assessments the
City holds on behalf of the Water Utility; the City is one of the only
municipalities in Wisconsin that does so.
Ms. Foeller said these funds are not in our bank account and do not
accrue interest. The assessments are a
reserve on our fund balance, handled as an accounts receivable. The assessments are for homes that have had
water installed to them, but payment has not yet been received. There are no losses because the assessments
are paid when the property is sold. If
the Water Utility were to hold those funds on their balance sheet, that
$561,000 would be freed up in our fund balance. This would be one-time money, and having Water hold their own
assessments could be considered at some time in the future, if necessary.
Ms.
Foeller said other designations include Prepaid, Snow Reserve, Contingency, and
2006 balance of Outstanding Purchase Orders that have been issued. She said year-end designations totaled $10.4
Million, leaving about $2.6 Million available for budget carryover requests and
capital surplus designations.
Page 5b
shows how departments ended up when comparing revenues to budgets. A threshold of $50,000 was used; differences
of less than that are not shown as separate line items. Ms. Foeller pointed out that interest rates
have gone up considerably, and about $650,000 more in interest revenue was
earned than what had been budgeted.
$53,000 was lost with the cancellation of a Wisconsin Housing
Preservation PILOT, while the Packer Stadium lease brought in more than had
been budgeted. Land sales fell considerably
short, as well as sales of heating and building permits. The “Other” designation included all line
items that did not meet the $50,000 threshhold.
Ms.
Foeller said about $74.4 Million was available to be spent for the entire
budget. Close to $72 Million was actually
spent, with the result that the City came in about $2.1 Million under budget
for expenditures after accounting for any purchase orders still outstanding at
the end of 2006. The largest loss was
with the Fire Department, where Workers Compensation took a hit due to the
accident earlier in the year. The
Police Department and Public Works were favorable departments. A mild winter helped DPW, and the Police
Department was favorable because they had budgeted for 192 officers but filled
only 186 positions.
Ald.
VanderLeest arrived.
Ms.
Foeller said final year end-budget transfers are really a formality because State
Statutes dictate that departments cannot go over budget, and she does need a
formal request to transfer budgets. The
Police Department was considerably under budget on salaries, and those funds
were transferred to cover Fire Department Workers Compensation. She distributed a corrected copy of this
sheet.
The other
transfer was for $16,454.71 into the Industrial Park Fund to pay for various
needs in the Industrial Park such as lighting and Certified Survey Maps.
A motion
was made by Ald. Weber and seconded by Ald. Deneys to approve the 2006 year-end
accounting and designations. Motion
carried.
6. Request by the Mayor for approval of
Carryover Requests and year-end designations.
Ms.
Foeller explained that designations had been discussed earlier (page 5a). They would now consider Carryover Requests
found on page 6a. She said a total of
$244,000 had been requested by various departments, while the Mayor’s Office is
recommending $98,250. Assistant to the
Mayor Chad Weininger said budget carryover requests are for items that were
budgeted in 2006 but had not been spent.
A motion
was made by Ald. Deneys to approve the Mayor’s recommendation of $98,200 for
Carryover Requests. It was seconded by
Ald. Theisen, and carried.
7. Discussion of contract with Brown County and
the Communication Center.
Ald.
VanderLeest said he asked for this discussion because he had seen a letter sent
to the County Board Public Safety Committee and the Sheriff indicating that the
911 Communication Center should start planning on moving out of the Green Bay
Police Department. He asked for a brief
review, saying the Finance Committee has oversight over this contract and any
such move should come to Committee as a policy matter.
Mr. Daul
said that last fall, Brown County asked to do the cleaning of the Communication
Center. The contract was amended, and
the lease amount paid to the City was reduced by $750 per month, to $32,000 for
this year. He distributed a copy showing the most recent numbers and said
either party has a 6-month window to get out of this lease, but agreed that if
it is to change, it should come through Committee.
Mr.
Weininger said these changes had been discussed as taking place over a two-year
period, and had come about because extra space is needed on the second floor
for storage of evidence, etc. for the Sheriff’s Department and 911
Communications. Law enforcement
agencies have been talking about shared services and investigating storage in
Ashwaubenon with the Oneidas and Hobart, as well as other communities using our
expertise in investigating techniques.
Ald.
VanderLeest asked that the Mayor’s Office be involved in looking for additional
space, as well as in continuing to work with the County.
A motion was
made by Ald. Weber that any updates or changes to the contract between the City
of Green Bay and Brown County for the Public Safety Communications Center be
brought to the Finance Committee. It
was seconded by Ald. Theisen, and carried.
8. Report of the Purchasing Agent:
a. SAN Storage
system for IT Department from CDW-G for $30,195.
Purchasing
Agent Linda Dupuis distributed an enlarged version of the Quote summary for
this item, to which she had added a comment.
IT
Director Mark Delaski said this item, part of the server upgrade, is the
storage solution for that program and was part of the Capital Replacement Fund budget. It will allow the City to meet storage
requirements for a number of years and gives multiple levels of
redundancy. The two low quotes were not
acceptable because no local maintenance or 24-hour support was available. In addition, a single controller was used
and the package did not have volume cloning, which helps tremendously with
disaster recovery. Another concern was losing
files because of no battery backup.
Mr.
Delaski said they already deal with CDW, the next lowest quote. CDW proposed a solution from Siafu Software,
a relatively new company. Siafu uses
standard hardware, however, and the software is the main driving point. They will be getting a lot more value with
this proposal.
A motion
was made by Ald. Deneys, seconded by Ald. Theisen and carried to approve:
a. SAN Storage system for IT Department from
CDW-G for $30,195.
NOTE: Ms. Dupuis checked
the original quote and verified that the amounts shown for INACOM were correct,
after a question arose about the figures shown for Total Cost with 24/7/365 and
Total Cost with 8-5 Next Business Day options.
b. Minivan for Police Department from Ewald
Automotive for $15,963.
Ms. Dupuis
said the intent here was to buy a used vehicle because the Police Department
had only $12,000 available, but nothing with relatively low mileage could be
found for that amount. Ewald offered a
new vehicle that had been ordered for another municipality under the VALUE bid,
and the Police Department will provide the difference between the insurance
money they have and the amount needed for this vehicle, with funding to come
from Federal Asset Forfeitures. They
will be getting a new vehicle for about $400 more than a used van.
A motion
was made by Ald. Theisen to approve b:
Minivan for Police Department from Ewald Automotive for $15,963. It was seconded by Ald. Deneys and carried.
c. Field marking paint for Parks Dept. to Hallman
Lindsay for $14,536 and to Mautz Paint/Sherwin Williams for $205 for a total
price of $14,741.
These are
the low acceptable vendors.
A motion
was made by Ald. Weber to approve c: Field marking paint for Parks Dept. to
Hallman Lindsay for $14,536 and to Mautz Paint/Sherwin Williams for $205 for a
total price of $14,741. It was seconded
by Ald. Deneys and carried.
d. Official Newspaper designation to Gannett
Wisconsin Newspapers, DBA: Green Bay
Press-Gazette.
Ms. Dupuis
said the State of Wisconsin requires municipalities to designate an official
newspaper, and a State formula allows them to charge no more than 100% of the certified
font base rate. The Press Gazette has
been the only vendor since 2005, and prices have risen steadily, from the 25%
range when there were two newspaper vendors, to 56% at present.
A motion
was made by Ald. Deneys and seconded by Ald. Weber, and carried to approve
d: Official Newspaper designation to
Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers, DBA:
Green Bay Press Gazette. A vote
was taken, and the motion carried, with Ald. Theisen voting “nay.”
A motion
to adjourn was made by Ald. Deneys, seconded by Ald. Theisen, and carried. Meeting was adjourned at 7:58 p.m.
2007 CONTINGENCY FUND
$190,000
Any person wishing to
attend who, because of a disability, requires special accommodation should
contact the Mayor’s office at 448-3005 at least 24 hours before the scheduled
meeting time so that arrangements can be made.
Please take notice that it is possible that additional members of the Council may attend this committee meeting, resulting in a majority or quorum of the Common Council. This may constitute a meeting of the Common Council for purposes of discussion and information gathering relative to this agenda.