MINUTES
FINANCE COMMITTEE
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
City Hall, Room 604
5:30 p.m.
MEMBERS: Chairman John VanderLeest,
Tony Theisen, and Steven Deneys
MEMBERS
EXCUSED: Tom Weber
OTHERS
PRESENT: Dawn Foeller, Julie Van Oss, Keith
Wilhelm, Allison Swanson, Jeff Roemer, Tom Karman, Bill Nabek
1. Roll Call.
Roll
call was taken and all were present, except for Ald. Weber who was excused.
2. Approval of the
Agenda.
A
motion was made by Ald. Theisen, seconded by Ald. Deneys, and carried to approve the agenda.
3. Approval of the
minutes of the Finance Committee meeting of July 14, 2009.
A
motion was made by Ald. Theisen, seconded by Ald. Deneys, and carried to approve the minutes of the Finance
Committee meeting of July 14, 2009.
Finance
Director Dawn Foeller wanted to clarify item #5 in the minutes. Specifically, Riverfront Lofts, LLC and other John Vetter companies do not owe any
taxes.
4. Request by the Comptroller to present the
City’s 2008 Annual Financial Report and the Management Letter.
Tom
Karman, a partner at Schenck Solutions, presented the
Financial Report and Management Letter to the committee. The City received the Certificate of
Achievement for excellence in financial reporting from the Government Finance
Officers Association (GFOA). This is a
national award whereby all municipal entities may submit their financial
statements to this program for review.
They are looking to see that the reports consist of the required
financial information in addition to demographical and statistical information
that further describes the operations of the City. The City was 1 out of 45 that submitted its financial
statements for review. Bond agencies and
rating agencies review these financial reports, so this is quite the
achievement.
The City’s
General Fund Balance is within the range of the GFOA recommendation of 5 to 15
percent of operating general fund operating revenue. The Undesignated General Fund balance is at a
9% funding level of general fund revenues based on the 2009 City Budget. With that said, Finance Director, Dawn
Foeller, has requested RWBaird to provide what
guidelines Moody’s uses when rating the City’s debt. Currently, the City is rated an Aa2 and
wishes to remain at that level in order to keep interest rates on the City’s
debt as low as it can.
A
motion was made by Ald. Deneys, seconded by Ald. Theisen, and carried to receive and place on file the
City’s 2008 Annual Financial Report and the Management Letter.
5. Request by the City Attorney to submit the quarterly
report of the Claims Committee.
A
motion was made by Ald. Deneys, seconded by Ald. Theisen, and carried to receive and place on file the
quarterly report of the Claims Committee.
6. Request by Ald.
DeWane to have the Finance Director discuss with Robert W. Baird & Company,
the City’s financial advisors, the ability for the City to restructure any of
the City’s debt to reduce the burden on the City taxpayer.
A
motion was made by Ald. Theisen, seconded by Ald. Deneys, and carried to hold the item until the next meeting.
7. Request by Ald.
Dewane to have the Finance Director discuss the impact
of the Younkers litigation on the City’s debt structure.
A
motion was made by Ald. Theisen, seconded by Ald. Deneys, and carried to hold the item until the next
meeting.
8. Request by Park
Director for Additional Funds to Replace City Hall Doors.
Keith
Wilhelm spoke on the need to replace the original doors that have been in use
for 52 years. They started to look into
replacing the doors a few years back and were working with Berner
Schroeber on the design and the type of security the
City needed. They decided upon
electronic doors that would require a key and/or code system to get in. Additional upgrades can be done to these
doors in the future.
Ald. VanderLeest inquired about the general public’s use of
these doors. They will operate the same
way, with the only difference being they will lock electronically from a
centralized location as opposed to locking each door separately, thus making
the building more secure.
Ald. Deneys asked if the City engineers looked into different
options. Mr. Wilhelm said that they did
and settled on the key pad system that could be upgraded in the future.
A
motion was made by Ald. Deneys, seconded by Ald. Theisen, and carried to approve the use of contingency
money to fund the additional $12,000 to replace City Hall doors.
9. Request by the
Fire Chief to approve the amended contract for EMS Billing Service.
Fire Chief Jeff
Roemer explained that he met with EMS Billing Services to discuss possible ways
to make the EMS billing process more efficient. The contract with EMS Billing
is being extended from a two to a five year contract. Additionally, they are changing records
management software to Image Trend. This
software will send the City’s EMS run information electronically instead of on
paper, thus greatly improving the billing process and likely increasing
revenue.
With the
changes listed above, Ms. Foeller explained that EMS Billing Services agreed to
reduce the City’s commission rate from 8% to 7% effective May 1, 2009, with a
further reduction from 7% to 6.5% upon implementation of Image Trend.
A motion was made by Ald. Theisen,
seconded by Ald. Deneys, and carried to approve the
amended contract for EMS Billing Service.
10. Request by the Fire
Chief to approve the Memorandum of Understanding between Brown County Emergency
Management and the City of Green Bay regarding use of the Emergency Operation
Center.
Fire Chief Jeff Roemer was appointed Emergency Management
Director for the City and explained that the City needs to establish an
Emergency Operation Center for major disasters that is staffed by department
heads and decision-making people from both the County and City. In the past it has been handled solely by
Brown County without any input from City officials, but making it a joint
undertaking will enhance response and preparedness in the event of an emergency
for both the County and City.
A motion was made by Ald. Theisen,
seconded by Ald. Deneys, and carried to approve the
Memorandum of Understanding between Brown County Emergency Management and the
City of Green Bay regarding use of the Emergency Operation Center.
11. Report of the
Purchasing Agent:
a. Report
purchase of one San Lefthand SATA Starter San with Installation Service for the
amount of $27,280 from Camera Corner.
Finance Director Dawn Foeller explained that
this server is a critical piece of equipment that went down a few weeks ago. It hosts all of the City’s documents, so no one
was able to access the data on the network.
The vendor of the current server was not as
responsive when the City looked into fixing versus replacing, but Camera Corner
was willing and able to provide the City with one in the meantime. This ultimately led to the emergency decision
to purchase this piece from Camera Corner as a replacement (competitive bids
were received), with the possibility of having the old server host less
critical data if need be.
A motion was made by Ald. Deneys,
seconded by Ald. Theisen, and carried to receive and
place on file the purchase of one San Lefthand SATA
Starter San with Installation Service for the amount of $27,280 from Camera
Corner.
b. Request
approval to award one additional San Lefthand SATA Starter San with
Installation Service for the amount of $27,280 and one care pack 3 year support
+24 LHN Dual Sys San Sol for $3150.00 from Camera Corner.
Ms. Foeller explained that the City would
like to purchase another server to be utilized as disaster recovery. The servers will mirror one another so that
we can utilize a back-up server in the event that one dies. The funds are accounted for in the City’s
Information Services capital.
A motion was made by Ald. Theisen,
seconded by Ald. Deneys, and carried to approve the
award of one additional San Lefthand SATA Starter San
with Installation service for the amount of $27,280 and one care pack 3 year
support +24 LHN Dual Sys San Sol for $3150.00 from Camera Corner, which will
cover the City Hall SAN unit.
12. Request by the
Green Bay Water Utility to approve the Wholesale Water Service Agreement
between the City of Green Bay and the Village of Hobart.
The
Committee may convene in closed session pursuant to Sections 19.85(1)(e), Wis. Stats., for purposes of deliberating or
negotiating the sale of public properties, investing of public funds or
conducting other specified public business as necessary for competitive or
bargaining reasons. The Committee may
thereafter reconvene in open session pursuant to Section 19.85(2), Wis. Stats.,
to report the results of the closed session and consider the balance of the
agenda.
Bill Nabek, General Manager for
the Water Utility, spoke on this item.
The City used its agreement with the Village of Ashwaubenon
as a guideline when drafting its agreement with the Village of Hobart.
Hobart assured the City that it would pay for 200,000
gallons per day minimum. Hobart has
agreed to the same rate Ashwaubenon is buying water
from us. The rates will increase with an
industry increase. The City has made
projections all the way out to 2030, and assurances are there that the City
will not lose money on this deal. This
opens a corridor for the City in the event Oneida and Suamico
would be interested in purchasing water from the City. It also helps protect Green Bay customers and
keeps rates low.
A motion was made by Ald. Deneys,
seconded by Ald. Theisen, and carried to approve the
Wholesale Water Service Agreement between the City of Green Bay and the Village
of Hobart.
13. Overtime report
A motion was made by Ald. Theisen,
seconded by Ald. Deneys, and carried to receive and
place on file.
14. Finance Director’s Report:
a. Budget
Status report through June 2009
Ms.
Foeller drew attention to a few items that are below budget:
·
Interest
revenue
·
Land
sales
·
Building
and heating permits
·
Sale
of scrap
She also highlighted some positive points in the budget:
·
Collection
of ordinance violations
·
Rescue
squad fees
·
Reimbursement
from the Nitschke Bridge
b. Effect
of the 2009-2010 State Budget to the City
See
attached memo for details.
A motion was made by Ald. Deneys,
seconded by Ald. Theisen, and carried to receive and
place on file.
2009
Contingency Fund
$62,130.00
1). THIS MEETING IS AUDIO TAPED:
THE AUDIO OF THIS MEETING & MINUTES ARE AVAILABLE ON LINE AT
2). ACCESSIBILITY: Any person wishing to
attend who, because of a disability, requires special accommodation should
contact the City Safety Manager at 448-3125 at least 48 hours before the
scheduled meeting time so that arrangements can be made.
3). QUORUM: 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.
4). REPRESENTATION:
The party requesting the communication, or their representative should be
present at this meeting.
Recording Secretary: Andrea Canadeo