MINUTES
FINANCE COMMITTEE
MEMBERS: Chairman John Vander Leest, Tony Theisen, Tom Weber, and Steven Deneys
OTHERS
PRESENT: Dawn Foeller, Allison Swanson,
Angie Dart
1. Roll Call.
Vice Chairman Ald. Theisen
called the meeting to order. All were
present except for Chairman Vander Leest who had not yet arrived.
2. Approval
of the Agenda.
A motion was made by Ald. Weber, seconded by
Ald. Deneys, and carried to approve the agenda.
3. Approval of the minutes of the Finance
Committee meeting of January 26, 2010.
A
motion was by Ald. Weber, seconded by Ald. Deneys,
and carried to approve the minutes of the Finance Committee meeting of January
26, 2010.
A motion was made by
Ald. Weber, seconded by Ald. Deneys, and carried to
hold item 4 until Ald. Vander Leest arrived and take up item #5 out of order.
5. Request by Ald. Kocha to
discuss the effect of the lawsuit filed by Ald. Vander Leest against the City
and its impact on the City’s budget.
City Attorney,
Allison Swanson, explained the City has a self-insured retention (SIR), which
is essentially a deductible, of $150,000.
The SIR increased to $200,000 for 2010.
Finance Director,
Dawn Foeller, added that claims are categorized by department and then charged
back to the respective department’s insurance budget line item. With respect to the Vander Leest case, the
$150,000 would be charged to the Police Department under Dept Insurance
Charges.
At this time, Ald.
Vander Leest arrived.
Attorney Swanson
stated the City has done well containing claims overall. The only possible claim that could exceed the
2010 SIR of $200,000 would be the Santos case.
If there were a multitude of claims that exceeded the SIR, it could
increase the City’s premium rate. Such
an increase would not take effect until 2013 since the City’s premium rates are
locked in for three years (2010-2012).
Ms. Foeller explained
that the City has set up a specific fund to account for its General Liability
Claims. In budgeting for this fund, she
looks at two pieces – the insurance premium and the claims. The value of the estimated liability claims
for a new budget year is based on five years of actual claims paid and one year
of annualized claims, which includes all claims against the City, large and
small. So for 2010, she used claims paid
from 2004-2008 plus the annualized value for 2009.The amount budgeted for
claims were $331,770.
A motion was made by
Ald. Deneys, seconded by Ald. Weber, and carried to
receive and place on file. Ald. Vander
Leest abstained.
Ald. Vander Leest
took over as Chairman.
4. Request by Ald. Vander Leest to review how
all pending lawsuits against the City of Green Bay impact the City of Green Bay
and the City budget. If current lawsuits
still pending were filed in previous years, the total costs of each lawsuit
should be presented.
Ms. Foeller explained the City levied
$530,000 in 2010 for insurance premiums and claims. She also reiterated the change in the SIR to
$200,000 for 2010. The Younkers
litigation fell outside the scope of the City’s General Liability Fund, so the
City took out a $5.6 million loan that is being repaid through the debt service
fund.
|
Case |
Legal Expenses |
|
|
Younkers |
$ 763,021.30 |
not covered by insurance
therefore expenses have been bonded |
|
Appleton Papers (PCB) |
$ 67,395.40 |
Additional legal expenses
to be reimbursed by insurance carriers |
|
Lerch v.
City of Green Bay |
$ 15,656.89 |
$150,000 SIR |
|
Vander Leest v. City of Green Bay |
$ 36,352.59 |
$150,000 SIR |
|
Waldron v. City of Green Bay |
$ 4,200.00 |
$150,000 SIR |
|
Santos v. City of Green Bay |
$
- |
$200,000 SIR |
|
Total |
$ 886,626.18 |
|
Attorney Swanson reviewed the list of pending
lawsuits and noted the City will receive approximately $34,000 back from our
insurance carrier for the PCB litigation.
A motion was made by Ald. Deneys,
seconded by Ald. Theisen, and carried to receive and
place on file the review and total costs of all pending lawsuits against the
City of Green Bay and their impact on the City of Green Bay and the City
budget.
6. Request by Ald. Vander Leest to bring back
before the Finance Committee recommended changes to the ordinances
incorporating language that would attach a fiscal impact to resolutions or
ordinances passed by the Common Council, where possible, and to create a budget
task force committee.
The
committee discussed the possible structure and member orientation of the
proposed Budget Task Force (BTF). Ald.
Weber and Ald. Deneys want to ensure that this standing
committee act as an advisory committee to Council and department heads in
preparation for the budget. The
committee should report out to the Finance Committee, which will in turn report
to Council. Having a committee composed
of members from various industries and public and private sectors will provide
alternative viewpoints and additional insight into budget preparation.
Being
that Chairman Vander Leest proposed the idea for the BTF, it was suggested that
he compose a bullet point list outlining what he envisions for this committee.
A
motion was made by Ald. Weber, seconded by Ald. Theisen,
and carried to hold up discussion of the Budget Task Force (BTF) standing
committee until the next Finance Committee meeting and have the Finance
Committee Chair draft bullet points of recommendations for the structure and
member orientation of the BTF.
A
motion was made by Ald. Theisen, seconded by Ald. Deneys, and carried to approve the addition of the fiscal
impact statement to ordinance 2.06.
7. Request by the
Finance Director, on behalf of the City Assessor, to cancel certain real and
personal property taxes.
The
committee went through each of the requests.
A
motion was made by Ald. Weber, seconded by Ald. Deneys,
and carried to approve the request by the Finance Director, on behalf of the
City Assessor, to cancel certain real and personal property taxes.
8. Request by the Finance Director to move a
certain amount of postage dollars from Police and Municipal Court budgeted line
items to the print shop postage account to cover the cost of processing the
respective departments postage now being processed
through the print shop.
A
motion was made by Ald. Weber, seconded by Ald. Deneys,
and carried to approve the request by the Finance Director to move $9,000 from
Police and $7,300 from the Municipal Court budgeted
line items to the print shop postage account to cover the cost of processing
the respective departments’ postage now being processed through the print shop.
9. Request by the Finance Director to submit a
reimbursement resolution at the next Common Council meeting in regards to the
Military Avenue reconstruction/development contract work to begin before the
City actually goes out to borrow the money for this project. The City would use funds on hand to make the
appropriate payments to the contractor and seeks to recoup those dollars once
the bond issue has been completed.
Ms.
Foeller explained the need to draft a reimbursement resolution in the amount of
$8,109,000, the City’s portion of the entire project, which will enable the
City to borrow the money at a later date to reimburse funds on hand that may be used to pay contractors.
A
motion was made by Ald. Deneys, seconded by Ald. Weber,
and carried to approve the request by the Finance Director to submit a
reimbursement resolution at the next Common Council meeting in regards to the
Military Avenue reconstruction/development contract work to begin before the
City actually goes out to borrow the money for this project. The value of the reimbursement resolution
will be $8,109,000, which is the City’s portion of this entire project. The City would use funds on hand to make the
appropriate payments to the contractor and seeks to recoup those dollars once
the bond issue has been completed.
A motion was
made by Ald. Weber, seconded by Ald. Deneys, and
carried to adjourn. The meeting
adjourned at 6:30 p.m.
2010 Contingency Fund
$51,300.08