MINUTES
FINANCE COMMITTEE
MEMBERS: Chairman Tony Theisen, Steven Deneys, Guy
Zima, and Patrick Buckley
1. Roll Call.
Roll
call was taken and all were present except Ald. Zima.
2. Approval
of the Agenda.
Chairman Theisen suggested the committee take
up item #6 first and all agreed.
A
motion was made by Ald. Deneys, seconded by Ald. Buckley, and carried to
approve the agenda as amended.
3. Approval of the minutes of the Finance
Committee meeting of June 9, 2010.
A
motion was made by Ald. Deneys, seconded by Ald. Buckley, and carried to
approve the minutes of the Finance Committee meeting of June 9, 2010.
6. Request by the Finance Committee to discuss and
potentially approve waiving some of the fees the City incurred for the LZ
Lambeau event held on May 21-23, 2010.
Several people appeared before the committee
to speak on this event. A motion to
suspend the rules and open the floor to the public was made by Ald. Deneys,
seconded by Ald. Buckley, and carried.
James Steinbach, the Director of Television
for Wisconsin Public Television, explained that the event was a huge
success. The organization raised $1.3
million and it cost approximately $1.7 million.
The shortfall is to be made up of funds from three partners and this
should be seen as an invitation to the City to participate in this event
financially if it chooses to. This was
an historic event for the City of Green Bay.
Ald. Theisen explained the City incorporates
such co-sponsorships in its budget, such as the Fourth of July
celebration. Had the City known about
this ahead of time, it may have been in a better position to co-sponsor LZ
Lambeau.
At this point Ald. Zima arrived.
The Luxemburg-Casco High School Community
Problem Solving Team appeared and gave thanks to the City of Green Bay for the
LZ Lambeau event as both a learning opportunity for the students and a
memorable moment of appreciation for veterans and the whole community. The group’s 25 team members volunteered their
time as student tour guides and assisted veterans throughout the event. Several spoke about their personal
experiences with veterans at the event.
Joanne Pipinberg, 1524 Ellis St., commended
the students on their involvement in the event.
Though a patriotic person herself, she wanted to remind the committee
that this is a financial issue, not an emotional one.
A motion was made by Ald. Zima to return to
the regular order of business, seconded by Ald. Deneys, and carried.
Ald. Theisen said he would like to see the
City provide some financial support to the LZ Lambeau event retroactively. He also has asked Brown County to contribute
as well.
Ald. Zima asked a question in reference to
the supporting budget documentation the committee members were provided, and it
was clarified that final bills were not necessarily paid. For the most part, any bill that comes in is
paid within 30 days. When an estimated
bill came in, the actual number would be documented and marked “final” to
signify that is the final amount due.
Ald. Buckley asked if they know what has and
has not been paid. They could not tell
because bills come in and are dispersed among the different partners.
Ald. Zima commented on how the organization
does not seem to know the status of its bills.
Kathy Bissen, finance manager for the event, explained the bills are
paid within the standard business practice of 30 days by the three
organizations that collaboratively put on the event: the Friends of Wisconsin Public Television,
the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Wisconsin Historical
Society. Wisconsin Public Television is
the fiscal agent.
Currently, the LZ Lambeau event subtotal is
$1,080,000.
Ald. Zima stated that it appears the
promoters are not able to honor their commitment to pay for the event and are
using an emotional appeal to get money from the City of Green Bay. He asked how much the budget was and how they
planned to pay for the event. Ms. Bissen
stated that it depends on the period of time throughout the project. She explained the project was started three
years ago and the budget has been a moving number that has changed over time.
Ald. Zima does not understand why they are
retroactively seeking money from the City of Green Bay and why the three large
organizations that decided to put on the event cannot pay for it. The City of Green Bay lives within a budget
and is accountable to the taxpayer.
Mr. Steinbach said the City has a choice to
contribute or not contribute, and he understands Ald. Zima’s choice is to not
contribute.
Ald. Zima asked why their concessions did not
generate a profit in the budget. Mr.
Steinbach explained that it was shared with the volunteer groups who manned the
booths. Ald. Zima does not understand
why they did not profit from such high concessions.
Ms. Bissen explained that they respected each
contributor’s business model and did not question how much they profited off
their business models. Levy was generous
enough to reduce its rates by pricing of there concessions up to 20% so that
the event goers would benefit from the reduced pricing.
Ald. Buckley asked who the LZ Lambeau Event Director
is and Ms. Bissen responded that it is John Jones, and he is employed by all
three groups. Finance and Administrative fees are last in
line to get reimbursed.
Ms. Bissen went through some of the
expenditures in the budget regarding the documentary, website, promotional
efforts, etc.
Ald. Buckley asked how much of the $1.7
million of expenses is going to be reimbursed back to all of the three
organizing partners that put on the event.
Ms. Bissen could give a rough estimate but not an actual amount. She outlined a few of the line items that
would be reimbursed for services.
Ald. Buckley asked who was in charge of the
overall budget. Ms. Bissen oversaw the
expenses as they were being determined and then consulted the steering
committee. There were expenses along the
way that they chose not to do because it did not seem a prudent use of project
money. She ran through a few examples of
those things they decided not to do.
Ald. Buckley asked why they came in way over
budget on several items and who was responsible for it. Ms. Bissen explained that they estimated
early on given their best guess and some items were easier to estimate than
others. They had to adjust their budget
throughout the process as they were provided estimates by the contributing
organizations. Additionally, the
fundraising efforts were very successful and the budget was adjusted
accordingly. Mr. Steinbach explained
that he authorized the overage. They
felt certain items were necessary and important to the event, so they decided
to do it and find a way to pay for it.
The bills will get paid. The
simple question before the committee is if the City wants to contribute.
Ald. Buckley asked if they had ever asked the
City for donations prior to the event.
Mr. Jones explained the Police and Fire estimates were given this year
and there were preliminary discussions with the Mayor and Council. However, given the budget was a moving
target, they decided to come to the City after the final cost was
determined. Adjustments to Police and
Fire services were made continuously up to the days of the event, including the
days of the event.
Ald. Buckley summarized his frustrations over
the lack of regard for the budget and their decision to go grossly over budget
on certain items and expect the three partners to pay for it. Mr. Buckley thought LZ Lambeau was not
discussed with Council prior to the event, but Mr. Jones said that some Council
members were consulted about the process, as well as the Mayor. They were supportive of the project, but did
not offer financial support. Ald.
Buckley continued that he has a problem with some of the money being asked of
the City of Green Bay going back to reimburse the three organizers budgets. The taxpayers of Green Bay do not give the
City money to fund those organizations.
Mr. Steinbach stated that the organizations
are part of the entire cost of putting on the event and all the bills have to
be paid. He was aware of the potential
loss this could be every step of the way and acknowledged that they were
willing to cover the loss.
Ald. Deneys asked how they determined the
crowd size in assessing the Fire and Police services required. Mr. Jones explained that this was a four day
event. Thursday was the arrival and
introduction of the moving wall. Friday
students were attending, so they had projections on the number of school buses
that would be arriving. Friday afternoon
was a motorcycle ride, and they knew the approximate number of people involved
in that. They knew about buses that were
bringing veterans from out of town.
Saturday there were ticket sales for the event. Ticket Star was able to provide projections,
as well as the Convention and Visitors Bureau.
There was intense polling of hotels to assess the number of rooms being
booked with approximately 5,300 rooms booked just for this event. Over the four days, there was an estimated
70,000 people that came to the event.
Finance Director, Dawn Foeller, explained that
Police and Fire used a matrix, directly from the special events ordinance, to
determine the staffing needed for an event like this. The police department was able to relieve some
staff throughout the course of the event based on the measured risk which
considerably reduced the cost of providing police service from its estimate for
the event.
Ald. Deneys asked Ms. Foeller how the Police
Chiefs planned to make adjustments to fund this. She said Chief Arts would hold positions
open.
Ald. Theisen believes the Police Department
overestimated its services which is why officers were sent home. Ms. Bissers said the police force was
determined by time of day and type of people expected to attend.
Ald. Theisen believes the City would be in
favor of sponsoring the event had it been asked beforehand. He also mentioned another unit of government,
the Professional Stadium District, which gets half a percent of our sales
tax. The Lambeau Field Atrium was built
by the Brown County tax payers. Renting
the Atrium was over $23,000, renting the bowl was $50,000, and renting the
Lambeau parking lot was $25,500. The
Stadium District is a unit of government that gets its money from sales tax. In an event like this, the Stadium District
will make money while the City of Green Bay loses money, which does not make
sense to Ald. Theisen. Perhaps they
should ask the Stadium District to be a co-sponsor if this was a huge
moneymaker for them.
Ms. Bisser explained the Stadium District’s
80% share of parking revenue was to be donated to the project. Also, it gave the lowest of the daily rates
for rental of the Atrium and dropped it by another 15%. Ald. Theisen believes they could have done a
lot better if they had nothing else lined up for that weekend.
Ald. Theisen made a motion to co-sponsor the
event for $25,000 and Ald. Deneys seconded.
Motion went under discussion.
Ald. Wiezbiskie spoke and apologized for
interrupting the meeting, but felt it necessary to acknowledge that this is a
fiscal decision and not an emotional one.
They came to ask the City for a gift to help soften the blow, and he is supportive
of that. He also believes the County
should contribute money as well.
Ald. DeWane explained that he did not know
any Council members were involved in this event at all. He asked Mr. Jones if he was asked by City
staff to come back after the event. Mr.
Jones explained that the conversation they had with the Mayor and County
Executive was very close to the event.
The Mayor recognized that because they were so close to the event, they
should come back later once they had all the information needed to address the
Finance Committee and Council. Ald.
DeWane said that they knew they were going to ask for a donation when they were
discussing cost with Police and Fire.
Ald.
Wery addressed the Committee and stated you cannot really remove the emotion
when talking about this event. Since
this is an extraordinary event, the City needs to address what it values as a
community. For him, we value welcoming
our veterans’ home. This should be
important to the City.
Ald.
Sortwell asked if there was any apology to the veterans at the event for the
lack of a proper homecoming for the soldiers.
Ald. Theisen believes the question is being asked to the wrong people
and is an inappropriate question and asked that Ald. Sortwell stick to the
motion. Ald. Sortwell said the Council
is being asked to decide if the taxpayer should fund this event, and his
contention is that the merits of the event should not be acknowledged until an
apology is issued.
Dave
Deniel said that the event was a healing event for many in attendance, and he
thanked the sponsors for the event. He
believes taxpayers would want the City to honor those people.
Ald.
Theisen addressed his concern over holding open Police and Fire positions for
this when neighborhoods are in need of protection, so he will be more specific
in his motion. His motion is to take the
$25,000 out of the contingency fund. As
the seconding party, Ald. Deneys stated he was fine with that addition to the
motion on the floor.
Ald.
Buckley stated he does not believe this should be just a burden by the City of
Green Bay when people came from all over the State. Additionally, the taxpayer already funds the
three organizations through their taxes.
Ald. Buckley does not support the motion.
Ald.
Deneys asked Ms. Foeller how using contingency money would affect the City
moving forward. In addition to the
remaining $50,000 contingency, the City has approximately $190,000 on its
balance sheet. The balance sheet money
is used as an emergency fund to cover costs the City does not anticipate during
budget time.
Ald.
Zima expressed his disappointment with LZ Lameau’s budget planning and lack of
responsibility in organizational decision-making. If they are prepared to absorb the loss with
their own budgets if the City declines to participate, then that is what they
should do. Taxes are not charitable
dollars. The City has set its budget,
and he is not prepared to make a charitable contribution on behalf of the
taxpayer. It would set a bad
precedent. Police and Fire gave accurate
estimates for its services that the event organizers accepted. He cannot support this.
The
Mayor explained that they have been involved in planning this for one and a
half years. The organizers were aware of
the costs involved with doing an event at Lambeau. The Friday before the event he received a
call from Mr. Jones who expressed some revenues were falling short of
projections while expenses were running a bit high, and Ashwaubenon waived some
of its fees. The Mayor explained that he
did not have the authority to waive those fees and that there is a process in
place whereby they could come to Finance and City Council to ask for an
adjustment. He would support adjusting
some of its fees with contingency money, but it is up to the Common
Council. If it comes down to a tie vote,
the Mayor will support participating as a co-sponsor.
Ald.
Theisen said he wants the City to retroactively cosponsor the event. He called for a vote on the motion on the
floor. Ald. Deneys voted in favor, while
Ald. Zima and Ald. Buckley voted against the motion. The motion to waive $25,000 of LZ Lambeau
fees with contingency money failed with two voting in favor and two voting
against.
7. Request by the
Finance Committee to review the operating budget for the roller coaster ride at
Bay Beach.
Mayor Schmidt ran through a memo prepared by
Finance Director Dawn Foeller explaining assumptions made during preparation of
the roller coaster budget. Please see
attachment following the minutes for details.
Mayor Schmidt specified that this roller
coaster is an addition to an already profitable amusement park. The bond will be paid off in ten years and
the roller coaster will continue to generate an approximate $279,000 profit for
the City thereafter.
Ald. Theisen believes it is important that
this budget is considered in relationship to all known history of the current
rides at Bay Beach. Estimates for other
rides have exceeded expectations in the past.
Ms. Foeller went through the Zippin Pippin’s
estimated revenues and expenses. Ald.
Zima stated the figures are not what were originally presented to Council the
night the roller coaster was passed. He
wants to establish benchmarks based on historical revenues and expenses.
Ms. Foeller went through the document she
prepared of historical Bay Beach revenues and expenses from 1992 through
2009. The figures were taken from the
actuals.
Ald. Zima would have liked to have seen these
documents presented to the Common Council prior to voting on the roller
coaster. The Council was originally told
the roller coaster would generate $200,000 in revenue and cost around $38,000
per year. The current operating budget
shows $383,738 in revenue and $355,828 in total expenses, a far cry from the
original estimates.
Ms. Foeller explained the current operating
budget is based on 75% capacity of one train of the roller coaster at $1 a
ride.
Ald. Zima asked why the administrative
expenses of the two administrative staff that work at Bay Beach were not
included in the expenses portion of the Zippin Pippin. Ms. Foeller stated that half their time is
spent overseeing the entire Bay Beach Park and half of it is spent overseeing Triangle
Sports Area. The Bay Beach budget, as a
whole, included fifty percent of those staff members but none of their time was
directly included in the roller coaster budget itself. Ald. Zima feels a portion of their salary and
fringes should then be added to the expenses portion of the Zippin Pippin
budget. Additionally, park employee
expenses should also be added, even if they are budgeted for in the park
department. Ms. Foeller pointed out that
she did include two park employees for three hours a day for each day the Beach
is open in the roller coaster budget.
Ald. Zima wants to know what all the costs are, otherwise the profits
are overstated.
Ald. Zima referred to the historical revenue
and expense information that was handed out by Ms. Foeller and asked whether or
not administrative staff or park maintenance workers were included in the total
expenses provided. Ms. Foeller stated that
neither the administrative expenses nor park maintenance workers were not
included in the expenses provided and that historically, administrative
expenses have been charged to the Park and Recreation administrative budget and
the park maintenance workers charged to the park shop budget, not the Bay Beach
budget itself. She is a proponent of program
budgeting for the entire City but it would require a huge paradigm shift in how
the budgets have been put together in the past.
Ald. Zima asked that Ms. Foeller add two additional columns to the
historical data one column to show the administrative staff and the second
column to show an allocation of park maintenance employees’ expense. By doing this, you will now set a baseline to
compare future operations to and its represents the correct costs for the
operations of Bay Beach.
As far as the revenue projection, Ald. Zima
feels that it will take a year of operations in order to have an idea as to the
accuracy of that projection and establish future year projections. He asked Ms. Foeller about the roller
coaster’s impact on other Bay Beach rides, whether it will increase ridership
through overall park attendance or perhaps take away ridership from other
rides. Ms. Foeller spoke with nine
different amusement parks throughout the United States when putting together
her projections. Two amusement parks
that implemented roller coasters saw an increase in attendance by approximately
30-31% in the first year after introducing a new coaster. In years that followed the introduction, one
of the parks said the revenues leveled off a bit and other saw a small decrease
from the original 30% but still had an increase in revenues from before the
introduction of the new coaster.
Ald. Zima wants to make sure that the revenue
for the Zippin Pippin be tracked separately, whether it be through a different
ticket color or a type of counter system.
Ald. Theisen suggested taking up items #4 and
#5 for the people waiting to speak on those items and revisiting item #7 later.
The discussion resumed regarding the
allocation of administrative expenses of two administrative staff. It was determined the two staff will spend
approximately 30% of their time on the roller coaster. The expenses added to the roller coaster
budget will be $28,404.
The next budget item discussed was
maintenance of the roller coaster. Two
park maintenance staff will inspect the roller coaster on a daily basis (114
days of operation) for approximately three hours in the morning which will cost
$20,520 a year. This amount was included
in the roller coaster budget presented.
Ald. Zima also asked for clarification on
security for the park. The addition of a
roller coaster will likely increase attendance, and it is essential to
determine the cost of security with respect to the possible influx of the
teenage demographic. Ms. Foeller stated the roller coaster budget handed out
did include a security guard for all hours the park is open. She did this after conferring with the police
chief asking about security. Chief Arts
stated that the police department has a presence currently at the park using
current staff. The Chief also told Ms. Foeller
that should an incident arise, they could use the community police response
team to handle the situation. The Chief
also told Ms. Foeller that the park has been pretty quite for the 2010 season.
Ald.
Theisen suggested referring the item to the Police Department to review the
special events matrix and provide committee with an opinion. Ald. Buckley
suggested increasing the security budget by $40,000 with the addition of at
least one uniformed police officer on duty during all hours of operation. Ms. Foeller settled on $45,480 based on a
$40/hour wage multiplied by 1,137 hours of operation a year. The committee decided to then remove the
security officer position from the budget.
Ald. Zima also wanted to review property
insurance. Ms. Foeller said the Risk
Manager believes the City will incur some general liability from 1-3% of ride
revenue dependent upon design of roller coaster and any mitigating risks. Ms. Foeller decided to use the 3% in the
budget, $11,512, until the City has a better idea. The City’s maximum liability will be $50,000.
Ms. Foeller explained the utilities for the
roller coaster are for the launch ramp, she used the estimate that was given to
her from the Park Director of $3,000. This amount was included in the roller
coaster budget and appears to be reasonable since the City currently spends
approximately $7,500 on electricity for all its rides.
Ald. Zima also brought up the need for
additional parking and a method for determining how much parking will be needed
to accommodate increased attendance. Ms.
Foeller stated the only method for assessing attendance is currently based on
ticket sales, not the actual number of bodies entering the park on a given
day. Ald. Buckley suggested having a
university group run a survey of the park/parking lots in order to establish a
more substantial figure. Ms. Foeller
also mentioned there is money available in the Bay Beach capital improvement
fund was established in 2000 in anticipation of adding additional amenities to
the park. Ald. Zima wants to see these
additional costs detailed in the budget based on reasonable projections.
A motion was made by Ald. Deneys, seconded by
Ald, Buckley, and carried to refer back to staff the additional items discussed
and to bring the updates back to the next Finance Committee meeting.
4. Review of the Housing Authority financials.
Housing
Administrator, Robyn Hallet, walked through the three program budgets.
A
motion was made by Ald. Zima, seconded by Ald. Deneys, and carried to receive
and place on file.
5. Report
of the Purchasing Agent:
a. Award Elevator
Maintenance Contract (3 year + 2 renewal years) Kone, under the US Communities
Contract, for the amount of $97,260 paid annually at $32,420.
Purchasing
Agent, Julie Van Oss, explained the City has 17 locations with required
maintenance. A full maintenance contract
will save money in the long run. There
will be 15 elevators serviced under a full maintenance contract and 2 elevators
serviced under standard maintenance.
Standard maintenance involves quarterly preventive maintenance while a
full maintenance contract covers the quarterly preventive maintenance as well
as any follow-up repairs. Had the City
had a full maintenance contract last year, it could have saved $20,000 in
expenses for additional repairs.
A
motion was made by Ald. Deneys, seconded by Ald. Buckley, and carried to
approve.
b. Award one Ambulance to Foster Coach for the
amount of $136,280.66
This
ambulance is budgeted for and will replace one that has high mileage. Fire Chief Roemer explained the funds were
taken out of the capital equipment budget and moved to the operating budget.
A
motion was made by Ald. Deneys, seconded by Ald. Buckley, and carried to
approve.
c. Award Microsoft Enterprise 6.6 Agreement (3 year
renewal) to CDW, under the State of WI Contract, for the amount of $217,461.12,
paid annually at $72,487.04. Last three
years of a six year agreement.
Ms.
Foeller explained this is years 4, 5 and 6 of a 6 year contract. The City originally approved the first three
years and this is to renew the remaining three years before the State will be
required to rebid. It will cover all
City entities including the Water Utility, Transit, and Parking Utility. This is a better value for the City instead
of purchasing the individual packages separately.
Ms.
Van Oss explained this is a competitive bid through the State of Wisconsin
Contract. The package includes technical
training and on-site consultation.
Overall, the package is an approximate savings of $81,000.
A
motion was made by Ald. Deneys, seconded by Ald. Buckley, and carried to
approve.
d. Award
Playground Equipment for two City parks to two vendors, for a total of
$67,490.10. Minnesota Playground the
amount of $20,000 and Lee Recreation the amount of $47,490.10
The
City has planned to upgrade five of its parks.
A request for proposal was conducted resulting in two possible
solutions. The team decided upon the
vendor that provided the best creative solutions for the City Parks based on
specifications and quality standards. Ms.
Van Oss requested the City contribute $20,000 for Chappell School since the PTO
contributed $15,000 in fundraising and Green Bay Schools contributed $20,000 to
upgrade the equipment that is around 20 years old and no longer compliant.
A
motion was made by Ald. Deneys, seconded by Ald. Theisen, and carried to
approve.
e. Report
the purchase of one used Mini-van for the Police Department to Broadway
Automotive for the amount of $15,909.
Ald. Theisen would like to see the City keep
track of every vehicle it purchases and the total cost per mile in order to
move toward a trend of purchasing quality used vehicles.
A motion was made by Ald. Deneys, seconded by
Ald. Buckley, and carried to approve.
A
motion was made by Ald. Deneys, seconded by Ald. Buckley, and carried to
adjourn. The meeting adjourned at 9:00
p.m.
2010 Contingency Fund
$51,300.08