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HomeMy Public PortalAbout2016_tcmin0312 Budget Work Session COUNCIL BUDGET WORK SESSION March 12, 2016 Council Chambers, 25 West Market Street, 9 a.m. Mayor David S. Butler presiding. Council Members Present: Kelly Burk,Thomas Dunn, Suzanne Fox, Katie Sheldon Hammler, and Mayor Butler. Council Members Absent; Marty Martinez. Staff Present: Town Manager Kaj Dentler, Deputy Town Manager Keith Markel, Town Attorney Barbara Notar, Assistant Town Manager Tom Mason, Assistant Town Manager Scott Parker, Director of Plan Review Bill Ackman, Director of Parks and Recreation Rich Williams, Director of Utilities Amy Wyks, Director of Planning and Zoning Susan Berry Hill, Interim Chief of Police Vanessa Grigsby, Director of Economic Development Marantha Edwards, Director of Capital Projects and Public Works Renee Lafollette, Deputy Director of Parks and Recreation Kate Trask, Deputy Director of Finance and Administrative Services Lisa Haley, Deputy Director of Utilities Robert Etris, Library Manager Alexandra Gressitt, Information Technology Manager Annie Carlson, Airport Manager Scott Coffman, Deputy Director of Capital Projects Tom Brandon, Deputy Director of Public Works Charlie Mumaw, Senior Management Analyst Jason Cournoyer, Senior Management Analyst Cole Fazenbaker, Business Development Manager Kindra Jackson, Human Resources Manager Mark Hauer, Public Information Officer Betsy Fields, Lieutenant Jeff Dube, and Clerk of Council Lee Ann Green. AGENDA ITEMS 1. CALL TO ORDER 2. ROLL CALL: Showing Council Member Martinez absent. 3. COUNTY BRIEFING Loudoun County Leesburg District Supervisor Kristen C. Umstattd stated that the town's letter was received the day after the Board of Supervisors reviewed the Sheriff's Office budget. She stated the Sheriff had to drop about half of the positions it was requesting due to lack of funding. She stated the Board feels that if they are paying 100% of the cost of the School Resource Officers, they should be sheriff's deputies. County staff has proposed that the county's allocation of gas tax to the town and fleet vehicle funds to cover this cost. She stated this will result in not only a loss to the town of the gas tax funds, but the $670,000 that is currently paid to cover 70% of the School Resource Officer cost. She stated this could result in a total loss to the town of$1.2 million over the next fiscal year. She suggested that this subject would be more appropriately discussed at the joint task force for Police/Sheriff efficiencies. Further, she noted that the Sheriff's department would be willing to hire any police officers that would need to be cut if the town no longer provides School Resource Officers. 1 I Page COUNCIL BUDGET WORK SESSION March 12, 2016 Council Comments: • Dunn: Noted that no officers would have to be absorbed by the county since there are 14 current vacancies. Further, he stated that going after the town's gas tax money is unrelated. • Burk: Stated that when she was on the Board, another locality asked for something similar and it enraged some of the supervisors. • Hammler: Stated that the additional fiscal year that this transition may take will give everyone time to adjust. • Gemmill: Stated that this joint committee should be the start of more interaction between the town and the county, which will be beneficial. • Fox: Stated her agreement with allowing the task force to discuss this change. She stated that bringing the gas tax into the discussion was not necessary. • Butler: Stated that the gas tax was an obvious place for the county to find the necessary funds. He stated the town was looking for areas that reasonably should be county wide services. Supervisor Umstattd stated she would report back to the Board of Supervisors that this issue can be discussed as part of the joint task force. 4. BUDGET WORK SESSION a. Capital Improvements Program i. Questions and Updates on all projects including Utility Projects Renee Lafollette stated that the following projects are new: • ROTC facility for the Loudoun County Public Schools • Security system at the Water Pollution Control Facility, Phase II Budget Changes include: • Skate Park renovation due to change in soil conditions on the gravel lot. Remediation is estimated to cost approximately $100,000. • Battlefield Parkway, Rt. 15 to the Dulles Greenway—estimated increase of about$1.68 million based on current bidding pricing received on the S. King Street project. Money has been requested through VDOT Revenue Sharing. • Sycolin Road Widening, Phase IV—estimated increase of about $142,000 is updated for current bids. • Lower Sycolin Sewer Phase II—change orders experienced during the previous construction season. Council Comments/Questions: • Dunn: Stated that the original estimate for the renovated skate park on its current site was $500,000. Lafollette: Stated that Council's decision to move it to the gravel lot created an added cost of approximately $250,000. The soils 2 I Page COUNCIL BUDGET WORK SESSION March 12, 2016 report came back with an estimated cost of an additional $100,000 to remediate the poor soils. • Hammler: Stated the monetary donation of$260,000 from the Rescue Department should be labeled. • Dunn: Stated that Fire and Rescue should shoulder the additional cost incurred by moving the skate park to the gravel lot. Dentler: Stated the three options with respect to the skate park are: 1. Do you still want the skate park. 2. If so, you move it to the gravel lot and incur the $100,000 for soil remediation or 2. Move it to Ida Lee and stay within the originally budgeted amount. • Butler: Questioned what the soil condition is in the current location. Lafollette: Stated the soils report for the current location shows the soil to be even poorer and requiring more remediation than under the gravel lot. • Gemmill: Stated that if the skate park is moved to Ida Lee, the current site could be sold and the town would come out a little bit ahead. • Burk: Stated that public input seemed to favor the skate park remaining in its current location because it would serve more people. • Butler: Stated that the land is also currently classified as a park, so that selling the land would require a super majority of Council, which did not exist. Further, he stated that selling the property would inhibit the Rescue Squad's ability to expand their current facility. • Fox: Questioned what the life expectancy of the concrete improvements to the skate park would be. Williams: Stated it is typical 12-18 years. Renee Lafollette noted that the town has received additional outside funding for the following projects: • East Market Street/Battlefield Parkway Interchange—$12 million and 70% NVTA funding. • Rt. 15/Edwards Ferry Road Interchange - $8 million/70% NVTA funding. • Battlefield Parkway trail across the Rt. 15 bypass —applied for highway safety improvement funding. VDOT staff is recommending to the CTB that the town be funded for that project. Will know in June whether the town is awarded this funding, which requires a 20% local match. Ms. Lafollette reviewed completed projects 3 I Page COUNCIL BUDGET WORK SESSION March 12, 2016 Council Comments/Questions: • Fox: Noted that money was allocated for a project in this fiscal year that is not scheduled to start until a more distant fiscal year. Cournoyer: Stated that this represents pay-go financing as design work occurs in the years prior to construction. • Fox: Also questioned the amount of money allocated for road maintenance per foot. Lafollette: Stated that there are many things that factor into road maintenance costs including street light payments, snow removal, striping, tree care, storm drainage, street sweeping and litter removal. • Hammler: Questioned why the town has not sought grant money for the tree canopy program. Case: Stated that the town did apply, but was not granted money, from a local bank. Dentler: Stated that a lot of grants are based on the financial need of the community and this area is very wealthy. • Hammler: Noted that the Navy Jr. ROTC program is a federal program. • Dunn: Noted that no u-turn signs are needed along the bypass near the Battlefield Parkway intersection. Further, he noted that the airport projects are more expensive. He stated he is concerned that town residents are paying for all of the capital costs at the Airport, but it is a regional transportation facility. Lafollette: Stated that the town's actual cost is relatively low—2% local match—because of the funding from DOAV and FAA. She noted that the hangar project is an exception. • Dunn: Expressed concern about the pay-go process if a developer cannot meet the obligation for things that were promised. He advised Council to be cautious about over-extending themselves. • Burk: Questioned the length of time it will take for the hangars to pay for themselves. Case: Stated it will take 20 years. • Burk: Questioned where the West Market Street sidewalk is in the project list. She questioned the status of the Morven Park Road sidewalk as well. Lafollette: Stated it has not yet been added as the studies and estimates have just been received. Further, she stated that the Morven Park Road Sidewalk is moving forward as scheduled. • Dunn: Noted that when projects jump up, like the water feature, they displace other projects that have been moving forward. • Burk: Questioned whether the town's rates at Ida Lee are competitive with what is charged at other facilities. Williams: Stated that the town is positioned pretty well with pricing and have not raised fees in order to stay in line with other facilities. 4 I Page COUNCIL BUDGET WORK SESSION March 12, 2016 • Burk: Questioned why the proposed water feature at Ida Lee is more expensive than the one downtown. She expressed concern that the two parks would be fairly close to one another. Williams: Stated that the feature at the park is much larger than the one planned for Mervin Jackson Park. • Burk: Questioned the specifics of the lease for Olde Izaak Walton Park. Specifically, she expressed concern that the town is responsible for all improvements. Williams: Noted that the bridge is public right of way and not part of the lease. • Burk: Stated her interest in moving the Morven Park Road sidewalk up. She questioned whether the storm drainage projects include the Exeter Pond/Dam. Lafollette: Stated that the Exeter Pond was not included in the drainage projects. • Burk: Questioned which is less expensive for water treatment— chloramines or chlorine and why does the town use chlorine. Wyks: Stated that the town has a traditional treatment plant. She noted that the Council chose to not switch to chloramines many years ago and the discussion has not been revisited since. • Butler: Stated he recalled a discussion several years ago and that there are not only some health concerns with chloramines, but some equipment that would have to be changed to use them. ii. Project Management Costs/Pay-Go Financing. Clark Case explained pay-go financing. He stated the project management costs include capital projects staffing and the costs of services provided by other departments to projects. He stated this reduces the amount of money being borrowed for capital projects and expands the ability to use financing for other projects. He stated that rolling the capital projects management costs into the amount borrowed for a project was necessary during very tight budget times; however, the town is trying to move away from this practice. Council Comments/Questions: • Burk: Does this include salaries? Case: Yes, project management salaries as well as transfers from the General Fund for non-project employee time used. • Burk: Where would the salaries come from now? Dentler: The general fund, which is best practice. • Hammler: Stated that paying interest on salaries should never have happened so this is a step in the right direction. • Dunn: Noted that this would allow the debt to be paid down faster. 5 I Page COUNCIL BUDGET WORK SESSION March 12, 2016 • Butler: Stated that putting salaries in the cost of the capital project is common practice. He stated that pay-go financing is more conservative, which is good. b. General Fund Proposed enhancements Kaj Dentler reviewed the enhancements over last year's budget: • Network administrator position. • Downtown initiatives. • Cyber-security insurance • GIS applications. • Leadership program with the Police Department. Council Comments/Questions: • Dunn: Questioned why the contract network administrator cost $50,000 more than an employee. Dentler: Currently we only have one network administrator. The contract employee cannot perform the full function of the network administrator. • • Hammier: Questioned the cost for cyber security insurance. Case: The pool is available to local governments to deal with cyber intrusions. • Hammler: Questioned the cost for the leadership program with the police department. Dentler: The program is targeted at older teens in order to establish a better relationship with the police depai tment. It was further noted that 12-15 children would be served by this program. • Hammier: Questioned the grant for the downtown. She stated it should be part of the Visit Loudoun money. Further, she stated she would want details on the Council Chambers AV upgrade. • Gemmill: Stated he is having a hard time understanding the concern for giving contractors sensitive access to sensitive information. Case: Stated the town protects that information by keeping it closely held. ii. Operational cost increases Council Comments/Questions: • Fox: Expressed concern with the increase across the board for contractual services. • Dunn: Stated that the budget was difficult to work with this year. He questioned how many memberships and publications are truly needed. He questioned in some instances if the membership or publication can be shared with the county. 6 I Page COUNCIL BUDGET WORK SESSION March 12, 2016 111 • Butler: Questioned the slight increase in refuse and recycling. Lafolette: Stated that there are several factors, one being the increase in tipping fees and the market rates for recyclables. Dentler: Twice weekly trash pick up is hurting the amount of recyclables picked up, which affects the contractor's pricing. • Gemmill: Stated that cutting back the trash pick up would help the bottom line. • Fox: Questioned whether the town receives money back for recycling. Lafollette: Stated that the town does not get any money back. iii. State revenue sharing update (loss of$475,000 for paving) Kaj Dentler stated that the state has notified the town that they will not get $475,000 in milling and paving money through the revenue sharing program. Renee Lafollette stated that the revenue sharing program is a dollar for dollar match and without it, the town will need to absorb the $475,000. She stated that VDOT has two priority levels, the first is projects going to or already in construction. The second priority is ones that have already received revenue sharing money and the third priority is maintenance. She stated they are not funding maintenance across the state, but staff will be going after other funds that are available. Council Comments/Questions: • Dunn: Requested the table that shows how often roads are re- paved. He stated the town maintains one of the highest service levels in Northern Virginia. He stated going down in maintenance level just a little bit will not be noticeable. • Hammier: Stated this is a huge hit and she would like more context on how this happened. She stated that this is a basic core service of state government. Lafollette: Stated that the revenue sharing program for milling and paving(maintenance) was added in FY 2014 and the town has been successful in getting funding. • Fox: Questioned how many rooftops have been added this year. • Dunn: Answered about 15,000 total. • Butler: Noted that some of these are apartments and condos. • Fox: Requested a chart showing what has been approved, yet not built. • Gemmill: Questioned the number of employees. Cournoyer: Stated regular employees is 349 and about five are part time. • Hammier: Requested the dollar amount changes in the tax rate create. 7 I Page COUNCIL BUDGET WORK SESSION March 12, 2016 Dentler: Stated $0.183, which is the current, to the proposed $0.1872 is $282,000. • Hammler: Questioned the emergency transport reimbursement available to the Rescue Squad. • Dunn: Requested a table of contents for the budget. He expressed concern with the two year budget cycle. He stated they really don't spend enough time on the second year. He suggested that next year, a full day budget work session be scheduled. • Butler: Stated it was a council decision several years ago to move to a shorter session on Saturday with all the specific questions asked off-line and answers provided to all of Council. He stated that Council can change the process. • Burk: Stated that this is the second year of a two year budget that isn't changing very much. She stated there can be very little accomplished in going through each depai tment since there are no changes. She stated that the town expects the level of service that is provided and will not be happy if the levels of service are cut. • Dunn: Stated he is not talking about cutting services, but about spending more efficiently. iv. Other c. Capital Asset Replacement Program i. Review of proposed list Kaj Dentler stated that Council approved establishment of this program several years ago with the purpose of replacing vehicles and making repairs to facilities. • Clark Case stated that the Capital Asset Replacement Fund is funded by taking the increase in the fund balance at the end of the fiscal year and dividing it in three pieces. The primary piece goes to the Debt Service reserve as per the long term sustainability plan, and the second piece goes to the Capital Asset Replacement fund and the last piece goes to increasing the undesignated fund balance to 20% as promised to the rating agencies by 2021. Council Comments/Questions: • Hammler: Questioned what is different about the Chamber's AV equipment over last year, when Council decided not to improve the system. Dentler: Stated that the system is antiquated and needs to be replaced. He stated that it is difficult for the public to hear. • Hammier: Questioned "replacement" of body cameras, since the town doesn't have body cameras. 8 I Page COUNCIL BUDGET WORK SESSION March 12, 2016 • Gemmill: Noted that the body cameras would be on hold until the new chief is selected. • Fox: Requested that the public is able to see the answers to Council's questions. d. Utilities Operating Council Comments/Questions: • Fox: Requested a breakdown, depai tiuent by department, of the increases in contractual services. • Dunn: Questioned the substantial increase in legal services. Wyks: Stated that the request for FY17 is not a change over FY16. She noted that the amount was spent last year for outside counsel working with environmental contract and working with the Panda Energy agreements. e. Other 5. ADJOURNMENT ,-✓[ jjgdi. David S. Butler, Mayor Town of Leesburg 46 IP , 4 , Clerk of E uni0 2016_tcmin0312 Budg- , 9 I Page