City Council - Regular Meeting

fried clams button. Okay. Uh, good evening everyone. Uh, welcome to the city council budget workshop. Uh, calling the meeting to order and I will kick it over to our deputy city manager for welcome and opening remarks. Good evening everyone. Thank you for joining us for our session number two. Is that what number we're on for department heads? No, department heads. I was going to say no, it's kind of like five. Well, it probably feels like 10, but and And for us it's like session number 45. So, uh I get it. I get it.

Um so just wanted to do a little housekeeping on the schedule. I believe you all have been um sent an invite for the additional workshop on May 14th. So we are going to um cancel next week's workshop on the 23rd. It's school vacation week. We have a number of people that have other commitments with their family. So, we're going to cancel that workshop on Thursday the 30th. We'll just cover all the items that um would have been on the 23rd. I'm going to hand you a new um uh items list, agenda, workshop schedule. We are also going to skip May 7th as the city manager will not be here. And um on May 14th, we will take up um policy items such as the Emerald Ash board discussion, short-term rental revenue policy discussion, and other department needs that have come up through this process um to talk about how we want to incorporate those into the budget.

May 14th. May 14th. Yes.

So the intent, I think originally was to try to have the the final um budget approval on the May council meeting. that would only give staff two days to make final adjustments. So, um we will try our hardest to do that and to get that done, but I think realistically we are either looking at a special meeting or approving the budget in um June, which June still meets with our timeline. It would be fine to approve it in June, but if there is any concern about waiting until June, we certainly could do a um a special council meeting to approve the budget. Any questions on schedule?

And I think invites were sent out to our calendars. I think revis though to make sure that that has happened. If it hasn't, um, please feel free to let me know. Great. Is that revised for the public? I'm assuming will be all be posted on the public on the website.

Yeah. Okay, with no questions about scheduling, we are going to get into our departmental workshops um workshop, excuse me, tonight. We have a full agenda. So, um we did add the page numbers for the budget that we'll be reviewing. I will ask department heads when you're going over um your budgets, if you're jumping around in lines, try to take the council along with you so that they make can understand where you're at. stay sick.

Um so first up is our public works and public works administration. Um again all of these um departments fell in line with all the other departments. They really presented tight budgets. They um they nailed the assignment. Uh public works in general. Highway is a little unique. Um this fiscal year that we're in currently. highway um entered a budget that was technically down a person from the previous fiscal year. We didn't backfill a position. We have come to the council since to backfill that position. Um over the the course of the year, they have had three um positions transfer out of the highway department to fill the parks and wreck department and been reassigned to parks and wreck focused duties. So they are technically short staffed three positions. So, um they had looked in their budgets since Mike and Amanda oversee so many departments, the two enterprise um enterprise departments, highway, solid waste. Um Mike and Amanda thought it was appropriate and probably should have been done before now to um have wastewater and water be funding highway positions as there is a lot of coordination that happens on digs and um infrastructure fixes that require highway help. So you will see that in the budget. Mike's going to go through that. Um the other big change in this budget is you won't see a large um line item for local roads. There's a small line item, but there is local roads in the capital plan that you'll see on the 30th. So just um voicing that over. And anything else big that I'm missing, Mike? You'll go over it.

Yeah. Good evening, councilors. Mike Harris, public works director. Uh so the first budget that we're going to talk about is the public works administrative budget. uh which is basically my budget uh with Amanda and Jessica our billing uh clerk is also included in this budget and I'm actually going to let Amanda speak on this particular budget before we move on to the other ones. So with that I'm going to pass it to Amanda.

Good evening. Amanda Ray, admin uh public works administrator. Um just a brief reminder, the public works administration budget was established during last year's budget cycle. So this is year two for this budget. Um to improve transparency and tracking of administrative costs as outlined at that time. This budget is funded through allocations from water, wastewater, and highway solid waste. Uh you'll see corresponding line items in each of those department budgets to cover their share of these administrative costs. This structure continues to support clearer financial oversight and more accurate cost allocation across public works operations. For the public works administration budget, there are no significant changes this year. Any increases shown are primarily due to adjustments in salaries and benefit costs. The payroll line may look slightly different compared to last year. During the previous budget cycle, we had separate payroll lines for each position. uh the public works director, public works admin, and the utilities coordinator. This year, those individual lines were consolidated into a single payroll line for all three.

Any questions? Question for Amanda from council. You nailed it. Okay. On to the highway budget. Page 280, I believe.

Yes, page 280. Uh, so Brian, uh, highway foreman is here as well. If there's any questions that I can't answer, he can answer. Uh, so I just wanted to um go down through it and highlight um some of the um increases in the budget um and some additions. So starting at the top under revenue, you'll see the highway services revenue of 181,400. That is new this year. And that is the line item I added to wastewater to fund a highway position. The line item I added to the water department to fund a highway position is now being reflected as a revenue line for the highway department. Um to bring money into their budget. Um we understood from the get-go that it was going to be difficult to backfill positions this year. Um, typically, uh, in prior years, what should have happened is whenever there was a water main break or the sewer department need the highway department to do a dig for us, that any overtime incurred during that should have been build to high water or sewer. Um, and I don't think that always happened. And I was talking to a colleague of mine from southern Maine and he's also has an enterprise account. He's like, "Well, we just fund a position because we know that they were going to need the highway to help us with our digs. So, we just fund a position out of the enterprise account." So that was what I put in this year for us to fund a position out of water and a position out of wastewater to help the highway department be able to handle the shortfall that they have and help us be

able to get the staffing to a reasonable level for everybody involved and be able to get the task done that both highway needs to get done and parks need to get done. And I would note that um there's also so one of the three um positions that had transferred over from highway to parks and wreck is vacant and we are not backfilling that currently. So like opening the harbor, opening our parks, highway has been helping a lot. So there's still going to be a lot of collaboration. There's going to need to be a lot of continued collaboration between departments. I have a my question on the transfer of revenue from the water and wastewater. Um and in you know that sounds it makes sense to me in in kind of theory. I think the concern I have right is their enterprise accounts their enterprise and you know the dollars that are accumulated from those utility users. Um I just is I want to make sure that we're properly accounting the labor and the work that it would that would add up to this number. Um you know at the end of the year, right? We're saying we're going to send in $181,400 to fund a position and someone that's going to be doing this work for those departments. Mhm.

I just think we just need to be careful um in documenting that labor to match the value because otherwise you know you know because of the nature of those funds are coming in.

Yeah. No, I I completely understand what you're saying. So the perspective I had on it was because I was I've been looking at so we have added a lot of money to the water and wastewater budgets being paid out to the general fund. And so I looked at if that's proper like like like cuz I didn't want us to be in a situation where we're misusing user user fees cuz um that's my job. Um, so as long as we're being provided a service, which we are from the highway department, then we can use the user fee money to fund that service. Um, and so I didn't look at it so much in because I don't think it will to be honest with you. I don't think if you took all the overtime hours from the digs, the water front the water rakes and the the manhole adjustments and stuff that we did, I can't tell you for certain that it will add up to $181,000.

But but so just to give you my frame of reference was we know that we're going to get service from them. We use them every year. So to all to help pay for that service, I took one employee position for for wastewater, one employee position for water for a highway position because I think that is a defensible expense for all the help they give us to get our get to give the waste water in the water to get their stuff done.

Yeah. And it all that all makes sense to me, Mike. And I I think I just, you know, to your and it's fair to you, right? you've never done this before. You don't know exactly what the number is going to be. I think it's just important that it's tracked as most as best it can be and then we'll have a year of actuals and then you know that we can update the budget and then if there is for let's say you only end up using $140,000 worth of you know labor um maybe returning that to those funds just to make sure because those you know those enterprise funds are for those type something like that. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Um, so then

to add to that what he what Patrick was saying, that's just for that's for payroll for the employee, right? Yep. because in all actuality um you've got equipment costs also you know if you if you didn't have public works to open for the water and the sewer excavations and you know those emergency things you you'd have to have a contractor so you'd be getting build for equipment rental usage absolutely so

we can track that as well because it's a revenue revenue that we're assigning to payroll, but it's just revenue into the department. So, it could be assign be assigned to equipment maintenance, for example, if we wanted to do that. So, we can track both of those things. That's very easy to track. I think it's fuzzy math. Why couldn't you do an invoice to each department um as needed? Well, because we're budgeting, we have money in the budget. So it was

put that put make them stand on their own each department. Um I think it's fuzzy math to start taking employees salaries from this department and that department and um it's it's too much guesswork. Way too much guesswork. Why can't you track it and create an invoice um that would know the cost instead of just arbitrarily picking two and two people or two people's salaries

really it was based on um when I looked at the highway department and what we were short for employees and then looked at where we're sitting with the budget and being cognizant of the fact that we're going to struggle this here with keeping the budget at a reasonable pace to u not really hit the taxpayers with a big tax increase um and still be able to not have the highway department to be severely short staffed where we're not able to get the tasks done that need to get done. Uh that's why I chose to put enough money out of each for them to be able to hire uh at least two employees to try and help offset the uh backfill necessity that I knew was going to be very tough to accomplish out of the general fund because with the facing the the increases that we knew we were going to catch from the school because of their union negotiations knowing that we had a parks and recck department that needed to be funded. I just looked at the writing on the wall and I said, "Well, we got to be able to help offset this somehow." Um, because I don't want my highway people to be severely short staffed and be completely swamped with work and not be able to get done the stuff that needs to be get done. It's just a negative setup for them. Like, they're not going to be able to get stuff done. So, they're going to catch criticism and flag from the public and everybody else if they're not getting their stuff done. And then you're also going to start expecting guys to work more time, overtime, things like that. So,

or they're not going to be able to support the water and wastewater departments on these digs, and we're going to have to hire private contractors to do that, right? So, it's just a situation where I see a potential negative impact that could have negative consequences to everybody and it was trying to figure out the best way to solve that. I think it makes sense. I think just, you know, making sure that you account for it as you go and then we'll we'll that will be concrete math. Yeah, absolutely. Uh, any more questions on that? I just have a statement. and I continue to maintain its fuzzy math. You're clouding departments.

That's good data, Steve. I'll take that. We'll analyze it.

Um, all right. So, moving on to the expenses. Uh, the first thing that you're going to see on the second line item still on page 280, uh, the 2025 goes new this year. So, that's a new debt service that was added to the highway department this year. So, you'll see that. U moving down to two spaces to uh 51 065 vehicle and equipment maintenance. Um Charlie cut that last year at the end of the budget season and so we're simply asking to bring that back up because especially this winter it was a hard winter. We had a lot of equipment malfunction, a lot of equipment repair. So, um, and we're we're we're we're over that now, right? Or we're going to be over that.

Is that where your steel comes from? No. No. Okay.

Um, we had a lot of, um, hydraulic repairs this year, um, on the big trucks for plowing and things like that. So, so that's why we requested that number that we requested there. Um, salt. Um, we're asking to um bring that up because we've been over budget and instead of just being putting a number in there that you're going to exceed, I'd rather put an accurate number in there. Um, and so based on our usage where we're at this year, um, that's why we asked for that, the number we have there. And I would just note on the salt that we are doing a regional cooperative purchase with um other towns in the region. We're leading that. Amanda's actually heading up that effort. So we're working with um Bar Harbor, um Trenton, Mount Dessert, and Tmont to do a bulk uh salt purchase. So we're going to see what we get for bids and um maybe that number will go down.

Mike, can I back you up for a minute? I don't know what GOB is. General obligation bond bonding. Thank you. Yep. Um moving down to um two line items down from salt 51295 road striping. Uh road striping was also cut last year. Um it had been at 90,000. Um and then we have the road striping bids went out. They came back and so this number is actually based on a uh what the possible real number is going to be. We haven't we haven't come to council to get it approved yet. Um but um that's just trying to keep in line with what the market is.

Um can I ask a question on that? Sure. Where does the road striping is it citywide or you downtown? There's two striping bids that go out. One is for all the long lines like the yellow lines, the white lines along the side and one is for all the crosswalks, turn arrows. So, those are the two separate bids. So, we'll have a bid for the markings, the crosswalks, and all that. And then we have a bid for uh all the long lines and that's all city roads. That's all. Okay. That's everything inside the urban compact. Urban compact. Okay. Thank you. Does the state do the outside?

Could I ask one thing? I requested this on this subject when we had a workshop at the beginning of the month. The last two contractors have been city employees and it was never disclosed when it was brought before the council. Um, and that was painful. When that comes before the council, could we disclose if it's a city employee or not? Absolutely.

Because that was not fair. um not fair at all to find out the last two contractors were city employees and that just did not set well with the public. So just to clear that up, none of the contractors are zero city employees and they weren't even the one that would have been wasn't even allowed to bid. Just again at the bid opening it would uh at the bid at the council again I wasn't aware of the yep bid process that I've asked Charlie to let me be aware of and don't get anywhere with it.

Um so moving further down the line. So now we're going to move down to 50705 which is public works administration and that increase is just based on the increase uh to the public works administration budget. So therefore it increases the allocation from the other three departments that fund that insurance went up. We don't really have any control over that. Um liquid calcium. Um, so Charlie cut that in half last year. Um, during the end of the budget um, and we are going to exceed that. We're simply requesting to put it back to where it was.

And what do we use liquid calcium for? So we use liquid calcium. Well, you can tell them. I just liquid calcium is used sometimes in the lay down below zero the salt doesn't do the trick but mostly it's used for dust control on all our dirt roads like when we go out and grade all the gravel roads and and treat them then we use calcium to try and keep the dust down and people start driving so there's multiple season application isolated to one season the calcium goes into uh late June into July when we're applying it so it's after the one Yeah,

it's going up. I just got a price increase. It's They don't know what's going to go to this year. It was $1.92 a gallon last year. That's they haven't said what's going to be after May 1st. Next line item is greater and plow steel. Um that um so we actually had put it at 30,000. Um, I'm actually going to request that we go a little higher on that because since this was put out, we found out a couple of things. Tariff fees are really hitting this this this particular um industry and carbide is one of the most common materials for these. And there's about to be a severe shortage andor lack of ability to get carbide from what Brian was able to find out

from our suppliers. Uh there's there's two carbide mines left in the in the world. They're both in China. One is played out. It's completely empty and the other one what one is left they're saving for the war of defense right now because of all the wars that are going on. They use them on different things in there. So they're trying to come up with a different product and it's going to be either ceramic or glass or some other maybe some diamond stuff into it but no one has come up with a product that is equivalent to what the carbide is. So if we don't have carbide steel FL the roads would have on some of the blades you're going to double if not triple the regular steel what you had for carbide.

So I'm actually requesting to amend the 30 to 40 Ash, assume you're tracking this. Yes.

Um, so the next um line item I'd like to talk about is um building maintenance 51175. It's four more down from greater and plow steel. Um, and so basically like the highway garage is is ancient and it cost more and more each year to fix the various things that we find wrong with it. Um, and so that's really why we're requesting what we're requesting there. Um, two down from that, minor tools and minor equipment and tools. Um, so there's one which everybody faces as far as that increase that you're looking at there is just inflation. Everything costs more, tools cost more. Um but the other thing that we're also faced with is um well we may end up having to replace some tools. Um currently there are tools being used at the highway garage that are don't don't belong to the city. They're personal tools and I really don't think that that's an appropriate um situation. Um, so I want to take a closer look at that and move towards city employees using city- owned tools to do city work with. Because when if that employee decides to retire, leave, whatever the case may be, and they can just take their tools and now we're sitting there scrambling trying to figure it out. I don't think that's a good scenario. And so I think it's in our best interest to have the highway department own city owned tool. So that's where we're at with that.

It's customary that mechanics own their own tools. How many mechanics do you have? One and the replacement doesn't come with tools. So I guess that is the fundamental question. If for example our mechanic leaves, how much do you think he has in tools there? He probably get 10 grand. So he decides if your mechanic leaves, do you have a mechanic already employed? No. So the new mechanic comes with tools. Uh you assume he comes with tools, but they don't. That's how the industry works.

That's the way it works. the industry comes. Otherwise, the city will be buying tools constantly because if a mechanic doesn't have his own tools, I'm talking hand tools, not major tools. You're going to be buying them constantly because there's no accountability. Mechanics come with a toolbox. The city shouldn't be buying handy tools because you're going to be buying them every day. But if the mechanic's on vacation for a week, he's got his toolbox locked up, then you don't have a mechanic. No, we don't. But if something breaks, what are you going to do? I think it's G calls or Bangal snowstorm should have two mechanics per size fleet of equipment we have. Well, I don't disagree with that. That would fix the problem. I don't disagree with that.

But the I work for fleet services for the state of Maine and we were provided with our own tools. There were specialty tools like uh pressure gauges, you know, jack, shop tools like jacks and and uh wrenches that were like uh socket sets that were 3/4 inch drive. mechanics were expected to have their own wrench sets and socket sets up to half inch drive.

And they had their own impact guns, but also at the crew quarters and stuff, they did have small tool boxes uh that the crews bought, the crew the DOT crews bought, the state provided it. if you lost if they didn't have the tools in their boxes then I mean yeah so just to be clear that's what I'm talking about so you're talking about the mechanic but all of the guys on the other incidental tools to change the

cut I mean $12,000 you're not talking about a serious amount of tools here it's minor tools and equipment it's not just to buy tools with you know it's to work on equipment or buy minor equipment as well. So, um anyway, um I the the crew needs to have tools, whether it's the ME if if you even take the mechanic out of it, you still need to have tools for the rest of the crew because all the crews, whether it's hand shovels, whether it's cordless tools, whether it's whatever, a chainsaw, like all of that falls under my tools and equipment. And so when you look at all the possible things that you could have to outfit for the highway department, $12,000 is not a significant tool. Like if you had to outfit a mechanic, as Steve's talking about, yeah, you're probably talking I bet you these days, you're probably talking 15 grand to out a mechanic to do diesel work. I mean, you you have a truck company, you probably know how much

Can't touch it, but can't can't touch it. Yeah. My son's a transmission specialist and his box is worth about 32.

Yeah. So, so this 12,000 isn't really meant just for the mechanic. It's really meant for the crew in general to be able to have the tools they need. Whether it's, like I said, not just hand tools, it could be a shovel, it could be chainsaws, it could be I mean, there's a lot of different implements that they use up there. Um, and you know, when you're doing the kind of work they do, we use them pretty hard. So, um, moving on to the next line item, oil and grease. Um, oil and grease is is one. Obviously, with all the stuff that's going now, um, the price of it is getting to be pretty outrageous. Um, and we especially this winter, so we had at least seven more storms this year than we had last year. We had a lot of hydraulic issues on the plows, which required a lot of hydraulic, which is expensive now. And so that's why we're looking at the increase for oil and grease. power. I'm sure you've heard it from other budgets, but um you know the the power companies are raising the rates. I have raised the rates. Um and then of course the the city ran into a buzzsaw this past year where uh the solar credits didn't come in and that really put a hard hit on a lot of the budgets. Um so that's why we put the power where it was at. And then IT services is a new line item that was added to this budget from IT. Uh I don't know what goes into that number. So um you'd have to ask J Jason. Um we were just told to put it in our budget.

I believe Charlie provided an overview of all of that at the first meeting. And Ashley, I would just add to note that maybe like taking a look at the fuel line item um for highway as well with like we're doing with other departments just increase um if necessary.

Yeah, but that's ab absolutely going to be impacted as well. Um, who know? I don't know how long this stuff's going to last in the Middle East, but until it's resolved, we're looking at some serious problems with fuel prices, oil prices, anything that's petroleum based. We're going to see it in the wastewater budget. Um, all of our coagulant that we use um is petroleum based. So, we're expecting that we're going to see that price increase as well. But anyways, staying with this budget. Um so IT services was added to this budget. Um the next line item is safety. Um and so safety is is just a matter of the inflation, you know, keeping this year if the budget gets approved 12 guys outfitted with the safety equipment that they need. Um that's why we put that number where it's at. Um, and then flipping to the next page on page 282.

Okay. It's the next page in the packet, but it's another

So, it's 282. Yeah. 282. IT subscriptions isn't is the other line item that was added to our budget from it and so I can't really speak on it but it's 25462 was added. So the two IT line items um added roughly $10,000 or so to our budget. The highway Is debt service zero because that debt is paid completely from last year? Yeah.

Well, that's good. And it's good they just didn't put zero and stop paying it. Yeah. That wouldn't be. If you remember, that was all the safety equipment that we bought last year and we took the money from wastewater to buy it all and then we set up a debt service to pay it back to Wastewater for the mobile traffic and that stuff. I see you got a stipen for CDLA. Mhm. Is that something contractual? Contractual,

right? Any further questions for Mike and Brian for public works? Can I just run by you my understanding of staffing to see if I've got it right. The department is not adding any positions. What you're doing is recognizing the the method that you're going to use for recognizing the fact that some of your staff time is used for the enterprise funds is to charge each of them for one of the existing folks. So that's showing up in revenue while you're employ and it keeps it separate from the employee line which makes it helpful to track.

Yeah. So, it's I I like that because it is showing since this is the first time you're working with it. Yeah. Instead of doing a net shift in all of that and then I assume when we get to the enterprise funds, we'll see that you will see that shift. It's an expense line in each. Okay. I wanted to make sure I had that. Yeah. And um it'll be interesting to see this year. You've heard it. need to be able to track it so that we understand that what the utility rate payers are paying reflects the value that they're getting. Y um I mean yeah thanks.

All right. Okay. Uh solid waste. Solid waste. Thanks Brian. Okay. Solid waste is 294. page 294. So I think most of you remember from last year solid waste um we did make some changes in um our our revenue lines for we increased the sticker price and we changed the scale um minimums because solid waste has been running in a deficit. Yep. Um taxpayers have been subsidizing it for a long time

with our hauling contracts increasing and such. So, this is an area I think over the um year that we will be focusing on reconvening the solid waste committee and really spending some time with um this budget, this department to reimagine it a bit to see if we can kind of move it in another direction. I know that you all are going to go tour the Hampton facility to see what opportunities there are there. And I know that um Dave has been doing a lot of additional things to try to work on making changes in the solid waste field. So, just kind of setting that background a little bit that we have changed revenues. Um

yep, we went from $3 to $4 on the stickers. Um, we didn't really see a reflection of that in our revenues because it it didn't happen until later in the fiscal year. Uh, the commercial scale went from $110 to $160 a ton. Um, and there's a minimum now on the scale. Um, so, you know, there was a time when, you know, we were billing a customer $110. So, now the minimum on the scale is $8. uh which seems to be having the effect we were hoping for in which now people are opting to buy stickers since they're not really using the loophole to pay a lot less money to dispose of their trash. Um the last piece that we're trying to enact right now is um we're trying to get Dave and Nick set up to be able to take payments at the transfer station so that we can completely do away with the residential billing and we will only be billing commercial accounts which has only seven of them.

How many commercial accounts? Well, maybe it might be a dozen at the most. Okay. Um, so once that training is complete, then we will also go away from spending the money to bill residents and spending money on the envelopes and everything else. It'll be paid. That will be spectacular. Yeah. I' I've written checks for$110 and then put a stamp on them. It doesn't make sense for anybody. Yeah. So, we won't do that. They'll they'll everybody will just pay right there. You took cash before, but now we debit and everything that will be okay.

Y and so when you look at the budget really um you have a big you know an increase in the MSW collection the first line item 51345 it's a contractual um they have an escalator in there um that was forced to deal with um so we're going to run into that. Payroll went up a little bit based on the merit raises. Um same with the transport cost 51350. It's the fourth line item down. Um that also has escalator clauses in it. Um so we we're have no control over that scenario. Um, we went up on the building maintenance because we have a garage door out there that uh we actually wanted to repair this year. We don't have the money in the budget for it. And so, we're adding money to the budget because it's damaged and it can't be repaired. We had them come out, look at it. It's uninspectable. Um, their determination is that the door needs to be replaced. And so that's why we we did put the money into the building maintenance line for that. Um vehicle and equipment maintenance. Uh we went up on that because the scale maintenance was being taken out of another line item professional services and it should be taken out of the vehicle and equipment maintenance. So we just reallocated uh and increase the vehicle and equipment maintenance line. And then further down, you're going to see um line 560005, IT subscriptions. Line 56000, IT services are both new line items added to the budget.

Mike, can I stop you and go back there? You said that the vehicle equipment maintenance came you you're moving that from professional services over to vehicle and equipment maintenance, correct? I believe it was professional. Well, it was it got taken out of it's like $5,600. Yes. $2,800 each visit. Yeah. Um it's $2,800 each visit. They come twice a year um to do preventative maintenance. What is it? They re

recalibrate the scale. And uh the first payment the first time came out of professional services in error this year. and we had to move it to the right GL. So, we're just trying to account for that in the right line. Trying to track that in here. And I think Y00 might have been under miscellaneous. Okay. So, just really trying to be more accurate with

Okay, thank you. Um the electronic waste expense went up some but it's offset by the electronic waste revenue which exceeds the expense. So we're actually making a profit on that. Um would that profit can is that linear like if the more e-waste we bring in the more we make would it stay at that 50% rate you think because the profit says 1,900 and then the cost is 800 800 so it's you know more than double

let's say we brought in twice as much e-waste would that kind of ratio stay the same. I would think so. U they charge us for the little miscellaneous stuff like smaller stuff, cell phones, stuff like that, but they don't charge for the TVs. We're charging for the TVs and stuff to offset the cost. Um we ship it by the the gaylords when they fill up six or eight boxes. So the TVs take up the most space. So that's why we charge

per TV. And I mean just thinking there it's seems like a win-win if the more folks in Ellsworth know about the ability to you know bring their e-waste there and then the cities it's actually beneficial and helps offset other costs as long as it's not the miscellaneous stuff as long and monitors. Yeah. Well are what we charge for the rest stuff is free but I believe North Coast Services charges us for the miscellaneous stuff. a little and I think I've seen like in the paper advertisements about this, but I think maybe working with the communications department to get that message out there more um on the stuff you want, right?

On the stuff you want. Only on the good only on the good stuff. That's where I draw the line is because we're only supposed to take it from Elk residents. Yes, is our rule. But when some of the non-residents have come in, I won't take the stuff that we get charged for. So, if they got like one TV and we can charge for it, it just makes sense to take the money and help with the budget. I don't want to see them get stuck with it either because a lot of other towns around us don't have an option for it. Yeah. And then the only other little increase is in the training. Um, and it's really just we have Nick we hired this year and they uh take the core one two three4

core one two three. Yeah. It's just so and you know we wanted Dave to be able to do a little bit of leadership training and so that's why we asked for that certified transportation operator. Sorry, just make sure people at home can hear you. Go ahead. The core 1, two, and three is a certified transportation operator training. Great. Have you done it before? This would be new.

I've done it before. I've been retaking it when Nick, same time Nick's taking it, but I took them a couple years ago. And once you take them, it's good for life. Any questions from council about solid waste budget?

I have one. Are we trying to get um our revenues to equal our total expenses here eventually or are we trying to get our revenues to equal the MSW collection, waste disposal, payroll and transport? Well, the ultimate goal would be to create the transfer station as a enterprise account like the water and wastewater where its revenue from its users supports the operation. So we've got what 11% increase this year but towards our goal 11% better.

But really like Sarah mentioned earlier like it's going to take some serious in-depth thought process on how we want to turn this around and generate what we want to generate. Um, you know, I think at some point we need to seriously look at going to self-sufficiency on that and possibly doing our own stuff instead of relying on Cassella. Um, but that's all on the table for when we sit down and talk about it. We should um look into getting a solid waste committee meeting together maybe once we finish the budget cycle. Sure. Sit down, start having those conversations. Yep. Absolutely.

And when is there one more year left on the Cassella contract? 27 is when the Cassella contract the curb side is going to come back again. Okay. So, it's time. Yeah. Yeah. We actually tried to make the effort last year before the transport cost one came up. We just didn't have enough time to pull everything together.

So, any other questions regarding solid waste? Awesome. Uh waste water is 306. So for wastewater um looking at increasing the septage cost by a penny a gallon across the board and a 1% user fee increase um on the revenue side on the expense side um so payroll full-time um is just basically um merit raised And we haven't added any employees. We're all we're the same staff we've been. Um there is I believe money in here for half pay for a superintendent. Um because I'm still the wastewater superintendent and the public works director. And so at some point, you know, I'll probably have to let that go, which is not going to be easy for me. Um, but uh it's it's something that's probably going to need need to happen for me to be able to totally focus on high level all the departments and take some of that off my plate. So we put a half year in there for superintendent. Um power is just the solar credits. We we was we're going to be we are over the power because of the loss of the solar credits. Um and then we bumped it up some because we are getting the solar credits back but the there is an

increase in the rates. So we got to accommodate that. Public works administration is the same as the other budget. It just reflects the increase in the public works admin budget increase of the allocation. uh the 2023 go actually so last year finance mis had miscalculated what the um allocation should have been for that payment and so last year it was only 94,000 I believe so we had to make up for that this year so that that number that you see there the 129 is the correct uh pay for the 2023 general obligation bond. Um moving down to um three more line items to health insurance. That's just the increase in the health insurance. Um underneath health insurance 51075 is the expense line for the highway services expense that we talked about during the highway discussion. So that's the money from wastewater that will go uh be allocated to the highway department. Um moving quite a ways down to 51170. Um well actually before we do that um so under our debt service um I'm going to come to the council in May because we have two debt service lines that are pretty close to expiring and we have the money in our reserve to close them out. So, I talked to Nate Moore, the previous finance director, talked to Charlie and Sarah, and it just makes sense to really close them out instead of paying the interest over the next two or three years.

Um, and so we'll just wipe those debt services off the books. Once I come to the council in May for the approval, if you guys agree with me, then we would need to come back here and reduce this budget because those line items will no longer be here. Uh but until until that happens, I've left them in here. Is that the 2011?

Yeah, there's a $62,000 one. um the 2009 and I believe the 2011 never near the end of their terms. So rather than just keep paying the interest and dragging it out, I'd rather just pay it off. Save us the interest money and wipe those line items off the budget. Um then we're going to move down to 51170 insuranceances. And that's again not something we control. That's just whatever um MMA sends to us for our insurance increase. Same with social security.

Just a note that because these are enterprise accounts, they the insurance and benefits are captured in the account unlike highway and all of our other

Yeah, the general fund is all under their benefit section in the general fund, but we carry all of ours in the water and waste water. Um so that's why you'll see ICMA contributions um workers compensation on the second page. So page 308 top of the page you'll see three line items two of which ICMA contributions and workers compensation those increases are not something we control. And then moving down to 51065 vehicle and equipment maintenance. Uh we bumped that up a little bit because we now have the loader that we use for loading the trucks, the Bobcat, three pickups. Um and so um that's why we bumped that up a little bit to cover the extra equipment that we have. Um, IT services is added to our budget. IT subscriptions is added to our budget. So, I can't speak on those. Um, and so, but what I would say, and I've said it before, and I'm going to continue to say is, you know, we have a significant amount of money that we pay out of our budget, the wastewater budget, for services to the general fund. And yet the general the the city still does not pay a sew bill and that's not equitable. We're paying for the services that we get from this general fund but the the city nobody the school nobody in the city pays a sewer bill. You pay a water bill because it's required by the public utilities commission but you don't pay a sewer bill. And so as our costs increase paying the general fund, it should be a matter of equity for the

city other city departments to pay their sewer bill. And so I'm asking for you to make that change this year. Is that reflected in the budget that's been presented to us? No. No. It would be an additional revenue of around $54,000 coming into our budget. Oh, I I would support additional conversation on this. I remember it from at least last year's budget that particularly if we're looking at increasing the sewage bills for the customers and the city isn't paying any because it's not required. It's it's to Mike's point, it's not equitable. Is that something you'd like to see on the 14th as part of the larger policy discussions? That would be a policy change that we ought to talk about.

We will add that to the 14th. So the impact is 54,000. We recalculated around 54,000 from last year. That's citywide, including school. So, we would we've already passed the school budget. Yeah. So, we might only be able to do city. We might have to omit the school in this round and then come back and look at that after. So, we might have to figure out what just the city portion is. Yeah. And work there first and then I just want it to start happening. That's all. Yeah. No, it's come up before and I think facing it makes sense.

So, That's we Yeah, that's the wastewater budget. Uh, any questions for Mike on wastewater? I have one, Mike. Um, so looking at at the end, you have, you know, total expenses, total revenues, there's a delta of 389,000. Is that does that money go into like a um any kind of account? Um, yeah. I mean, we're supposed to be carrying an und designated fund balance. And the reason that we're at that is because we do have a project in the capital improvement plan

that is almost completely funded. And so I am actually attempting for the wastewater department to be able to complete that project without taking any money out without having to take any city money to help us do that. Um that's I don't think has ever happened before, but we're close. And so, so that's what you're you're eyeing for that net revenue is to go towards. Yeah, it's a roughly a $4 million project and we're quite a bit there. Is are we discussing that in the SIP? Yes, it's included in the SIP. The KIP discussion. Thank you for that. The SIP.

With all due respect, I'm going to push back. Okay. Feel free. We can be bilingual and I will say K because Sarah's sip has a better jingle to it than Sarah's kit. No, SIP is something entirely different than what we're doing right now. Thank you. Okay. I'm going to avoid that conversation. Why are they don't let us sit near each other? That's a problem. Can't sit near each other. Okay. Anyways, uh wait, all of you are between us. Um any further questions for uh for Mike on wastewater? Great. Thank you, Mike. Um water 318.

Yep. So uh going to water um as you know we're looking at instituting the rate increase. So that helps the revenues. And then on the expense side, um payroll full-time um is up because we have a new superintendent. We have a new chief operator position. Um and we have Peter Austin came back to the water company. And so that number encapsulates the whole department payroll.

Is that traditionally what the department's been staffed at? So this is and did we increase last year?

No. So we were down to two employees at one point. Um Peter came back. We hired um we had an employee that was in the water transfer to highway transfer back and then um we hired two uh we made an operator position a chief operator position um similar to wastewater because we felt it was important for the superintendent to have a second um for when they're not around um like I have ready for He is the chief operator in the wast department. And then we hired a new superintendent um who just started it. Both of those um employees just started within the last I probably say a month or so.

Mike, isn't this though reflecting a half of that? It's really a half a position because um historically water paid for um a half a position for half the year and then that employee went to watershed protection for the other half of the year. So it's really only reflecting a half a position increase.

Yeah. It's typically John Weeden did the water protection stuff. He's retired. Um but typically the way that was funded is half of um the full-time salary would come from water, half the full-time salary would come from the general fund. Um and then the budget the rest of the the remaining budget was also split.

Okay. So it's one and a half. Okay. Yeah. Come on up here.

So, when we were short-handed, Peter Austin expressed interest in coming back. He'd been with the water company for 35 years previously. He retired. He knew we were short-handed, so he came back. Um, and then John Weeden retired. And then we hired Dave. One of the employees left that left for highway wanted to go back to water. So, he was brought back to water and then we had the superintendent and the chief operator. And the other thing that's happened is that the water protection that was split is now been put completely back under all of it is underwater now. It's not split anymore. So water's absorbing that cost of the employee. Um, and so that puts us where we're at as far as payroll goes.

And the water protection person with the email kind of about this is still the water protection person. Correct. Yeah. So yeah, there is a water protection person. John means retired and one of the water operators is now going to do the water protection stuff. Okay, great. Thank you. And so we're getting the boat launch set up. We're hiring the boat launch inspectors, monitoring the Branch Lake, all the stuff, putting the floats in at Green Lake and also so yeah, all the stuff that comes on bacteria testing, all the stuff that comes along with the wershed stuff is all going to be within the water

company this year. And so it won't be coming out of the general fund. um something. So we could talk about ownership. Yeah. Don't jump ahead.

Yeah. So that Yeah, we're going to talk about the budget. Um so then if you move on from payroll, public works administration, same thing. The allocation just increased because the public works administration budget increased. Electricity, the same thing. Rates increased. Solar credits disappeared for a while. uh health insurance, no control over it. You'll see the highway services expense as the next expense, same as the wastewater. Um the chemicals is Mike, can you stop and explain? Sure. Is that the staff shift that we talked about? Yes. Okay. That's the expense line that shows as the revenue

distribution to the water construction operations. I'm sorry, say that again. I'm reading on 322. Like what is it? It's unreimbured contribution to water construction operations, which doesn't tell me that that's the payroll shift. Yeah. So, Charlie basically was saying that money will go from our to enterprise funds to highway, but I don't know his reasoning behind designating it like that in the description. Okay. But that I didn't write that description. Okay. I just like when things match so that I can

I think to the point earlier that yes it's the the main focus is going to be most likely used for payroll but there also might be vehicle expense equipment expense things like that fuel expense that need to be helped with that. Yeah. Thank you. I just I didn't want to speak for for Charlie. The way I look at it is we used the payroll like what it costs to pay for a payroll for one person as the starting off point of what it would be the work you know like that was like our how to figure rather than dividing it into four different accounts it's in one account just covering payroll it's revenue for the highway but we used a payroll figure okay to create a value got it

I would love to see like halfway through the year um halfway through fiscal year 2027 for the finance committee to follow up and see what that looks like. 6 months in ought to be just to I I understand now sort of. Yeah. I mean the only but just to take a look at it. Yeah. The only caveat I would say with that particular tracking it is like we've had I think at least six or seven water breaks this year. I don't know if we'll have six or seven water breaks next year. So it but rather than at the end of the year when we're budgeting again go well I don't know did it work it's like just to and we don't know y right how many water breaks or storms or y floods or droughts so we'll see what is coming our way

okay and sometimes water breaks are driven by weather so in the colder months I get it I get that it's not going to be very neat every one 12th of it every month is not going to happen but I'd rather check in and just say how is it going is it what you expected, why is it what it is? Yep. And I would note that as we um integrate our asset management system with the water department, there may be more planned construction events um that we are trying to be more proactive with. So yeah, like like um the main on um Pleasant Chapel Street. Yeah. On Chapel Street, the courthouse we're going to have to do.

Yeah. Um, okay. So, where was I? We went to the highway services expense and then source of supply operations chemicals. Really, it's the price increase. For example, the co-ag we just got an order of was $27,000. We do two of those a year. And then we also have um sodium hypocchlorite that we also use for disinfection. Uh and so this is just reflecting our usage in the cost increase. Um employee benefits is not something that you know we control. Moving down to 51025 professional services. The increase you see there part of that is driven by the new open gov software that um has been purchased. That's the waters allocation was 40.

Um I think the for this year was 24,000 or 25,000 for implementation but going forward it'll be a lot less and then also Doppler now we have Doppler. So um do part of the Doppler fee is paid out of the water the professional services as well. Um, moving on. We went down on the building maintenance actually because we're getting a new water plant. So, we're not I'm sorry. Oh, you're good. I didn't mean to cut you off mid. Um, I wanted to go up to office rental. That's the space in the main coast mall. Are we keeping the space in the main coast mall? No. No. No.

But we left that there at the time of we did this budget because we thought we would be running somewhere. Okay. And we didn't know where. And if we do rent at Urky, we will have to pay rent to Urky to make that line. So, I just didn't know what to do with that number because I don't know what the final outcome's going to be. Okay. At the time, we were looking at another um building. And so, we just left it where it was until we could figure out exactly what that number is supposed to be. And we're going to kind of hone in on what that exact number is that we'll have to pay to another.

Yes, we have a follow-up meeting with wastewater super when he gets back. We have a new wastewater superintendent. A water sorry, your wastewater. He's very sensitive. Clean water. Sorry. We have a new water superintendent. He's out. But um Eric, he's great. He um he's really jelling with the team. But when he gets back, when Charlie gets back, we're all going to meet to figure out what that transition looks like, what is needed at Urky to support the water department moving there, and what I think the rent would be. Okay, cool. Thank you.

So, as I said, building maintenance, we actually reduced because we are getting a new water treatment plant within the next year or two. And so obviously we're not going to want to invest too much money into the old bill that's going to get torn down, but we do need to have some money in case there's a critical um breakdown that we need to address. Uh the 2025 drinking water SRF is a new debt service line for the water. um the 2025 GO which is two more three more lines down from that 53215 is also a new debt service line. Um we went down on the uh water truck lease a little bit because last year when we projected we used the lease number from one of you know the other pickup trucks that we had leased because we didn't know what the lease payment was going to be and actually the lease payment ended up being a little less. The other piece of that is um we um made an agreement with um Charlie and Parks and Wreck for them to keep one of the water trucks that was in good shape. And so the value that we would have gotten for the trade on that is eventually going to come back from the general fund to water to pay for that truck which will help which helps offset this number. Um moving on to the next page unless somebody has something else on that page they want to talk about. So the workers comp admin is is not something that we control. The on call was actually miscalculated

in last year's budget and not accurately reflected and so now it is accurately reflected in this budget. um training. We increased the training because um when we had the contract operator from Rain Royal Water, Man Royal Water brought it to our attention that they have an apprenticeship program uh pretty extensive apprenticeship program that we thought would be excellent for some of our guys who don't have water experience. Um, so we allocated uh we're asking to allocate money in the training budget for us to be able to send one or two of them to through this apprenticeship program for main rail water

which may be refundable through the alpha grant to the alpha grant. So it might be a net but we would just have to put it in there to account for that. Yep. Um, and then as you see again, you have the two IT services and subscriptions that were added, and I can't speak on those, but that's uh 13,000 added to the budget right here. 9343. So 136 roughly. So the the amount for 13,000 is a miscalculation, but it didn't get caught until after the these were printed. So Ashley already has it down for a change.

9,364 should be the IT subscriptions line

and then 4,36 should be the services line. And then uh down at the very bottom um capital improvements is is so we're asking this year for the city approved the water department to go to radio meters a few years ago and we bought um the first few installments of them and have installed them and now it's time we still of like 300 left that we need to install to bring the whole system over to the radio meters from the old meters that they had before. So that's what that number is for. And then the debt service fell off for the safety equipment and we absorbed the water part of the water the water protection budget that we were paying before is now in our budget. So that's a zero. We would have paid it out to the general fund.

Any questions for Mike or Amanda on water clean water? Okay. And I think we're on to our last public works water supply protection 330. Yep. And really the watershed the majority of this is um the payroll part-time is for the boat inspector uh that are at the boat launches to inspect the boats. Um there's a in a little bit of an increase if you go to line 51030 on miscellaneous expense. Is that

So at the beginning of this budget cycle, it was originally thought that water protection would be under parks and wreck. So that adjustment was made prior to us prior to it reverting back to us in the water department under public works. So u we kept it because it's in here, but I'd have to talk to Rody about what his thought process was on that. I I have a question. Why isn't water supply protection fall under the water enterprise? That's You want to go? You want me to go? I'll go. Maybe give me the

Because when you're looking at wershed protection, it has nothing to do with drinking water. It's really about pro because it also applies to Green Lake as well.

It's really about protecting the lakes whether there take the drinking water plant out of it. There would still need to be water shed protection on Branch Lake and Green Lake as the major ponds. So as in terms of monitoring the bacteria along the beaches where people are swimming and and doing recreational stuff, monitoring the levels in the in the at the dam. Um monitoring what's going on along the shoreline um with people building if they're clear cutting where they're not supposed to be. If they have a septic system that's failing that needs to be replaced. So the the philosophy behind it was not about drinking water. It falls in line with drinking water objectives because the plant is there.

But if the plant wasn't there, you would still want to have waterershed protection to protect your recreational assets um and keep them um from being polluted, from being um infected with invasive species like mil foil and things like that that people would be bringing in on their boats. So that's why it's kind of was a was a split because the water the employee that became the wershed steward was a water employee and that's how that happened. Great. Thank you. Any other questions on water supply protection budget?

Thanks guys. Thank you. Mike, you're also doing library assessing and planning. Uh, I think we're on to the library.

And that's page 550. Thanks, guys. Bye. Thank you guys. Have a great day, everybody. You too, Mike. They know they can stay, right? Are we gonna sit as we say? Yeah, exactly. You are. Yeah, you can sit on the sun. Okay, Sarah, take it away. All right, you ready? No.

Um, so for those of you who are seeing the library budget for the first time, it pretty much looks the same as last year. Um our biggest uh portion of the budget is payroll and then this year now second biggest in the budget is um the IT service and IT subscription and our data processing line increased by a lot. So those are our our biggest increases for the year. that major increase in the data processing line. That is two new computers and one new copier, but we have to replace all 20 computers um by December. So, I have quite a few grant applications out. I've had conversations with some wonderful area residents who are possibly going to make us some donations of computers. So hopefully we will be able to get all of them. But

yes, why do you need to replace them by December? Um because they are older than 10 years and they will no longer work with Windows 10 Pro. Okay. Have you heard of connected with give it? Yes, I know about it. Yeah. So I' I'm looking at all of our options. Yeah.

Okay. Um but we need to replace a few of the staff computers with new computers. Um yeah and then we have books is not changing again this year. Most of our material budget actually comes out of um donations. So we've included the donation accounts this year for the first time. Um so you can take a look at those or maybe you already have. um heat, professional services, building maintenance, um those are all staying the same this year. They've been pretty stable. Um office supplies, I added a whole $100. We've noticed the cost of a few things going up this year. So, just to be a little a little safe, um we try to be very stingy with our office supplies.

I want to go back to heat. You expect heat to stay the same this year? I don't. We Well, I tell everyone to bring an extra sweater. Um, that might not cut it.

Well, our heat's also in it's very difficult to regulate. So, in the Tisdale house, we have those large cast iron radiators and you can pretty much turn them on or off. And when they're on, I'll walk in, at least we realized a couple years ago that if we left them on, we would walk in in the morning and it would read 94 degrees. Um, so we've just kind of decided to not heat in the winter. When we get too cold, we'll turn them on for like a day and then we'll turn them back off. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. It's not part of THIS IS PART OF THE RENOVATION and why we really were desperate to do it.

Um, yeah. So, we just We bundle up. It's good. We We like cardigans. It's okay. We will add this heating line to the all the citywide heat lines that we will be looking at and making see if we need to make any appropriate adjustments. I think there's a sweater purchase program. Yes. And the sweater line. We'll get new branded sweaters for everyone. No, I actually sit with my coat on most of the day. I think a North Face account would be kind of more more useful. It's fine. We're tough. Um let's see next on um which one is this? I don't have the full electronic collection.

Electronic collection. Yeah. So that is our consortium fee for Hancock County Download Library. And then any material purchases we make on top of that, it all comes out of um donation funds. Let's see. I can't see the full title of what these things are. building, printing, um yeah, those have stayed about the same. Um conferences and meetings, that has stayed the same. That's enough for two of our staff to attend the state conference. Travel did increase this year. I have only been putting enough for a rental car for that state conference and this year I've put a little extra in to cover um some of our employees mileage that regularly run errands and do outreach and things. We do have volunteers that do our homebound deliveries. So staff um staff do not do those but any off-site meetings or things like that I added a little bit for reimbursement dues and memberships. Those are just our two that we've had for years. Training, we don't have anything in. We've been taking training out of donation funds. Professional services, that hasn't changed. Legal has increased a little bit since it it was added to our budget for the first time last year. Um, telephone that we got our new phone system in. So, it's uh significantly less than it was this year. So, I don't know why it says up 7%. Oh, last year I had budgeted for the new um the new phone system and then it didn't end up getting put in until February. So, it's actually going down from our current um

let's see employee appreciation water stay the same. Postage I decreased a little bit. we're having less outofstate um items. More libraries have joined Manurva, which is nice. Um and then last on that is the IT subscriptions. Um then I think most important that's not in this budget are all of the items that we do spend um from our donation funds. So that includes children's, teen, large print, audiobooks, DVDs, and our all of our um ebook and e audiobook purchases all come out of donation funds. Our streaming services, we have a video streaming service, Canopy and music streaming, Freal, those come out of donation. Our three-day a week van delivery service. um our culture pass program, all of our programs, New York Times access. Um and then any special projects are funded by grants. So this past year it was just over 75,000.

I was going to ask what that was. And is it worth tracking that in these? I just We do track it budget. I think well because they're in a different account. So they're in the fund 80 accounts. So they're not in our operating budget because those funds roll over anything we don't spend or grants that take multiple years. Um they're all in the funding. I want to echo what Tabby is saying. I think even if there's a page in here that says these are the additional services that we provide that are funded through donation. It's just good to capture that in the story you've got. Yeah.

I have a question for you on the revenues and it's more just asking what's behind the numbers. Yes. So 552 gives the um breakdown for revenues. I was interested to see that library revenue from other towns is up while library cards um sold and um various miscellaneous are down. So how were you able to increase the other town? We raised their rate. Okay. So it wasn't voluntary. It was the to participate it needed to come up. That does sound vaguely familiar from last year. Yeah. And the the other two revenue that's just based on me estimating.

Um people are there fewer library cards? No, I mean we continue to add new library cards. Um it does seem to be stabilizing a little bit. We had a big jump of new library cards in like 23 24 and then 25 I mean we're still adding I think we added so far this year over 600. Um last year we added over 900 but there's only so many residents. Um so it does tend to Ellsworth residents and out of town or just out of town both. Okay. Yeah. Wait, Ela president pay for library.

No, no, no, no, no, no. Thank you. Because I'd like I was No, sorry. We're talking low total library card numbers. We can't separate new cards based on Well, I guess we could. It would be a little complicated, but um but people outside of us would have to pay for a library card. Yes. Yeah. So, is that outside of the library revenue from other towns? People from outside of those other towns. Yes. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Yeah.

Okay. And I mean I have a I have a theory um just based on my own observation our number of scholarships have gone up um by about 25% each year. It's not something we advertise because it's a very small donation account and we don't want people to abuse it. Um but we do as the we we see the look on someone's face we offer it. Okay. And that would be cool to capture again on a separate page just to see everything that goes up at the library. And to to be clear, li Ellsworth residents do not pay for library cards. It's people who are outside of Ellsworth or the other towns that pay in.

Yes. Or summer people. Um if someone like has an Airbnb for a month in Ellsworth will make mainly to cover the cost of materials that they probably won't return, which seems to be a trend. It's the cost of doing business. It's fine. Yeah. I wouldn't have anticipated that one. Thank you. That was helpful. Any questions?

I have a comment. When I was elected in 2021, I was amazed that the library was running on a 2015 budget. It had been flat for six years and yet it has increased just smidg since that time.

Yeah. 5.7% since 2017. And I'm amazed at the services that you create for $660,000 a year. It just blows my mind with all of these other departments and budgets, school especially, that just continue to rise and continue to go up. Yet the library has stayed extremely frugal and found ways to get services to people, especially the young people. And I'd just throw this out from Mr. Conservative himself. I've said this before that I would support a million-doll budget for our city library.

You You have been very supportive of the library. I will I'll never forget my first budget meeting where you said go back and bring me your wish list budget. If only I had been here for more than a month. I might have been able to Well, it it's just it's been so flat and so frugal, but yet so important. So successful. You've done incredible work. Thank you. I appreciate that. Well, we have it's it's due in large part we have about 40 volunteers right now. Um, so we are we are propped up on a lot of shoulders and you guys go right after the grants too. I try.

Yeah, I know. It's a lot of work to do that and and it sometimes it's kind of like you spend all that time applying and writing and Oh, I didn't get it. Darn. Yeah, that is that is crushing when that happens. But it's okay. We're Yeah, we're in a really good place right now. I think we've got a really good team and yeah, we have the best patrons that I've ever worked with in any of my libraries. I love this town. Thank you all for your support and thank you for all the hours and hours and hours that you dedicate.

It's a big deal and you're not given enough credit. Appreciate that. Okay, assessing.

So, assessing um one thing I would just note while Larry's coming up to the podium is um there is a significant increase in the professional services which is accounting for the contract with um municipal consulting group. Um, I just want to make a note here that I believe that that is intended to be largely funded through TIFF. So that might shift as we get towards the end of this um budget.

Okay. Larry Gardner, city assessor. Thank you, Sarah. Uh thank you council members uh um for the work you do and the the hours you put in and and understanding everyone's budget. Um I'll take you through mine. the the of course that the biggest thing here is um is that uh line item for the professional services uh for the uh municipal consulting group. Uh what they're doing is um uh they go out and pick up all the new construction, the permits. They're they they work on the personal property um uh to get get that into the computer. Uh and and they're actually uh reading deeds to determine splits um and and and getting those processed. Um and and they're doing a really good job. Um, they've got some good people. Um, I used to work for um a much larger mass appraisal uh firm and um and I know how uh how difficult it is to to have good people out in the field. um you know, if you're the manager or the manager's manager, um you know, the bottom line is your budget and you you try to stick to that. Um but for people out in the field, the data collection is very important. Um you know, you have to know how to measure a house and measure it correctly. Um know the features of a

house and the construction. Um uh and and you know and and sometimes uh um like the the the firm uh we had back in 2007, you know, the smaller firms sometimes uh if if they get a lot of business um they have to uh hire people that are not very experienced, sometimes not experienced at all and train them real get them out in the field. But this company, M uh MCG, Municipal Consulting, um the they they do a terrific job. They have good people. Uh um you know a lot of people now have um uh security cameras and um most people are working during the day uh or some people are not even there at their house. They may uh be living in Florida but yet they still have a security camera. Um, and so anytime there's um people running around the house or knocking on the door, um, um, those cameras are picking that up. And I have I've only actually had one call from a person and I'm a little surprised. I thought I'd have more. Uh I I think when when I was out measuring and and and stuff like that and you know people most of them did know me um because I've been here so long but uh um but for new faces going around the house and you definitely have questions and they're doing a really good job. I just wanted to to say that but that's the big thing in the budget. um so that I don't

keep you here all night. Um but I I'll go through the the numbers as um the account numbers for each line and uh the first one's TIFF revenue and that's 15,000. I wasn't really sure how we got to that 15,000 for I think that's just what um Twilight had had appropriate. Yeah. had appropriated for staff hours that are eligible for TIF. And that's revenue. Yes, it'll be transferred from the TIFF accounts.

Um grant revenue um is zero. We've never had grant revenue. payroll. You'll notice uh the new budget is less than the current year's budget um by about 38,000. And uh that's because the the the the salaries um the the uh it it'll be myself and only half of the assistant and in code office and uh planning office they take the other half of of that the wages. So it actually went down 38,000 uh which is a good thing. uh the the employee we have is in a union. So the next line down is eyeglasses. Um and and because that person's in the union, there's

part of their collective bargaining for that. It's a $200 statement. So that's reflected in assessing code and planning. That's what

and travel same as last year. Well, tuition reimbursement, uh, zero. Travel, same as last year, $400. Dues and memberships, same as last year. Um, training, a little less, um, than last year. Um because the assistant who I have half the time uh and half the her salary uh we're not uh trying to make her uh be the next city assessor. Um um so that the training to get that up real quick um is is not there. Um then we get to the the big one. It's the the consulting company uh professional services and we had $,000 in that budget uh last year. Now it's 1475. And so of course that is the biggie. Legal is the same at 2000. Office supplies the same at 300. Printing and advertising the same at 500. um employee appreciation 200 same as last year. And then we get down to the to the IT services and IT subscriptions. um the the assessing uh well I I pretty much uh control the uh the GIS and the vision assessing software and in years past those things were in it budget. So for subscriptions I've got them now. I never had them

before. So, and it but it's that's with all departments. It's um they're getting uh IT services. Their budget must must be going down quite a bit. And then there's grant expense and I have zero there. So the bottom line is the increase for the U municipal consulting group and they're doing a really good job and um the the big test is whether or not we can get commitment done much sooner than we have been last couple years and I think we'll we'll certainly be able to do that. Are we expecting to do I think we talked about um like a a letter to the I don't remember exactly what we're talking but I guess maybe that is the the commitment out to people much earlier right like July this summer right as a

this is coming down the pipeline thing.

Yes. And I think as in um Larry, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the intent is is as we're getting closer to if we are identifying any large shifts like we saw in waterfront that we would communicate that earlier than just sending the commitment out. So there would be an interim step that says, "Hey, the commitment's coming out. We're doing the evaluation. This is what you're we're looking at. Please come in and talk to us if you have any questions prior to the commitment coming out." But the goal, that's only if we see any big shifts. Um the goal is to get it out by the 1 of July so we can start collecting so we have cash flow coming in. Um we're learning a lot about how all these things are tied together. Um but that is the goal and I think Josh and his group are and Larry are good at there.

Yeah. The um the the group has a has a team. Um um if we would have hired just one more person to be a full-time field person um it probably would have been less than 145,000. Uh but but you have to consider the for their salary, but you have to consider the benefits of hiring a person. And it's probably at least a h 100,000 if we were to hire a just a a third person for the office. Further questions for Larry?

Thank you, Larry. Thank you. Thank you. Planning some of that money for the library. Sorry, Larry. It was worth a shot, huh? Yeah, maybe next year. She might have left some on the floor. I'm sorry. I put the wrong page number for the planning. So, it's 178, just so you're aware.

Thank you. Thank you. Good evening everyone. Danielle Gif, director of planning and urban development. I'll present the planning budget tonight and Britney Merrill, our city planner, is also here if you have any additional questions about certain things. Um so I'll start at the top. Um you'll see a slight increase in our projections for planning board fees for next year. um just a a little bit of an increase from 9,000 to 10,000. Um our miscellaneous revenue will remain flat from last year. Um and then you'll see some TIFF revenue, the same thing that Larry was talking about where there'll be some some of our um I believe some of our salary can be covered by or is TIFF eligible for reimbursement. What you don't see on here is I am anticipating a reimbursement grant from the state for all of the work that we've done so far on the adult use cannabis. Um we're eligible for up to $20,000 and so far I've accounted for about $12,000. So once all the licenses are through, I'll be submitting the reimbursement request to the state. So we'll see that coming in as well. But

you expect that in fiscal year 2027? Yeah. Okay. You do. It is a one-time reimbursement. So, we want to make sure that it's come we're at the end of the line on that and collecting all of those fees, which it will be split up when it comes in. Depending on when it comes in, we will have to show it for fiscal year 26 revenues, not fiscal year 27 revenues. So, you split it depending when the work was. Okay. Yeah. Oh, yes. Because some of those expenses have happened. Depending on when it comes in, how how far past it comes in, that's how we'll have to show it. But if it comes in way past um when we retroactive stuff for the fiscal year like for our audit purposes if they already started the audit then it will not

okay but okay and I'll work with you on the timing of when we can submit that we have three years from when we adopt the ordinance to submit that reimbursement request but I think we can do it earlier than that I don't anticipate additional work substantial additional work on that ordinance passed this summer

great um and then on I and I am also actively seeking grant funding to cover projects that we're working on. That's also not shown here because I don't know what is going to be on the horizon, but no, that's that is my standard operating procedure is to seek grants for projects. Um for the expense line, um the majority of our budget of course is within payroll. um as Larry alluded to that is covering my salary, Britney's salary and then a quarter of the assessing assistant salary and all of the accuchon that goes with her um because she is a union employee. So you'll see additional lines in our budget that you wouldn't have seen last year and that is simply because of that employee. Um for professional services, we do keep that line flat from last year. We do have um an anticipation of either using that funding to explore um transferring our ordinances into ecode. We don't have an exact price for that just yet. I'll be exploring that once we get through phase one. Um so sometime in in the middle of the summer. Um another option is we are we do need to digitize a lot of our um archived and um older planning documents that now live in the attic. So that is another option. So we want to keep our options open for something like that. So we wanted to keep that flat. For legal services, I think I got a little ahead of my skis on that one. Um in February, I was projecting that we'd be spending a little less than um what our budget was in this current fiscal year. So I did reduce it, but unfortunately it does look like I might have to keep that line flat as well. So instead of the $4,000 request up to 7500 just to cover us. Um the new lines that you'll see here the IT subscriptions and

services again hitting everyone. So those um right there will learn more about what is entailed in that but we do have GIS services um within the planning department. So that covers some of that. Tuition reimbursement is a little bit higher than last year. I am pursuing um a graduate certificate degree from the University of Southern Maine in planning and community development. So it is a course each semester, three credit course. And so this is just to make sure that we have enough to cover until the ALFund reimbursement comes through. So that's what that 350 extra dollars is is to give us that cushion. Um you'll see an increase in travel. um yeah, a significant increase in travel and that is because it was never budgeted for um for conferences or workshops or trainings. Um and so uh um this past year we ended up using personal vehicles which is just fine to be in reimbured for, but it was never really captured in our budget beforehand. So we're making our budget whole um in that regard. So it looks like it's a lot but it's to cover something that we weren't able to cover before. um dues and memberships is a slight increase there and that is simply because um we cover the HCPC dues, the Hancock County Planning Commission dues and they um I think they showed us either a 10 or a 20% increase from last year. So that covers that. Um for printing and advertising, this is another line where I think I got ahead of my skis on that one. I tried to reduce it as much as possible. I know. And so I think it instead of I think last year, let's see, last year we were almost $10,000 for printing. I'd like to adjust the 1,200 to 2400. So we're not bringing it just up to the 9,000, but um a little bit higher than I anticipated in there.

Why was it so high last year? Do you I don't know actually. Sarah, I think there was some citywide mailers associated with some ordinance in the comp plan, some required mailers that caused us to have it be so high. Okay. And this one that's not the cannabis. Is the cannabis one going to be that we were gonna the overlay and the I thought we were going to do

the cannabis layer ended up being less than we anticipated because we did a mailer for the abutters instead of citywide for that one for the um zoning table uh the use changes in the zoning table um related to phase one ordinance revisions um that will be a citywide mailer. You said 2400. You wanted to go. Yes. Okay.

2400. Um the majority of our printing and advertising is the public notices for planning board. Um we uh will be discussing um in in the future um increasing our planning board fees so that we can cover that a little bit more. Um but that's what where that comes from. Um conferences and meetings up just a little bit. Um this is to ensure that myself and Britney are attending the conferences that support our knowledge and services. Um that's the Northern New England um planning association meeting. Um as well as the main municipal association um conference. So that's for both of us to attend those. Um we have never had a training line in the planning budget. Most other departments do have that. And so this is a new addition. Um, from what you've seen before, it's just $750. It's to cover uh webinars or trainings mainly through MMA, but also to cover expenses. Britney is pursuing her AICP, which is the planning certification um that most planners have. It is a standard thing. Um, and so she will be studying for that exam, and so that's covering some of that training costs there. um public engagement materials. It looks like it's a new line. It is not. We're just rebranding it. It used to um be called cleanup days, but we want to expand the scope of what those cleanup days look like and make it more of a public engagement line. Um so that when we do have public meetings for ordinance revisions or anything like that, we'll be able to um either provide refreshments if needed because we are finding that that is an incentive for people to come. Um and and it's also a thank you for participating. Um the other part of it is being able to go out into the world. So maybe we want to go

to the farmers market and table and and and explain to people what is going on. So that is our thought process on that one. So it's beyond Cardbrook. Um in addition, which is May 9th,

which is May 9th, shameless plug. Um office supplies. I did reduce that one a little bit. I'm a digitized I I'm a digital girl. Um and so uh we I I I dropped that down. We're not using that line nearly as much. Um and we have plenty of supplies at least for the next year and probably beyond in our closets. So I don't think it's necessary for us to have such a um you know to have $600 in there. So I did drop it down a little bit. Employee appreciation remain flat. And then the eyeglass contact site when we talked about that that's uh for our assisting assessing assistant. Um any questions?

Nailed it. Okay. Thank you all so very much. Come visit us anytime. If you could have full belly clams at one of these gent I'm more than willing to come. Take that. the budget. Yes. Uh, thank you all so very much. Have a good evening. Thank you, Britney. Code enforcement page 84. You figured correctly. Okay, we're done.

All right. I would also just note here that um you are going to see the short-term rental revenue and expense for the software associated with that in here. Um obviously there's going to be more to come on that item on the 14th, but just wanted to kind of note that that's where this is living.

A lot of my Good evening is Robert Grant, the code enforcement officer. Uh, a lot of these lines are going to sound really similar to the last two departments that went. Um, so I would like to start with um the permits. Um, I did adjust down my expected revenue from last year. Uh, that was based on my last year's budget was based on uh the previous code officer and what she had had estimated. Um, and it turns out that we don't really bring in as much as she was estimating. So that I've I've dialed it back down from where it was in in the current year budget. Um that's reflected. Uh we have gone from Oh,

I ask a question there. Um is the the cannabis licensing not in here? Not for me. That would be No, that's gonna be in the CL. That's okay. Okay. Sorry. Thank you. All right. Um, so we also in in in there we also uh Andrew, my deputy is the animal control officer now. So he that's the $850 revenue from that that line. That's new. Um I'm honestly is the TIFF revenue. Sarah, do you know that's the same as the other departments? Um it's for uh staff time associated with um work in the tiff districts.

Good enough. Um, so yeah, so payroll uh is actually down I believe from last year uh because we're going from two or from this year we had we budgeted for three full-time employees. We're down to two and a quarter with the shared admin. Sorry, can I go back up to the revenues and you have the short-term rental? That's a new Yes, that's what we're going to talk about that at the Oh, the policy. That That's my expected revenue from if if we do a uh registration a registration fee

to cover the costs. Um that would be my expected revenue from that. That's why I didn't tell you. We're going to go do that one at at the next meeting.

Next meeting. Gotcha. Thank you. Um, and then so I upped I I I uh I upped professional services from last from the previous but from the current budget uh just to help cover some of the costs that I've been incurring with everything that this year's this year's legal fees and everything were crazy um professional services. I'm I'm expecting I may have to hire some more third party inspectors for like all the commercial projects that we're getting. Uh I am a little over my head when it comes to commercial electrical uh and that's something that a third party inspector will be necessary for. We have the the new uh hotel coming in uh any number of projects. So I'm I'm expecting I'm going to need that help. That was something that really wasn't budgeted for before or wasn't budgeted enough and we kind of just skirted by on

Were we hiring people before? We did occasionally. Uh I know that Lori did hire for the really big like uh solar field projects, but a lot of the other commercial projects she would just walk in and look at. No fault to her or anybody else before her. Uh but we kind of just walk in now and say, "Yeah, it looks good." But I'll be honest, I don't really know what I'm looking at half the time with electrical. Um, that's a very important thing. Your Yeah, you could burn a build building out really quickly if you don't know. And to become to get certified to be an electrical inspector, you have to have five years of experience as an electrician. So I don't That's his master. Yeah. So norman, norm that's master.

That's kind of wild that the code enforcement officer is supposed to be Yes. Mo most towns hire out an electrical inspector. We used to have one years ago. We haven't for a long time. Okay. We just hire it now. Peace meal. And we

the code office does a uh like for residential like for single family homes and things like that, that's fairly easy to handle. But when you're getting into big commercial projects, it's really over my head. And that's why I upped that a little bit this year just so I can help pay for those as I I expect we're going to get more commercial projects. Um the next one is violator enforcement. Uh that was a line I had last year that they didn't fund. Um I wanted that that's like a my legal line to go after people that have violations. Before that, there was no there was before a couple of years ago, there was the code office never actually had a line to go after uh to legally go after violators of the land use ordinance. So, whatever, you know, trash in your yard or chickens, we've had that come up before. Uh any of that stuff or any more, you know, any anything like that, I don't have I I don't I didn't actually have a line to cover legal expenses for that. So that's the So the violator enforcement fund is actually that legal line. I've asked for that back this year. Um if I had that this year, I probably my legal line probably wouldn't be blown, but it is I blew my legal line this year just because I have I have legal stuff going on for the last two years plus.

Um Robert, can I ask you a question on that? I'm reading on 91 the the detail on that. You're saying it reads like what you said and I don't quite understand the it uncumber any unused funds from the previous year. So is this going to be 20,000? I think that might be that might be an accidental leftover language from the last from last year. That's how we were going to handle it originally. Um so that might be a a mistake on my part where I left we don't you can't encumber funds. Okay. So this will be budgeting additional amounts not encumbering from past. Correct. Yeah. Well there's nothing to encumber anyway. There was there was zero. Okay. Well, that explains why I couldn't quite follow what you were saying with

Yeah. Sorry. That might I That was something that got left in from last year. Okay. I copied it over and missed it. Okay.

Um where was I? Dangerous. Oh, dangerous buildings is a new one I added this year. Another 20,000. That's in response to uh the first year I was here. We tore down, I think it was 16 Central Street, which is was a city-owned taxpayer property that had to be condemned. Um, and then we also last year we tore down the home that partially burned on the fairground road. The price tag for the fairground road was 19,360ome dollars. Um, so I figured if we had 20,000 that was just that was just to tear it down and haul it off. wasn't that doesn't include the uh payroll for the city staff from the highway department that actually did the work. That's only to to carry the building off to to DMJ waste and pay pay the tonnage for that.

Wow.

Was almost $20,000. So that's why I figure worst case scenario if if we want to demo another house for whatever reason, 20,000 should cover it. that house that house was in a was a pretty bad worst case scenario where there was a lot of stuff in the yard, a lot of hoarding situation. We also took the garage down because that had to go to um and then the highway department receeded, cleaned it up. It looks really nice now. So, uh so I figure 20,000 is the worst case and then if we have to do it again, we can do it again once at least once a year. But we we've done we've done one each year. Yeah, we've kind of gone back and forth on where this should live because sometimes it's a code issue, sometimes it's a tax situation. So, it's landing here for right now, but it could change because it's not always a code violation or code issue that's requiring the house to be demolished. It could be a tax required property that and it's a liability for the city and we've got to take it down. So, but I just want to make that known that it's living here for now.

I added it in my budget just because I knew it was an un we didn't actually budget for the fairground road tear down. So, I figure we probably should do that going forward. At least if we need it, we have it. If we don't use it, hopefully we don't have to use it. It's at least it's at least we have it budgeted for if we need it. And we've torn down one each the last two years I've been here. The only two years I've been here. Um, again, I so I I have a vehicle lease there. I I have a I have the the new I guess it's about a year old now. The the uh electric vehicle that that the code office rides around in. Yeah, I have that. That's the vehicle lease there. Um, like I said, eyeglasses were talked about in the other ones. IT services, my training and travel. Uh, and then vehicle equipment maintenance. That's, you know, that's none of that's really changing. Um, insurance is all part of the vehicle. I don't think I have much else that's even changing.

Yeah, Robert, I'm not seeing the expense for the short-term rental. It's at the top. Um, 10145. It's the one, two, three, four. She's in there's no expense. I think it's in professional services. It's not in No, that's only 20,000. Yeah. No, I don't I'm not sure why that line is only 20. It should be higher. It's not in the um line explanations that I can find. It's the that open which I think is $40,000. Yeah. So, maybe we we need to get that fixed. I guess it's not in Yeah.

Where is that going? What's it? So, um, to collect the revenue. Sorry, Nancy, that I jumped in and said it's under the revenue. Um, that's okay. The approach was would be to have an open gov module that helps us track the the permits or the registrations, um, send out the notice of registration, all of that. And that there is an expense to that. Yeah.

So, that's just not in here. So, I I I can briefly talk about the that the software allows me to basically automate most of the process that goes along with any potential short-term rental registration that we do. Uh the my previous assistant that we we hired as a full-time employee for the for the code office, one of her roles was going to be uh having to manually do all of the tracking and and permitting and setting up appointments and all that stuff that goes along with any potential short-term rental registration. Uh, open gut basically lets me mo uh uh automate most of that other than actually going to do an inspection. That's the only thing I'd still have to have an actual employee do other than click a few buttons which I can do. So

So that that's one of the reasons we could get rid of the go down to a quarter employee instead of a full third employee. So that's going to add 40,000 to the code enforcement budget I think. So, but it should be I was wondering is it anywhere else in the budget? So, we're shifting it or I don't Yeah, I know. I'm I'm not sure why it get get in there, but I Okay, that's why we're doing workshops. Let's find Let's find the Whoopsies. Now, but yeah, that that 40,000 should be covered and then some by any of that revenue that comes in, right? And that revenue is an estimate based on I don't know how many we're going to collect first year. Um,

and then again, if you're looking at 100,000 anticipated revenue, 40,000 for open gov, the rest of that money is covering your time with inspections. It's not that that's a Yeah. No, that that's So, Right. Yeah. But yeah, it's not it's not a that 100,000 is an estimate. I'm not sure how many we're going to capture. No, I get it. But the idea is to cover both the software and your time, not not just the software profitering. Yeah, correct. Okay. Thanks. No problem. Good catch, Nancy. Thanks. Any further question? We had a bell. Yeah. Any further questions for code on the proposed budget?

Seeing none. All right. You were released. All right. Thank you, Robert. Okay. We are into the city season for these guys. Boy, we're slowing you guys right through. Yes. Uh clerk page 60. So I am Sue Mlan and right now I'm the city clerk. You mean right now? What are you going in minutes? I'm going to be the tax collector. Oh, I would say Wonder Woman just captures it. I like that. We'll get you the cuffs at least.

There you go.

Um, so I'm not going to go down and read it all out because you have it there in front of you, but I will point out a few of the the changes and the new. And I also things have happened since I submitted my request. Um, so I've got a couple more requests to put forward, but um, one of the things was the state and city licenses revenue. Um, I'm actually I got it at uh, 16,000, but I think to be honest um, we probably need to increase that to 20. I know it's revenue, but it shows since I'm collecting over that, it is showing as overbudget on my paperwork and it comes out bright red and I don't like it. So,

see, I I will say too in the finance committee we're looking at different from budget is shown as yellow. It's like sometimes it's good or sometimes it's exactly what we anticipated. So So, we need to color code better, right? I want it. Yeah, I want it corrected. So, anyway, that's my request for that. Um, the cannabis line is new. Um, that is 30,000. And, uh, as far as the revenue goes, I that I think that's really all that was changing other than adding the tiff revenue. Should the cannabis license be 40,000? Because we're going to is it's technically going to be four, correct? including

if cure relief transfers it could be a fourth it could be up to 40,000 right um well I thought even if someone transfers aren't we only allowing three licenses even if someone transfers pure leaf would allow up to four yeah I think it was I wish Daniel hadn't left but I'm pretty conf I think yeah we'll check on that is right just made us 10 or more if there's more than if there was more more applicants then you get three choices. Once somebody wants to transfer like clearly wants to transfer from medical then we could have four. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.

Yeah. I and that's beyond me. That's fine. I mean you you know just an estimate but you're saying I could be I I didn't even put that there. Charlie did. So we wouldn't want that to be read on your No, we don't want that. That makes me mad.

Yeah. Um, payroll is uh increased uh quite a bit, but part of that is because it wasn't being uh applied correctly because we've got a few of us that are paid out of different accounts and it was some of my payroll came for uh the clerk payroll. uh wasn't being taken. It was all being taken out of tax instead of split up like it was supposed to. No, it's getting split up now. It is, but it wasn't in the very beginning. Oh, we So,

right. What we do is we go in and do journal entries to correct the payroll because the payroll import there's no way to split that up. So, it's actually a lot of work on the back end for the finance department and we have to go in and individually do those journal entries for all the departments that have the wacky payroll,

right? But in the beginning when we were working on budget, I didn't have those figures cuz that hadn't happened. So, um and then uh shellfish dues that has increased from 3 to 4,000 this year. We don't have any choice. That's just what they're telling us. Um legal, I have lowered that for city uh for the clerk from two to one because I didn't need it for them. So, you know, I don't I don't see any reason to keep it.

Can I can I ask on that with the election in November? Okay. Yeah. She's ready.

That's why she's sitting here. So, and then IT services, of course, that that's new. Um, my the other thing I have that I wanted to mention was the printing and advertising. When I first reviewed this, uh, I not everything was updated as it should have been and, um, I requested an increase to 3,000. That is still not going to be enough. Now that everything's corrected, I can see we need to up that. Um, so I'm asking to go to 4,000. I really I I'm I'm g I'm over budget already this year. Um and the 4,000 I think should cover us for next year. Um but I I think that's important. Um and that's those are really my biggest things for the tax office. Not tax office. Sorry, I'm not there yet. um the city clerk. So I did you have any questions on any of that?

Any questions for the clerk? Okay. So now I switch hats and I am Sue Mlan the tax collector 186.

Yeah. Right. So um this one I upped the tax lean revenue and the and the reason for that is because the tax lean expense is increasing and that's just costs that I I don't have any control over. So, um those kind of coincide, one writes off the other eventually. And um the other printing and advertising here again that also um I didn't really have to increase that one. I think I was maybe I did. Hold on. Um that is not the right one. That is

you decreased it by I think I decreased. Yeah, I think I was at a thousand

and reduced it. So um I all I do for tax is maybe put um a reminder in as far as this goes. Uh but I am asking to bring it back to a th00and because that's all I did was put reminders in. However, with these new wonderful laws on tax acquired property and how to sell them, there are going to be times that I am going to have to post things in the paper if we can't find uh the prior owner. if we don't know who the prior owner is, that that sort of thing. If we have um money returned to us, we we've got to let people know that you got to call us. We're going to have to post all that in the paper. So, I would like to leave it at a th00and. And the other thing that I think I'm asking to add is a foreclosure maintenance line. Um, and that is for buildings that we foreclose on um that may need to have locks changed or um windows boarded up or that kind of thing. In the in the past, it's always been part of uh facilities But now, um, we're asking to have it under my budget and, uh, Charlie recommended 5,000. I would assume that would be enough for the kinds of things that I'm doing. Although, it sounds like

after listening to code, I may be ending up with dangerous building stuff. So, oh, I don't know. Maybe next year I'll be here asking for 50. I don't know. But can we be adding that? Cuz I don't see it in No, this this is a conversation. Yes, I want to add it. But this is a conversation that Charlie and I just had. Yes, definitely. That's all since then. So, that's where I'm at. You went down on legal, but your actuals for this year are over what you're asking for next year.

Yes. Because I had a lot of issues this year and uh I don't anticipate that next year and I think as even with the um with the tax acquired properties um MMA legal is great. I I always reach out to them first uh because it's free. Well, well, dues, right? So, the dues, it's not addition. Put it that way. It's already Yeah, it's already paid for.

Yeah. So, and as far as this uh the the tax acquired properties that they're they're right on top of all of that. Not that the lawyers aren't either, but I can get the same answer from them. So, I really I don't anticipate uh needing it. Okay. So, where will we see expense and revenue as you move forward with selling various properties? I assume some of that's going to happen in fiscal year 27. Yeah, I hope so. Um,

that's, you know, we didn't even address that in the budget. I I so that's another policy conversation about do we even it might change what you've got there as far as revenues there's a little bit more but well you know I understand that there's a lot of unknowns and there is a lot of unknowns and we won't make any money on it but it will pay some back taxes so it will show that we've brought stuff in but but we on as far as the tax acquired properties go, right? We will not make a penny on it. And I think the the policy question too would be for things that aren't tax acquired, but where we're actually deciding to sell,

what are we going to what are we going to do with that, right? Money we had talked about is where housing maybe, right? And I am looking at that property. I' I've pretty much finished up with what I think is all of the tax acquired properties to get that information together. But, um, a lot of the city-owned property, uh, we're using one way or another. There's not a lot or a ton available, but uh, we haven't had that discussion yet. I just I haven't got there. No, I get that. And that again, yeah, here. And the key is getting it back on the tax roles and back in use,

right? Because the tax acquired ones will have to go to be reconciled against the year for those taxes. um which is a long list could be it's could be very multiple multiple years and then then there's all the the expenses that we have incurred I was going to try to collect that stuff to Pat's point are we able to also charge back the staff time that it's taken to get them on the market it can that can be for another policy question yeah I don't know the answer to that it's in the statute Is it it would if it's per a lot of costs are permitted for a tax acquired property. I don't know specifically staff time.

I've read that thing 10 times when we get to that point of that policy. I think it's a valid point. I don't I would love to know how many hours you put into this. I have no idea. Yeah. And that process is going to be coming probably to the June um council meeting agenda. So we might be able to have some of that discussion then too when that RFP is um and hope yeah I mean we're hoping to get the RFP out next week but great nice to see I can't promise. So thank you. Any question further questions on the tax budget? I can't wait to see who she's going to be next. I am not I'm done.

I'm taking my hat off and giving it Thank you, Sue. Thanks, Sue. All right. You're gonna stick around for moral support, aren't you? Absolutely. Next up is general assistance. General assistance. General assistance is first. 144. That's what it's on our list. Okay. Kina Vanatine, social services director. First hat. Uh, let me get both my stuff out here. Do you want me to go down through each line like we've been doing or

whatever. I mean, it's up to you. I think if there's any ones you want to highlight that you think are bring our attention to and you don't have to go I mean, especially if nothing's changed and other ones we have.

Okay. So, let's let's do it that way. So, um let me pull this form open. Gosh, way too much paperwork. Okay, so um the first one I want to bring to your attention is um actually let me explain this a little bit. So some of this budget is obviously um state reimburseable. So 70% of a portion of this budget we get back from the state. So on um those specific items, we'll start with that. So that would be housing was my major decrease and I want to explain the reason for that. So, um, this year we have had a lot of nonprofit agencies that have received grant funding, um, like Healthy Acadia, um, Families First actually received a grant that the city, um, helped them with. Um, so we've been utilizing the nonprofit agencies before using general assistance. So, that has been a huge help decrease this budget. Um, so when somebody applies for assistance, I am requiring them to reach out to the nonprofits first to see if they can utilize those funds before coming to the city. Um, so I have decreased that budget um quite a bit and I'm hoping I have reached out to them again this year and therefore seeing having the same funding next year. So I'm hoping we can keep that lower. Tina, are these

some of the same nonprofits that come to us and ask for small That is great. contributions. Okay. Yes. That's really good news. That they're able to be successful with grant funding.

Now, I'm going to go in the opposite direction with the food. So, food prices, as you know, have increased tremendously, and I've had a lot more people request for assistance with food this year. So, I did increase that budget a little bit. Um, plus we had that bit where the state takes away the food stamps. You know, sometimes that does happen and then our pantries are getting inundated. So, and then the people have to come to me because I require clients to go to the food pantry first before they ask for assistance for general assistance. Um, I ask them to utilize that first and whatever they can't get there. um I can help them with the remaining amount of food or if they have a special diet.

That was that's a federal when SNAP was correct in limbo. That was federal passed through the state. That was federal. Okay. Thanks. Um my budget, my GA budget obviously is down quite a bit. So, um Charlie didn't really make any huge changes in that. And that's the same reason? Yeah, it is the same. And when you say so for the 70% reimbursement, that's not accounted for here. Correct. Or it is. That is correct. Not. So in addition to GA's budget being down in theory for housing, some of these other programs, we're getting 70% back. That's correct.

Okay. So where does So this isn't the net number. This is Yeah. It doesn't account for the No, the re what we get back. Shouldn't we account for that 70%? I wouldn't know how to do that. That would be on the finance end. I don't know how to figure that number out. Do you submit reimbursement to the state? Yep. And then they give you the 70% of that, right? Which comes through automatically through the finance office. What is the welfare general assistance revenue at the top? Um maybe that is it. Is that it?

The reimbursement received from the state for the city's general welfare welfare general assistance. So that is the I don't mess with that line item. So do you know actually I don't but I can make a note to check on it and we'll make sure the math maths on that that it's 70%. Yeah. But yeah, I think we want clarification there. And if it's not accounted for, I think it makes a lot of sense to account for it as best we can. Again, like with Sue, when I see that it's red, so I'm like, what is that? What is that huge number? That's over budget, but it's probably it's revenue. So, it should be shamrock green. It looks like you're under budget for the year for 30,000 um is our actual

year to date when we budgeted for 92,000. So I think that's why we came down so much. Is that right? This that is that line that revenue line is the GA reimbursement. Okay. So that is what you get from the state, right? And I mean that's probably why it's down because obviously I haven't used the nonprofits stepped up. Okay. It still is as much work, but I like knowing that we're not using as much city funds to right utilize it. And still it's only a 70% reimbursement, so it's still 30% of city.

And the city also has, which isn't really talked about during the budget process, but um I still have the emergency fuel assistance fund um which is doing really well still. I still get a large amount of donations for that and I utilize that too um a lot of the times in the winter. And we have also the um emergency assistance fund which is um done for Christmas for kids and backpack program. And that is all funded through the cans for kids at the transfer station. So all of the money from the cans at the transfer station go to the fund. Oh, that's great. that pays for the backpacks in the Christmas program.

Well, we do other things during the year too. We do like a silent auction. So, craft craft air society. So, and all those funds go to that program. just it um small item and not ready to make the change yet, but looking at the burial and cremations as we are as the cemetery commission is sorting through the funds and what they're allowed for. Hopefully less of that falls on the city even though I see there is a state reimbursement too. So I'm regretting decreasing this one actually. Yeah, I see that. I'm regretting decreasing this one

due to the fact is since I've posted this budget, I've had three requests at over $1,000 a piece. So, that's the problem with trying to figure out that type of budget. You don't know if people are going to need assistance or not. So, and I just went off of my previous numbers. Yeah. But but again looking trying to find out is that an allowable use of some of the funds for the cemetery commission as we're trying to sort through it all. Yeah, these you mean like purchasing like a plot or something through this account? I don't know. I'm I'm looking at it and just I know we've had a quick conversation, but

yeah, this specifically is to there's a maximum amount that the city can pay for a cremation and that's that specific line item. Great. Great. And if that doesn't include the state reimbursement that you may be okay for the year. Yes. Okay. Yeah. Good. Great. Any further questions for Tina on GA? Tina, you may now put on your other hat. Which one? I got two more to go. Elections. Okay. Elections at 104. Oh, this is my stressful.

I know. You're doing good, girl. Breathe. Well, it's past my bedtime, but y'all know my brain isn't operating on 100% here. Oh, you're a morning person then? I am. 3:00 a.m. Poor Sue. If we ever go anywhere together, I'm like, "Let's go. 5:00. 3:00 a.m. is when I do my S is going, be quiet. I want my is when I'm getting I get up around that time of the but that's it reinforced by an alarm." Yeah, mine got an alarm.

Hey She's out front beeping on the horn. Okay, so elections. Um, this one's all messed up. We did a few changes. Um, one was to election payroll. I had budgeted for 20, but when I was talking with Charlie, we decided to decrease that because I've been using um city employees. Um I've been utilizing them a lot more than because honestly it's really hard to get people to work the elections.

It's harder than ever to call people and if they can't work, I got to find somebody. So I pull poor Ashley or you know people from other departments to try to help me that day. So we reduce the money because we use city employees. So um thank you city employees. Yeah. Thank you. Let's see here. What was any major other changes? probably over budget, but I don't see where it is. Like, uh, my legal.

Yeah, as you can see, my legal was through the roof, but recount. Yeah, I didn't want you guys to think I wasn't budgeting like I spent that much, but I That's fair. Okay. But if there's a recount every year, is that kind of where we would be? I know. I don't I'm not feeling that on us. No one wants a recount. But is that like we would have to incur those kinds of legal fees every time there is a recount? Not that much. Was it just a special year? We utilize them because we rewrote the complete new policy. So I had to rewrite how we did that. Okay.

From beginning to end. However, um lawyer present is necessary on that day. So, we would have to pay somebody to be here for that day. But I don't I wouldn't foresee me needing to use any legal services throughout the process except for that day because we already have the policy in place. Okay. Great. Good. Worth the money. You guys knocked it out of the park. So, yeah. Thank you. That recount was I didn't mean to retraum.

IT WAS A LEARNING EXPERIENCE for everyone looking down. I had everybody all worried cuz I was showing up and was like, "You don't need to be here. You don't need to be here." Yeah, I do because I support what you did and what you did. Yeah, it was definitely a major team. It was a team team approach. So, yeah. And you did a great job. Yeah, that was Caitlyn did a great Yeah, you all did. You know what I mean? If

I could just add to that, it also proves the consistency of what happened there. Um there's always been this chatter about stolen elections and I completely agree all foolishness about you know chatter chatter chatter and so you have an electronic result and you have a human result

and they pretty close to matched within one or two right I mean it just it's a large statement that the electronic count and the human count supported each other. I think that's that's huge. That is huge. Absolutely huge. And I hoped that the citizens see, you know, helped them relieve some of their anxiety and election process. So, deputy register payroll. That's the one on the your last line item and that's up or It looks like it's a new item.

It's a new Is it a new item? It was on and then it was off in 26. But back in 27, I separated those two. So, yes, I separated those two because I've been using, like I said, um employees, but we have to pay if we have to pay an employee overtime if it's not within their regular job. So, um, I would pay Ashley to be my deputy register for the day. So, that's where that's coming. That's how you're counting for that. And it's just we only pay her after her eight hours, obviously. So, she would be in the the election payroll would be after her regular eight hours.

10 hours. Holy moly. That's right. New hours. Wow. I got to get used to that. Um I the second one I thought you guys might question would be the 16,400. This is a really big pain in my butt. This line item, the rental.

Yes. So these rentals are our DS200 machines. And every year we have to rent the municipal portion of those. So we have four municipal machines and four state machines. Now I contact them non-stop. They still have not sent me an invoice from last year for these rental contracts. And I don't dare, you see that I've barely spent any money out of it. I don't dare decrease it because I think they're going to be sending me an invoice and it'll be back the state the years.

So I I don't know what to do about it and I can't I mean I've called them and said, "Can you please send it to me?" Yep. Yep. We'll do it. We'll send it to you. I still don't have it no matter how many times I contact them. I wonder if they're where they're trying to switch over systems. I'm just wondering if they're thinking we're not going to charge them until we know what we're going to do with the machines. It's the only thing I can think of. I mean, why would they not want the money? But I'm done calling them. and programming um is the programming of the DS200 machine, the sticks. So now keep in mind this is not budgeting for if the school budget doesn't pass. Okay? So if we have to have an additional election after this election, it is not budgeted anymore and it has happened before. So

that would probably be an additional eight grand. An additional how much? Around eight grand. If we have to do a a school another school budget election, um I wouldn't program our machines. I would just do it hand count. Fingers crossed we don't need that. Yeah. Right. Any questions for Tina on the election budget? Okay, one more hat. One more hat. Yes. Joint office. Okay.

This part of the cannabis. I really Somebody had to say it. Thank you. It's funny how that it's after 8:30. It's after bedtime. Wow. He's uh on fire. SMOKING. Dad joke. Dad jokes. Well, there's no revenue for the joint office, so I don't know what to do. No. But can I put a lid on it? Oh, after 8:30 we're all officially pitching.

This is the last one. KEEP IT TOGETHER, GUYS. KEEP IT TOGETHER. Wait till council discussion next on the agenda. I'm going over the fins after this. You can have your own discussion over there. I'm pretty sure they'll be closed. No, I got special season. All right. postage and shipping. Um Tina, what is the joint office if it's not cannabis? There were questions earlier. So this budget um is like a combined amount that all departments can pull out of. So all else

Yeah. So like postage and shipping, we have a postage machine and everybody all departments use it. Um, it is kind of a pain. We That one's kind of blown out of the water. There's also going to be another increase this year. So, which we didn't know when I was talking to Charlie about this, but Sue just informed me that they're increasing the postage again. So, talking about it, right? So Charlie, I think Charlie had was it 32? We requested 35. What did he approve? 35. 35.

Okay, never mind. I thought he decreased it to 32. But yeah, so 35 there was an increase obviously in postage due to the cost of postage for that for all departments and we had a huge increase for telephone. Um those are reimbursements for um city cell phones. City got new cell phones this year. So, a lot of the departments now each have their own cell phone, which I think might help next year for budget. I don't know. And I think the rest of

So, we don't have to do the reimbursements for the personal phones. Just personal phone. Whoever has the personal phones. Oh, this is just Yeah, this is just for personal. So, anybody that chooses not to do a city phone and does a personal phone, it's a $40 stipen each month. Okay. And that's this stipen. And that is the state because the city phone should be in the department. Correct. And there's also conversation of putting this into the departments next year. So the departments are responsible for anybody that is um using a personal cell phone. And there's also a conversation about that with postage. Yes. Yeah. Because we already have the No, we don't have postage and shipping. We have printing and printing and advertising. Oh, okay.

Yes. Gotcha. And because our machine does have the ability like I mean you pick your department to ship out so we can see but not all departments utilize that. So it is a little difficult. We would have to make sure there's like a policy in place if we do that reports monthly. You can't get a year or

right each department has to be run individually. office supplies. Um I think I stayed the same on that. No, I went up Yeah, I went up in fees because everything's so expensive now. All prices have gone up literally for everything and this is outside of the departments that also have office,

right? Well, so what is purchased through that is like we'll buy a um pallet of paper um for all copying machines um pallet of paper and we have a closet that has um just straight miscellaneous supplies that each department can come down and grab like file folders, hanging folders, um you know miscellaneous stuff. All the front counter clerk counters have to use. We have to buy pens because people steal them. They go out the door. non-stop left and right for the clerk's counter. So, I mean, just small stuff like that. And I think that we did um zero out some accounts if you guys noticed that. Miscellaneous supplies. Um

you have an events that went up that was moved from HR.

Yes. So yes, we moved the events from the HR department to the joint office budget. It just made more sense um because there's a committee that runs that. So and we zeroed out office equipment and maintenance um professional services. That reason we cleared that one out is because we had a um shredding on site service here for the city which um we cancelled to save money um and we just got some shredders. So we have so we just shred the paper now unless there sorry again unless there's a big we have to go up and clear out tons of boxes we would call them and it would be a onetime fee. I think it's like $320 for them to come and shred um mass amounts of whatever needs to be shredded.

We just did that last year. Yeah. I don't think it needs to be done for a while. We did that last year. Finance stuff. Yeah. For finance stuff, we went upstairs and I think we got rid of 30 boxes. A lot. It was a lot. And miscellaneous supplies. I used to have um funding in that account for we used to separate like the kitchen stuff like if there was we needed to rent a coffee pot or we had like coffee or any of that stuff like that's all cleared out utilize that anymore.

That's it unless you guys have any questions. Any questions? Tina, the joint office budget. No more dad jokes just to round us out. I say with respect, I respect dad. The street lights even went out. Um, okay. Time to go to bed. I mean, it's definitely your bedtime. That seems to be the option. Um, okay. Anything further from the deputy city manager? No, I think we covered everything. Thanks for sticking with this one. It was a long one, but uh good to get these behind us. I think we fast and furious.

Yeah, I think we captured a lot of the things. So, Ashley will have it in her change log adding some things to the 14th, but we're good. Excellent. All right. See you Monday. See you Monday.