City Council - workshop

OKAY. I'LL CALL THE LOS ANGELES CITY COUNCIL BUDGET MEETING, SPECIAL BUDGET MEETING TO ORDER. TIME AND PLACE IS ADVERTISED. COUNSELORS SIMPLEMAYER AND KLEIN HAVE REQUESTED AND RECEIVED AN EXCUSED ABSENCE. COUNSELOR PRESIDENT KLEINBERG IS ON HIS WAY. SO WITH THAT, WE'LL MOVE ON TO CITIZEN COMMENTS. THIS IS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR INDIVIDUALS WISHING TO COMMENT ON AGENDA ITEMS OR OTHER MATTERS THEY WISH TO BRING TO COUNCIL ATTENTION EXCLUDING THOSE SCHEDULED FOR PUBLIC HEARING. THERE MAY NOT BE ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY TO COMMENT ON AN AGENDA ITEM ADDRESSED. INDIVIDUALS ARE ENCOURAGED TO SPEAK AT THIS TIME. INDIVIDUALS ENCOURAGED TO DISCUSS OPERATIONAL ISSUES IN ADVANCE WITH THE MAYOR IN CONSIDERATION OF OTHERS WISHING TO SPEAK. PLEASE LIMIT YOUR COMMENTS TO THREE MINUTES. Hearing none, we'll move to the active agenda. Item A, Lewis Clark Lodge, number 10, fraternal order of police collective bargaining discussion and possible action regarding collective bargaining negotiations between the City of Lewiston and the Lewis Clark Lodge, number 10, fraternal order of police, including updates in the next step. This is an action item, and I've asked our human resources director and negotiations team member, Nikki Providence, to lead.

So we just ask that this be put on the agenda to get some feedback from the council as to direction You know in the past. There's been a couple of things that have been at your direction the at-will The 40 hours worked before overtime and a couple others. And so as we get to this point in negotiations, we hadn't received direction from council previously. So we're looking to you to kind of give us some direction on negotiation points.

So I had previously sent you some information about where we're at.

So on the specialty pay, I was looking through that and my ignorance to these specialty pays, but some of it seemed like things that are the job requirement. And so I was a little confused on some of these buckets of what's the specialty for like firearms, for example. That seems like a requirement, not a specialty, but...

The firearms would be to learn how to be an instructor.

Learn how to be an instructor. Okay.

So it's more of an instructor pay than it is your ability to use a firearm.

And is that specialty pay only paid when you are doing instructing?

No, what they're asking for is it be a part of an hourly rate. So every hour that they work.

So if you reach the level where you could do instruction, then your rate is bumped overall.

If you're actually doing the instruction, yes. So, like, you could have it but not be one of the three that are required to do the instructor. So there is a maximum amount of people who would be receiving that hourly pay. And we do have some FOP representatives here, so if you had specific questions about that, too, they'd be available to answer that question. But, yeah, let's say that there's a maximum of three. Those three people would be – INVESTED IN THE TRAINING TO BE ABLE TO TEACH FIREARMS INSTRUCTION. THEY MAY DO IT ONCE A YEAR, TWICE A YEAR, BUT WHAT THEY'RE ASKING FOR IS FOR IT TO BE PART OF AN HOURLY RATE EVERY HOUR THAT THEY WORK.

OUTSIDE OF THE?

OUTSIDE OF THE ACTUAL TRAINING OF OTHER PEOPLE. AND THIS WOULD BE A NEW PAY. WE DON'T CURRENTLY GIVE INSTRUCTOR PAY, SO THIS IS WHAT THEY'RE ASKING FOR IS THAT IT BE A NEW PAY THAT'S ADDED.

And is that what, so looking at this, is that what a lot of these are? So I see like education, fitness, breath. Are these all instructor roles?

No, so fitness would be passing a post-physical fitness test twice a year. Breath tests would be those that are trained to configure the breath test machine. What were some others? Sorry. EDUCATION? EDUCATION WOULD BE IF YOU HAD A BACHELOR'S, THEN YOU WOULD RECEIVE THAT HOURLY PAY FOR EVERY HOUR THAT YOU HAVE WORK. I GOT YOU.

THEN INVESTIGATIONS, IS THAT LIKE A DETECTIVE?

YEAH, SO DETECTIVES GET AN ADDITIONAL 5% PAY. THE UNION IS ASKING FOR TO MAKE THAT 6%. AND THEN THEY'RE ASKING FOR INVESTIGATION'S TEAM TO GET WEEKEND STANDBY PAY.

And I'm sorry, if I could just follow through, please. So on the on the investigations and again, this is my ignorance showing here. But, you know, I get most of my education on this from TV shows, which is probably not the way to get it. So I always thought that you become detective. That's a promotion. That's not a specialty pay. You're promoted to a. new role. Is that not how it works?

No. They're shaking their head. They don't see it as a promotion. It's just a specialty type of pay. So a specialty type of thing, like a school resource officer gets an additional 5% to be a school resource officer. It would be similar to that. So it's not necessarily a promotion, but you're doing something different than actually...

officer work. What happens if you stop doing it? So if I'm doing investigations, then I get moved to a different role where it's just not investigations anymore. Does that 5% go away? Yeah. Okay. I gotcha.

So if you go back to being an officer who's not in detectives, yes, that 5% would go away because you're not doing that special assignment.

I'd imagine the reasoning from this, I'm trying to go on the recesses of my memory from when we did ride-alongs and stuff and kind of getting to know the department. They move them around if they're in a specialty type job so long they might move them to a different area. or take them out of that specialty job for a break for whatever reason. I'm assuming that's why it's not like a promotion is because they could maybe pull them from that and put them on a different, I don't know if assignment's the right word, but.

I don't know that they'd pull them unless.

We have a couple positions of detectives on our team. We have one or two.

We have one, yeah. So there's only one of the detective's roles that can be filled with other people. All the other ones, they're there until they either choose to go back to an officer, they get promoted, they choose to do another assignment. So there's only that one rotating position.

In that aspect, that makes sense to me. But I guess I don't really understand why it's not a promotion if that's their job.

A promotion would be like officer to corporal, corporal to sergeant, sergeant to captain. Those are... the promotional opportunities. Like you have canine officers, they get canine officer pay for having a dog.

Councilman Laurie. So these would be a special assignment duties, not necessarily the promotion in itself.

The detective, yeah. Mm-hmm.

It's side avenue to their current position.

Yeah. You're still an officer, but you're doing detective work, and so you're getting that additional 5% detective pay or investigations pay.

SO THAT'S ONE ITEM. NIKKI, IS THERE ANOTHER ONE WE CAN TALK ABOUT? AND THEN, ELSA, YOU HAVE AN E-MAIL WITH THE SPREADSHEETS. LOOK AT IT, KIND OF GET THE GIST OF IT. IF YOU HAVE SOME MORE QUESTIONS, YOU CAN FOLLOW UP WITH MYSELF OR NIKKI OR ONE OF THE OTHER NEGOTIATING TEAM MEMBERS OR REACH OUT TO THE FOP AND THEY MAY HAVE SOME ANSWERS FOR YOU.

YEAH. I MEAN, ANOTHER ONE WOULD BE CURRENTLY THE CONTRACT IS FOR CAUSE. THEY WOULD LIKE TO KEEP IT FOR CAUSE. THE COUNCIL IN THE PAST HAS WANTED US TO NEGOTIATE AT WILL. OUR PERSONNEL POLICY IS AT WILL. SO THE ONLY FOUR CAUSE THAT WE HAVE ARE POLICE AND FIRE. SO THAT'S ONE. WE'VE ARGUED TO CHANGE IT TO AT WILL. THE OTHER WOULD BE EARNING OVERTIME. SO RIGHT NOW, VACATION, SICK LEAVE, HOLIDAY ALL COUNT TOWARDS HOURS WORKED FOR OVERTIME. IN THE PAST, COUNCIL'S GIVEN US DIRECTION TO NEGOTIATE A 40 HOURS WORKED BEFORE OVERTIME. the union would like to keep it as is. Part of it is an incentive to try to get people to do overtime. Am I correct on that?

Yeah.

They feel that people would be less inclined to want to do overtime or be called in if it doesn't count at that time and a half, it only counts at hours worked or like your regular standard pay.

Thank you. So on the time and a half, is overtime paid time and a half on this contract? Okay. So if, let me ask this a different way. If you're on standby and you get called in, so let's say you took the whole week off on vacation, but you're on standby a day or two of that, do you get paid time and a half anyway because you got called in?

Currently? Yeah, you would get call-out pay.

Call-out pay. Okay. So, I mean, that's it. And maybe I'm missing something here, but that seems to me if you had vacation or sick days and you were doing an on-call shift and got called in, you're going to get time and a half anyway. So, when I think about the taking vacation time and then only working one day and getting overtime, that Maybe that's just a scheduling thing where, no, if you're not scheduled for Saturday and we need somebody to come in Saturday, we have you on a standby shift to come in Saturday, not just that'll be a normal sort of work day, even though you don't normally work that day. Unless I'm missing something as to why it would be important to have

Well, let's say you had vacation on Monday, and then you worked Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. If you worked any extra hours, you wouldn't get time and a half changing it to 40 hours worked because you took that vacation on Monday. So any hours that you would have worked, your vacation would go back into your bank.

Yeah, so we're talking like over eight-hour workdays type thing. So you take Monday.

Yeah, so right now, yeah.

Or four 10s, you get a, or four 10s.

Yeah, so right now it would be the opposite, where if they took vacation on Monday and they worked Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, any additional hours would be overtime, a time and a half, because that vacation counts towards hours worked to earn overtime. If there was a holiday in the week, if they were out sick for two days and then they came in and worked for two days, any hours over would still be overtime, how the contract currently is.

Right. I mean, that one, it concerns me a little bit just in the aspect of if I was working 10-hour shifts and if the pay period is like Saturday to Saturday and I normally only work Monday through Thursday, I could use my PTO to do Fridays continuously and I'd get double time. for my Fridays when I'm just using PTO. Is that a scenario that can take place? Or vice versa, Monday I use my PTO and I normally do 410s Tuesday through Friday.

Yeah, so how it currently is, if they had any vacation, sick leave, holiday, I think maybe even comp time, yeah, comp time, on any part of what they would have normally worked, it still counts for earning overtime. So it still counts towards that 40 hours. so that any additional hours worked would be overtime. Direction we received previously on other contracts was to do how it is for other city employees, where you have to physically work 40 hours in order to earn overtime. No vacation, sick leave, comp time, or holiday would count towards hours worked to earn overtime.

Right. Is there an FLSA aspect to this?

Yeah, that's what the Fair Labor Standards would say, is that you owe overtime after 40 hours worked. The contract was just negotiated so that hours worked included vacation, sick leave, holiday comp time.

Yeah, I mean, that one's a bit of a concern for me. Just... doesn't seem fair from my standpoint of I take vacation and I could I don't I don't want to say anybody's game in the system but it leaves a loophole for gaming the system from just when I've looked at this in the past that's my concern and I want to be responsible with these tax dollars so we talked about well I guess so we didn't get direction on at will versus for cause

THE CONTRACT WOULD COME TO YOU FOR APPROVAL. SO IS THAT SOMETHING? WHAT WAS THE CONCERN?

WHY ARE THEY NOT WANTING TO MOVE TO FOR-CAUSE?

DO YOU WANT TO EXPLAIN HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT FOR-CAUSE VERSUS AT-WILL?

WE GOT MICROPHONES RIGHT HERE. Do you have any of that in front of you?

Sorry. So, we've negotiated at will. You guys are for cause. You want to stay for cause. I think that she was asking, what is the concern with changing to at will?

The concern lies in that... Oh, sorry. Yeah. I'm Josh Rigney, Officer of the Lewiston Police Department, President of the Lodge. FOP. So... Sorry, I wasn't as prepared for this one.

No, that's okay.

Um... Being at will, so one of the protections that we have as a union is justifiable cause full voucher termination, but also being disciplined. It hasn't really ever been an issue in the past, and we would like to carry on that protection through this next contract.

Well, we've had, I think, similar conversations with, and similar concerns raised with the Public Works Union contract, I'm spacing the name, excuse me, the acronym, was a similar concern was that there wouldn't be protections and that you can kind of just be fired when you come into work and say, I don't like your shirt, you're out of here kind of thing. But legally, if I remember correctly, we still have to follow that order of, what word do I want to use? We still have to follow an order of things. So they still have to document, they still have to have reasons to, even though it says AT WILL, THEY STILL HAVE TO HAVE A CAUSE TO LET YOU GO, AND IT HAS TO BE PRETTY WELL DOCUMENTED OR ELSE, YOU KNOW, PUTS THE CITY AT A LEGAL BIND. SO I DON'T REALLY SEE THE DIFFERENCE THERE WHEN WE'RE REALLY HELD TO THAT. I JUST, I DON'T KNOW. I THINK THAT'S WHERE I STRUGGLE BECAUSE, I MEAN, There is, for a city standpoint and my standpoint, we have seen people abuse the at-will or the, yes, the at-will. And so the for-cause at least gives, I think, a realistic playing field for both parties, right? There's a process we have to follow, and then there's also a process that the employee, employer has to follow. And I think that was the direction of why the city was wanting to try to push everybody into that same category, if I remember correctly. Feel free to pitch in if anybody has a different thought.

So I think with the at-will, what you're talking about is that we have a progressive disciplinary process. And while we're at-will, the direction would be to follow that progressive disciplinary process to a termination. I think the idea that people think at-will is just you're going to be fired right now. I can just fire you, here's your box, and you leave. I don't think that's the general avenue of the city. And we haven't. WE HAVE A PRE-DISCHARGE PROCESS THAT WE GO THROUGH. YOU KNOW, WE ALSO HAVE TO FOLLOW, LIKE, A NAME CLEARING HEARING, WHICH IS DESCRIBED IN OUR PERSONNEL POLICY. SO THERE ARE OTHER THINGS, EVEN THOUGH YOU'RE AT WILL, THAT THE CITY FOLLOWS.

AND I THINK, IF I'M CORRECT, FOR US TO JUST GO AWAY FROM THAT, WE WOULD HAVE TO CHANGE OUR CITY POLICY. LIKE, SAY THE CITY COUNCIL WAS LIKE, WE'RE GOING TO GET RID OF ALL THAT. WE'RE JUST GOING TO MAKE IT SO WE CAN TELL YOU YOU'RE GONE THE NEXT DAY. but I would have a feeling legal would not agree with that and think that would be a bad move. So I think that's the only protection that I could see if it was going into that truly at-will situation, and that's kind of how I'm seeing that.

So from speaking to the body and... We, so we understand the way you guys have explained it to us and Jennifer has. It's already just cause is the way the city operates. And we would just ask that our language stays in our contract and reflects the practice that the city has said that they would do. That's our ask. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yellen. We're just kind of introducing where we're at in some of the stuff. Council to make you aware of it. So, thanks. I know we have a lot of work to do. Thank you.

I think that's, you know, they are asking for standby pay for investigations for weekends. I've provided you that information. I don't know if you have any direction on that. It would be approximately $21,000 annually. It would be something that's not currently in the budget or isn't currently in their 2026 budget. It would be something that would be an increase to

WHAT IS THE CURRENT STANDBY PAY?

THEY DON'T RECEIVE STANDBY PAY RIGHT NOW. OH, AT ALL. THAT'S WHY THIS WOULD BE AN ADDITION. IT'S BECAUSE THEY JUST KIND OF IF SOMETHING HAPPENS, THEY CALL IN WHO WOULD EVER COME IN.

SO IF I'M UNDERSTANDING CORRECTLY, SORRY, MAYOR, EXCUSE ME. standby is really probably the reasoning I would imagine is because, you know, they have to be at home, they have to be close by, they can't leave, can't drink, I'm assuming, because you have to be able to put up, be on call at any moment. And so basically the quote-unquote inconvenience of that is why we're pushing for specialty, or not specialty pay, but we could stand by.

And they're asking for it at the same rate that the city's personnel policy is, which is one hour for every six. Okay, cool. So we already have that. Yeah, we have it in our personnel policy. They don't currently receive the standby. So I think what they're asking for is like a rotation. So a person is, yeah, they're on standby. They can't leave. They can't drink. They have to be able to respond. They're expected to respond by phone, where they currently don't have that.

Mr. Martin. Counselors. So you said that the standby policy is currently in effect for other city employees. If those city employees who are on standby fail to respond, does their standby pay take it from them?

No, but that would be like a performance issue.

So they're going to coaching and counseling. Yeah. Aggressive steps at this point.

Yeah. If for some reason they didn't answer their phone and therefore someone else had to be called in, that would probably be a performance issue that would need to be addressed. Because the expectation is that because you're receiving standby pay, you are expected to call in. Now, you may have to call in help to help you, depending on the situation. But you'd be the one to be expected to answer the phone.

And how many officers would be able to stand by for investigations every weekend?

One every weekend. There's ten, right? There's ten detectives, but there'd only be one on call every weekend. It'd be like a rotation.

So they're looking at about five? FIVE ON-CALL WEEKENDS PER YEAR.

YEAH.

ROUGHLY.

YEAH, ROUGHLY.

OKAY, COUNCIL, THIS IS JUST KIND OF AN INTRODUCTION TO WHERE WE'RE AT. YOU'LL HAVE A CHANCE AT THE END OF THIS MEETING IF YOU CHOOSE TO GO TO AN EXECUTIVE SESSION A COUPLE OF ISSUES AND START GETTING THEIR MINDS SPENT AROUND THIS, BECAUSE WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO GET THIS RESOLVED SOON, BECAUSE OUR FINANCE DIRECTOR BACK THERE NEEDS TO PUBLISH A BUDGET REALLY SOON. AND THAT'S IMPORTANT FOR ALL OF US. SO THANK YOU, NICK, AND THANK YOU, OFFICERS, FOR BEING HERE TODAY. WE APPRECIATE IT VERY MUCH. NEXT WE'LL MOVE TO ROW 5 BUDGET ITEMS, FUNDING THE BUDGET, ITEM A. FINANCE DIRECTOR AMY BORDER IS WITH US HERE TODAY. AMY, WELCOME.

THANK YOU, MAYOR, MEMBERS OF COUNCIL, AMY GORDON, CITY TREASURER, BEFORE I JUMP IN, I DO WANT TO TAKE THIS MOMENT TO REMIND COUNCIL AND TO LET ANYONE AT HOME WHO MIGHT BE LISTENING THAT THIS THURSDAY AFTERNOON AT 3 PM AT THE HIGH SCHOOL, WE'RE HAVING AN OPEN HOUSE TO TALK ABOUT TAXES. WE ARE DOING THAT IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE OTHER LOCAL GOVERNMENTS THAT ALSO LEVY TAXES WITHIN OUR REGION. SO THE COUNTY WILL BE PARTICIPATING, THE PORT, THE SCHOOL DISTRICT, AS WELL AS CENTRAL ORCHARDS SEWER DISTRICT. SO WE HOPE PEOPLE WILL COME OUT AND JOIN US AND COME INSIDE AND TALK TAXES WITH US. AND THEN AT THE SAME TIME, OUR RECREATION DEPARTMENT IS GOING TO BE HOSTING THEIR ANNUAL STAR SPANGLE BANNER EVENT. AT THE HIGH SCHOOL, SO THAT GIVES A PLACE FOR THE CHILDREN TO GO AND PARTAKE IN ALL THE ACTIVITIES WHILE WE'RE HAVING A DISCUSSION ON TAXES INSIDE. SO IF THE MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC ARE AVAILABLE THAT AFTERNOON, IT GOES TILL 7 P.M., SO WE HOPE TO SEE PEOPLE THERE. AND I WOULD ALSO ASK IF YOU, MAYOR, OR ONE OF THE COUNCIL MEMBERS, IF YOU HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO TALK ABOUT THAT EVENT TONIGHT IN THE COUNCIL MEETING, WE WOULD APPRECIATE THAT AS WELL. OKAY. SO I WANTED TO, HMM, MY GRAPHIC DIDN'T LOAD. I DON'T KNOW WHY. WE HAD THIS SNAFU IN OUR LEADERSHIP MEETING TODAY, AND I THOUGHT IT WAS BECAUSE I WAS IN GOOGLE SLIDES AND NOT MICROSOFT POWERPOINT, BUT THIS IS NOT THE WAY. THERE WOULD BE A NICE IMAGE OF THREE PEOPLE SITTING AT A TABLE, AND IT WAS THERE. I WANTED TO TAKE A MOMENT AND WALK COUNCIL THROUGH WHAT OUR BUDGET PROCESS HAS BEEN UP TO THIS POINT. JUST BECAUSE I KNOW YOU GUYS AREN'T ALWAYS AWARE OF WHAT WE'RE DOING AT CITY HALL AND THROUGHOUT THE CITY TO PREPARE THE BUDGET. EACH YEAR, MYSELF, OUR ACCOUNTING SUPERVISOR, CLARE BLUETT, WE WILL SIT DOWN WITH THE DEPARTMENT DIRECTORS AND WE'LL GO THROUGH THEIR CURRENT YEAR BUDGET. WE'LL PROVIDE THEM THEIR REPORTS. WE ASK THEM TO REVIEW THOSE BUDGETS. A LOT OF TIMES DEPARTMENTS MIGHT HAVE AN INCREASED COST IN AN AREA SUCH AS MOTOR FUEL, BUT THEY KNOW THAT THEY HAVE A CONTRACT THAT THEY CAN FIND SOME SAVINGS IN AND THEY CAN SHIFT FUNDS FROM ONE AREA TO ANOTHER TO COVER THOSE INCREASED COSTS. WE ASK DEPARTMENTS TO GO THROUGH AND IDENTIFY AREAS WHERE THEY'RE ABLE TO MAKE THOSE MOVEMENTS. THEY'RE ALSO REVIEWING THEIR REVENUE TO SEE IF THEY NEED TO REVISIT SOME OF THEIR REVENUES, MAYBE PUT INTO THE FEE RESOLUTION AN INCREASE IN A FEE TO MAKE CERTAIN THAT THEY'RE COVERING THEIR COST OF THOSE SERVICES. THEN THEY'LL PROVIDE US KIND OF GUIDANCE ON WHAT THEY'RE THINKING ON THEIR REVENUE. They will sometimes just clean up the narrative of what their budget covers. Maybe they itemize out their contracts. This is kind of their opportunity to put those details within their existing budget so that we can build them into the next year budget. But they're not going in and making any increases to their budget at that point. WE WILL COLLECTIVELY TRY TO IDENTIFY AREAS WITHIN THEIR BUDGET WHERE THEY MAYBE HAVE A CONTRACT THAT'S ALREADY BEEN APPROVED BY COUNCIL THAT HAS AN INFLATOR IN IT. SO WE LOOK FOR THOSE. IT'S A LITTLE BIT FURTHER DOWN MY LIST, BUT WE LOOK FOR THOSE CONTRACT ESCALATORS TO MAKE SURE THAT WE GET ALL THOSE ADJUSTMENTS CAPTURED INTO THE BUDGET. We give them what their process is. If they don't feel that their budget's adequate to cover some of their cost needs for the next year, they have a way to submit a request to get their budget increased so they can cover the needs of the department. After we get those requests in, then we will schedule meetings with the mayor. So the mayor can go through and look at areas of their budget that he might have questions on and then talk about some of those requests TO ADJUST THE BUDGET ACCORDINGLY. AS I MENTIONED, WE GO THROUGH AND WE TRY TO IDENTIFY ALL THE CONTRACTS THAT NEED TO HAVE AN ADJUSTMENT MADE IN THE BUDGET. THERE'S AN EXAMPLE OF THAT WOULD BE LIKE THE CITY'S CONTRACT WITH NESPRESS COUNTY FOR PROSECUTION SERVICES. COUNCILS APPROVE THAT CONTRACT. THAT CONTRACT HAS A 3% INCREASE THAT OCCURS EACH YEAR OF THE CONTRACT. SO WE DO BUILD THOSE INTO THE PRELIMINARY BUDGET. ONE OF THE BIGGEST THINGS THAT WE DO IS WE COMPLETELY RECONSTRUCT THE PAYROLL BUDGET EVERY YEAR BECAUSE IT'S SUCH A SIGNIFICANT PART OF OUR BUDGET. AND THOSE COSTS CAN REALLY SWING THE BUDGET, CAN REALLY DRIVE INCREASES IN THE BUDGET. SO WE WILL ADJUST FOR ANY CHANGES IN THE PERSI RATES. WE ADJUST FOR THE STEP INCREASES, COLA. IF WE KNOW IT AT THAT TIME, WE'LL MAKE THE ADJUSTMENTS FOR HEALTH INSURANCE. AND ONE OF THE OTHER OPPORTUNITIES THAT GIVES US, TOO, IS WE CAN THEN TRY TO CAPTURE WHAT SAVINGS WE CAN THROUGH TURNOVER. SO IF WE HAVE SOMEBODY RETIRE AND THEY'VE RETIRED AT THE TOP END OF THE PAY SCALE, BUT THEIR REPLACEMENT IS AT THE LOWER END OF THE PAY SCALE, WE CAN CAPTURE THOSE SAVINGS TO HELP OFFSET THE OTHER INCREASES IN THE PAYROLL BUDGET. And then that kind of helps us determine then what we need to appropriate in each fund to fund the budget. And as we talked about in the last work session, I have already gone through and balanced out all the other funds, and then I just leave the general fund until the end. So we kind of talked about that process last time, what that looks like, and then now I'm sitting here with the general fund, and that kind of really drives what we need for revenues to fund the budget citywide. WE WORK WITH DEPARTMENTS, AS I MENTIONED, TO IDENTIFY ANY AREAS WHERE WE WOULD BE ADJUSTING THE REVENUES, HOPEFULLY UP. SOMETIMES THEY DO GO DOWN. AND THAT'S LIKE, SO TONIGHT AT YOUR REGULAR MEETING, YOU'RE GOING TO BE PRESENTED THE FEE RESOLUTION, THE ANNUAL FEE RESOLUTION, AND THOSE FEES WOULD GO INTO EFFECT OCTOBER 1ST, AND THEY WOULD BE PART OF FUNDING YOUR 2027 BUDGET. THOSE FEES THAT ARE LISTED ON THAT SCHEDULE, will reside in the department. So if Greg is presenting to you fees or Chief Reitmeyer is presenting to you fees for ambulance, those are going to be a revenue of that department. They provide certain services that there's a fee or charge for. Those are revenues of the department. The reason they would be adjusting the fee up is because their costs have gone up. So ideally, those fees are capturing those increases in the budget. But we have a lot of areas within our budget that don't always have a fee associated to them. You know, we provide public safety. We have police officers that respond to calls. There's not a revenue for that. So then they get funded through other revenue sources available to the city. That's primarily what we'll be talking about today are what those other revenues are and what those look like. And then once you've built out your budget, you've looked at all your other revenues that you have available to you, then that's where property taxes come into play. So I want to start with state shared revenue. This is our other largest source of revenue outside of property taxes. This revenue all resides within the general fund. THE BOX THAT'S HIGHLIGHTED WAS ACTUALLY THE SLIDE WE PRESENTED TO YOU LAST YEAR. AND WHAT THIS IS REPRESENTING IS CURRENTLY WE HAVE OUR BUDGET FOR STATE SHARED REVENUE AT $4.2 MILLION. AND WE ARE HIGH ON OUR BUDGET. WHAT WE HAVE BUDGETED COMPARED TO ACTUAL COLLECTIONS. THERE WAS A REDESIGN OF THE FORMULA. SO WHAT WE ARE RECEIVING FROM THE STATE HAS CHANGED, THAT FORMULA THAT DETERMINES WHAT WE RECEIVE HAS CHANGED. AND THE FIRST COUPLE YEARS OF THAT REALLOCATION OF STATE SALES TAX, OH, AND I SHOULD SAY THIS REPRESENTS WHAT THE CITY GETS FROM THE STATE FROM SALES TAX. WHEN THAT FIRST WENT INTO EFFECT, WE WERE ACTUALLY EXPECTING OUR REVENUE TO BE SIGNIFICANTLY LESS THAN THE INITIAL YEARS, BUT IT WAS POST-PANDEMIC, AND IDAHO'S ECONOMY WAS THRIVING, AND WE ACTUALLY SAW THIS BIG POP, WHICH KIND OF CONFUSED US, TO BE HONEST. WE ADJUSTED OUR BUDGET ACCORDINGLY, AND THEN NOW THE DECLINE HIT A COUPLE YEARS AFTER WE WERE EXPECTING IT. IT'S NORMALIZED. NOW WE'RE SEEING A SLIGHT AND MODEST GROWTH IN THAT REVENUE OF ABOUT 1% A YEAR. But we are still got a pretty significant variance between what we have in our budget and what our actual collections are. I would like to start correcting that. We haven't been too concerned up to this point because we've had other revenues working in our favor to offset that variance. BECAUSE IT'S SUCH A SLOW GROWTH, I THINK THAT WE NEED TO START KIND OF MEETING IN THE MIDDLE OR TAKING THAT PERCENTAGE OF THAT VARIANCE AND BRINGING IT DOWN A LITTLE EACH YEAR, SO MAYBE IN ABOUT FIVE YEARS' TIME WE'VE ALIGNED IT. I GUESS THE OTHER IMPORTANT THING TO SAY ON THIS IS THIS UNFORTUNATELY ISN'T A NEW, YOU KNOW, THIS ISN'T AN AREA THAT WE CAN GET NEW REVENUE FROM, RIGHT? WE NEED TO ADJUST BACKWARDS ON THIS. Liquor revenue went through a redesign, too, about five years ago. And it took a sharp decline. We did adjust the budget down accordingly, but it has just continued to fall. So we're looking at a decline of about 7% each year. And so when you're, again, I'd like to adjust that one down as well. Start bringing the budget down on that revenue line item. SO THAT WE ARE GETTING CLOSER TO WHAT OUR ACTUAL REVENUE COLLECTIONS ARE. THIS ONE'S REALLY HARD TO PREDICT BECAUSE YOU GET A QUARTERLY DISTRIBUTION THAT'S PRESET A YEAR IN ADVANCE. AND THEN THEY'LL DO A YEAR END TRUE-UP. AND THEN THEY TELL YOU WHAT YOUR NEXT YEAR QUARTERLY DISTRIBUTIONS ARE, BUT YOU'VE ALREADY SET YOUR BUDGET. SO THIS ONE'S BEEN A HARD ONE TO PREDICT. AND YOU WOULD EXPECT THERE TO BE A SLIGHT GROWTH YEAR AFTER YEAR, BUT IT'S JUST ON A SHARP DECLINE. AND THIS IS WHAT THE CITY RECEIVES FROM THE STATE OFF THE SELL OF LIQUOR WITHIN THE IDAHO LIQUOR STORES. SO INTEREST INCOME. AGAIN, THESE SLIDES THAT ARE IN THE BOXES ARE WHAT WE PRESENTED TO YOU LAST YEAR. OFF TO THE RIGHT IS JUST THE ADJUSTED AMOUNTS FROM WHAT WE KNOW TODAY. THIS IS WHY WE HAVEN'T BEEN TOO CONCERNED ABOUT WHERE WE HAD THE VARIANCES IN OUR OTHER BEGITARY LINE ITEMS BECAUSE WE KNEW WE WERE REALLY CONSERVATIVE ON OUR INVESTMENT INCOME. WE HAVE EVERY IDLE PENNY OF THE CITY INVESTED IN SOME INTEREST-BEARING ACCOUNT OF SOME SORT. Interest rates haven't fallen as much as I thought that they might this year. We're actually sitting pretty good on our interest rates still. There's been no interest from the feds as of lately to want to adjust those down anymore. Will they come down next year? Maybe. But the other issue we're having, other than just that slight decline on the interest rate, is our reserves have declined as well. So we have less money in the bank working to our benefit. So it's kind of the combination of the two why that interest income is declining. So this one we're comfortable. We have a good, solid budget amount in the budget, but we can no longer let this be our safety net on the state-shared revenues. So with the state-shared revenues, I've taken what that variance is, and I'm going to take a reduction of 10% each year, 2027, until we align them. TO WHERE THEY SHOULD BE. SO THE BAD NEWS THERE IS I'M HAVING TO ADJUST THESE REVENUES DOWN. IT'S NOT SIGNIFICANT REDUCTIONS, BUT IT'S, YOU KNOW, APPROXIMATELY 50,000 IN TOTAL ON THOSE TWO SHARED REVENUE ACCOUNTS. AND THEN FINALLY, WE WILL OFTEN UTILIZE OUR RESERVES IN FUNDING THE BUDGET. So this $9.7 million figure that is at the top of your slide, that is from the audit report at the end of 2025. So when we entered in our 2026 budget year, we had $9.7 million in the bank that was unassigned reserves. It didn't have a specific defined purpose for it. That represents about 106 days cash on hand, and that 106 days is computed using what I CURRENTLY HAVE IN THE 2027 BUDGET FOR THE PRELIMINARY GENERAL FUND BUDGET. THE BEST PRACTICES FOR DAYS CASH ON HAND, AS WE'VE DETERMINED HERE AT THE CITY, IS 90 DAYS. THAT BRIDGES US FROM OCTOBER 1ST TO JANUARY WHEN WE GET OUR FIRST ROUND OF PROPERTY TAX COLLECTIONS, AS WELL AS OUR FIRST PAYMENTS FROM THE STATE ON SHARED REVENUES. THE PROJECTED USE OF RESERVES FOR FISCAL YEAR 2026, CURRENTLY WHAT I'M PROJECTING BASED OFF GOING THROUGH ESTIMATED NUMBERS FOR THE CURRENT YEAR IS 721,000. I WILL TELL YOU, WE RUN THROUGH THESE PRESENTATIONS WITH FELLOW DIRECTORS. I TOLD THE GROUP THIS MORNING, LIKE, THAT NUMBER IS A LITTLE TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE. I'M WORRIED I HAVE A MISTAKE SOMEWHERE. I KEEP GOING THROUGH THE BOOKS, LOOKING TO SEE WHERE THAT MISTAKE IS. I CAN'T SEE ANYTHING THAT LOOKS WRONG. BECAUSE WHEN WE WROTE THE 2026 BUDGET, WE HAD PLANNED TO USE 1.2 MILLION OF RESERVES. SO THIS IS GREAT BECAUSE WITH OTHER REVENUE, OTHER AREAS WHERE THE REVENUES ARE UP AND MAYBE SOME DEPARTMENT SAVINGS WHERE EXPENSES ARE DOWN, WE'RE COMING OUT BETTER THAN WHAT WE PLAN TO USE IN OUR RESERVES. THAT'S GOOD NEWS. CITY COUNCIL ALSO APPROVED A SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT THIS YEAR OF ALMOST 700,000. I THOUGHT MAYBE THAT'S WHERE IT WAS OFF, BUT IT'S NOT. I HAD IT IN THERE. SO I'M LIKE, I WAS REALLY SURPRISED TO SEE THIS NUMBER. SO I'M GOING TO KEEP LOOKING THROUGH MY NUMBERS TO SEE IF BY CHANCE I'M WRONG. BUT AT THIS TIME, IT APPEARS LIKE WE ARE GOING TO COME OUT WELL AHEAD OF WHAT WE EXPECTED. THAT WOULD LEAVE THE PROJECTED FUND BALANCE GOING INTO THE NEXT FISCAL YEAR AT A LITTLE OVER 9 MILLION. AND ABOUT 98 DAYS CASH ON HAND. SO THIS IS AN IMPORTANT AREA FOR US TO DISCUSS EACH YEAR BECAUSE WE DO UTILIZE RESERVES IN FUNDING OUR BUDGET. WE TRY TO USE THEM TOWARDS ONE-TIME FUNDING NEEDS BECAUSE THIS IS NOT AN ONGOING REVENUE. ONCE YOU USE THEM, IT'S GONE. OR WE PUT THEM TOWARDS COSTS THAT WE COULD ELIMINATE IF NEEDED. SO WHAT WE CURRENTLY FUND IS OUR COMMUNITY SERVICE CONTRACTS AND OUR SUPPORT OF THE AIRPORT. AND THEN WHAT WE TALKED ABOUT AT THE LAST WORK SESSION, WE'VE BEEN PROVIDING FACILITIES AN ADDITIONAL $250,000 A YEAR OUT OF THIS, OUT OF THE RESERVES. THAT $250,000 IS GOING INTO THE FACILITIES MAINTENANCE BUDGET THAT DIRECTOR GLENN TALKED ABOUT LAST TIME. THIS IS NOT THE ASSIGNED BUILDING FUND. THIS IS DIFFERENT. THIS WOULD BE HIS BUDGET FOR MAINTAINING THE FACILITIES AS THEY EXIST TODAY. SO WE'RE TALKING ABOUT PUTTING NEW WINDOWS IN, NEW CARPET, PAINTING, JUST NEW HVAC SYSTEMS. THEIR BUDGET WITHOUT THIS $250,000 IS ONLY $130,000 A YEAR. SO AS HE PRESENTED DURING THE LAST WORK SESSION, HE PROVIDED SOME STATISTICS ON WHERE YOU SHOULD BE PER SQUARE FOOT OF THE NUMBER OF BUILDINGS AND SQUARE FOOTAGE THAT THE CITY HAS, AND THEY'RE SIGNIFICANTLY UNDERFUNDED FROM THAT STANDPOINT. IF WE WERE TAKING THE $250,000 AWAY, THEY WOULD BE EVEN MORE UNDERFUNDED. SO I THINK THEY, HE PROVIDED A FIGURE OF ABOUT 50 CENTS A SQUARE FOOT COMPARED TO ALMOST $5 A SQUARE FOOT. WE PROVIDE THEM WITH THE 250,000, THEY'RE GETTING ABOUT 380,000 ANNUALLY. THEIR BUDGET TO HIT THAT PROPER PER SQUARE FOOTAGE AMOUNT FOR MAINTENANCE WOULD BE AROUND 800 AND SOME THOUSAND A YEAR. SO AS WE TALKED ABOUT IN THE LAST WORK SESSION, I'D LIKE FOR US TO FIND ANOTHER WAY TO FUND THIS. WITHOUT USING RESERVES. SO WE'LL TALK ABOUT THAT A LITTLE BIT LATER. IF I TOOK FUNDING THAT FACILITIES OUT OF THE RESERVES FOR THE 27 BUDGET, THAT WOULD CHANGE YOUR DAYS. IT WOULD GO FROM LEAVING WITH 92 DAYS CASH ON HAND TO 95 DAYS. SO THAT 250,000 REPRESENTS ABOUT THREE DAYS CASH ON HAND. AND THEN I KNOW I MISSED THE JOINT MEETING WITH THE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, BUT I KNOW THERE WAS A DISCUSSION ABOUT THE PROPER WAY OF FUNDING THE AIRPORT, IF IT MAKES SENSE FOR THE CITY TO FUND IT, IF IT MAKES SENSE FOR THE COUNTY TO FUND THE FULL THING TO AVOID POSSIBLY DOUBLE TAXATION ON OUR LIST OF CITIZENS. I DON'T KNOW WHERE WE STAND TODAY. THE MAYOR AND I NEED TO DISCUSS THAT. BUT WITHOUT, SORRY, I THOUGHT I HAD ONE THAT DIDN'T HAVE THAT IN THERE. YOU KNOW, IF WE LOOK AT A DIFFERENT STRUCTURE FOR FUNDING THE AIRPORT, THAT COULD ALSO HELP ALLEVIATE THE PRESSURE ON OUR RESERVES AS WELL. SO THAT'S KIND OF A TO BE DETERMINED, SOME ADDITIONAL DISCUSSIONS I NEED TO HAVE WITH THE MAYOR. SO HERE'S JUST A SNEAK PEEK AT PROPERTY TAXES. SO BASED OFF WHERE WE CERTIFIED OUR PROPERTY TAXES FOR THE CURRENT YEAR BUDGET, 2026, WE WOULD GO INTO THE 2027 BUDGET YEAR WITH A PROPERTY TAX BASE OF $25.2 MILLION. AND BASED ON THAT, WE HAVE THE ABILITY TO INCREASE OUR PROPERTY TAX BUDGET BY $965,000. 3% IS THE STATUTORY AMOUNT THAT WE'RE ALLOWED TO INCREASE THE BUDGET. THE OTHER 1% WOULD BE IF YOU WERE TO LEVY FORGONE TAXES FOR OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE. you're allowed to take 1% out of your foregone balance for operations and maintenance. You can also levy foregone taxes for capital needs. You can take an additional 3%. I PERSONALLY WANT TO ENCOURAGE THAT, BECAUSE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WHEN YOU LEVY FOR MAINTENANCE VERSUS CAPITAL NEEDS IS WHEN YOU LEVY, YOU'RE FORGONE TO USE FOR YOUR OPERATIONS OF MAINTENANCE THAT STAYS IN YOUR TAX BASE, AND YOU GET TO KEEP THOSE TAXES IN PERPETUITY. IF YOU LEVY FOR CAPITAL, YOU GET IT ONE TIME, AND THEN IT GOES AWAY FOREVER. YOU CAN'T EVER GET THOSE DOLLARS BACK INTO YOUR TAX BASE. THAT'S THE DIFFERENCE THERE. YOU CAN TAKE MORE FOR THE PURPOSE OF CAPITAL, BUT YOU'RE GOING TO NOT BE ABLE TO MAINTAIN IT BEYOND A YEAR. SO I HAVE BEEN WORKING ON THE GENERAL FUND BUDGET. WHERE IT STANDS TODAY, AS OF FRIDAY, IS I AM STILL SHORT $400,000 FROM BALANCING THE BUDGET. AS I MENTIONED, WE HAVE COMPLETELY RECONSTRUCTED THE PAYROLL BUDGET. SO WE HAVE A 2.5% COLA IN THERE FOR ALL LABOR GROUPS. WE HAVE ADJUSTED FOR THE NEW PERSI RATES. THE IDAHO PERSI BOARD HAS PUT OUT NEW RATES. THEY GO INTO EFFECT DURING THE NEXT FISCAL YEAR. IT'S 1% ACROSS THE BOARD, GENERAL MEMBERS AND PUBLIC SAFETY. SO WE'VE BUILT THOSE NEW RATES INTO THE BUDGET. WE'VE GONE THROUGH AND WE LOOKED AT LEASE AGREEMENTS AND OTHER CONTRACTS THAT THE CITY HAS TO MAKE CERTAIN THAT WE'VE CAPTURED THE NEW COST, WHAT THE COST WOULD BE IN THE UPCOMING YEAR. WE'VE WORKED WITH DEPARTMENTS TO ADJUST THE REVENUES WHERE WE CAN. I'VE MADE THE DOWNWARD ADJUSTMENTS ON THE STATE SHARED REVENUES. WE'VE ADJUSTED UP IN SOME AREAS. WHAT I DON'T HAVE INCLUDED IN THE BUDGET AT THIS POINT, SO WHEN I'M SAYING I'M $400,000 SHORT OF BALANCING THE BUDGET, I STILL HAVE TO BUILD THESE OTHER ITEMS IN. I haven't increased overtime or holiday pay for police or fire. Those need to be inputted, at least some kind of increase. If their wages go up, payments on these items will go up as well. I haven't made any adjustments for health premium. I haven't received anything from the health trustees of what that premium increase would look like. I would remind council that we went, last year we had an increase in premium. I think it was one or two percent. It was very minimal. THAT WAS THE FIRST YEAR WE HAD AN INCREASE IN OUR HEALTH INSURANCE IN SEVERAL YEARS. I THINK THEY WENT THREE YEARS WITHOUT AN INCREASE. THE HEALTH TRUST DOES VERY WELL, AND WE BENEFIT FROM THAT BECAUSE WE, IN OTHER AREAS OF THE INSURANCE MARKET, EMPLOYERS ARE SEEING SIGNIFICANT INCREASES IN THEIR HEALTH INSURANCE, AND WE'VE HAD VERY MINIMAL INCREASES. SO IT'S BEEN HELPFUL FOR BALANCING THE BUDGET. THE TRUSTEES WERE TO COME BACK AND SAY A 2% INCREASE ON HEALTH PREMIUM, THAT WOULD BE ABOUT $100,000, JUST SHY OF $100,000. IT'S NOT ALL PROPERTY TAXES BECAUSE THAT'S SPREAD THROUGHOUT THE CITY. SO YOU HAVE SOME ENTERPRISE FUND EMPLOYEES IN THERE AS WELL AS EMPLOYEES WHO ARE HOUSED IN FUNDS THAT ARE SUPPORTED BY PROPERTY TAX DOLLARS. I HAVEN'T MADE ANY ADJUSTMENTS FOR THE FOP CONTRACT. SO WHAT WAS DISCUSSED EARLIER TODAY, ANYTHING THAT WE NEGOTIATE, THOSE ITEMS WILL STILL HAVE TO BE BUILT INTO THE BUDGET. AND THEN WE HAVEN'T PUT ANYTHING NEW INTO THE BUDGET. SO ANYTHING THAT THE DEPARTMENTS HAVE REQUESTED FOR INCREASES IN THEIR BUDGET HAVEN'T BEEN BUILT IN. WHEN WE PROVIDED COUNCIL THEIR BUDGET PACKETS AT THE LAST WORK SESSION, THERE WAS A SECTION IN THERE FOR THOSE REQUESTS. SO I'M HOPING THAT YOU'VE READ ALL OF THEM, THAT YOU'RE FAMILIAR WITH THEM. I WOULD LIKE TO POINT OUT, LIKE, WE TERM THIS DEPARTMENT REQUEST. And I don't want you to, like, confuse this with, like, wants versus needs. A lot of those are just the costs have gone up of things that they currently have that they can no longer afford in their existing budgets. So a lot of those aren't new. They're just what they currently have, but the costs are going up, or they can't find it within their existing budgets to fund. One example of that would be our body cameras. Our police officers, they wear body cameras out in the field. I THINK THERE'S AN EXPECTATION FROM THE PUBLIC THAT WE HAVE BODY CAMERAS ON OUR OFFICERS. THAT CONTRACT EXPIRES THIS YEAR. WE NEED TO ENTER INTO A NEW CONTRACT NEXT YEAR. AND I WILL TELL YOU, WHEN WE FIRST STARTED LOOKING AT BODY-WEARING CAMERAS AND WHAT THE NEW CONTRACT WAS GOING TO COST US VERSUS THE EXISTING ONE, WE WERE LOOKING AT LIKE $100,000, I THINK, INITIALLY. And they've gotten it down to about $30,000 to $40,000 difference over what we currently have to what the future cost would be. So that's a significant savings, but it's still an increase in their contracts. So the mayor and I, I told him where I was at with the general fund. And this is what council can expect to be in the mayor's proposed budget. IS A $482,590 INCREASE IN THE PROPERTY TAXES TO BALANCE THE BUDGET. THAT REPRESENTS 2%. $241,000 TO FUND FACILITIES. THAT WOULD REPLACE THAT $250,000 THAT'S CURRENTLY GOING TO BEING FUNDED OUT OF RESERVES. THAT REPRESENTS 1%. AND THEN $241,000 TO FUND THE FOP CONTRACT AS WELL AS ANY OF THOSE REQUESTS BY DEPARTMENTS TO HAVE THEIR BUDGETS INCREASED. SO THAT WOULD, THIRD ITEM WOULD BE UTILIZING FORGONE TAXES. AND THAT WOULD BE A TOTAL INCREASE IN THE BUDGET OF $965,000.

DO NOT HOME FROM FORGONE.

RIGHT. THE $241,000, THE THIRD ITEM ON THE LIST WOULD COME OUT OF FORGONE.

OH, OKAY.

AND THEN? THE REMAINING. IF YOU WERE TO GO BACK TO THE SLIDE ON PROPERTY TAXES, YOU WOULD SEE THAT BREAKDOWN. BUT THE FIRST TWO ITEMS WOULD BE FUNDED FROM AN INCREASE TO YOUR PROPERTY TAX BASE. THE THIRD ITEM WOULD BECOME FUNDED FROM A LEVY OF FORGONE TAXES. TO MAINTAIN FACILITIES. NO, THE THIRD ITEM ON THE LIST WOULD BE TO FUND REQUESTS OF DEPARTMENTS AND TO FUND ANYTHING THAT THE CITY CONTRACTS WITH THE FOP. negotiates with the FOP on their contract. That would be from the foregone. That is how I'll be working with the mayor to build out his proposed budget. So what happens next at this point for myself and for you is I will work with the mayor to finalize his proposed budget. We will publish our proposed budget in the Tribune. ON AUGUST 2ND AND AUGUST 9TH. SO IN ORDER TO BE ABLE TO HAVE THE PUBLIC HEARING NOTICE PREPARED AND SENT TO THE TRIBUNE FOR PUBLISHING, I HAVE TO HAVE THE BUDGET COMPLETED PROBABLY BY NO LATER THAN MIDDLE OF THE MONTH OF JULY. SO JUST SAY JULY 15TH. AT THE SAME TIME THAT WE'RE WORKING ON THAT, WE'LL ALSO BE WORKING WITH OUR PUBLIC OUTREACH COORDINATOR TO PREPARE BUDGET DOCUMENTS. THEY'LL BE VERY SIMILAR TO THE ONES THAT YOU RECEIVED LAST YEAR. WE PUT THOSE IN YOUR BUDGET PACKETS LAST WORK SESSION AS WELL SO THAT YOU HAVE THOSE TO KIND OF REVIEW AND GET FAMILIAR WITH BEFORE YOU RECEIVE THE NEW ONES FOR THIS YEAR. AND THEN WE WILL BE HAVING OUR PUBLIC HEARING ON THE APPROPRIATIONS ORDINANCE AND THE TAX CERTIFICATION ORDINANCE. ON AUGUST 10TH. AND WE WILL ALSO BE HAVING A PUBLIC HEARING ON THE AMENDMENTS TO THE CURRENT YEAR BUDGET THAT NIGHT AS WELL. AND THEN THE FIRST READING OF THOSE ORDINANCES WILL OCCUR THAT NIGHT. WE'LL HAVE A SECOND READING THE FOLLOWING MONDAY ON THE 17TH OF AUGUST. AND THEN WE'LL HAVE OUR THIRD READING AND HOPEFULLY ADOPTION OF THE BUDGET ON AUGUST 24TH, WHICH IS ALSO MONDAY. AND THAT'S ALL I HAVE FOR YOU TODAY. UNLESS YOU HAVE QUESTIONS FOR ME.

SO FOR THE FORGONE, SORRY IF I GOT MY WIRES TWISTED BECAUSE I THINK I GET CONFUSED, BUT YOU CAN TAKE UP TO 3% ON A ONE-TIME?

YOU CAN TAKE 3% FOR A SPECIFIC CAPITAL PROJECT, BUT YOU CAN ONLY TAKE IT ONE TIME IN ONE YEAR, ONE TIME, AND THEN IT'S GONE. SO IT DOESN'T GO INTO YOUR BASE AND CARRY FORWARD FOR FUTURE YEARS, AND IT DOESN'T GO BACK TO YOUR FORGONE BALANCE.

AND HOW MUCH DO WE CURRENTLY HAVE, THOUGH, IN FORGONE THAT WE'VE NOT? 3.4 MILLION.

SO IT USED TO BE YOU COULD TAKE THAT WHOLE 3.4 MILLION IN ONE YEAR IF YOU WANTED TO. IF YOU REMEMBER BACK TO THE LAST WORK SESSION THAT WE DID ON THE BUDGET AND I GAVE YOU THE HISTORY OF HOW THE ASSIGNED BUILDING FUND HAD BEEN FUNDED, There was one year where we levied $1.9 million in property taxes, and we put it into the assigned building fund, and that was the annual funding for that account. That came from foregone taxes. That's how we were able to levy that much in one year is because the rules were different on foregone taxes then, and we were able to take that one big grab. that time but even if we took three percent say to fund all of our deferred maintenance or at least try to get as much of our deferred maintenance paid for can we use it for that so like a facilities deferred name it's big list that we have you could use yes you could so you could levy and you could levy three percent which is about seven hundred forty thousand but when you levy it you just get it that one time and then you don't have it but then we still have yours like

I don't know, whatever million left. We would still have like $2.9 million or something left in there, right?

You would. I mean, your foregone balance is the money that you never levied in prior years that has accumulated. If you had levied it, it would have been part of your tax base on perpetuity. Right. You can take it from the foregone balance and keep it in your tax base forever. for perpetuity, but only if you levy for operations and maintenance. If you levy it for capital, which you can do, you will lose that money forever. It'd almost be like you never put it into foregone, but you got to use it that one time.

I wouldn't solve the $249 per facilities, though, because that's an ongoing maintenance cost.

They really need an ongoing revenue.

Could you back that up for a slide, Jamie? One more, please.

This one?

Yeah.

SO THAT OFF TO THE RIGHT, YOU HAVE THE $723,000, AND THEN YOU HAVE THE 1%. THE 1% REPRESENTS WHAT YOU CAN TAKE OUT OF YOUR FORGONE BALANCE FOR OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE. IF YOU WERE TO TAKE 3%, IT WOULD BE THE EQUIVALENT OF $723,000. IT WOULD BE THE SAME NUMBER. YOU COULD TAKE THAT OUT OF FORGONE TO FUND A CAPITAL PROJECT, BUT THEN YOU DON'T EVER GET TO SEE THOSE DOLLARS AGAIN.

You have to do one or the other though, right?

You couldn't take like 2% for capital and then like 1% for... You could take 3% for capital and 1% for operations and maintenance in the same year.

Okay.

So if you were to take 4% from your foregone balance in addition to a 3%, you could take a total of 7%. What you can't do is you can't say, well, we're not going to levy the 3% on our property tax base, but we're going to take foregone because the mechanics don't work that way on the L2 form. The mayor and I had a debate about that, if you could do that one year. And like the L2 form doesn't even allow you to do it. You have to go, you have to take your regular 3% increase before you can even tap into your foregone.

Oh, you're saying before... I think we even phoned a friend at the state tax commission to clear that debate for us. So if I'm understanding correctly, we would have to say, yeah, we're going to take a 3% budget increase before we can even take, we couldn't just say no budget increase, but we're just going to take foregone. We couldn't do that. Is that okay? Make sure I'm understanding correctly. Thank you.

Yeah, I've got a question on that facilities item. So is that $241,000 and change, is that in addition to, I assume, the $250,000 that we're already funding?

No, the $250,000 would go away, and we would replace it with the $241,000. The reason we would do that is currently you're funding it from your reserves, and that reserves is like you use it and it's gone, so it's not an ongoing revenue. THIS WOULD GIVE THEM AN ONGOING REVENUE. THAT WAY THEY WOULD KNOW THEY WERE GOING TO HAVE THAT FOR THE MAINTENANCE OF FACILITIES EVERY YEAR.

AND SO YOU WOULD PROPOSE, OR AT LEAST, MAYBE NOT YOU PROPOSING, BUT AT LEAST IN THIS PRESENTATION THAT YOU WENT OVER, THAT THAT WOULD GO, THAT WOULD COME FROM FOREGONE UNDER THE MAINTENANCE

IT WOULD COME OUT OF THE 3% INCREASE. OH, YOU'D TAKE IT OUT OF THE 3%. YEAH. MOVE. SO THIS IS HOW I PLAN TO PREPARE THE PROPOSED BUDGET, UNLESS THE MAYOR TELLS ME DIFFERENTLY, IS WE WOULD USE THE FIRST 2% OF THE 3% WE'RE ALLOWED TO BALANCE THE BUDGET. SO I'M ABOUT A $400,000 VARIANCE RIGHT NOW, BUT I SAID THERE'S A FEW THINGS I HAVEN'T PUT IN THERE THAT NEED TO GO IN THERE. I'M GOING TO TRY TO GET THAT TO BE ABOUT $482,000. I'M GOING TO CONTINUE TO LOOK FOR OTHER SAVINGS TO SEE IF MAYBE I CAN BRING THE 300 DOWN A LITTLE BIT SO THAT I HAVE ENOUGH TO COVER THOSE BUMPED IN THE OVERTIME PAY CODES AS WELL AS WHAT ELSE DIDN'T I HAVE IN THERE? THE HEALTH TRUST PREMIUM INCREASES THAT I'M ASSUMING THAT WE WILL RECEIVE. I DON'T KNOW THAT YET. AND THEN I WOULD TAKE ANOTHER PERCENT OF THE 3% THAT WE'RE ALLOWED TO INCREASE THE TAX BUDGET TO PUT THAT ONGOING REVENUE INTO FACILITIES, AND THEN WE WOULD LEVY FORGONE TAXES TO FUND NEW ITEMS TO THE BUDGET. SO FUND ANYTHING THAT THE CITY NEGOTIATES IN THE FOP CONTRACT AS WELL AS GOING THROUGH THE REQUEST OF DEPARTMENTS FOR ADJUSTMENTS TO THEIR BUDGETS. AND I'M SURE YOU GUYS HAVE LOOKED AT THOSE BUDGET REQUESTS. THAT'S NOT GOING TO COVER VERY MANY OF THOSE. BUT HOPEFULLY WE CAN COVER A COUPLE OF THE NOT THAT THEY'RE NOT ALL IMPORTANT, BUT MAYBE THE ONES THAT ARE MORE CRITICAL TO CITY OPERATIONS.

DO YOU REMEMBER HOW MUCH WE ARE BEHIND IN DEFERRED MAINTENANCE COSTS?

I MEAN, I HAVEN'T SEEN AN UPDATED LIST. I'M SURE DIRECTOR GLINN COULD GIVE YOU A BALLPARK. HE MAYBE IS STILL WORKING ON A BALLPARK, BUT I MEAN, I KNOW THAT YOU'RE ALL FAMILIAR WITH THE LIST WE SAW A FEW YEARS AGO THAT HAD LIKE 12 OR 15 MILLION OF DEFERRED MAINTENANCE, BUT I DON'T KNOW HOW. THAT WOULD BE A QUESTION FOR DIRECTOR GLINN. I feel like you might be working on something for council, aren't you, for a future meeting?

We have a future meeting coming up. But, I mean, that number is a realistic number. A lot of those costs are going to be needed moving forward. Those were real projects. Some of them I think we've already accomplished, but that just means we're backfilled as we've gone through. Like, now we need a new chiller here, or we need to replace more over here. So that's an ever-evolving list because we have aged infrastructure here.

WHAT THE PROPOSED BUDGET DOESN'T ADDRESS OR SOLVE IS IT DOESN'T PROVIDE AN ONGOING FUNDING TO THE ASSIGNED BUILDING FUND. IT DOESN'T, YOU KNOW, PROVIDE ANYTHING THAT WOULD CREATE AN ONGOING FUNDING TO THE ASSIGNED BUILDING FUND. BUT THAT'S SOMETHING THAT WE COULD TAKE A LOOK AT NEXT YEAR AND, YOU KNOW, TRY TO COME UP WITH A WAY. BUT THIS IS, LIKE I SAID, THE MAYOR'S PROPOSED BUDGET TOO. SO THIS IS HOW WE WILL DRAFT IT AND PUBLISH IT IN THE TRIBUNE.

I'm sorry. What about the fee schedule that will come up later today? Is that built into this budget?

Yes. So the way that the fees work, we really lean on the departments to advise us where their revenue adjustments need to be, like how much we need to adjust their revenue. But when they're advising us of that, they're taking into consideration that THE FEE INCREASES THAT THEY'RE PROPOSING TO YOU TONIGHT WOULD BE APPROVED. OKAY. YOU KNOW, A LOT OF TIMES YOU MIGHT BE PROPOSING AN INCREASE IN YOUR FEES, BUT YOU MIGHT NOT BE ADJUSTING YOUR REVENUES VERY MUCH BECAUSE IT MIGHT BE BASED OFF YOU MIGHT BE INCREASING THE FEE, BUT YOU DON'T KNOW IF THE QUANTITY IS GOING TO BE THE SAME AS THE FOLLOWING YEAR. LIKE, YOU MAY NOT KNOW, THOUGH, IF YOU'LL HAVE THE SAME, YOU KNOW, NUMBER OF PERMITS ISSUED OR BUT THAT IS THE IDEA, THAT THOSE FEE PROPOSALS WE'RE MAKING TONIGHT ARE TO COVER THE INCREASED COST AND THAT THAT WOULD THEN ALLOW US TO INCREASE THE REVENUE IN THOSE AREAS, WHICH WE HAVE DONE BASED OFF GUIDANCE FROM THE DEPARTMENTS.

OKAY.

SO WE'VE BEEN WORKING ON THE FEE RESOLUTION FOR PROBABLY ABOUT TWO MONTHS.

YEAH.

YEAH. IT SEEMS, IT LOOKS LIKE IT'S A SIMPLE THING TO DO ON PAPER, BUT IT TAKES DEPARTMENTS A WHILE TO REVIEW THOSE FEES AND SEE WHICH ONES NEED TO BE ADJUSTED. And they do also, I mean, part of that too is they're looking at their cost of service and making certain that their current fee is adequate to cover their cost of service. But if their cost of service is going up from like labor costs and other supplies or materials or whatever it might take to provide the service, then they have to propose rate increases.

So when you were on the property tax slide, ESTIMATING WHAT WE WOULD GET IN 2027, DIDN'T LOOK LIKE MUCH OF A CHANGE FROM Last year.

So I should, thanks actually for asking that question. I should have walked you through this. So what, yeah, I mean, what this is, is this is our starting point. So this doesn't include the figures off to the right. So I haven't put those into the budget yet, those increases. So the 2027 column is taking our base from last year and moving it forward. So our final... CERTIFIED PROPERTY TAX DOLLAR AMOUNT. IT IS YOUR STARTING POINT FOR THE NEXT YEAR. IT DOES, THE BOX THAT'S HIGHLIGHTED IN RED ACTUALLY GETS DEDUCTED THOUGH FROM THAT BASE BECAUSE THAT WAS A ONE-TIME LEVY THAT THE STATE ALLOWED FOR A TAX JUDGMENT. AND THAT'S JUST, I'LL JUST REMIND COUNCIL THAT'S NOT ANYTHING THE CITY DID WRONG. IT'S NOT A JUDGMENT AGAINST THE CITY. The state tax commission overvalued some utility properties. And so then we had to do tax rebates back to those utility companies. And so every entity that received tax dollars, property tax dollars, had to pay their portion back. And so they allow you a separate levy for those. But it's a one-time levy that you can include in your base for one year.

Got you.

SO IT COMES BACK OUT. AND THEN THE TWO NUMBERS BELOW THE 198,000 AND THE 5,000, THAT IS A PRETTY SOLID ESTIMATE OF WHAT WILL BE ADDED TO THE BASE FOR NEW CONSTRUCTION AND ANNEXATION. THOSE COME DIRECTLY FROM THE COUNTY, BUT THEY ARE PRELIMINARY BECAUSE THE COUNTY IS STILL WORKING THROUGH THEIR BOARD OF EQUALIZATION PROCESS. SO WE WOULD TAKE THAT $965,000 THAT'S SHOWING OFF TO THE RIGHT, AND WE WOULD ADD IT INTO THE LIGHTLY SHADED GREEN AREA, AND THEN YOU WOULD SEE THAT BUMP UP TO BE JUST SLIGHTLY $26 MILLION.

OH, I SEE. OKAY. THANK YOU. YEAH, MISSED THAT. MAKES MORE SENSE WHEN YOU EXPLAIN IT.

YEAH, I SHOULD HAVE EXPLAINED IT EARLIER. I APOLOGIZE FOR THAT.

READY.

THANK YOU.

THANK YOU, EMILY. WE HAVE A LOT OF WORK TO DO. LET'S MOVE TO ROW NUMERAL 7, UNFINISHED NEW BUSINESS. CITY COUNCILOR COMMENTS. ITEM A, COMMENTS SHALL NOT BE RELATED TO AN ITEM CURRENTLY FOR THE COUNCIL OR ITEM THAT MAY COME BEFORE THE COUNCIL. CAN I FORESEE THE FUTURE SHAPE OF THE COMMENTS NOT DISCUSSION? COUNCILORS, ANY COMMENTS FOR THIS AFTERNOON? I'M GOING TO PASS ON THE MAYOR COMMENTS, TOO. NEXT WE HAVE RULE NUMBER 8, EXECUTIVE SESSION, MADE HOPE CODE, 74-206, SUB 1J AND 74-206A, SUB 1A, CONSIDERING A LABOR CONTRACT OFFER OR A COUNTER OFFER. THIS IS AN ACTION ITEM. COUNCILORS, IF YOU CHOOSE TO DO THAT, I WOULD ENTAIN A MOTION THAT WE'LL RETIRE TO THE BACK ROOM.

Council President Kleberg. Make a motion to go to executive session under Idaho code 74-206-1-J and 74-206-A-1-A, considering a labor contract offer or to formulate a counteroffer. Second.

It's removed by Council President Kleberg, second by Councilor Wright, to go into executive session. 74-206A sub 1A, TO CONSIDER A LABOR CONTRACT OFFER TO AFFIRM LATED COUNTEROFFER AUTHORIZED UNDER SECTION 74-206A sub 1A. THIS IS A ROLL CALL. CLERK BRUNKE. COUNCIL PRESIDENT KLEEBERG.

AYE.

COUNSELOR MORI. AYE. COUNSELOR WRIGHT. AYE. COUNSELOR PORTSMAN.

AYE.

OKAY. WE HAVE TWO-THIRDS OF THE FULL COUNCIL. WE SHALL RETIRE AND GO INTO, WELL, GO AT EASE, AND THEN WE'LL GO INTO