Board of Aldermen - Regular Meeting

it will entail. So we are meeting with the L state people to get a more clearcut fee structure for 53. You know if it

fits into this size category the structure the fee will be this. So we're we're meeting with them. We've still got to figure that out. That's to be determined on the schedule still. The finance committee had had some conversations about the credit card convenience fees and whether we should have that on the fee schedule. And so we reached out to Lindsay and she said that we should um that we just need to put that little blurb that we have in there that says all electronic payment convenience fees are charged by the provider and not included in the city of Odessa payment system. So these are the fees that we're under contract for and if those change we'll need to update the new schedule. Keeping in mind that updating the fee schedule as part of the annual budget every year. Do I think this is perfect? No. I'm not unrealistic. I don't I don't think it's going to solve every single problem we have. Do I think it's a lot better than where we're at today? Yes. I'm certain there's going to be things that we're going to go, "Oh, well, maybe we should do this different or we should have done that different." But the fee schedule as presented is a more um fair distribution of any fees or especially development is what we focus on this year of passing those law. So just want to open floor up to discussion about these circle. This this also is for those of us that already have we automatically have it taken out. Is that charged to us as well?

You have an AC. I have Yeah. No. Well, it's going to continue to Does that mean the city's losing money on that? AC's aren't costing us anything through our bank. We send a a file to the bank and they process it to pull those C that we still have.

I have a question. Um I just thought of it. So um how do people pay their fees for parks and basketball and all that credit card or both? We have our we have our own software that is we do online and in our office. So these do not the convenience fees do not apply to the parks system at all. It's completely autonomous from all of the rest of the fees that we have. What do you guys do with your fees? You didn't pass them all. You guys get charged monthly for them.

Yeah. It's part of our bank reconciliation process is to make sure that the money that comes in goes out all goes to the right places. Any other questions on fe structure on any fees? You still need to make your correction on the residential utility rate. I'm glad I did.

Um I had planned on requesting alderly discussion regarding the uh um electric utility rates and also our ECA calculation at the regular meeting. So I'd like to keep that part open to discussion. Um, I think in all fairness, we're in the middle of a rate study for electric bill rates, right? So, I think this would be an ideal time for us to talk about we've got time to make adjustments if we need to. Yeah, I think we need to see what the rate study says, right,

and make adjustments as according at that point. I don't know that I would want to do anything different right now with what those rates look like because I just don't I don't know what the status goes. We'll have that in prior to the end of the budget process. That's the plan. That's the plan. So, next next uh meeting would be an ideal time,

right? Would be I hope we'll see how that works out. Um, any other thoughts, questions, anything on the fee schedule? No. Okay. Um, we will update it with whatever we come up with our all state discussions and then it will just be part of a final approval package when we get some. I'm looking at the computer behind you to see if there's any question possibility that we're going to get the PowerPoint because I I created a really cool PowerPoint for you. Hope you can see it, but that's cool. Is it something you can email us?

This will be on the facility rentals. Um, we had talked about concerning the food trucks sitting at park and we vote we voted to not charge them. So my question just is in thought, whatever you want to call it, is that any different than than renting the building here or then charging you there would be

well that was I think that was kind of a part of the discussion that Bruce would have had when he met with both sides whether or not we should charge or should not charge. So, the direction that I heard was to not charge because they're already paying the a business license fee like the others would pay like a like a regular business. So,

I think it is different because we're not providing anything from the city there. Here, they're guaranteed a building that's not leaking. bathrooms, restrooms, power, utilities. That's we're providing them a service there. We're not guaranteeing them that they don't have a pothole to park in. We're just guaranteeing that they can park there. We're not giving them anything at the city. I think that's where the difference is. If they if they want to use power, then yes, they need to get a special use permit, sign up for the power, and pay for the power. That's what I'm told the farmers market does for theirs. they they say a special permit for and they use the power when they pay for it as part of their fee.

There's not not necessarily a special um they don't have to pay for the special event permit but that's how they kind of book the space and then um they do have to pay for their power and date use. Now if a food truck plugging in the power I would definitely agree yeah you need to pay for that power. I guess my question is it's not just food trucks but even people because we have talked about how we're losing money on some of these fees trying to gouge anybody but I'm just saying is this something with

well we just had a really intensive discussion on food trucks and I don't know that we want Open that back up again. Um, the community building fees were they reviewed last year with all the park fees they were separate from now. Okay.

Okay. I don't know. What do you guys want to do? I remember the discussion being that um that with the other buildings that um be enough to be charged for there is a cost to facing Not to say that there could ever be, but I think that's right.

And then also the the maintenance or the time involved in how that going to get booked and who's going to check on if they're up on a Sunday and you know that whole logistics. So,

you know, I'm really always pretty open and blunt with y'all. Um, I think the fe structure changes that we've proposed here are the ones that can make us stop losing the most money. I think that, like I said, there's always going to be whatifs and what pores and how should we change it moving forward. But I think this is a good starting point for this year.

Okay. I have emailed you guys all a PDF of the PowerPoint that we're going to go through.

So, we can just kind of hit the highlights and go into any details. Um tonight we're working on revenue projections, uh fund balance discussions and personnel services and the recommendations for that. So um water, wastewater, electric, those rates are all based on the calculation that's laid out in the ordinance that says this is how we adjust those each year. And um do you guys have your We don't have one, do we? No, I'll let you make sure.

Okay. Um the the rates for those utilities are in your fee schedule with the exception of my fat finger for the electric grade, which should be 0987, not 987. And I will get that fixed on this. under the electric usage rates on home. But anyway, we we have increased meter numbers across the board since last year. Um so that is increasing our revenues. There's a slight uptick in um the revenue based on that. And then your base rate adjustment for water. The wastewater base rate will always be the same thing. We do have the Sierra on that and it has reduced from 964 to 945 for next year. Um just know that from a debt service perspective, wastewater we are starting to pay some principle on some of the bonds that we have only been paying um interest on. So we will have more outline for that this year. And then um the util the electric utility we're going to continue those discussions as that rate study comes in but we went ahead with the standard adjustment being what we've put in as our projections for them.

So I have a question. So, you've got Never mind the wrong question. I love it when you have questions like that, Paul.

Um, from a general fund revenue standpoint, real estate taxes are going to increase a little bit over 11%. And that is because of the increased valuation. What we've done on real estate taxes has gone back over the last six years and figured what the average collected based on the valuation for that year is. And that average has been 715 or 716 the last six years. So I went with 715 as our factor for that. And we are increasing our real estate. We have more houses in town. We have more commercial development. It just stands to reason that that's going to go up. Um, personal property taxes, they're going to go up just a little over 5% in the revenue projections just because of current year actuals projections. Um, we're going to remain flat in county use tax and county sales tax. Um, as you know, the county is having some financial difficulties and they're going to propose to put on their ballot language for April to recapture the money from their use tax that has been coming to the cities and other um other departments. And who knows what's going to happen. I don't have that crystal ball. So, we're not planning really any adjustments to that. One of the sales tax or one of the property tax proposals that I read um at Jeff City um is to shift things to a sales tax. And the sales tax, additional sales tax that cities may receive would kick in a

handcuff adjustment to the property tax rates. Um, so if that passes, that would impact that. Who knows? I like the county. Who knows what the impact would be that would happen, but

it's definitely something to be cognizant of and keep an eye on. I don't know that the state's tax adjustment is going to happen quickly. I think it's a big item for them to chew off and try to figure out and I don't know that it'll happen in this legislative session, but they are trying to do something. I do have a question. I thought I'd give the answer, but don't we have an ordinance that says we can't raise our base rates over two and a half% per year? 3%. Is it three? either through.

Okay, last chance.

Okay. Um the rest of our taxes, motor fuel tax is going up just a little bit. We evidently more people are driving, buying more gas, so that tax is going up. It is set to adjust a percent and a half each year anyway. Um, sorry, got a message in here. Uh, city sales tax, we left it at a 2% increase based on just regular trends. We did have a conversation with Higginsville about the impact that Taco Bell had on their sales tax and do anticipate that being a really positive impact for us that we did not include those projections in here because we don't know when they'll open and what their actual source will be. But we're very hopeful that they are very successful help with that. um transient guest tax. Evidently, a lot more people are staying at the hotel over the last couple of years, too. So, that we've increased a little bit. And then we'll leave city stickers. Uh other revenue source sources, merchant licenses, we've got a 12 and a half% increase based on what we've increased this year. and then um the act the projections from that. Two years ago, we switched softwares to do all of the merchant licensing through the club permit software and that was quite an adjustment for our staff and our businesses both. We're getting the hang of it. Businesses are getting the hang of it. It went much smoother this year than it did that first year. Um Tracy, our accounts

payable um clerk is taking over business licenses as of the first of this year. Taking that off the Karen slate. She's doing back flips and you can you don't want to see that. But um money to see her do might hurt myself. Yeah, that's what the money's for. Jenny is doing a really good job of whenever people are pulling permits, making sure those people have the business licenses that they need. So, um, that's just a really great example of staff working together to move things in the right direction. We're excited about that.

Did our rate increase from last year to this year? So, same rate, but we had a 12% increase in the number. No, we changed it to 60 last April. What was it? Or was it the April year before two years? But we've had an influx of business license. This is our second year of it being $60.

And and through January, our sales tax year on year increased 1.45% I think is what the number. So we're getting more businesses. They're just not sales tax collecting businesses. a lot of uh we're seeing a lot of construction types of businesses as far as you know a a plumber or an electrician or those trade

folks. We're seeing a lot of those. So yeah, that's that's good. We have more people doing things here. building permits. We anticipate a 50% increase in those. That is based on the fee schedule changes. And so I think that should make a dramatic and increase and trying to keep our building permits at the point where they're covering with census. They need to be covering in that development side. everything else. Um, animal in pounds we did a pretty significant decrease on, but that whole line item is like $2,500. So, it it's not making a huge impact even though it's a large percent in that. And school resource officer income should increase a little bit um because of salaries and the reimbursements for that. So, that's looking good. Um, last year was the first year for the special duty reimbursement. That is the contract we have with the First Baptist Church to provide church security on Sundays and many stays. We raised or we put 17,000 last year in the budget. We're going to lower that to 16,000 just after having a year under our belt and really seeing what their usage needs to be. So, any questions on revenue projections? Any thoughts? Okay. I just I want to put a plug in while we're on this piece of the conversation that I feel like we're making great strides in the revenue the

global when we look at the overall how are we looking at things moving forward I think we're making really great strides I think we've got an amazing team built now that um is really paying attention to all of the little details and understands how things tie together. We have a good economic development forecast moving forward. So, I anticipate that overall the revenues will I I think when we sit here next year and have the same conversation that it's going to continue to be a better conversation. Um, next on my slide is personnel projections. We have done we are in the middle of the salary step and we really really pushed them and we wanted them to have everything so we could come and say here's what we need to know how you want to implement the compensation differences that we have. um they've given us some preliminary numbers but we don't have the whole picture yet and so Sean and I have talked pretty extensively about this. Um what we are going to recommend is that for the beginning of this budget cycle, we stay with our standard across the board salary increase and then once we get the full compensation study back and have a way that we can actually deliver that and have realistic I mean I could have guessed at numbers I could have thrown some stuff together and I I don't sleep at night if I do that. So, I don't think that's a way to do business.

So, what we're going to propose is that we have the 5% salary increase. I believe last year we did a 6% increase. Um, we've budgeted for a 6% increase in health, dental, and vision costs. We're getting early indications that that may or may not happen. And if it does happen, it may be less than that 6%. So, we're super excited about the potential that um that may come in under what we're we're estimating it to be. We pay um Missouri loggers is the retirement system and you guys are all familiar with that, but we pay 9.2% for all general employees and 9.4% 4% for uh police and then we pay 75% of our employees health insurance and then their dental and visions covered

which I do think the loggers went up didn't it April we'll get noticed in April we just don't know what that but even from previous budget this is an increased number yeah it'll be an increased Okay. I just don't know about it. So, conversations about personal services and what we should do with that. When will they have their report to us?

Great question. We don't have a specific date. I think where we are on the the salary study is like you were saying like we can plug the numbers in and just go with it. These are the numbers and that's what it is. But when you look at the impact that this has on our 45 employees like we want to make sure that we do it right. We communicate with them. We have them involved and that they're um a part of the process every step of the way. And that's the part that we haven't accomplished with Paypoint is figuring out one how to phase out the impact because we cannot afford to fix the entire problem in one year. Um but what we need what we need to try to determine is how to how to um implement something um in a more than one year timeline. Um and and that that's going to take us working a little bit more closely with Paypoint. But most importantly, I just I I didn't feel comfortable just saying here employees, this is this is what the number is. You know, we don't have a way to to achieve it yet, but this is what it is. This is your new salary. We want to make sure that they're involved and we have a legitimate communications plan before we hit go on the results. So

I' I'd like to see the preliminary information shared making the decision about to go with 5% something later. Okay. Okay. Um that's something we know it's really to drive.

Okay. It'll probably have to be at a high level like either fund level or department level because we have multiple departments of one and if I make that a public document then that individual person's salary is then publicized and talked about openly. So we're trying to u preserve some confidentiality in each of our employees salaries as well. But you said it was 6% last year. Sure. Their report doesn't tell us what we need to pay each individual.

It does right now. It does right now. That's why we weren't ready to put it out yet. Their first draft has each and every position's impact. And I think that's what we wanted. But I get why. And I don't think that any of us anticipated that it would be a one and done. Here's what it is. Right. Right. Exactly. Or however that works.

And that's what we're trying to determine is how best to phase it in. We at least want to be able to propose some type of implementation plan to you and we just haven't gotten that far from the results that they've provided. It's it's I mean it is in draft form right now and and very much so a raw report. So they're they are they sticking their timeline and they're moving along.

They are yeah they were able to get the first draft u before the deadline. We'll we'll continue to work on it and we'll, you know, kind of mend as we get more information and and get closer to a end result, but um I I we probably want to look at the projections. Yeah. You know, we we can say, okay, it's going to be x number of dollars if we split it over two or three years or whatever, but moving forward with cost of living adjustments and We don't pass that yet.

How do we fold in this, you know, lump sum number that we have now? How do we fold that in? And what is it going to do to each fund for the next at least three years? Because the goal is to be able to implement what we have this, you know, large number, implement that into our operating budget. You we can't just plug it into the operating budget today. So, we're we're trying to work towards that. We're just it's just not ready yet. We haven't got that far. We'll get there. It's probably not going to be like

and I like I'm thinking like Bruce um so when I think about a salary study and the results I would anticipate seeing the raw stuff along with you guys right that my best HR I mean, I'm just asking. I can check with our Yeah, I can check and see. You're saying you can't share with us their study because it's protected. It's not protected. It's just ethically that's what I would prefer to do.

It's not protected in any way. But we've been So, does that mean things that are sent out to us not in a closed session is public record? Yes, I can share your proposed contract to anybody up here right now. Yes. I mean, it's a close session item. That was a handout for close session for tonight. Um, but after it's approved. Yes. I don't know how that makes a difference providing it before meeting or after.

It's it's a handout for the close session agenda. But in theory, after it's voted on in close session, it's public. I understand that part of it. Okay. Well, in regards to the to the salary schedule, all these things, and I think we're agreeing there's a lot more information that we got to put together, right, to decide, right? And that involves you all in that in that process. I understand that.

Yeah. I'm just not happy with this 5% thing. I know there's a study, but it seems like our city looks above all 5% like a slap in the face, especially when they got sick last year. Yeah. You know, I mean, that's fair. I realize can't just pick money off the tree. Mhm. Well, and last year we proposed 5% and then once we got confirmation that the insurance wasn't increasing, we moved it to 6%. So that because that helps that's a savings for us.

Yeah, that's something we could consider because I know we get the comp we don't have the confirmation yet for the health benefits, but we get it before the budget's approved. something that's calculated or is are we trying to match the percentage growth salar the um so the 5% that's proposed is a cola increase for each employee across the board um based on based on what we're able to allow within our budget.

Okay. Mhm. But the salary study, what is more of a global market study to determine um what each position needs to to be or needs to increase by to get to the 50th percentile of the 20some cities that we compared ourselves against? So we department head do we do any performance reviews individually with anybody? We do. Does anybody get individual performance incentive increases or we just get 5%? What do you

As of right now, we just do the COLA increase, but each employee um receives a performance evaluation each year. No incentive to do better the next year. No merit. Not we have anybody that doesn't deserve. I agree with Mickey, but We need to I think that's a concern I have because we have high performers that are doing well. We need to make sure we we compensate for Thank you. You're doing a great job.

Well, I will get you like the departmental and the fun impacts of what the salary recommendations are. And I think we can easily show where those 50th percentile pieces are. Um, we'll just have to figure out how to not call out specifics to employees with it and then we can talk about it again next month or the two weeks a budget workshop if that's okay. We're coming up with 5%. I guess that was my question too.

So old people can have a 2.8% 8% total increase on our social security. I think it's just been a historical amount that the city of Odessa has provided. So, so it's not really a total increase. It's just the 5% club that we've always used. Yeah. And it's been based off of what our operational budget can allow. So, there's been years in the past that it's been 3%. There's been years of 5%. There's been years of 6%. based on what we can fit into the budget and the study will help us understand our our city, our location, our size compared to other cities. Yes.

Correct. So there's really three parts that pay how much we're behind what people job really should pay and performance pay. Mhm. So, and we looked at this uh in dividing it up in those three departments

and maybe not all this year. I was that was that was my first thought, but I mean kind of work towards that success over

Yes, it's definitely something that we've been wanting to work towards. Um just haven't been able to get there yet. So I think if you would allow us another year to get there because it's been it's I wanted to do it last year. So if you allow us at least one more year to get to a merit-based salary increase that would be preferable. I I know we don't have the capacity to implement something like that in the next two months. I know that's one complaint I heard a lot last year was, you know, I get 6% COA.

So, what we're learning now is that's well, it's not a cola that everyone got. You know, that's a combination of a lot of things. So, cola is a valid increase. So, let's divide it up. when we were we're talking about the projections. Um that's one of the things that I'm taking into consideration and the projection worksheet that I'm building out is that CPI and then a merit and

we're moving down that train. We just I I can't do that and get the rest of the budget figured out in the next six weeks. during all the I've been involved in a workshop or work group on that and especially with employees as a whole

and like so we want to do it right. We don't want to just throw something at the wall and hope it sticks and think it's going to be better down the road. We want to do things the way that they really need to be done. Are you guys talking about like equity of the merit of Greece or even how they determine

the scale? I have done actually quite a bit of research into it and I I've not found any city that can arguably say that they have a equitable merit increase that works well. They have the best they can get to, the closest they could get to, but not nothing that is everybody is happy with and it's perfect. Yeah. I don't know if it exists.

I think the whole Americ is he a rock star? No.

Will he ever be a rock star? You know, does he show up every day? Yes. Is he the He is the best person to let you know if he's going to move, that he's not going to come again, whatever. U reliable.

He's very reliable. He comes in, he does his job. Uh then you get into uh I have I have a principal at one of my schools who has a a brand new young lady. Last week was her the second week and she's already going. She's not doing something and she's only been there two weeks. So that's why I say this can be a can I learn how it's all sorts of different can also be a turn into I like you but I don't like that you know saying Peter shouldn't believe he would have outstanding job but there's a lot there is lot that goes into it.

That's why I would suppose that uh Andy merit base would need to have be based on some concrete tangles. Correct. Have to be objective. Yeah. Measurable which takes time and work a lot invested in it. Okay, we're ready to talk fund balances. Yep. Is that the end of your slides? Well, you know, they're all cut off. So, I'm now Well, you got you were on uh benefits changes. Okay.

Some more to go.

Okay. Um, like I said, we think that we're budgeting for a 6% um, health insurance increase. Along with that, the um, the health savings account, the deductible for the folks that take that health savings health plan will be increasing. So, we have been looking at um, matching that we did last year. We matched the 1650 that was the deductible. We funded upfront funded that for those folks that have the HSA. So that will increase to 17 and 3,400. Um depending on whether it's just the employer, if it's employee, spouse, kids, the whole nine yards. So that's a pusher. Yeah, that that one we know is a one look at

they move in. So the next slide we get to comparison by department. The next slide cut off. Yeah, that's why I was pulling this up. So So everybody has a pen. We're going to write numbers in. Technology and things are not on our side today. It's building. I'm convinced this is all fun. left here. Yeah, we'll get updated, but Oh, it just pushed it. No, I don't think so. I think it just cut those all off. Maybe I used

I will send it to you again. Um, the differences for let's because instead of a column and a half, which what you see on your spreadsheet that's printed, there's actually three columns. We're going to talk about the difference column. So, you can jot those numbers down. Um, from the administration line, the difference is $24,934. The police line is $111,435. That does include the addition of a police detective, which Josh, do you want to speak to the need for that? edited.

Okay, that's fine. But I mean I I can Are these expenses for being balanc? No, we're we're talking expenses still on personnel. The municipal courts 1545, streets is 19433 and community development is 3,96. The only staffing. Yeah, it stops at streets.

396. I don't Maybe I sent Tracy the wrong version. I tried.

Okay. So then on the next page, you've got electric. The difference is $1,262. And I wanted to point out why that is such a small difference. We had a long-term seasoned journeyman lineman who retired in this past budget cycle. He was making significantly more than the less tenured journeyman that we have replaced him with. Um, same thing. We lost a um an apprentice that was a would have been a year three apprentice and we've replaced that with a year two apprentice. So there's been the electric department is fully staffed now, but fully staffed at a reducted rate from what we had budgeted last year. So

what was that number again? $1,262. So, this obviously excludes um electricity purchased because that's like $4 million. This is personnel cost. Personnel cost. Yes. Yeah, that's we're on personnel cost. Um and this is with if we did the 5% plus the insurance increases that were anticipated. This doesn't include any other departmental cost. This is just personnel that we're talking about in this. So basically what you're sharing with us is the second column minus the first column.

Yes sir.

With the whole second column included there. Um wastewater 14,24. Parks general is 8334, swimming pool is 1196, programs is 1957 and concessions is 900. Some some notes all the way across the board. We are doing a deep dive in our work comp cost and making sure that every employee is categorized with what their job role really is. And I'm going to give you a for instance. We have park um concession swimming pool concession people. They've been paying we've been paying swimming pool rates for them. But as we deep dive into that, none of them are lifeguards. None of them are doing anything other than selling hot dogs. So we need to be able to charge a lesser rate, pay a lesser rate on that. So Karen and I are working through every employee to make sure they're in the proper categories and I think we'll see some adjustments there. Um that it it will make some differences for us. The other thing is minimum wage did increase January 1st. It was $1375. It is now $15. So all of our part-time parks people that were vegan 1375 or so are going to get a bump. So we're going to see an increase in that budget for sure because of the minimum budget.

Okay. Water. Complete. You skipped water. $5,970

total of all the work.

You sure? The next I'm going to send this to you. It's all going to be there. I promise it. I'm gonna look at it before I email it next time. Um, also included is a proposed increase for our elected body of the 5% It's my understanding that you guys have not had an increase for a while. My bank account is really showing up. I I'm telling you that $628 difference is gonna like bonus.

This will be like $4. So, any questions, thoughts? So, what is what are we supposed to put out here by that for the $628 is the difference for the elected? 628. Yes, that's a five% on the increase to be in line with the 5% that we discussed first step. Okay, I will send you all of these again where you can actually see all of the numbers and see the poll. In fact,

that's maybe my poll. I emailed the presentation to Tracy and I I might have grabbed the wrong version. That's I don't know. Let's go back. We did we had this new audio visual all of the things and we couldn't get it to stream right and so we had the folks come here one day last week we sat down we said what are we doing wrong and come to find out one of the components that they used for making this all work together was bad and so brand new

brand new component but it was bad so they fixed a workaround for us so we could get through tonight. It did not work and and now the TV's not working. They promised us that at our February 9th meeting, all of this technology is going to work. This is so impressed with our presentation. So, we're bringing it back to 2025 with printed slides.

Okay. Fund balance analysis and sidewalk budget discussion. Is there any other workshop one questions or personnel questions? Revenue, anything else before we move on? Okay, we will continue to work on personnel. Okay, so one thing before we really so you guys can get kind of a all-encompassing all-encompassing understanding of our fund balances and where they are. I will say um these are newly audited numbers and from our previous year to this year there were adjustments to our fund balances. So um coincidentally most of them helped us the the fund balance changes from the previous auditors to these auditors. Uh and I did change the calculation. I was looking at it based off of revenue uh monitoring you know how much revenue if we lost a revenue how much whatever um now I I changed the calculation to look at it from an expense standpoint which in theory it's the same thing our revenues equal our expenses but if you look at actuals our revenue our expenses are slightly lower than our revenues on most funds because we um typically don't overspend so it helped our fund balance percentage age. Now, whether or not that's a good thing or a bad thing, that's the the kind of point I'm going to make to you guys tonight is um at this point, our fund balance amounts are arguably too high. So, I wanted to present them to you so you had an understanding um before we make any future decisions on how to utilize those fund balances. But you can see general fund um

I have the actual expenses for 33125 which is what was just audited and then the audited unrestricted balance and then the fun fund balance percentage. So what this is saying is we have over a year's worth of reserves in our general fund at 105%. For the electric fund, we have 98% fund balance. Water 124, but with water, you'll have to remember that we have the Ninth Street project that's not completely done yet and would have hit in this fiscal year. So, we do plan to use um um almost a million dollars, I believe, of maybe not quite that much, but we we do plan to use a pretty large chunk of our reserves in the water and some of it in the wastewater department for this current fiscal year that we're in. So, those two are not as high as they appear. parks fund has a 30% fund balance which is actually pretty high for the parks department right now. Um and then the CIP fund we have 134% but I am in the future sides proposing to use some of that.

That's yeah that's not correct.

How can you have 130 when your unrestricted balance is almost $400,000 less than revenue for your expenses? There's a reason. I just need to think about it for a second. Um, do balance. I'll just pull it up really quick. That would be easier. Let me check. So the the that's because 133 um is the balance that we would have if we spent this year's budget and what I'm proposing without those two numbers. The fund balance is the 134. So the unodudited fund balance today is 691. 301 and then 135%. But we have budgeted in this year's CIP the use of $28,000 which would bring us down to 94% reserves. And then later in the slides, I have a proposal for additional fund balance used for the sidewalk project, which brings us down to the 133, which is 26%.

That really it really should be based off the unodudited. It would be a it would be the 134. that is the unodudited number and then the 691,000 is what should be in the 133. So well does that make sense everybody get a chance to see if there's any kind of

Yep. Um sort of I did I asked other cities and that's on the next slide. Um so the transportation fund is has 342%. Um but that is mostly because um the transportation expenses are only 241. But in the that's the actual expenses. So that's with only spending for the CIP or the street plan and no sidewalk expenses. So, our actuals didn't include any sidewalk expenses, but our reserves are higher mostly because of the sidewalk project department taking 500,000 from that field.

We plan to take all of our reserves for the transportation fund. Okay. So, GFO's recommendation on fund balance um what they currently recommend is at least two months. This is for general fund at least two months fund balance or about 17%. Right now we have 12 and a half months. Um some of the upcoming expected expenditures. Um one is the funding to pay for the I70 bridge that we plan to use fund balance for. That was 43,000. And then potentially the sidewalk project potentially. And then also another potential is um something that we'll discuss a little bit later in the se when we discuss the CIP, but with the street shed that we went out for bid for um this year. We do not have enough money in our CIP to pay for it. The expenses are significantly higher than we anticipated. So I I would propose use of general fund dollars to accomplish the street fund or street shed building to get that done. But we'll talk about that deeper in the CIP workshop. Okay. So moving on to the next slide. I have comparisons. So how I obtain these, we have a MCMA list serve. So I just reached out to all the city managers in the state that are associated with that list serve. So, some of these cities might be kind of like, why did you ask that city? It's because they responded back to my question. So, um you can see here and and some of them didn't have like this is our policy on paper. Some of it were just was just like this is what we this is what our goal is. We don't have it documented, but I went

ahead and put it in the policy um column. And then not everyone gave me their actuals. Um, and they just answered the question by answering what their policy is or what they target. So I put GFOAS in there at 17%. Pleasant Hills policy is only 8% but they currently have 48% in reserves. Grand View's policy is 20. Nevada is 25. Brentwood's 25. Welen Springs is 25. um government finance officials association. It's like it's like the MCMA or MML but for finance directors for government financing.

Um I lost my place. Uh, Welden Springs 25%, University City, their policyy's 18 and they currently have 42. Um, Valley Park their policy is 50%. Marshfield their or yeah, Marshfield I think is that city. Um, 3 months is their policy. Oak Grove, their policy aligns with GFOA at 17% and they're currently at 35. Lake St. Louis, um, their policy is 30 and they're currently at 106. Ofallon their policies 40 currently at 79. Wentzville 25 currently at 70. St. Peters there's align with UFOA at 17% but they're currently at 50. Um St. Charles 30% with 31% in actuals and Sunset Hills is 50%. Knobster 6 months and West Plains um their actuals are at 17%. That's just for general funds. Okay, moving on to the sidewalk project. As you know, we've budgeted for the sidewalk project for five fiscal years now. Kind of chasing our tails around how this project has evolved each and every year. Well, that's no different this year. It's it continuously evolves. At least now we know a final number. Finally, we have a final number of total. We have we've gone out for bid. We know what their bid numbers were. We know what our construction engineering contract is. So, we have an actual total budget number for sidewalks finally. But I wanted to show you um how that evolved from our last year's budget to now this year's budget. So, this is our last year's budget 2025 2026 how we budgeted for the project.

Um you can see the grant income, the transfer from reserves, the general fund transfer at 600,000, the transfer from electric at 700,000, the street plan contribution which is when we did the half of a street plan um in one year to preserve and then we last year we adjusted the sales tax allocation up ever so slightly at the end of the budgeting process. So that increase went directly to this project at 14,239. So what was budgeted for is 2.697. If you remember or were around in April of 2025 last year, we had a conversation. That's when we were like, we know that the project is going to cost about a million more than the 2.69 that we have budgeted. So, we really need to come up with two point or one extra million dollars. When we had that conversation, we said um we could use an additional $500,000 from the electric department. A large portion of the project is electric and then we could also use the CIP fund. So, at that time the CIP fund had a lot more reserves than it does now. So now as our budget has evolved, I do not feel comfortable using a half a million from the CIP's reserves because as of right now in our past audit, their reserves are at the 6 691301 which would leave the um would bring us the 691 minus the um 500 would would be too too much to use. It would deplete our CIP fund in

its entirety. And our CIP fund is pretty critical right now because it's the one thing that's, you know, allowing us to um work, get the street shed, get equipment replacements and things like that for streets admin, police, and parks. And especially with the parks fund needing quite a bit of money for the pool right now, it it does not make sense to deplete the CIP fund. So what I'm proposing is on the next page. Um, as you know, the grant income has not changed, unfortunately. It is still the exact same amount that it was in 2020. So 773 from the grant income. I've kind of pulled some line items together here, but our our um transportation reserves, that street contribution, and that sales 14,000 sales tax. I've put those all into one line item. The um reserve fund balance went up that 214,000. So we now have 838,000 of se of transportation reserves to use which would bring that fund to zero. Since 2019 when we started this project, the plan was to use what we have in our reserves for the sidewalk project. What we had in the reserves has gone up, but the plan right now is still to use what we have in our reserves for the trans or for the sidewalk project. Um, and then I'm proposing for the transfer from general fund from to basically double that to go from the 600,000 to 1,175. So if we were to do that, go from 600 to 100 1,175

with utilizing the 43,000 that we're paying to mod for the bridge plus the 1.1 plus an additional 250,000 for a street shed which is not budgeted for anything. Just theoretically that is what's what we're proposing. That brings our general fund balance down to 63%. And we've always said we wanted correct. Our policy is 50 and 43 for the sign.

43,000 for the sign, the 1.175 for the sidewalks, and 254 um additional funds for the street shed. How much money? Two an additional 250,000.

Well, that's already with four That's already with 400,000. Yeah, we've also gone out for bid for the project twice trying to get the amount reduced. So, that's we're very we're very sure of the number. Unfortunately. Yeah. Or start a construction business. Did you do that?

Okay. But moral to story is that those three items would drop our reserves down to 63%. Then we have our contribution from the electric department. We have trans transferred 318. So this would be 318 plus the 800. But with those two, that still drops the reserves down to 84%. Leaving a still a healthy fund balance for the electric fund. Um, so they're balance minus the 800,000 is uh 4.7 million. So even after this it'd still be 4.7. Their balance before the fund balance is reduced is the five is 5.5 million. And then lastly the transfer from CIP. So instead of 500,000 like we proposed in April 2025, we would propose 350,000 which still leaves us 26% fund balance in the CIP fund. So those items bring us to our total budget of 3,940,000 for the sidewalk project. thoughts. Was anyone Does anyone have any reservations about using that much of our general fund reserves? The only other option would be to kind of slide around general fund usage

to electric usage. That's the only option. So, keeping two things in mind, if we don't use it, the right time. What do you mean? If we don't do the sidewalk project and we keep waiting. Correct.

Yeah. We're five years of working this project is it's over I mean that's over five years. I've been here for five years. It started but well before me. So well there is an option. You can walk away but then we have to continue to accept the liability of people getting that is an option. Yes. Technically yes but

technically yes. Not a great option but it is an option. The other thing I wanted to say too with general fund like the utility funds if you look back at our budgets the past at least 3 years we've been budgeting to use reserves in these utility funds um because it's one it's the it's responsible to use them to an extent but we've also been trying to make some larger investments in our infrastructure for the utility funds. Um, so we've been trying to to budget for it, you know, a 100,000, 200,000, 300,000 budgeted for use of reserves and then, you know, something happens and this project doesn't get done and then we don't end up using them. My my point here is that we we continuously budget to use reserves and it doesn't always happen that we actually end up using them at the end of the year. But what we don't ever budget for is the use of general fund reserves. So, you know, it's not I I feel confident in the fact of using the general fund reserves just because it's very rare that we use the general fund reserves in the first place. We're relatively conservative when it comes to using them and I think it's for this reason. So, when we do need it and we need it in the sense that we have this decadel long project that is now it's here and it's loud and proud. You know, it's time to now's the opportunity to use the funds to get the project done and be done with it.

Thoughts? I heard do it one. Do it. It's one of those. Yeah, I hope so. Yeah, one's for me. Okay.

All right, we'll switch over to our next meeting then. I don't need five minutes if you can. 5 minutes. Close this workshop.