Finance Committee - Regular Meeting

good evening this time I'd like to call to order the finance committee meeting for Tuesday January 28th 6 PM when we're at the twins Government Center um the roll call for this would just be myself and Mrs lbby who who's here there are only three members we know that Mr Bell who also is on this committee is not available this evening um the next item on our agenda is election of a chairperson and a vice chairperson this time I'd like to make a motion to uh nominate Karen lvy as the chairperson you have to second it yourself there's only two of us I will second that okay all in favor there we go um and now you are the chairman and you are running a meeting okay so you need to elect a vice chair I would like to at this time elect um will Fury as Vice chairman of the I'll second it thank you all in favor I congratulations bill you're now a vice chairperson thought I was going to get it you hey if mayor scati wants my spot I'm fine it's not the first time he's asked have enough work to do all right is there any audience participation Jonah at this time i'' like to um move to approve the minutes of November did you read the minutes bill I did and they looked wonderful because I was at that meeting so I was at that meeting as well so we are I make a motion that we approve the minutes as it's submitted and I will second that okay all in FA I sorry all in favor I I minutes for November 26 have been approved um now we're going to turn it over to Christina who is going to give us a presentation of the year and 2024

with goals for 2025 Christina the floor is yours all right thank you good evening everyone um it has been a busier than I'd like January but um unfortunately that's just kind of how it goes at this time of the year um so we had a phenomenal 2024 um the general fund at the beginning of the year our beginning fund balance was 21.5 million we ended the year at 25.1 million so um we increased our fund balance by 3.6 million now all of our funds that total um we started the year at 38.5 million we finished the year at 39.6 million so some of that can be attributed to we transferred $600,000 to the fitness center um at the beginning of the year we had estimated 55,000 I think um I'll just rehash we had an increase in significant increase in health care for the fitness center in 20124 we also had phase one and phase two of the design phase for the pool pack so those were both transfers and then we also um were obviously working on the pool pack project that's not part of that 600,000 but um that's what the the 600,000 has contributed to um we had estimated to transfer $115,000 to the Glenn Eagles golf course this is the second year in a row that they did not need any subsidy so they had another phenomenal uh M so regarding the golf course is the least payment for the club house on a separate account from includ it's included great thank you um we did transfer $675,000 to bond retirement so that's our just general debt of the city um we transferred 900,000 to Capital Improvement we had estimated to transfer 1.5 million so there was some leeway

there same thing with the street construction and maintenance at the beginning of the year we had estimated 850,000 we only ended up needing 14 41,000 part of that is to certain bids certain projects if a bid comes in lower you're not going to need all the money we do have a fund balance in there so you use some of that and uh we did provide $223,000 for economic development incentives that's the top in the CRA programs um so notable notable Revenue um items the beginning Revenue estimate was 59.6 Million um our actual Revenue was 51 million um general fund Revenue estimate was 32.3 Million we came in extremely close at 32.5 million so we did come in over our estimate for that um we did transfer $715,000 less to the semr fund um 2.8 million of that Revenue um in the Federal grant fund we Amy's project is not going forward until this year so that was unrealized Revenue it's in the 2025 Revenue budget um same thing with the state Grant 1.4 million those projects were moved to 2025 again so unrealized Revenue in 24 um $648,000 Less in sewer re Revenue the majority of that is from the reimbursement for the owda loan um you put the money it's a weird concept where it's we hire BNN to do the work they do the work we pay the invoice and then we get reimbursed from owda for the invoice so there's a reappropriation of the money that we need to spend for the remainder of 2025 and then we also get a reimbursement for that money so it's a little it's a strange concept especially

considering that we've already made the first repayment on that design phase as of January 1st um 5 $73,000 Less in fitness center Revenue um reduced Revenue we also had the estimate for um the schools portion of the pool pack payment which we did receive but we didn't receive it in 2024 um and same thing $1 million less in transfer to the capital Improvement fund um we did collect 99.36 of our res Revenue estimate from Rita taxes totaling 25 26.5 million um also in the general fund uh summer camp fees were we had an increase of $31,000 um so we did increase our Revenue estimate for 2025 uh increased Camp enrollment um building use fees at Recreation um I know that the parks and rec department and the fitness center are starting to rent rooms again so we started that in 2024 um we took in $199,000 so I don't know if that is um a gener number or not because we haven't last year was the first year that we started doing it so I don't have any or restarted doing it so I don't have any historical information Beyond when I started here um EMS billing fees we've had a significant increase uh we took a $928,000 um that was $185,000 over our estimate um interest income we ended up with $678,000 which is $142,000 more than than our estimate so interest income is steady it's good um obviously interest rates are going to be they're looking at cutting another half per this year so we'll see how that pans out but so far everything is going well

with that and we did have um the final well we we'll have one more but this was the M the major arpa transfer that was for the grant we received for police and uh police salaries and retention bonuses so that payment I think we have one more reimbursement which is around $40,000 that we'll have for this year but other than that that arpa fund um is closed out all I don't want to say cities but all recipients of that arpa money had to have expended it by December 31st of 2024 um we did meet 99% of our estimated sewer Revenue we collected 4.69 million um The Glenn Eagle Golf course uh we did receive a 53% increase over our estimate for our rental agreement with jjb um so that is the rental of the restaurant facility and then they pay us like a common grounds maintenance fee um Green's fees were $982,000 last year we'd love to hit the million doll Mark but again we know that's all weather dependent same thing cart rentals were 37,000 over what our estimate was and again there was no Golf Course subsidy needed in 2024 fitness center um while Revenue was down overall we did meet our re Revenue uh membership goal of 650,000 and our rental Revenue goal of 200,000 so some silver lining to you know the year that they had last year and capital Improvement um Fred does a great job on gov deals we did uh collect $125,000 from the sale of surplus vehicles um now on to expenses um our estimated

expenses for all funds was 61 million we actually only spent 46 million so um most of that I would say has to do with some of these larger Grant funds that we didn't um expend the money um we did I don't want to say save we did underspend 4.8 million in the general fund um 400,000 of that we do have in incumbrances we did have a large amount of carryover incumbrances excuse me incumbrances at the end of 2024 I want to see in 2023 we had maybe $150,000 we have like 4.5 million and the majority of that is obviously due to carryover infrastructure projects that didn't finish by the by year end um let's see we did spend 4.8 million less in the general fund than what our estimate was let's see overall between all departments um departments use 90% of their available budget so spending I would say conservatively but you know within our estimate of where we saw them at the end of the year uh Healthcare expenses were 3.5 million between all funds 2.6 of that is the general fund the only Healthcare expenses that aren't covered in that are employees in the sewer department fitness center and the golf course um this is an increase um of 12% over 2023 we spent 3.1 million in 2023 um we didn't have the greatest year I think we we knew that but um we expect that our cost will be at least the same if not a little bit more for 2025 um utility expenses for all departments were 930,000 this is a 3% increase from

2024 um Capital Improvements fund we spent 2.6 million and encumbrances at the end of the year were 3.6 million which the majority of that was due to um those carryover infrastructure projects all right I don't know if everyone remembers at the beginning of last year um was very hopeful to to start a new format for finance committee and I laid out the goals that you will see in front of you um unfortunately sometimes we don't meet all of our goals um we spent all of last year without a payroll person um we just recently made an offer and she accepted and I tentatively say that because we've done this before and until she is sitting in our office it's almost like you won't believe that it's true so wor you get rais she uh probably so it's one of those things where you're cautiously optimistic but um obviously payroll is a very important part of what we do if we don't pay people then you know they're not going to come to work so I will say that that I mean it happens every other week so it's not something that you can let go by the wayside so I will say that that has taken up a decent portion of time um I will say that I did want to implement quarterly updating I think that I did a good job with that keeping everyone informed where we are um we did Implement changes to our banking services so every week Finance staff were printing checks stuffing envelopes and sending them out to whatever vendor we had to pay we switched our contract with Huntington to where now Huntington on our behalf contacted all of our vendors and they said will you accept a virtual payment so it's pretty much like a one-time credit card you know all the vendors who said yes they got signed up for it all of the vendors who said we'll

take an ACH payment we signed them up because they're only charged 25 cents good we got K back on I'll get to that and then Huntington for those vendors who still want a check sends the check for us so we save on postage envelopes printer all of that stuff um it is a smaller fee but now that postage is 50 Cents an item that's a big cost anyone who does pay with a virtual card we get a rebate on that so we did sign up like we pay workers compensation payment monthly is $199,000 we pay that on a credit card so we get a little Kickback for each of those vendors that pays that we can pay with a credit card so granted it may not be substantial but you're making money on money that you're spending two points I want to say like monthly depending on what it is it's maybe like $2 $300 but we're saving by not spending money on postage we don't buy we don't have to buy check stock and we still have it for the occasional like if we have to pay an employee we're not going to send send the file to Huntington and then say okay in three days you'll get you you know you'll get your reimbursement check but um that was pretty time consuming and Jennifer has done a really good job being the contact it is a big change for some businesses because they think that they understand what the virtual card does but I don't think necessarily they understand Huntington may not have walked them through or maybe their Bank didn't walk them through so she's done a really good job dealing with our vendors um making sure that that runs smoothly and then um improving on our budget and capital Improvement presentations um I think we've changed the budget presentation a little bit Capital Improvement um I'd like to make some improvements I actually have a an implementation call Thursday um if you remember when I did the budget

presentation finance department is getting a new online budget software so the whole presentation will be available when the next budget book goes up online so residents can go in and they can go I don't really care to see what all these other departments are doing I want to see what the service department is doing and they can go right to the service Department's budget and it'll give them nice you know graphs and numbers and department heads on the back end will have an you know the capability of adding a narrative about their Department like I'm Sosi service director we have this many full-time employees we you know they can put stats and information and the goal of the budget book software is to uh gfoa which we send our annual report to every year also does a budget one so you can get a you know national award in budget presentation so the goal of the software is to prepare everything you need to submit for that award so that is something that would be a goal for 2025 but we need to see how the software gets up and running and see how department heads like it um updates to 147 I know this is something that myself and the HR Director and the law director have been trying to do it's just it's a lot of overhaul you have three different opinions on things so we haven't quite gotten there and same with financial and purchasing policy updates um just haven't had the time to dedicate to it like I'd like I would love to get um better education about purchasing policies to you know everyone on Council to department heads um again it's just not really the time to dedicate to it at this point oops go back to that um that was the end of the presentation I know that there

are I did provide the quarterly reports for expense and revenue for 2024 I think we pretty much covered everything in the PowerPoint um did anyone have any other questions on PowerPoint or anything with those reports a nice format very simple EAS thank you agree say achieved about five or six years ago everybody's telling us how we're going to go bankrupt with the with the clubhouse and that we weren't going to make money on those carts and we weren't going to make money on the banquet hall and and those people not to be correct so really nice to see that that's that's that's a bringing in 130 Grand plus a year with the with the payoff for the with the clubhouse and everything else that's tied into that glad to see that I will say for as many uh not so great things happened during Co I will say that the golf industry really uh had a take off I mean my husband has played golf his whole life but I didn't start playing until there was nothing to do during Co so I mean I know that there's a lot of amateur golfers out there who picked it up during that time good position we're in very good position right now financially I mean we've got some know huge projects that we're doing as as everybody knows to tune of probably 20 million and then 2 million 2 and a half million on new fire truck but um but you talking about this the service garage and the and then the the roof and the pool pack over there um by the way one of the pool packs the go last week um I what that means it it froze the pipe froze on that day and we had a mess inside the fitness center I mean just rain explode or something it froze the pipe froze burst

did the pipe burst then it yeah it burst and the water was just coming from Upstairs Downstairs into the the main you know um hallway and stuff like that two the offices uh it it was really a mess so the service department came and you know really did a great job of cleaning it up but maybe we should see if the schools will turn up the heat yeah we need this uh we need this project is is vital to uh what we're doing over there because those pull pack but they're The Originals that that's dehumidification system of course so uh it's vitally important that we get that this year when when the uh Whirlpool didn't work anymore they they looked into to see if they could fix they ran a line underground like for a 100 yards to do a WHL pool like who does this you know why do you just have the Water Source right there but anyway so I'm sure that there are some challenges with the way they they did that yeah but are we self-insured for workers come we self-insured for workers come no we I mean we use um is our third party administrator we go through Ohio Workers Comp you said that I was like no we're self-insured for health insurance right great good job as always um any other questions for Christina Council I have none don't I'm here all night um are you going to take care of miscellaneous as well the or is that that was already I think it's just provided for um I mean there is one thing that I want to go over so I will say that you know overall our expenses are 46 million but

28 million of that um or I'm sorry 18 and so 24 million of that so more a little bit more than half is just salaries wages anything related to employees and employee benefits um so obviously our employees are our largest expense but um without the employees you don't have city services any red flags no great Bill do you have anything this morning I do not thank you all right then then the next meeting will take place on February 25th um at 6 o' or 6:30 what do you think if we don't have anything else going on on that meeting which I'm I'm looking to Shannon because I'm not really sure I mean I I'd prefer 6:30 that way everyone doesn't have to get here at 6 and then okay 6:30 right meeting is a Jour okay thank you nice job