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HomeMy WebLinkAbout09/30/2005 Adjourned Meeting 269 - CITY OF YAKIMA, WASHINGTON ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL SEPTEMBER 30, 2005 — 7:30 A.M. - 9:00 A.M. YAKIMA CITY HALL — COUNCIL CHAMBERS 1. Roll Call Present: Council: Mayor Paul George, presiding, Council Members Ron Bonlender, Neil McClure, Mary Place, Bernard Sims, and Susan Whitman Staff: City Manager Zais, Rita Anson, Director of Finance and Budget, and Acting City Clerk Moore BST: Ron Anderson, Eileen Birge, Troy Emmons, Bob Holtfreter, Anne Knapp, and Leni Skarin Not Present: Melody Westmoreland 2. Study Session to receive recommendations from the Budget Strategy Team Robert Holtfreter, Co -Chair of the Budget Strategy Team, identified himself as a Professor of Accounting at Central Washington University. He had the team introduce themselves and also mentioned and thanked staff members who had assisted them with the study. Eileen Birge presented first. She clarified their mission was to help address a known upcoming fiscal crisis and provide citizen input regarding the tier cuts in the original Contingency Budget Reduction Plan (CBRP). She described the process the team used, interviewing all department heads and looking at each budget from a bottom -up perspective. She noted that the team spent an estimated 5,000 hours of work over the past 15 months. They found the City very well managed with excellent financial data. They were mandated to try and find cuts in the General Fund. They discovered there weren't any easy ones as they were made a long time ago. She also comment that, with a few exceptions, they wouldn't recommend any of the cuts in their version were the City not facing financial difficulties. Summarizing their findings, she noted they rejected $515,000 of the cuts outlined in the initial contingency plan. They identified over $1.1 million worth of cuts not in the plan and went beyond the initial mandate to identify more than $2 million of potential additional revenue. With the combination of reductions and added revenues, they identified more than a $2.6 million positive net difference. The Committee identified the "Big Five" expenditures as Police, Fire, Parks, and Street Departments, and the Library. They reviewed these departments' performance levels and asked if it was possible to make any cuts, or would that lead to inappropriate performance that we couldn't live with. 27 0 SEPTEMBER 30, 2005 — ADJOURNED MEETING • Performance ratings The Police Department rated medium, with an admirable clearance rate of 81 % in crimes against people, but a dismal 21% clearance rate in crimes against property. Yakima has a higher than average crime rate, violent and property, which is a deterrent to business, quality of life, and economic development. Their staffing rate is below the national levels of 2.2 officers per 1,000 residents and the state level of 1.6 per thousand. As a result they do not feel it possible to make more cuts. The Fire Department's rating is in the best 7% of cities in the country. The team wondered if we had to be in that high of a percent. The Parks Department was rated medium to low. Yakima has approximately 4.7 acres of parks per thousand residents which is much lower than the national average of approximately 19.1 acres of parks per thousand residents. Other cities spend $80 per resident on park services compared to Yakima's $47 per resident. The Street Department has a $3 million backlog in unfunded street maintenance. This is an area where if you don't do it now it will cost you much more later. The City was spending about $17 per resident per year for library services. In 2001, 13 of the largest U.S. cities spent an average of $32 per resident. • Recommendations for The Big Five Police is the largest department in the General Fund at $16.2 million. Although the team agreed with the initial recommendations in the contingency plan, they rejected decreasing fuel costs (unlikely in our current environment) and the elimination of the parking position. They felt it should be retained and recommended increasing parking fines. They did add the elimination of the community service position, if necessary, at the tier 2 level. City Manager Zais intervened to explain that, in the event of any reductions, it would not be to dismiss or lay off any existing personnel, but reductions would be made through attrition. The Budget Strategy Team concurs with that philosophy. Council Member McClure wanted to clarify that to get the million dollar savings spoken about would require literally wiping out services; closing fire stations, fewer officers on the streets, and cutting the parks budget. We're hoping not to do these things. Leni Skarin presented for Melody Westmoreland who was unable to attend today. The Fire Department currently has 82 full time equivalents (FTEs). Fire personnel respond to about 8,000 requests per year, the majority are EMS related. Their performance is rated high, holding a rating of 4 on a 10 point scale where 1 is best. Fewer than 7% of the cities in the U.S. achieve this rating. Among other things measured for the rating is the speed of the response, an important life saving rating to achieve. It does come at a cost, and is one of the tough decisions to make. For citizens this rating is used by insurance companies and does have an impact on all 2 271:; SEPTEMBER 30, 2005 — ADJOURNED MEETING of us. Reluctantly, if it were necessary and they don't want to see any of these cuts happen, they proposed a cut of $396,000, basically six positions at different points in time. Additional cuts not identified in the initial proposals total about $725,000. Suggestions would be to eliminate the Battalion Chief position, one immediately and two more at tier 2. If those were all eliminated, it would probably be necessary to add a 3' deputy chief to cover those duties in rotation. The net savings would only be $125,000. The second suggested cut, a much bigger net savings of $600,000, involves eliminating the airport fire station, leaving only one fire fighter and equipment to cover the minimum FAA requirements. Currently the City covers all fire protection costs at the airport. They recommend exploring sharing the cost with the County or regionalization. A regional fire district could share coverage for the northwest part of Union Gap. This suggestion was made because of the high cost of operating that fire station. It handles about one call every eight hours. Mrs. Skarin then spoke about the Parks Department noting they have 25.5 FTEs (this does not reflect the number of summertime or part time help on staff). The closure of two pools helped reduce the overall maintenance and operating costs by $300,000. The team recommends these savings be put back into Parks in other forms such as spray pools and basketball courts. They also support a study on the feasibility of a centralized aquatic park. They recommend coordinating with school districts about using playgrounds and school facilities, especially during the summer months. Ron Anderson addressed the Street Department. They have 38 FTEs and a $5.3 million budget. He referred to the problem of keeping streets in good repair as funds decrease and the number of streets increases due to annexations. The department is continuing to reduce the number of dirt streets with hard surfacing but that effort does not include lighting, sidewalks, gutters or storm drains. It is an effective method of reducing maintenance as well as improving air quality. Their work with the Capital Facilities Committee is resulting in recommendations of funding neighborhood and arterial streets using REET2 funds. He spoke about the transportation element, expanding services with funding from a grant to provide services to outlying areas. This will reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality. Leni Skarin spoke about the Library. The City contributes $1.4 million to the library. The contingency plan proposed cuts of $566,000, representing a 40% reduction in library contribution. In place of those reduction proposals the BST recommends the City divest itself of the special relationship with the library and suggests a voter directive be submitted in the next legal election regarding joining the Regional Library system. They think the voters would accept this proposal and it wouldn't impact the library. 3 2 7.2: SEPTEMBER 30, 2005 — ADJOURNED MEETING • GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS Employee Compensation Based on the 2005 Budget Forecast, employee compensation accounts for 56% of all operating funds, including self - supporting areas, and 76% of general government expenditures. They reviewed many elements of compensation and emphasized two points: The City's overall employee compensation package is very generous. Some of the bargaining groups member compensation appears to be out of sync (higher) than • the local regional market. They recommend that the City's compensation package as a whole be compared to that of both public and private local employers and to comparable positions of public and private companies doing business in the areas where recruitment would be focused. This kind of comparison of compensation is considerably time consuming and costly for City staff to complete, so it would be logical to hire an outside consultant. Through this analysis, the committee felt all concerned would have a better understanding of what constitutes reasonable compensation. Ann Knapp referred to regionalization as a method of maintaining a high level of customer service while providing efficiencies of services. They spoke with other jurisdictions who seemed to have concerns about how regionalization would take place. Although the BST did not supply recommendations on how to do it, they think it is appropriate to create a greater Yakima metro government in the long term. They identified several different areas as a high priority for regionalization; Parks, with pocket parks, an aquatics center or whitewater park; Fire Services — cooperate with the County and other jurisdictions, share equipment; Planning, Code Administration and Economic Development — regionalize with the County. Revenue Opportunities Eileen Birge pointed out that their final report made twelve revenue opportunity recommendations and she spoke about a couple of them: • Having citizens join the Regional Library System would be an $88,000 savings. • Implement a $25 fire inspection fee would raise revenue by $125,00 and cover most of the fire inspection costs. • Increase the EMS levy to fund equipment. • Increasing the utility tax for large commercial customers, remove the cap. Legislative recommendations Mrs. Birge spoke about Fire and Police negotiations and how arbitration doesn't look at the local cost of living nor the taxing authority's ability to pay. They suggest using the Implicit Price Deflator (I PD) rather than the Consumer Price Index (CPI). In the event the City and union reach an impasse, they think we should have an option to put it to the voters. 4 27..3 ;; SEPTEMBER 30, 2005 — ADJOURNED MEETING Forty -five percent of court fines and penalties go to the state. The City only receives about 11% because people don't pay. The BST would like to see the RCW changed to retain 100% of the fines and the option of seizing personal property. The BST strongly supports mitigation of the potential effects of the Streamlined Sales Tax (SST). Other Recommendations They recommend enforcing City standards for building development in growth management areas so when the new development is incorporated into the city we are not burdened with huge costs to bring the infrastructure up to standards. They also suggest marketing Yakima to seniors. Work with the Chamber of Commerce and other groups to fund a sustained marketing program aimed at the retiree market. Coordinate large capital purchases with other local entities. Civil Service Commission reform as there seems to be a tremendous amount of overlap in duties and responsibilities. They felt this is worthy of additional investigation, but it could require a charter amendment. • Question and Answer session Council Member Place questioned the idea of marketing to seniors noting that they may require more services causing increased expenses. Mrs. Birge said they had thought about that and, overall, seniors also don't require schools which are a high cost item.. Council Member Bonlender asked if the City divested itself of the Library, how would that affect the residents? Mrs. Skarin responded that would depend on what the library did with its assessment. Council Member Edler complimented the committee on the amount and level of work they accomplished. He asked if any of the legislative recommendations had been reviewed by the Association of Washington Cities or the state electives that would give them any idea how based in reality they would be. Council Member Place advised that we have brought the cost of living change idea to the legislature four times now and we have talked about annexation every year as well. She wasn't aware whether or not the idea of the retention of fines and penalties has gone to the legislature. She said we have also asked for consideration of the taxing authority's ability to pay and have, so far, been told it is not doable. But she commented that maybe if we really focused on one of these things and tried to get everyone to push it through we might be more successful. Council Member Edler suggested, as a citizen's group, they might be able to wield some influence. Ron Anderson said they have not formally gone to the people, but they are willing to go out into the community as individuals or as a group to discuss these issues. Troy Emmons added that their purview was to review and recommend. It is not in their mandate to go to the legislature and recommend for the city. At this point it is up to 5 274 SEPTEMBER 30, 2005 — ADJOURNED MEETING the Council to review and implement proposals if they so decide. Although, he did comment that the BST could be available to other interested groups, and might be available for a future committee. Council Member Edler said his concern is that some of the recommendations are something all of us could spend a lot of time on over the next several years and yet may make absolutely no progress at all. Mrs. Birge responded that if the City were to do some of the things in the recommendation section maybe they wouldn't have to make these cuts.' City Manager Zais interjected that, in addition to staff conversations with the BST, there was an entire session devoted to meetings with employee labor groups. Some of the recommendations evolved from that discussion. Council Member Sims thought the idea of going to the voters in case of a negotiation impasse was an excellent idea. He expressed concern, though, about the suggested $600,000 savings by eliminating the airport fire station. He thought it would have to be relocated in order to cover the same area. He explained that we have also tried to work with the County for financial assistance but they haven't agreed to that yet. Mrs. Skarin said the elimination of that fire station is a worst case scenario but it was necessary to call attention to the cost. It may not be worth the benefits. This may be one of the most powerful arguments for a regional fire authority. Ron Anderson commented that in looking into the minutia of information from all departments, they noted that the City has tried to work with other entities and found roadblocks. He is hoping that this project will be a germination point for some of those attitudes and mindsets to change so we can go beyond city /county borders and begin to get done what needs to be done on a whole — regionalization. In order to do it there has to be a complete mindset change in elected officials, staff, and all levels of departments. We can no longer afford individual kingdoms. We have to do what is best for the greater good of the community. Council Member McClure commented that he has seen part of the turf issues change. Every time we work hard with another entity it has been positive. There are individual identities, yes, but it's been a pleasure to work with surrounding communities and the County because they are all looking at doing a better job and saving money. Also, a lot of the suggested long term fixes are the ones that give Council the most frustration, our hands are tied so much by our state legislature. If there's nothing else we focus on as a regional group, it should be to move forward to obtain the freedom to better represent our people. Regionalization is critically important, the legislative fix is equally important. Council Member Place reported that, with regard to SST, the cities came to an agreement last Thursday and presented to the counties on Friday. On Monday she was notified that all 39 counties are going to support the 281 cities. They all went together before the Department of Revenue and, hopefully, they are developing a bill to protect all jurisdictions from Streamline Sales Tax. • BST's perceptions of the process Mayor George asked each member of the BST to make a statement on what they felt was of the greatest value about the process: 6 275, SEPTEMBER 30, 2005 — ADJOURNED MEETING Eileen Birge — Felt she received the equivalent of a masters degree in municipal finance. It was an incredibly educational experience. She had assumed government is pork laden and fat but found it wasn't true; they are an incredible group of people. Leni Skarin — echoed Eileen's comments. She was impressed with how many tough decisions had already been made by staff and Council. She spoke about the team having different perspectives and the benefit of working with the group of people with their expertise in different areas. She said there is not a better civics lesson out there than to work on a committee. She hopes the city utilizes this process for other kinds of studies and is willing to volunteer again to serve on a different committee. Ron Anderson — also echoed the others' comments and spoke about the opportunity to get to know the people behind the scenes. Everyone they talked with is doing an incredible amount of work under an incredible burden of trying to squeeze everything they can out of their department. No one was complaining about what they were doing, they find it challenging, but also find it rewarding and want to contribute to the community. He also commented that there is no pork, no luxuries being flaunted. They are working with old equipment, making do with procedures that are outdated, and making the city operate in an efficient manner. Ann Knapp — agreed with her teammates. She said she has learned much and is pleased to be able to share information with folks on what the City is doing. She is surprised how the citizens don't understand what is going on. It is important for us to communicate this information back to the general public. Trot/ Emmons - said the process was rewarding and fruitful. He met a lot of good people doing difficult jobs sometimes under adverse conditions. Overall the city is very well managed. He hoped some of the recommendations are implemented. Robert Holtfreter — said he teaches a course in governmental accounting, therefore, felt he had an advantage. His conclusion is staff is well paid, very good and very cooperative. The city is run very efficiently and effectively. Overall he sees a tough time coming. In 2007 the general fund balance will be zero, and there are constraints on trying to increase revenues, therefore, the city is faced with a problem. He gave an overview again of what they were trying to accomplish by cutting costs and looking for revenues. Mayor George responded that, with regard to being in a financial hole in 2007, it is Council's policy to protect those fund balances. When they reach a critical point, spending will stop. Council Member Sims said that the reason we have a contingency budget and have had it for the last ten years, is so we wouldn't find ourselves in a position in 2007 with no plan. He then highly complimented the committee saying they were "blue ribbon ". City Manager Zais said, on behalf of 7 276 SEPTEMBER 30, 2005 — ADJOURNED MEETING staff, it was a privilege to work with this group. They challenged us and made us think and that is what we wanted. He said it was a great opportunity for us to work with them and we, hopefully, can get this message out to our citizens, educate our taxpayers and ratepayers, on how complicated it all is. We pledge to continue this effort with the citizens as we move on to address these recommendations. There is always room for improvement; we're not satisfied with where we are today. We have to keep moving the bar forward. 3. Audience Comments (8:45 a.m. — 9:00 a.m.) Tom Snyder, Secretary/Treasurer of the Fire union, thanked the team, and applauded their backbone. He said he was a little concerned about some of the staffing issues and collective bargaining points but the firefighters are open to discussions to talk about solutions. Mayor George commented that it had been suggested that the committee go on YPAC for a live televised discussion of what we've talked about today so citizens can hear about city government from someone other than city staff. He also said it could be very useful to have a town hall meeting where citizens could gather for discussion with the committee. 3. Adjourn • McCLURE MOVED AND EDLER SECONDED TO ADJOURN TO OCTOBER 1, 2005 AT 8:30 A.M. AT THE HARMON CENTER FOR A COUNCIL STRATEGIC ,PLANNING MEETING. The motion carried by unanimous voice vote. The meeting adjourned at 9:00 a.m. READ AND CERTIFIED ACCURATE BY ; B' `• DATE COUNCIL MEMBER DATE ATTEST: CITY CLERK PAUL P. GEORGE, MAYOR Minutes prepared by Linda Watkins. An audio and video tape of this meeting are available in the City Clerk's Office 8