HomeMy WebLinkAbout04/14/2009 00 Agenda and Packet - Priorities of Government NOTICE OF SPECIAL MEETING
YAKIMA CITY COUNCIL
YAKIMA, WASHINGTON
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that a special meeting of the Yakima City Council
will be held at the time, date and place specified below, for the purpose of considering
the matters specified below.
Dated this 10 day of April, 2009.
/s/ Deborah Moore, City Clerk
Date and time of Special Meeting:
Tuesday, April 14, 2009 at 9:30 — 11:00 a.m.
Place of Special Meeting:
Yakima City Hall
Council Chambers or CED Conference Room
129 North Second Street
Yakima, Washinqton
Special Meeting called by:
David Edler, Mayor
Agenda:
Continuation of Council Study Session regarding Review of Priorities of Government
budget process
YAKIMA CITY COUNCIL
SPECIAL MEETING —STUDY SESSION
APRIL 14, 2009 — 9:30 — 11:00 A.M.
COUNCIL CHAMBERS OR CED CONFERENCE ROOM
YAKIMA CITY HALL
1. Roll Call
2. Review of Priorities of Government budget process
3. Audience comments (10:45 — 11:00 a.m. )
4. Adjournment to April 21, 2009 at 5:00 p.m. in the CED Conference
Room for Council Workshop regarding Council committees
YAKIMA CITY COUNCIL
SPECIAL MEETING —STUDY SESSION
APRIL 14, 2009 — 9:30 — 11:00 A.M.
COUNCIL CHAMBERS OR CED CONFERENCE ROOM
YAKIMA CITY HALL
1. Roll Call
Present:
Council: Mayor Dave Edler, presiding, Assistant Mayor Micah Cawley, Council
Members Kathy Coffey, Rick Ensey, Bill Lover, Neil McClure, and
Sonia Rodriguez
Staff: City Manager Zais, City Attorney Cutter and City Clerk Moore
Absent:
2. Review of Priorities of Government budget process
Mayor Edler called the meeting to order at 9:47 a.m.
EDLER — This time may be brief, this is a time set aside to have a round table discussion on
the priorities of government. Rick, you had a....
ENSEY — Yeah since I'm the one that asked everyone to be here and I apologize, I was
hoping this would go smoother than what it did. I have a motion to make. I am not going to
make a preamble, I'm just going to jump right into it and see where it goes. (Reading from a
paper): I move that the City of Yakima switch its current budgeting process to the priorities
of government budgeting system used by the County. This change will take place
immediately and be used to develop the City's 2010 budget.
EDLER — Okay, is there a second to that?
LOVER — Second
EDLER — Discussion?
ENSEY — I will make this as brief as possible. I guess I get to go first. I've said this before
and I will say it again even though it is my opinion and I know a lot of people don't agree
with me. (reading again) I think the City of Yakima has a credibility problem. As past levies
illustrate, the City of Yakima couldn't pass a new tax for anything even if the new tax was
desperately needed. The voters simply do not believe that City bureaucrats and politicians,
and I am one of them, when they say they need a new tax. Even if they were to believe that
a new tax was possibly needed, they don't trust the bureaucrats or the politicians to use the
tax dollars wisely. We also have a credibility problem come this time every spring. You can
always tell it's springtime in Yakima because it's the season when the City announces that
expenses are outgrowing revenues and pools and parks may need to be closed. This
happens every spring and yet, at the end of the year, we seem to pull through. Switching
the City's current budgeting process to the priorities of Government budgeting system
immediately will begin to rebuild our credibility of voters. There is no longer, be subject to a
"chicken little" scenario every spring. If there truly is a time when the City's expenses
overtake tax revenues, voters can rest assured that the top City priorities will be protected
while the not so important items will be reduced or eliminated. The Priorities of Government
budgeting system is transparent and understandable to voters regardless of their knowledge
or experience of government budgets. I feel that the Priorities of Government budgeting
system is better than the budgeting process we use now because it is transparent and will
start building up the City's credibility with voters. And so I think it is important that we just
get this implemented immediately and, basically, not study it to death.
LOVER — When this first come up and after the presentation, I wasn't too crazy about
moving to the County budget method. And I don't know if I'm right now, but I did feel there
was a way to incorporate may of the County's processes into the system we had in place.
Especially the gray boxes as you remember that represent setting priorities and, I thought,
levels of spending. That I thought were policy issues and should be approved by the City
Council prior to moving forward with any of the budget or writing of the budget. And now,
reading in the paper and listening to the radio, I've come to the conclusion, my conclusion,
nobody else's, that the City Manager and Directors have already made many of those
decisions. And, that said, I believe the only way, the only sure way the Council to have
inputs and set policies on priorities and spending levels up front, is to move to the County
Priority Budgeting system.
EDLER — Okay. I'd like to inject now as opposed to the way I usually do it, my questions, if
that's okay.
ENSEY — That's fine by me
EDLER — And my first question is that we've had a survey done with the citizens, the budget
committee came up with what we believe are the priorities of government. Now we haven't
talked about it as a Council but those were the issues we voted, the public voted. What
were those priorities in order? What was the conclusion? What are our priorities of
government?
COFFEY — Would you like me to read them.
McCLURE — we do them every year. I've been on this only for five years, we have priorities
of government every year.
EDLER — But the budget priorities, that's our strategic priorities as a City Council, the
Budget Committee, and then a vote of the people. What are the priorities? I remember
getting this piece of paper about a month, two month, three months ago, that said in the
public survey — you know what I'm talking about? What are those priorities.
Much of the following was spoken at the same time:
Someone: mmmhmmmm
COFFEY: They're right here. That's what these are.
EDLER —Not the strategic priorities. That was changed within the last couple of months?
BEEHLER: Just the order.
CAWLEY: No no no, we ranked them
EDLER: So what is the order?
BEEHLER: There was an established, there was a priority established
COFFEY: Do you want me to read them to you? You mean you can't read that?
EDLER: I can't read that
COFFEY:- Oh dear.
EDLER I can't get my snapped together fast enough
CAWLEY — Is that the order?
LOVER — I can't read it either
COFFEY — I have to put my glasses on to read them here. Maintain and improve health and
public safety
EDLER — So safety is one
COFFEY — Now these are in order. Efficiently manage public resources and insure fiscal
stability
EDLER — Finance
COFFEY — Promote economic development and diversification.
EDLER — okay
COFFEY — Preserve and enhance Yakima's quality of life
EDLER — Parks
COFFEY — Provide responsive customer service and effective communication. Build and
utilize strategic partnerships.
EDLER — Regionalization
CAWLEY — I liked your interpretations
McCLURE — I agree, and since the County's are so clear, what are the County's? We're
about to implement them.
ENSEY — You know, Neil, I don't know that.
McCLURE — You don't know? You're about to implement them.
ENSEY — Neil, calm down. I didn't say we're going to implement their priorities.
McCLURE — chuckle — what are our priorities, Kathy just read them.
•
LOVER — Do you want to read them again?
McCLURE — Yeah, some how we missed it again. We have priorities I think, don't we?
COFFEY — I just read them.
McCLURE — I thought so
COFFEY — so what
McCLURE — and what are the County's? We're about to do the County's priority of
government, and I want to know what they are.
EDLER — The model
ENSEY — the system
EDLER The system
McCLURE — What's that system different than ours?
LOVER — It's budget priorities
McCLURE — How do they budget differently?
EDLER — Just the, I mean the City Manager will be able to explain that to you but my
understanding is that really, in a lot of things, it's just a program that allows us to dictate
COFFEY — the same
EDLER — So you (to McClure) cut in on my questions. So here's my second question,
because I, as you know, shout out into the community the idea that the thing that looked
created the controversy in our community that its time in the spring to close parks and pools.
And, my question to the City Manager, because I asked him this the other day and got what
I thought was an interesting question — Are we in a crisis? Because I've been living under
the assumption that we're in a budget crisis and so... what's the answer to that question?
ZAIS — Mayor, I think what we're saying to you is that the facts are very clear about a
downturn in our economy revenue projects in multiple areas from when we adopted the
budget in December. We don't look at that as a crisis, but we clearly look at it as a
necessity to respond, to be adjusting our spending downwards. You have adopted a budget
that we think is not sustainable within the revenue projections that were made last, at the
end really of November early December for the budget to be adopted and come in at the
same level that was projected. That is economics. That is I think a function of what's
happening in the entire state and it is beginning to filter here and we're seeing that. And that
was the direction that we took and we take steps every year to ensure the budget is going to
be within balance and stay within the numbers except for things like emergencies and
unknown, unforeseen costs, fuel price increases is one good example of that along with the
grant that we proceed to secure and we amend the budget accordingly for grants. There
are exceptions to doing that. We've been working to accomplish that when we advised the
Council, the Budget Committee, that we were going to face this and that we were going to
be looking at options and we've prepared those and are planning to move forward with
implementing them, recognizing that at any time, and I said this to you and in the transmittal
that any of these budget reductions that you wish to review and have input into is
appropriate and you may wish to give us other direction. We had a directive from the
Budget Committee two years ago to do just that, with respect to a number of areas.
Professional services and staffing and overtime, and we've done that. In fact, the budget for
2009 included now over a million dollars of reductions in many of those categories as we
adopted it. And now there's more to be done here. It's not crisis from the standpoint of
what you see in the state. I see the state as a meltdown if you want to look at it plainly and
clearly, of a crisis, and we have avoided that. There's not the kind of 20 %, 30% fall offs in
general revenue. There are some serious concerns in dedicated revenues such as the Real
Estate Excise Tax and fuel tax revenues that affect street maintenance. Those are
dedicated that are down and they're going to impact us. But, we're trying to manage that
and address that. And it's always subject to further scrutiny. We were intending, if there's a
Budget Committee meeting this afternoon based on your last meeting, and we had made
plans for that to talk about these requests. And Bill brought up last meeting, as well, the
desire to have some conversation about the budget reduction proposals. That's perfectly
appropriate. We welcome that. But time is moving on too and we had to take steps now
because the annualized effect of the savings won't be achieved if we don't implement begin
that now.
EDLER — Well, with regards to the motion that's on the table that the model. You know I've
come to a place where in conversations that I've had with the City Manager that it really is
just a model and that it really is just a piece of software and it really isn't all that much
different from what we're doing. It does allow us as the County Commissioners use it for to
present the priorities in a way that seems to, you know, be, and I think that some of our
Council members feel that way, and yet, again, the conversation for me moves beyond that
to priorities of government which is what I was hoping that we'd get a chance to talk about.
And I would say that according to our priorities of government, which are there, I don't see
streets represented in the midst of that. One of the crises I do believe we are facing as a
community, is that, once again, in a supplemental budget we're, because Streets is not on
our priority list, they are being asked to take the biggest hit. Public Works. And, I know we
all know this but I'll just state it, on the record, four of us have already said we're not
messing with Parks. So, you know, Public Works deals with Parks too and they've been
eliminated from the conversation, I think. And yet, my understanding based on what our
professionals tell us is that 20% of our roads are failing. What Dick just described to us is a,
in some ways could be seen as a crisis if you care about roads. If you don't care about
roads, if it isn't a priority, then it isn't a crisis. But, if 20% of our roads are failing and then
some of the dedicated funds that help us to deal with our roads are, really not performing in
a way that is going to influence financially our ability to take care of our roads, then our
priorities are out of whack. Because, from my perspective, the thing we're going to hand to
the next generation — we're going to say, "the problem was in our hands and we decided to
let you deal with our roads ". I've been, again, a part of this for awhile and when a road fails
it is multiply more expensive to fix it then it is to maintain a road. And, again, the most
significant piece, if you saw that piece of documentation to us, is that Public Works is going
to eliminate in this supplemental budget is street maintenance. That is the biggest chunk
pulled out of that thing. And, when we've been doing that systematically to deal with the
issues that have faced us. And I want to just declare to my Council mates, I think in some
way shape or form our priorities need to represent the infrastructure that is our streets.
LOVER — Dave, I think we're getting somewhat off the subject but I agree with you on the
importance of it and I believe Economic Development is what covers Streets. And there's
another thing I would like to push forward. I was kind of holding it back because I want to
get an answer from staff, but I didn't necessarily want to do it in public but I shall. Under our
stormwater ordinance, we call streets a stormwater conveyance. Does that mean I can use
stormwater money to repair streets? Especially deep pot holes that are collecting
stormwater. I don't know. Legally they will probably tell me no, but I'm not so sure about
that. If we're going to declare a street is a conveyance and not pay assessment on that,
then maybe we can use stormwater money. I'm thinking, basically, of the holes that are
collecting stormwater. I know we have to bill out the sewers and every catch basin and
things like that. I think that's what we think it's pointed for but no one has answered that
question of mine and that is, can we?
EDLER — and I think for this discussion, again, we may or may not be off — I don't,
personally, see Economic Development as the umbrella over streets. But that is an
important deal, but in the Legislature, it didn't get the traction to get before it but the tool that
the state's going to give us to take care of our streets, because every community in our state
is facing this, is going to be a streets utility, possibly.
LOVER — my feeling is, the way the budget is in Olympia, that they're going to give us a lot
of unmandated tools.
EDLER — EMS a tool,
LOVER — when I say that, I mean unmandated funding tools
CAWLEY — I hate to be a parliamentarian, but we have a motion and a second on the floor.
LOVER — Ahhhhh — you're correct, you're correct
CAWLEY — I'm all right, I'm all right, but I just mean
EDLER — well, again, I apologize, but I have some questions. The motion is on the table,
which is correct, and it's made by Rick, seconded by Bill, that we shift our system from the
current system with regards to the formatting of our budget to the system utilized by the
County which has been entitled priorities of government.
McCLURE — What would the ramifications be on this? Here we've come to a meeting, after
we started at 7 this morning, it's five to ten and a motion was thrown out that was not
expected, no background material, no way to study it and we're actually about to tell our
government to change the way they budget? I mean, gosh, I mean let's just cloak ourselves
in that, in that, you know, cloak of stupidity and just move forward. This is something that
requires, we were going to have study sessions, we were going to get together as a council,
we were going to flesh this out, we were going to see its full ramifications — and now, after
three hours of EMS, Curfew, we're about to vote on taking a twenty -five year system that,
one of our council mates hasn't even gone through a budget cycle yet, and we're going to
throw that out because the County doesn't have a question of — what do you call it, Rick, the
citizens don't trust us
ENSEY — Credibility
McCLURE — But the County has a great credibility surplus. They are, after all, the ones that
did the jail, and they've laid off, what is it six sheriff deputies this year, or more. They've had
a reduction of over 22 people here in the County. We've made it through ours with our
broken system, evidently, without a layoff, with a surplus three years in a row, and we're
about to do this without even studying it. That's a great, you know, I can't say how wrong
that is. I can't say how wrong that is. We can make changes in our system, that are better
for understanding. The County's got a very visual representation. I'm not that visual. The
numbers are fine by me. But, visual representation, we can make that change because it's
based on numbers. We could do that and show our priorities of government. And that's
why, I apologize for being a little incredulous because we do have priorities of government
and we could show how that works. Because the County has the same gray boxes, those
are our priorities of government. We put our six up there. We can make a better
presentation. We can make it more understandable if you are more visually inclined. Let's
discuss it. Let's study it. Let's find out how it should be done properly. But to take a system
that is not broken by all measurements of accounting and government structure and throw it
out with no documentation behind this at a study session that was only touching briefly on
this is unbelievable, poor government. And if we did that, then the citizens ought to throw us
all out because, in my world, that's incompetent. To make a decision without facts that
affects an organization for a lifetime.
EDLER — Neil, I'm going to ask you to tone it down a little bit, please, because I think its
McCLURE — Well, I think it's — if anyone has any questions on how I feel.
RODRIGUEZ — I'm uncomfortable making that decision at such a rushed way today. I didn't
know we were coming to make that decision. I feel like I don't know enough about it. And, I
think that there are two issues, I think Neil, that something he said, 1) transparency, 2) are
we going to change the philosophy or the process. Can't our budget be transparent like the
County's? Can you put it on a big white piece of paper to show the public, okay, this is how
we're doing things. The other thing in my mind, also, well, and I don't know the answer to
these questions, you know, our, at the cost of street maintenance then we're not cutting
back other things that maybe we need, or how is that reflected in our budget. How are
mandates reflected? Like there's certain things we can't cut. I don't know. I agree with the
comment about the sheriffs, I mean they were forced to cut back on that and I don't think
we're, you know, going to be, where we would ever be saying, well, we're going to cut back
on our police officers because that's what needs to be done, we're going to look at other
things. I don't know, I'm not prepared to make that decision today either. I thought we were
going to get more information about it and talk about it, like discuss, you know, the pros and
cons, hear from the staff.
CAWLEY - the good and bad thing about serving on this and I've looked at their policies and
I've read em and I've argued in Budget Committee, and I've sat here but we have the money
we're putting now into streets have failed. We failed at chip sealing. If you go around our
community, and I've sat here in the room and they dropped these little rocks on the table
and say "okay, we've put the oil down..." and you walk outside City Hall, we dropped
thousands of dollars to chip seal 2 " Street, and, guess what happened. The chip seal
failed. It didn't work. The government, our city government, you drive around the different
areas, it's not, you know, it's not as efficient as it could be, it's not as efficient as it should
be, and all these policies are, I'm taking County's, take the pie charts away, take the
priorities as far as how we want to set them up, but it's policies and what we have is, in our
City budget expenses estimated higher than they are. We're not estimating expenses as
actualities. We're going, we're going to, you know, inflate that to here, and we're going to
drop our estimated revenues down to here, and then at the end of the year we're going to
balance out. But, every year, and even before I was on Council and Randy made the
presentation on the budget, you know, the City Manager recommended we create a Budget
Committee to identify $2 million because we can't sustain it. Well, we've sustained it every
year I've been on Council. That's not going to stop happening. We're still going to sustain
our budget under a different system. It's just going to clean all that up and take that line.
And I agonized over, okay, how do we do this. I've sat through three budgets, and, you
know, tried to watch us work and make decisions, and make policy and we do what we do
with the curfew. We look at it, we study it, you know, we want to move in the direction of 7 -0
vote, and then, oh wait, we can't do it because we're worried about this, we're worried about
that. You know, I guess what I'm saying is I think that there are some issues with the City
budget. I do have problems with the City budget and the process and I think, if we need to
go back, to the way we went after we've tried this then maybe we can look at that. But, we
need to try something different and something that will expose what's happening. I think
department heads are encouraged to hold onto money, that carries over the next year. We
need to be spending all our resources in every budget right to the top an maximizing our
resources.
RODRIGUEZ — I agree that there might be issues and that's what I voted for, to look at
changing it to that. Not to come here and the first thing that we do is to, okay well here's a
motion to change it. I mean, that's what I voted for and I clarified that when I voted at the
last session. To look at it, and you know, so.
COFFEY — and I appreciate how you feel on that, Sonia, and I do, uhm, being the
newcomer to the Council is not always easy. Rick and I were a couple, well a year, over a
year ago. But, the reality is, Bill has worked very hard on this Budget Committee for a long
time. Last year I asked that we reconsider and look at the County budgeting process
because I think its very much, much more transparent when they made the presentation at
that time and what has happened is that, all of the sudden, there's no time. We were into
May and we, then we got into the budget process. We couldn't, and it just keeps going on
and there's no time to actually do it. So that is why this has occurred when it did. We need
to make a change because for 21 years I have sat across the table from that gentleman
over there who is a master at doing budgets. But that master is not going to be with us
forever. And as great a job as he has done, it is time for this council to be aware and
responsible for this budget. There is no more important job for us than understanding and
implementing the budget. I know that Bill understands it but we all need to understand it.
It's the overarching responsibility of this city to understand and implement this budget. Dick,
you know, has been here a long time. He has already said that he's not going to be here
forever and if he was going to be, if he was going to live until 100 and was going to stay with
us then this might not e an issue. But we have got to be able to look at that budget,
understand the budget and be able to have our community and our citizens understand our
budget. I know that he can figure it out and be assured that we're going to come out alright,
but we need to be able to be assured. When we're faced with decisions like closing the pool
, closing the park, making major decisions that affect the community and the citizens, we
need to be able to identify where those dollars are quickly and readily. And, currently, the
budgeting process that has been done for many many years is over estimating the
expenditures, under estimating the revenues and thereby providing a reserve that he has
drawn upon. That was good when times were good. Times aren't very good right now and
we cannot continue to rely on that system. Particularly if somebody else is doing it. I am
hopeful that Dick will stay with us until we are through this process of transformation. And
we can all understand this budgeting process better. That is my desire, that is the desire, I
think, of those of us who have been on the Budget Committee for a long time and also for
me that's been
McCLURE — some of us that have been on the Budget Committee. I've sat on the Budget
Committee from day one and I've argued against that very thinking from day one. So some
of us on the Budget Committee believe and some don't.
COFFEY — I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply that you did.
McCLURE — I appreciate that, I spoke for clarification,
COFFEY — and that's fine, Neil. Uhm, I can't remember what I was saying. In any case, I
think that it's important that, and I have said from the very beginning that I think it's important
that the community become involved in this process and understand at a glance, what we're
doing, how we're doing it and I think that this is the system that will provide that ability.
EDLER — I'd like to offer an amendment and the amendment would be that we get an
opportunity, I know that the City Manager has asked our County for its software so that he
can put our numbers priorities into the model so we can see it. So my amendment would be
that we take that step first which would give us process as opposed to moving just into that
system completely. So my amendment would be, as opposed to moving into that system
that we just get the template out, put our priorities to it and that would give us a chance to
look at it and see if it serves us better.
RODRIGUEZ — Second.
EDLER — I don't have any more to say about it.
RODRIGUEZ — I have a 2 '/2 hour briefing with Finance next week and so, you know, I
would be better served to make a decision after that and I don't, I know you have much
more experience with this than I do at this point, but, uhm, I would like to see things move
more slowly.
EDLER — Dick, did you want to say something?
ZAIS — Yes, if I might have an opportunity to address it, because I think we're talking about
two structural pieces of this, the one is...
LOVER — Point of order — can we get through this amendment before, and then let Dick,
because.
ZAIS — sure
EDLER— so this has nothing to do with the amendment?
ZAIS — no, well it affects the whole thing what I wanted to say to you
LOVER — and I want to hear Dick's but I'd like to get our conversations through and not vote
before he can bring his forward because I do have some comments, too, on the
amendment.
EDLER — any more comments on the amendment, if not?
LOVER — yes, we're talking about 2010 and if we're going to put this off, we're going to miss
it again. Every year this happens. We just never get a chance, we input, we never get a
chance to put it in and the budget moves on and the budget moves on. And I share Kathy's
feelings about visibility and reserves. That's not my main concern. My main concern is very
very simple . I want to reverse the process. Right now staff inputs and the Council
responds. I want to reverse that process to where the Council inputs and staff responds. I
feel like I, that we never get our say in the budget system because it moves rapidly when it
moves and it's a complicated thing. I have no question in my mind that Dick can do either
one of them, in fact, and I would kind of look at it as a modified one when it's completed.
But if I can have input to staff before they have input to me, or as far as that goes, Chris
Bristol knows more about what's going on than I do as that's where, as far as where we're
moving right now. But if I can get to that point, I'll be happy and this is what I see
happening.
EDLER — any more comments on the amendment?
COFFEY — I just wanted to say that I want to make sure that we all understand and the
community understands that we have been working toward this with Dick's input. Uh, we on
the Budget Committee have before us a layout that the City Finance has worked with Dick's
assistance that is very similar to the County. I, unfortunately you don't have it, but it does
lay out very similar to, and I think, Bill, you've received it also, and so it was determined last
year that we were going to work toward the priorities of government and that it was laid out
in a similar fashion. So this is not just sprung on us today. This has been an ongoing
process, Neil, that ...
McCLURE — it was sprung on us today. We had a Council direction of two weeks ago, has
it even been two weeks that we were going to
COFFEY — I'm not going to argue but
McCLURE — yeah but if you'd just be clear, though — okay
COFFEY — It is clear, I have it in my hand.
McCLURE — The Council voted to have study sessions to look this over with.
COFFEY — I'm not going to argue with you, Neil.
McCLURE — Okay, That's just what , that's the truth.
COFFEY — But we did have it broken out in a different manner than they typically have
broken it out. Rita and I've worked on it and it does have a history of each item and it is
broken out similar to the way the County has structured those for the first time ever.
EDLER — Let me inject and then I'll call for the vote. In our retreat we talked about
"Negotiating to Yes" and, you know, not positioning ourselves and uh, so we are trying to
create a new dynamic that it is obviously going to be awkward because we've lived in a
system that we're ... ah... so my attempt to amend this is, in some ways, to create a
negotiation perspective where we can come together and give and take and do the things
we need to do to truly come to a place where there are more heads nodding yes than just
the slight majority because this isn't working. Again I'm, like you, I have no idea,
necessarily, how to build on what we tried to start at our retreat but I'd like to attempt to do
that and so that again is a part of why I shoot the amendment out there. I would say that, I
now more understand some of the frustration others have felt about subcommittees that I'm
a part of where I have all kinds of information flowing through me and you don't. It, cause I
feel like I'm absolutely the outsider on this one.
RODRIGUEZ — Well, I'm really the outsider. I don't even know what you're looking at and
I'd like the opportunity to at least look at it and, you know, maybe I would vote in favor of that
after I... and I just don't know, for you guys to push things
COFFEY — and I don't mean to be harsh, I really don't, but I think at some point that this has
to move forward if we're going to do it. Because it's timing. The staff cannot be expected to
wait until May. I mean it's too far along then. Because they are then engrossed in, I mean
they can't wait. That's what happened last year, it's what happened the year before, and it
just can't wait, Sonia, and at some point you just have to kind of rely on the Council
members and trust
RODRIGUEZ — well
COFFEY — but, and I understand, that's the same thing that Rick and I had to do when we
came on Council. There were decisions that were made those first weeks when we came
on that we didn't have the information, but you just, you know, at some point you have to
just go ahead and do it because they cannot, we cannot wait on this. If this is gonna
happen, it has to happen now, unfortunately. Because this is what happens every year. We
wait and we wait and it never has happened.
RODRIGUEZ — well, why didn't, I mean that should have, I guess, been something maybe
we could have looked at prior to today and. We got handed out everything in the world
about the EMS. I've read a lot about that but, you know, I appreciate that, Kathy, and I know
there are going to be some things where I'm not all the way up to speed and obviously
maybe the rest of the Council knows the best decision to make, but I still, you know in
preparing for this, maybe that's something that we could have been looking at.
COFFEY — Well, I don't know, I got the phone call yesterday, so I don't know why I'm
defending it.
RODRIGUEZ — and what about next week. I'd make time next week, but I have a 2 1/2 hr
next week meeting with Finance next week, you know, and I'd like to look at that and we can
put these numbers in the program and ..
COFFEY — I think we are just trying to move ahead and get this — We had this, we ... (She
looks over at ENSEY and says " You.. ")
ENSEY — The only think I can say is that it's out there. I mean I don't have anything more to
say. If you feel that it's moving too fast, then vote for Dave's amendment and if you don't
and you want to do this, then, I can't convince anyone of anything so I'm not sitting here
trying to.
LOVER — I think the point is, for this to be effective in 2010, not necessarily is the 2010
budget going to be the, the one we're discussing now and negotiating, isn't going to look like
the final product. If we don't start doing this now, there will be no comparison. What I see
going through now is a mixture of our budget and a comparison of that budget, and the
changes that we made, the changes will be made, the changes will be made, the changes
will be made. What you'll looking at in November, October, whenever we get our pre, I think
it's going to be quite a mixture. And I think you're going to get the same information. It will
be formatted differently. Uh, but if we don't start now, you're going to put it off another year
is what's going to happen, just by the way it's designed and again I want as much of Dick's
expertise in this as we can.
EDLER — With everyone else's permission, the City Manager did request to speak a few
minutes ago, will you let him do that.
LOVER — yes
ZAIS — Do you want to vote on the motion or do you want to wait until...
EDLER — No we, I think the suggestion was made that you speak before we vote.
ZAIS — Okay, sure. What I was trying to do was somewhat divide the concepts here that are
somewhat structurally divisible. There is a process that the County outlined and you have
seen that. That is something that I think we can adapt our methodology of within the
framing of the overall message. Let's keep that in mind. The message, the transparency
that you are seeking, is a central component of this. How can we align that in a way that is
more understandable, that is more transparent, more visible. The second piece of that, the
second structural piece, is the methodology on how the budget is built. It's one thing to get
the material prepared for the first piece of this and it's another thing to go into it in a more
extensive way. That's what Kathy was speaking to. We've been preparing some options
and some ideas on that for the committee, and it is a transition. It's not possible to do this
all at once, and especially if we were to get into major reprogramming of the budget system.
And that's a whole different structural, and I don't hear you asking us to do that and I want to
be clear that you are not asking us to reprogram everything, but it's how it's presented, how
it ultimately processed through you, as well as some guidance that we are seeking on the
second piece, on the methodology on the budget and how it's built, some guidance we're
seeking from the State Auditor's office. We had a meeting with them yesterday, not about
this motion idea and the county, how it's going to look, but on something deeper in terms of
how the revenues and expenditures are classified and categorized and projected and how
we follow. We follow, first of all, a State budget accounting reporting model and system that
we have to adhere to and be sure that we are doing that in the proper context. And we've
asked them, we've talked with them about this idea and they're going to get back to us on
some advice for us to consider in how we might go deeper into the discussions the
committee has been having, not at your level as a Council. That said, I want to say one
other thing about the overall issue of the priorities of government model. There was one
point in Mike Leita's presentation that you have to look deeper inside of. When he laid it all
out, I've talked to Mike a little bit about this, but that model had, at one point he said, let's
understand there are FTE reductions here. And it didn't go any deeper than that. And some
of that's come out in the news and perhaps it was covered a little bit last fall, but the reality
is in the priorities of government model, the assumption is, from the average person out
there, that that priorities of government model insulates and protects the top priorities of
government from being reduced. It does not. Mike said that, and how did that actually
work, I asked for. What happened? Craig sent this over to me. What actually happened
with your FTEs? I'd like to know how that actually worked. And, he sent it over to us; we
took a look at it. There were 41 positions eliminated in the County budget. Unfilled
positions there were 25. There were 6 or so that were eliminated outright in terms of layoffs
and then there were another 13, no, yeah, 13 that were moved, I think, into .3 or other
funds, and we do some of that too, as you know, in the budget process. And there were 3
or 4 positions that were added at the end of the day. But, when you look at it against that
model, the Sheriff was reduced by a number of deputies and so was the assigned counsel,
so was the department of security, so was the prosecuting attorney's office, so was the
District Court. They mentioned planning, of course, was in the mix on that. But, that is
something that I don't think everyone really appreciates, that the priorities of government
model doesn't necessarily, unless it is determined by you the governing body, that you're
not going to touch Police or Fire or Courts. If you say that, that's fine. But, this model as it
applies makes certain projections on revenue growth, which there will be, even if it's very
modest — 2 %, and expenditure gaps that exist between what's driving expenses, and,
frankly, we know that what drives expenses are salaries and mandates and unforeseen
things that happen along the way, healthcare costs, and fuel, and you've seen that. That's
going to happen. But that gap is what's filled, not by the aggregate look, necessarily, but it's
filled by within each of those departmental structures over there, Department Director — in
their case it's an elected official. The Sheriff is told you have 2 -3% revenue growth, your
expenses are 6 %, you make up the difference, and that's what he does. We've taken a
different approach here with the priorities that we have established over the years, the
demands that have been here, the approach has been that we'll try, insofar as possible,
protect and insulate public safety from steep reductions or cuts or layoffs. We've not had a
layoff in any police officer positions in my entire tenure here with the City of Yakima. We
have laid off, in the early 80's, some firefighters. We rehired them when we had our last
huge recession in the early 80's, and then in the early part of this decade when 1 -695
passed, we eliminated about 32 vacancies in the City, and there were police and fire
position vacancies. When we lost the MVET tax, that was — but it was less impacting on
them than it might have been. Not everybody realized the MVET money was 100% directed
for public safety, but we spread that impact across the whole organization. So, I'm trying to
be sure that you know that we will do what you direct us to do. Make no mistake about that.
If that is the direction for us, we will do everything possible that we can, to improve this
process to make it better for you. I'm committed to that, the Finance staff is committed to
that. But, I want it to be clear there are divisions in terms of how it progresses. The model
is one thing, in terms of how the message is crafted, how it's presented, what you seen on
the wall and how you make those allocations and what it takes inside in the construction of
the budget and the methodology of which we have to follow in the first place based on state
law or advice and generally properly accepted accounting principles, and while it is the
result of which we are endeavoring to be sure we balance and stay at the end of the year in
balance within revenues and expenses, we have made choices on how we allocate reserves
within a guideline that was set by your former colleagues over 20 years ago on how the
reserves are established and used. That's the guideline I've followed over all of these years
and if there is a change in that, certainly I want the whole Council to be engaged on that
conversation and there is more time needed, perhaps as we get information from the
Auditors to come back to that issue at a later time. But, we will do everything we can to help
you improve and understand this process as it moves forward. The final piece I would say
is, we've worked through the Budget Committee, more so in recent years, to give advanced
information back to the staff and Bill has been on that and so has Neil for these last few
years and it's generally led to reductions that we have been asked to pursue and implement
and have taken steps to do so as we've constructed the next budget. I think in the world
we're in, in this economy, and our needs to stay on top of it, the more help we can get from
you in advance of developing the budget, collectively, your priorities, your goals, the issues
you want to see us focus on between now and July which is when we're really gearing up to
put the numbers together, the better that will be for us so that we're modeling and following
through what your priorities are going to be but recognizing at the end of the day, when you
have gaps like this, something loses. Something loses, and that's the difficulties that we've
faced. And back to you Mayor, we didn't want to have to cut street maintenance, there are
choices we made in the balance of this, and with a dedicated revenue source going away, or
dropping significantly, the REET is down 40% from where it was trending a year and a half
ago, we didn't have an automatic back fill for that anywhere to fill it in. We have minimized
the impact in the fund otherwise through fuel savings and some vacancies.
CAWLEY — so you didn't cut it, the revenue source just went down.
ZAIS — the revenue source went down, but we have reduced what we're going to buy. That
REET reduction is not taking away people, it's taking away money we would spend on
certain supplies. And, one more thing, last year, and this is another reason for reserves
being used, last year we bought some extra supplies and materials when it was priced at a
little better rate and that helped carry us over into this year.
CAWLEY — I guess what I was getting at is, the one -time expenses, when we cut those you
just save money for that year, but a person, so now we have all these people, but no
supplies for them to do their job effectively. So if we lose one person, then we still have a
street crew, they're just one person down and it's a permanent savings in the budget. So,
there's a philosophical difference of how do we get to where we want to go, but, I guess we
can
EDLER — well, again, I think that the streets debate is just that, a debate, and philosophical,
I appreciate you using that because I do believe that philosophically we're all over the map
in this room and which is why the priorities of government conversation is one that I think
should be ongoing. Just a recommendation. But I'll move us back to the amendment and
the motion that is on the table. The amendment that I made, and Sonia seconded, that, as
opposed to moving us to the priorities of government model the County uses, that we get an
opportunity in the interim to see what that model looks like on the wall like the County did
before us using our priorities of government and, as opposed, to again, dictating this
morning that we move in that direction. Is there any other discussion, if not, roll call please.
Clerk: EDLER: Yes; McCLURE: I'll pass, I'll wait; ENSEY: No; LOVER: No; RODRIGUEZ:
yes; CAWLEY: No; COFFEY: No.
EDLER: Okay, the motion fails, the amendment fails
McCLURE: Yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and, effective immediately, resign from the City
Council, so I won't take a vote. Good Luck.
McCLURE left the room.
EDLER: Well, that was an interesting, unforeseen deal. Well, before us, we're going to
need a little insight as to what we do with a resignation like that one, but we do have a
priorities of government, I mean motion on the board by Rick and seconded by Bill. Roll
call.
Clerk: EDLER -no; ENSEY -yes; LOVER -yes; RODRIGUEZ -no; CAWLEY -yes, COFFEY —
(addressing City Manager) I do want to make myself very clear. You said something about
not necessarily the methodology of the County, that is what we're voting on. We're not
asking for the flowchart, just the flowchart. We are asking for the, all of the County's. We're
not going to be asking you to break the generally accepted state accounting law, of course,
but we are asking you to institute and implement all of the county's policies, procedures, not
just the graph, Dick ".
EDLER — Okay — it carries 4 -2.
CAWLEY: I MOVE WE ADJOURN TO OUR NEXT REGULARLY SCHEDULED MEETING.
EDLER: to the City Manager — That resignation, do we have to accept that resignation, is it
given any — do you have any insight on that? Would you like to think about it?
ZAIS: Let us think about it a little bit, normally that is done through a letter. Obviously he's
announced it verbally and it's in a public meeting so it can be accepted. It will be recorded
in the minutes as that because this is your public session. He may or may not wish to send
in a letter. At the same time, I will say this, it hasn't happened here but it's happened in a
few other jurisdictions where, in a moment of passion, an individual decided they were going
to resign and then a few days later rescinded it. I would, respectfully, suggest that maybe
give Neil a little time to think this over before it's accepted. That's something you may want
to conjure a little bit here.
EDLER Okay
COFFEY I think that's a good suggestion.
EDLER: Motion to adjourn.
COFFEY — prior to that, I would like to apologize to staff and Council members regarding my
comment about them not implementing the 47 recommendations off the list. The City
Manager told me that that is being implemented through the various committees. Thank
you.
3. Audience comments (10:45 — 11:00 a.m.)
4. Adjournment
CAWLEY MOVED AND ENSEY SECONDED TO ADJOURN TO APRIL 21, 2009 AT 5:00
P.M. FOR A SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING DINNER IN THE CONFERENCE ROOM. The
motion carried by unanimous voice vote. The meeting adjourned at 10:45 a.m.