of the whole finance committee of the whole meeting to order.

Madam Clerk, could you take the roll?

Mayor Miller?

Here.

Alderpersons, Klemm?

Here.

Johnson?

Here.

Simmons is absent.

Parker?

Here.

Stacy is absent.

Shadle?

Here.

Sanders is absent and Sellers?

Here.

We have a quorum, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, if you could join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, and we're down to item four being approval of the agenda, if I could get a motion.

So moved.

Second.

Motion by Sellers, second by Parker, all in favor?

I make a comment on it if I could yes just a highlight for people we talked about whether to move it around or whether or not in number nine there's motion there to go to possibly more minutes for discussion but that's for discussion on the budget items that we've discussed this evening so if anybody's got anything they want to add to there is a time for that thank you Thank you, Mr. Klemm.

And anybody opposed to the approval of the agenda?

Motion carried.

And we need approval of the minutes from October 28th, 2024 and November 12th, 2024.

So moved. Second.

Motion by Klemm, second by Sellers. All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Motion carried.

and we're down to public comments on agenda items no one was signed in no one signed in move on to item seven discussion of the following general fund budgets by city manager Boyer and director Richter all right good evening everyone good evening I'd like to start out with our proposed schedule for the and I have a new budget coming up.

So in general, this is everything beyond today is still subject to change, but this is pretty much what we have nailed down.

So today we're going to discuss the city council budget, communication budget, and you can see them there under the nine eight section there.

Then on nine 15, we'll be talking about general fund police department, equipment funds for police, drug forfeiture, and then fire department budget, Fire Public Safety Fund budget and fire improvement.

And we're trying to combine like categories this year.

So we're not jumping all over the place.

So if it's police, we're trying to have it all at one time.

If it's a fire, it's all at one time.

Same thing with where you see the TIFs and the Berchard Meadows, project fund budget, downtown loan budget.

These all follow a certain, I don't know, order.

So anyway, then on 10-6, we'll be going over revenues, Building, or government building budgets, cemetery care fund, and so on. So generally speaking, if you have any questions on this, it should be included with your council packet, but if you need an extra copy, let me know. We can make sure that happens. Michelle can make sure they're printed out for you if you don't have one. Just bear that in mind, this is kind of the schedule. So October 14th, we'll be going through public works, the street budget, capital equipment fund, airport, cemetery, forestry, animal control, traffic engineering, street lighting, Wrights, Motor Field Tax, and Street Improvement Fund.

So those are all kind of grouped together in a like category.

Then on the 20th, October 20th, we'll go over utilities.

So that'll be the water operating budget, sewer operating budget, storm, then we'll have the water capital budget, sewer capital, storm capital, and then public input again on the 20th.

October 3rd, we'll go through the fire pension, the police pension, the library budget, the and the tax levy and the abatement and then we'll again at that time notice the public hearing so we'll have essentially the last one of the last meetings here would be on November 10th and that'd be a summary on any changes that were necessary since we began the presentation of the 2026 budget so I don't believe there's on this oh there we go well so a public hearing on on November 17th.

And then the council meeting on the 17th, we will approve the 2026 appropriations budget, capital improvement plan.

We'll have the first reading of the tax levy and the tax abatements.

December 1st, it'll be the second reading of the budget, second reading for tax levy and second reading for tax abatements and the 2025 reapportion or reappropriation.

So just to follow up, we're essentially going to be making some changes to the 2025 budget, basically looking at what reality worked out to what we had budgeted.

We'll make those adjustments and we'll bring them to you for approval on the first and then final reading on the 15th.

So that kind of takes us through the budget process.

Does anybody have any questions on how we're going to go about this?

I know I've gone kind of fast, but we've all been through it before for the most part.

I think Linda, you sat through several of these before. If there's any question on the process, this would be a good time. Don't be bashful. Okay. All right, with that, we'll go ahead and get started with the City Council budget. So there are no, this is the same budget as we had for last year, essentially covers all All of the elected officials, although there's a small bump on elected officials from the previous year, those have been reflected here.

Obviously all the wage withholdings and then education, training, and travel, that'll stay at $2,000 and then supplies and other.

So pretty much the same as last year.

If you could go to the next one, thank you.

Liquor commissions and Board of Police and Fire.

so essentially no changes to the stipends.

Also a recategorization of the education and training to medical services to more accurately describe the expenses.

So when we hire new police and fire, we have some onboarding examinations and things that we do.

We've reclassified them in this budget so that it'd be more reflected to reality here.

Any questions on Liquor Commission, Board of Fire, Police. Aaron, is there a reason you're sitting back there? Are you hiding back there?

Gotcha. Thank you, Aaron. So this is Department 113. This is the city clerk.

So this includes one half of a full-time admin person. So Dovie has requested some additional help to get minutes. A lot of backlog work that needs to be done. Not time critical, Co., but needs to be done. So a halftime support person is included and it will be shared with the finance and HR departments. So this will essentially one person portioned out into three different departments. Also, we had a significant increase in medical insurance this year and we're working with our providers so we might be able to reduce it later. As you can see C. there. It went from $17,000 to $25,000. We are working with the insurance company now to go through the process of reviewing that. Other than that, there are no major changes to the city clerk's budget. Any questions on that?

I guess just one. So when will this new person come in?

We're budgeting now. I would say that we probably hire somebody maybe in the spring. What do you think Michelle? Yeah Any other questions on me?

Basically the spring so we're looking at a part-time personal work in several departments We'd be looking to hire them in the spring 26 Okay, any other questions on City Clerk All right. This is the city manager mayor budget. So not many changes here. It includes City Manager, Mayor, and Administrative Assistant. So those are the wages that are included in this one, and there are no major changes. There are, I go and attend several training and educational events, and so does the Mayor. So those are included as well, a small increase from last year.

But overall, things are remaining flat in this, in 121, City Manager budget. Any questions on this?

Yeah, the only thing I'm noticing again is the health insurance line item is consistently going up on every page of this, but there are social security expenses going slightly up.

The IMRF is slightly up.

the IMRF is slightly up which is tied to wages and I'm seeing that consistently on the pages as I went through this and it's if you're looking at the bottom line that everything's the totals are going up for each department it's the vast majority of it is tied to that health insurance and yes what's underlying a lot of that is I mean I would say the our insurance carrier is looking at our risk we had a number of claims several like two or three years ago we had quite a few claims and they're the rates are kind of mirroring those claims however we've been doing much better on that and hopefully within another year or two those will be dropping off so we might see a essentially I'm saying that is we may see in future years or 27-28 we may see that either flatten level or dip slightly. Thank you. And Michelle, please back me up if you feel like, I mean, did you have anything you wanted to add on that? Just on the medical insurance, medical insurance rates are just going crazy, you know, the GLP ones, am I saying that right? And different things that are out there.

the city was very fortunate in past years to have pretty small renewals and I think it's all it's kind of catching up with us I mean we were getting renewals gosh in the last four years of you know three four percent at the most and this year it's just kind of crazy so like it like manager Boyer said we are working with the medic our medical insurance provider to see what we can do about that we have a January 1 renewal. Thank you. Okay any other questions on city manager mayor budget? Okay if you'll go on then we got communications department.

So this only encompasses the director currently Wayne so you'll notice as we go through printing for the monthly newsletter has gone up a bit but we're Miller. That's what the $35,000 there is for printing. Also increase to support the new citizens' engagement activities, supplies and Fair Booth recruitment items. These are there to give us the tools we need for community outreach at events. Other than that, status quo for the most part, outlying the insurance increases and a few inflation things tied and I do inflation.

So any questions on the community development budget?

I'm sorry.

Did I say communications budget?

My fault there.

Thank you for the correction.

Good catch over there, Bryan.

All right, with that, we'll move on to finance.

So the finance director, deputy finance director, and city accountant added a portion of admin, but support will be shared with the clerk and HR.

So we've added in a small portion here to cover, I believe, 25% of that part-time person we just discussed for Dovie.

We're planning to use about 25% of that person for finance.

Also, audit fees moved from here to interdepartmental.

So that accounts for the change in the audit fees, under audit fees.

Also includes funds for shredding in documents.

One of the problems is our shredding beast went up significantly.

So we're working on other options there.

So any questions on finance?

Yes, moving the audit fees, is that something that Lagerbach had suggested, or just a change in what you were wanting to do?

That's just me.

So interdepartmental kind of is a catch-all at the end of all of our departments.

It's 101, 163.

It's the last one we'll be reviewing today.

And I felt that the audit fees were better represented in the finance department.

I'd like to look at some of the other items that are also in interdepartmental, such as postage or something like that, so that those costs can also be allocated to the various departments.

Right now, it's kind of in one spot, whereas I should know how much postage is Every department.

So I'll be looking at that as well.

So that might come back as an adjustment back later this fall.

Very good.

Thank you.

Anything else on finance?

Okay.

Moving on to 133 legal.

Essentially, we're seeing some increases in our legal fees, but aside from that, pretty much status quo on legal.

Any questions on legal?

Okay. The next one is, I was ahead of myself, but now 149 Community Development. We have removed from the wages the grant manager in this fiscal year, and consulting services includes lobbyists and outside grant management. So if you'll notice there at 6150, that would fall under and I want to address one of the questions that we're getting with the organization about grant, or I'm sorry, consulting services. Other than that, generally flatten level with a few minor adjustments. Any questions on community development?

** Just wondering, is the staffing enough for community development? ** I think what we're looking at We're potentially looking to make a change for as an additional compliance officer.

But at the time we put this together, we hadn't quite got there.

This may be one of those changes that you see at the end.

So when you say compliance, is that like a nuisance or the- Yeah, nuisance, yeah.

Code enforcement.

I'm sorry.

Why did I say compliance?

Yeah.

Oh, okay.

Good.

Sorry.

It is in.

It's under building.

It's under building.

We just haven't got there yet.

Oh, okay.

Okay.

just to add that point.

All right, any more questions on community development?

Under building, and this is, as Michelle quite directly pointed out, so this includes an additional building inspector or code enforcement, something to that effect.

And that is the main change under 153 building.

153.

Any questions on that?

Oh, OK.

OK, OK.

So are we looking for it, like, looking for someone now, or are we waiting till the new year?

Well, I think right now we're in the process of hiring a new community development director.

So we're kind of holding off until that person is placed.

OK.

OK, and with that, we'll move on to 155, hearing and admin.

This is essentially what Nicole charges for her services overseeing the compliance hearings.

So no real change is there.

How many times a month does she, she does, is it twice a month or?

Two hearings per month.

Okay.

Okay.

I would say her load is picked up somewhat.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Any other questions on that?

Okay.

The next one is Human Resources 161.

So the HR manager admin support person is the same person we've been discussing, halftime for Dovie, a quarter of the time for finance, and a quarter of the time for HR.

So that's included in item 5,000, which is an additional cost for an employee.

And then also other technical services, if you go down to 65-40, it includes additional funds for recruitment services as we will be seeing a couple of changes here in the next fiscal year.

We wanted to make sure we accounted for that in this year.

So any questions on that?

Okay, the next one is MIS and this does not stand for miscellaneous, right, Curt?

This one is information systems, so management information systems so we're looking to add a halftime person to be shared with the water and sewer department and I think Kurt could probably fill us in but what Kurt you had some very specific ideas for that individual would you mention that right now?

Yeah, I thought it would really help out our guys with doing I thought it would really help out our guys with doing Julie locates in the field and we're going to do that through technology by getting better GIS mapping and GPS units.

We can really cut that time down. That's going to be the major initial efficiency we'll see.

So, Curt mentioned GIS. That's essentially the maps that we have that identify the location of all of our infrastructure.

So water main, storm infrastructure, waste water, manholes, meters, services.

So the better that gets the more time we save in the field overall and we're doing pretty good but I think it would be a good investment at least in the city to make sure that those maps are updated and updated correctly and that would be very helpful to have that individual for Kirk to make sure that happens.

Any questions on?

So did you say you want to hire a full-time or part-time?

This would be a halftime, but shared with water and sewer, yes.

So it'd be a part-time person that's shared with water?

Well, it'd be one full-time person shared half and half.

Okay.

Yeah.

Got it, got it.

Thank you.

And bearing in mind that these are the better our GIS systems are and the more we're able to keep and maintain their accuracy as we build new infrastructure, put new water main in, change manholes, change the condition of things out there.

this is huge savings for us in the future.

Any other questions on MIS?

Greg, can I make a comment?

Go ahead.

I just wanted to say over the years a lot of people don't realize what a fantastic job we've done at doing this to identify what kind of pipe is every place, goes back to the old pipe and left in the 1800s and that stuff but if you start looking at the maps and the overlays and everything It does definitely save crews a lot of time.

When they go out there, they know where they're going to dig.

They know what they're going to hit.

And everything's pretty well on target.

But, Kirk, thank you.

But the guys before you and the guys who work for you do a great job on that.

Thanks.

It's more than just a job.

It's a passion project.

So thank you for that, Curt.

And just, Darren, if you could just give the council some kind of perspective.

You work with a lot of different communities.

what does that look like when they don't have GIS like we have and all of our infrastructure? What does that do for say the lead service line program? Oh it makes the programs nearly impossible and costs a lot more money up front cost all right not up front but in construction. When you don't have records of the infrastructure that's buried usually they end up getting hit which becomes a project cost and a project repair. So there's just a lot of untold savings here. All right, with that I'd like to move on to 163 Interdepartmental. So code 5-225 group insurance, the city's share of retirees medical insurance. So you're seeing an adjustment based on what we think was coming forward. Then as well as 60-60 credit card fees for permits and etc. So we do recoup these on on the revenue side, so even though you see a significant amount of money there, that has recovered in other areas.

General liability, cyber insurance, so that falls under $63.90.

We are adding cyber insurance to our package policy that was recommended by our carrier and a lot of communities.

I just spoke with someone today who worked in the city of Baltimore and had a major data breach that cost them tens of millions of dollars in ransomware tax to pay the people to go away. So this is a good money well spent. Let's see here, 5G polls. So we're working with the county on the real estate tax. You see there's there's an increase there obviously these are city-owned polls so we'll be working with the county to get these 5g polls removed from the tax rolls then on bond payments item five that would be item 9,000 transfer to debt service so these are our bond payments that are due every year and then down toward the bottom Transfer Out, 90-50. This is landfill support and we'll discuss further when the landfill budget is presented, but that is a basically a bookmark for that.

Question about the bond payments. Yes. Forgive me for my tardiness. Kind of forget about this starting tonight. So I don't even know what page we're on.

We're on questions on Interdepartmental, Department 163.

Okay, so this is the bond payment throughout the year for each month or this is going to be one big sum?

I believe it depends on the bond but some of them are quarterly, some of them are annually, and this is basically the total amount of the bond payments to service existing debt. Okay is it possible to get a list of all the bonds we have out there and whether or not they're monthly or annually? Yes, go ahead Michelle. So bond payments work a little bit differently than like a mortgage you know where you pay every month. Bonds pay interest halfway through so six months into the Berke, I'll tell you about all the bonds you'll be able to pay interest in the first period you'll pay interest and then six months later you pay principal and interest.

So each bond has their own schedule of how much you know, of course, how much because they're all different amounts.

in the back of our audit.

So I think the Aldermen got a bound copy.

So in the very back, there is a listing of all the city's bonds.

It's also posted on the website.

The city's audit is on the website.

So in the very back, there's a page for every bond and there's the amount that's due every year, broken up by principal and interest.

Thank you.

Any other questions on interdepartmental?

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

It moves us to item eight, with discussion over the budget in general, that is what was brought forth tonight.

Seeing none, we have public comments on agenda or non-agenda.

Is there anybody?

Excuse me, Chair.

Did you want a motion and a second to extend that to five minutes?

Is that your pleasure tonight?

if needed if we don't have any. I guess if there aren't any it doesn't matter does it?

Seeing none I take a motion for adjournment. So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed?

Thank you and we'll be moving to the Committee of the Whole shortly. Yep we'll. I think Curt needs Okay, Curt, you let me know.