City Council Meeting Date: June 11, 2019
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Ben Martig, City Administrator
Brenda Angelstad, Finance Director
Title
Pre-budget Planning and Discussion of Initial Goals or Research of the Council for 2020-2021 Budget.
Body
Action Requested:
Discuss and provide any particular feedback at the meeting.
Summary Report:
The 2020-2021 budget calendar was distributed to Council on May 21st. It is attached again as reference.
During June and July, we are seeking input related to the budget. Internal departments and funds are developing detail line item budgets and preparing to submit their requests for administrative review, we will be seeking input from boards and commissions regarding requests that may impact budget, as well as creating some initial awareness and engagement of the public through a POLCO survey (3-6 questions).
We are requesting at this worksession to hear from Council to see if there are specific items you’d like considered or discussed at the upcoming July and August worksessions. Ideally, provide a short description (2-4 sentences) related to the issue. Please email them to City Administrator Martig’s email by the Council meeting. Otherwise, you may bring them up as discussion verbally at the meeting as well. We will then have time to research and/or estimate cost impacts in advance of those work sessions. The following are a couple of examples of all you need to do to give some thoughts, input or suggestions.
Examples:
Example A.
Emerald Ash Borer Program
I’d like to see the study again to review that addressed this issue and made recommendation. I would appreciate if staff could also bring forward some ideas on how we may fund it through various options including maybe using debt, reserves or other approaches. Any new updates on maps or information on how the emerald ash borer may have further migrated would also be appreciated.
Example B
Street Conditions
I have had a number of concerns about potholes this year on our city streets. I want to have some discussions about the pavement management conditions and do it early as it could be a big cost impact. Also, are there multiple solutions such as adding staffing to fill potholes as well as just putting new dollars into overlays or reconstructions I am open to looking at that as well.
Example C
Tax Comparisons
I would like to see an update on comparison taxes of other cities to Northfield. Can we get that with the budget information at either the July or August meeting so that I can see how we compare? I know that there are some metrics in the 2018 audit report that is in the worksession packets but to know some particular city’s would be good for understanding if we have a similar total city tax to other cities or not. I would also like to see maybe comparisons that show all taxing jurisdictions comparatively for our residents (County and School District levies).
The July work session will present a “big picture” review of the impact to the 2020-2021 budget based on personal expense and debt service expense forecasts. We will also discuss the 5-year CIP & CEP, as well as other budget request items. Many of these budget request items were also discussed but not funded during last year’s budget process. This includes a Police Sergeant, Streets & Parks Operator, Part time Landscape Gardener, Library Outreach Coordinator (grant funding of a portion of the position will end in 2019), Police body cameras for 2021, Emerald Ash Borer mitigation (10 year program), Ice Arena maintenance issues, pedestrian infrastructure and safety & security enhancements. In addition, some items included in 2019 budget may get held over to the 2020 budget, an example is the river access as the recommended location may change.
The August work session will present individual department budgets and a general fund roll-up that will highlight the associated levy requirement. The preliminary budget and levy will be set on September 17th. The levy amount set at this meeting is the maximum and can be lowered in December, but cannot increase from the preliminary amount set in September.
Of note, the Special Session tax bill was passed which included an increase to the state LGA appropriation of $26 million. Of that, Northfield will see an increase in LGA received of $168,634. LGA received in 2020 will be $3,186,421 vs $3,017,787 received in 2019.
Alternative Options:
Not applicable.
Financial Impacts:
Not applicable.
Tentative Timelines:
Next dedicated budget agendas are July 16th and August 13th.