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Home My WebLink About04-23-2004 Special meeting City Council MinutesMINUTES SARATOGA CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING APRIL 23, 2004 Mayor Waltonsmith called the Council meeting to order at 8:50 a.m. ROLL CALL PRESENT: Mayor Ann Waltonsmith, Vice Mayor Kathleen King, Councilmembers Stan Bogosian, Norman Kline, Nick Streit ALSO PRESENT: Dave Anderson, City Manager Lorie Tinfow, Assistant City Manager Ann Sullivan, Deputy City Clerk Jesse Baloca, Administrative Services Director John Cherbone, Public Works Director Tom Sullivan, Community Development Director Kim Saxton-Heinrichs, Supervisor -Recreation Department Captain John Hirokawa, Sheriff s Westside Station Lieutenant Terry Calderone, Sheriff s Westside Station Alan Minato, Fiscal Officer -Sheriff's Office Norman Ziegler, Finance Commission REPORT OF DEPUTY CITY CLERK ON POSTING OF AGENDA FOR APRIL 23, 2004 Ann Sullivan, Deputy City Clerk, reported that pursuant to Government Code Section 54954.2, the agenda for the meeting of Apri123, 2004 was properly posted on April 14, 2004. FY2003-04 Budget BackEround Presentation by Jesse Baloca • City is projecting approximately $667k negative net of operations for FY2004-OS • $667k short fall includes increase in Sheriff s Office budget, PERS increase, increases to Workers Compensation, employees medical premiums and costs of the November election • City started off with an operations balance of $427k. • Beginning Undesignated Fund balance at $383k for start of FY2004-OS • City expects 6.4% increase in property tax revenue -less the ERAF shift for FY2004-OS • City anticipates sales tax revenues will remain flat • Third year in a row City has not funded equipment replacement 2. FY2004-OS Budget Options to Balance Budget Presented by Jesse Baloca Option 1: Assumes Sheriffs budget is estimated at $3.503 million and uses one- timereserves to balance Option 2: Reduction to Sheriff s budget less credit for 5% increase above 2003/04 and allows for the SRO or DARE, and eliminates a Traffic Officer Sheriffs 2004-OS Budget $3.503 million Sheriff's 2003-04 Budget 3.146 Net adjustment $0.357 Option 3: Reduction to Sheriff s budget less credit for 5% increase above and credit for Traffic Officer, and eliminates either the DARE or SRO. Also utilizes %z of the COPS Traffic Safety, and PERS reserve plus annual cash flow. Option 4: Utilizes Option 2, and utilizes 1 /3 of the COPS Traffic, and PERS reserves plus net annual cash flow. More detail on each option is shown in Attachment "B". General Discussion: Streit: Voiced concerns about dipping into the three reserves. If we use these reserves this year, we will be creating a problem for 2005-06. If we don't use these reserves, we need to figure another way to decrease the $667k by looking at other aspects. Code Enforcement and traffic are the top issues in Saratoga and if we use the COPS Fund now, we won't be able to add back the second Code Enforcement Officer that we once had. Anderson: Clarification on Code Enforcement -Currently coming out of General Fund; we can add it back to COPS and that will decrease the $667k to approximately $600k. Bogosian: The first thing to do is look at the total operations and determine if we are as lean as possible before we build any reserve assumptions into discussion. Anderson: Noted then we need to look at Option 2); if Council were to add Code Enforcement (approximately $67k) back to COPS Fund. This gives you a net negative of approximately $600k. In looking at Option 2), the Sheriff s cost can be modified continuing to reflect a positive Undesignated Fund balance, without the use of any reserves. Waltonsmith: Perhaps there are other options for Sheriffs Contract- Such as amortization of a portion of the increase to Sheriff's contract. Anderson: Explained amortization of Sheriff s contract -spread increased costs with Sheriff s contract over a longer period of time such as a 10-year contract. City of Cupertino is also looking at this option along with some service level reductions; balance of the two Cities would basically lower the initial cost impact and would even costs out over the years. Bogosian: Noting the three officer positions, Traffic Officer, SRO and DARE, asked for clarification of duties for SRO and DARE Officer and how along-term amortized contract with the Sheriff s Office would affect those three positions. 2 Hirokawa: Explained duties of each position and costs based on current proposal of Sheriffs contract: DARE Officer (Based on shared cost with other cities) $47,090 (Saratoga's cost) • Teaches 17-week program in all Saratoga public schools, plus Saint Andrews • Provides community service requests: Child finger printing, Stranger- Danger classes, etc. School Resource Officer $134k (Saratoga's cost) Full time officer assigned to Middle and High Schools and is liaison to Elementary Schools Responds to school related calls for service as any other deputy Performs 911 classes, Stranger-Danger classes, Code Red (armed intruder) Program, Youth Court (low level crimes), Anti-bullying, Teenage Academy (mini police academy), Every 15 Minutes Program 60% of SRO's time at schools; 40% teaching academy/classes Additional Comments SRO cost is $96.50 per hour vs. $120 per hour for Traffic Officer SRO has more contact with schools/students than Street Officer SRO knows more about school issues, student related problems; has more insight than Street Officer Mayor Waltonsmith thanked Sheriff's representatives for attending the meeting and for their presentation. Discussion continued regarding the General Fund Budget. Kline: Asked how much of the negative figure was due to economic decline or ERAF shift? Anderson: Decline due to both sources -most of it from ERAF. Bogosian: On the assumption that the proposed Utility User Tax fails, we should be looking at something to bring down the negative $600k. He further questioned the rationale for cutting out law enforcement services on any level and would like to see an exercise giving other options in our General Operating Budget such as FTE reduction. King: Noted she would prefer the City ask the Sheriff s Office to propose a workable contract. If that is not possible, then we are faced with cutting some of these law enforcement positions. Streit: Agreed with Bogosian -Doesn't feel Public Safety Services should be compromised. Of the three positions (Traffic Officer, SRO and DARE Officer) one position could be cut, preferably not the Traffic Officer. (All were in consensus with not cutting the Traffic Officer position.) Streit also agreed with Bogosian noting that we need to look at other avenues within the City that should be considered. The elimination of one FTE position could free up $100k. This exemplifies the seriousness ofbalancing the budget without using Reserve Funds. Kline: Disagreed and noted the Economic Uncertainty Reserve Funds were set up exactly for this type of economic downturn and should be used for that reason. Bogosian: Stated he would like to see an exercise addressing the real numbers before taking from the Economic Uncertainty Reserve Fund. The Reserve Fund should be used for something major -like an earthquake. Kline: Then open up CIP -everything - if you don't want to use Economic Reserve Funds. These are economic downtimes -use the reserve funds. Waltonsmith: Stated she would rather give up DARE program versus SRO program, if faced with cutting services. After continued discussion regarding potential service cuts, FTE cuts, use of reserve funds and when to use Economic Uncertainty funds, the budget remained $600k out of balance. In order for staff to present a balanced budget to Council at the May 5, 2004 Council meeting, City Manager Dave Anderson presented acost-cutting "exercise" in response to Council's request. Council reached agreement to retain specific services/positions and cut other designated services/positions by implementing these steps in order to balance the FY2004-OS General Fund Budget. Attachment "C" reflects the results of the discussion. The Council then addressed the Development Services Fund balance and proposed changes to stabilize the fund. Bogosian: Referring to agenda material in the Council Packet asked Director Sullivan for clarification regarding the fee increase - is it to cover costs to provide services in Community Development Department or simply to raise revenue? Sullivan: Explained the need to double billable hours from 24% to 50%, and this would have an impact on reducing the amount of time planners could spend onnon-billable activities, i.e., staff liaisons to commissions, Mustard Walk event, training, staff meetings, etc. Tom stated that these measures were necessary to stabilize the Development fund so that it would not have to be supported by the General Fund in future years. There was general agreement on the part of the Council to implement the suggested changes. COUNCIL DIRECTION Direct City Department Managers to meet with their staff by the following week, inform them of the results of today's meeting and begin the process of implementing the proposed changes and cuts for next year's budget. Additionally, staff was directed to provide the minutes of this meeting in a staff report for the next scheduled Council meeting on May 5, 2004. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business Mayor Waltonsmith adjourned the meeting at 11:20 a.m. Respectfully submitte~~~~ d~~~~~y~ Ann Sullivan` `- `t Deputy City Clerk