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Minutes 03-12-12 MINUTES OF THE FINANCIAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING HELD ON MONDAY, MARCH 12, 2012, AT 6:00 P.M., IN THE BOYNTON BEACH CITY LIBRARY, ROOM "A ", 208 S. SEACREST BLVD., BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA PRESENT: Don Scantlan, Chair Barry Atwood, Finance Director Dennis Dougherty Tim Howard, Deputy Finance Director David Katz Terry Lonergan ABSENT: Jeffrey Fisher 1. Call to Order Chair Scantlan called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. Roll call was taken. A quorum was present. 2. Announcement of Committee Member resignation Chair Scantlan announced the resignation of Jeff Fisher. He asked the remaining Board members to advise Mr. Atwood if they would not be attending any future meetings as the remaining Committee members made a quorum. If one person could not attend, the meeting would be cancelled. He asked members to help recruit any additional members with the needed qualifications. 3. Approval of February 27, 2012 Minutes Chair Scantlan advised he had a change to the minutes. On page five, second paragraph, last sentence, delete a different function and add the different roles required for an A76 study Motion Mr. Katz moved to approve the minutes as amended. Ms. Lonergan seconded the motion that unanimously passed. 4. Review results of Commission Agenda Item (first of two readings) requesting the Commission to amend the Ordinance creating the Committee Meeting Minutes Financial Advisory Committee Boynton Beach, FL March 12, 2012 Select its own Chair & Vice -Chair Update Member qualifications for consistency with the Committee Appointment Application This item was not discussed. 5. Citizen Survey discussion Chair Scantlan advised there was very little progress during the last week. There was discussion on the content and the reasons why the response had not been what had been planned. The survey had two weeks remaining for submittal from residents and would be reevaluated at that time. Chair Scantlan inquired whether the members had ideas on how to generate more interest. Ms Lonergan advised she had sent emails to people in her community that she had addresses for asking them to go on to the website. She spoke to neighbors and people she knew in Boynton Beach and tried to get the word out that way. Mr. Atwood stated he asked department heads to post a notice. It was also posted on the City website. 6. Update by Committee members regarding progress to date of their assignment areas (Updated list of assignment areas attached) Mr. Katz provided an update on his assignment areas. He advised he met with a member of the Police Department bargaining unit. Out of the four units, they agreed there are things they would like to see happen before giving in on the 2% or 3% increase in pension contribution. It was not the case of being pragmatic, the unit felt enough had been given up and enough had been cut. With regard to the take -home vehicles for the Police, it was the opinion that the "circle" should be drawn closer to the City limits. Currently, an officer was allowed to travel 20 miles outside the City limits. Mr. Katz suggested possibly changing the circle to 5 miles. There was discussion regarding the take home vehicles. New employees do not receive take home vehicles and currently it does not go by rank, but by years of service and other conditions that would be stated in the contract. There was more discussion regarding the options for take -home vehicles. Mr. Katz reported that as far as contracting out sanitation services, if the rates were not competitive, the City could forego the $3M budget transfer which could lower the rates by $7.00 per month. Mr. Katz opined that privatizing sanitation would not be beneficial to the City. Chair Scantlan added that the A76 study was meant to study a competition between public and private entities. It could be added that there would be a franchise that would match the amount of the budget transfer for a certain number of years, so 2 Meeting Minutes Financial Advisory Committee Boynton Beach, FL March 12, 2012 the playing field would be level between public and private entities. That would be a way to put the issue on the table for discussion. Mr. Katz advised he wanted to remove items 11 and 12, Public Works Services and Utilities Services & Sale/Transfer to County. Mr. Dougherty reported that the Schoolhouse Museum recently began the audit and he would provide a report for the next meeting. Chair Scantlan offered to assist by providing the data from the survey for part of his input. Mr. Dougherty advised the legislative session was over and there was nothing to report. There was also nothing to report on the Public Safety Communications Hub topic. In the area of CIP Analysis, there was no update on those issues. Ms Lonergan advised she met with the City Clerk, Janet Prainito, regarding the municipal elections. Ms. Lonergan felt initially that there was needless money being spent for a March election. There were 2000 precincts county -wide, with numerous poll workers for a handful of votes. Ms. Prainito advised her that the Supervisor of Elections charged a fee to run an election. If three cities run a March election for $10,000, each City contributes a third. If there were 25 cities, it would be split 25 ways. Most municipalities conduct their elections in March. If the City opts out and moved the election to November, the entire fee would be carried by the City for the November election. The only way to save money would be to pay the poll workers Tess, which would not be recommended. Ms. Prainito was not in favor of moving the election. The other issue with moving the election to November was that all of the Federal items were first on the ballot followed by the local items. By the time the voters get to the end of the ballot, they either do not finish voting or they just randomly vote. Ms Lonergan further advised the districts could not be condensed due to the resident per capita requirements. Ms. Lonergan indicated there would be no closing of any parks. According to Mr. Majors, there was also a resident per capita requirement for green space that the City must maintain. Ms. Lonergan had nothing to report on the Pensions and offered to take other topics if needed. Chair Scantlan advised the City surveys are set to wrap up at the end of the month. He also advised the A76 study would most likely not happen this year. There was also no progress on the Make or Buy Other City Services and County Service redundancies. He would make an appointment with the City Manager to start collecting data. He further advised that the Paperless Billing topic was wrapped up. The decision was that it would cost too much money to implement at this time It would take 5 -10 years to 3 Meeting Minutes Financial Advisory Committee Boynton Beach, FL March 12, 2012 reach a break even point. There was discussion on other ways to save money, possibly eliminating the return envelope that was included with the water bill. 7. Discuss date to request Joint Workshop with City Commission (Thursday, May 12th last year) Last year, the Workshop was held on May 12 This year, it appeared a Saturday morning was being requested. There has been no confirmation of a decision. Ms. Lonergan advised she would take on the additional assignment areas 37 -42 all of which comprised of Compensation, Benefits, and Employee Leave programs. She requested removal of areas 34 -36, Pensions. Chair Scantlan would add the presentations for voting on to the agenda for next meeting. 8. Adjournment Motion There being no further business to discuss, Mr. Dougherty moved to adjourn. Ms. Lonergan seconded the motion that unanimously passed. The meeting was adjourned at 6:46 p.m. Ellie Caruso Recording Secretary 4