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Minutes June 27, 198951 CITY OF DENTON CITY COUNCIL MINUTES JUNE 27, 1989 The Council convened into the Special Called Session at 7:00 p.m. in the Civil Defense Room. PRESENT: Mayor Stephens; Mayor Pro Tem Ayer: Council Members Alexander, Boyd, Gorton, Hopkins and McAdams. ABSENT: None 1. The Council considered adoption of an ordinance authorizing the Mayor to execute a contract for the collection of delinquent taxes. Jim Bunyard, Treasurer, stated that staff was recommending continuing with the firm of Heard, Goggin, Blair and Williams for the collection of delinquent taxes. The following ordinance was considered: NO. 89-084 AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO EXECUTE A CONTRACT FOR THE COLLECTION OF DELINQUENT TAXES;' AND PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE' DATE. Ayer motioned, Alexander seconded to adopt the ordinance. On roll vote, McAdams "aye," Alexander "aye," Hopkins "aye," Gorton "aye," Ayer "aye," Boyd "aye," and Mayor Stephens "aye." Motion carried unanimously. 2. The Council considered approval of an appointment to the Civil Service Commission. Lloyd Harrell, City Manager, submitted the name of Derrell Bulls to continue on the Civil Service Commission for the term of 1989-1992. McAdams motioned, Alexander seconded appointment. Motion carried unanimously. to approve the 3. The Council considered Mayor's appointments to the Denton Housing Authority. Mayor Stephens stated that the item was on the agenda for informational purposes for the other Council Members. He had reappointed George Edwards, William Wilson and Barbara Fisher to the Denton Housing Authority. 5¸2 City of Denton City Council Minutes June 27, 1989 Page 2 The Council discussed Council ranking of City goals. Lloyd Harrell, City Manager, stated that these were ranking of the goals from the Council seminar. He stated that the ranking would be used in conjunction with the proposed preliminary budget and priorities for money within the budget. Within the next month, it the goals would be updated as far as progress with each goal and perhaps some of the goals could be deleted at that time due to completion. Council Member McAdams expressed concern over the list of goals and the ranking of those goals. She did not start out with idea that the listings from the Seminar were going to be "goals". She was concerned that the list might not accurately reflect "goals" as goals had not bee initially asked for. She also felt that the meanings for the "goals" might be different for each person and that definitions might be in order. Council then held a discussion regarding the formation of the goals and the careful use of the ranking list for dollar allocation in the next budget. Suggestions were made for a possibility of two lists those requiring money and those not requiring money. City Manager Harrell stated that there was limited resources of time and money for any of the issues. Staff wanted to spend as time and effort as possible on those issues which were most important to Council. 5. The Council held a discussion regarding major issues relative to the 1989-90 budget. Lloyd Harrell, City Manager, characterized the preliminary budget as one with with difficult choices in order to offer a "status quo" budget - continue what had been done in the past and not cut any services. Three areas of growth in the budget were (1) athletic maintenance for parks, (2) median landscaping area with additional resources and positions,- and (3) positions in the General Fund for GIS. A major commitment had been made in the area of police protection and investigation units. Major Issues in the General Fund were presented as follows: (1) General Fund Reserve Level - Current policy was to keep the reserve level between 8-10%. Staff was recommending maintaining the unreserved balance at the current level. This would bring the fund balance to 9.34% of the proposed budget expenditures. City of Denton City Council Minutes June 27, 1989 Page 3 (2) Revenues - The revenue issue was divided between property tax, sales tax and other revenues. Property tax alternatives were to keep the rate at its current level of $.5928 per $100 valuation, reduce the tax rate to the effective rate of $.5853 or raise the rate to the 8% rollback limit of $.6122. Staff recommendation was to raise the tax rate to the $.6122 per $100 valuation which would result in an additional $411,294 worth of revenue and would allow for substantial increases in public safety services. Sales tax alternatives included keeping the sales tax projections at the current growth rate of 9.4%, reduce the estimate for sales tax collection to a 0% growth or raise the sale tax by 4% over the current estimated collection. Staff was recommending to keep the sales tax at the 4% estimate and to continue monitoring the revenue source for any severe fluctuations. Other Revenues included the County's contributions to the Library. Alternatives to the County's contribution were to keep the estimated rate at $1.50 per capita, reduce the estimated rate to $1.00 per capita or eliminate any contributions from the County and explore options for County resident uses of the Library. Staff was recommending that the contribution of $1.50 per capita be left in the budget and that the City strongly encourage the County to fund at that level. (3) New Fi. re Station - Alternatives were sought for funding the fire station reserve. Those alternatives included setting aside only a portion of the $150,000 in the 1989-90 budget, setting aside the $150,000, leaving the reserve at $315,000 and use the $150o000 for other programs, depleting the reserve, or increasing the funding to $225,000. Staff recommended the funding of the reserve at $150,000 for 1989-90. (4) New Positions - Several new positions were being recommended in the 1989-90 budget. These positions were primarily in the areas of public safety, parks and median maintenance and GIS. 17 additional public safety positions were begin recommended, 4.5 parks and median maintenance positions, 2 GIS positions, and 5.5 other General Fund positions were included in the budget. (5) Salary Adiustments - Due to the anticipated increases in the employee rates for health insurance, a marginal increase in the budget was recommended. Alternatives for salary increases were to grant no annual pay increase, bring the various lob classes to minimum market as determined by the market survey conducted by the Personnel Department or to grant a portion of the recommended increase to the various job families. Staff was recommending that a 4% salary adjustment be granted for Service Maintenance, Temporary, Seasonal, Technical/Para-Professional, Fire and Police pay groups and a 2 1/2% salary adjustment for Office Support, Professional, Management/Supervision and Executive groups. 53 54 City of Denton City Council Minutes June 27, 1989 Page 4 (6) Benefits Adiustment - Staff was recommending benefits package adjustments in the areas of TMRS updated credit and the fire pension plan increase. (7) Other Agency Contributions - Staff had included the recommendations from the Human Resources Committee. Alternatives were to keep the funding at its current level, funding at the recommended level or reduce below the current funding level. (8) Tax Exemptions For Persons Over 65 - Alternatives for this issue included leaving the exemption at the current amount, increase the exemption to $25,000, or proceeding with the implementation of the goal of increasing the exemptions by $1,000 a year which would increase the total amount of exemptions for the current year to $18,000. Staff was recommending to increase the exemptions by $1,000 for the 1989-90 fiscal year. (9) Lone Star Gas Franchise - Alternatives to the current gas franchise fees included leaving the fee at 2%, raising the fee to 3%, eliminating the industrial rate exemption, or raising the gas franchise tax to a percentage higher than 3%. Staff recommended the franchise fee to be raised to 3%. (10) Health Insurance Fund Deficit - Three alternatives were mentioned as a means to dealing with the health insurance fund deficit which included remaining on the current plan and increasing the rates to cover the deficit, providing for a 50% increase in the rates and reviewing ways of reducing or restructuring the health plan coverage or eliminating health care coverage and offering only an HMO plan. Staff recommended that the budget include a 50% increase for the City's contribution for its employees coverage. It also recommended that input be solicited from employees and be given to Coopers & Lybrand so that a plan for reducing or restructuring the health plan coverage could be implemented in the next year. (11) Improvements Program - C.I.P. restructuring alternatives included utilizing $200,000 from the debt service fund balance for debt payments or restructuring the C.I.P. and increase the tax rate by $.01 with more substantial increases being required in future years. Staff was recommending the restructuring of the C.I.P. 1986 £ive year plan. (12) Internal Auditor - Due to continued recommendation by the outside auditors, alternatives to this position included transferring the amount of budgeted dollars from the vacant Operations Analysis Administrator position to the City Manager's Office and c~atin~ an int~n&l audit position, reducing other expenditures by $45,677 and creating an internal audit position or not creating the position. Staff was recommending that the position be created with the transfer from Operations Analysis. City of Denton City Council Minutes June 27, 1989 Page 5 (13) Defensive Driving - Alternatives for this issue included keeping the program as it currently existed, teaching classes only in Denton or eliminating defensive driving. Staff was recommending that the program continue only within the Denton area. (14) Civic Center - As the Civic Center was in need of extensive repair, alternatives for funding included taking $287,000 out of the General Fund and reducing expenditures elsewhere, renovating major structural repairs within the Capital Improvements Program, or funding all or part of the Civic Center repairs from the hotel/motel tax collections. Staff recommended the funding not be taken from the General Fund or the CIP because of budgetary limitations and explore the possibility Df utilizing some of the hotel/motel tax collections funds for this program. (15) Fire Department - The Fire Department was recommending the purchase of 90 pager units for all fire fighter personnel so as to reduce the necessity of additional manpower in the department. Alternatives proposed included finding the necessary $36,000 in the current operating budget, not purchasing the units, or hiring additional personnel to cover the cost which necessitate approximately three fire fighters at a cost of $96,500. Staff was recommending the purchase of the ninety pager units. (16) Senior Center - Funding for the new expanded Center alternatives included deleting the $57,703 that was currently in the budget, adding $22,000 for equipment to be able to equip the woodshop and other areas in the new expansion, or funding $57,703 to provide for half-time recreation leader, utility services, supplies, furniture and contract cleaners. Staff recommended that the funding of $37,903 be provided in the budget to allow for the half-time recreation leader and the bare essentials needed to open the facility. (17) Street Improvements - Staff was proposing funding for the acquisition of street sweeping equipment and addition of a heavy equipment operator though the Street Department's participation in the Hickory Street and Oak Street rebuilds scheduled in the 1989-90 C.I.P. As the Street Department would be doing most of the work on those projects, the department could capitalize all labor and materials used on the projects. Major issues in the Recreation Fund included: 55 City of Denton City Council Minutes June 27, 1989 Page 6 (1) Programs - The Parks and Recreation department had drafted a statement of philosophy identifying the program areas that would be funded from the General Fund and those that would be funded from the Recreation Fund. Alternatives to the development of a Recreation Fund philosophy included funding all programs out of the General Fund, funding all the programs out of the Recreatio~ Fund, or determining a philosophy by which the Recreation Fund programs would become self-supporting. Staff recommendation was that the philosophy be adopted and the fees charged accordingly. (2) Positions - Alternatives for finding the funding for an additional .5 position included funding the position totally out of the General Fund, funding the position totally out of the Recreation Fund, or splitting the duties and the costs between the Recreation Fund and the General Fund. Staff's recommendation was that since the position would be working on General Fund and Recreation Fund activities and the position would be in the administrative section of the Parks and Recreation Department, the position should be funded one-half out of the Recreation Fund and one-half out of the General Fund. Ma]or issues in the Sanitation-Fund included: (1) Revenues - As the State legislature had mandated that all landfills rebate a surcharge to the state, alternatives to raise this surcharge included not imposing any type of rate increases and finding areas to reduce expenditures or funding the rate increase to produce the additional revenues needed. Staff recommended that a rate increase be placed in effect on October 1, 1989 in order to offset the state's surcharge. Commercial revenues alternatives included keeping the system as it currently existed which would necessitate a reduction of $54,150 of expenditures or additional rate increases or including the miscellaneous revenues and allow City Council to review the SWAC Committee recommendations and take final action on the commercial collection after a review of their recommendations. Staff recommendations were to include the revenues within the proposed budget which would allow time for the City Council to review the SWAC recommendations. Major issues for utilities included: (1) New Positions - The Electric Department 2.5 additional positions, the Water/Wastewater recommended 5 positions. recommended Department (2) Electric Summary - No rate increased was planned in electric rates for 1989-90. City of Denton City Council Minutes June 27, 1989 Page 7 (3) Water Summary - an 8.5% increase in water rates was being projected effective October 1, 1989. (4) Wastewater Summary - Wastewater/sewer rates were pro~ected to increase by 8.5% in 1989-90. Major issues for the working capital fund (Municipal Garage) included: (1) New Positions - One new position was being requested which would be funded from the Working Capital Fund. (2) Buildings - A new building for the Municipal Garage was being recommended for which Certificates of Obligation would be required. 6. The Council convened into Executive Session to discuss legal matters, real estate, and personnel/board appointments. (considered appointments to the Board of Adjustment, Building Code Board, Cable T. V. Advisory Board, Citizens Traffic Safety Support Commission, Electrical Code Board, Historic Landmark Commission, and the Human Services Committee). The Council then reconvened into open session and took the following action: A. McAdams motioned, Boyd seconded to approve the appointments of the following individuals: Electrical Code Leonard Starnes Marion Johnson Historic Landmark Commission W. A. Barker Human Services Committee Barbara Atkins Motion carried unanimously. With no further business, p.m. the meeting was adjourned at 11:26 57 JE~Y~./{-~ALTE~S, CITY~-SEC~RETARY CI~ OF ~)ENTON, TEXAS 3124C