So, here we go again, will do my best – “live blogged” This is everything except Metro Transit and Community Development/Community Services because it just got too long.
Missed a bit of the beginning.
1. Public Health is a joint venture with tax levy support divided between the City and the County based upon equalized valuation. Joint costs for 2013 total $9,676,024, net of revenues received from grants and fees. The City levy will support $4,309,701 (44.54%) of the joint costs, and County general purpose revenues will carry the remaining $5,366,323 (55.46%).
2. The Clean Sweep program (household hazardous waste) will be moving from Public Health–Madison and Dane County into the Dane County Department of Public Works. Clean Sweep will be co-located with the solid waste management program in their new facility and be open two additional days per week so that residents will have better access to these services.
3. The 2013 budget includes a 8.4% reduction in grant funding from federal sources.
4.The budget includes the elimination of 2.0 vacant FTE positions in the laboratory, but allows for the restoration of 3.0 FTE positions that were vacated in the Community Health Division during 2012. Two of these positions will be filled in January and one in August.
5. In addition to sharing the joint costs, the City of Madison will provide additional funding for community agency contracts, including $188,000 for Access Community Health Center and $20,000 for the Safe Communities Coalition. With these contracts, along with additional support for the continuation of the Heroin/Opiates Poisoning program ($18,276), total support from the City of Madison will amount to $4,535,977 in 2013.
6. Total City funding for the Heroin Opiates Poisoning Program amounts to $45,000, including the City’s share of the joint costs ($26,724) plus the added City-only funding ($18,276).
Was a little late. Brief description. Mayor said that some eyebrows were raised about layoffs on the county side. Staff says that the city and county agreed to a 2% reduction, they can actually add back or fill some positions. They
will have some changes to the STI program and will be changes to Clean Sweep. (sorry, that was not very detailed)
Clausius asks where Clean Sweep will be? Staff explains that it will be at the landfill and it will be 6 days a week, which means two more days and they can do more than one thing at once.
Ellingson asks about them losing 16.4 positions. Staff says that was a misunderstanding. They will lose two lab positions, some move to clean sweep. (Sorry, also kinda missed that as I catch up.)
1. Full funding for the Affirmative Action Students in Residence Internship Program (AASPIRE) and for an hourly Professional Aide to assist the EOC Hearing Examiner.
Mayor asks Lucia Nunez to explain some meetings with Dr. Rose. She says they are looking at a small business enterprise program. They are looking at the threshold numbers for sizes of businesses and you updated them and we will be able to increase the number of businesses that are SBE. We need to make sure that we increase the number of businesses so we have businesses to do the work. There have been 100 businesses added to the list. They are also working to look at other ways to maximize women and minority owned businesses that work with the city.
Ellingson asks for a preview of how to increase participation. I missed the answer, someone was talking to me.
Clausius asks about the AASPIRE Program, says we have ahd good employees come out of that. Nunez says that it has been a successful year and I missed the rest. Phone is going nuts.
1. Funding for the continuation of existing services.
Rhodes-Conway asks about youth diversion programs. Judge Koval says he is proud of his delinquency programs, court sessions are in the 4 schools once a week and they share what is going on and talk about how the child can achieve. He says he wants to increase court costs up to $10 but we need a state bill to pass – its been stuck in teh legislature for 3 years. If that passed they could use that to fund additional programs. Kids without insurance don’t always have the resources to get the resources that they need. He would like to fund some of those innovative programs.
Rhodes-Conway asks about how they interact with the other youth courts. Timebank does disorderly conduct and other issues where the schools have them go to youth court and have peers decide the sentence and give feedback and as long as they don’t get in any more trouble then the case doesn’t go to court. YOuth Services also has a youth court and they are also doing good work. Koval says that they also need more funds.
Maniaci says that we have heard a lot about community centers and increased crime and activities in the neighborhood, what are you seeing, is there things we should know? Koval says much of it is substance abuse and mental health and no opportunities for employment. He says that takes away idle time and gets them more involved in what is going on.
1. Establishment of the “HR Services” and “Employee and Labor Relations” Units to replace the “Employment” and “Labor Relations” Units and elimination of the “Classification Comp. Benefits” Unit.
2. Partial restoration of funding for advertising associated with recruitment of $20,000 resulting in a net reduction in this line item of $22,000.
Rhodes-Conway asks about advertising funds, you got some back, not all. What impact will that have in attracting a diverse talent pool. Brad Wirtz says that we are seeing a difference and most of the applications are coming from the web instead of traditional print sources. That is how we are working on it. He says that he does not think they will see an impact. Less traditional print media will be cheaper. (and another newspaper dies)
1. Restoration of funding for two full-time Assessment Technicians in the amount of $141,905.
2. Restored funding in the amount of $59,023 for one vacant Property Appraiser 3 position that was unfunded in 2012.
3. Restoration of $5,000 in funding for an hourly Administrative Clerk 1 position.
Resnick asks about the supplementary budget and the three positions. Mark Hansen says that 2 of the 3 positions were for property assessment technicians, those were filled. The other was vacant due to a retirement and that position has been funded by the mayor. Resnick asks if there is a added value for assessments to have those positions filled. Hanson says that every additional field staff person can find more value out there that we are missing. That is especially important with the levy limits and it ties to what new construction we can find. People work without building permits and we need bodies to find that.
1. Funding for two elections. A reduction of two election officials from each polling place for both the February and April elections will be realized, resulting in staffing levels of 7 election officials per polling place in February and 11 election officials per polling place in April.
2. Additional funding of $53,000 for a new Certified Municipal Clerk position. The addition of this position will serve to provide significant relief in the area of health related licenses, and will also reduce pressure on overtime.
Mayor asks questions to get the following info from the clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl
4 elections were scheduled this year but there were 6, we are scheduled for hopefully 2 next year. They are staffed at 60% for poll workers for November 6th. If people just moved here, if they can get to the library by next Wednesday they can register to vote without having proof of address and they can also change their address and get information on where to vote. The librarians are registered deputies. Subeck asks if not registered can they vote – she says yes. Mayor asks what documents they can use – she rattles it off and I missed it. Manicaici asks about a phone being used as a proof of residency – she says the board voted it can be done electronically on your phone, laptop etc.
Rhodes-Conway asks if they have the resources they need for next year. She says yes, we won’t need as much overtime and there will be less burn out with the mayor’s budget.
Schmidt asks about election officials, Maribeth says they do not know if there will a citywide primary in the spring and usually that is for the school board. Can’t hear. I think he is asking if voter ID goes into affect will they have enough election officials and she says they need to know what is on the ballot to know that but she thinks it will be ok.
Weier thanks the clerks office for their work. Mayor say for rebroadcast that the 17th is next Wednesday.
Verveer asks about licensing and IT issues between the clerk and treasurer’s office and what progress has been made on those. She says it couldn’t get worse than it was – they had to do a lot of things manually and there is a workgroup working on fixing the problems and they are doing testing before the next renewal period. That is oversimplified.
Schmidt asks about overtime. She says th plan is to do what they can during normal work hours and things might have been slow on licenses mailed to the office and things that don’t have immediate deadlines.
1. An increase in interagency charges to the Water Utility, related to the planned transition to monthly water billings.
Verveer asks Dave Gawenda about the same issue he asked the clerk. He says in the 2011 budget we had some capital items, a new remittance processor and software. We use it for property tax, water bills, etc. What was new was the Accela software, the way it is supposed to work was a digital file would be created and imported into the software, but the interface was failing and there were files that couldn’t be read that just got dropped. He is pretty confident that the remittance processor was not the problem, it was Accela and we think we have it fixed and they are positive that they wont have issues again.
Verveer asks about the credit card fees. Gawenda says it was a few years ago that we adopted the quarter additional fee. Verveer asks about the bank fees. Gawenda says that there are three fees, our bank charges 27 cents for each transaction. There is also a interchange fee which is the percentage of the payment, parking utility has a flat rate, but the city wide average is another 1.3% to the credit card company. The fees have not changed recently and there is not much we can do if they change it.
Verveer says that a landlord recently pointed out that when he pays his water bill on-line and pays $1000 and he pays the same 25 cents for the water bill as a $20 ticket. Gawenda says he just did a study on the high dollar items, he says example of knocking down a traffic light pole and they were worried about people charging a couple thousand dollars and they studied that and didn’t find it to be a big issue. If the volume of high dollar transactions increase they will have to revisit this.
Resnick asks about licensing permits. He is asking about bike and pet fees. Gawenda says the pet licenses are the ones that they administer. Dog license is a state program and they rebate a lot of that money to the county and they give part of it to a state, we keep the cat licenses. They have had discussion with the health department about compliance and they estimate that for dogs it is 50% and cats less than that. They are looking to make that process easier, but there are challenges, pet owners have to have rabies certifications and verify they are current. They have to come in in person or mail it to use and then we return it. Also, the metal tag has to be delivered, you can’t send it on-line. This is dictated by the state and it would be great if they brought that process up to date. They would like a tag that would be used for multiple years. Resnick asks about bike licenses, Gawenda says that is done in the Transportation Department.
Ellingson asks about the multiple payments of taxes with the county. He says that it is still on the City-County Liaison Committee. The professor who did the research on this and he has submitted it to a journal. They had an election for a new county treasurer and he has talked to Adam Gallagher and he was the only one that talked about the support for this during his campaign. He also did a presentation to the Cities and Villages Association and he got a good response there.
Maniaci asks about television stickers, they get in 19K in fees and it goes in the general fund, they will check on staff time. What does into the general fund and what goes to the agencies. Gawenda says Schmiedicke can answer that, it all goes in the general fund mostly unless it is an enterprise fund. He says the parking utility funds goi to parking utility but tickets go to general fund. Schmiedicke says there are some exceptions, streets the sale of scrap metal does go back to the streets budget, but that reduces the levy for that activity.
Manaici asks for an analysis of the permits and licenses. Clear says page 16. Mayor says that we start out with a philosophical base where we attempt in virtually every instance to have all revenue go into the general fund. There are several reasons for that, if you allocate revenues to the agencies then those that don’t have a revenue base they will be at a disadvantage when the budget is hard to meet and they would be more likely to be cut. That is not a sound way to do business. It also creates incentives that might not be wise, such as moving violations by the police department. Maniaci says she understands that, but she would like an analysis, she says that it is hard to know if we are meeting the costs of programs if we don’t have that information, it would be good to know the implications of adding people and what that means. She says it would be good to understand if we are doing what we need to do. She would like to see this info in the future, they have to look harder at these smaller numbers. Mayor says that for many agencies they can tell you, just let us know what you want to know. WE can tell you that if cut or add a number of people what that does to productivity and revenues. Not sure the data is at hand, but classic example is building inspection. He says its not just the cost to the city, but also the rate payer. There are certain services we don’t charge fees for because it could be regressive. Maniaci says that we are seeing fees languish and no one looks. Rhodes-Conway says that Verveer does it every year. Mayor says that they did to that this year, like the ambulance fee and he says there are three areas for next year, dog, cat and bike licenses. He wants to know what an aggressive program would do in compliance, not so much in revenue. He says that having a license makes a difference in property recovery.
Rhodes-Conway asks what we can do, she says when adopted cats she was offered a service to get a cat license but another cat she adopted she did not have that same experience. She is wondering if there are things they can do to partner with agencies. Gawenda says he adopted cats form Columbia County, it was cheaper. He says they were brainstorming what they could do. He says his cats had chips implanted. At some point if there is standard technology we could get licensing and rabies information from that chip at some point. He says we are assuming if we make it easy we will get compliance. They are hoping to partner with veterinarians. Very few vets do this. Some third parties think we can get that buy in and that should make it easier.
Clear asks about investment revenue – historical context and where we think it is headed. Gawenda says that back in 2008 they saw a dramatic drop in interest rates. The Federal Reserve has put out guidance about how long they would keep rates low. We went through a period where they said through 2013 and economy didn’t get better and then changed to 2014 and now it will be through mid 2015. They are trying to invest with that time horizon. If they were to buy a security now, a federal agency bond would need to have 5 years to get 1% and some are much, much lower. Banks don’t want to do 6 month cds, we get 30 basis points, they don’t want to roll those over. Because of our partnership with the schools, we don’t have to have short term investments. We don’t have any that are more than 7 years, and we are getting 1%, and the average is 80 or 90 basis points. That is bad for the city, the only thing to feel good about is that we are getting 4 or 5 times what we could on the short term investments.
Clear asks ???? – Gawenda says our bonds are callable, and they have been calling them. They are assuming things won’t get worse, but we don’t think it will get worse. Clear says that Schmiedicke smiles with bond sales and Gawenda frowns.
METRO TRANSIT
See separate post.
1. The Utility plans to file a formal 12% rate increase application with the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin in October 2012. The revenue in the 2013 operating budget request includes the 12% rate increase beginning with the August 2013 customer billing. The last increase of 9% was granted in May 2011, and became fully effective January1, 2012.
2. A revenue bond issue of approximately $23 million is expected in November 2012. The bond proceeds will fund the balance of the Utility’s 2012 capital budget and part of the 2013 capital budget. The last bond issue was in December 2011.
3. The addition of 1.0 FTE Accounting Coordinator position to supervise day-to-day clerical accounting including accounts payable, payroll, work order/job costing, accounts receivable, interagency transfers, and accounting close.
4. The Utility expects to complete its implementation of an Advanced Metering Infrastructure called Project H2O in the first half of 2013. In addition, starting in January 2013, the Utility will be converting its semi annual metered accounts to monthly, which will help customers in budgeting for a lower monthly billing.
Ellingson asks about the rate increases of 12% adn 9%, please explain the big steady increases. Tom Heikenen says that the driver for the rates is the capital investment and the bonds. He says the water main replacement program is getting caught up and the treatment and well rehabilitation is an issue. Do you expect it to go on forever. He says it depends on growth, they have conservative numbers. If we have weather like this year we won’t need an increase.
Mayor says we have to be very aware of price in the coming years. Compared to peer cities, our water is relatively a good value. As we work towards conservation, we have to recognize the cost per gallon goes up as people use more water. Another thing to be aware of is that the sewer bill is tied to this and it is under the MMSD and we are under pressure there for EPA issues and that is driving the cost of water. Long term we need to be aware that for some households will be an element in the household budget like fuel prices in the winter and there are some communities on the east coast to help with these expenses. He says the reality is that no matter what we do we will have increases in expenses. If water use goes down we have the reality that per gallon price will increase and its compounded by the disposal of the waste.
Ellingson asks about the PILOT payment, Its $5M which is a lot of money for pipes and pumping station, is the PSC going to stop this? Heikenen says it is according to their formula. They are looking into the issue. A policy change would have to happen at the state legislature level. He says that roughly 15% is going to municipalities. Ellingson says if the policy does change it could be a chunk of money. He says it would put municipalities in a tough spot.
Mayor says that it would put Madison tax payers at a disadvantage because those outside Madison who use our water wouldn’t pay.
Cnare asks about cost of the treatment facilities and practices at all the wells. A filter used to be rare, now its not. How does that tie in. He says that the water quality goals have been changed due to customer expectation, iron and manganese were always part of our lives but now when we rebuild and reconstruct we include filtration facilities and that adds to the cost. He says that is part of the cost of doing business today. Just keeping up with maintenance is also a challenge. So much expansion happened 70, 80, 90 years ago and that needs to be replaced. They are staying in sync with the roads schedule so the roads don’t get torn up twice.
Verveer asks about debt to the city of Madison. He says that they have budgeted for and are making their annual payments, 785K per year, they are in year 8 of 10 so they owe about $5M. That is happening as scheduled. They have been in the black since 2010, they are not adding.
Verveer asks where that line item is? They say it is “debt and other financing” on page 94 of the Executive Budget. Verveer asks when it is done. They say there are 7 years left.
Verveer asks about the Schmiedicke accounting of LTE positions, there are savings of $48,800 for one of the positions, can you explain that. That is overtime, comp time, weekend and other pay. They work 7 days a week and its largely overtime. If you have a supervisor position how does that help? That would eliminate the overtime. They say that it would help him work with accounting and clerks. They only have one accounting professional at the moment. He lists all the things they do. They have a lot of deadlines they can’t meet.
Clausius asks about the metering process. Are we on schedule. They say they are a month behind. They might be able to catch up on that. They are starting work in area 2. Clausius asks fi the opt-out affected the schedule. He says a little, but it might impact it more later. He’s not worried about the schedule. Clausius asks when they will convert to monthly and when will they start. He says in NOvember or December it will be area one and then it will follow as they install they meters. It will lag after the work is done but by summer of next year it will all be done.
Weier asks about 12% increase, is that for business and industry. Yes, that is the overall revenue and it will be split across customer categories. For this rate case we will have a new customer class of multi-family. That will be 3 units or greater.
Weier asks if business pays less. He says they may pay a lower rate, but non-residential customers are 53% of the revenue but are 15% of the customers. They are half or more of the customers (not sure I got those numbers right)
Weier asks if customers use more do they get a better rate? He says it is a flat rate. He says there are two blocks for non-residential. He says the PFC thinks that is fare. He says even tho they pay less, they have a meter charge and that charge for large meeters is several thousand dollars a month.
1. Funding for an aldermanic salary adjustment of 2% in April 2013 per Madison General Ordinances 3.50.
No questions, just laughter.
DIRECTOR OF PLANNING AND COMMUNITY AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
1. Funding for a continuation of services.
2. An increase in the Director’s time billed to TIDs of $30,767.
They bring up many people from several areas – Planning, building Inspection, Economic Development. They start with Building Inspection. They jump around a bunch here. I’m not re-ordering my notes.
1. Funding to covert training of an additional staff person due to a retirement.
2. Additional General Fund support of approximately $60,700 for a vacant Painter position. This is partially offset by a reduction in Purchased Services of approximately $30,000.
No questions.
1.Full-year funding for a 1.0 FTE Housing Initiatives Specialist to staff the Housing Committee and assist with CDA Housing initiatives. The position was authorized in 2012 but is not anticipated to be hired until the latter part of the year.
2. Operating expenses for The Village on Park including debt service expense on City loan advances.
3. Rental revenues from The Village on Park, interest income, sales proceeds from condo sales and development fees.
Ellingson asks if they are still adding a person. Natalie Erdman says that they are, it will be a few more weeks. Ellingston asks what they will do. She explains what is written above. They could spend 1/4 time working with other departments. Ellingson asks if it is paid for by the city or the CDA money. Erdman says it will be paid for by CDA. Ellingson says that Bruer says we don’t have enough resources, do you see this as a need? Erdman says there is always a question of what we can get done. We use city staff to do our work and will continue to do that to get the work done. Ellingson says she is interested in the Greenbush area.
Rhodes-Conway says that she appreciates these budgets, but she is still not clear about Affordable Housing Trust Fund going to the CDA, that seems like giving money to ourselves. Don’t you have resources to create affordable housing without using our limited our trust fund. Erdman says that for capital projects we get money in the capital budget, they do affordable housing for very low income people so they can get tax credits and Federal Home Loan Bank, but if we do the developer or a non-profit does, there are still gaps. The transaction they saw, this was a short term loan for owner occupied housing for very low income people and its only for 3 years. CDBG thought this was a good deal. They competeed in that process they are meeting goals of the city and they use all the mechanisms they can use.
Maniaci asks about funding decisions liek CDBG does. Erdman explains they don’t do that, they don’t allocate money to third parties. She says their funding is Section 8 and public housing. When they do a redevelopment, they talk to private lenders and WHEDA, they don’t allocate money. They are working on a strategic plan to determine their priorities and show how they will support that.
1. A reduction in funding for the Overture Center of $1,000,000, from $1,850,000 to $850,000.
2. Continued funding of $80,000 for Neighborhood Grants. However, $50,000, which has been used to hire a consultant to fully develop neighborhood plans and planning studies, is reallocated to provide for the hire of an additional City Planner 2, effective April 2013. The Planner 2 position will staff future neighborhood plans and create additional staff time to assume the lead on Neighborhood Indicators and other strategic data reporting and will work with other staff and the Applied Population Lab to plan for City staff to assume the responsibility maintaining th neighborhood indicators data and potentially replacing most or all of the consultant work in future years. Separate funding of $51,500 for the contracting for Neighborhood Indicators will continue through 2013 with the expectation that it will be reduced or phased out in 2014.
3. Continued funding of $19,500 for a Neighborhood Conference.
4. Reduction in hourly salaries from $14,322 to $9,197.
This topic is second.
Rhodes-Conway asks about the planning position. Brad Murphy says that comes from the Neighborhood Grants – he says they have used 50K of that in the past to do one planning effort, hiring a planner will allow us to keep pace with that. We would then have three planners. That will help us with backlog to keep plans up to date. Some plans are 10 years old or older and we will have additional resources to help with that. He says they may also get to some neighborhoods developed in the 60s, 70s and 80s. We still won’t be able to get to all the neighborhoods within 10 years and get to those who want them. Rhodes-Conway asks if this will increase the speed of completion. Murphy says it will help.
Rhodes-Conway asks about a supplemental request for a planning conference. What do you have in terms of a budget and what is the importance of this conference. Murphy says they have 16 planners and with existing resources they could send 4 to the national conference, we normally send one. We could send 4 and have some money for others. They thought that because of the proximity they thought they could send more to Chicago. Its all over the country usually.
Rhodes-Conway asks if they have continuing education requirements. Murphy says yes, for those who are members of the certified planner association. But we don’t require them to have that certification for the job. Rhodes0Conway asks if the certification is considered in promotions. Murphy says no.
Maniaci says one of the staff crossed their certification off their business card the other day because they can’t afford it. Murphy says many have let that lapse because of the cost. She asks if the city has been paying for that. Murphy says no, they do what they can, but we don’t have necessary resources to keep all the certified planners earning all their credits. They have done a pretty good job, some opportunities are free or affordable. They encourage regional conference, but you can earn all the credits going to one national conference.
Verveer says that Murphy has let them know he is leaving at the end of the year and says thanks for all the years and notes this will be his last budget. He asks about the Downtown Plan and the Downtown Historic Preservation Plan to ID potential landmarks. Do you believe Amy Scanlon will be able to find time to get at the issue of evaluating potential landmarks or do we need a consultant. Murphy says the 1998 plan id’d 65 potential landmarks and while staff might have some time, realistically you won’t see a substantial amount of effort given the current work load. It hasn’t happened since 1998 and given the existing resources there is no reason to believe it will just occur without additional resources. If we want to prioritize that we need additional resources. He says hiring usually pretty affordable consultants would be one way to do this. Verveer asks about grants. Murphy says he doesn’t know if there are any available but he will ask.
Clear has a question about Overture, but Mayor tells him to wait.
Schmidt asks how we will select which neighborhoods will get planning. Murphy says that is a good question, he has a map and he can get them copies, he shows the adopted plans, he says some of them are well over 10 years old. ONe way is to look at recommendations in the plan and see if they are current and what the need it to update. He says the other ways is to look at the needs of the neighborhood. The way we have been doing it is that the neighborhood who is organized is usually successful and that isn’t the best way to prioritize. CDBG helps them look at neighborhoods they should focus on. Emerson East/Eken Park is one of the next neighborhoods. They are also looking at the Esat side where there are no neighborhood plans.
Resnick asks about the Neighborhood Indicators. Murphy says it is on line and if they are not current they will be shortly, the Applied Population Lab is under contract to do that, and funding is in place through 2013 and the intent is to work with the lab to train current city staff to maintain the database and phase out the contract. Still a question if we can do that. Resnick asks if the cost is the contract or are we paying for data. Murphy says most of the data is local sources and he doesn’t think they have secondary sources, but they might.
Maniaci asks about neighborhood conference funding. She says we could have this conference or send planners to a professional conference. She asks what that money gos to. He explains speaker fees, etc. She asks how many years they do it. Murphy says they do it for a half day or full day and have been doing it for over a decade.
Overture
This was done after CDA. They do introductions.
Clear asks about the board approving the budget already and that they had $2M in their budget, but happens when they are short. He says it is devastating – the directors of Overture does – he says it is a 60% reduction, they don’t have details, they need to look at the ramifications, they have only known about it a week. They will have to look at staffing and maintenance on the building. On the revenue side there is a few shows they could try to get, they can look at rentals. There is limited activities they can fit in. They would have to work fast and go into a high competitive mode.
Clear asks if they have flexibility in the contracts with the resident companies. He says they are locked in until June.
Verveer says that the commitment is for free and reduced price shows, can you update us on the amount of shows you do. How does that compare to prior years. He says there are 14 programs, they attract 220,000 people throughout the year, they added a few more events in the programs, like Kids in the Rotunda on Saturday mornings, they do 30 weekends, they have been doing that for 30 years. They added two to the Mad City session (Overture after work)
Verveer asks about the lists of free and reduced price shows coming up and notes that the resident companies also do their own shows. He says that is right, there are 150 activities in performing arts and fine arts gallery events – which are low or no cost. Low cost is less than $30 per person. He also says that the 220,000 does not include the resident groups, the total is much larger than we report.
Verveer asks about private fundraising, and what the results have been and what do you see in the future. He says part of the agreement is to go into the community and raise money. $2.4M. There was much skepticism about if it would be accomplished but to everyone’s delight, the community stepped up and realized the value and developed stronger relationships. We got everything from $1 to $100, to $500 and $1000. 1700 individuals have contributed. 1/3 gave $99 or less, that is impressive. 400 new donors in the appeal and they were helped by matching funds from MG&E and a private individual that helped us leverage fundraising. The President of the Board notes that the agreement had commitments, Overture has met all the commitments, including the fundriasing, that was our obligation. The city commitment to an annual grant was less in the first year and it had an increase in the ERP commitment. That is why we are here, they want them to live up to that commitment.
Verveer says the council even chipped in additional money from the pizza fund. He asks what the confidence level is in the continued private fundraising. They say they learned a lot, they committed more resources to fundraising, the board and staff are confident, cautiously confident, but confident that we wan live up to the agreement. Board President agrees. Its a formidable task, but they think the donations are out there.
Manaici asks about the fundraising figure? They say they were supposed to raise $2.4M and they raise $2.365M.
Maniaci asks about Broadway shows, would the lack of funds hinder bringing those shows there, because that is the make or break. He says largest percentage of earned revenue comes form broadway shows. They added 4 weeks to the schedule, they can bring Jersey Boys for 3 weeks and bring Wicked back and it did well last time. They think this market can sustain the 3 weeks of Wicked even those it was here recently. That takes out time we can do other things. We have to do everything we can to bring people to Madison as a weekend destination. They have 500 girl scouts coming on a Saturday afternoon. If this works, we can sustain this, but it is dependent on the product available and how we can compete. Our competitors are Appleton and Milwaukee. We have shown we are a strong and growing market. We are looking at being the first market to bring in first run shows. He says this will also help the City as well.
Manaici asks about if there are things on the capital side that would be impacted if the city changes its subsidy. He says they don’t know specifics yet. He says they are trying to follow the 15 year plan and the consultants recommendations. However, within this kind of year, we have $1M worth of activities we could fund but we might have to reduce that.
Rhodes-Conway says she hates to dredge up the past, but one of the things she remembers from the negotiations, she remembers the numerous emails we got requesting us to do the right thing, she says that many were from people not in Madison, which speaks to the regional draw, she says that she told those folks to ask their city council to contribute. Have you approached other governmental groups. They say they made one so far and the County Executive gave them some money, its not a lot of money and still subject to approval. Yes, it is a large task, from a long term strategic standpoint they intend to do that. The president of the board says that they are working to reach out to areas around Madison and maybe have thought about some taxing method for the Overture Center. Rhodes-Conway says that they were good at showing statistics for our districts and hopes that they can do that for others. CEO says that it is the relationships as well.
Cnare asks about the citizen’s advisory board and other things. Perhaps if you get the smaller amount we remove some things that are required. Would you keep doing the advisory board? They say that the advisory board has been valuable and thank the council for that recommendation. They have met three times. They have been wonderful with their input. He says many of the recommendations would be stalled without the money. He says one of the immediate things was an opportunity to work with Marquette Neighborhood Association in the Fete De Marquette and Waterfront Festival. They also sponsored an event at Overture and the response was overwhelming. We have pledged to do the same again this summer and want to expand that involvement. He wants Overture to be a resource for the community, either if people come there or supports activities in the community. They want to develop those relationships for future activities.
Bruer asks about deferred maintenance, can you speak to 15 year plan and the issues. Where is that at today and how close are they to the 15 year plan. Staff says it is on track right now, they have an operations committee of the board that reviews every other month the progress on the list. He says primarily it is working on the gift of the revitalization of the Civic Center. Many of the things we are looking at are the capital theater and the deferred maintenance. He says the bricks and mortar is good, but there are a lot of things behind the scenes that were not addressed and are part of what we inherited and they are dealing with those issues. Leaking of the cupola and other issues.
Bruer says they should provide the council with information on their capital investment. He says it is saving millions on the capital side of things for the taxpayers – blah, blah, blah, still talking and not saying anything. He asks if they can speak to expertise for facilities that is on the board. Board President says that the committee that deals with the capital experience and deferred maintenance is headed up with a banker familiar with that and the staff has expertise. He is comfortable with that expertise. Bruer wants to see the details of that expertise, he says that was lacking before. He says he can’t say there is a person, but a variety of people who are very smart and very bright and have dealt with those areas but not on a day to day basis.
Maniaci asks what the total budget is, how much is the city portion and what is the captial and operating, what is programming, they would like to see that. Staff says he’d like to give that when he has the specifics. She asks the total budget. He says $14M. She says she would like to see that break down. She wants to understand if the city doesn’t pony up, where would those cuts be. She wants to understand the implications.
Mayor asks about the previous request for private-public model. Do you prefer this model or do you want it owned by the city. Board President says he can’t answer, but he can tell them that having been in the negotiations, that led to the condominimizing the building, that ownership model was heavily debated and negotiated. He is not aware of any efforts to change the model. Mayor asks if there is any desire to go back to what they originally wanted. He isn’t sure what the mayor is asking. Mayor says there was a city committee and the mayor wrote a minority report and at that time many wanted public ownership and private management and he wants to know if there is any desire to go back to that. He says not that he is aware of but he hasn’t posed that question to the board.
1. Funding for a new 1.0 FTE Code Enforcement Officer 3 – Building Inspector position in lieu of funding for a currently vacant Code Enforcement Officer 1 position. The new CEO 3 Building Inspector position anticipates growth in new construction throughout the City.
He goes first of all the groups. Verveer asks about the supplemental request for more positions. Are those housing or zoning. George Hank says they are both housing. Verveer says that one is new construction that the mayor would fill and they now have a bilingual inspector. Verveer asks about the vacancy – how long as it been vacant. The whole year, we were ready to fill it when the budget message came out so he didn’t go through with the hiring at that point. They delayed the hire and they were ready to interview. Verveer asks how many vacancies. Hank says 1 with this proposed budget, they will fill one position. Verveer asks about the request for 2 housing people. Hank says the mayor changed one to a new construction hire. Hank says they did not get the position, but there was a transfer of duties. Hank says that they dropped from 5 to 4 to 3 commercial inspectors and now they are adding on back.
Verveer asks about inspection priorities. Hank says it is the Isthmus where there are porches and buildings are 100 years or older, and then at risk neighborhoods. Verveer asks what neighborhoods they are in for programmed inspections. He says he can’t see any programmed inspections in his district. Hank says they are spending a lot of time on the NorthEast of the Isthmus, Tenney Lapham and in the Brentwood area. Mayor asks how many violations at Woodland Park – Hank says 3500.
Verveer asks how long it takes for a complaint. He says they can get there that day or the next day depending upon the complainants schedule.
Subeck asks about the building inspector for the NRT areas, is that the vacancy. Yes. Subeck asks how many NRT neighborhoods can they do programmed inspections in. Hank says most of them, they are active in all of them, many are exterior but some are interior. Subeck asks if they can keep up with the programmed needs of the Isthmus and NRT areas. He says they can keep up. They did not convert a position to Zoning. They did get more Zoning people, adn that will impact neighborhoods as well.
Clausius says he appreciates the monthly summary. He says McCarthy St. complex is keeping them busy.
Maniaci asks about retirements from a few years ago, will you see anything like that in the future that we should prepare for. Hank says 2.5 years ago we hired green staff and it takes years to know the system, even after 4 years they see new things. They hired 3 new staff 2.5 years ago. They have 2 staff that are senior staff that in a few years, 30 years for one and 28 years for another and they will be leaving. But we have done well with the new staff, the bilingual inspector is a very good employee, has construction experience.
Maniaci asks about Streets and them not picking up the leaves and how would that impact Building Inspection. Hank says the only issue is when they put the leaves in the street. You are not required to rake your leaves.
1. The elimination of one currently vacant position, the Jobs Development Specialist.
2. Funding for a continuation of services and staffing levels, including filling the Director of the Office of Economic Revitalization where the incumbent is expected to retire in 2013.
3. $50,000 in additional levy support to reduce the need to charge certain housing assistance programs for staff administrative time, allowing more funding for housing assistance.
4. Funding of $26,000 for a conference highlighting the City’s economic potential, partially offset by anticipated registration and sponsor revenues of $15,000.
After Overture they go to this topic.
Rhodes-Conway asks about the work plan. Is that still updated and prioritized. Aaron Olver says it is an annual plan and they are working on a new 5 year plan for the city. They need the work plan to follow the strategy. He says they can give an update, but the more important thing is include you in devleoping a new strategy.
Verveer is temporarily chairing.
Solomon asks about the elimination of the JObs Development Specialist, what happened and why wasn’t it filled? Olver says that their whole budget is made up of people, and they have had 4 vacancies and they filled 2 and a 3rd is in process. Looking at the positions, they wanted to make sure it was a vacant position, they had two choices. He says there is a challenge with this position, they see it as a huge chore to tackle poverty/skills gap, etc with one position. He says there is no consensus on how to do this. This was a specialized position focused on a big problem, but they felt they needed a generalist. He also says that one of the people they hired was very interested in this topic and she is looking at green co-ops. They don’t want to lose the spirit of the position, but for the 5% budget cut this is what they chose.
Solomon says the reason for not filling it, was not because it didn’t work in the work plan or EDD, or that there wasn’t work, but they couldn’t limit the scope to what was possible for one person. Olver says that is fair. He says it might be outside the comfort zone, he says that some people look at this person as a caseworker, you would need an army of people and others are more suited to that. He says one of the reasons to put it in Economic Development was to grow jobs and there are many ways to do that and that was the challenge, choosing the strategy and being efficient.
Manaici asks about the Real Estate Agent II. Is that Percy Brown’s position in item 2. What do you see in the next year as far as staffing. Olver says real estate services is a lot of work, it is administering TIF, underwriting capital revolving fund, major land transactions and complex real estate deals with Hovde/Fire Admin building. It is also a service agency for other department like streets, CDA etc and that work is kind of invisible – what you see is parks and library and other projects. They are down 1 position. Two people retired and one was hired. They had hoped the work load would be manageable, but the projects uncompleted are increasing and they can’t serve some of the agencies. It is hard to absorb this work load, but they understand the budget issues.
Maniaci says that there is concern about the Information Specialist. Mayor wants them to explain the position and he says it was one of the hardest things not to include. Where are we at in marketing the city and what kind of opportunities are out there. Steve Cover says that the primary focus is to market the city and they are not marketing ourselves locally, regionally, statewide, nationally or internationally. Other cities are way out marketing us in the Midwest. He thinks it is important. Also, from the public information side we need to tell them they good things going on. Olver says there is a huge amount of value in the marketing, but also the PR side, he wants to work on the brand about Madison being a great place to do business. Seeing is believing and there are great projects going on all over the city. Cover says we need to do more than show up on the top 10 lists.
Maniaci asks them if they have the Madison book, Olver says it is upstairs.
Manaici asks about if they looked at a joint funding option with the Room Tax funds. Are we limited from doing the city marketing? She thought that is why the money is there. Schmiedicke says there is no prohibition to using it for that, the question is if there are sufficient funds. She says there is money in the fund. He says that all that money has been allocated, either through increase in expenditure from the room tax (destination marketing money) and the remainder is transferred to the general fund.
Manaici asks about joint funding a position, can’t the GMCVB donate toward that, can we ask our community partners.
Mayor says that the position is meritorious, then we find a way to fund it within our base. With Mark’s position the funders walked away, and who funds, controls what happens and much of what we need to do is beyond GMCVB and it is about public safety, public education, etc. There is not an insignificant amount of money for the council to work with and this is something that if the council chose to fund he would support.
Maniaci asks if the conversations happen. Mayor says that we pay either way, through the room tax.
Cnare asks about the conference. Olver says it is a placeholder. When we cut the position, it was more than our 5% so they kept a space to work on another conference. Mayor says that the co-op conference was very successful and attendance was more than expected and he says they will see some outcomes.
Maniaci asks about the $83,000 to fill a position. Cover says that was a Public Information II position
SPECIAL FUNDS
See link above.
They do this after Economic Development.
Affordable Housing Trust Fund – none
Capital Revolving Fund
Rhodes-Conway asks about the Housing Assistance Funds. Olver says it is pages 29, 26 and 27. Rhodes-Conway says she can wait til then. Olver says some of the funds are replenished by state or federal grants, some create interest but generally they are having more staff costs than fees so over time they deplete and it has been happening for years. The Capital Revolving Loan fund has a good strong balance and payments, but we have grants as well as loans. We have to talk about if we are going to replenish the funds or use them up.
Rhodes-Conway asks how in demand the fund is, we didn’t use all the funds in 2012. Olver says that part of that will close in 2013, and he says that this ebbs and flows. He says as the economy dips, the use dips and as economy recovers it will be more in demand. They will use the funds this year and the pipeline looks strong.
Verveer asks about other sources of funding to maintain these programs in the future? How do we sustain this? He is most familiar with the facade improvement grants. It will be hard to say no some day. Percy Brown says for the facade improvement grant program we are in good shape for one more year. He says the last grant was given out on Friday and people are waiting for next year, but beyond 2013 there will be challenges. In the last two years, the Home buy Program, down payment program have performed at record pace. Even tho the economy was struggling people used the good interest rates if they have good credit. He says consumer confidence is up and businesses are using the facade improvement grants and investing. He says they have probably maxed out in fees. For the Housing Rehab program we are still getting new money for that. The down payment program has $100K reserved for Allied and that is going to hit the fund hard. He is more worried about the city home-buy program, but we have been told we might not get the funding again. He says they need to look at the programs and will work on in the first half of next year. PErcy says that after 35 years he doesn’t want to leave and have the program be broke.
Mayor asks for examples of where the facade grants were used. Verveer says they have a beautiful book with the 56 or 36? projects they funded since 2000. He says Shnk Atwood, State St and Park St. are some areas they worked in. It made a difference in the older retail districts. They have new windows, awnings, base, etc on the buildings. THey try to restore the buildings to the historical character.
Mayor also asks for a report telling the purpose of the grant program and is it inconsistent with illegal signage on the building and trashy looking plastic A frames inconsistent with the restored facades.
Manaici asks about grants for lighting enhancement. She asks why the line is 0. Should we budget money, is it elsewhere in the budget. Matt Mikolajewski says that the State-Langdon Resource Team id’d areas that need lights. They think they might need more incentives to make the improvements and be respectful. They did request the funds. Manaici asks if the funds are in the budget. Matt says no. Matt explains that since these are not revolving funds they would be part of the general levy. Maniaci asks where the budget would be. Mayor says they tried to fund as many NRT requests as they could, he agreed with most requests they just couldn’t fund them all.
Bruer asks about strategic plans and how they will facilitate bringing all those plans together for a comprehensive strategy. Cover says that they could probably do a better job of working on that more comprehensively. They are going to try to improve interactions with the division and CDA and get more involved in each other’s strategic plans.
Bruer asks about capacity building? cover says that with Percy leaving they will review his programs and how can they be positive generators and work for the groups.
Bruer asks about Neighborhood Indicators. Do you see at some point using theat information in the strategic planning. Cover says that info will be considered in the strategic planning.
Several Funds blow by
No questions
Brownfields
Ellingson asks what this is. Olver says money came form “future congressman” Pocan, EPA and the DNR.
Ellingson asks if we would get more funds, she thought if we used them we would get more. Olver says the Commerce Fund isn’t likely but the others are, the state funds go to companies, but it isn’t out of the realm of possibility.
Home-buy, Housing Rehab, Scattered Site Fund, Homebuyers Assistance Program, Insurance and Workers’ Comp Fund
No questions.
COMMUNITY SERVICES AND CDBG
This is in a separate post.
DEBT SERVICE
page 8
They go to this after general fund revenues, nothing.
GENERAL FUND REVENUES
page 12
They do this after parking utility.
Verveer asks Dan Bohrod (finance department) about fines and forfeitures and other groups, it seems like the projections are very close to budget and he wants to know if the projections are based on 2 quarters of this year. Sometimes we get detailed memos and haven’t seen one. Bohrod says he does a midyear revenue report – and they asked for the report, but the projections are based on 2nd quarter data and he just looked at 3rd quarter data and there isn’t much that would make him change the projections. He says that he looks for evidence of a departure and then he won’t make changes. Verveer thanks him for having recent information. Verveer says sometimes things are different.
Verveer asks about Brad Clark report that says that there is a new cable television provider in town and they will do the city in-house services, he is wondering if charter and AT&T will have new competition. Not sure if there would be more revenue in franchise fees. Bohrod wasn’t aware of anything. Verveer asks him to check into it.
1. Funding for a continuation of services, including full funding for salaries, benefits, and supplies associated with seasonal/hourly employees who perform pavement marking services, such as the painting of regular school crosswalks, handicap ramps and speed humps.
They do this after community services and CDBG.
Maniaci asks about the 3 suppleentals not funded. She asks about the bike registration fees. Sounds like that will be picked up in the next year. They say they wanted to spread things out but they can live wihtout it.
Maniaci asks about retirements. David Dryer says that there is one significant retirement.
Manaici asks about changes in things going on with you guys. No.
Maniaci asks about materials. Dryer says they are maintaining what they need to do, they always do more every year, more green material and crosswalks. He says it has been wonderful, it hasn’t broken down.
Maniaci asks about bus stops and parking. Dryer says Verveer wanted to work on the parking issue and they have caught up on that and we are set. Dryer says that Verveer hasn’t asked for any more. Verveer says they were done a long time ago. Manaici asks if the whole list is done, they say yes.
Missed a little.
1. Funding of $17,000 for the replacement of a utility vehicle in the Parking Utility’s capital assets budget, which is past its useful life. This vehicle is used for a variety of purposes related to maintenance within Parking Utility facilities.
2. Funding of $100,000 for signage in the Parking Utility’s capital assets budget for the improvement of communication to customers. This funding is to be utilized solely for the improvement of communication to customers, including improvement to signage informing customers when a cashier is available, and not for the purpose of additional automation in parking facilities.
3. A Payment-in-Lieu of Taxes(PILOT) to the City’s General Fund of $1,284,723.
4. A Parking Meter Occupancy fee payment to the City’s General Fund of $241,770.
5. Interdepartmental payments (including payments to other City agencies) of $1,063,643.
6. Reserves generated of $2,574,220 as the Utility prepares for the replacement of the Government East Parking garage within the next few years.
Rhodes-Conway asks how the PILOT was arrived at. Dan Bohrod says that it was the same as the water utility. The occupancy charges are the parking meters.
Verveer asks about security services, have they had any conversations with labor. Dryer says they are working hard with Guy VanREnsaelaer and many departments. They have met three times. They meet every week for the next 6 – 8 weeks. Verveer asks if it is on this issue specifically. They say yes. Verveer says the money is less for next year than this year, is there an indication that JBM is not raising the rates. Yes, the rates are the same as the previous year. There may be a $1 increase next year. They aren’t exactly sure, he thinks the hourly rate is the same but isn’t sure.
Verveer asks about signage. He says there is $50K in capital assets, will it be spent. Yes, there are cashier on duty signs at all ramps in all the areas. They were able to convert the signs. It cost 3200 for all garages and they have 46K left to use for directional signage. Customers want more dircitonal signage to get in and around and out of the garages.
Manaici asks about Overture Ramp and the Fire Department. She asks about temporary parking for the construction. They say it is 24 stalls, for the end of November or early December and they will analyze that after one month and see what they are actually using and they will charge them for what they are using. Mnaiaci says that they have extra capacity there. They say that is changing. There may be a 40 – 90 stall use agreement with Hovde that will change all that. Maniaci says 2100 per stall. They say $180 per month per stall. Maniaci asks if they need to be close to their vehicles. Yes, they have urgent job duties and this serves their need for the short term. Maniaci asks if this is the same as other parking fees in the area. They say they are not sure about the 24/7 access of other rates. Manaici asks if capacity wasn’t an issue, would you still be charging full price. Yes, we would charge the rates approved by TPC.
1. Deleting one vacant position of Account Clerk 2 in the Ambulance Accounting section.
2. Reassigning one filled position of Account Clerk 3 from Ambulance Accounting to General Accounting, and eliminating the funding for one vacant position of Account Clerk 2 in the General Accounting section.
3. Funding for the administrative costs associated with using a third party administrator for ambulance billing.
Nothing.
1. Full funding for a 1.0 FTE Neighborhood Resources Coordinator, which was transferred to the Mayor’s Office from Public Health Madison and Dane County via budget amendment in 2012.
2. Full levy funding for the Food and Alcohol Policy Coordinator which previously had been partially supported by contributions from the UW-Madison. At least half of this position’s work will be related to food policy.
3. An increase of $10,000 in the Mayor’s Office travel/training budget.
4. Funding of $20,000 for a Mayor’s Bike Summit, offset entirely by sponsor contributions and registration fees.
They do this last after miscellaneous.
Maniaci asks about Food and Alcohol Coordinator position. Mayor says they are funding it all now. Manaici asks if they need to clean that up. Maniaci asks a question and the council gets snippy with her and point out the answer is in point 2 and 3.
page 9
(a) This funding was moved to the Community Development Division in the 2012 Adopted Budget.
(b) This funding may be used to contract for services for employee and leadership development, as well as strategic planning and customer satisfaction surveys in conjunction with success indicators. This appropriation includes funding for annual resident satisfaction surveys administered by the University of Wisconsin Survey Center.
(c) The Emerging Neighborhoods Fund is designed to quickly deploy resources to neighborhoods facing various challenges. The goal is to address potential problems in neighborhoods before they become more serious and more expensive to the community. In past years, the Fund has awarded grants to after-school programs, childcare initiatives, neighborhood associations in challenged neighborhoods, and grassroots initiatives aimed at enhancing the quality of life in a neighborhood. Grants from the Fund are typically modestly-sized, one-time awards. Applications for initiatives addressing needs in neighborhoods with active Neighborhood Resources Teams will receive priority. Applications shall be reviewed by a workgroup consisting of an Alder from the Community Services Committee and one staff member from the Office of Community Services, the Community Development Block Grant Office, the Planning Unit, and the Mayor’s Office. Funding recommendations shall be made to the Common Council in the form of a resolution.
(d) Financial reporting standards require that annual budget comparison reports include a carry-over budget to recognize the expenditure of funds encumbered at the end of the previous year but spent in the current year. To achieve conformance with this requirement, the Budget includes an appropriation of funds for the payment of prior year encumbrances. This spending authority is later reallocated to the various agencies with prior year encumbrances through a Common Council resolution, and the corresponding expenditures are recorded in the appropriate agencies. Thus, no costs are displayed here for the 2011 actual or 2012 projected columns.
(e) This study will assess the state of Madison’s performance venues; identify gaps (particularly geographic gaps); estimate the degree to which these venues compete for acts and audiences; describe the impact of City funding on that competition; and describe tools the City can use to help strengthen existing facilities and create new ones.
(f) This funding is to assist persons without sufficient funding so that they can go home.
(g) It is the City’s policy to appropriate 0.5% of budgeted expenditures to the Contingent Reserve. Contingent Reserve spending authority may later be reallocated to various agencies through resolutions of the Common Council. Thus, no costs are displayed here for the 2011 actual or 2012 projected columns.
Nothing.
MOTION
Refer to council for public hearing and recess it.
It’s 10:10.
Water Utility adding a supervisor position to oversee one accountant, one accounting specialist and one payroll clerk is ridiculous. That is what the Finance Mgr should be doing. No wonder water rates keeping going up by such large proportions! Hopefully Council will realize that this is a fiscally unsound proposal that is trying to be added during the budget process rather than separately later where it might be more closely scrutinized.