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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Finance Committee - 12/05/2024 - Finance Administration 215 N. Mason nd Floor Fort Collins, CO 80522 970.221.6788 970.221.6782 - fax fcgov.com Council Finance Committee Hybrid Meeting CIC Room / Zoom December 5, 2024 4:00 - 6:00 pm Council Attendees: Emily Francis, Kelly Ohlson, Tricia Canonico Staff: Kelly DiMartino, Tyler Marr, Travis Storin, Gretchen Stanford, Teresa Roche, Dianne Criswell, Ginny Sawyer, Terri Runyan, Max Valadez, Joe Wimmer, Randy Bailey, Trevor Nash, Renee Reeves, Dean Klingner, Monica Martinez, Victoria Shaw, Adam Harris, Jo Cech, Carolyn Koontz Other: Kevin Jones, Chamber of Commerce Diane Lapierre and Ken Draves from the Poudre Library District Meeting called to order at 4:00 pm Approval of minutes from the November 6, 2024, Council Finance Committee meeting. Motion made to approve by Kelly Ohlson and seconded by Emily Francis. Approved via roll call. A. Southeast Community Center Status Update & Next Steps Dean Klingner, Community Services Director LeAnn Williams, Recreation Director Victoria Shaw, Finance Senior Manager, Community Services EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Southeast Community Center, a City of Fort Collins and Poudre River Public Library District (PRPLD) partnership, is in the early stages of design. The project has a scope and funding history that dates back to the 2015 voter approval of the Community Capital Improvement Tax which included a Community Center with an Outdoor Pool. In the intervening years, additional developments have made expanded opportunities possible. These include completion of multiple studies and plans, a partnership with PRPLD, and a potential funding partnership with Poudre School District. Over the next several months, the design team will be developing funding and scoping options to inform City Council, the PSD School Board, and the Library District Board decisions. This conversation is intended to summarize the background, update project status and developments, and to propose a framework for future decision making by the full Council. GENERAL DIRECTION SOUGHT AND SPECIFIC QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED What questions do Committee members have regarding partnerships with PRPLD and PSD? What questions do Committee members have about potential project inclusions and funding options? BACKGROUND/DISCUSSION This project includes over 11 years of project development from the completion of a 2013 Feasibility study through today. Due to the volume of background information, this Agenda Item Summary presents the background in summary, not complete detail. • In October of 2013 the City completed the “Fort Collins Southeast Community Recreation & Arts Center – Summary of Needs and Development Plan.” This study provides valuable information about the origination of the idea of a facility in SE Fort Collins, but is now old enough that it does not reflect current community needs. • In January of 2021 City Council adopted “ReCreate, Parks and Recreation Master Plan.” This document is the “north star” for guiding parks and recreation policy and investment and highlights the need and plan for a Southeast Community Center at a high level. • In 2022, at Council request, the City completed a more detailed aquatics study to understand the demand, options and opportunities for public aquatics facilities in Fort Collins. • In 2022, City Council held two Work Sessions and a Council Finance Committee discussing this project. No decisions were made, and as a result of these meetings, City staff continued to work with the Library and PSD as potential partners and began to consider a larger facility than required in the ballot language that could be phased or funded through a future funding source. • In November of 2023, the 2050 1/2-cent sales tax passed with the following ballot language: “50% for the replacement, upgrade, maintenance and accessibility of parks facilities and for the replacement and construction of indoor and outdoor recreation and pool facilities.” (Bolding added for clarity for this discussion) • The 2023-24 City Budget included funds for project development and design. City staff has been actively working on this phase of the project since the 1st quarter of 2024. Progress to date has included hiring of an Owners Representative, a Design Firm / Architect, and a General Contractor. DISCUSSION / NEXT STEPS GENERAL DIRECTION SOUGHT AND SPECIFIC QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED What questions do Committee members have regarding partnerships with PRPLD and PSD? What questions do Committee members have about potential project inclusions and funding options? Kelly Ohlson; (slide #4 - see above) land purchase closes November 30th and the last bullet says that the land value counts toward PSD’s share. I thought the value of the land was PSD’s contribution to this project. Dean Klingner; numerous parameters determine what the fair share of the pool is. The value of the land (appraised at $3.1M) is part of their contribution to the project. We assume the final number will be higher than the $3.1M. The closing mentioned on the slide is for the title transfer of the land only. Kelly Ohlson; (slide #8 - see above) Will options and costs be coming at the Work Session? Dean Klingner; yes Kelly Ohlson; we can’t do everything that everyone wants. It will be helpful to see options and what our best estimate is around cost. Dean Klingner; when we talked with the full Council about the 2050 tax - we know the Northside Aztlan Community Center cost $35M in current dollars (approximately 50K square feet). We know that if we built City Park Pool today to current standards that would be approximately $15M. The floor could be as much at $50M. We aren’t ready to come forward with that number yet as it depends heavily on how things play out with the partnerships, what the exact design of the library looks like and what constructions costs look like projected out to 2027. Kelly Ohlson; I like common spaces for the whole community. The price seems high. Also, we might name this something different as Southeast Community Center doesn’t imply that all are welcome Dean Klingner; we have moved away from Southeast Recreation Center to Southeast Community Center. We have made that step. We also have the Library there too, so would really like to have a single name. A community center name speaks more to the many things that can be done there beyond recreation. Kelly Ohlson; Things are different from when it was named 40 years ago. Communities are getting away from directional naming conventions of north side or south side, etc. Uniting names. Indoor lap lanes…we talked about minor maintenance in additional to major maintenance. When it is a $200K repair, we aren’t going to pick up all of that. I think this is covered somewhere in the details – LeAnn Williams; their contribution per year is defined in the IGA. We worked on this formula with PSD. They have a set fee that thy are paying for everyday maintenance. They will also put $75K into a fund annually for capital replacement. Kelly Ohlson; I was thinking differently based on experience with EPIC, things that go wrong post warranty, not routine maintenance and operations. Dean Klingner; the IGA articulates full life cycle fair share. Day to day, month to month, year to year costs. Kelly Ohlson; combining an indoor and outdoor pool sounds good but what is that cost? Dean Klingner; what we have teed up for today is the framework. As we bring forward these alternatives – yes, there is cost – number and size of pools, etc. There are also quite a few other details such as aligning to council priorities, bigger objectives and the actual standards that we build to. We wanted to check this framework with you in a dialog space so that when we come back we can be more specific about topics including; the funding plan, the combination of funding sources. What is in the CCIP dedicated / CCIP reserves, 2050 reserves versus what might be bonded. A lot of complexity around the numbers. Kelly Ohlson; I want to get the physical structure rightsized to begin with. I am worried about mission / scope creep – that it will become bigger than what was envisioned. My hope is that this is much more than a pool center. We could be spending $80-90M on pools – for most residents, that sounds like a very big number. We do want to talk about the amount of money proposed to be spent on pools at the next Work Session. (Slide #9 – see above) LeAnn Williams; an inventory of what we have. Foothills is considered a Neighborhood Center due to its size and amenities. Typical amenities for a 45-75K square foot community center include; meeting rooms, performance spaces, maker type spaces, gymnasiums, weight and cardio rooms, indoor walking track and a pool (not at Northside due to land it was built on). Dean Klingner; Key Decision Criteria slide (slide #10 - see above) Kelly Ohlson; we are committed as a Council to 1-3 pools per the ballot mandate and if we reach agreement with PSD on the lap lanes. We have committee to the first one – ballot measure. Bring them all to us – decision making – additional of indoor pool or indoor / outdoor pool. We are committed to the number of lanes per agreement. The outdoor pool we have to do, so this is about the other one. Dean Klingner; the power of this dialogue is that it is nice to hear you share that understanding with us. This helps our team move forward in preparation for February. Something interesting around the ballot language is that it has quite a bit of language focused on the creative process and other things not necessarily associated with a community center. This center is informed by our community plans and policies adopted by Council and feedback as we move forward. The library has been a great partner in thinking about how to make these creative shared spaces happen. There will be flexible gym spaces, core recreation spaces. Outcomes we can achieve which are cost drivers include, meeting our city policy of Gold LEED which is our starting point. If we want to have conversations around additional environmental sustainability, that could include water conservation or site information. This aligns with our city values. If we are going to exceed it, that becomes a key scope consideration. How does this center feel welcoming to all? Regarding a 15-minute city - we need the connections and the destinations. Are we hitting the mark here on the key components you want to see? Emily Francis; are we just talking about community needs around the Southeast Community Center or is it community needs in general across Fort Collins? It would be great to build three pools, but what about Mulberry Pool? Dean Klingner; one way to think about this is that we are adding resources for the entire community with this. It is focused in a certain part of town. At some point, a trade off in building a funding plan will help inform those specifics Emily Francis; I think pools are a part of it, but because it involves so many other community spaces. What I would expect isn’t just pools but also, what is the plan for recreation spaces across the city? How will the funding or expansion of this center impact our plans for the others? Dean Klingner; like our entire Community Center Master Plans. Emily Francis; I would also be curious about how we are collecting the different needs in this area of town. How are we deciding? Dean Klingner; great question - we just had a four-hour meeting earlier this week building our public communication plan. In all of our spaces, we are thinking differently about a traditional older outreach process, where we hold a few public meetings and decide versus truly understanding the users and their needs and meeting them where they are. We have to build that plan out and involve people who would not traditionally engage in our process. Emily Francis; how are we better focusing the engagement? How do we better refine what we are asking about -there is a lot of data about the inequities within the population that lives in a certain area of town which could inform - one area may have a lower percentage of high school graduates, etc. Dean Klingner; how do we understand people and meet them where they are, instead of asking them to come to us. Kelly Ohlson; this is a dress rehearsal for the Council Work Session. Community priorities are so important – maybe put them earlier in your Work Session presentation. Dean Klingner; map slide (see above) graphics are taken directly out of our 2021 Parks & Recreation Master Plan looking at equity indicators across our community. This Plan is four years old but still holds up. Big gaps in this area and northeast area of town around what we currently have. Helps us justify focusing on this part of town. Kelly Ohlson; are there two more community centers planned (solid circles on the map above)? Dean Klingner; At the time we did this plan, yes, but that is not what we are thinking now. The dashed circle is centered on Fossil Creek Park. This is what has been published and adopted by Council. We will update this map for the Work Session. We don’t currently have a timetable for the Northeast Community Center. The current plans shows three total, which means two additional. One of the advantages of the new site is that we can make a recommendation of one additional center. What we put in these matters - if it is bigger, it will serve a larger area. Define the trade-offs involved in serving a larger area with one center we can afford. Emily Francis; I would have the two maps – this map and your suggested map – put the Southeast Community Center on the map. This was 2016 and we have had an updated census since then – so when are we updating this? Dean Klingner; do you mean the health equity index? Emily Francis; yes Dean Klingner; we may have an updated one already. We will check on that. Kelly Ohlson; what does the health equity index mean / measure? Emily Francis; The Larimer County Health Department worked with the City on several indicators that go into creating health equity. How equitable the census track is. Kelly Ohlson; that context will be helpful to have in the Work Session packet. LeAnn Williams; the map above was pulled from GIS. Who are we serving? Who is underserved and lives in the radius and will be served by this community center? Fee structure to insure access for all. Kelly Ohlson; we like the concept – this is a valuable slide. Slide #14 (see above) Kelly Ohlson; word Maintenance – you mean refresh parks - we want people to understand what we mean by maintenance. The players change and we want to make sure we are clear, so future players understand what we mean by maintenance. Dean Klingner; we will unpack what that means Emily Francis; I think of things like the bathrooms at City Parks – may not replace but upgrade instead. Slide #16 - Funding Options for SECC (see above) Kelly Ohlson; I am open to the Council option of reserves because of inflation over a 10-year period if we don’t go the fancy and high-end route but build a responsible and reasonable facility. Dean Klingner; it started at $14M and grew to $17M with inflation. We purposely did not update this slide after the Work Session, we left it in for your reference. This will change as we get into more details of the bonding, etc. Kelly Ohlson; when this is open, I am guessing close to 30 FTEs in a facility this size which equates to $3M salary & benefits per year ($100K per FTE) LeAnn Williams; we will have that detail when we come to the Work Session. Kelly Ohlson; we are on the same page – that is important. Dean Klingner; we have a little bit of a runway with the CCIP dedicating some operating dollars early on. Emily Francis; what is coming to the Work Session? Dean Klingner; if we picture an ideal Work Session - here is a range of alternatives; starting with the floor and then how you can add on in different ways or maybe 3 different concepts of a building including total cost, operating costs, what we are delivering to the community and how we are meeting Council priorities resulting in a framework for evaluating multiple alternatives. One Work Session to vet all that information and receive feedback and then a second Work Session for fine tuning. Dean Klingner; framework would be a concept that says; this pool, these amenities, these standards for the environmental piece and here are the costs. Emily Francis; usually the number part comes to Finance Committee and the framework piece moves on to the full Council. Kelly Ohlson; what I need to know first if we are going to do two community centers. I need that decision first as that will affect how I think about the size of the facility and the money. Dean Klinger; we are utilizing this dialog going without a lot of numbers. I think it is very feasible for us to come back to Council Finance and bring more specifics and numbers. Kelly Ohlson; we have the benefit of more information. We aren’t the deciding body, but we will help flesh it all out. Do we need another Council Finance Committee meeting discussion before the February Work Session? Kelly Ohlson; This is the biggest question before us. Dean Klingner; those two questions come together - We think this would meet the need here – alternatives – Emily Francis; I would agree this is interlinked – It would be a Council policy decision if we go from 3-2 Community Centers. Dean Klingner; plan starts to get out of date as far as the Mulberry Pool - that is not a project we are working on in terms of design or funding underway. Kelly DiMartino; the scale of this facility is different than things we normal do. Decision points align with the right time. Travis Storin; we have the flexibility in January or February. Dean Klingner; we will discuss and follow up. B. 2024 Financial Policy Review Randy Bailey, Director of Accounting EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Once a year a portion of Financial Policies are reviewed and updated as needed. Staff is committed to reviewing each policy no less than every 3 years. Policies up for review this year are: Financial Management Policy 1 – Budget Financial Management Policy 2 – Revenue Financial Management Policy 3 – General Financial Management Policy 5 – Fund Balance Financial Management Policy 7 – Debt Financial Management Policy 8 – Investments GENERAL DIRECTION SOUGHT AND SPECIFIC QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED 1. Does Council Finance Committee support the changes as recommended? BACKGROUND/DISCUSSION Financial Management Policy 1 – Budget: This policy has several recommended minor terminology changes for clarity and simplification. Financial Management Policy 2 – Revenue: This policy has five recommended changes: • Section 2.B.5.C Maintain Health Reserves o Update General Fund liquidity rule to reflect decisions made during 2025/2026 budget cycle reducing the 60-day liquidity rule to 45 days. • Section 4 Sales and Use Tax Distribution o Update Sales and Use Tax tables to reflect effective dates and changes since last policy update.  Note sunset of Keep Fort Collins Great at end of 2020  Added 2020 General City Uses Tax of $0.60  Added 2020 General Fund Renewable Tax of $0.25  Added 2024 2050 Tax of $0.50 • Section 5 Philanthropic Contributions o Removed from Policy 2 – Revenue. Revised and covered in two administrative policies; City Give and Philanthropic Governance Financial Management Policy 3 – General: This policy has three recommended changes • Section 2.B 401(a) and 457 Money Purchas Plans o Updated “Direct Reports of City Council” to “Council Appointed Positions” o Updated “Service Area Directors” to “Executive and Senior Leaders” o Updated Employer contribution percentage for Police & Dispatch from 10.5% to 11%. • Section 3 Fund Organization o Added fund 256 – 2050 Tax to the Governmental fund list. • Section 4.D Cost Recovery and Fee Setting o Removed reference to “Keep Fort Collins Great” tax and referenced “…voter approved tax revenue” Financial Management Policy 5 – Fund Balance Minimums: This policy has one recommended change. • Section 3.A Minimum Balances o Update General Fund liquidity rule to reflect decisions made during 2025/2026 budget cycle reducing the 60-day liquidity rule to 45-days. Financial Management Policy 7 – Debt: This policy was reviewed, and no changes are recommended at this time. Financial Management Policy 8 – Investments: This policy has one recommended change. • Section 2 Scope o Updates term “Trust and Agency Funds” to “Fiduciary Funds” to be inclusive of pension, trust and agency funds. DISCUSSION / NEXT STEPS GENERAL DIRECTION SOUGHT AND SPECIFIC QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED 1. Does Council Finance Committee support the changes as recommended? Policy 3 – General - Financial Management (see above) Emily Francis; changing the language - technically Boards and Commissions aren’t Council appointed positions. Randy Bailey; we will change the terminology – maybe to employee. Policy 1 - Budget (see above) Kelly Ohlson; instead of limited resources - there might a better word Randy Bailey; trying to get away from scarce as that means limited - we will update Policy 2.4 - Revenue (see above) Kelly Ohlson; Natural Areas started in 1993, and the most recent renewal was in 2002. First county one passed in 1995, and the most recent renewal was in 2014. Travis Storin; I think the intent was the most recent renewal OTHER BUSINESS: The committee acknowledged Travis Storin’s tenure and contribution and welcomed Gretchen Stanford as the Interim Financial Services Sr. Manager. Adjourned at 5:33 pm