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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES-10/11/1976-Special1 1 October 11, 1976 COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FORT COLLINS, COLORADO Council - Manager Form of Government Special Budget Hearing 7:30 P.M. A special budget hearing of the City of Fort Collins was held on Monday, October 11, 1976 at 7:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers in the City of Fort Collins City Hall. Roll call was answered by Councilmembers Bloom, Gray, Reeves, Russell, Suinn and Wilkinson. Absent: Councilman Bowling. Staff Members Present: Brunton, DiTullio, Webber, Krempel, Wood, Fierce, Phillips, Lanspery, Smith, Kost, Bingman, Jones, Thexton, McGraw and Lewis. Also: City Attorney Arthur March, Jr. City Manager Brunton stated the administration had provided the public copies of the 1977 Annual Budget Summary. The proposed agenda would be to solicit comments on the following: 1. Interested citizens. 2. DT. 3. Parks and Recreation Board. 4. Social service agencies. 5. Other groups. The second portion would be the City Manager's Report on: a. Possible 1977 budget reductions. b. Response to Council's questions. C. Other items requiring Council action on funding levels on the following: 1. Airport Board. 2. Ch2mber of Commerce. 3. DT . 292 4. Noise Control Program. 5. Decisions on the remaining part of the Capital Program 6. Executive Session regarding the pay plan. Council was in agreement with the suggested agenda. Mayor Wilkinson then called for public input on items 1 through 5 above hearing none Council proceeded to the City Manager's Report on possible budget reductions. s DATE.: October 11, 1976 - TO: The Honorable Mayor and City Council FROM: Robert L. Brunton, City Manager RE 1977 Budget Reductions . We have reviewed my submitted budget in an effort to reduce expenditures within the framework of the -following policy guidelines suggested by the Council at the October 5, 1976, meeting: 1. Examination of all new position requests for 1977 as well as current year vacancies. 2. Cost savings which can be effectuated through tighter administrative con- trols in the areas of 'vehicle usage, reproduction services, and public information brochures. 3. Service -level reductions in the areas of animal control; park, golf course, and cemetery maintenance; recreation;, human resources; and . street lighting and maintenance. Potential program reductions in each of the above areas are as follows: I. Personal Services A. General Administrative Services 1. Management Information Systems - Eliminate .5 Typist position necessitating clerical pooling within other General Administra- tive Services' divisions. Budget reduction: $3,781 2. Purchasing - Eliminate .5 Typist position. This reduces the .. presently authorized but vacant Typist position to half-time. Budget reduction: $3,781 293 G 1 1 7 L 3. Buildings Repair & Maintenance - Eliminate one Custodian. This will necessitate a rescheduling of present custodial duties and a reduction -in the level of present maintenance activities. Budget reduction: $8,771 Total budget reductions: $16,333 I. B. Special Projects & Open Space - Eliminate one Land Acquisition Assistant. Transfering varied cultural resource activities from .;-this Department to the Cultural Affairs Department reduces the .need for this position. Budget reduction: $16,736 Eliminate .5 Typist position. Arrangements have been made to share typing requirements with.the-Assistant_ City Attorney's - Typist. - Budget reduction: $3,781 Total budget reduction: $20,517 C. Planning - Eliminate one Planner II position.. This will be effected by not filling the existing position vacancy in the Department. Budget reduction: $15,518 D. Police - Eliminate one Detective position-. This will involve reassigning duties of the existing Training Officer and the assignment of this individual toan investigative capacity. Budget reduction: $12,500 E. Fire - Defer filling the three new firefighter positions in 1977 until April 1. This will .still enable these individuals to be on line during the summer months peak vacation period. Budget 'reduction: $8,007 F. Engineering Services 1. Engineering - Eliminate one Engineering Drafting Technician I A continual backlog will exist in the updating of quarter section maps not including other map maintenance. Efforts will be made to finance this position out of the utility budgets. . Budget reduction: $9,489 294 I 2. Building Inspection - Eliminate one Building Inspector. This will necessitate an increase in the average number of inspections required of each Inspector per day. Budget reduction: $12,467 ' Total budget reductions: $21,956 G. Parks & Recreation - 1. .Recreation - Eliminate one Recreation Worker. Current Recreation Supervisor duties will continue to include less responsible tasks. Budget reduction: $11,225 Revise 1977 salary requirements'for'Assistant Aquatic Supervisor based on refilling this position at entry level. In addition, an effort will be made to reduce pool hours based on appropriate analyses of usage, thus reducing the need for some temporary personnel. Budget reduction: $5,980 Reduce temporary personnel costs at the Outdoor Pool due to shorter summer vacation of Poudre R-1 School District. Budget reduction: $2,360 ' 2.. Parks - Eliminate the positions of Park Technician I and II. This will necessitate a reduction of mowing and maintenance activities in various parks. An additional $7,500 in overtime, however, will be needed to assist in summer maintenance activities if these positions are eliminated. . Budget reduction: $12,500 Total budget reductions: $32,065 Total Personal Services budget reductions: $126,896 ZI. Administrative Controls A. Reduction in Copv Costs - A City-wide reduction in copy costs will be effected by requiring a 20% reduction in the amount budgeted in each department for Copier Rental and Supplies. All documents requiring ten or more copies will be printed by the Larimer County Printing Office. The number of copies made by each department will be monitored monthly by Finance. Budget reduction: $8,310 245 B. Vehicle Usage.- A savings of $6,000 will be effectuated in the general fund by a 50% reduction in the number of vehicles taken home by City employees excluding Police and Fire. This reduction will be brought about by the development and implementation of a City-wide vehicle usage policy. Budget reduction: $6,000 IZ. C. Public Information Brochures - A savings of approximately $10,000 can be effected by allowing City departments to finance public information brochures through advertising.- A policy will be . established whereby at least 75% of the"publication costs must be covered by advertising revenue before the brochure will be approved for publication.. Budget reduction: $10,000 Total Administrative Controls budget reductions: $24,310" III. Service Level Reductions r A. Animal Control Program - Reduce program level to a staffing of two full-time and one part-time positions. This results in a weekly reduction of coverage from 16 hours per day to 16 hours for 3 days. and 8 hours for 4 days. Budget reduction: $14,880 ' B. Cemeteries - Reduce part-time personnel requested, thus necessitating a reduction in the current scope and frequency of maintenance acti- vities. Budget reductions: $8,918 C. Street Lighting - Anticipated revisions in the street program indicate that the 1977 cost for electric service can be reduced from $273,448 to $268,222. An additional savings of $8,040 can be effected by altering present lighting level standards for new subdivisions, e.g. reducing the required number of"lights by one-half. . Budget reductions: $13,266 D. Street Light Overbuild - This item can be reduced by $6,000. Funds in this account are used for miscellaneous street light installations, which will be kept to a minimum in 1977. Budget reductions: $6,000 296 E. Street Cleaning - The City presently operates three street sweepers. It is suggested that the third sweeper be regularly used only during peak -load periods and otherwise serve as a backup sweeper. This results in an equipment cost -savings of $8,000. Personnel costs associated with manning the third sweeper would be -reduced to a half-time level of $4,500. Budget reduction: $12,500 III. F. Human Resources - Due to previous Council commitments, a reduction in funding of social service agencies is.not recommended. Such a. reduction would effectively nullify the recommendation of the.Larimer .Human Resource Board and likely have negative repercussions in the - funding allocations of theothertwo .participating local governments. In addition, because of the time frame involved, it would be difficult to make other than arbitrary decisions about which agencies should receive a cut in funding. _ A total of $14,269 is budgeted for Human Rights Ordinance enforcement and Affirmative Action. Any reduction in.this amount would adversely affect the implementation of the Human Rights Ordinance, limit the functions and credibility of the Human Relations Commission, and severely limit the implementation of the.City Affirmative Action program. For these reasons, no change in the budget request is recom- mended. Total Service Level budget reductions: $55,564 IV. Additional Revenue Sources - We have recently been notified that the City will receive an additional $11,153.from the Highway Users Tax Fund in 1977. Revenue and Resource Addition: $11,153 The above alterations result in a reduction of General Fund expenditures totaling' $206,770 and an increase in'General Fund revenues of $11 J53. The following summary reflects changes described herein: 297 1 �7j 1 GENERAL FUND REVENUE & RESOURCES, & EXPENDITURES Current Submitted Budget 1977 REVENUE & RESOURCES Beginning Fund Balance Revenue Total Revenue & Resources Expenditures Ending Fund Balance $ 837,006 $8,771,510 $ 515,379 Impact of Proposed Reductions 1977 $ 837,006 8,461,036 $9,298,042 8,564,740 $ 733,302 The City Manager and Budget Analyst, Paul Lanspery, then responde(i to Council questions on the above report. Mayor Wilkinson then called for citizen input on items 1 through 5 of the agenda. Carl Franz, Executive Director of 9T2, spoke to the exploration done on alternative funding for DT and concluded his remarks by stating that without the support from the City, he is afraid that this citizen input ceases to be available. Council then considered item C, 1 through 5. (Other items requesting Council actions.) Mayor Wilkinson again inquired if there were any citizen input at this time. Robert Tueting, 916 Cheyenne Drive, sta�ed he felt funding for the swimming pool, the skating rink, DT and various other things should be scuttled without further comment. Mr. Tueting stated Council should avoid any deficit financing whatsoever. Mayor Wilkinson then declared the public hearing on the budget closed. City Manager Brunton stated he had three items to distribute; 1) the proposed pay plan, 2) the computer specifications, and 3) a county referral for Fossil Creek Meadows P.U.D. 298 City Manager Brunton also reported the administration is reporting on the money and time spent to date, being the staff in opposition to Amendment #3, (nuclear initiative). The amount is $646.55. Councilwoman Gray made a motion, seconded by Councilwoman Reeves that the Council go into executive session for the purpose of discussing the pay plan. Yeas: Councilmembers Bloom, Gray, Reeves, Russell, Suinn and Wilkinson. Nays: None. Mayor Wilkinson announced that Council was adjourned until 7:00 p.m. on October 12, 1976. The Council adjourned to go into executive session at 10:35 p.m. Mayor ATTEST: I City Clerk 299