CC MIN 2014-02-24 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

Recommendation: Receive report related to the FY 13/14 budget and provide direction as it relates to staff recommendations related to the current year's budget. Also, receive information on major work activities, staffing and resources, and next steps as it relates to the preparation of the FY14/15 budget proposal. Dr. Bell, City Manager, provided some opening remarks and outlined the evening (presentation on file). Mr. Brian Ponty, Finance Director, followed providing a financial forecast on three fronts: the Real GDP (Gross Domestic Product), CPI (Consumer Price Index) and the Unemployment rates over various quarters. He also provided unemployment rates at the state and local levels. Mr. Ponty made projections for the future and how the labor contracts might be impacted. He provided details on the PERS (Public Employees Retirement System) Board approaches. He also covered the reserves projections with and without Employee PERS contributions. He also shared possible threats — Property tax inflation, excess ERAF (Educational Revenue Augmentation Fund) and property tax in lieu of Sales Tax, Workers compensation costs, Public Safety Overtime, PERS, to name a few. One Council Member inquired about the reserves and the threats from the PERS contribution costs. Mayor Gee inquired about the reserves and how it fits in the budget. Staff provided clarifying comments. Dr. Bell covered the progress and successes of the Strategic Initiatives. He went over each one, highlighting each of the initiatives and providing details and statistics. In terms of Government Operations, the City Council adopted the Environmental Initiatives and approved the San Carlos shared services agreement. He also noted that MyRWC was just launched and he noted all the fire department achievements. He also covered the accomplishment with SAFE and a bicycle bridge. He provided statistics on each one. One Council Member said that a lot has been accomplished and he is happy with all the successes. Dr. Bell thanked all the staff who makes all this happen. Dr. Bell then spoke about the reduced resources and increased population numbers and how the goal is to continue building a great community. Dr. Bell said that there is a level of service that has been provided, our employees have grown accustomed to that high level, and he is appreciative of this. He then touched on the work done last year sharing statistics related to the year, population, FTE's (full time equivalents) and the city's employment ratio to residents. He also focused on the reduction of the workforce. He also noted that during the last few years, there has been a high turnover rate and spoke about concerns with the loss of institutional knowledge and the resulting learning curve. He provided a summary of a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis elaborating on each area. He also noted that the next step is to develop a staffing plan for the future with his executive team. Dr. Bell spoke about developing criteria for this plan and then bringing it back during the budget planning meeting. He said it is time to identity the staffing model and bring it CITY COUNCIL February 24, 2014 MEETING MINUTES PAGE 4 MINUTE BOOK NO. 65 Page No. 88