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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes MINUTES OF THE LONG RANGE FINANCE COMMITTEE SEPTEMBER 1, 2010 ROOM 406 The second meeting of the Long Range Finance Committee was held on Wednesday, September 1, 2010, in Room 406, at Oshkosh City Hall, 215 Church Avenue. The meeting was called to order by Chair Harold Buchholz at 5:00 p.m. Members Present: Harold Buchholz Jeffrey Herzig Jason Hirschberg Ben Schneider Bryan Schulz Don Simons Jeffrey Thoms Burk Tower Staff Present: Peggy Steeno Lynn Lorenson Absent: Bob Poeschl (excused) Others Present: None I.APPROVAL OF AUGUST 4, 2010 MINUTES Motion made to approve made by: Jeff Thoms Seconded by: Jeff Herzig II.HOUSEKEEPING ITEMS – Chair a.Running of Meetings Stay on topic; make sure in non-violation of open meetings law, time management – meetings kept from 5:00 – 7:00 or motion will need to be made to continue longer. Bring topics up and conclusions by consensus. b.Establish Realistic Goals Staff is to inform and ground the first couple of meetings. Bryan Schulz suggested; bring up an issue, read once, discuss, come to conclusion, and have no longer than three meetings for one topic. c.Opportunity for Citizen Participation After discussing a decision was made to allow for this for the first 15 minutes of the meeting, five minutes per citizen and to allow any topic as long as it pertains to this Committee. This will be the second item on future agendas. d.Means By Which Packet Information Is Distributed The agenda, minutes, and outline should be emailed or mailed with enough time to review. Larger items will be either delivered or mailed at Director Steeno’s discretion. e.Reports to Council After six months it was agreed the committee will provide something to Council, in summary format. III.EXPLANATION OF CITY BUDGET Finance Director Steeno provided explanation from 5:20 to 6:20, reviewing with Committee the budget Kick-off packet provided to Council in early August. This packet entailed the Financial Statements through 6/30/10, Historical Information on the Tax Rate, Levy, and Expenditures, 2011 Budget Timeline, and the 2011 Budget Assumptions. The budget book format was then explained. Questions were brought up regarding CIP and borrowing and the creation of a sinking fund. IV.CITY FEE PROJECT The general background information on municipal fees was explained. There was discussion on whether the City has a Policy for Fees. The City does not have an overall policy, but departments have their own policy. There was discussion on whether a fee was an extra fee over taxes and the need to identify who benefits more. The spreadsheet originally provided to Council was brought up. Director Steeno explained the lay-out of the sheet was per Council requests. Jeff Thoms stated data was missing and two more columns would help. Director Steeno explained the Costing Sheet currently being worked on for each fee on the list. She felt the sheets and project could be done by the end of 2010. Committee would like to see something by the end of October. The costing methodology was discussed along with getting a sampling of the report. Suggestion was made to pick the top ten communities, where do we fall and give an overall summary of information. Chair Buchholz took a consensus of the Committee as to what type of approach each would like to take; a narrow or broad approach. Fee by Fee or groupings. Jason Hirschberg would prefer a narrow approach. Jeff Herzig discussed some as being full recovery and others covered by taxes, therefore a more narrow approach. Bryan Schulz felt “best practices”, define what we have, put in a reasonable format, let people see and let Council decide. Burk Tower would like a broader approach, with key pieces of information to go with it. Jeff Thoms started with a broader approach then again brought up the initial spreadsheet as being good but a few columns and data were missing. Ben Schneider felt item by item was needed. Don Simons discussed a “sophisticated costing methodology” if we are not covering our cost. Harold Buchholz felt more of a general sense. A recommendation of annual review of fees should be done. Follow best practice and have Council determine, not the LRFC. Burk Tower also suggested giving Council some broad numbers, a big picture, and overall summary information. V.NEXT AGENDA ITEMS Bryan Shulz and Burk Tower suggested asking City Manager Rohloff to come to the meetings to get his view when needed for specific topics. Finish items not completed on this agenda; Information Sharing, Future Topic Suggestions / Ongoing Topics List, and conclude the fee discussion. VI. MOTION FOR ADJOURMENT MOTION BY JASON HIRSCHBERG, SECOND BY DON SIMONS, TO ADJOURN. MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY. Meeting adjourned at 7:05 p.m.