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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes MINUTES OF THE LONG RANGE FINANCE COMMITTEE August 1, 2012 ROOM 406 The regular meeting of the Long Range Finance Committee was held on Wednesday, August 1, 2012, in Room 406, at Oshkosh City Hall, 215 Church Avenue. The meeting was called to order by Chair Harold Buchholz, at 5:15 p.m. Members Present: Harold Buchholz, Jeffrey Thoms, Bryan Schulz, Jeff Herzig, Matt Lauritch, Jason Hirschberg, and Tom Pech Jr. Members Absent: Deb Allison-Aasby and Doug Pearson Staff Present: Peggy Steeno-Finance Director and Lori Burns–Administrative Assistant I.APPROVAL OF JULY 11, 2012 MINUTES No discussion/changes. Motion by Thoms, Second by Herzig, to approve the Committee Meeting Minutes of July 11, 2012. Motion passed unanimously. II.CITIZEN INPUT None III.INFORMATION SHARING/HOUSEKEEPING ITEMS (~5:18 – 5:20)  Revised Committee Listing A revised Committee listing was distributed and all members confirmed their information.  Citizen Survey Presentation by UW-Oshkosh Staff emailed to the Committee, the presentation of the survey results that was provided to the City Manager by the UW-Oshkosh class that completed the survey. Staff also talked to the City Manager about the Committee's recommendation to clearly communicate the Budget Survey results to the citizens Staff also notified the Committee that the City Manager discussed the survey results with the Council, at the State of the City Address, and on the City Manager's Report (TV program). IV.COMPARISON OF CITY OF OSHKOSH SPENDING (BY FUNCTION) TO THE SPENDING OF OTHER WI COMMUNITIES (~5:20 –6:40) Staff provided an overview of this item for all members, and outlined the draft documents, including the following: (1) several charts and graphs, (2) the council report (memo), and (3) the underlying data, prepared by staff for the Committee's consideration. The goal of the Committee is to get the report completed in time to share with the Council in the next month or so. The Committee reviewed the layout of the report, updating and revising it along the way, and reviewing the various chart and graph options. The Committee decided on including the following five (5) charts to illustrate the key observations in the report to the Council:  Percent of General Fund Spending for 2010, for all six communities, in a stack / column format,  Total General Fund Expenditures for 2005 - 2010, for all six communities, in a line chart format,  General Fund Spending Per Capita for 2005 - 2010, for all six communities, in a line chart format,  Property Taxes Levied for 2005 - 2010, for all six communities, in a stack / column chart format, and  Equalized Values for 2001 to 2010, for all six communities, in line chart format. The Committee requested that staff change the colors for the communities, as necessary, to make each one more easily distinguished. In addition, staff will add a line to each chart depicting the average of the six communities analyzed. The key findings in the report will include: (1) service offerings, (2) the cost to deliver services, (3) tax levy amounts, (4) equalized values, and (3) a brief statement on the Committee's need to further research the City's level of debt. Also, the Committee decided not to include the underlying data in the report, feeling that the pictures would tell the story better than having the readers go through the raw data. However, there will be a notation in the report stating that the underlying data is available upon request. As noted earlier, the Committee decided not to include the detailed debt information in the report at this time due to the unknowns in regard to whether other Communities included utility borrowings in general obligation debt offerings. The Committee will continue to research this piece and forward information on this to the Council at a later date, when the research is complete. Also included in the report will be a statement that there may be minor reporting variances from community to community. Staff will revise the report and complete the chart updates, as discussed, for the September Meeting, when the Committee will review the revisions and work to finalize the report to present to Council. V.2013 BUDGET ITEMS ~ (6:40 – 6:50)  Revised Budget Format - staff distributed to the Committee the revised 'Budget Intro's and Performance Measures' document that staff is planning to use in the 2013 budget process. The Committee liked the changes, stating that it is definitely more data driven than the prior version, and provides a snapshot in a finite amount of space that will direct readers to the important information. In addition, the revised Intro's will attempt to match revenues to each departmental budget they belong to. The goal of this is to provide more information on what is actually funded by taxes versus other revenue sources.  Mailer to be included with the 2012 tax bills - staff requested that the Committee give some thought to items that could and should be included on the mailer that will go with the property tax bills this December. It was agreed to that there will be a brief brainstorming session on this topic at the September 2012 meeting so that staff can work on the mailer in October and November. VI.DISCUSS PRIORITIES / TOPICS FOR FUTURE MEETINGS ~ (6:50 – 6:50) The items for the September meeting will be the spending comparison item and the brainstorming session on the tax bill mailer. VII.ADJOURNMENT Motion by Hirschberg, Second by Pech to adjourn. Motion passed unanimously. Meeting adjourned at 6:50 p.m.