Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutweekly newsletter Date: June 7, 2013 To: Mayor & City Council From: Mark A. Rohloff, City Manager WEEKLY NEWSLETTER Subject: CDBG ALLOCATION HIGHER THAN EXPECTED 1.: Please find enclosed a letter I received from the Department of Housing and Urban Development regarding the city’s 2013 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) allocation. I do not claim to know all the nuances of how these funding decisions are being made in Washington, but I was surprised to see an increase in this program over what we had originally anticipated. The funding notice tells us that we are expected to receive nearly $722,000 in CDBG funds. Originally, we had expected to receive less than $700,000, so this is somewhat of a pleasant surprise. This does, however, represent a decrease over CDBG funding in previous years. There is a great deal of concern at the national level that the CDBG program may eventually cease to exist. This would have significant impacts on our housing programs, as well as services provided by our Planning Division to support our housing programs. It is my hope that we can demonstrate the value of the programs that we provide through CDBG funding so that our congressional representatives continue to support this program in the future. If you have any questions regarding the city’s CDBG allocation, please contact Community Development Director Allen Davis. CITY HALL UNDERGROUND STORM WATER DETENTION POND UPDATE 2.: For those Council Members who were unable to attend Thursday’s tour of our pond, please find enclosed some general information that was provided by Storm Water Engineer James Rabe regarding the City Hall storm water detention pond project. The reason for the tour being given on Thursday is that we expect to begin putting the top on the detention tank itself the week of June th 10. By the end of the month, the cap should be completely over the tank, after which back filling and construction of the parking lot will commence. The project is still anticipated to be finished in st front of City Hall on or around August 1, after which the reconstruction of the parking lot by the Public Safety Building will take place. As some of the information indicates, the capacity of this tank is actually nearly two million gallons. If you have any other questions after reading this information, please contact Public Works Director Dave Patek or Storm Water Engineer James Rabe. HIGHLY EFFECTIVE COUNCILS 3.: Please find enclosed an article from this month’s The Municipality Magazine regarding, “Ten Habits of Highly Effective Councils”. Although you may receive this magazine on a regular basis, I thought that this article was of enough interest to point out to the Council. One of the ongoing discussions I’ve had with my peers over the years is the discussion of the Council-staff partnership. Weekly Newsletter June 7, 2013 Page 2 As Figure 2 in the article indicates, rather than having a separate and distinctive dividing line between administration and policy making, the author suggests that the governance/policy process is really more of a continuum with Council and staff partnering to help each other on their policy and management responsibilities. I think that this describes a more modern approach, which results in collaboration and success based upon skills that members of staff and Council bring to the decision making and implementation phases. I encourage you to read the article in greater detail, and if you have any thoughts, feel free to contact me. STORM WATER UTILITY’S BOND RATING REAFFIRMED 4.: Finance Director Peggy Steeno has informed me that Moody’s Investors Service has again assigned an Aa3 rating to the city’s storm water debt. This rating had been done in advance of an award of over $18 million in storm water bonds that is expected at Tuesday’s Council Meeting. Council may recall that at the last time our bonds were rated, Moody’s had placed a negative outlook on the city’s credit report. The reason for this negative outlook was that the storm water utility was barely meeting its debt coverage ratios with its existing rate structure, and was concerned that as our debt responsibilities increased, we would not have sufficient cash flow to meet our debt payment obligations. Council has continued to recognize the need to increase rates to keep pace with the operational and capital demands of our storm water utility. Furthermore, Council has continued to increase rates as necessary to meet our debt coverage requirements as required by Moody’s. Although I believe the Council is doing the fiscally responsible thing, Moody’s once again placed a negative outlook on our storm water debt. This negative outlook does not apply to the city’s general obligation debt, but continues to identify Moody’s concern about the need for future rate increases. An Aa3 rating is still the third highest rating that Moody’s provides, and is a very good bond rating considering that this is revenue debt rather than general obligation debt. I think that Moody’s is using this negative outlook as an advisement to the city that we will continue to need to raise storm water utility rates to meet our debt demands in future years. As our debt begins to mature and we approach 2018, I believe that our debt obligations will begin to level off and our rate increases will not be as significant as they are in this current growth mode. If you have any questions regarding the city’s debt rating in this case, please contact Finance Director Steeno in advance of Tuesday’s Council Meeting. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT STUDY/TARGETED INDUSTRY STUDY DISCUSSED 5.: This week, I held a meeting with the same economic development stakeholders that we met with back in January to discuss the Prager Economic Development Study. If you recall, following that January meeting, the group agreed to form a smaller, study group of representatives from the city, Winnebago County, Fox Valley Technical College, UW-Oshkosh, the Oshkosh Chamber of Commerce, Chamco, the Oshkosh Area Community Foundation, and the Oshkosh Convention & Visitors Bureau, to review and recommend a vision, goals, objectives and metrics for economic development in Oshkosh. To facilitate this work, the city hired Dr. David Ward of North Star Economics to assist in the group discussion and provide a presentation to the larger stakeholders group. I will be forwarding the Council a copy of the study group’s summary under separate cover for your review. One of the reasons that Dr. Ward was selected to assist us was that he is also involved in the Targeted Industry Study for the loosely formed marketing group. The Targeted Industry Study Report will be released to the public by the end of June. Dr. Ward was able to provide some insight into his work with the Targeted Industry Study and pointed out the similarities between the Prager Report, the study group’s observations and recommendations, along with the preliminary results of the Targeted Industry Study. A missing component from the Targeted Industry Study was discussion of organization, which was outside the scope of that study. Weekly Newsletter June 7, 2013 Page 3 Dr. Ward reported that the study group’s conclusion was that some type of organization structure is necessary to provide the necessary accountabilities to achieve worthwhile economic development goals for the city. The first goal of the group was to develop an organization structure, as recommended in the Prager report. The larger stakeholders group remains divided over exactly how an organization should be accomplished, be it a formal organization, or some type of other agreement between existing entities. After listening to the group debate for some time, I informed the group that I was planning to proceed with developing a new structure for economic development, in keeping with my goal for the year. I will be working with the stakeholders and local businesses that have expressed an interest in improving our economic development organization within the community. I will provide Council with updates as work proceeds. If you have any questions regarding the next steps in this process, please contact me. SENIORS CENTER RENOVATIONS 6.: On Thursday of this week, Mayor Tower and I attended a meeting of the Friends of the Seniors Center organization. The group was appreciative of the city’s efforts to develop a plan for future development and expansion of the Seniors Center, particularly into the unfinished area in the north building. The group asked what the city’s plans were to expand Seniors Center services. We explained that resources being limited as they are, growth would be a very difficult thing to achieve, although we did acknowledge that with the aging population, senior services will be in greater demand. We pointed out the need for partnerships with other entities that provide services to the senior community. We also recognize the need for developing this facility’s plan so that we are poised to take action as funding becomes available. I explained that once the central garage project is complete, there will be other competing demands for facility improvements in other quality of life areas, including Parks, Museum, Library, and the Seniors Center. Because of limiting resources from the state and limitations on our ability to raise tax dollars to fund these improvements, we will be challenged to provide all these improvements in future years. We also have to consider the operating costs for any new and expanded facilities. The group was pleased to hear that once the central garage project is complete, some of the areas at the Seniors Center currently being used for Public Works storage will be freed up for use by the Seniors Center. The facility needs identified by the Seniors Center are not unusual in this current environment with our populations aging. Our challenge will be to balance these demands along with demands from other departmental needs that we have also identified. If you have any questions regarding facility expansion, please contact Mr. Ziemer or me. REETZ BALL FIELDS 7.: The Parks Department has been working with the Oshkosh Recreation Department and the Softball Commission for the adult softball leagues to address an issue of home runs at Reetz Ball Fields in Menominee Park. The Recreation Department and Softball Commission are dealing with an issue that is nation-wide as softball leagues and their national associations, such as the American Softball Association (ASA), work to adjust league rules as softball bat and ball technology outpaces the dimensions of many softball fields. The equipment that is available to the players is much more advanced than years ago so the number of balls being hit out of the parks has dramatically increased. For facilities such as Reetz Fields, this causes concerns for the adjacent property owners and other park users as the balls hit out of the park travel into the roadway and into private properties, increasing the potential for injuries to other park users, as well as damage to vehicles and homes. Parks Department staff recently met with staff from the Recreation Department and Softball Commission to discuss possible ways to address this issue at Reetz Fields. A number of options are being considered and will be discussed at a special meeting scheduled by the Recreation Department for adult softball managers on th Tuesday, June 11 at 6:00 p.m. at the Oshkosh North High School cafeteria. Weekly Newsletter June 7, 2013 Page 4 The Recreation Department and Softball Commission will be deciding on various options to be implemented for the remainder of the 2013 season. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Parks Director Ray Maurer at 236-5080. DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS & UPDATES 8.: Other items I’m enclosing with today’s Newsletter include a press release from the Oshkosh Area Community Foundation concerning the installation of public access AED’s throughout the City of Oshkosh. As you can see, many th locations are now covered including Menominee Park, Spanbauer Field, Rainbow Park, the 24 Avenue boat launch, the Fugleberg boat launch, Red Arrow Park, South Park, Opera House Square and the Leach Amphitheater. Insofar as minutes are concerned, I’m enclosing the thth following: The minutes of the May 8 Board of Appeals meeting; the minutes of the April 10 th Long Range Finance Committee meeting; the minutes of the May 8 Landmarks Commission th meeting; and the meeting notice, agenda and background material for the June 11 Traffic Review Advisory Board meeting. I am also enclosing the latest hotel/motel room tax report for the city. A listing of the May, 2013 Public Library highlights is also included, along with two FOCUS newsletters regarding the federal health reform regarding Medicaid. The last item I’m enclosing is yet another FOCUS newsletter, this one dealing with the policy and politics of proposed state tax reform. th UPCOMING MEETINGS 9.: Meetings I have scheduled for the week of June 10 include the th following: On Tuesday, June 11, at 7:30 a.m., I will be meeting with Mayor Tower to go over that evening’s Council Agenda. At 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, I will be attending the Butte des Morts Causeway ribbon cutting celebration at the causeway itself. I am aware that some Council Members have been invited to this event. If you would like to carpool with me, please let Jackie know and we can make arrangements to drive over together from City Hall. On Wednesday, at 12:00 noon, I will be at the Transportation Department to attend an employee recognition event. On Wednesday, at 1:30 p.m., I will be meeting with Public Works staff and Finance staff to discuss the central garage project and how the construction project will be extended over three th fiscal years (2013-2015). Please note that I will not be in the office on Monday, June 10, as I will be taking a vacation day. If you have any questions regarding my upcoming meetings, please contact me. MAR/jdc Enclosures