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HomeMy WebLinkAbout3/17/2015 - Regularffil"7ES OF A REG#LAR MEETIRG OF TINTOR TOWN COUMC41--H��TXI�0�. & ON TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 2015, IN THE COUNCIL CHAMBERS OF THE VINTON MUNICIPAL BUILDING LOCATED AT 311 SOUTH POLLARD STREET, VINTON, VIRGINIA. MEMBERS PRESENT: Bradley E. Grose, Mayor Matthew S. Hare, Vice Mayor 1. Douglas Adams, Jr. William W. Nance Sabrina M. Weeks STAFF PRESENT: Christopher S. Lawrence, Town Manager Theresa Fontana, Town Attorney Susan N. Johnson, Town Clerk Ryan Spitzer, Assistant Town Manager Gary Woodson, Public Works Director Ben Cook, Police Chief Donna Collins, Human Resources Specialist Chris Linkous, Fire/EMS Captain Anita McMillan, Planning & Zoning Director Barry Thompson, Finance Director/Treasurer Joey Hiner, Public Works Assistant Director The Mayor called the regular meeting to order at 6:0 p.m. The Town Clerk called the roll with Council Membe Adams, Council Member Nance, Council Member Weeks, Vice Mayor Hare and Mayor Grose present, Council Member Nance made a motion that Council g into a Closed Meeting pursuant to § 2.2-3711 A (5) of th 1950 Code of Virginia, as amended, for discussio concerning a prospective business or industry or th expansion of an existing business or industry where no previous announcement has been made of the business' o industry's interest in locating or expanding its facilities in the community. The motion was seconded by Council Membe Adams and carried by the following vote, with all members voting: Vote 5-0; Yeas (5) — Adams, Nance, Weeks, Hare, Grose; Nays (0) — None. Council went into Closed Meeting at 6:05 p.m. At 7:00 p.m., the regular meeting reconvened and the Certification that the Closed Meeting was held in accordance with State Code requirements was approved on motion by Vice Mayor Hare; seconded by Council Member Nance and carried by the following roll call vote, with all members voting: Vote 5-0; Yeas (5) — Adams, Nance, Weeks, Hare, Grose, Nays (0) — None. The Mayor welcomed everyone to the Council meeting. After a Moment of Silence, Council Member Weeks led the Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S. Flag. I Inder upcoming community events/ announcements, Council Member Weeks announced the grand opening of Magnets USA on March 18th at 1*00 p.m. The Senior Expo will be Tuesday, March 24 th from 10 a.m. to the War Memori.,21. Anita McMillan announced Arbor Day on April Cundiff Elementa7 School at 1:30 p.m. Clean Valley Day t will be on April 1 lt and there will be a group doing a clean- up of the banks of Tinker Creek on that day. The Mayor announced the Vietnam Combat Art Sho,",j March 26 th through April 26 th at Hollins University with opening reception on March 25 th at 6:00 p.m. I Council Member Adams made a motion to approve the Consent Agenda as presented; the motion'was seconded by Council Member Weeks and carried by the following Approved minutes for the vote, with all members voting: Vote 5-0; Yeas (5) — Adams, regular Council meeting of Nance, Weeks, Hare, Grose; Nays (0). March 3, 2015 The next item on the agenda was a Proclamation for Arbor Day. Council Member Adams read the Proclamation. Council Member an read a Memo from Chief Cook naming Corporal Michael Byrd, Officer Zachary Hurt and Officer Josh Kotval as Officers of the Month for February. The next item on the agenda was a Public Hearing to receive comments regarding setting of the real estate, personal property and machinery and tools tax rates for calendar year 2015. The Mayor opened the Public Hearing at 7:15 p.m. Public Hearing opened The Town Manager began by commenting that every year we hold a Public Hearing on our real estate, personal property and machinery and tools tax rates even we are not required to hold a Public Hearing if our actual assessment does not increase above one percent (1 %). Over the past few years, including this year, our actual assessment has had an increase of less than one percent (1%) with this year's assessment being 81%. At our last meeting, Council authorized the advertisement of a $.04 increase in the real estate tax. We briefed Council in January of our revenue forecast of $8,785,134 in General Fund and $3,618,150 in the Utility Fund for a total of $12,403,284, At our last meeting, we presented a breakdown of the categories that make up both *f these funds, The net increase of our assessment this Vear was $1,112 of .81% based on the current real estate tax rate of $.03. 0 The Town Manager showed a slide that compared the tax rates of other neighboring localities and commented that all the towns listed pay a combined town and county tax. All departments were asked to submit a needs-bascr.1 budget and approximately three weeks ago, there was $520,238 gap between what was submitted and o revenue projections. Our current budget takes into accou $128,000 of fund balance to balance the budget which not sustainable from year to year. To help with this ga department heads are currently reviewing their submitt budgets to suggest ways to bridge this gap, possibly service reductions or how to be more efficient with o current services. The Town Manager next commented that HE recommendation was to pursue a $.04 real estate ta� increase. We are committed to 24-hour career firE coverage at a cost of $120,000 and we are recommending a two percent (2%) cost of living adjustment for our employees for a total of $89,118. With regard to our paving program, we should be funding ai least $450,000 to get on a good trajectory of maintaining our asphalt roads. We currently fund $269,535 and have submitted an additional $170,000 in new funding. We also included $20,000 as a one-time expense to do a compensation market study along with ten percent (10%) for any increase in our liability insurance benefits. Every $.01 increase in the real estate tax amounts to $45,000, so a $.04 increase would amount to $182,252. If we increase the real estate tax, along with some other reductions we have been able to find, that would still leave a gap of $200,000 to balance the budget. All of the downtown projects that are grant funded are included in the budget. There is no CIP included at this point, but we are going to look at using our capital reserve account for some of the CIP items. The Town Manager next commented on the Utility Furl,9 revenue totaling $3,618,150. Based on projected expens of $3,220,385, there is a positive balance of $397,76 This balance is based on building up the fund balance as result of the water and sewer rate increases that Coun approved last year. Council Member Nance asked knew how well our revenues are matching up with t projections in the study that was done two years ago. T, Town Manager responded that it is doing well and helping with our operating budget so we are not having borrow money for $100,000 projects. We are also able build up our fund balance which will put us in a mo competitive market for bonds in the future. KI In closing the Town ITTIanager stated that the printed proposed budget will go out on Friday, April 3 Id and he will present a balanced budget with recommendations on April 7 th The Mayor commented that Council will now he comments from the public. Janet Scheid,,a Vinton reside] commented that the average income for a family in t Town is under $30,000, one of the lowest in the Valley. increase of 133% in any tax is significant and will affe, those who can least She cherishes the high -quality of life, relatively low cost of living and good town services. She has looked at the numbers, compared tax rates and looked at expenses. Costs are going up for everything; however, there are two ways to get more money —raise taxes or cut expenses. ITIs. Scheid next made two suggestions to cut expenses.7- The first related to the bulk brush truck that runs through the town five days a week regardless if there is brush to be picked up. She estimated there may be brush to be picked up in her small neighborhood maybe once a month and this seems to be an incredibly inefficient way to provide this service. One solution would be to have the refuse truck driver notify the brush truck driver what houses have a pickup. Then the brush truck would only need to go to those specific houses. The better and less expensive solution would be to only have one day a week for all brush pickup and each resident could call the office and inform them that their house needs a brush pickup. The office could map out the pickups and it could be done one day rather than five. This would save money on personnel and wear and tear on a large vehicle. The second suggestion related to the street sweeper that goes on every road in the town each week. Ms. Scheid commented that she realizes that the town gets reimbursement from VIDOT and some credit for stormwater management for doing this, but there are also personnel, fuel and maintenance costs on a very large and expensive vehicle. She asked if these costs could be cut in half by concentrating street sweeping only on the major business district area. In closing, Ms. Scheid commented that she knows the money must come from somewhere and she understands the need for a tax increase. The real solution is appropriate, well -planned economic development, but we all know that will take some time. Until that happens, she asked Council to consider her suggestions for cost reductions and that possibly a smaller tax increase combined with cost cutting could yield the necessary increase in revenues. 51 Vice Mayor Hare asked about the cost of services study and the Town Manager responded that at the next meeting he will be able to show what the priorities are, but the costs th will not be shown until the budget is presented on April 7 The Mayor asked staff to take a look at the suggestions made by Ms. Scheid and consider the cost of the cuts and the impact. He then reinerated that Council will be asked to take action on the real estate tax increase on March 31". This will be a special called meeting and we want to be sure that our citizens are aware of this meeting. Council Memb r N nce comment d th"It-4 AA4 61 Mr. Hare further commented that Council and staff ha4mm done a great job maintaining, but at the same time we ha fallen farther and farther behind. He agreed with Nance that it needs to be a balanced act and obvious even with the rate increase, it is not balanced. Everyo, wants to have great services, but if we want to continue o it is going to take more cuts than just those listed by s'- 0 ,h Nance. The costs of services study should tell us wl people value and we will need to attach a dollar value those items. The War Memorial is a huge piece to tack, and operationally we lose $150,000 a year in operat , i funds along with the debt payment which is a lot of mon for a town our size. Mr. Hare next commented that public transportation is a I very high expense for the town and can we continue to support it. The Town Manager commented that we have budgeted $135,000 in next year's budget for this service. Mr. Hare expressed his appreciation to Ms. Scheid for coming to the meeting and voicing her concerns and stated he was disappointed there was nobody else in attendance regarding the tax increase Council Member Adams commented I that at the T meeting this week, Valley Metro asked for $14 million o a number of years that takes half of the funds that co into the TPO. A lot of their funds that came from the Sta are now coming through the transportation funds. Mr. Adams further commented that staff has done a great job over the years watching the dollars and looking at what is there. He commented to Ms. Scheid that we need to look at her suggestions, but if Council decides to do away the bulk service even more, He stated he could not think of anything that has a more priority than to get fire service 'i ii to our residents. He feels that we have to spend money on our roads and we do not have a choice. Council Member Weeks commented that she does agree with the comments that have been made and the items that need to be taken into consideration. She expressed thanks to Ms. Scheid for being present to voice her opinion, The upcoming budget work session will allow each department to give a presentation on what they have to offer so that Council can get more detail on areas that possibly can be cut. She commended the Town Manager and all of town staff for cutting back when asked by Council. III Igo 1 11 19, no N Vice Mayor Hare commented that he has no doubt that the budget can be balanced, but it includes no CIP which is not sustainable in the long term. We are going to have to adjust service levels. The Town Manager commented that the Public Hearing regarding the new Mixed Use Development District was postponed to April 21s'. This is due to the fact that the Rain t i• due to the weather until April 2 Ild and it has to be re - advertised. The next item on the agenda was to consider authorizing staff to proceed with one of three options concerning the Td Street Dumpsters. The Town Manager commented that if Council decides to keep the dumpsters, he would recommend investing in a camera system in order to enforce our ordinance for abuse of the system. A budget of $9,600 was presented to Council and a camera system would cost just under $5,000. After discussion regarding the enforcement by the Police Department, the Town Manager further commented that we are getting close to the beginning of the construction of the canoe launch in April or May, so we need to know Council's ,iecision within a month. Council Member Nance said that we need to make a decision and the Mayor agreed because we have discussed this matter several times and it is a luxury we can no longer afford. The Town Manager commented that we will need to give people a certain amount of time to prepare for the closing and give a deadline. Anita McMillan commented that the proposed date to open the canoe launch is June 12 Ih . The Town Manager further commented that we can get the word out through all our social media of the closing date and remind citizens of the other services they can use for disposal of refuse and bulk trash. Council Member Weeks commented that we also need to make sure that everyone knows the ordinance regarding trash being in a can with a lid. Council Member Adams made comments about people putting recyclables between the dumpsters at Kroger's and what will keep people from still placing items at the 3rd Street Dumpster site. Vice Mayor Hare made a motion to close the 3 Id Stre Dumpsters with the closing date prior to June 1, 2015 bei left to the discretion of the Town Manager; the motion w- seconded by Council Member Nance and carried by t following vote, with all members voting: Vote 4-1; Yeas — Nance, Weeks, Hare, Grose; Nays (1) — Adams. Approval to close the 3d Streel Olumpsters with the closing dat%- prior to June 2, 2015 being lei) to the discretion of the ToII wn Manager A The next item on the agenda was a further briefing on proposed FY2016-2017 budget. There was no further discussion on the proposed budget. The next items on the agenda were the financial reports for December 2014 and January 2015. Vice Mayor Hare commented that the Finance Committee met last month to review the December report and this month they reviewed the January report. Mr. Hare next commented that the summary statement showed we are at 95% of projected revenues for the General Fund. One adjustment to that is a line item for re - appropriated fund balance which is essentially money for the Fire House. That was built into the budget to be divided up throughout the year for a total of $382,000. If that amount is removed from the budget, it would show that we are up around $166,000 from our forecasted numbers or 104%. In further regard to the General Fund, the business licenses are a little behind from our projection which is a matter of timing. The cigarette tax continues to be down in the amount at4 ofteye-?c-teab I the same time last year. Sales tax, which is a good measure of economic vitality in the area at least for the County and the Town, is up $140,000 compared to our budget on an adjusted basis and meals tax is up about $75,000. From an expense side, we are underspending by approximately $710,000 or roughly 86%. Some items contributing to that are $300,000 relating to the Fire House renovations and a delay in the filling of the Animal Control Officer position of $26,000 and $70,000 in filling one of the new firefighter positions. On the utility side, revenues are up about $62,000 of where we expected it and this billing cycle only includes the commercial side and not residential. Barry Thompson commented this is related to the rate increase which is offsetting some of the consumption that is down about 2% from last year. Mr. Hare continued commenting that expenditures are down which relates to timing on some projects and some savings with the Water Treatment Plant. The Town Manager commented that the Water Treatment Plant retroactively charged us a new rate about this time last year for the last eight months of the year. This year our rate went down almost 2%, but we will not receive the benefit of that rate reduction until July. Mr. Hare next commented that on a cash basis from December, we are down about $500,000 in the General Fund. We were down last year at about the same time around $327,000. Council Member Nance commented that the War Memorial's numbers are similar to where they were 9 last year, but when you start subtracting out the pass -through items and the loss of the regular Sunday church group, they have been able to make it up in other areas. It is holding steady, but that holding steady is still with a big supplement from the Town. Vice Mayor Hare made a motion to accept the December 2014 and January 2015 financial reports as presented; the motion was seconded by Council Member Accepted the December 2014 Nance and carried by the following vote, with all members and January 2015 financial voting: Vote 5-0; Yeas (5) — Adams, Nance, Weeks, Hare, reports just let the Town Manager or Ryan Spitzer know. He then passed on condolenscenes to the Town Manager in the loss of his grandmother. Comments from Council Members: Council Member Nance apologized for not being at the last Council meeting because of his involvement with a federal trial in Norfolk and expressed his appreciation to the Police Chief for allowing him to use their department's interview room. He also commented that he appreciates the fact that this Council listens and respects one other even when there is a difference of opinion. Council Member Adams commented on the Vinton Volunteer Fire Department Installation Banquet that he and Council Member Weeks attended several weekends ago. He also expressed thanks to those who put on the employee luncheon on March 13'h. Council Member Adams made a motion to adjourn the regular meeting, the motion was seconded by Vice Mayor Hare and carried by the following vote, with all members voting: Vote 5-0; Yeas (5) — Adams, Nance, Weeks, Hare, Grose; Nays (0) — None. The meeting was adjourned at Meeting adjourned - im F 9 1UT tHO Eel WAMMIN A t. WHEREAS, the Town Council of the Town of Vinton, Virginia has convened a closed meeting on this date, pursuant to an affirmative recorded vote and in accordance with the provisions oft e Virginia Freedom of Information Act; and, WHEREAS, Section 2.2-3712 of the Code of Virginia requires a certification by the Vinton Town Council that such closed meeting was conducted in conformity with Virginia Law. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Vinton Town Council hereby certifies that to the best of each member's knowledge: I Only public business matters lawfully exempted from opening meeting requirements by Virginia law were discussed in the closed meeting to which this certification applies; and 2. Only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard, discussed or considered by the Town Council. <40 Clerk of Council