ccswks 08-08-1989
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SPECIAL SESSION OF THE CITY COUNCIL
AUGUST 8, 1989
The Schertz City Council convened in Special Session, Tuesday,
August 8, 1989 at 6:30 p.m. in the Conference Room of the
Municipal Complex, 1400 Schertz Parkway, Schertz, Texas. The
followinq members were present: Mayor Earl W. Sawyer, presidinq;
Earl Hartzog; Hal Baldwin; Barbara Stanhope; Mary Marsh and Ken
Greenwald. Staff present were City Manager Kerry R. Sweatt,
Assistant City Manaqer Steve Simonson and City Secretary June
Krause.
#1 Mayor Sawyer opened the meetinq and immediately called a
recess in order for the Council to tour the Cosmic Futures, Inc.
Subdivision.
The Special Meeting was reconvened at 7:18 p.m.
#2 BUDGET WORKSHOP: The City Council to review revenues
and expenditures for fiscal year 1989-90.
Mayor Sawyer mentioned that this year's budqet was under a new
format that Council was not used to havinq so he turned the
meeting over to Mr. Sweatt.
Mr. Sweatt said that first he needed
Non-Departmental Expenditures. He
$3,000 for printing the newsletter;
remain the same, there will be a
department.
to make a correction to the
said he had left out the
so al thouqh the total will
$3,000 transfer within the
Mr. Sweatt mentioned that the Mayor had alluded to a change in
format for this year's budqet. He said that he would like to go
over the format prior to qetting into the details of the budqet.
He said he had distributed to staff 18 pages that dealt with the
way we would approach the budget, askinq staff to hold the line
as much as possible. He said that in many cases the detail
sheets did not reflect any changes from last year. We have qone
from the line item concept to a groupinq of cost centers
Personnel Services, Suppl ies, Contractual Services, Maintenance
and Capitol Outlay. We have asked all departments to take on all
recoqnizable costs to that department. In years past, certain
costs have all been in one account. This way each department
will reflect that department's total costs so that each
department stands on its own. For instance, the Personnel Costs
for each department will now not only show salaries but will also
show FICA, withholding, retirement and insurance costs. The same
will apply to maintenance - each department will show their cost
for all maintenance. Because of the difficulty of Showing what
was last year line item and this year grouping, this years
budget looks foreign to you.
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Mr. Sweatt said staff has also realligned the table of
organization. Under Management, you have the City Manager, who
under Charter is the Finance Officer of the City, the Executive
Secretary, Finance Officer and Finance Clerk. This year there
will be zero budgeted in the Finance Department because of this
transfer to the Management Department. In years past,
Administration had included a number of items that were common to
all departments, this year Administration simply consists of the
City Secretary, Deputy City Secretary and the Receptionist.
Municipal Building will have 1 ine items that are common to all
municipal buildings. Engineering as a Department has been zeroed
out and incorporated into Planning & Zoning.
At this point, Mr. Sweatt distributed the detail sheets for
Council perusal. He also gave Council the proposed Five-Year
Plan. The individual department detail will support the expense
sheets of the budget. Mr. Sweatt then explained the detail
worksheets and how they related to the budget. These represent
the numbers and the way staff got to the budget document. The
Recap Sheet shows the General Fund Revenues, the Water and Sewer
Revenues and SAFES' revenues.
Following the departmental expenditure pages of the budget is the
Table of Organization that reflects the proposed organization for
this budget. After that, is a proposed Service Grade Table. You
will notice on the Position Authorization Sheet, after each
position, is the Service Grade as shown on the table. We have
not increased the salaries but have place each position in a
Service Grade that reflects their salary. The adoption of this
Service Grade Scale will allow some positions, that have hit
their maximum under the present pay scale, to have an opportunity
to continue to move up in that position.
For Council clarification, Mr. Sweatt explained that under this
Service Grade Scale just as employees did under the old
system - an employee would move up two steps after their six-
month probation period; then one year from that date they would
be eligible for another two-step increase, as they would for each
year after that. Eligible is the key word, because employees
must have a favorable evaluation from their department head and
it must be approved by the City Manager before receiving
increases in pay. Our reason for doing this is to provide a means
to reward good performance and encourage performance improvement.
For the first time, this year we are proposing something new as
far as salaries are concern. In this budget is money recommended
for a two-step increase for each employee during the year. In
addition to that, we are proposing for the first time a longevity
payment to each employee in the amount of $4 per month for each
year of employment, to be paid one time per year. Because, by
the nature of our business, we cannot pay a bonus we propose to
pay this one time per year, perhaps at Christmas time. This
would cost about $14,000 in the General Fund and $2300 in the
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Water and Sewer Fund, and less that $1, 000 for SAFES. In 1990,
Mr. Sweatt said he expects that we will have no choice but to pay
this $4.00 per month lonqevity for fire and police service - as
we are sure the census will put our population over the 10,000
figure. He said he would recommend we start implementinq this
now but for all employees - not just fire and police.
Mr. Sweatt said he would like to just qo over some of the
numbers and qive Council some perspective of what is in the
budget, even though Council had probably reviewed it already.
This will qive a little better view of what is proposed. He
presented some charts the first showing a comparison of
Assessed Valuation from 1982 through 1988. This shows a dramatic
increase in 1987, due largely to the annexation of some 5000+
acres in July of 1986, then it leveled off for 1987, 1988 and
1989. The second chart shows the comparable taxes collected and
the tax rate for the years 1982 through 1988 and a proposed tax
rate of 32.83 cents for 1989. The third chart showed the
revenues and expenditures for the same years. The fourth charts
showed the table of orqanization for the City, which is a part of
the budget. The fifth was a pie chart, showinq the 1989 proposed
income, with taxes being the largest at 59.29% (of this amount
about 50.8% is from sales tax) , Muni-Court at 15.55%,
Miscellaneous income at 13.50%, Franchise/Contractual 8.85% and
Permits/License 2.81%. The last chart showed the 1989 projected
expenditures Police 26.25%; Fire 8.70%; Street 13.09%;
Inspection 2.15%; Municipal Court 1.67%; Parks 5.02%; Animal
Control 2.93%; Swimming Pool 2.21%; Non-Departmental 11.20%; and
all other departments 22.77%. He said you will note that the
very basic essential services represent about 51+% of the budqet.
When question by Council, Mr. Sweatt said the 32.83 cents is an
increase in the effective tax rate of 7.07%. The highest tax
rate the City has had is 44 cents in 1984. The proposed tax rate
of 32.83 cents would produce $891,865.00 in taxes. Out of the
proposed tax rate 4.86 cents is debt service and 27.97 cents is
O&M. The roll back rate would produce $805,747.00. In round
terms, it might be interesting to know that one cents on the tax
rate net effects to the City approximately $25,000 of income.
The General Fund Budget for 1989-90 is 13.08% increase over the
budget of 88-89. Further answer inq questions of Council, Mr.
Sweatt advised that there is less than $3,000 in contingency.
Mayor Sawyer said that a part of the thinqs Council was appalled
at in the charts were thinqs the Council had no control over -
emerqency items that occurred. There must be money to cover
these unexpected emergencies. Mr. Sawyer said he felt Mr. Sweatt
has done fantastically well under the circumstances.
Mr. Sweatt said we have some good staff and Department Heads who
have responded well and have not spent just because it is in the
budqet. We have tried to strike as qood a balance as we can to
provide some proposed increases of salaries as an incentive for
people to stay with the City.
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Mr. Sweatt said there are a couple of changes in that in the past
the County Fire Contract money went for afire truck and this
year it will go into the general fund. The same will happen to
the County money for the Library. In the past, a portion of
those funds were administered by the Library Board. The onl y
money that is not reflected here is money the various boards or
volunteers raised.
Mr. Sweatt advised that staff made estimates of increases in
other areas as well as taxes; but have not proposed a water rate
increase, and we are pretty optimistic in our revenue
projections. This has been a very difficul t budget to bring to
balance and is very precariously balanced. Mr. Sweatt said we
believe things will begin to increase and the economy will pick
up; but he did not expect an extremel y rosy picture this time
next year with a zero contingency.
Mr. Sweatt advised that there would be at least two more budget
meetings, and suggested the Council go over it line item by line
item through the Street Department the next meeting.
Council concurred with the Mayor to stop the budget meetings at
10:00 p.m. even if it meant having additional meetings.
Mr. Sweatt briefly went over the schedule of budget meetings. At
the August 16th meeting, the Council needs to take a vote if they
propose to increase the tax rate. That does not mean that
Council will adopt an increased tax rate, just that they will
consider it. On August 22nd, we have scheduled a public hearing
on the budget and tax rate and will continue to review the budget
details. Part of the Council action would be to announce the
date they will adopt a tax rate. On September 5th, we would
propose that Council consider adopting the tax rate and budget.
Mr. Baldwin said he thought the law required that you not have
anything else on the agenda when you hold the public hearing on
the tax rate. Mr. Sweatt said he would check that out.
Mr. Sweatt then distributed the proposed Five Year Plan, saying
it is not as complete as he would like it to be. He said we have
complied with the spirit and intent to furnish Council with a 5-
year plan not only of capitol outlay but a narrative and
description of a number of activities. Additionally, at the last
portion of this report, is the Citizen's Leadership Panel Report.
He continued by saying, as we complete the operating budget and
finish this series of activities, he would like to schedule a
Goals and Planninq Session. He said this is not an all inclusive
plan but would propose that it is a springboard for what would be
a product after the goals sessions. Mr. Sweatt said this is
intended to talk about where we want to go and what we want to
do. He said he would include some of the old Street/Parks plan
in this if Council wanted him to.
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#3 Adjournment: Mayor Sawyer declared the meeting to be
adjourned at 9:37 p.m.
ATTEST: