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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPUBLIC HEARING - PH 2016-10-05 - ANNUAL BUDGET CITY OF LIVONIA PUBLIC HEARING Minutes of Meeting Held on Wednesday, October 5, 2016 ______________________________________________________________________ A Public Hearing of the Council of the City of Livonia was held at the City Hall Auditorium on Wednesday, October 5, 2016. MEMBERS PRESENT: Kathleen McIntyre, President Brian Meakin Jim Jolly Cathy White Scott Bahr MEMBERS ABSENT: Maureen Miller Brosnan Brandon M. Kritzman, Vice President OTHERS PRESENT: Paul Bernier, Assistant City Attorney Michael Slater, Director of Finance Dennis Wright, Mayor Patricia C. Burklow, CER-8225 Pursuant to Sections 4 and 5, Chapter VII of the Charter of the City of Livonia, this is a Public Hearing relative to the proposed Annual Budget for the City of Livonia for the Fiscal Year ending November 30, 2017, as well as the Public Hearing required by Act 5 PA 1982 in connection with the Truth in Taxation Hearing relative to the property tax millage proposed to be levied to support the proposed budget. (CR 342-16)A. This has been duly filed in the Office of the City Clerk and is now open for public examination and inspection. The clerk presented to the Council satisfactory evidence that proper notice of this Public Hearing has been duly published at least one week in advance of such Hearing in the Livonia Observer, the official newspaper of the City, and that the provisions of the City Charter have been complied with. The Public Hearing was called to order at 7:00 p.m. with President Kathleen McIntyre presiding. The Public Hearing is now open for comments. Please state clearly your name and address before making your comments. 2 McIntyre: We’ll call the meeting to order. It is a Public Hearing. And we have--let’s see who is not with us this evening, Maureen and Vice-President Kritzman. Everyone else is here. This is a public hearing. This is the proposed budget for the City of Livonia for the Fiscal Year ending November 30, 2017 and the property tax millage proposed to be levied to support the proposed budget. Slater: Good evening, Council. As we’ve had really three meetings leading up this this public hearing, one back in spring to review general municipal th finance, one in August for a pre-budget meeting, and one September 26 to get--for the details of the actual proposed budget. I don’t think it is necessary to recreate those meetings and this Public Hearing generally is for the public and I’m not seeing a whole lot of public. It is probably not necessary to go through all the details. I would just-- Meakin: Why not? Slater: If you want--if you want just a very highest level overview, our general fund which is the one that we have the most discretion in and pays the majority of our general operations, it had revenue increase of 2.4 percent and corresponding expenditure increase of 2.4 percent. The budget is presented as balanced. There are a few exciting projects that at least--all of it is exciting but a couple that may be outside the normal course of business in terms of what we do as a City. One being the upgrades for the street lights on our major road to LED which is has long term benefits not only in the energy savings but cost savings to the City. And then hopefully the beginning of the construction for Newburgh Village Phase II which has been on the drawing board for a lot of years and next year that should actually be under way. The only other item if Council would indulge me is the additional information that was requested at the Council meeting. It was submitted to the Council office; I don’t know if it was in your packets or not but if it was I would be happy to go through those. There’s like four items that was requested by Council. McIntyre: I don’t-- Meakin: Is it in the electronic ones? Slater: It was submitted electronically but I--it was within the last day or two so it might not have been in the final package. I’ll just--in general and certainly if there’s questions after the fact I will be more than happy to try and answer them. The first question that was answered was the vacant property rates and we give a history all the way back to the year 2000. Just to kind of summarize for 2016 the numbers that we saw at the budget committee meeting, they are either at or near the lowest rates we’ve had 3 all the way back to 2000. So our building occupancy for industrial, office and retail are really as good as we’ve seen in a long time. That was one thing. The second question was in regards to a chart kind of outlining the funding source for all of our special revenue funds and as part of the documentation there is an attachment that lists all our special revenue capital projects and enterprise funds and what the source of revenue is. There was costs--regards of cost of our other small commissions. I’ve attached to this the compensation that was approved by City Council for commissions back in 2009 when we looked at all the commissions and set the number of numbers and their compensation as well those commissions that have dedicated line items. I’ve listed those and the amounts for those other commissions. Then finally, there was a question regarding the status of signage for the Robert and Janet Bennett Library. That was in progress, it is still in progress, the administration, the Library Commission, the Bennett Family and the sign contractor--the same contractor that did Recreation Center sign for Mayor Kirksey are finalizing what they want that to look like and we believe it will be similar to what it looks like at the Rec Center. And we expect that that will be completed and installed before the end of November. And that concludes the additional questions. So at this point I turn back to the Mayor or Council and would be happy to answer your questions. McIntyre: Mayor, is there anything that you would like to add? Wright: No, I think he’s covered it pretty much. White: Madam Chair. McIntyre: Councilmember White. White: Seeing no members of the public here, I’d like to offer two resolutions. One approving the budget as submitted and the other approving the millage rates. McIntyre: All right, thank you. White: Nice job on the budget. A lot of hard work went into that I know and we appreciate it. McIntyre: I guess I’d just like to say thank you. A tremendous amount of work goes into this. It’s appreciated and not only is it a lot of work it’s the level of attention to detail, the thoroughness of your patience, Mike, in answering questions which sometimes not through--not through anybody’s deliberate efforts and I’m--I hold myself guilty right--are redundant or--because if I forgot something you patiently explained to me already, and the hearings 4 that we had and the opportunity to really dive into things is tremendously appreciated. Slater: Well I appreciate that and I do have to say while I kind of quarterback over a lot of people in this thing, there is tremendous amounts of work done at the departmental levels and my staff to get to this point. And we appreciate the Council’s questions to be honest. If there is no questions or no interest it is actually somewhat disappointing to me because it kind of leads me to believe that no one cares. So obviously Council cares, we care, and we appreciate that. Wright: I’d just like to thank, Mike. You did a wonderful job on this thing and I couldn’t--I know you have a ton of hours in this, it is very obvious. And I appreciate Council’s cooperation. McIntyre: And then just one final thank you to Scott Bahr who is the chair of the Finance, Budget and Technology Committee. And your leadership and the committee work that contributed to the process, there’s really not enough sufficient thanks or kudos to go around everybody in the City for what this takes. So thank you. And we are adjourned. As there were no further questions or comments, the Public Hearing was declared closed at 7:08 p.m. SUSAN M. NASH, CITY CLERK