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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPublic Hearing 10-7-2020 - Annual Budget FY 2021 CITY OF LIVONIA PUBLIC HEARING Minutes of Meeting Held on Wednesday, October 7, 2020 ____________________________________________________________________ A Public Hearing of the Council of the City of Livonia was held virtually via ZOOM on Wednesday October 7, 2020. MEMBERS PRESENT: Kathleen McIntyre, President Vice President Scott Bahr Brandon McCullough Laura M. Toy Cathy K. White MEMBERS ABSENT: Rob Donovic Jim Jolly OTHERS PRESENT: Mayor Maureen Miller Brosnan Mike Slater, Director of Finance Mark Taormina, Director of Economic Development Paul Bernier, City Attorney Sara Kasprowicz, Recording Secretary The Public Hearing was called to order at 7:00 p.m. with President Kathleen McIntyre presiding. This item is regarding Proposed Budget for the City of Livonia for the Fiscal Year ending November 30, 2021, and the property tax millage proposed to be levied to support the proposed budget. (CR 244-20). This item will move to the Regular Meeting of October 19, 2020. The Public Hearing is now open. There were 25 people in the audience. McIntyre: First, I will see if any of my Council colleagues or the Mayor would like to say anything before we go to the Public Hearing. Seeing none. Brosnan: Kathleen, if you don’t mind, just a brief introduction, I’d like to make sure that folks, especially anybody in our community that’s tapped in and tuned in to this meeting tonight is kind of brought up to speed on some of the highlights of the budget. This, along with the Council meetings leading up to the budget, I think, are the most important meetings that we host all year, so I want to make sure that we at least touch on some of the highlights. Everything is available online for those that are trying to track the budget and watch it. I just want to start by, first of all, by thanking the Council for engaging in such a collaborative process. Not all cities operate 2 the same way that we do here in Livonia. This process of collaboration th began on August 10 when I met with you all and got a list of your priorities and things that you want to see reflected in the budget. We then had a rd chance to engage again on September 23 in a Finance Committee meeting when we brought to you, that budget that then reflected the Administration’s priorities alongside Council’s priorities. Now, tonight, the purpose of tonight’s meeting, this is our best chance to share these recommendations, to share this budget with our community. The constituents that we’re looking to serve. So, I want to start, first of all, by thanking our Department Heads who have worked really hard creating Department budgets that reflect the priorities of our City. I want to thank our Head of Finance, Mike Slater and his department. They have the thankless job of putting all of this together and more often than not, they are the ones that have to say no to things that people want to see in the budget. Overall, just some of the high-arching points that people need to keep in mind is that tonight, we are providing the community with a balanced budget. It maintains a fund balance of 25% which is well-above what is recommended by the Government Finance Officers Association. They recommend 16.7%. We are also looking at budget that contains some flexibility with an understand that we are still not certain where we are going to end up as a result of COVID-19. So, we know that we can work with the Council in making any adjustments that we might need to make mid-year as a result of maybe some additional funding that comes our way and puts us on the plus side and hopefully, we don’t have to make adjustments, where we find ourselves spending more money than we anticipated having to spend. In terms of highlights, we are proposing a reduction in the City’s tax rate this year. It will maintain our position as the lowest tax rate in Wayne County by a considerable margin. Livonia’s tax rate of 13.3 mils is lower than the next highest, Gross Point Farms at 14.95 mils. So, we’re proud of that position and it does make Livonia a community that people want to relocate their homes to, but they want to relocate their businesses to as well, a lot of times because of that. We have a taxable value of real and personal property taxes that we’re seeing increased by 144 million dollars this year and that is a considerable amount, that’s 3.4% of our budget and its something to be proud of and that is due in large part to a lot of work that is done by everyone in this community and lead by the City Council. Salaries and benefits for all of our employees are assumed to increase by 2.5% across the board and that is a result of the collective bargaining agreement that is already in place for our general employees. Most of our other unions follow along that course. We, as a city the size of Livonia, are a large service organization, so when you look at where money needs to be spent, it needs to be spent on wages and benefits. So, as a result, 81% of our total expenditures in the General Fund, go to wages and benefits. That is very comparable with other municipalities. In terms of whether or not this budget meets our goals and that for me, is the question that I have to ask 3 myself as Mayor, when I have a chance to review the budget with the Administration. I look at those goals and I say, “Does this budget keep our city safe?” That’s the #1 priority of residents in our community and I would contend that it does. In this budget, we are proposing enough funding that is going to help us maintain competitive wages and benefits for our police and our fire fighters. We currently find ourselves twenty police officers short and seven fire fighters short, so we have a big job to do retaining and attracting public service numbers. We believe this budget is going to put us in a position to right that ship and to fix those shortages. Secondarily, people in the community are asking us to make sure we fix our roads, to make sure we fix our infrastructure. In this budget, we’re expecting to generate $3.9 million to improve our city’s streets and our sidewalks and another $11.7 million is expected to come from our ACT 51 Fund and that money goes to major and local road improvements. Together, these funds are gonna take care of making sure that we maintain the majority of our roads in good condition. Some of the major projects that residents will see this year as a result of that will be a resurfacing of Merriman from Joy to Plymouth and Farmington from Plymouth to Orangelawn. Now, there is a lot more arm wrestling to do to make sure that we get our fair share of County and State money to come to improve our roads, but these are significant improvements, but it’s a good start. In terms of advancing Livonia Vision 21 which the community sees as being vital to making sure that our kids want to come back and live here in Livonia, we’ve allocated $75,000 to the next phase of Livonia Vision 21 and that will be advancing the strategy that’s moving. In order to implement the plan that was created by residents and approved by Council a year ago. This budget also addresses diversity and inclusion and its extremely important to us as a community and as a result of a gift from Masco of $50,000, we are going to begin the process of making sure that diversity and inclusion training is available to all of our employees. The budget is also going to help us move a little bit further faster with technology because there aren’t too many corners that municipalities can cut anymore, so in order to advance communities, we need to make sure we embrace innovation, we embrace technology, so this year, coming online are some innovation that are going to help us in the area of CivicClerk, we’re going to see come online, Doc-u-sign, ExecuTime a digitized inspection record and a city mobile app. Now, all of these programs have been designed with one group of people in mind and that is our residents. They are designed to make sure that people have greater access to information in a more timely fashion and we’re really excited about some of these technological advancements. Innovation is another key to making sure we drive drown costs in our budget, so this year, in our budget, we have embarked on a study with three of our neighboring communities to reduce water and sewer costs and once we have more information about the results of that study and some of the work that’s coming out of it, we’re going to be meeting with Council soon to share 4 what we know at this point and we’ll be sharing that with the community as well as we move along. This budget also sees a restructuring of our Community Resources Department, designed to reduce cost and improve services. We also have made sure that we have set aside money for the future, for future projects in this budget. So, starting in 2018, the Council really put an emphasis on setting aside money to offset the cost of future City building projects. So, to date, we’ve set aside $1.3 million and we’re expecting that once we find out what happens with our COVID grant funding and if we’re able to cover all of our costs, our increased costs as they relate to COVID, during the course of the year, we’ll be back before Council, fingers-crossed, to put more money back into that fund that’s going to hep take care of us in the future. So, overall, there is a lot to be considered when you’re designing a budget of this size, this magnitude. Its going to be taking care if 97,000 residents and 4,000 businesses in our community and I believe the budget that we have before you tonight, one that we’re presenting to our community as a whole, accomplishes an awful lot. It is based on conservative projection; it addresses the values of our community and it embraces innovation and technology as a way of driving down cost and improving our city services. I know that you probably have some questions and if you do have questions, Mike Slater is here to help answer those, but before we go to those, Mike, if you don’t mind, if you’ve got any additional information that you want to add, this would be a great time to do it. Slater: No, Mayor, I think next year, I’ll let you do the whole budget, that was awesome. Those really are the highlights and I was going to touch on a few of them, but you’ve touched on those and more and as you indicated, this is really here for the public and so I’m interested to hear from Council and the public in terms of trying to address any questions they may have. McIntyre: Alright, thank you Mayor, for that comprehensive introduction and thank you Mike. We will now go to Vice President Bahr. Bahr: If I may, Madam President, a question for the Mayor. Mayor, I apologize, I didn’t think about this when we were at our Committee meeting a couple of weeks ago. I know we discussed then, and I know you mentioned it here on the money for capital projects that we’ll wait to see how the year goes. Without getting too much into the complexities, can you give a high- level answer as to where, are we holding that money somewhere now that you anticipate fraying up later? Can you just talk about where that is currently? Brosnan: Currently, Councilman Bahr, there is $1.3 million that’s already been set aside in a fund, beginning in 2018, so that’s been building overtime. I think, as a matter of fact, that came as a result, of a recommendation from you. 5 Bahr: Yeah, I’m very familiar with that number, what I’m asking about is, you’ve commented, depending on how things go this year, we’d like to put some more money towards that. What I am saying is, where is that money going to come from? Is that money being held somewhere as a contingency that is setting there, that if certain reimbursements come through, we can then use it or where is that now? Brosnan: You know what, a lot of it hinges on what happens with the $5.5 million I think that we have out there in request for grant funding, but beyond that I’m going to let Mike take over on the specifics. Slater: Yeah, that’s exactly right, there’s a number of assistance sources. Grants that we’ve applied for, we’re not going to get all of them but we’re going to get a lot of it, so we don’t have final answers on some of that. In addition, if you recall, we went through a period where we had furloughs, where the city was closed, all businesses were closed and so there was a lot of savings that were generated by our employees being on furlough. So, there is a number of different sources and that’s what, I would say, probably within the next month, we’ll be back with what we know, one way or another, there most likely will be more than one round of us coming back to you, as the Mayor talked about, we need to be flexible, so, we know a lot today, but the landscape changes on this quickly overtime. We know the Feds are talking about additional stimulus, we’re not planning on that, but certainly, if that happens, that would, again, revise what we think the ultimate outcome is going to be there. Bahr: So, Mike, those grants though, correct me if I’m wrong, those grants are for COVID related expenses, right or am I wrong? The grants that are out there, I think it was, I’m not going to throw a number out there, I have a number in my head, but I might be wildly wrong. If we get that money, it has to be used for specific purposes, right? Slater: That is correct, but one of the purposes that it can be used for is for reimbursement of payroll, Public Safety payroll for our employees early on in this, before May, that were diverted from what their normal duties were, to deal with COVID, so while it is COVID related, it does go towards certain costs that would have already been in our budget. Bahr: Understood, thank you. McIntyre: Alright, I should have mentioned that we have New Data for this Public Hearing item. They are two communications to the City Council from the Finance Department, from Mike Slater, clarifying some information that Council asked for that will be placed on file for the information to the Council. Alright, any other questions from Council? 6 Toy: Madam Chair? McIntyre: Yes, Councilwoman Toy. Toy: Thank you. I don’t know where the raise hand button is on the computer, I don’t see it. I want to do what you ask, but I don’t see it. McIntyre: That’s ok, I’ll show you in the future. Toy: Ok, perfect, until then, I’m trying to raise my hand. Madam President, Mayor and other, I just want to compliment everyone and on a clear and concise way we did this budget. Madam President hats off to you for keeping us informed and I found it very easy to follow this year, I really did and maybe because my head is clearer. I’m just saying, everyone in Administration, Mayor, and others, thank you very much. It’s a really good budget for some very uncertain times, I mean if you can follow the legislature, I give you more credit than not and some of the other governing agencies we have to deal with as locals and there’s a lot of vision going on, like our City Clerk that just got $149,000 for unexpected, what, 35,000 absentees? That’s unbelievable. I think she told me that over 11,000 have been turned in. That’s as much as we had in that last election last year. So, its amazing, some of the changes we are all facing and our residents as well. So, I just want to commend everyone, I’m not asking for a raise, I’m just commending you. Thank you very much. McIntyre: Thank you Councilwoman Toy. Councilmember McCullough. McCullough: Thank you Madam President. As being a newer Council member, going through the budget, tying in this process and seeing everything in action. Again, there is massive kudos all around and you pair that with the pandemic and forecasting different numbers, I do want to share that same thought of kudos to everybody involved and thank you, from my eyes, just kind of making it as simple as could be to follow and understand everything that’s there. So, I appreciate it. McIntyre: Thank you, Councilman McCullough. One other thing I should have stated at the beginning, it was a little bit unclear as to who was with us. Councilmember Donovic is not able to be here this evening with us and Councilman Jolly is only able to listen in. So, we do have five Councilmembers present. Alright, anyone else from Council? Seeing no one, I’ll go to the audience. White: I didn’t use the raise hand button, sorry. I just want to echo the comments of my colleagues, besides Mike Slater whose done this process many, many times, I think the Mayor deserves a lot of recognition for being able to wrap her head around this and I know the time on the Council has 7 helped, but part of the reason it so clear for us, it because of the way it has been communicated by the Mayor and I appreciate it, thank you. McIntyre: Alright, anyone else? Let me make sure I’m not missing anyone who has a hand up on their screen, not the virtual hand up, ok. It does not look like anyone else from Council wishes to comment at this time. So, at this time, I will go to the audience if there are any members of the public, this is a public hearing, who would like to comment, now is your opportunity to do so. I now see a few. Alright, I will go to Jim McCabe. Again, I would ask you to restate your name to confirm that what shows up on the screen is correct. Good evening. McCabe: Good evening to you, good evening to the Council thank you for your time. This is Jim McCabe, I’m at 14236 Lyons Street. A little bit knew the Civics here, I was just going to, is there an agenda topic tonight for a proposed building in the neighborhood in which I live or is this just simply the budget discussion? I beg your pardon for my ignorance here. McIntyre: Mr. McCabe, I’m sorry for the confusion, we have two public hearings this evening. Our first public hearing is the budget, but you are absolutely correct, there is another public hearing and that is on Adams Park Development and that will follow the public hearing on the budget. So, if would just like to stay on the line and once we are through the public comments and any other comments, then we will move along to our second public hearing. McCabe: Thank you for the guidance. McIntyre: Thank you, thanks for calling in and get clarification. Alright, it looks like Coleen Badgero. Badgero: Hi, I’m Coleen Badgero, I live at 17415 Sunset Street here in Livonia. I, in reviewing the Mayor’s proposed budget, my concern related to the funding for the Human Relations Commission, it appears that’s kind of the primary approach to combatting discrimination and racism in our city and from what I can see, it only appears to be allocated $2,000 for such a gargantuan task, if I’m wrong, please correct me, but in comparison to the $2 million that appears to be going towards golf courses, that just seems like not enough money to really, truly have an impact to come up against the reputation we have and that according to my experience, my first-hand experience of friends of mine who are people of color, to truly make a dent in this issue and this reputation that we carry, so I guess that’s my question/request to add more funding to that cause. McIntyre: Thank you, Miss Badgero for your comments and taking the time to call in and being engaged in the City and the budget process. 8 Badgero: Thank you. Brosnan: Madam Chair, if you don’t mind a second to address Miss Badgero’s concern? It would be nice if we could have just one line item in a budget that helped us to dispel racism in any community, but the fact of the matter is, is that there is never going to be one line item that takes care of that. We have to make sure that throughout our entire city, that we’re dealing with this issue, that’s why you see that there is probably money that isn’t delineated as diversity and inclusion funding or isn’t just delineated for Human Relations work. We have money in our budgets all across the board in all of our departments in helping us with communication needs, helping us with diversity and inclusion training all of those are elements that are going to help our community get our arms around this issue. So, for me anyway, it would be very disheartening if I thought that the community looked at one like item in the budget and felt like that was going to solve our problems. Thanks, Madam Chair. McIntyre: Thank you Mayor. Alright. Anyone else from the public that would like to comment on this public hearing item? Alright, seeing none, with that we will close this public hearing. Mr. Bernier? Bernier: Is anybody going to offer a resolution? McIntyre: Yeah, thank you. Toy: Madam Chair, I’ll offer an approving. McIntyre: Thank you very much, Mr. Bernier. Councilmember Toy has offered the approving resolution to approve the annual budget for the Fiscal Year ending 2021. Councilmember White? White: I’d like to add the Council Resolution to approve the millage rates. McIntyre: Thank you. Alright I think that covers it, Mr. Bernier, thank you. Alright and I would like to mention that both of the public hearing items from this , evening will go to the next meeting agenda and that is October 192020. As there were no further questions or comments, the Public Hearing was declared closed at 7:25 p.m.