Finance Minutes

Minutes of the Finance Committee meeting held on Tuesday, November 3, 2009 at city hall pursuant to notice duly given.

1. Meeting called to order by Chairperson Maas at 4:30 p.m.
2. Roll call: Jack Maas, Dick Doeren, Joe Stiloski, Tom Fulton and Ed Young. Mayor Nerenhausen and Linda Belongia Administrator and as recording secretary also present.
3. Moved by Fulton seconded by Doeren to approve of the agenda as presented.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 5 ayes
4. No correspondence or public input.
5. Discussion/recommendation on:
a. Tax Exempt properties: Maas stated this issue has been discussed by Finance for a couple of meetings…don’t know if this is a good time to put
this into play…budgets as proposed have an increase; Fulton
agrees…looking at the budget; Maas stated looking at the economy and
census being low; Stiloski stated a letter could be sent out as a request
from the city, would the non profits be willing to make a contribution…this
can’t be mandatory…will throw the school budgets off….they have already
been set; Fulton stated we could look at it more like a survey…sending it
out with no dollar amounts…agree with Stiloski budgets have been
set…his hours have been cut by the school; Maas stated we could table
this to a later date; Belongia stated if it was tabled and then a letter could
be sent out so that the non profits would have time through the budget
process to evaluate and see what could be contributed; Mayor suggested
that the list be looked over again and maybe remove tax support entities
as the increase would be passed onto the tax payers;
Moved by Stiloski seconded by Fulton to table this to the January 2010 Finance meeting.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 5 ayes

b. Discussion on borrowing for capital projects and vehicles. Information was provided from Hutchinson, Shockey, Erley & Co on a debt issue that
is callable anytime after 12/1/09 which has a current interest rate of 4%;
refinancing this issue with the new money needed for renovation of the
public works bldg estimated at $300,000; $750,000 for Cook Avenue from
Evergreen to Logtown and Cook Avenue to Van Dyke and one new squad
Car estimated at $24,000; amount budgeted for debt for 2010 would cover
the principal and interest payments including the new money being
considered; the new debt issue beings with an interest of 2.5% out to a
3.9% in 2019; Stiloski stated it is not a good time to increase the
debt…economy is bad enough; Discussion on needed renovations at the
public works bldg and the condition that Cook Avenue is in, we have to do
something; as auditor stated during annual report, if the project has a
lifetime of more than one year, than borrowing is the avenue to go, spread
out the costs over the users instead all in one year;
Moved by Doeren seconded by Fulton to recommend to Com of the Whole
to proceed with refinancing the 12/2001 issue and borrowing $1,074,000 for capital projects funding.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 4 ayes 1 no – Stiloski

c. Discussion on 2010 proposed budget; Belongia went over revised budget summary using the assessed valuation from the assessor as of
11/2/09; Young questioned the library budget stated it was discussed at
last week’s board meeting…they had wanted to meet with finance on city
not putting in $25,000 for repairs and maintenance of the library
building…issue with the flat roof; and drainage problems; aging furnace
issues; Doeren questioned the 5 yr plan for the library; Maas stated the
finance committee never received a request for repairs through the budget
process; Maas stated he feels we have a good fair budget…street work is being done that is necessary; Fulton stated for the record he takes no
pleasure in raising the mill rate; Stiloski stated finance should take a look
at the budget and reduce areas…we could do some cutting; Mayor stated
let us develop the Pickle factory property; Maas agreed, we need more
tax base; Maas stated hopefully next year we will have something on the
Kelly Pickle site and will not have to look at increasing the mill rate like this
year; Young questioned the certification of our firefighters…Mayor stated this was brought up by the Fire Chief at the last meeting…something that
was left go years ago;
Moved by Doeren seconded by Young to recommend to Committee of the Whole the 2010 budget and schedule the public hearing.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 4 ayes 1 no – Stiloski

d. Moved by Doeren seconded by Fulton to approve and recommend to Com of the Whole the listing of accounts payables for $194,342.82; payroll
for $117,549.42 and financial reports as presented.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 5 ayes

6. Moved by Stiloski seconded by Fulton to adjourn. M/C
Meeting adjourned at 5:00 p.m.

Minutes submitted by
Linda M. Belongia,
Administrator