Finance & Administration Committee

            

 

Minutes of a regular meeting of the Finance and Administration Committee of the City of O’Fallon, held at the Public Safety Building, 285 N. Seven Hills Road, O’Fallon, Illinois on November 28, 2016.

 

CALL TO ORDER: 5:00 pm

 

ROLL CALL: COMMITTEE MEMBERS: Cozad,-Chair, Albrecht,Vice-Chair, Drolet McCoskey, Roach, Kueker

NON-COMMITTEE ALDERMEN: Smallheer, Holden,Meile, Gerrish, Hagarty

STAFF: Evans, Funk, Denton, Litteken, Shekell, Scanlan

GUESTS/RESIDENTS: Grimmer, Distler, Baker, Malare, Zelms, Lewis, Mitchell

      

Approval Minutes: October 24 2016  Motion Kueker, Second McCoskey

 All Ayes. Motion carried.

     

 

Item A:  Tax Levy 2016:  Director of Finance presented the proposed 2016 tax levy. The rate setting EAV is the base for the next years estimate as provided by the county which they project to be $670,228,926, a 5% increase in EAV over last year.  However, with the passage of the new legislation providing 100% exemption for 70% disabled veterans, this will reduce our EAV by $30,392,293, a 6% increase from last year’s exemption of $28,741,780.  The county is also expecting to apply a 1.02% multiplier for O’Fallon Township and a 1.01% multiplier for Caseyville Township, thereby increasing the EAV by approximately $6,700,000.   Due to the number of petitions again filed with the Board of Review to review property assessments resulting in possible loss of assessed values, the projected EAV was reduced by $1,725,000,000. Therefore, the estimated rate setting EAV for 2016 is $644,813,270, which is less than a 1% increase from last year.  Director of Finance then introduced the library board who presented on their request for an increase in the library levy.  Dennis Grimmer explained that the library was requesting a total increase of $181,591 and out of that $106,500 was for Social Security and IMRF which was in the past part of the City’s levy but is now being included on the library’s levy.  The remaining $75,000 was to be used for staffing needs due to the expansion of the library.   There were no questions regarding the library’s request for an increase.  Director of Finance then explained the City’s portion of the levy.  The proposed tax levy shows the levy request amount to be close to the same amount requested as the previous year for all funds except for IMRF, Social Security, and Fire.  With the establishment of the Downstate Fire Pension, a separate line item has been added for $70,000.  A request was made from Fire to increase their levy due to possible personnel changes/additions that may be needed so it was increased by $45,000. Social Security remained the same as last year and IMRF was increased by $19,950 to reflect amended calculations even though the library portion was removed.  Staff explained that IMRF has always been underfunded and now has a negative cash balance of approximately $250,000 and although library was removed, the amount requested still needs to be $600,000. 

 

Staff reminded those present that a tax levy request is based on a dollar amount, not on a rate.  The rate is based on the final EAV; therefore, if the EAV is higher than projected, the rate will be lower and vice versa.   City staff is currently working with the County to make sure that they have accounted for all new homes in their EAV calculations.  Staff records show that there should be approximately 120 new residential homes included in the EAV but the County is only accounting for approximately 55 new residential homes currently.

 

This proposed tax levy increase, based on the estimated EAV, will increase the property tax bill of a resident owning a $150,000 home by $8.45 for the City levy and $ 13.60 for the library. 

 

Alderman Roach suggested using reserves or other revenue sources to fund the tax levy increases rather than increasing property tax.   Staff commented that it is best practice not to use one-time revenue or reserves to pay for re-occurring expenses. 

 

The annual Tax Levy must be filed with the county by the last Tuesday in December.

 

 Motion to approve McCoskey, Second by Albrecht Ayes: McCoskey, Albrecht, Cozad, Kueker, Drolet   Nayes- Roach  Motion carried.

 

Item A: Audit Update: Director of Finance relayed that the 2016 Audit was still not completed but should be soon. Since these are new auditors, staff expected some delays.  Once the final audit is received it will be posted on the website and the Aldermen will be notified.  The auditors will do their presentation at the January 23, 2017 committee meeting. 

 

Item B: RFQ for Bond Underwriter:  Director of Finance commented that the city will be issuing RFQ’s for bond underwriters for the Destination O’Fallon bond issue.

 

Item C: Special Census Update: Director of Finance gave an update on the recruitment for the Special Census.  There were 40 applicants who tested and all but two passed.  The Census Bureau fingerprinted and sent on for additional security clearance approximately 17 applicants.  They will continue the recruitment process.  Expected start date is still the beginning of January, 2017.

 

Item D: Council Meeting- January 3, 2017:  City Administrator, Walter Denton, informed the members that in the past, committee meetings were not held on the last Monday of the month due to the holidays.  This would mean that there would not be committee meetings on December 27, 2016. (Since Christmas in on Sunday, the observed holiday would be Monday, Dec. 26.)  Staff asked since there may not be anything to bring forward to the Council on January 3^rd,  (since New Year’s Day is on Sunday, the observed holiday would be Monday, Jan. 2^nd.) if they wanted to possibly cancel the January 3^rd council meeting.  He made mention since it would affect their pay.   There seemed to be no objections, but no decision will be made until closer to the meeting date, in the event something will need to be brought before council.   It was agreed that invoices that are of urgency, will be paid and will be presented on a separate warrant and approved at the January 17 warrant meeting. 

 

Item E: Security for Council Chambers and Front Counters:  City Administrator, Walter Denton presented the Feasibility Studies for both the City Hall Lobby Security and the Council Chamber Security/Seating. Walter reiterated that these were just conceptual plans.   After some questions and comments, it was agreed that staff should proceed and to move forward to the next step including putting these projects in the FY 2018 budget for review.    Motion to approve:  Albrecht, Second by McCoskey   All Ayes:

 

 Motion to Adjourn: Kueker Second McCoskey All Ayes. Motion carried.                                                      

Next Meeting:   TBD