Finance and Administration

 

Minutes of a meeting of the Finance and Administration Committee of the City of O’Fallon, held in the Mayor’s Conference Room, City Hall, 255 S. Lincoln, O’Fallon, Illinois on January 24, 2014.  Call to order by M. Bennett:  Time:  5:00 p.m.  QUOREM PRESENT

 

 

Approval Minutes: - January 27, 2014 Motion Albrecht, Second Gerrish All Ayes. Motion carried.

   

 

Other Business:

Item A: Proposed FY 2015 Budget.  Director of Finance presented an overview of the FY 2014/2015 budget.  The budget is balanced at $103,654,623. This represents a 55% increase compared to the previous year due mostly to $40M in capital projects for the City Center.    The General Fund reflects a 12% decrease over FY 14 but that is due to last year’s transfer of $3M for the Fire Station/Park Maintenance Facility.   General fund revenue is projected at $16,506,374 which equates to a 5% increase if we do not include the $3M transfer from last year. This includes a 4% increase in projected sales tax and 8% increase in State income tax, which is based on IML’s per capita projection. The utility tax increased by 7% to $1,600,000 and telephone franchise of $850,000 remains unchanged from the previous year.  Property tax remains the same as last year and staff is projecting a 10% decrease in building permits.  With the anticipation of the Ameren Franchise agreement being signed, $245,000 was included as a new revenue source.  A list of capital expenditures for the various departments greater than $10K was presented.   Director of Finance also provided a list of new position requests for the new budget year.  Those positions included an in-house attorney, a laborer for streets and one for wastewater (both filling a vacancy), a building mechanic for the Facilities budget and a Business Coordinator for EMS.

 

 Director of Finance then introduced Dan Gentry, IT Manager, who discussed the IT budget and answered questions regarding the FY 15 IT budget proposal.  Included in the IT budget was funds for mobile devices for the Aldermen for paperless agendas.

 

Detailed line item budgets for General Fund Revenue, Administration, Economic Development, Capital Fund, Hotel/Motel and a new fund- Strategic Plan Projects were distributed prior to the meeting, allowing all to review in advance.  Director of Finance answered questions that were asked. After some discussion regarding the in-house attorney position and the City Center included in the capital budget, staff will remove the City Center from the Capital budget.  Other departmental budgets will be presented during their respective committee meetings for review.   The complete budget will be presented for 1^st reading on March 17^th and the Public Hearing and adoption set for April 7^th.   Since there is not another meeting scheduled before the 1^st reading, Alderman Bennett suggested that is there are any questions or need to have another meeting to contact Director of Finance.

 

Motion to Adjourn by Albrecht, Second, Drolet   All Ayes. Motion Carried.                                                                                  

 

Next Meeting:   March 24, 2014 at 5:30pm