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HomeMy WebLinkAbout01/27/2014 Work SessionCity of Springfield Work Session Meeting MINUTES OF THE WORK SESSION MEETING OF THE SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL HELD MONDAY, JANUARY 27, 2014 The City of Springfield Council met in a work session in the Jesse Maine Meeting Room, 225 Fifth Street, Springfield, Oregon, on Monday, January 27, 2014 at 5:30 p.m., with Mayor Lundberg presiding. ATTENDANCE Present were Councilors Wylie, VanGordon, Moore, Ralston, Woodrow and Brew. Also present were City Manager Gino Grimaldi, Assistant City Manager Jeff Towery, City Attorneys Mary Bridget Smith and Lauren King, City Recorder Amy Sowa and members of the staff. Mayor Lundberg was absent (excused) 1. Historic Commission Interviews. City Planner Molly Markarian presented this item. Municipal Code Section 2.502 stated that the qualifications for membership on the Historic Commission included being appointees of Willamalane Park & Recreation District or Springfield School District # 19; or specialists with expertise in the fields of architecture, history, architectural history, planning, or archeology who lived within the Metropolitan Area General Plan boundaries; or residents, electors, or property owners within Springfield. Willamalane had chosen Vincent Martorello to appoint to fill this vacancy. State and Federal funding of the City's historic preservation activities stipulated that a majority of the Commissioners have professional qualifications in a field related to historic preservation. Five existing members possessed these qualifications. The applicant also met the qualifications and standards set forth by the National Park Service regarding commissions. The vacancy on the Commission was the result of the expiration of Commissioner Judy Williams' first term. Springfield City Council Operating Procedures Section IX, Subsection 3.7, stated that vacancies on commissions shall be filled as needed throughout the year as vacancies occur. Springfield Municipal Code Section 2.504 stated that appointed members shall hold office for four years with the terms staggered to provide overlapping and continuity. The appointed candidate would serve a four -year term beginning on the date of appointment by City Council, currently scheduled for February 3, 2014. Ms. Markarian introduced the applicant Vincent Martorello. The Council introduced themselves and asked the following questions: • Why are you interested in serving on the Historic Commission? (Councilor Wylie) • Describe your professional and personal experience as it relates to your desire to become a Historic Commissioner. (Councilor VanGordon) • What is it about Springfield's history that interests you most? (Councilor Woodrow) • Describe your familiarity with the City's historic resources? (Councilor Ralston) City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes January 27, 2014 Page 2 • What initiatives are you interested in working on if you are appointed as a Commissioner? (Councilor Moore) • Have you attended a Historic Commission meeting? If so, what were your impressions? (Councilor Brew) Following the interview, Council discussed the applicant and noted his qualifications Council consensus was to appoint Mr. Martorello to the Historic Commission. 2. Priority Based Budgeting. Finance Director Bob Duey presented the staff report on this item. The City was in the process of moving from a traditional budgeting practice to Priority Based Budgeting (PBB). During the past 6 months consultants from the Center for Priority Based Budgeting had lead the City through a defined step by step process which would allow us to identify our key programs and their service relationships to adopted Council goals. Mr. Duey said PBB should go on for many years, but to get through the initial process to get it right would take about two or three years. They had learned a lot over the past year and gathered a lot of data that would be shared more during the budget process. The program wouldn't make any decisions, but rather provide information for the City to make decisions. Mr. Duey presented a power point presentation on this topic. He reviewed trends in the major revenue of the City such as taxes, franchise fees and planning fees from 2008 -2013. Property taxes had made some increases overall, but both franchise and planning fees had decreased and now leveled off. The work load was increasing regarding planning, but the fees had not increased to match that level. Councilor Ralston asked if the city lowered their planning fees. Mr. Goodwin said in 2009 they lowered the scaling factor for planning fees. Councilor Ralston said the revenue during that time decreased and he asked if that was the reason. Mr. Goodwin said there was a substantial decrease of applications from 2008 and 2009. Mr. Duey referred to a chart showing how a changing market affected assessed value. He explained the market value and the assessed value and the figures on the chart. Taxes were based on the assessed value. Councilor Brew said according to the chart between 2012 and 2013, people would see a large increase in their property taxes. Mr. Duey said that was possible if the real market value rose sharply, taxes could increase more than three percent, although it was unlikely. There would still be a loss to the city in the long -term as the assessed value would not catch up with the market value. He noted the relatively low number of houses in that situation in 2010 and 2013. This was occurring in other communities as well. Mr. Duey noted cuts made in operating expenses in order to address the decrease in revenue. It was hoped revenue would increase more to help offset the operating costs, but that had not been the case. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes January 27, 2014 Pale 3 Many of the cuts were made through personnel cuts, and some through materials and services. It was becoming more and more difficult to balance the budget in that way, so the City decided to look at Priority Based Budgeting (PBB). Staff did some research on PBB and chosen this program. Mr. Duey reviewed the five steps gone through for this process: 1) Determine Results; 2) Clarify Result Definitions; 3) Identify Programs and Services; 4) Value Programs Based on Results; and 5) Allocate Resources Based on Priorities. The first step was worked through with the Council in June 2013 by looking at the Council goals. Staff would bring that back to the Council to give them another chance to review. In Step 2, a core team of about 30 staff members was appointed and spent a full day reviewing the results and forming definitions and next steps. In Step 3, all of the departments met over a period of about 45 days to find ways to define services and evaluate their effectiveness towards Council goals. That work resulted in about 250 -300 distinct programs that were evaluated and rated. In Step 4, each department went through and ranked their services on eighteen different attributes. In Step 5, budget preparers for each department costed out each of their services based on FYI 3 budget. Mr. Duey said there were seven results which were very similar to the Council Goals but rewritten in a way that could be tied to programs. There were two sets of Results. The first were Community Services which were all of the programs that were directly offered or benefited the citizens. The second were Governance Services which were all internal such as Finance, Information Technology and Human Resources. Staff spent a lot of time clarifying the result definitions and determining how they would know if the result was accomplished. Staff met and brainstormed ideas on how they could determine when each result was accomplished. He referred to a results map and explained some of the programs in each. Councilor Brew asked if the seven segments were from each department. Mr. Duey said each segment could be from one department or a combination of several departments. He described them further. Councilor Ralston said when he thought of priority budgeting, it included the list of jobs assigned to a value that showed their worth. That would make it more simple to identify whatjobs were most important. Mr. Duey said they would get there with this process; although they would be looking at services that worked towards a specific result, not each job. It was a multi - phased process. Mr. Grimaldi said FTE was allocated for each result. Mr. Duey said one of the last steps was the costing model, which included a dollar value and FTE count. Councilor Woodrow asked about the chart with "(an) Inclusive Diverse and Desirable Place to Live and Work" and the result of "Supports and promotes a vibrant, safe and accessible downtown ... ". She wasn't sure how they were defining `downtown'. Mr. Duey said part of the goals and results emphasized downtown, although some results might spread to other parts of the community. This particular result was focused on downtown. Councilor Woodrow said there were several areas in the City that could be identified as a downtown. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes - January 27, 2014 Page 4 Councilor Brew said next time they talked about Council Goals it might be helpful to know they would be parsed out this way. Mr. Duey said Council Goals were not developed with the status quo in mind, but rather to look ahead and envision the future. The Council Goals may not have been the best place to start for this process, but gave a great base for this first year. He didn't want this process to influence their goal setting session. Mr. Grimaldi said when the Executive Team (ET) met to discuss priorities, Stan Biles was brought in so he could be familiar'with this program and the process. Councilor Wylie said there was a big difference between identifying what was necessary and what made a well -run City, and what the Council goals were. The ET and Council could put their heads together to decide what services were needed to operate the City. The goals were part of that process, but not what ran the City. Mr. Duey said that was correct, yet they did want Council input on what was needed for the City. The good thing about this process to date was the amount of data it had collected. This program did not make any decisions, but helped identify areas to look more closely at and examine. There were some stumbling blocks to get over in year one and two of this process. Mr. Duey continued to speak of the programs and services. Each department ranked their own services, and then it went through peer review. When there was disparity between the two, the groups would discuss it further until they came to an agreement. When the two matched, they still went back to do additional review to make sure the results were correct. This process helped staff learn more about each other's departments. He noted the questions asked during the peer review meetings. He discussed the costing model of allocating resources based on priorities. He referred to a chart "All Funds — All Programs" and their quartile rating, with 1 being the highest and 4 the lowest. Being in the 4`h auartile didn't mean Droerams weren't valuable. but was iust how thev ranked usine the attributes. Councilor Brew said things could be ranked in the top quartile, but there might not be the appropriate number of staff for that program or service. Mr. Duey said they wouldn't know if there was adequate staff per service at this point. Later they would look at the efficiency and value of those top programs. They would also look at the efficiency and value of the programs in all of the other quartiles. Mr. Grimaldi said a lot of the discussion would be how to focus the dollars within each program. Mr. Duey said this could be filtered in a number of ways. Councilor Woodrow referred to the questions asked when identifying the programs and services and felt the last question should be why. She asked if the why would determine the connection to the Council goals. The question of why would help to determine the value and determine whether it needed further inspection. Mr. Duey said they may find that some of those services in the fourth quartile were mandated. For those services, they could look to see what level it was mandated, who mandated it and if they could do it in another way. He reviewed the charts "All Funds — Community Service Programs" and "All City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes January 27, 2014 Page 5 Funds — Governance Programs ". They could have a program that was strongly mandated, but could rank lower when scored with the other attributes. Councilor VanGordon asked if they could look at the mandated programs that ranked lower to see if there was a way to make them more valuable. Mr. Duey said if it was mandated, they could look at a way to make it more valuable, or they could look to see if the City was doing more than necessary. Councilor VanGordon said it was good to know that mandated items would also be reviewed. Councilor Brew said Council Goals were outward facing, but these were inward facing. Things such as Information Technology services may have nothing to do with Council Goals. Mr. Duey said that was correct. This process was just providing data, not direction. Budget Officer Paula Davis also noted that the governance programs and community services were rated on different attributes. Governance had their own set of attributes not connected to community services. Mr. Duey introduced Ms. Davis who was project manager of the Priority Based Budgeting program. He referred to allocation of funds and noted that 89% went out to services to the public, with about I I% inward facing for internal services. After looking at where things were ranked, the following questions were asked: • For Quartile 1 and 2: ➢ Are there efficiencies in these programs to lower cost in large programs? • For Quartile 3 and 4 ➢ Mandated program, what does the mandate specifically require, are we over delivering, could we decrease the level of service, and what is the penalty for not complying with the mandate? What programs are unfunded mandates? Are their Fees to consider that would recover the full cost of the program? ➢ For programs that are self - imposed, should we consider the level of difficulty required to change those requirements? ➢ Are there other private businesses that offer programs that are similar to those offered by the City? Are there programs offered by the City that are not highly mandated and there are private businesses that offer a similar program? Mr. Duey said they could also look at the options for not complying with a mandate. Mr. Grimaldi clarified that when looking at not complying, they were not looking at things that would break the law, but rather something that might be taken over by the State if not done by the City. Mr. Duey discussed the following charts: General Fund — All Programs; General Fund — Mandates Programs; and General Fund — Cost of "Unfunded" Mandated Programs. Councilor Moore said she felt she paid a fee for services because she paid taxes already. Mr. Duey said that was a tough question and was something they brought to the Budget Committee and Council several times a year to determine what services should be charged a fee. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes January 27, 2014 Page 6 Mr. Grimaldi said there were some services that not everyone was benefiting from. Councilor Woodrow asked if the unfunded mandates included those that were from the State Mr. Duey said part of the ranking included whether or not it was Federal, State, County or City mandated. Charter mandates could only be changed by going to a vote. Code mandates could be changed through the public process by Council. Councilor Moore said she was having trouble with unfunded mandates because those things were still funded by the citizens. Mr. Duey said that was correct. Unfunded meant it was not generating its own resources Mr. Towery said some of this would force them to examine the language used to describe programs. For many years they had talked about unfunded mandates as those imposed by the State of Federal Government without funds to support them. Councilor Brew said it also meant there wasn't a dedicated funding source. We had a lot of state laws that regulated the amount our revenues could grow, but there weren't the same limitations on how fast our expenses could grow for those mandated items. Mr. Duey referred to a chart that listed City mandated program through the Charter or Code. He discussed those things that relied less on the City to provide and could possibly be outsourced. Councilor Woodrow asked if the parking enforcement might fall into one of those categories. Mr. Duey said that was correct. He noted that the ET was reviewing this in many ways and developing a list of services to help develop the budget to bring to the Budget Committee in April. As they went into next year they would look at the initial results and determine whether or not they came up with the right programs and services. He noted some changes in formatting and analyzing that he would recommend for the coming year. This first year they had not committed to a community portion, but could go out into the community next year to have them evaluate and respond to service levels and programs. This was a multi -year program. The decisions were still up to the Council. Councilor Woodrow said this was a program that didn't stay stagnant and would always be evaluated and assessed and changing. Mr. Duey said especially in the first few years. Eventually, they would want it to be a little more consistent in their results in the top level with more changes occurring at the lower levels. Councilor Woodrow said she liked it and it made sense. Mr. Duey said he was pleased with the support of the departments. They had put a lot of time and energy into this project and Ms. Davis had done a great job as project lead. Councilor Moore said part of the vision of the City was to provide more than just the bare minimum to make the community livable. She wanted to make sure everything was looked at for their value, not just mandated programs. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes January 27, 2014 Page 7 Mr. Duey said this process would allow them to look at everything in a number of ways. Being mandated was only one of 18 attributes. Mr. Grimaldi said they shouldn't stay locked in looking at the quadrant, but rather using it as a starting point. Councilor Brew asked how they planned on using this during the Budget Committee process. Mr. Duey said staff was working on how to present this to the Budget Committee. Councilor VanGordon asked what the biggest surprise had been out of this process. Mr. Grimaldi said the level of information it provided to him about the services provided by the staff and departments was significant. There was new information and new ways of looking at things. Councilor VanGordon asked if this would influence next year's budget. Mr. Duey said it would have some influence. The task ahead was large and this would be a major tool to assist. Councilor VanGordon said it was important to bring things out in the budget that were directly influenced by this process. It was important they were able to see results. Mr. Grimaldi said they should see some shifting next year in the quadrants if they were using the tool correctly. Councilor VanGordon asked if the work on this would reduce as they continued in the long -term. Mr. Duey said there would likely be more work in the coming year as they reviewed the results, but the work would drop substantially in year three and on into the future. Councilor VanGordon asked how we could ensure we were getting our value from this program. Mr. Duey said as long as they used the information they were getting from this process, they were getting their value from it. Councilor Wylie said they had been budgeting the old way cutting services and positions, but it was now necessary to find another way to evaluate what the City funded. She felt this would provide good value. Change was hard, but they wanted to go on providing good services for the City. Councilor Woodrow referred to Mr. Grimaldi's comment about the information gained through this process. Councilor Moore referred to community involvement and felt this would give the community more information to base community input. It would take a lot of education of the community to get positive input. Mr. Duey said it would be important to start community input in the Fall City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes January 27, 2014 Page 8 Councilor Brew asked how they took into account a service that might not be directly related to a Council goal, but was 100% self supported. Mr. Duey said it could be placed through the filter and may end up in Quadrant 4. Ms. Davis said there was a cost recovery attribute that was ranked on the revenue generated. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 6:45 p.m. Minutes Recorder — Amy Sowa Christine L. Lundberg O Mayor Attest: r�- Amy So 8a City Recorder