HomeMy WebLinkAboutItem 19 Fire Special Options Levy Renewal AGENDA ITEM SUMMARY Meeting Date: 6/15/2015
Meeting Type: Regular Meeting
Staff Contact/Dept.: Bob Duey Staff Phone No: (541) 726-3740
Estimated Time: 15 Minutes
S P R I N G F I E L D C I T Y C O U N C I L Council Goals: Provide Financially Responsible and
Innovative Government Services
ITEM TITLE:
FIRE SPECIAL OPERATING LEVY RENEWAL
ACTION REQUESTED:
Conduct a public hearing on the proposed resolution.
Approve/not approve/vote to table the motion: A RESOLUTION REFERRING TO THE ELECTORS OF THE CITY A BALLOT MEASURE AUTHORIZING THE LEVY OF A FIVE YEAR LOCAL OPTION
TAX FOR FIRE SERVICES TO STAFF A FIFTH FIRE ENGINE CREW IN THE AMOUNT OF $0.36 OF ASSESSED VALUE BEGINNING IN 2016/17
ISSUE STATEMENT:
The current Fire Special Operating Levy passed by voters in November of 2010 provides for the staffing of an engine crew at Springfield’s Station #3 and will
expire on June 30, 2016. After discussions in work session on May 11th and May 26th, Council asked staff to prepare a ballot title and explanation directing that at the general election on November 03, 2015 the renewal of the current levy at again
a rate of $0.36 per thousand be put before the voters of Springfield. Potential high election costs in November for the City provided by the Lane County
Elections Office has resulted in staff providing an additional option for Council’s consideration for the timing of the levy renewal election. The Council could vote to table any decision on the timing of the election until July 20 (the last meeting prior
to summer recess). This would allow time to learn if any other agency was planning on a November election resulting in a lower election cost to Springfield
and then make a decision at that time as to continuing with the November election
date or delaying any election on the issue until the May 17, 2016 ballot.
ATTACHMENTS:
1. Council Briefing Memorandum 2. Resolution and Exhibited Ballot Title
DISCUSSION/ FINANCIAL IMPACT:
See attached Council Briefing Memorandum
Attachment 1 Page 1 of 4
MEMORANDUM
Date: 6/08/ 2015
To: Gino Grimaldi COUNCIL
From: Bob Duey, Finance Director BRIEFING
Subject: Fire Special Operating Levy Renewal MEMORANDUM
ISSUE:
The current Fire Special Operating Levy passed by voters in November of 2010 provides for the
staffing of an engine crew at Springfield’s Station #3 and will expire on June 30, 2016. After
discussions in work session on May 11th and May 26th, Council asked staff to prepare a ballot title and explanation directing that at the general election on November 03, 2015 the renewal of the current levy
at again a rate of $0.36 per thousand be put before the voters of Springfield.
Potential high election costs in November for the City provided by the Lane County Elections
Office has resulted in staff providing an additional option for Council’s consideration for the timing of the levy renewal election. The Council also has the option of voting to table any decision on the timing of the election until July 20 (the last meeting prior to summer recess). This would allow time
to learn if any other agency was planning on a November election resulting in a lower election cost to Springfield and then make a decision at that time as to continuing with the November election date or delaying any election on the issue until the May 17, 2016 ballot.
COUNCIL GOALS/MANDATE Financially Responsible and Stable Government Services
ELECTION DATE DISCUSSION Staff has prepared, as directed from the May 26th work session an appropriate resolution and ballot title to be filed with Lane County elections for the renewal of the existing fire special operating levy at
the November 03 election. If adopted by Council at the June 15th regular meeting, the ballot title will
be published in the local newspaper and allow for a 7 day period for any citizen who is dissatisfied with the ballot title to petition the Circuit Court for a review. If no such action is sought, staff would
then file the request for November 03 election with the Lane County Elections Office. Because new information has been provided by the Lane County elections office concerning the
cost of a November election, staff is providing Council with an alternative to immediate adoption of
the accompanying resolution if they should so choose. The information provided by Lane County has informed the City that as of this time there are no other local agencies that have filed or indicated the
need for a November 2015 election resulting in Springfield being responsible for the full cost of that election. Because this is an odd-numbered election year the County does not bear the cost of the election and it must be borne by those agencies proportionately on the ballot. The estimated cost at
this time for a single agency November election is $88,000.
If Council would like an alternative to immediately approving the resolution for a November 2015
election and the $88,000 cost at this time, but would still indicate support for the measure and keep the process moving forward they could choose to move the decision point out 5 weeks by:
1. Conducting the public hearing as scheduled
2. By motion, table any action on the proposed resolution until July 20th
Attachment 1 Page 2 of 4
3. On July 20, the motion for the adoption of the resolution could again be on the agenda for Council consideration. The options at that time would be to:
a. Approve the resolution as presented and proceed to the November election
b. Again vote to table any action on the resolution and indicate that the intent would be to place the issue on the May 2016 ballot. The City would not bear the costs
of a May election in an even-numbered year. A second public hearing could be
held at that time.
The common election date selected by municipalities for a levy renewal election on this type is the
November of the year the previous levy expires. This provides more certainty during the next 7 months budget process that the resources necessary to continue the services provided by the levy will
be available. Without this knowledge during the budget preparation process decisions would need to
be made about alternative service plans in the event of an election defeat and what information could be provided to voters during the election period about an unsuccessful levy request. Currently the
price to have this certainty available is $88,000. It is possible that within the next 5 weeks another agency could make it known that they also would like to be on the November ballot thus lowering the cost to Springfield.
The May 2016 election avoids the cost of the election. It also provides to the Council one more
year of exacting data about the City’s taxable value and future labor cost that could help in better
defining the financial requirement of providing for a fifth fire engine crew. It could influence the rate per thousand that is included in the request, either up or down. The obvious drawback in waiting until
May is the uncertainty during the budgeting process and the possible lack of clarity of what actions
would be most likely taken in the case of an unsuccessful levy. In normal years the City’s Budget Committee would be completing its recommended budget at about the same time as the election date.
The City has been very successful with its request of the Fire special operating levy with the last 2
elections have passed with 58% and 70% of the votes positive.
BACKGROUND
The remaining information being provided to Council at this time is a recap or summary of the discussions that have occurred at the previous 2 work sessions. Regardless of the election date and timing of the resolution adoption, the accompanying information is being provided as the background
as to the purpose of the request of the levy renewal and the process involved in selecting $0.36 per thousand as the appropriate rate for the renewal ley.
Levy History In 1995, Springfield voters approved a general obligation bond issue that included funding to
construct a fifth fire station for the City. The station was designed and scheduled to be opened in
1999. As a result of the passage of Measures 47 and 50, the City lost the financial feasibility of staffing all five stations and chose to re-locate the fire engine staffing from Station #3 to the newly
constructed Station #5. Station #3 remained without an engine crew until 2003. In November 2002,
voters approved a thirty-six cent per thousand 4-year special operating levy. This levy provided an equivalent of 12 FTE personnel for the operation of the fire engine crew. The following table is a
record of the three special operating levies for fire services since that time:
Levy Date Duration Levy Rate Yes % No% November 2002 4 years $0.36 60.70% 39.20%
November 2006 4 years $0.40 58.28% 41.72% November 2010 5 years $0.36 70.47% 29.53%
Service Provided
Attachment 1 Page 3 of 4
Fire Operations provides fire, rescue and emergency medical response to citizen calls for a variety of emergencies. This program provides the personnel, training, specialized vehicles, and equipment to
respond to calls for assistance in our community that threaten life, property, and the environment. This
includes fires, rescues, natural and man-made disasters, hazardous material incidents, medical emergencies, and ambulance transportation.
Failure to pass the levy, with no replacement revenues identified, would probably produce a 20% reduction in fire suppression, rescue and emergency medical first response capacity for the City and its
three contract fire protection districts. At the same time, we can expect no reduction in calls for service. This would result in fewer response resources being spread more thinly across the entire
service area which will adversely affect the safety of our community and firefighters.
The Levy supports the engine company at Fire station #3, on 28th Street, which is instrumental in
delivering needed services. During 2014 there were 13,249 calls for service in the City of Springfield.
Fire Station #3 alone responded to 2,037, 15% of the volume. The Levy provides $1.5m in revenue which is 8.4% of the Fire & Life Safety department’s FY16 budget. Loss of funding for staffing this
engine company would result in operational changes to maintain coverage in this response area. Financial Requirement
Staff also presented at the May 11th work session information related to establishing a renewal
rate for the levy that took into considered two primary factors:
1) The City’s Taxable Value - The City’s Real Market Value (RMV) declined by almost 13%
from 2009 to 2012. Since 2012 there has been a small recovery in the housing market but as of 2014 the RMV is still 7% lower than it was in 2009. This reduction in taxable value within the City and the estimate for future increases has a large impact on the rate required to
generate the property tax revenue necessary to fully fund a 3 person engine crew 2) The expenses within the levy that provides the 5th engine crew within the City is primarily
labor costs. 85% of the annual requirements are estimated to be for personnel with the
remaining 15% material and services. Estimates have been made for these costs from July 1, 2016 through June 30, 2021
From the two calculations described above staff related to Council that the tax rate to fully fund
an engine crew for the 5 year period beginning July 1, 2016 was estimated to be $0.445 per thousand of assessed valuation. Council has directed staff to prepare a ballot title that asks of voters to approve
an annual operating levy of $0.36 per thousand.
SPECIAL OPERATING LEVY RENEWAL
The estimated cost of full staffing of an engine crew at one of the city’s 5 fire stations along with
the resulting material and services (including dispatch costs) is expected to be $1.84M in FY17, the first year of a new 5-year levy cycle. The special operating levy rate of $0.36 is estimated to generate $1.6M in fiscal year FY17 resulting in a first year short fall in the first year of $246,000. Over the 5-
year period of the levy the annual short fall between resources generated by the levy and resources required to fully fund the fifth station for fire suppression/first response services is projected to increase to $377,000 annually. The total for the 5-year period is estimated to be $1.56M. It is
recognized that both revenue and expenditure estimates are likely to change during the next 6 years making these shortfall numbers estimates only. Revenue estimates for a fixed rate levy will be
influenced by the housing market recovery and the City’s economic rate of growth during this period.
Expenditures are going to be strongly influenced by the actual cost of labor.
If the levy is successful in November, the City’s budget process for FY17 will immediately
include the additional $246,000 additional funding required for the fifth station into the financial modeling for the City’s General Fund. The General Fund operating deficit for FY17 during budget
preparation for FY16 was $700,000. Since that time the Oregon Supreme Court has declared as
Attachment 1 Page 4 of 4
unconstitutional a majority of the PERS revisions adopted during the 2013 Legislative session which will result in an increase in the projected deficit. This amount is yet to be determined. As the current
projections for the General Fund already identifies an operating deficit for FY17 the additional
$246,000 expenses from the fire station will increase the latest projected deficit by that amount. Work will begin in early fall to establish priorities for next year’s budget process to address both service
levels and deficit reduction strategies.
SPECIAL OPERATING LEVY ELECTION AND BALLOT TITLE
Attached is the recommended resolution necessary for the Council to adopt for directing the
measure to be on the ballot in November. The actual Ballot Title, including the Question and Explanation is identified as Attachment 2 Exhibit 1. For both the resolution and ballot title documents
staff has attempted to stay closely aligned with the wording that has been used in previous elections. The only significant phrase change in either document is to add the sentence, “The full cost of the operation of the fifth fire engine crew may actually be greater than the resources provided for by this
levy”. This phrase is considered important to include in the ballot title for two inter-related reasons:
1. Unlike the first 2 levies, the current levy and the proposed levy no longer refer to a
specific station that the resources are committed to fund. The intent is that the funding generically aids in providing the staffing to ensure that the City has five fire
suppression/first response crews available
2. With the levy resources no longer being of a size that fully supports the operation of a full fire engine crew the City needs to be able to openly discuss the options available for
funding the other 20% of the cost of service. The final method for how the City is able to
operate the fifth engine crew may require flexibility.
CONCLUSION
Staff has provided to Council the recommended resolution and ballot title necessary for adoption to proceed with an election. The current resolution directs staff to proceed with the notification and filing for an election. The resolution directs that the election be in November of 2015 and that the rate
per thousand be $0.36. After holding the public hearing, the options available to the Council are to:
1. Pass the motion to adopt the resolution as presented; or
2. Vote to not adopt the resolution as presented; or 3. Pass a motion to table any action on the resolution until July 20
Attachment 2 Page 1 of 2
RESOLUTION
No. ______ A RESOLUTION REFERRING TO THE ELECTORS OF THE CITY A BALLOT MEASURE AUTHORIZING THE LEVY OF A FIVE YEAR LOCAL OPTION TAX FOR FIRE SERVICES
TO STAFF A FIFTH FIRE ENGINE CREW IN THE AMOUNT OF $0.36 OF ASSESSED VALUE BEGINNING IN 2016/2017.
As the preamble to the Resolution the Common Council of the City of Springfield, Oregon (the “City”) hereby recites the matters set forth below. To the extent any of the following recitals relates to a finding or
a determination which must be made by the Common Council in connection with the subject matter of this
Resolution or any aspect thereof, the Common Council declares that by setting forth such recital such finding or determination is thereby made by the Common Council. The recitals, findings and determination
set forth herein constitute a part of the Resolution. WHEREAS, the City is a municipality organized and existing and pursuant to the laws of the State of Oregon and the 2001 Springfield Charter of the City (the “Charter”).
WHEREAS, the City completed a project to update Springfield Tomorrow, an ongoing project designed to
build community consensus about the future direction of Springfield. Its primary purpose was to develop blueprint of how the citizens envision an ideal Springfield to be “tomorrow,” then to equitably balance their
vision with fiscal responsibility. WHEREAS, the City currently has the authorization from the citizens of Springfield to levy a special options tax at the rate of $0.36 per thousand for fire services beginning July 1, 2011. This current authorization is for five years and expires with the fiscal year that begins on July 1, 2015. WHEREAS, a variety of surveys and community forums have been held by, and on behalf of, the City intended to determine the current needs and desires for the residents as they pertain to issues of fire
services. The surveys results indicate a continued need to enhance fire services to the Community. The Common Council of the City determined to proceed with identified services for the renewal of the current
authorized special option tax and for fire services at a cost of $8,389,329. The estimated tax rate needed to generate the resources required is $0.36 per thousand of assessed valuation.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
SPRINGFIELD, OREGON AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. APPROVAL OF BALLOT MEASUIRE FOR GENERAL PURPOSE LOCAL OPTION TAX LEVY. The Common Council of the City hereby directs that at the general election to be
held on November 03, 2015, there shall be submitted to the qualified electors of the City a measure authorizing the City to levy a five year local option tax for fire services in the amount of $0.36 per $1,000
of assessed value beginning in 2016/17 fiscal year and ending in 2020/21 fiscal year. The ballot title for the local option levy is attached as Exhibit A (the “Ballot Title”).
SECTION 2. SUBMISSION TO THE ELECTIONS OFFICER. Not later than the 61st day before November 03, 2015 the City Recorder, as the Chief Elections Officer of the City, shall submit to the
County Clerk for Lane County, Oregon a statement of the local option tax measure together with a certified copy of this Resolution and the Ballot Title, all in order that the local option tax measure may appear on the ballot for the general election to be held on November 03, 2015. The City Recorder shall submit to the County Clerk all necessary information, and shall do and perform all other acts and things necessary or
appropriate, so that the measure shall appear on the ballot for such primary election.
SECTION 3. ADDITIONALAUTHORIZATION. The City Manager, the City Recorder and the City
Finance Director and each of them acting individually, are hereby authorized, empowered and directed, for and on behalf of the City, to do and perform all acts and things necessary or appropriate to cause the fire
Attachment 2 Page 2 of 2
services local option tax levy to appear on the ballot for November 03, 2015 general election and to
otherwise carry out the purposes and intent of this Resolution.
SECTION 4. EFFECTIVE DATE OF RESOLUTION. This Resolution shall take effect immediately upon its adoption by the Common Council of the City.
ADOPTED BY THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SPRINGFIELD AT A REGULAR MEETING HELD ON June 15th, 2015 BY THE FOLLOWING VOTES:
AYES:_________
NAYS:_________
___________________________________ Christine Lundberg, Mayor
ATTEST:
__________________________________________ Amy Sowa, City Recorder
Ballot Title CITY OF SPRINGFIELD
BALLOT MEASURE XX-XX
Caption: RENEWAL OF FIRE AND LIFE SAFETY SERVICES LOCAL
OPTION LEVY
Question: Shall Springfield levy $0.36 per $1,000 of assessed value for five
years beginning 2016/17 to staff fifth fire engine crew? This measure
renews current local option taxes.
Summary: Approval of this Measure would renew the Fire and Life Safety Local
Option Levy that provides funding for personnel to maintain and
operate one of the five fire engines crews serving the City. The
current $0.36 levy expires on June 30, 2015. All five engines are
staffed with firefighter/ paramedics that respond to calls for
emergency medical services and fire suppression.
The renewal of the levy at the same rate of $0.36 would continue to
provide personnel at one of the five stations. The staffing and
operation costs include wages and benefits, safety equipment, vehicle and equipment expenses, dispatch and required fire academy training.
The full cost of the operation of the fifth fire engine crew may
actually be greater than the resources provided for by this levy.
A home in Springfield with an assessed value for tax purposes of
$144,000 pays $51.84 in property taxes to support the current $0.36
levy. The $0.36 rate would not change under this proposal. Total
estimated payments over the 5-year life of the special levy would be
$260.
The estimated total amount of the money to be raised by this levy
each year are 2016/17 - $1,690,000; 2017/18 - $1,649,000; 2018/19 -
$1,690,000; 2019/20 - $1,733,000; 2020/21 - $1,776,000 for a total of
$8,457,000.
Attachment 2 Exhibit 1