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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes BOC 042706BUDGET OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE April 27, 2006 MINUTES The Budget Oversight Committee held a meeting on April 27, 2006 in the Council Chambers of the Municipal Complex, located at 10500 North Military Trail, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. The meeting was called to order at 8:35 AM. I. ROLL CALL Members Present: Martin Cohen Harvey Goldberg, Vice Chair Members Absent: John Chaplik, Chairperson Also Present: Council member /Council Liaison Hal Valeche Finance Administrator /Staff Liaison Allan Owens Deputy Finance Administrator Mary Anderson - Pickle II. Approval of Minutes The Committee approved the minutes from the February 28, 2006 and March 23, 2006 meetings. Harvey Goldberg noted that he was the Vice Chair as opposed to Martin Cohen as stated in the minutes. The recording coordinator made the change and the Committee signed the minutes. Mary Anderson - Pickle noted that the March minutes stated that she will have reports from the Department Head available at this meeting. She wanted the Committee to know that they are just starting to meet with the Department Heads and they will have individual department information available for the Committee in the near future. III. Review of Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) There was discussion regarding the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) and Martin Cohen stated he felt that foot notes were inadequate regarding the pension plans. There was conversation regarding the report and what the independent Actuary will be doing. The Committee does not feel that an 8 '/2 discount rate is a reasonable rate to work with. Allan Owens stated that the independent Actuary will be reviewing the percentages and the rates and this information will be available in the near future. Discussion ensued about the report and there was explanation about individual parts of the report. IV. Staff Liaison Update Allan Owens presented more information about the Actuary and the study they are doing. He stated that Bolton Partners are well into working on the project. The two components in the study are analysis and assumptions. The report will also compare the benefits, salaries and pensions of employees in other cities. There was discussion regarding the General Employees Pension Fund and Allan stated that staff is currently looking into the possibility of opening a new pension fund to all general employees. The general employees would have a choice between the 401 and the pension plan. V. 200612007 Revenue and Expenditure Projections Allan Owens gave a PowerPoint presentation regarding the upcoming budget. He discussed the upcoming budget which included projections of taxable valuation for upcoming year and showed a comparison between the years 2000 and 2007. He spoke about the figures for new construction, prior year permit values, ratio of new construction to permits, increase from re- assess and the percentage increase from re- assess. He also talked about the total estimated taxable value and the ad valorem revenue at 5.928 rates. Allan went over the projected ending undesignated fund balance, which is money that was not used last year and can carry over to next years budget. This included the fund balance, project revenues, projected expenditures, estimated fund balance as of 9/30/06. The estimated undesignated fund balance as of September 30, 2006 will be $8,031,218. The presentation also included factors that will affect the new budget including Police pension enhancements, the City's pledge of three million dollars toward Scripps, the final year of the Police bargaining agreement, projected increase in electric utility charges of 30 %, recent increases in fuel charges, estimated 10% increase in health and property insurance, and requested new positions in Police and Building Departments. Allan added that In order to submit a balanced budget with no increase in tax rate requires approximately $2.1 million to be cut and to achieve an 8% increase will require about $4 million be cut. He also went over the timeline of the budget preparation. Martin Cohen stated that he feels it does not make sense to have two pension plans and two pension Committees. He suggested putting everything together which would save a lot of money in the long run. There was conversation about the pension plans and Councilmember Valeche discussed the feasibility of turning over the pension plans to Florida Retirement Systems. The Committee would like to discuss this again after the report from the independent Actuary is completed. Councilmember Valeche told the Committee that he has been formally appointed as the Council Liaison to the Budget Oversight Committee. He thanked Allan Owens and Mary Anderson Pickles for their hard work and feels that this year's budget process is going to be more transparent. He asked the Committee how 14 they felt about adding more members to this Committee and the members welcome the idea of expanding the Committee to five members. Councilmember Valeche spoke about the budget process and that City Council will be doing a line item review of each department. He does not necessarily agree with this concept because he doesn't feel that Council should be making a decision on items or personnel that a Department Head feels they need. He feels that Council should set overall policies and the Department Heads, City Manager and the Finance Administrators should work out the details. He stated it would be nice to know what is going on in each department but he would feel uncomfortable to set controls over individual departments as opposed to setting overall policy. Harvey Goldberg agrees that it would inappropriate to tell a Department Head what there needs are, but from an educational standpoint this is a worthwhile exercise. There was discussion about the difference between a Council Meeting and a workshop, the budget review process and the Committees role in the budget process. VI. Adjournment With no further business to discuss the meeting adjourned at 10:08 a.m. 3 Approved: ) 01,�' U Jo n Chaplik, thairperson Harvey qoldberg, Vice Chairperson Martin Cohen, Committee Member Attest: ........ .... - Susan Bell, Public Information /Recording Coordinator