Written by the reviewer from the ASR + docket; [verbatim-ASR] = quoted machine transcript; [paraphrase] = reviewer's wording, not a quote.
0:00 Okay, I have six o'clock, so let's go ahead and call to order the December 15 meeting of
0:06 the Finance Committee.
0:07 First, I'd like to call up for potential motions to approve the minutes of the December 8th
0:14 meeting of the Finance Committee.
0:15 Is there a motion to approve the minutes?
0:19 Motion made and seconded.
0:21 I'll just say this is a long set of minutes, more than 40 pages.
0:24 Thank you very much.
0:25 And actually 12 or 14 of that was actual dialogue.
0:28 Some of that was the presentations from the administration's numerous presentations.
0:34 So thank you to the council staff, Holly Fee, Danielle and Maureen, excuse me, Maureen for
0:39 preparing that and preparing a detailed and accurate public record.
0:44 So any other discussion?
0:46 Hearing none, all in favor say aye.
0:50 And the ayes have it.
0:52 So we've got a packed agenda today.
0:53 We've got two offices to hear presentations from.
0:56 Also, I'd like before doing anything else to move to the top of the agenda, the petty
1:05 We're calling that to our attention.
1:07 So that's items eight and nine.
1:09 I think that can be a short deliberation.
1:12 Director Mahoney, could you briefly outline the proposed changes?
1:19 We just did a review of the actual processes that we have and the needs for petty cash.
1:28 There's two different things here.
1:29 There's petty cash and there's change funds.
1:31 So change is obviously when you start to draw up your change.
1:36 And that's what those operational or the change funds are.
1:40 The other is the petty cash for small expenditures under $50, except with the exception of
1:48 purchases for drugs and those, you know, as the chief had said, inflation hits everywhere
1:58 even in the drug world.
2:01 So that's why that one was requested.
2:03 That's the only one of any materiality to increase that, the ability to have funds
2:11 for that to $10,000.
2:14 But the rest is just very minimal.
2:18 We also did an examination.
2:20 For example, the mayor's department doesn't really need a petty cash.
2:25 They just come down to the finance.
2:27 So to take those away.
2:31 The health department is no longer.
2:33 So we don't need that.
2:36 And then just, like I said, operational change funds for startups.
2:44 Any questions, councilmembers?
2:46 One question from me.
2:47 So do we read this as the total across the table is the maximum amount in a given year?
2:55 Or is that the maximum amount at any one moment in time?
2:58 So that, for example, a department may have expenditures monthly or weekly or something.
3:06 That is the balance.
3:08 So for example, in finance department, $1,000 in the finance department.
3:16 So your total cash on hand plus receipts of expenditures that you've given out to people
3:24 should always total $1,000.
3:27 And then once it gets to a certain level, you write a check and replenish up to that $1,000.
3:33 OK, so largely this is a matter of form of currency and form of payment.
3:40 And there's a finance department limit on all departments use of cash.
3:47 Is that what we're talking about?
3:50 OK, so in other words, the finance department could spend the $1,000 more
3:57 than once during the fiscal year.
3:58 That's correct, yes.
3:59 So do we have a sense?
4:01 I guess the answer would be, regardless of form of payment, the total expenditure for
4:05 the city would not exceed what we're talking about in the rest of the budget.
4:12 It's just a part of the appropriations.
4:15 That's a helpful clarification to me.
4:17 Councilman Striebeck.
4:18 Can you just, or Mayor, or Director Mahoney,
4:22 can you say a few words on why the police department is buying drugs?
4:28 To catch the criminals.
4:41 Any other questions?
4:42 All right, I'm happy to support a motion to recommend adoption
4:45 of the proposed ordinance.
4:47 So is there such a motion?
4:51 I'll make a motion to approve ordinance 2029-2025 for full council approval.
4:59 Yeah, 29-2025 for full council approval.
5:02 Motion been made and seconded in any discussion.
5:04 Hearing none, all in favor say aye.
5:06 And the ayes have it.
5:08 OK, so then let's proceed now on the agenda to the top of the order,
5:12 which is the mayor's office budget presentation.
5:15 If Mayor, you're prepared now, we'd love to hear from you.
5:19 If you're prepared now, we'd love to hear from you.
5:38 All right, good evening.
5:40 This begins the budget presentation for my office and community relations.
5:47 On the first slide, you see here is the organizational chart.
5:55 You can see the organizational chart, as well as the role of the mayor
5:59 is the chief executive and the administrative officer of the city.
6:04 So you can see that.
6:08 Five full-time employees, three right under the office of the mayor.
6:13 And then division of community relations,
6:15 we have our community relations specialist and our public information officer.
6:23 The budget is largely in line with 2025.
6:26 You'll see some slight increases in salary, travel and communications,
6:33 decrease in professional services.
6:35 And we, as you'll be able to see in the next couple of slides,
6:38 we consistently operated within the 2025 budget.
6:42 Here is a picture right from the budget document of our actuals going back to 2023,
6:49 2025 budgeted, and then 2026.
6:52 So the salaries are much in line with the rest of the city,
6:56 as well as fringe benefits.
6:58 So just nominal increases there.
7:03 Division of community relations.
7:05 They are a very, very busy department.
7:08 They are a very, very busy department.
7:12 There were many successful community events this year.
7:16 Those are all coordinated within community relations.
7:20 Some of those mentioned on the slide, concerts in the park,
7:22 Friday night flicks, meet the trucks, and so on.
7:26 Also work with our non-profits to facilitate successful implementation
7:31 of their events as well.
7:32 So all the Lakewood of Life sponsored events and all the Friends of Parks events.
7:37 So we work with them to have a successful implementation of those.
7:42 We're increasing our follower count on social media.
7:46 On Facebook, there was an 8% increase, and Instagram, 25%.
7:51 So we continue to work on improving communication wherever we can.
7:56 We have the monthly e-newsletter that we started two or three years ago.
8:01 We now have over 8,000 subscribers to that.
8:04 So anyone listening today, if you haven't, go ahead and subscribe,
8:08 because there's a lot of good information in that newsletter.
8:12 We've done a printed newsletter.
8:14 We've sent that out three times last year to all Lakewood residents
8:20 And we continue to work with the Cuyahoga County Reddit notify system
8:24 to text, call, and email to residents during emergencies and so forth.
8:30 2026 and beyond continue to build a wider audience for city messages.
8:35 So continuing our social media presence and just continuing
8:38 with overall communications.
8:41 Continue to improve our quality and attendance of city events.
8:46 And then our hope is to increase the number of direct printed
8:49 and electronic communications with residents.
8:53 Here you will see the division of community relations.
8:57 The division of community relations.
9:00 The budget going back to 2023 actual, 2024 actual, 2025 budgeted,
9:05 and 2026 proposed, largely in line with other departments.
9:17 I appreciate the presentation.
9:20 Any questions, councilmembers?
9:22 I have one question.
9:23 Councilwoman Striebeck.
9:24 I'm looking at the Office of Civil Service.
9:26 Does that also fall under your office, Mayor?
9:29 Yeah, that's under law.
9:36 I appreciate the statement you made that your current year
9:40 budgeting fell within your allocation, that next year also
9:43 you're proposing a modest increase within the realm
9:47 of average inflation kind of level.
9:51 So I appreciate that.
9:52 I don't have any questions.
9:54 I do appreciate your continued focus on communications.
9:57 I think I'm one of your Instagram and city followers
10:02 on all the social medias.
10:03 So I'll keep boosting that.
10:06 Other councilmembers?
10:07 I have one other question.
10:08 OK, Councilman Striebeck.
10:11 With the 2026 strategic plan to increase
10:16 the number of direct printed and electronic communications
10:19 with our residents, does that include for block clubs?
10:22 Could that be something that this division is responsible for?
10:29 Yes, so our public information officer
10:31 is in charge of all communications
10:35 that go out to residents.
10:36 I think we've talked about the challenge with block clubs
10:39 before is that in this day and world with social media
10:43 and email, it's harder to figure out
10:46 what you would send something to a block club
10:48 that you're just not going to provide to anyone.
10:51 So that's still the challenge we face is we've had discussions.
10:54 We could create a block club newsletter, which there used to be.
10:59 We just can't combine that into an all city newsletter
11:01 because, again, it's good information for everybody to have.
11:06 And I guess I don't know that it's just like general information.
11:10 Thinking to how many years ago now was that blackout that we had?
11:14 Was that two years ago now?
11:16 To get information out to folks to say we have a cooling center
11:21 We have a cooling center now at Cove.
11:23 You know, that kind of emergency information
11:27 instead of when no one has access to cell phones
11:31 or any kind of electronics, to have people on the streets
11:35 that we know that we could drop off flyers to,
11:38 much like Clerk Bach did at my house
11:41 and I was handing them out to people
11:43 that were walking by on Baxterley.
11:45 I think that that kind of boots on the ground
11:49 is really important and also provides the connection
11:55 to residents, which we know are endless benefits to
12:00 when you're talking about senior citizens
12:02 that may be living alone,
12:04 people that are watching out for them on their street.
12:06 I think that just the benefits of block club
12:10 and to really get that going across the city again
12:13 would be very beneficial.
12:16 Just one clarifying question for me.
12:18 After all, in the Division of Community Relations,
12:21 is the development officer,
12:22 is that the community relations lead
12:25 that runs Elcrack and so forth?
12:27 I'm trying to avoid names.
12:28 Or does development officer mean
12:30 like a grant development person?
12:35 You're asking who those personnel are?
12:37 Yeah, I'm just trying to...
12:38 So Melissa Garrett and then Kevin Weiner.
12:42 All right, no further questions from me?
12:44 Hearing none, I think we're all wrapped up.
12:47 Thank you for your presentation.
12:49 Next up to bat is the City Council presentation.
12:53 We've got people we know well, council leadership.
12:55 I don't know if the council,
12:57 are you intending to share any information
13:00 or are we asking the council clerk?
13:02 Clerk Brock is gonna kick us off
13:04 and then I'll jump in as needed.
13:07 And please state your name and address for the record.
13:32 Good evening, everyone.
13:34 I was talking about the next 10 minutes
13:36 evening everyone. Thanks for the opportunity to discuss what we did in 2025 and where we
13:42 are going in 2026. Just a brief outline here of what the presentation is. I'm going to
13:49 go pretty quick through the first few slides. You can review them more closely on your
13:53 own time. These are updated versions of things you've seen before. Here we have
13:59 a typical year showing our core functions. If you have any questions about these later
14:03 on, you can ask me. Since community engagement is a goal of City Council year after year,
14:10 just wanted to highlight what we did this year in this regard. Another series of council
14:16 community conversations was had two years in a row, so that was good. Here are some
14:20 highlights of some other community outreach. You all look great and active. Love that.
14:28 Here is just a snapshot of where we were at with public comment. E-comment really took
14:34 off this year. Huge difference from last year. That's positive. We grew our unique
14:40 users and E-comment was used at almost every single general meeting. I know you've
14:47 been observing that as we go, but here's the totals.
14:52 Driving into 2025, this is the largest and most budget-intensive project of 2025 with
14:59 the office renovation. This project is once in a generation upgrade. You can see in
15:06 the budget book how much we spent on that under the capital line item. This is not
15:11 going to be an every-year type thing, spending this amount of money on capital.
15:16 The last time the office was really touched in this comprehensive of a way was 1990. This
15:23 image that you see was actually from a catalog that was kept on file in the office
15:28 from when that furniture was purchased. The furniture in this image was our furniture,
15:34 which was great furniture for 35 years. It was top of the line then, but it was
15:40 aged. You can see how it aged here. It was definitely something that was needed.
15:48 The project started with a request for replacement desks in 2024, but then with President Keppel's
15:54 vision we expanded the project to be more comprehensive and meet multiple needs. I
15:59 think you guys have all experienced the clean professional conference room, new and
16:05 expanded desk space for the staff and updated and improved filing for record storage.
16:11 I really appreciate the vision there from council leadership and also Public Works
16:15 and IT. They were very hands-on with this. They were great to partner with. This just
16:21 shows some of the stuff that Public Works and IT were involved with and the disruption
16:27 that it caused. It did take up a good deal of time to prepare for this and unpack
16:33 from this and all that, but it was so worth it. As you all can see, the office looks
16:38 fantastic and very professional now. We really enjoy working there.
16:46 One of the goals for 2025 was to transition the intern position. I know you've heard
16:49 me talk about this over the years. I really love the idea of having a three-person
16:55 staff to keep the continuity of the work going and the turnaround of the work at
16:59 a high level. We were able to hire a permanent staff and we wanted to wait until we had
17:05 the office space appropriate for that this year. As soon as the office was ready,
17:10 we did a hiring process. To prepare for that, we created new job descriptions
17:17 distinguishing a deputy clerk two from a deputy clerk one and went through a
17:21 hiring process. That all went really well. You can see how we all work together
17:27 as a visual of our schedule. I really appreciate our deputy clerks, their
17:32 consistency, their professionalism, their teamwork. I can't say enough great things
17:37 about our three-person team that we have right now. If you have any
17:42 questions about our availability or schedule, you know where to find us.
17:46 Another thing to say about the office renovation. It enabled the
17:51 staffing transition, but it also enabled us the opportunity to really dive
17:55 into some records management projects in order to prepare for the physical
18:00 transformation. We had to go through filing cabinets that had been left
18:07 dormant for a long time. No reason to open these filing cabinets for a
18:11 while. For this, we had to do that and dig into things. It's not as
18:16 simple as just opening the filing cabinet and shredding everything or
18:19 recycling everything. We had to go through piece by piece of paper and
18:24 evaluate what is this. Is it something we're going to shred? Are we going to
18:27 scan it? Do we need to save the paper copy? Some of those things we do
18:30 according to our record schedule. Major credit to Danielle for her
18:36 initiative on this project. Especially thanks to Danielle's work, we were
18:40 able to shred 25 boxes of documents. In the budget book, I put some of
18:47 these other stats, but I ran an updated report. We added new records to
18:51 the portal, 819 of them. Then there was 289 records that we modified in
18:58 some way. Maybe found some missing pages and added them on, or made the
19:02 documents searchable where they weren't before. This all totaled about
19:06 7,000 new pages of content that was made directly accessible to the
19:11 public. This is just how glamorous that work looks as it's going. Just a
19:18 reminder that those documents go directly into the public portal. They can
19:23 be seen by you. They can be seen by members of the public. You don't need a
19:27 password. You don't need a username to go into this. This was something we
19:30 launched last year in 2024, so it's still relatively new. We're still
19:35 trying to get the word out about how great this process has been.
19:42 Moving on to where we're going in 2026, this is what you're seeing in
19:47 the budget book. I just highlighted some of the increases, anticipating you
19:51 might have questions. For salaries, that's going up a little more than
19:58 average at City Hall because for the first time in a long time, at-large
20:01 members are getting a pay bump. We've hired a new permanent staff person.
20:08 The rest of us are going to be receiving the 3% increase. Then there's
20:11 also the 27th pay. That's why that's a little high. Fringe benefits
20:15 goes up as the salaries go up. Moving down the line, I'll go to professional
20:23 services last. Communications is up because the $5,200 is in there for a
20:32 city-wide mailer. That would be postage. We've never done a city-wide
20:35 mailer from the council office, so that's why it shows such a dramatic
20:39 increase if that would be the cost of doing that. $2,900 for materials
20:44 and supplies. That has gone down slightly. Last year, we budgeted a
20:51 max amount for Lakewood branded apparel for the first time. Since many
20:56 of you purchased that this year, we're reducing the budget. We still
20:59 have a couple hundred dollars in there, so reach out if you want
21:03 some refreshed apparel or new apparel. Then $3,000 for capital. As
21:10 you can see, that's negative. It's gone down 85%. We're not doing a
21:14 major capital project, but we do want to add some finishing touches to
21:19 the office, a screen in the conference room, new fridge, and
21:22 microwave. Then popping up to professional services, $38,470. The
21:29 next slide will show exactly what is involved in that line item. Some
21:35 of these are estimates. Some of them are fixed. DocuSign is an
21:39 estimate. DocuSign is fixed, but codification is an estimate because
21:45 it's per page, and we just have to estimate that. The only thing new
21:49 on here is a scanning project that we are initiating that's for
21:52 $6,000, and then a little about $2,000 more this year than last
21:57 year for leadership initiatives and all these other line items you
22:00 have seen before. Just bring your attention to the membership item
22:06 here. $1,250 that is going to match up with this breakdown here or
22:12 nearly match up with this breakdown just to show you what those
22:16 memberships are paying for. The ones, some of them are for
22:22 professional clerks and then the Northeast Ohio City Council
22:27 Association, the Chamber of Commerce. Those institutions have
22:32 trainings and things like that, so I'll put those on your
22:36 calendar. If you think you might be interested in going to a
22:40 conference, what's the Ohio Municipal League conference, we
22:45 can have money in the budget. We level funded that this year,
22:48 so there's money in the budget. Just speak up if you are
22:52 thinking about that in 2026. Then just some other things we're
22:56 thinking about in 2026. We're going to be doing community
22:59 conversations again and thinking about a city-wide mailer,
23:04 continuing to do strong outreach, definitely open to new ideas
23:09 and new places to be and ways to reach people. I mentioned
23:13 that second bullet point. We're working with a professional
23:18 vendor for the first time to tackle some of the records
23:21 issues. We're still going to continue to do records management
23:25 in the office, but it's just tackling it from multiple angles,
23:29 so that will be really interesting and I look forward
23:31 to updating you on that. Working with block clubs per
23:37 your guys' specifications on that. We have charter review
23:42 recommendations before us, which will require some sort of
23:46 action. Then the zoning code refresh will be before
23:49 council. I really look forward to tackling all these
23:53 issues with you in a supportive role and whatever other things
23:57 and priorities you bring to the staff next year. Thank you so
24:01 much. Thank you, Council Clerk and the whole team,
24:04 Danielle and Holly. Council leadership, President Keppel,
24:07 Vice President Baker, anything to add? Sure. Thank you,
24:13 Clerk Bach, for that presentation and all your work
24:15 on pulling this together into the clerk's office for all
24:18 that they do to keep us going. We can talk a little bit
24:22 about, to go back to Councilman Stubig's questions about the block
24:26 clubs. That was a clear council priority and all of our work
24:30 together on council priorities, so that is likely to be one
24:35 of the leadership initiatives. We've talked about that some.
24:38 The mayor and I have talked about that some too about how
24:42 the council's office can work to potentially build some training
24:48 or engagement opportunities for block clubs. That's something
24:52 we'll start looking at this year, as well as professional
24:55 services, if we need consultants or other advice, as we did
25:02 this year, and then as well as the communication piece
25:06 because we will have both, that was also obviously a
25:10 priority from council members in our retreats, so both
25:14 communication to the public of how they can engage with
25:19 us. Like we do the e-comment flyers and other information
25:23 at tabling events that can go out in a mailer, as well as
25:27 information about, depending on what happens with our charter
25:30 review process that will maybe need to do some public
25:35 education and information about what is in those, if
25:40 things end up going on the charter. That's some of what
25:43 we were thinking about as we pulled together those line
25:47 Thank you. Council Vice President Baker, anything?
25:53 Or as a committee member, you want to ask questions?
25:56 I mean, one of the things President Keppel and I talked
25:59 a lot about in consultation with the clerk's office was
26:02 having those funds available for help if council needs it.
26:05 So PMC is a good example of that.
26:07 Gave us some independent analysis, which was helpful.
26:11 Going into next year, it's nice to have that ability to
26:13 do that should things arise that we need a little bit
26:16 of outside assistance.
26:19 Questions for Councilwoman Striebeck first.
26:22 And would it be okay to go back to the chart with the
26:26 funding unless, or do you want this?
26:28 No, actually, I was just going to clarify something
26:30 that President Keppel just said.
26:32 The mailer, you're thinking, would educate citizens
26:37 on things that may be on the ballot?
26:41 I think that's something as we work through the charter
26:44 review process, if we are putting something on and
26:47 explaining the language, that that could be something
26:50 that is useful to have on there, and that it is
26:55 on their ballot as well.
26:56 Yeah, okay, thank you.
26:58 Okay, I've got a couple questions just to clarify.
27:00 So the professional services line proposed at
27:04 38,470 is intended, if I am hearing correctly,
27:07 as a reserve as opposed to we know on January 1st
27:12 that a certain portion of that is intended for
27:15 a certain contract.
27:21 The slide that's up now, the 20,745 is sort of reserves
27:29 like how we just talked about for those purposes
27:31 for like how we used for PMC or design of a mailer
27:37 or professional services working with block clubs
27:41 and that training, that sort of thing.
27:42 So I think as we go into the new year, we'll most likely
27:47 have some more council retreat conversations and priorities
27:51 So I think that's just gonna kind of depend
27:54 But the rest of it, as you see, is sort of assigned
27:57 to certain purposes.
27:58 All right, now I'm seeing it following.
28:00 So this slide in total equals the amount in the chart
28:05 and then it's broken out, so kind of the reserve
28:07 or the discretionary reserve is intended to kind of repeat
28:14 and maybe broaden a bit the budget capacity,
28:19 the financial capacity that the city council leadership
28:22 has used in response to some of the issues
28:24 we've been working on.
28:25 I think I understand, thank you.
28:27 And then to clarify, so the communications,
28:30 that's one single citywide mailer, is that correct?
28:32 Is that what the intent is so far?
28:35 As opposed, I mean, you could skin that cat
28:36 a bunch of different ways.
28:38 You could do smaller repeat mailers or,
28:42 but at the moment, the budget proposal is sized
28:45 to one large mailer.
28:48 Yeah, I believe we had gotten that from finance
28:51 based on the other newsletters
28:55 from the mayor's office based on that.
28:57 Okay, okay, thank you.
29:00 And then, so also throughout, I think I see
29:03 there's various training and conference opportunities
29:07 and so forth and I don't know if we have to go
29:10 through all of that, but for example,
29:11 I think I personally might have the opportunity
29:13 to participate in Ohio Municipal League event
29:17 if the calendar happens to cooperate.
29:18 I haven't done that before, but that's good to hear
29:20 that that's an option
29:21 and other council members might also be interested.
29:23 It's only a two hour and 20 minute drive
29:27 to Columbus or thereabouts.
29:28 So I suspect the mayor, I know mayor,
29:31 you've got the Ohio Mayor's Alliance
29:33 and I don't know if you found those to be also fruitful,
29:36 but that's a potential way in which we can meet colleagues
29:40 and do our part to convey to the state government,
29:43 which is we've talked about has so much say
29:46 over marijuana fees or the lack thereof
29:49 or tax proceeds as you say,
29:51 or how property taxes work and a bunch of other things.
29:54 So, okay, other council members questions?
29:59 Okay, thank you very much.
30:01 I think that is a wonderful presentation.
30:03 We appreciate the thoughtfulness that went
30:05 into that budget presentation.
30:08 All right, so back to our agenda.
30:13 All right, so we've now, we're on schedule
30:18 through multiple items.
30:19 So we're now in the substitutions
30:22 and finalization portion.
30:23 What I'd like to do is begin with substitute motions
30:27 to consider what the finance director shared with us
30:31 on Friday, December 12, just last Friday.
30:35 There were a number of important substitutes.
30:38 I think it's good to consider those for substitute
30:42 and then those would become a new baseline
30:45 for anything else we wanna consider this evening.
30:49 So the motions would be, I've got kind of in order.
30:55 So the first would be substitute ordinance.
31:00 Let me go through them quickly.
31:01 There's a substitute for the year end 2025 appropriations,
31:05 substitute for the transfer and advances year end ordinance.
31:08 We do those quarterly, although this one's bigger
31:11 as year ends tend to be and related to the previous item.
31:16 Then we've also got a part of a substitute
31:20 for the 2026 appropriations and for the capital
31:25 budgeting contract and authority ordinance.
31:30 That's 36, that's 2025 and then finally
31:33 the planning department contracting authority.
31:36 We do not have a substitute for one of them
31:38 which is playing vanilla contracting authority ordinance.
31:43 So there's a number of those.
31:45 I think to summarize, if I read correctly,
31:48 Director Mahoney, the first two have to do
31:52 with what we said, disposing of additional
31:57 financial resources at the end of budget year 2025
32:00 and also reflecting actuals.
32:02 And then secondly, the second group,
32:05 the major change is to reflect the council preference
32:13 for not including in the capital budget,
32:17 a city hall at this time, a city hall renovation.
32:21 So why don't I, that was a preference,
32:23 I hope that was helpful, but why don't you
32:26 give us an overview, Director Mahoney.
32:27 Yeah, thanks, Councilman Bullock
32:28 and I'd like to say you said dispose
32:30 of additional resources and that's not correct.
32:34 That's not our intention.
32:36 Wrong term, so what word would you use
32:39 instead of dispose?
32:40 So some of the requested changes are to,
32:45 as I've pointed out before, this is the first year
32:49 of the increase in property tax
32:51 and years two and three of that will be stable,
32:54 but yet our costs increase.
32:57 So in the first year of a property tax increase,
32:59 it's fiscally responsible to reserve some of those funds
33:03 in case years two and three we need those funds.
33:06 So that's what we're doing in some of these changes
33:10 for the year end appropriation ordinance.
33:13 One of the larger expenditures is a temporary advance
33:18 because of the federal government shutdown.
33:21 CDBG has not received their funding yet this year.
33:24 I'm hoping it will come in, but it might not,
33:27 most likely will not come in until 26.
33:30 So that would just be a temporary advance to CDBG
33:34 up to $4 million and then it would be repaid in 26.
33:40 The other ones are with the mayor,
33:45 we have tried to make a concerted effort
33:48 to not debt out, to try to reduce our debt load.
33:53 And so for some of that, for example,
33:56 475,000 transfer to capital to pay for some smaller items.
34:01 For example, Madison Park Footsall, it's only $112,000.
34:06 Do we really wanna pay for that over 30 years?
34:09 So using this slight extra money
34:13 from the property tax this year
34:15 to help fund some capital improvements,
34:19 roof improvements, HVAC, all smaller items,
34:23 adding up to $475,000.
34:27 And those are the main increases.
34:31 Oh, some transfers to help out fund
34:34 the street maintenance and repair fund.
34:36 Again, the funding for that comes from gas tax
34:40 and motor vehicle license tax.
34:46 That's been flat for the last bunch of years.
34:49 And unfortunately, street maintenance increase
34:52 and labor to repair the streets has increased.
34:57 So we're taking the opportunity to help fund that
35:00 for then hopefully to cover the next couple of years
35:03 in shortfalls of revenue
35:06 versus the expenditures in that fund.
35:11 I think that's majority of them.
35:12 Why don't we pause there for those two.
35:14 So first, could I ask whoever's got control
35:17 of the screen to bring up
35:18 so that council members can see proposed substitute
35:23 exhibit A for, let me rephrase.
35:28 31, 2025, there's a proposed substitute
35:31 for exhibits A and B.
35:32 Let's start with A.
35:35 So council members and frankly for the member,
35:37 you know, the public record, it can be read in.
35:41 So what it shows is quite a significant amount
36:04 We could, we can pull it up on the iPad,
36:06 clerks if that's easier.
36:11 2025A, so 31, 2025, exhibit A.
36:25 Okay, so that's, let me just check
36:27 if you can widen that view.
36:30 So the key point is if you look at the rightmost column,
36:34 if you could scroll up a little bit
36:36 so we can read the column header.
36:37 So it says increase or reduction
36:41 comparing November 24 to December 25.
36:45 What that information is showing
36:47 is the change from what we projected 12 months ago
36:52 to what our actuals are today.
36:55 A blend of actuals and another two weeks of projections.
36:58 But since the finance department
37:00 knows a lot more information about
37:02 what we actually incurred
37:04 in the current budget year of 2025.
37:08 And what we're finding is that if you look
37:10 at the leftmost, I'm just looking at the general fund
37:12 across the top 60.99 million
37:17 was what we anticipated would be the general fund
37:21 appropriations that what we would spend
37:24 for the current year.
37:26 But that was a projection 12 months ago.
37:28 What is now proposed is that we're spending
37:32 or transfer or obligating 70.9 million.
37:36 So that's the right hand column shows the difference.
37:39 That's an increase of 9.9 million dollars.
37:42 So that shows probably a couple of things.
37:45 First that the finance department did a good job
37:48 last year of using conservative estimates
37:50 which is always a prudent budget practice.
37:54 Conservative estimates for both our income and expenditures.
37:58 And then they stewarded that well
38:02 both Director Mahoney and Assistant Director Eddy.
38:05 And then secondly probably also what the finance director
38:08 alluded that our revenues came in more strongly.
38:11 Both the property tax which is 22%
38:17 of our general fund revenues and our income tax
38:19 is what I anticipate.
38:21 So that means that we have 9.9 million dollars additional
38:26 and the proposed use of those.
38:31 And then there's one other thing
38:32 I'd like if we scroll or look at the bottom
38:34 hospitalization there's a proposed increase of $900,000.
38:39 Director if I understand that that's simply using
38:44 the strength of the current budget year
38:46 to allocate it to next year to help us
38:49 have the hospitalization fund be $900,000 stronger
38:52 for 2026 is that correct?
38:55 Okay and that's a good also a good practice.
38:57 Essentially when we're ahead of our budget
39:01 in the current year if we can push that forward
39:05 to next year that helps in a bunch of different ways.
39:07 I know some of the directors predecessors did that
39:09 I'm glad to see us continue that.
39:11 So I certainly support all that.
39:12 If we go to exhibit B now if we can transfer that
39:16 that shows a little bit of the detail
39:18 especially in the general fund.
39:19 Again if we look at the right hand column
39:22 a lot of these are somewhat modest in cost
39:26 although we see that the information technology
39:29 I'm anticipating that's a lot of the software packages
39:31 we heard about the proposal is to pay cash
39:35 from the general fund for some of those
39:36 and take pressure off the next budget year.
39:38 And then if you look at the next page
39:40 in the general administration other line
39:43 at the top right on the screen there's 6.955 million.
39:48 So nearly 7 million that's a lion's share
39:49 that that is what the director just
39:52 I think summarized for us verbally
39:54 and then she responded to an email question
39:56 that I had earlier.
39:58 So if council members see what's being proposed
40:02 I mean I'm happy to support this proposal
40:04 I think it's prudent practices
40:05 but we should know what that is
40:07 because council could also not do this
40:12 and instead allocate a portion of those funds
40:14 to use for something else
40:17 which is not what I'm proposing
40:18 but it shows that there's financial capacity there.
40:23 So I did hear $475,000 is proposed
40:28 for paying some of the capital budget
40:31 we're gonna see that in the next ordinance
40:33 and the transfer and advance ordinance
40:34 and the others a big chunk of that 3.5 million
40:37 I think is for CDBG we hope and expect
40:40 to be reimbursed by the federal government at some point
40:43 but in the meantime to keep those programs on schedule
40:47 the city kind of loans herself that money
40:50 that's not a new practice
40:52 maybe it's needed all the more currently
40:54 with the current federal government philosophy
40:58 and there were I'm sorry director Mahoney
41:02 could you repeat the other items
41:03 so there was CDBG kind of.
41:06 Street maintenance and repair
41:07 I didn't mention previously but office on aging
41:10 those funds always need some help
41:13 and Winterhurst in anticipation
41:15 of future capital improvements there.
41:19 Okay thank you so the proposal is
41:21 kind of get ahead on the ensuing year street budget
41:26 on Winterhurst and we've heard
41:27 we are investing a lot in Winterhurst
41:28 so that's what we're proposing to do that
41:31 and then the office on aging
41:34 which we always do have about a third
41:36 of the cost of that department is the city's investment
41:40 and so we're proposing to use
41:41 some of the financial strength
41:43 of the current year for next year.
41:46 Okay any questions or comments?
41:48 Okay I just want to point that out
41:50 and I think that was just the major points
41:53 I wanted to call to attention of
41:56 and the rest is kind of total throughout
41:58 but if you want to look at those line items
42:00 it's very helpful right most column
42:02 shows the increase or the change
42:04 and also I think we don't need to get into this now
42:07 but we're there's a lot of timing differences
42:09 on the capital expenditures for wastewater treatment plants
42:14 and various parts of our IWIP process
42:17 and so all of those some of those
42:19 are just timing differences.
42:20 We had the money in 25 the construction is slower
42:25 so we're switching it to the coming year.
42:28 So thank you for the clear proposed
42:33 and detailed revised appropriation ordinance.
42:36 If there are no questions or comments
42:38 I guess I'd like to entertain a motion
42:39 that we move to substitute with this version.
42:44 Yeah I'll move to substitute
42:48 31 2025 with exhibits A and B as provided in Granicus.
42:53 Second motion is made and second any discussion?
42:56 Hearing none all in favor say aye.
42:59 Opposed and the ayes have it.
43:01 So now let's move to ordinance proposed ordinance
43:06 32-2025 in which we also have a draft substitute
43:12 amendment from the finance department
43:15 and that's on screen now.
43:17 The red lines don't show but if I've got a hard copy
43:22 of the original that I can quickly refer to
43:24 and try to director would you like to walk us
43:27 through the changes and then we can discuss anything.
43:32 Sure Councilman so the main changes are
43:36 just as I had mentioned before
43:39 street maintenance fund office on aging
43:42 the capital projects in Winterhurst
43:44 and then the CDBG additional advanced potential
43:50 because of the funding.
43:54 Thank you okay so firstly we have transfer advances
44:00 quarterly this is the end of the year
44:02 it's a larger one than normal
44:04 because of what we just discussed in the previous item
44:07 what the director just summarized
44:09 in the sense that this is part of the execution
44:11 or carrying out of what we said in the previous
44:14 appropriations ordinance and when we're transferring
44:18 between funds which is a term of art
44:20 that not only the finance department
44:22 but the state of Ohio requires us to respect
44:25 and carefully account for we do we are custom
44:28 and probably our legal requirement
44:30 is to use this ordinance form.
44:32 So what our original as introduced on November 17
44:37 this year proposed a general fund transfer
44:40 of only 1.3 million and this has now increased
44:42 to 3.175 for the reasons we named.
44:46 Originally the SCMR fund only had a proposed 250,000
44:50 so we're proposing to add what 700,000.
44:57 Office on aging originally had 650,000
45:00 no 625,000 that's an additional 300,000.
45:05 Winterhurst had, okay there was no capital project fund
45:10 in the original so the proposal is to add that
45:14 and then Winterhurst had on November 17
45:20 only 425,000 now is proposed to be an additional 400,000.
45:26 The rest is the same, no not the rest.
45:29 General fund 101 at the bottom has increased
45:33 from one and a half to four million.
45:37 Yeah and thank you for walking through that
45:39 Councilman Bullock and I guess I believe the intent
45:43 of this is to take cash and use it
45:47 and dedicate it for next year
45:48 so that we lower our borrowing.
45:51 Is that a general description?
45:53 Next year and in the case of street maintenance
45:56 hopefully carrying that into 27.
46:00 So it's taking cash and it's putting it
46:02 into 529 if you're a family or whatever
46:04 like some dedicated account for some purpose
46:06 that you wanna use it for.
46:07 So you don't have to borrow in the future.
46:09 Thank you and why the drastic difference
46:12 between introduction and now?
46:17 I mean is it 30 days but just curious.
46:20 Conservatively and conservatively a month ago
46:25 and now realizing the spending was less
46:30 than we had anticipated.
46:32 The departments behaved very nicely this year
46:36 and so allowed us to more than increase.
46:42 Our revenue budget is pretty consistent
46:44 with what we had budgeted
46:46 but it's the spending has gone
46:48 is drastically less than what we anticipated
46:51 and that's again the departments
46:53 being extra fiscally responsible this year.
46:56 Is that on ops and capital or which one?
47:03 Thank you and also tax receipts were higher.
47:06 I would say that the office on aging is not capital.
47:10 It's just operations for office on aging, correct?
47:13 Well and street maintenance is.
47:14 Any other questions?
47:17 So I'd like to move that we recommend that,
47:20 excuse me, I'd like to move
47:21 that we substitute the current version
47:25 on screen of proposed ordinance 32-2025.
47:33 All in favor say aye.
47:37 Now moving on to the fiscal year 2026 appropriations
47:42 proposed ordinance 33-2025.
47:44 We have substitutes for both exhibits A and B.
47:50 No changes proposed for the language
47:52 of the ordinance itself
47:53 but I'm proposed exhibits A and B we do.
47:57 And I'm hoping we can once again,
47:59 show that on screen and get a director's summary.
48:03 Director, could you go ahead?
48:05 I'm gonna keep us moving quickly
48:06 because I wanna not lose time.
48:10 Yeah, the only change in exhibit A and B
48:14 is council's request to remove the city hall renovation
48:18 of 16.5 million from the capital improvement fund.
48:24 Does everyone see that on exhibit A in red letters?
48:27 The capital improvement fund originally
48:30 was proposed at 34.79 million
48:36 and it's now down to 16.79 million
48:41 the difference is indicated now.
48:43 Also though the land acquisition fund
48:45 is proposed to be increased to 1.5 million.
48:51 That's in the substitute.
48:53 I think it's kept it then, it just was rolled up.
48:55 That's correct, it wasn't increased,
48:57 it was just moved from the capital improvement fund
48:59 to the land acquisition fund.
49:00 However, this is a proposal
49:02 to appropriate the full balance, isn't it?
49:06 Okay, so the balance currently.
49:15 I'm gonna check my notes
49:16 but do you have the current balance?
49:19 I don't but I believe it's just a little over 1.5.
49:23 Okay, so a little higher than 1.5.
49:25 And this proposal would allow the administration
49:30 to spend 1.5 of that amount.
49:34 So I'd like to, let's go to the,
49:37 can we also show exhibit B, please?
49:41 And I, perhaps this, thank you,
49:43 I'd like clarification on this.
49:46 The money's appropriated the land acquisition fund.
49:48 So we're dedicating that source of money there.
49:56 In order to spend it, to contract with third party
50:01 to acquire new property,
50:03 does that have to come before council?
50:05 I guess that's a law department question.
50:07 Yes, property acquisition, yes, yes.
50:12 Look, waiting for the lawyer to say yes.
50:14 Yes, through the chair.
50:15 Yeah, when we're buying real estate,
50:17 that has to be presented to council
50:18 for council's approval.
50:22 Okay, I was gonna propose considering that in two steps
50:25 but let's just quickly look at exhibit B.
50:30 And if you can scroll through that,
50:32 you'll see the same information that the,
50:42 It'll be in the capital section.
50:47 And on page nine of 11, okay?
50:51 So the same change is carried through.
50:52 So I'd like to make a motion that we substitute
50:59 amendments, excuse me, exhibits A and B
51:01 of proposed ordinance 33-2025
51:04 with the versions that the finance director provided.
51:11 Motion been made and seconded.
51:14 Hearing none, all in favor say aye.
51:16 Those guys have it.
51:17 I actually, on the matter while we're at it,
51:20 I was gonna save this for later
51:21 but I would be comfortable with a motion to strike
51:26 the 1.5 million from the new base
51:30 from the land acquisition fund to replace with a dash
51:33 which would mean that we would not be appropriating
51:36 the land acquisition fund until such time
51:39 as we had a explicit discussion
51:41 between council and administration.
51:43 This kind of jumps ahead a bit
51:45 but my understanding, so first of all,
51:48 thank you to the administration for working with council
51:50 on working some of these changes.
51:52 Secondly, to speak to the substance,
51:54 I think, I'll speak for me
51:56 because I can't speak for all of the council
51:58 but I do see on the full agenda today
52:00 there's a thoughtful letter by the council president
52:03 about a process for the first quarter or so
52:06 of the coming year about how to proceed
52:08 on the question of city hall facilities and finances
52:13 and upgrades and remodeling.
52:16 So I personally am interested in support only
52:20 pursuing that more thoughtfully,
52:22 not with the continued refinement of that strategy
52:32 so that we're having the most effective
52:36 and the least cost option before the city
52:40 on behalf of the taxpayers.
52:41 And so I think a little more work needs to happen there.
52:43 That's not to say that me or other council members
52:49 aren't aware of the important need
52:51 and I appreciate the fact that the administration
52:54 has been focusing on that need
52:57 and bringing it to attention for a potential solution.
53:02 But until we have more common ground
53:06 on what the proper path is for the facilities,
53:10 I think it is appropriate for council
53:12 to amend the 2026 budget
53:15 so that before any action is taken
53:18 we're really crystal clear.
53:20 The components of that are capital,
53:22 contracting authority, appropriations
53:24 but also land acquisition fund.
53:26 So now we did just hear that
53:28 what the councilman dialogue with the law director about.
53:33 So there's that but to me,
53:35 I know we did this last year.
53:36 We could also come back as needed
53:41 with an appropriations update if that's necessary.
53:46 And finally, what I've seen twice happen
53:49 for Trinity Lutheran Church
53:51 and for two boarding houses that have been grandfathered
53:54 in since the 1950s or 60s,
53:56 was that a capital reserve
53:57 and councilman Marx would remember
54:00 a funding reserve in the land acquisition fund
54:02 as a reactive or responsive pool
54:05 to acquire properties that come unexpectedly open
54:10 is important and valuable.
54:11 So I would not want us in any event
54:14 to not have efficient funds in the land acquisition fund
54:18 regardless of what we're using it for that purpose.
54:23 So there's kind of two needs.
54:24 One is the strategic reserve to respond to surprises
54:29 and the other would be this question
54:31 of whether we're acquiring additional property
54:33 for the city hall renovation strategy.
54:36 So council colleagues on finance,
54:40 would you like to make a motion or what is your?
54:43 I mean, as it relates to the land acquisition fund,
54:44 I think you just articulated why I'd prefer
54:47 to keep 1.5 million in the land acquisition fund
54:50 because it's dedicated funding
54:52 that will stay there for acquisition of property.
54:55 And the law director just indicated
54:57 that the city can't acquire property.
54:59 So the funding can be there,
55:00 but the city can't acquire property
55:02 unless it's brought before council.
55:04 So to your point, I'd like to have that money there,
55:07 speaking as one person.
55:10 I'd like to have that money there
55:10 so that whether it's potentially a new city hall
55:14 or some other opportunity that is presented to the city
55:18 that makes sense for us to acquire the property
55:19 for varied reasons.
55:22 When you say there is in a reserve
55:23 or it's appropriated.
55:25 It's appropriated there and it's available.
55:28 Okay, any other views councilman Striebeck or others?
55:31 No, that makes sense to me.
55:32 I'm with councilman Baker on that.
55:35 Okay, any other points?
55:37 No, I completely agree.
55:38 I think we should maintain that money for uses.
55:40 I think you did a great job explaining it.
55:44 All right, so moving on.
55:45 So no motion, no further motion from me.
55:46 Any other thoughts or can we move on
55:48 to the next item on the agenda
55:52 where we are considering amendments by substitutes?
55:57 the proposed substitute for ordinance 35-2025
56:05 which is our capital contracting authority.
56:08 And that is now on screen.
56:10 Did we do a motion for that?
56:12 I was gonna ask you that too.
56:16 I believe we did, yeah.
56:22 We did, we're good.
56:25 35-2025 which is on screen.
56:29 And this simply reflects once again the proposed change
56:34 which would be for the moment to not authorize
56:40 16.5 million for purposes of city hall renovations.
56:44 That's 10.5 million in red as you can see.
56:48 The original amount was 27 million.
56:51 Now these are not accounts by the way.
56:53 Those are headings that refer to the capital budget charts
56:57 that appear in the budget book
56:58 which are not strictly speaking laws.
57:02 So I have a potential motion to speak to controls on that.
57:08 But any questions or thoughts from finance committee
57:13 or other council members on what's before us here?
57:18 The thoughts I have is it's explained in email
57:20 to council and this is to your point,
57:22 custom versus what's past.
57:27 Is that the reduction was the 16, whatever,
57:31 16.5 to buildings and facilities improvements.
57:36 And the intention there being that
57:39 I believe the administration,
57:40 original proposal was for that money to go
57:43 into the Warren Road building during that,
57:46 during fiscal year 2026.
57:48 Now this is reflective of that being removed
57:55 So 10.5 million will be spent more broadly on
57:59 or we're appropriating 10.5 million dollars
58:02 if we accept this to be spent more broadly
58:05 on all buildings and facilities around the city of Lakewood.
58:08 Every building facility owned by the city of Lakewood.
58:13 Whether it's the mug or?
58:20 So council members, you can look on in your budget book
58:23 page starting on page 159, which in the PDF is 164.
58:31 Yeah, so I guess technically under this passage,
58:38 the administration could go forward
58:40 and start an addition on the front of city hall
58:43 or some other major upgrade to city hall
58:48 within this appropriation,
58:51 which I'm not necessarily arguing against,
58:53 I'm just indicating that the way
58:56 that we've traditionally funded and appropriated
58:58 is in these large buckets on the capital side.
59:02 And so we just have to have alignment
59:05 with the administration on the buckets.
59:09 So if you read section two, it's important.
59:11 So for a couple of thoughts.
59:12 First, our current proposal
59:17 for all of the budget ordinances
59:19 does something that's alluded to
59:21 at the end of the budget book
59:23 in our financial policies and procedures,
59:25 which is appropriated by fund rather than division
59:28 or some smaller account line.
59:31 Well, I say buckets, you say funds.
59:33 You're more correct.
59:34 Well, buckets is, well, these are buckets
59:37 because these are not even funds.
59:39 So what it then says essentially is that
59:43 there's a lot that happens administratively
59:47 for proposals, contracts, initiatives,
59:53 final pricing, and the council delegates
59:58 all of that to the administration.
1:00:00 So some of the very struggles we go through
1:00:03 when we're working to develop
1:00:05 our own council budget priorities, background process,
1:00:08 that's situation normal for the administration.
1:00:11 That's what we've written in the law and delegated.
1:00:14 And if you read section two on screen,
1:00:16 it says the mayor, et cetera,
1:00:20 and other members of the administration
1:00:22 is hereby authorized and directed
1:00:23 to enter into contract to set forth
1:00:24 in amounts not to exceed the specified amounts
1:00:26 without further action from council
1:00:29 and to enter into contracts
1:00:30 in excess only upon the consent of council.
1:00:33 So right there in section two,
1:00:35 you gotta scroll, whoever's got the screen,
1:00:37 you scroll down to the next page.
1:00:39 It says explicitly, a little bit more,
1:00:41 that, go back up please, there we go.
1:00:44 Without further action from council.
1:00:46 Okay, so that means that the 10 and a half mailing
1:00:49 can be used for anything that the administration deems
1:00:53 within the budget book chart
1:00:57 in the section headed building
1:01:01 and public facility improvements,
1:01:04 which goes for two and a half pages.
1:01:06 So I personally think it's better to belt in suspenders this
1:01:10 and make clear what the intention is.
1:01:12 I don't get the sense that the administration's
1:01:14 trying to not carry out the intention of council,
1:01:19 but that's not what the ordinance says.
1:01:21 So if we are interested in being clear,
1:01:26 there's a motion that I've got prepared to,
1:01:32 I think Councilman Baker at one point asked
1:01:34 or expressed interest in trying
1:01:35 to take these buckets, these semi funds,
1:01:39 these informal funds on screen
1:01:41 and break them out by division,
1:01:44 which we're not proposing tonight,
1:01:47 but you could make a motion,
1:01:52 which is on the middle of page two
1:01:56 It would say move to amend 35-2025 section two
1:02:01 by inserting at the end of the section
1:02:03 after amount period the following.
1:02:05 Notwithstanding any other language in the section,
1:02:07 the mayor, the director of law,
1:02:09 director of finance, the director of public works,
1:02:11 the procurement officer and their designees
1:02:13 are prohibited from entering into contracts
1:02:15 for the acquisition of new city hall buildings,
1:02:17 facilities or other spaces,
1:02:20 or for the renovation of existing city hall facilities.
1:02:23 That motion would make it clear
1:02:26 that the spirit of what was proposed
1:02:29 is also legally required to be carried out.
1:02:33 In other words, we're not doing this until we talk again.
1:02:37 That motion's a little overly restrictive
1:02:38 in the sense also that if some repair
1:02:43 I mean, this is an old building.
1:02:47 And that's my only hesitation with that
1:02:51 let's say there's a roof leak or something, right?
1:02:56 I think a broad reading of that proposed motion
1:03:00 that hasn't been made would,
1:03:02 well, I think be overly restrictive on the administration.
1:03:07 Well, the motion is to enter into contracts
1:03:12 Will you say or for the renovation
1:03:15 of existing city hall facilities?
1:03:19 Yes, go ahead, mayor, please.
1:03:21 Just to clarify, if you see on page 159
1:03:25 it does have a lot of the detail
1:03:27 behind all of these buckets, if you will.
1:03:30 So to Councilman Baker's point,
1:03:33 that would be overly restrictive
1:03:35 and that if you look at one page 159,
1:03:39 we're using $100,000 for roof improvements,
1:03:43 boiler rooms, sign shop, air handlers.
1:03:51 2.5 million for Winterhurst.
1:03:53 So you see the detail behind those dollars
1:03:57 that is within the five-year capital improvement plan.
1:04:01 I don't think the language proposed
1:04:03 would prohibit repairs at all.
1:04:05 It says acquisition of various things
1:04:12 or the renovation of existing city hall facilities.
1:04:14 Renovation is different than repair.
1:04:15 But if that was needed to be proposed,
1:04:19 we can propose a different motion.
1:04:22 But here's the challenge for city council
1:04:25 that at the bottom of page 160 in the budget book,
1:04:28 it's a city hall modernization,
1:04:30 design and construction, 18 million.
1:04:33 And then it lists purchase of Warren Road
1:04:35 from the land acquisition fund for 1.5 million.
1:04:38 This is the administrative document
1:04:40 that the administration uses,
1:04:41 like a punch list to work through.
1:04:44 And it has the authority under section two
1:04:46 to do what it wants without further action by council.
1:04:49 City council doesn't have a legal way to amend that line.
1:04:57 As we discussed, we can't purchase a building
1:04:59 without coming back to council.
1:05:01 So even though it's in the plan,
1:05:04 we would have to have council's approval
1:05:08 But I'm making a broader point too,
1:05:11 what's in the administration authored capital charts,
1:05:18 city council doesn't have a method
1:05:22 unless we were to do some new piece of legislation,
1:05:25 which we don't have tonight,
1:05:27 and amend the charts and say this shall be considered
1:05:30 to be the charts in the budget book,
1:05:32 which is something we've never done before.
1:05:36 you shared with me your methodology
1:05:38 and it's listed in the budget book
1:05:40 to the methodology for developing this capital plan,
1:05:45 includes the administration and not council.
1:05:49 So if council is to be in charge
1:05:53 of the spending of the city,
1:05:57 we don't have a direct way to affect this chart.
1:06:02 So that's the spirit of the motion.
1:06:05 but I do think it's worth calling our attention
1:06:07 to what the law actually says,
1:06:09 Mr. Baker and Council President Keppel.
1:06:12 Well, yeah, I mean, I think your motion
1:06:17 or you didn't make the motion,
1:06:20 So the motion you talked about
1:06:22 would perhaps be a little more amenable to me
1:06:28 if we said, or for the expansion of the existing city.
1:06:32 Like I'm, and there's a lot of ways to do this.
1:06:36 And Tom, you and I, when we're alone
1:06:38 and not deliberating in a public meeting
1:06:40 with other council members,
1:06:41 have talked about more generally
1:06:43 how the city of Lakewood does contracting.
1:06:45 And some of the other public entities I know,
1:06:47 it's like anything over $500,000,
1:06:49 anything over a million comes back to council,
1:06:51 even if it's originally appropriated, right?
1:06:53 So that's another route, right?
1:06:58 and from the building facilities improvement fund,
1:07:00 they can't spend more than a million bucks
1:07:03 We could do things like that as well.
1:07:06 I think that this, if it was,
1:07:09 or the expansion of the existing city hall,
1:07:12 but I think that I would wanna be clear
1:07:16 we have an interest in finding a solution.
1:07:18 We just haven't been presented the solution yet.
1:07:22 And so that's the way I see it.
1:07:24 and I'd be happy to entertain a motion
1:07:25 that struck the word renovation for expansion.
1:07:28 But again, so I'm gonna keep moving quickly.
1:07:34 I guess I appreciate the intent behind that.
1:07:38 I have worked with the administration
1:07:40 on the substitutes that we have to,
1:07:46 that you saw probably already on the full docket.
1:07:50 So I guess my question would be,
1:07:52 and I don't know if this is a Director Mahoney
1:07:55 but because page 160, the budget book,
1:08:02 is made up of the 16.5 in 2026 bands
1:08:06 and the 1.5 from land acquisition.
1:08:10 the land acquisition couldn't be used
1:08:13 without coming back to council
1:08:14 for the purchase of the building.
1:08:18 unless council approves the 2026 bands.
1:08:22 So because of the appropriations ordinance,
1:08:32 because that money is not currently appropriated
1:08:36 and does not exist without further action of council,
1:08:40 is there a mechanism by which,
1:08:45 I'm not saying that they do,
1:08:46 but if they did want to say,
1:08:47 oh, we're gonna spend the 10.5
1:08:50 all on renovating city hall
1:08:52 without coming back to city council,
1:08:56 because it's not appropriated
1:09:00 and it wouldn't be appropriated
1:09:03 is that making sense what I'm saying?
1:09:09 Okay, so is it the administration's intent?
1:09:10 The other thing I'd like to remind council
1:09:12 is that we have a board of control.
1:09:17 I don't know, some years back,
1:09:18 that everything that follows
1:09:20 under the purchasing guidelines,
1:09:23 so anything over $50,000 a contract
1:09:25 has to be approved by the board of control,
1:09:30 Although, again, council's not a part of that.
1:09:33 And sometimes we have the ability
1:09:36 but we're not a part of the voting and so forth,
1:09:40 or the agenda development or the...
1:09:43 But I think I'm being a dead horse.
1:09:47 the intention of the administration
1:09:49 with the new lowered amount listed on screen here
1:09:54 for the building facilities improvement
1:09:55 is to not pursue the city hall renovation
1:10:02 until we further confer and agree on the approach.
1:10:07 Well, you took it out of the appropriation,
1:10:09 so we don't have that authority.
1:10:11 And again, like Council President Keppel mentioned,
1:10:14 you have not approved the borrowing,
1:10:16 so we don't have the funding for it.
1:10:19 If you're worried about us going forward
1:10:21 without council's approval, it's impossible.
1:10:24 the intention is also not the administration's intention.
1:10:29 Even if it was our intention,
1:10:30 we don't have the authority to do so.
1:10:34 because I can come up, for example, council president,
1:10:37 So it says on city hall service garage 2.878 million
1:10:43 under the current proposal unamended,
1:10:46 that 2.8 million could be not used for the service garage.
1:10:50 It could be used to acquire or begin work.
1:10:53 It could be used to begin work on a building
1:11:00 but that's still meaningful expenditure of funds.
1:11:04 I think I'm hearing that I'm beating the dead horse
1:11:12 Yeah, no, I totally, I understand that
1:11:14 if it's less than that amount that it could happen,
1:11:16 but I guess that was my question
1:11:18 because the language of this ordinance says,
1:11:24 it says the funds shall come from bans,
1:11:26 so if there aren't band funds,
1:11:29 then even if the money's appropriated
1:11:33 in a different fund, it couldn't be used for that.
1:11:37 oh, we're putting a $2 million expansion
1:11:39 on the police station without coming back to you
1:11:41 and not using it for the pole barn
1:11:44 because that money is not appropriated
1:11:48 Well, let me ask one final question.
1:11:51 Is this chart set in stone as of November 17
1:11:55 when it's first created or December 31
1:11:58 when the fiscal year ends or January 1,
1:12:01 that the administration can and does amend
1:12:04 because it's an administrative guidance document?
1:12:06 We do not vary from this document.
1:12:08 We would have some department heads really mad.
1:12:10 Like if I took the $2.5 million Winnerhurst
1:12:19 It's final as when council approves
1:12:22 the appropriation ordinance.
1:12:23 Okay, all right, thank you.
1:12:26 The question I have as this discussion,
1:12:28 you know, I do get some concern
1:12:32 we could go out for a $200,000 design contract
1:12:37 on the Warren Road building under this appropriation.
1:12:42 Or a $300,000 design contract
1:12:45 to design the front of City Hall.
1:12:48 And so that's, I think technically,
1:12:50 we could do that under this appropriation.
1:12:53 Now I'm hearing that the administration's saying
1:12:56 without consulting with council
1:12:58 or coming up with a more global strategy collectively.
1:13:04 So I'm comfortable with that collegiality
1:13:07 and faith in our colleagues.
1:13:10 I'd like to move to substitute the version
1:13:13 of proposed ordinance 35-2025.
1:13:17 That's on screen for us for the original.
1:13:20 Motion made and seconded in the discussion.
1:13:21 Hearing none, all in favor say aye.
1:13:23 Opposed, you guys have it, thank you.
1:13:25 And then finally, kind of finally,
1:13:34 Proposed ordinance 36-2025,
1:13:37 which would provide for contracting authority
1:13:39 for the planning development ordinance,
1:13:42 And that has now added a bunch of detail
1:13:45 and also the amount has been lowered
1:13:47 from 6.75 million in the original
1:13:54 which the director let me know reflects the actuals
1:14:00 I think that discrepancy was a mistaken allocation
1:14:05 for COVID funds, COVID relief funds
1:14:10 So I don't have any additional questions here,
1:14:15 but I do appreciate the specificity
1:14:25 I just want to thank the administration
1:14:27 and particularly Director Mahoney
1:14:28 and Mr. Wyman in the planning department.
1:14:32 Historically, no one's really quite sure
1:14:35 why this ordinance has been done this way,
1:14:38 but we had requested it to be done more like 34-2025
1:14:45 that has the itemized amounts.
1:14:47 It's just clearer for everyone
1:14:49 and it makes more sense too
1:14:52 to be in programs rather than specific vendors.
1:14:55 So I appreciate being willing to make that change
1:14:59 and getting it done in a way
1:15:00 that I think is much clearer for Council.
1:15:04 Can we scroll to the next page so the screen can show?
1:15:08 Okay, so there are the amounts.
1:15:10 I'd like to move that we recommend,
1:15:11 excuse me, that we substitute the version before us,
1:15:14 the substitute version for 36-2025
1:15:17 with the version before us.
1:15:18 Motion's been made and seconded.
1:15:21 Hearing none, all in favor say aye.
1:15:23 Opposed and the ayes have it.
1:15:24 So I'd like to also now consider
1:15:27 in a little bit of time that have left
1:15:28 potential City Council budget priorities amendments.
1:15:32 And I shared that before the meeting.
1:15:35 I think the administration has it too
1:15:37 before getting into the specifics.
1:15:38 And I'm gonna have to talk like a New York City
1:15:40 auctioneer to keep on schedule.
1:15:42 A couple points about the spirit of what is here.
1:15:47 First of all, this is an attempt
1:15:49 to provide Council options.
1:15:50 And I recognize the Finance Committee is three of us,
1:15:54 I kind of hope that we can, Council Finance Committee,
1:15:58 we can act in the spirit of the Committee of the Whole,
1:16:00 even though technically the people with votes
1:16:03 Secondly, none of these are new.
1:16:06 These have been worked on for, I think,
1:16:07 three, actually, Council retreats dating back
1:16:11 What I've attempted to do and have done, in fact,
1:16:13 is organize and consolidate what appears
1:16:16 in the budget book from pages 23 and 24.
1:16:20 And rank them, or ordered them by number of Council members
1:16:26 and then also points of priority assigned
1:16:28 by the spoons and the bags at the time
1:16:32 And then it's more or less following
1:16:34 in the sequence you see in the budget book.
1:16:38 What I have done is an attempt not to act
1:16:40 as the chair here, but kind of the secretary
1:16:43 of the meeting minutes and reflect
1:16:46 what Council members have indicated their interest
1:16:50 What I could figure out was five proposals
1:16:52 had enough detail to propose potential motion.
1:16:56 There's 16 potential options.
1:16:58 Before you, you see potentially five amendments.
1:17:03 Council, now I dialogue with the finance director
1:17:07 and she very collegially said two things.
1:17:10 First, let's start working together earlier in the year.
1:17:13 I don't know why our custom hasn't been
1:17:19 more clear, but I appreciate the finance director saying
1:17:21 let's do this starting in June or thereabouts
1:17:24 so that the work that the finance department leaves
1:17:27 isn't redundant or somehow missing something.
1:17:30 Secondly, the amounts proposed here
1:17:35 if any of these motions were to be agreed to
1:17:37 are in keeping with all contracting authority
1:17:41 and appropriations amounts not to exceed.
1:17:43 In other words, it doesn't attempt to supplant
1:17:45 or change the administration traditional role
1:17:48 which is to say you shall spend something.
1:17:50 What this would do would make available some funds
1:17:53 up to the amounts listed for the purposes listed.
1:17:56 But it could be that costs come in lower
1:17:59 or timing differences are such that it gets pushed off
1:18:03 or something else happens and it doesn't make sense
1:18:06 So the amounts that could be if you total up
1:18:10 the proposals and no changes to the proposed amounts
1:18:13 are made in all were to pass,
1:18:15 the amounts are potentially as much as 570,000 additional.
1:18:20 Number two, a number of these items,
1:18:24 for example, the racial equity plan,
1:18:29 certainly a worthy and deserving initiative
1:18:33 doesn't have anything proposed here.
1:18:36 The administration has noted that some funds
1:18:41 were spent in fiscal year 24 where at the end of 25
1:18:45 and here we have nothing proposed for 26.
1:18:47 That doesn't mean that we can't keep working on that.
1:18:50 And if we come with a specific concept
1:18:54 and a proposed amount that we can then work
1:18:57 after January 1 to continue proposing those amounts.
1:19:01 Director Mahoney said other cities do
1:19:05 mid-year appropriations updates.
1:19:07 It entails a certain amount of work.
1:19:09 We could potentially do them semi-annually or quarterly.
1:19:14 But the fact that there's no proposal
1:19:16 on one of these items doesn't mean
1:19:18 that has to be the end of the road
1:19:19 or it's not important to council or the administration.
1:19:21 It just means potentially there's more work.
1:19:24 And that was my level best attempt
1:19:28 For those that are proposed on the matter
1:19:32 of how we maintain a structurally balanced budget
1:19:38 which is a critically important point,
1:19:43 And I sent some of this around in an email note today.
1:19:54 There's $277,500 proposed on page 34
1:19:57 of the budget book for capital.
1:20:04 The intent by the administration is to relieve
1:20:06 some of the pressure on bonds and notes
1:20:10 We just, however, reduced the pressure
1:20:12 on bonds and notes and debt by 16.5 million.
1:20:16 So $277,500 could easily be shifted to the bonds and notes
1:20:22 and the cash envisioned in the original proposal
1:20:26 from the general fund to further subsidize
1:20:28 on top of the $475,000 that we just approved
1:20:32 in the transfer advances ordinance
1:20:34 could be freed up to be used.
1:20:35 That's one potential source.
1:20:37 Another would be to allocate
1:20:40 from the economic development account line
1:20:45 Actually, Maureen and Council Staff,
1:20:48 do you have that projected fund balance slide
1:20:51 that includes the projected end of 2026 reserve?
1:20:56 That would show that the economic development fund,
1:21:01 if you scroll down, this was,
1:21:03 so this is on page nine of the budget book
1:21:05 except for the last row, 2026 budgeted,
1:21:09 which I think is the important point here
1:21:11 because that shows if we pass the budget,
1:21:15 what we'll end up in 12 months with in these various accounts.
1:21:20 and I'd like to make a point later in the council meeting
1:21:23 about how the days of reserve have dropped three days
1:21:27 even though the dollar amounts have gone up
1:21:30 in the general fund year-end unencumbered balance.
1:21:33 It shows our costs are going up.
1:21:35 But if you look at the middle column,
1:21:40 the proposal is currently to increase to 1.5 million
1:21:47 and the little a there says it's including
1:21:51 150,000 economic development fund loan from the county.
1:21:55 So if we ended the year in 2026 with 1.15 million,
1:22:00 we'd have 1 million in cash from the city,
1:22:03 150,000 from the county still available
1:22:07 Add up $350,000 and 277,500,
1:22:14 which is more than the highest possible amount proposed
1:22:21 In fact, you'd have a surplus beyond that.
1:22:24 If we wanted to go further than that,
1:22:25 you'd find additional funds in the land acquisition fund,
1:22:28 which traditionally has had a million or less.
1:22:30 We just saw we had one and a half.
1:22:32 That's probably more than we need.
1:22:35 But it doesn't hurt to have the reserve,
1:22:36 but you could find cash there.
1:22:38 You could also change, as I referred to,
1:22:41 the allocation of some of the $9.9 million
1:22:45 in end of year 2025 appropriation.
1:22:47 I'm not proposing that we do that,
1:22:49 but we had, I do wanna point this out.
1:22:51 We projected in our 2025 budget book, 12 months ago,
1:22:56 that our general fund structural balance
1:23:03 12 months ago, we thought at the end of the year,
1:23:07 We ended up with $9.9 million.
1:23:11 So that's, again, credit to the financial stewardship
1:23:15 and the conservative estimates of the finance department.
1:23:18 But when we say in the current fiscal year
1:23:20 that we only projected $17,000 surplus,
1:23:23 that's on the same order of magnitude of 12 months ago.
1:23:28 And I think that we can reasonably find or commit
1:23:34 So wanted to say that at the beginning,
1:23:36 we do have reserves, council does have discretion.
1:23:39 And if you want to make these motions,
1:23:41 maybe we're out of time in the committee,
1:23:44 but we could discuss a little bit,
1:23:45 potentially consider motions on the floor, Mr. Baker.
1:23:49 First of all, I wanna, on behalf of everyone,
1:23:53 Tom, this is where you're at your best.
1:23:55 I love you during budget season
1:23:56 because I think you've forgotten more
1:23:58 about the city budget than most of us know.
1:24:00 So I appreciate, and I appreciate your effort
1:24:03 because I think it's very well done.
1:24:06 And I will say that I think,
1:24:08 I wish I had more than a couple hours to look at it,
1:24:10 to kind of put motions on the floor.
1:24:12 But the one thing I do think is that
1:24:16 when four of us decide to do something
1:24:19 or two of us, three of us bring something forward
1:24:21 as a resolution or an ordinance, it can be passed.
1:24:24 And so I do think that there are opportunities,
1:24:27 as Director Mulholland said,
1:24:28 like throughout the year where
1:24:30 we have quarterly advances in reserves.
1:24:32 And that's where we can kind of see
1:24:34 Because I, some of the stuff on here,
1:24:36 the block clubs and then the case stuff, right?
1:24:39 Like appropriating money to them
1:24:40 for more traffic calming or more ability
1:24:43 for them to do some quick implementation projects
1:24:49 I'm certainly interested in supporting.
1:24:51 And I think that we do have the ability to fund them.
1:24:55 I just don't know if tonight is the night to do it.
1:24:58 I think maybe February, March, something like that.
1:25:01 So I'll reply, tonight's the night.
1:25:04 Because there's a lot of work
1:25:05 that goes into creating the ordinances.
1:25:08 We've got the ordinances in front of us.
1:25:11 We're reflecting more than 12 months
1:25:17 We've got language, we should consider this now.
1:25:21 it doesn't mandate on January 1st
1:25:23 that even a nickel gets spent
1:25:25 It would simply make available
1:25:27 for the priorities that we've identified.
1:25:29 After a lot of work with the residents,
1:25:33 Appropriations and Contracting Authority.
1:25:37 We'll probably need a bathroom break.
1:25:39 But we could also consider some of these on the floor.
1:25:45 I'm too very impressed with all of this work
1:25:49 And I would also like to look at this.
1:25:51 And I do think that there's a spirit
1:25:53 between City Council working with the administration
1:25:57 without having to put it into an ordinance here.
1:26:00 And as Councilman Baker was just indicating,
1:26:03 as we start to go through the year,
1:26:05 I think that we absolutely keep these as our priorities
1:26:08 and start to knock these things out.
1:26:11 How do we do that, Councilwoman?
1:26:14 Because what our current system is,
1:26:16 is to ask and wait for the administration.
1:26:18 They're busy with a lot of other things.
1:26:20 So I think it's our job to show that it is a priority
1:26:25 and they start on January 1
1:26:29 And some of these are our initiatives.
1:26:31 Like, I'm not sure that the administration,
1:26:34 and it's not their job to necessarily agree
1:26:37 with everything we propose.
1:26:38 Like, we're the ones that have the vision for,
1:26:40 it was your vision originally,
1:26:41 that block the clubs and neighbor-to-neighbor networks
1:26:44 would be a part of our emergency response
1:26:48 and really could be a part of our snow response
1:26:50 because heaven knows that we need additional snow removal.
1:26:53 So there are supports available to us.
1:26:56 And if we decline to take advantage
1:27:00 of the opportunity tonight,
1:27:02 that just means that we're gonna have to
1:27:04 draft the legislation, wait for three readings,
1:27:08 come back to the same moment that we are now.
1:27:11 And for anybody who would like to make,
1:27:14 I mean, these are draft motions
1:27:15 that don't have to be made.
1:27:16 So feel free to make adjustments.
1:27:20 So I'm sorry, I'm talking fast and quick
1:27:22 and forcefully because of the time.
1:27:23 I understand, I do one question through you.
1:27:26 Mayor George, are you aware that these are our priorities
1:27:28 and would you agree to work with us on these?
1:27:32 Yeah, thank you, Councilwoman.
1:27:34 You know, we received this document
1:27:36 at about 4.15 this afternoon.
1:27:39 So it's gonna take a little bit of time to absorb it,
1:27:42 but a lot of these council priorities
1:27:44 we've discussed before in the past,
1:27:47 it would be good to have conversations
1:27:49 and see about how we put these proposals to work.
1:27:54 For instance, the block clubs in this document,
1:27:57 it's mentioned $100,000 to go towards block clubs.
1:28:01 I think we need to have conversations
1:28:03 to understand what exactly we'd be doing with block clubs
1:28:06 and how that money would support enhanced block clubs.
1:28:10 I believe that there's certainly conversations to be had.
1:28:13 And I think we've had a history of working together
1:28:17 And we should continue those dialogues throughout the year.
1:28:22 Okay, we gotta make some motions
1:28:25 to report legislation out of the committee.
1:28:27 So I'd like to move that we,
1:28:31 let's do an unblocked motion.
1:28:34 Mr. Chair, the committee has not acted
1:28:36 on substitute ordinance 34, 2025.
1:28:39 Thank you for the reminder.
1:28:41 So now there was no proposed substitute for that one.
1:28:47 Okay, so that stands as it was proposed.
1:28:50 So what I'd like to do is propose
1:28:54 that the finance committee report favorably out
1:28:57 as amended and as substitute and amended ordinances
1:29:02 31-2025, 32-2025, 33-2025, 34-2025,
1:29:07 35-2025, 36-2025, and 29-2025.
1:29:19 Motion has been made and seconded.
1:29:20 Discussion, is that a clear motion?
1:29:26 and now we're reporting out favorably as, okay?
1:29:35 without objection, please adjourn.