Budget Worksession Minutes
April 29, 2008

The meeting was called to order at 7:40 p.m. after conclusion of a Student Mock Town Council meeting. Present were Mayor Calvo, Mayor Pro Tem (MPT) Jewitt, CMs Dennison, Gourley and Lofgren. Also present were Town Administrator (TA) Murphy, Clerk Harper and citizens.

1. Mayor

Announcements: Town Council elections will take place on Tuesday, May 6; a pension bond issue is on the ballot. On May 18, College Park Mayor Steven Brayman will host a fund raiser for Rett Syndrome.

CM Gourley asked to comment on a recent Gazette article about the posting of election signs. He said that the article unfairly gave the impression that he was deliberately breaking the Town's rules on election signs and ignoring calls notifying him about illegally posted signs. He said that, while he was aggressive about putting his signs up, in some cases illegally, he took them down once it was pointed out to him. Moreover, there were other illegally posted signs besides his. Mayor Calvo responded that CM Gourley was slow to respond to complaints about his signs. He called and spoke to him on the evening of April 15 after he had posted his first signs, preferring to deal with the matter privately. When CM Gourley failed to remove the illegal signs, he brought it up at the April 21 worksession. MPT Jewitt said that the Code Department is responsible for enforcing sign regulations. However, the Council should eliminate conflicting and ambiguous provisions regarding signs in its ordinances.

8. Budget

TA Murphy said that he has revised the budget for the proposed in-house recycling program based on Councilmembers' comments at the last worksession. He advised establishing a separate line item for the program, if it is implemented. The budget spreadsheet includes 3 sets of calculations based on different start dates of July 1, September 1 and October 1. It is assumed that the Public Works Department will use the oldest of three garbage truck for recycling instead of purchasing a new one with special pick-up features. However, it is recommended that Council set aside an additional $8,000 - $12,000 per year in the vehicle replacement fund to accelerate the replacement of this truck. For this truck's Maintenance & Repairs line item account, only $2,000 has been appropriated in FY 2009 because it was just refurbished. For the Gasoline & Oil line item $4,160 has been recommended, based on 20 gallons a day for diesel fuel at $4.00 per gallon. For educating residents about the changes in the recycling program, $2,000 was recommended, which includes the production of refrigerator magnets and a couple of mass mailings.

Mayor Calvo commented that he agrees with the conservative budgeting of employee benefits. However, he thinks additional funds are needed for gasoline, uniforms and maybe a cell phone. He also proposed to dedicate $12,000 per year in recycling revenues for the vehicle replacement fund. CM Lofgren said that the recycling revenues are a big unknown and need to be tracked carefully. He suggested asking the Town's current recycling contractors about their earnings to get a general idea. MPT Jewitt suggested integrating electronics recycling into the in-house recycling program. With the switch to digital broadcasting signals, the Town can expect the disposal of a large number of TVs next year. There is a recycling business located along the Metro tracks in Hollywood. MPT Jewitt also suggested looking into the Department of General Services Energy Savings Performance Contract, which works with a set of energy savings contractors to reduce the State government's energy costs. TA Murphy was asked to research the program.

Mayor Calvo asked the Council to decide on the starting date for an in-house recycling program as well as the collection day. The Council voted 4 to 1 for an October 1 start date with CM Dennison opposed. It was further agreed to move the collection day to Wednesday and to dedicate the $12.00 a ton recycling revenues to the vehicle replacement reserve fund.

Mayor Calvo said that more money is needed in all departments for gasoline. MPT Jewitt proposed utilizing the $2,585 in savings from switching from contracted to in-house recycling for the period of October 1, 2008 to June 31, 2009 and distributing the savings proportionally to the Police, Public Works and Code Enforcement Departments’ Gasoline & Oil line item accounts. The Council voted 5 to 0 in favor.

At 8:55 p.m., the Council took a 10 minute break.

Mayor Calvo said that today is the last budget worksession and asked if any Councilmember has other budget proposals to make. CM Gourley said that he would have liked to fund an additional hour for the part time code officer and code clerk, as proposed by MPT Jewitt. However, he cannot see where to come up with the money. MPT Jewitt elaborated that he proposed the additional hours because the workload of the department has increased with the adoption of the Commercial Clean Lot Ordinance and other new regulations. Currently, the part-time officer does not work every weekend but that should be the goal. The Council may want to consider adding more hours in the next budget cycle.

CM Dennison said that she believes there is no need for funds in the Pop's Park Equipment line item account. She moved to shift the remaining $500 to the Pontiac Street Maintenance appropriation. The motion failed for lack of a second.

Mayor Calvo concluded that, with the exception of the health insurance quotes, the budget is now pretty much set.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:25 p.m.

Kerstin Harper, Town Clerk

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