WELCOME/OVERVIEW
DISCUSSION AND ACTION ITEMS
Budget Prioritization Process -
- Discussion and direction for prioritizing the FY2022-23 budget, including but not limited to funding all programs needed to accomplish the City Mission and taking into consideration factors such as population growth, tax base development, large time sensitive infrastructure projects, right of way issues, staffing levels and structure, school safety, Schertz Magazine and magazine printing costs, and prioritizing expanded programs that may be required in the future. (M. Browne/Executive Team)
Mayor Gutierrez recognized City Manager Dr. Mark Browne who provided the following Retreat Overview Discussion items:
- Tax Rate Discussion
- FY 2022-23 Budget Development & Highlights
- Cut Line Discussion
- CIP Updates
- Schertz Magazine Discussion
- School Safety/Security
Finance Director James Walters provided an overview of the 2022 Property Values:
| 2021 Taxable Value |
$4,113,819,189 |
| 2022 Equivalent Taxable Value |
$4,645,496,543 |
| 2022 New Taxable Development |
+$116,497,996 |
| 2022 Adjusted Taxable Value |
$4,761,994,539 |
| Difference between Adjusted Taxable Values |
$648,715,350 |
Mr. Walters provided the following information regarding the Tax Rate:
| No-New Revenue: |
The tax which will generate the same revenue for the city from property on the previous year's tax roll |
| Voter Approval Rate |
The rate if exceeded triggers an automatic election on the tax rate. |
| Current: |
The rate currently adopted by the City. |
| Proposed Max: |
The maximum rate set at which the final adopted rate cannot exceed. |
Tax Rate
| Current: |
$0.5121 |
| No New Revenue: |
$0.4526 |
| Voter Approval: |
$0.4721 |
| Voter Approval - Unused Increment: |
$0.5094 |
| Proposed Max: |
$0.4665 - (Proposed budget assumes this rate) |
| $0.01 is equal to $477,000 revenue or $29.48 on the average home |
|
Target Tax Rate
| Tax Rate |
Current |
Proposed Maximum |
|
| M&O |
$0.3470 |
$0.3185 |
For day to day operations |
| I&S |
$0.1651 |
$0.1480 |
To Pay the City's debt |
| Total |
$0.4665 |
|
|
FY 2022-23 City Tax Rate
| Tax Rate Name |
Tax Rate per $100 |
Est. Tax Bill |
Bill Increase |
% Increase |
| No-new revenue |
$0.4526 |
$1,334.45 |
- |
- |
| Voter Approval |
$0.4721 |
$1,392.23 |
$57.78 |
4.3% |
| w/Increment |
$0.5094 |
$1,501.59 |
$167.14 |
12.5% |
| Proposed |
$0.4665 |
$1,375.13 |
$40.68 |
3.0% |
| |
|
|
|
|
| New Proposed |
$0.4798 |
$1,414.34 |
$79.99 |
6.0% |
| Current |
$0.5121 |
$1,509.55 |
$175.10 |
13.1% |
Tax bills are based on average taxable value of homes for 2022 of $294,800 - Estimated Tax Bills and Bill Increases are annual amounts.
Mr. Walters provided Historic Tax Rates for M&O and I&S and Historic Tax Rates totals:
FY 2022-23 Proposed Budget: (Staff reviewed with Council the following):
FY 2022-23 Budget Development highlights include:
- More sales tax realized
- More aggressive on revenue projections
- Sales tax – increasing from 5% to 6% (7% in out years)
- More aggressive on expense projections
- Across the line-item adjustments to match long-term trends
- Reduce department budgets by 2%
- All of this provides additional recurring funding
Budget Priorities:
- Established priorities from the pre-budget retreat
- Infrastructure
- CIP Planning/Document Development
- New/Reconstruction of Facilities
- Compensation
- Increase Staffing
FY 2022-23 Budget Highlights:
- Expanded Programs Proposed to Fund
- Wage Adjustment Proposal
- One time, in lieu of merit
- P/T and F/T - Non-public safety
- 4/2/1 plan
- Couple this with 3% ECI
- Both to go into effect October 1
Wage Adjustment Proposal
60% (120 EEs) receive 4% - <$53K
20.5% (41 EEs) receive 2% - $53K-$75K
19.5% (39 EEs) receive 1% - $75K+
Employees outside of pay band will receive adjustment as a lump sum (same as merit)
No change to Public Safety merit - 1% - Paid as lump sum to all
Proposing 15 new positions in General Fund:
Fire – 3 Firefighters for Station 4, Inspector
Engineering – Inspector, Engineer
IT – Public Safety Tech.
Parks – Parks Maintenance Tech.
Planning & Community Development – Plans Examiner
Police – 2 SRO’s, Traffic Officer, Records Specialist
Fleet – Parts Clerk/Lube Tech.
Library – P/T Programming Specialist
Enterprise Funds EMS:
EMS – 8 new personnel in planned phase approach
Mental Health Service Canine
Enterprise Funds Water/Sewer (requests pending/still under review)
Tyler Notify
- Cost: $18,688
- Will provide staff the ability to notify residents of late water bills, water outages via text message
Water/Sewer Gems Software
- Cost: $23,496
- Will help to identify the impact to our system of line size increases, main additions and potential new users
- Will allow the City to simulate a variety of situations in order to predict impacts to the system which will aid in decision-making when prioritizing projects and allocating maintenance resources and to be able to update the model
Mobile bypass pump
- Cost: $83,900
- Pump will enhance reliability and ensures infrastructure remains operable in emergency situations or when there are mechanical or electrical failures due to weather (pump would be employed on a temp basis)
FY 22/23 base has $400,000
- FY 22/23 expanded would increase that to $650,000
- FY 23/24 would increase that to $850,000
- Will now have $850K recurring funding amount for road program by FY 23/24 (ideally, should be $2 million recurring
- Bldg. 27 Parking Lot Surfacing
- Cost: $200,000
- Need additional parking/storage
- IT Upgrades – Internet & Fiber
- Internet
- Cost: $16,500
- Upgrade existing GVEC Internet access from 10 MBs to 500 MBs
- Adds additional high-speed connection to the internet which can balance connectivity and route traffic to most efficient route
- Fiber
- Cost: $10,500
- Upgrades existing fiber connectivity between City Hall and Library (current fiber is more than 10 years old)
- Will be able to move forward with systems replication, high- speed backups and better network load balancing for internet connectivity and other services
- Software – Purchasing & PD
- eProcurement and Contract Management Software
- Cost: $10,000
- Will allow for increased participation in the bidding process, more effective contract management and increase efficiency for staff
- Records Management System Software
- Cost: Unknown – earmarking $50,000 in budget to go toward it
- Joint project with IT & PD to replace current Law RMS with a more efficient and productive system
Children's Audio Books - $5,000 - Council discussed matching this come out of general fund
- Will provide starter collection of 100-111 books
- Come directly from LAB budget
Hotspot Program Proposal
- Initial Cost $1540, Recurring Cost: $1320
- Would provide 11 hotspots to library inventory and allow everyone in our community to have access to the Internet through their library card
- Propose 50/50 split between LAB and General Fund budgets for 3 years
$770 – initial year
$660 – years 2 and 3
- Phase recurring cost into General Fund budget after that
FY 2022-23 Budget
- General Fund Proposed Budget $42,883,016
- Increase of $2,837,920 or 7.1%, from FY 2021-22 Adopted Budget, not including infrastructure funding
- Non Personnel Budgets increased 2.7% due to fuel costs, police equipment, and additional road maintenance funds
- Personnel Budgets increase 11.2% for the annual pay adjustments, insurance, ECI, and adding positions
- Proposed Budget assumes a 26% Fun balance requirement
- Choices made in this budget will reduce the fund balance to 26% over the next 5 years.
- Proposed Programs/Personnel Funded at Current Rate: 0$0.5131
- N/A - Current Rate is too high
Programs/Personnel Funded at No New Revenue Rate: $0.4527
Cut Line Discussion at Proposed Rate - $0.4665
Cut Line Discussion at Voter Approval Rate - $0.4723
Cut Line Discussion at Voter Approval Unused Increment Rate - $0.5094
Council discussed different tax rates, and it was the consensus to go with $0.4999 and come back with what additional items would be funded.
Water/Wastewater CIP information highlights discussed lead by Public Works Director Suzanne Williams and City Engineer Kathy Woodlee:
FY 21-22 Completed
•Crest Oak Sewer Line: $1.1M (Construction costs)
•Northcliffe and NACO Generators Design: $30,000
FY 21-22 In Progress
- Aviation Heights waterline replacement project: $1.8M (Construction costs)
- Northcliffe and NACO Generators - ARP Funding: $550,000
- Corbett GST-Water impact fees and Federal Appropriations Committee: $7.5M (Construction costs)
- Greytown and Ware Seguin Loop Lines: $1.8M
- East Live Oak to IH 35 24" Waterline - Engineering: $1.3M
- Woman Hollerng Creek: $12M (Construction costs)
FY 22-23
- Lookout Sewer Line upsize-EDC funding: $4M
- FM 1518 Relocation-TxDOT driven: $11.6M (Construction costs)
- SCADA upgrade-ARP Funding: $189,000
- Greenshire waterline replacement project - ARP Funding: $3.3M
- East Live Oak to IH 34 "24 Waterline - Easement Acquisition: $1M
Drainage CIP Discussion:
FY21-22 In Process
- FM 78 Drainage Channel Design Phase: $100,000
FY 22-23
- FM 78 Drainage Channel Construction Phase: $550,000
Facilities CIP Discussion:
FY 21-22 Completed
- HVAC replacements at AAC, Senior Center, PD Server Room, North Center, Community Center, Civic Center: $1.7M
- Replace Carpet and Seating in Council Chambers $25,000
FY 21-22 in Process
- Parks Remodel (Building 10) - in design: $49,000
- Replace Carpet in Administration Bldg. (Bldg. 2): $35,000
FY 22-23
- City Hall (Bldg. 1) Countertop remodel: $138,000
- Police Department (Bldg. 6) HVAC replacement: $150,000
- Parks Remodel (Bldg. 10) Construction: $201,000
Street CIP Discussion:
FY 21-22 Completed
- Boenig (In house): $30,000
- Eckhardt (Partnership with Guadalupe County): $130,000
- Old Wiederstein (In house): $50,000
- Elbel (except signal at Westchester): $2M
FY 21-22 In progress
- Tri County Parkway
- 2018 SPAM
- 2020 SPAM
- PCI Data Collection
FY 22-23
- Buffalo Valley South and Trainer Hale: FM 1518-Wier (In house): 45,000
- Beck Street and Ashley Place Unit 1 (Resurface): $94,000
- Windy Meadows: FM 1518-Oak Street (Resurface): $270,000
- Signal Replacement: $65,000
CIP Update - Parks - discussion lead by Director of Parks Rec & Community Services Lauren Shrum:
Update on F 21/22 Projects
 CIP Update - Parks Planned FY 22/23 Projects
 CIP Update - Parks cont...
 Schertz Magazine discussion lead by Public Affairs Director Linda Klepper:
Current Printing Contract
- Printer let the City know on May 18 that they would not renew the current printing agreement for the magazine
- Contract expires end of September 2022
Increasing printing costs
- FY 2020-21 Actual Costs: $94,369.00
- FY 2021-22 Projected Costs: $112,000.00
Supply chain issues
- Continue to be a concern based on feedback - 80# paper is the harder paper to find
Printing RFP
Current Magazine Specs - 48 page, monthly, 80#
RFP Scope:
Current Specs - 48 page, monthly, 80# and/or 60#
Adjust Frequency (every other month) - 48 page, bimonthly, 80# and/or 60#
Adjust page count (reduce by 16 pgs) - 32 page, monthly, 80# and/or 60#
RFP Breakdown - Magazine Printing:
Printing options - Vendor A:
Current FY 21/22 Magazine Printing
- Projected Cost: $112,000.00
- 48 page, monthly, 80#
Options to consider:
- Option 1 Current Specs - $130,560.00
- 48 page, monthly, 80#
- Option 2 adjust paper quality - $113,280.00
- 48 page, monthly, 60#
- Option 3 adjust frequency (every other month) - $56,640.00
- 48 page, bimonthly, 60#
- Option 4 adjust page count (reduce by 16 pgs) - $81,984.00
- 32 page, monthly, 60#
Staff Recommendation:
The consensus of Council was to go to Option 4 for the Schertz Magazine.
School Safety/Security Discussion lead by PD Captain Manny Casas:
- Introduction- Important topic- Opportunity to reset and look how to improve our methods.
- (4) SROs are responsible for 9 schools @15,000 students - 1 HS, 1 DAEP, 1 Jr • HS, 1 Intermediate, 5 elementary schools
- A couple of weeks ago our staff held a meeting with Fire and EMS, and Cibolo PD as collaboration effort for better overall communications when responding as a team.
- Working closer with the School staff, Ryan Clark- security coordinator and have become part of their safety and security task force initiative.
- Currently working with IT to create a new badge system that will give all officers access to exterior doors of every school in the district.
- Increase training internally that includes tabletop exercise and roll call training with staff.
- Updated our floor plans for all our schools for response and time cutting.
- Our SROs are providing training/ presentations to all School staff-Standard Response Protocol- (Lockout, Lockdown, Evacuate, Shelter and Hold).
- Have our citizens on patrol- and crossing guards involved-setting up ghost cars at schools-visibility is the key
- School has increased fencing on their campuses like portables and hiring 2 mental health professionals
- Social media with the use of PSA- awareness and educational
- Starting out for the school year we will have an increased of visibility for the first 2 weeks at every school.
Closing remarks were provided by City Manager Dr. Mark Browne, Mayor and Council provided their closing remarks. It was the consensus of Council to go with a preliminary tax rate of $0.4999.
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