I’m going through the various committees before City Council and transcribing the notes related to the budgets each committee is responsible for reviewing. This is in a rough note format, but those of you interested in the financial aspects of city departments may find the information helpful. If you have any questions, I’ll do my best to answer if I can or to get you answers if I can not answer your question immediately. I’ve tried to focus on any increases in cost or personnel as mentioned during the budget hearings.
Ed Moore Streets Bridges and Harbour no change in staff for 2011.
Fund 14 same with the exception of wages/benefits
Fund 1000 is the demolition fund – those were moved to grant funds
Fund 50 is assessed services, salaries, wages and PERS, the cost of stone for surface streets has increased
Fund 40 electrical upgrades needed
Fund 60 same, 70 and 78 – slight increases are for repair costs and materials.
Waniewski said the Mayor said street resurfacing would be at a minimum.
Is that reflected in the budget. Moore said his numbers are not related to DPU repaving. His funds would be bridge related.
Collins thanked Welch for providing the budget material prior to the hearing
Collins asked about the execvators – why did we buy them then rent them? Moore said the ones we have are not operable at this time, until they get repaired they are renting.
Ed Irelan, Solid Waste Budget
Staff includes 3 Refuse foreman, 58 refuse truck drivers, 9 refuse collectors
Waste has several vacant positions, 6 landfill operators and two drivers position control shows a third less employees, that reflects the possible change in switching to Lucas County for trash collection.
Refuse collection budget is down over 2 million dollars with is a third difference, that’s related to the county proposal. Costs are down at the landfill because of the increase in recycling.
McNamara asked about the methane gas going from the landfill to water treatment. Welch said there is a charge back, McNamara asked for a referral on details.
Collins suggested that every landlord who rents to college students in UT area during the college move season be charged $75 when the student housing creates furniture and other items left. Collins said if it is a student housing we charge everytime the packer pulls up instead of the one free per quarter. Collins said UT embraces this idea, we have been subsidizing student housing by picking up trash for too long.
Welch said it is an issue every semester when they move out, the difficulity is creating a special assessment. Welch said they could use the fine aspect. Collins felt this is simple that they didn’t have to create a whole complicated process.
Wanieski asked about cart maintenance, Welch said once the carts are deployed there are maintenance issues, there are 200,000 carts out there, we need a maintenance contract to take care of that. There is a 10 year warranty but not a contract for 2011.
It’s estimated it will be about $150,000 for that maintenance contract.
Sarantou arrived and asked about bridge inspections, Moore said they were on target with that and the requirement was met. We have 130 to 140 bridges, Sarantou wanted to know how many and how long it takes to inspect. Welch said it depends, the bridges vary in size. Welch said we have met the required number of bridge inspections for years, our bridges are rated very high.
Julian Highsmith, Facility & Fleet budget
61.8 to 68.8 increase due to taking over satelite operations.
Increases related to SAP and increased contracts, materials and fuel.
Barb Jones, Transportation budget
48 personnel in signals, administrative and engineering, divided equally same level as 2010. They operate from two funds, budget has increased 3% due to personnel costs. Because of the LED program electrical costs have gone down, they are going to experiment with long life road markings it’s felt that would save. Some safety studies are planned, this enables them to get grants.
Sarantou wanted to know if they are done with the LED lights, Jones said they plan to be done this year. It was estimated 60% are done.
Collins asked about the Transportation commissioner position, it was stated there was no plan to hire someone for that position in 2011.
Department of Public Utilities – Tom Crothers
The rate increase as proposed is planned for in the budget, Crothers does not think any changes to the rate increase is warranted.
Johnnie Hannah, Administrative Services budget
They are seeking to increase from 63 to 64 employees, they are also planning on filling vacant positions.
Fund 6078 increases are from consultant services, which they are looking at. Five areas are hosting services, SAP annual support fee, onsite support services and support services to SAP are included in that. Contractual services due to doing a lot of shut offs has increased postage and mailing and have changed their phone message system, they want to upgrade to do document imaging.
McNamara asked what a legal technician is, it is not a lawyer it is a Local 7 position that does research. They use a company called, Mail It that they send their postage through.
Robin Whitney, Engineering Services budget
Responsible for upgrades to lines, facilities and storm water projects, the sidewalk replacement, also includes other plans necessary.
73 positions, same as last year, 15 vacancies, 24 engineers then a mixture of techs and support services. Their department utilizes a variety of funds 1.5 positions are from the General Fund.
They are counting PERS differently so it appears there is an increase of over $200,000 but it’s not. Changes in personnel charges also makes it look like one budget is increased, they changed the way the personnel is costed not the total amount. The staff were listed in the projects in 2010.
Waniewski asked about the road surfacing, Whitney said she has not changed their staffing level, they have to do the survey and design work, she would not want to change her staff should the residential program decrease since they can still do that and they have non-residential projects that they have been successful in getting grants for. If there is a drastic cut in residential she would still want to get the preliminary work done.
Herwat said they are still evaluating that based on how much money they will have to transfer to the General Fund. He told the departments to plan as if there was going to be a residential resurfacing program. Herwat said if they have projects on the shelf if projects can’t be done in other areas they can capitalize on that.
Waniewski wanted to know where the residential street program was budgeted. She said she does not have them budgeted separately since they work on both projects.
Waniewski wanted to know what we spent last year as the total for resurfacing – 5.8 million for street resurfacing, the total was 43 million.
Waniewski asked about the status of several projects that involved Secor. Herwat explained the funding calendar of ODOT and TMACOG, they often have to carry over since the funding begins July 1.
Tim Murphy, Environmental Services budget
A budget hearing was held on his budget already. This department has been in existence for over 100 years, they receive over 1 million from the Ohio EPA and they have the ability to enforce code, they get a thousand complaints per year that they deal with. They receive grand funding and some matching funding from the General Fund. The department is revenue neutral.
There are vacancies they are planning to fill. Some grants are being closed out that is reflected in the line items.
Collins asked about the Veterans Administration project, the funding was received, groundbreaking is expected April 2011. $750,000 has been obtained for clean up costs.
David Leffler, Water treatment budget
Crothers said collects and treats 26 billion gallons of water through 11 hundred miles of water and sewer lines. Crothers said they return it to the Maumee in a more pristine condition than it is taken in.
Additional hiring of skilled trades positions is in the budget, about 15 new
Some of the budget changes are related to the changes in the SAP.
Chemical costs continue to go up, that is a major increase, it’s a 9.7% increase from last year’s budget.
Dave Leffler, Water reclamation budget
They have added one administrative position to use the SAP software to create a preventive maintenance program.
On the methane gas, Cothers said the membrane at the landfill was breeched to take dredgings they hope now that is done when it’s capped again they believe it will increase the amount generated.
Terry Russeau, Water Distribution budget
445 main breaks repaired in 2010. They have collected 9% more than they billed out. Wait times have decreased in the call center, fleet facilities took over maintenance of their vehicles. They have added 1.85 positions.
The budget is increased by 4.5% from 2010, most of that is related to PERS, benefits and salaries.
Crothers said their turning water off has increased revenues which is why they are collecting 9% greater than what they billed. He said they are still offering payment plans. It’s typically a quarter then pro-rated the balance.
Sarantou asked about monthly water bills. Crothers said it would cost an additional 2.1 million dollars to do that, they are looking at it, he believes it’s in the best interest of customers and the City. It’s his goal to implement that in 2012 with the increased rates.
The meters would have to be read and bills would have to be read monthly where now they are quarterly. Additional personnel and overhead costs would be required.
Sarantou asked about automatic meter reading like Columbia Gas has adopted. Crothers said Columbia gas’s system is ideal, we don’t charge people for the meters. They have instituted a radio transmitted meter reading in Western Lucas County for new installs and repairs. Northwestern Water and Sewer has a meter that has no moving parts it’s electric and works on a signal to signal basis.
Waniewski wanted to know what percentage of meters are radio chip, he was told over 10,000 out of 135,000 meters.
Craig wanted to know the payback time on remote meters, he was told it is a five to 10 year payback depending on the system. Their biggest fear is some of the houses are very old and when you try to install a new meter the lines break, while the city would not be responsible for it, they are sensitive to it. Crothers said they’d have to bond something like that over probably 20 years and rates to support it.
Older meters read slower, newer meters read faster and can turn off homes electronically.
Kelly Debruyn, Sewer & Drainage budget
19 vacancies they are working with HR to fill, they lost 3 positions due to the change over to fleet and facilities, she said that is working well and they have more vehicles on the road.
$700,000 more in PERS, salary costs and contractal cost increases
Public Comment Section:
Kevin Haddad from Sylvania Township was there to talk about the utility rates His concern is people being able to just get through, he’ll come back on the 18th, is this going to be compounded or based on the first rate, he is concerned about the base rates. He said overall the water department does a good job. It was pointed out that Sylvania doesn’t use Toledo’s sewer or storm, just water and that the fees charged by the others. Haddad said as a business owner he’s concerned about the Toledo water rates.
Meeting adjourned.
