Buffalo City Council CIP Review Workshop

00:01:08 - $53 million in spending/improvements
00:01:12 - Utilities is largest update
00:01:45 - Second largest is street upgrade (Dague Ave Roundabout)
00:02:10 - Hwy 25 Rebuild, update infrastructure underground
00:02:33 - Building Improvements (Civic Center)
00:02:58 - Liquor Store Update
00:03:24 - Regular Equipment Replacement Schedule
00:04:25 - Where will the money come from?
00:04:50 - 55% will come from new debt (loans/bonds)
00:05:35 - In 2025, taxes will drop. Therefore taxes can be raised again for equipment to be replaced
00:06:04 - Revenue Bonds will be used for utility
00:06:10 - Street reconstruction will be state grants and state aid
00:06:45 - There is a desired adoption of a gas and electric franchise fee - What is this?
00:07:14 - All cities do transfers in addition to franchise fee
00:07:30 - Franchise fee is a cost per meter (passed to user?)
00:08:30 - Franchise fee comes in quarterly
00:08:50 - Of the $30 million new debt, only 30% will impact the property tax levy. The others will come from the other funds
00:09:50 - Following the intended utility rates increase will allow us to stay on track
00:10:54 - Draft Capital Improvement Plan
00:11:53 - Councilman Downer - AMI cost for this year?
00:12:10 - With the retirement of the Utilities Director, we're looking at next year instead
00:12:58 - Councilman Enter - Money is cheap now, if we can afford to do it, let's do it.
00:13:25 - Water Reclaimation was in this year, going out for bids soon
00:14:15 - If we use the federal funds to help pay for the project, it'll help the most people and we'll only have to bond for 1 project.
00:15:00 - Administration, repurpose the old fire station. Don't have a plan yet, but money is there.
00:15:25 - Civic Center, talked about floor improvements. We think we can do that in 2023. We'd have to issue 700k in bonds.
00:15:56 - We'll have to plan the project so it affects the hockey season the least
00:16:18 - ????
00:16:40 - Will we be expanding the parking lot?
00:17:07 - Mayor Lachemeier: Can you talk about the lift station update?
00:17:28 - A large amount for the lift station
00:18:01 - We won't have issues with holding off until 2025? Bolton and Menk don't think so.
00:18:30 - Lift station updates in the end of the capital improvement plan
00:19:06 - Timing is what was recommended by the city engineer
00:19:23 - Dague project - a large chunk will be state grant, then municipal state aid. Assessments against school and other property.
00:19:50 - They may intend to pay over 15 years, so we may have a little temporary debt
00:20:35 - We currently levy $500k, with the franchise fees we can fund it without debt
00:20:59 - Mayor: are we using the county fund at all? Do we have to petition for that?
00:21:15 - We may have to petition for it, but we should be in line for reconstruction
00:21:35 - 8th St NW was late 90s, but it's in dire need of repair
00:23:10 - Beginning in 2026 we have a placeholder for reconstruction
00:23:27 - We've asked Justin to look at it
00:24:00 - Parks - are tax abatement funding or voter approved
00:25:09 - Mayor Lachemeier: Is everything else pretty consistent?
00:25:23 - Yes. 3 Plow trucks for the next few years (some are over 15 years old). A lot of money is spent on maintenance.
00:25:50 - Mayor Lachemeier: What about the old Fire Station?
00:26:09 - Community Center
00:26:24 - City Admin: We're finding with our staffing situation, we need space badly
00:27:04 - What we'd like to do in '22 is do a facilities studies
00:28:00 - Toy shop people might be moved. Internally there's a lot of pressure for city center space
00:29:06 - Councilman Enter - Sooner or later we're going to have to look at the toy shop space
00:29:21 - City Admin: Can we look at that as part of our long term study?
00:29:49 - City Admin: We have more of a need to get our squads some garage space
00:30:14 - Mayor Lachemeier: What about a restroom in Sturges park?
00:30:47 - City Admin: We did include a restoom facility in downtown in '23
00:31:06 - In parks in '23 there's a Sturges park multipurpose facility, but it's basically a bathroom
00:31:45 - It's meant to replace that bathroom
00:32:19 - Councilman O'Rourke - How much do we pay for PortaJohns? A: Citywide maybe 3k/mo
00:32:52 - Mayor - Now that we use Wine and Spirits for the downtown public restrooms
00:33:26 - Councilman Downer - the Franchise fee is basically doubling, we'll be bringing in more. We'll be talking about this more.
00:34:05 - Mayor: Is this a working document? A: Yes
00:34:30 - Mayor: I like that you've worked in the streets. We need to stay strict on that.
00:35:28 - Organizational chart (almost unreadable due to quality)
00:36:12 - We want to change parks and req to include community center and golf course under parks
00:37:20 - It would reduce reports, add structure
00:38:10 - Lee is ready to take on the roles (moving Community Center and golf course under parks)
00:38:50 - Councilman Downer - Will it ruffle some feathers? A: I don't feel there would be people who would be upset with the change, but we want to take the right amount of time to get the right people
00:39:39 - Councilman Enter - Departments (the golf course, for example) needs to be ruffled from time to time
00:41:46 - These changes might give us greater efficiencies
00:42:04 - Mayor: Flat charts like this are rare, it would help more
00:43:03 - We want to start this 3rd/4th quarter 2021 so we're ready for 2022
00:44:05 - Lee's in the Civic center for a reason (it was a big ticket item we wanted him to keep an eye on it), perhaps we need to put him in the golf course to keep an eye on it?
00:45:29 - Councilman Enter - We want to empower employees, if we're looking over his shoulder all the time...
00:46:08 - Mayor Lachemeier: It's a staff decision, I wanted your inputs on it
00:46:23 - Councilman Downer: It might be a big enough change
00:47:55 - Mayor Lachemeier: Do you need some kind of formal? City Admin: No
00:48:12 - Councilman Downer: Is there a budget impact here?
00:48:22 - We budgeted a full time for Sue, she's part time now
00:48:45 - Only a part time increase? At this time, yes.
00:49:27 - Mayor: I think we've been running lean for a lot of years. This is something we've needed for a few years
00:50:45 - Administrative Staff tonight have grouped together to give you their annual report this evening
00:52:05 - Mayor: We've gotten huge gains in efficiencies by adding HR, City Clerk, etc
00:53:18 - Councilman O'Rourke - Will this change fundings for the golf course? A: No, but the reorganization will help to increase our efficiencies and reduce our costs
00:55:15 - Councilman Anderson - Will there be a director of public safety? Combining Fire Department and Police Department? You can combine office staff.
00:55:45 - Mayor: Would there be an issue wrt union? A: Probably not. HR has suggested this as well.