2012-2013 Budget - City of Saginaw MI

the city management team will continue to review all capital improvement requests and evaluate theurgency of those needs.The city must address capital needs associated with City Hall and other city buildings. In FY 2011, thecity engaged Plante and Moran - CRESA to complete an analysis of city facilities. At this time, thoserecommendations have not yet been completed. However, the building continues to be evaluated and weexpect to have plans for moving forward with improvements sometime in FY 2013. During the yearplans must be made to address the many issues facing the city with regard to facilities. We anticipate thataddressing those issues will be a challenging project, but it will be directed and accomplished by themanagement team with assistance from the Council. Further information will be available as the planprogresses. A committee has been formed to come up with an alternative plan to the proposal, which wasgiven to the electorate in November 2011. The building has far surpassed its useful life expectancy thusmaking renovation a paramount issue this fiscal year. The committee’s recommendations will beincluded in any budget adjustment or modification made during FY 2013.Public Safety MillageDuring fiscal year 2011, the citizens approved the retention of the Public Safety Millage as well as anadditional 1.5 mills. The retention of the millage and the additional funding is vital to the continuedviability of the city’s police and fire departments. The millage was originally passed in May of 2006 at arate of 6 mills, and revenue from the millage supports 31 police officers and 20 firefighters. Thepersonnel complement within the public safety fund has not changed since the millage was originallypassed. Additionally, it should be noted that no guarantees were made regarding the staffing levels inconjunction with the passing of the millage in 2011.For FY 2013, the Public Safety Millage will generate approximately $3,360,888 million in revenue, whilethe Public Safety Fund (205), which was established to account for personnel supported by the millage,will have budgeted expenditures of approximately $3,963,150. The General Fund currently has to bearthe burden of the gap between the millage revenue and the expenditures for the 51 public safety personnel($602,262). This gap will continue to grow if the city experiences the same decline in taxable value thatit has the past few years, along with continued rising employee costs. The current expenditure level in thePublic Safety Fund is a result of the seniority of the police officers and firefighters that are accounted forin the fund. This millage was never intended as a long term funding solution to the rising cost of publicsafety services, as reflected in this budget. The city now must retrench its financial liabilities related toproviding those services that will include reviewing the feasibility of measures up to and includingcontracts with Saginaw County or other governmental agencies as deemed appropriate and cost efficient.Over the past several years, the City of Saginaw has been able to decrease violent crime and reduce thenumber of fire related calls by improving service delivery. This trend is in jeopardy because general fundrevenues have significantly decreased, and public safety is the primary expenditure of the general fund.The city must continue to review public safety operations and implement additional changes in servicedelivery so that these trends can continue.City Strategic PlanThe city has continued the practice of strategic planning sessions where City Council Members andSenior Staff meet to discus issues that are pertinent to the continued success of the city. As part of thesecontinuing sessions, the following five goals and objectives were established, and in the 2013 budget,funding has been earmarked to meet these goals and objectives:6