Report of the Montpelier City Council's Citizen Budget Review ...

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The Council’s efforts to keep the budget in check will require better coordination of personnelmatters with the City Manager, or possibly, a revision of the Council and City Manager’sresponsibilities.Shifting of positions among the offices of the City Clerk, Finance Department and CityManager’s office in recent months illustrates how reorganization, even when done for the rightreasons and in a way that enabled the city to keep experienced staff on board, can in somecases result in an FTE increase, in this case an increase of 0.6 within City Hall in FY13.One change, involving the division of the City Clerk and Treasurer responsibilities, was donewith no net increase in employees. The City-Treasurer job was divided and it was determineda full-time Clerk would remain and the former Treasurer would retire and come back as a 0.6employee in the Finance Department. Two other clerk/treasurer employees switched over toFinance and one part-time position was eliminated last winter, keeping the total number ofFTEs involved in the transition about the same (the Clerk and Assistant Clerk remained in theClerk’s office).However, the FY13 budget created another new 0.6 job in the Finance Department. Accordingto the City Manager, he had an inkling that the former Assistant City Manager (who was alsoTax Collector) wanted to go to part-time and that she and her tax collecting duties could beshifted to the new slot in Finance. There was and is still a full-time position budgeted forAssistant City Manager, a position that is vacant at this time.Asked what would have happened to that new 0.6 position in Finance if the Assistant CityManager had not shifted to part-time and left her office, the City Manager said they would havefound some other responsibilities or projects for that slot.According to the City Manager, having a full-time Assistant City Manager who does not alsohave tax collecting duties would allow the new person to work on managing special projects,overseeing infrastructure maintenance, handling communications, working on communitydevelopment issues if those were shifted from the Planning Department, and other possibleduties.While creating and filling a new position like this may be a good thing, when making suchdecisions and when setting budgets, the Council and City Manager should always keep acritical eye on how such changes impact the total number of city employees.Description of Montpelier City Assessor OfficeMatrix describes the Assessor office as generally responsible for the assessment and tax levyfor all real estate and personal property owned within the City of Montpelier in accordance withState regulations. Additionally, staff is responsible for the maintenance of all property records,sales information and tax maps for the City of Montpelier.Page 24 of 88
Key Questions:• What is the FTE staff in the Assessor’s Office? (See Exhibit 1)• What is the budget for the Assessor’s Office? (See Exhibit 1)Information Technology Discussion by MunicipalityPresently, the Finance Department has two FTE staff dedicated to providing the majority ofinformation technology services and support to the City of Montpelier. The principal areas ofinformation technology not directly overseen by this unit include GIS services and webmasterservices as both these functions are currently performed by a part-time staff member in thePlanning Department. Matrix recommended incorporating the 0.5 FTE currently in thePlanning & Development Department into the Finance Department so all major informationtechnology services would be overseen and managed by the same individuals. The City didnot agree and has kept two FTE in Finance and 0.5 in Planning.Salaries and benefits for these 2.5 FTE are approximately $176,000 in FY13. The narrativesbelow describe how the comparison municipalities do not have a designated web employeeand have decided to contract their IT services.Brattleboro (John O’Connor, Finance Director) - There is no IT person on staff.Brattleboro contracts out all work including consulting, hardware and software. Last yearthe city paid $105,000 for all of that. The Listers may do some GIS work. A committeeof city employees is revamping the website, which each department can update.Hartford (Matt Osborn, planner) - Hartford contracts out all IT work. Each department ischarged for it as they use the services. Hartford does not do any GIS work. For the web,each administrative assistant in each department updates their own department’ssection of the city website.Middlebury (Katherine Ramsay, Assistant Town Manager) - Middlebury contracts outIT at about $10,000 per year. The Police Department has some officers who are techsavvyand they have minimized costs in the department.St. Albans (Peg Straight, Finance Director) - St. Albans contracts out all IT work. Lastyear they paid $5,000 in contract work. The prior year they had some higher expensesto purchase new computers.Cemetery Discussion by Municipality• Barre: Budgeted at $60,000 but the Cemetery Department is in flux. Recent charterchanges took the Cemetery Department out of the control of the cemeterycommissioners and created a Cemetery Department under the control of the Manager.• Bennington: $43,900. We have three cemeteries, most are full and we will maintainthem but not expand them. We have one large private cemetery with room to expand.• Brattleboro: $28,000.• Middlebury: No.Page 25 of 88
Page 2 and 3: Table of ContentsTRANSMITTAL LETTER
Page 4: 1. EXECUTIVE S UMMARYa. Charge from
Page 7 and 8: f. Summary of RecommendationsThe BR
Page 9 and 10: available through VLCT. This will s
Page 11 and 12: 2: View City and staff responses to
Page 13 and 14: Building Inspector, half the depart
Page 15 and 16: should undertake this analysis prio
Page 17 and 18: Equipment, Streets, and Wastewater
Page 19 and 20: 2. INTRODUCTIONa. History and Backg
Page 21 and 22: Administration and Finance Subcommi
Page 23: • Barre: City Clerk/Treasurer als
Page 27 and 28: Population 2010Total Admin/Fin Budg
Page 29 and 30: Budget Process Subcommittee ReportD
Page 31 and 32: CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS:The p
Page 33 and 34: Attachment 1Budget Process Subcommi
Page 35 and 36: Attachment 3NOTE: The following cha
Page 37 and 38: committee under a short deadline. T
Page 39 and 40: Total Long Term Debt per Capita:Lat
Page 41 and 42: Five City/Town Comparative Chart- D
Page 43 and 44: Department of Public Works over a p
Page 45 and 46: Health Benefits Subcommittee Report
Page 47 and 48: The following graph looks at change
Page 49 and 50: Matrix Subcommittee ReportJean Olso
Page 51 and 52: Planning Subcommittee ReportJane Ka
Page 53 and 54: Notes from Each Community:Much of t
Page 55 and 56: • Barre City: The Planning Depart
Page 57 and 58: Planning Departments by Town Exhibi
Page 59 and 60: and the City Manager should identif
Page 61 and 62: Public Safety Subcommittee ReportBo
Page 63 and 64: Recommendations:1. Time did not all
Page 65 and 66: nights, the shift coverage is only
Page 67 and 68: Significant Fall Hazards (SigHAZ):
Page 69 and 70: Further rationale for the above sug
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Page 73 and 74: 3. Roughly what is the percentage o
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Recommendations for DPW1. If Montpe
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[END PUBLIC WORKS SUBCOMMITTEE REPO
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According to the 2009 National Citi
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Table of Montpelier Recreation Depa
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during the school year. The Public
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Montpelier Barre Brattleboro Middle
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RECOMMENDATIONS• Other cities and
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Tax ComparisonsAppendix AMunicipal
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City/TownMedianMunicipalTax BillMun
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available for circuit breaker reduc
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2). PROPERTY TAX TARGET: Do you hav
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considering the adoption of a Capit
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, · 1deductible, combined with a H
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Appendix Budget - 41/1DATE:TO:FROM:
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Other Employee-related increasesHea
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City of Montpelier 2012-13 Goals an
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Date Subcommittee Montpelier Growth
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Data Subcommittee Nine (9) City Fin
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Data Subcommittee - Montpelier Five
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Montpelier 20.1 2/ Annual Report /
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Montpelier 2012 / Annual Report / 2
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DireCt Debt Service Ratios - Debt P
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• In order to make the assessment
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The Center Director conducts betwee
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The Department has initiated the co
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SECTIONRECOMMENDATIONENTITY /INDIVI
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SECTIONRECOMMENDATION8.1 (5) The Fi
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City of Montpelier - Department of
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City of MontpelierUSER: TPROVENCHER
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Asset Value & DepreciationAsset 10P
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REGULARLaboratory Preventative Payr
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City of MontpelierUSER: TPROVENCHER
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Work Order SummaryLabor Part Other
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Work Order SummaryWO#W/SMAINT24902
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Work Order SummaryWO#MHS24899 [COOL
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SCOPE OF WORK PERFORMEDDuring JUNE
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October 2012 Work, StreetsCulvert r
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RIDGE STREET RECONSTRUCTIONMONTPELI
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(0 C4.March 8, 2012I acknowledge th
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APPENDIX Rec 1FEBRUARY 2012 CITY CO
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those together.Mayor Hooper said th
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Council Member Timpone said they ha
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on, so they can perform their fiduc
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in terms of understanding the impli
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