Title
PRELIMINARY REVIEW OF THE 2014-1018 FIVE YEAR PLAN AND DISCUSSION OF INTER-DEPARTMENTAL CHARGES.
Executive Summary: Staff requested a discussion with City Council to obtain general consensus on some key assumptions that will be made in the preparation of the Five Year Plan. As part of the discussion, staff would like to discuss the concept of expanding our inter-department chargebacks.
Body
Legislative History
The City updates the Five Year Plan on an annual basis. The Plan is used as a framework for the annual budget.
Purpose & Explanation
2014-2018 Five Year Plan
The following is a list of key assumptions to be included in the 2014-2018 Five Year Plan. The purpose of the discussion is for staff to obtain general consensus from City Council in order to prepare and present a recommendation at the Five Year Plan workshops.
General Fund
1. Income taxes will increase 2.0% annually from 2014-2018. Income tax revenue is up 7.0% through October 2013.
2. Estate tax of $0 due to the elimination of tax effective 1/1/2013.
3. Cost of living increase of 1.5% in 2014 for all employees. This is in-line with the recent union increases.
4. The City's share of health insurance will increase no greater than 10% in 2014.
Utility Funds
1. Wastewater - rate increases of 5% in 2014-2017.
2. Storm Water - the City's share of NEORSD storm water fees have been eliminated due to the recent court ruling. The estimate was between $110,000 - 120,000 per year. Should NEORSD successfully appeal the ruling, we will add the revenue stream back into our plan.
Inter-Department Charges
At a recent Council workshop, it was suggested City staff look into charging back staff time spent in other departments. The question was raised during a discussion about the Engineering Department providing engineering services to the Park's Department Hines Hill pathway project. Because the Engineering Department personnel costs are charged to the General Fund, there was some question as to why the Park's Fund was not reimbursing the General Fund for the time/cost.
Currently, we have internal charges for information services (IS), fleet maintenance and administrative charges for our utilities. It is common practice for IS and fleet maintenance costs to be charged back to the benefitting department. We also pay administrative charges out of the General Fund that benefit our utilities (Finance, Administration and Public Works). Because not all residents have City utilities, we charge a portion of the administrative costs back to the utilities.
Staff recommends we do not expand the inter-department charges as it would likely become very burdensome for employees to track how much time they spend working with other departments. However, we could consider charging back the Engineering Department time for major capital projects that are not funded by the General Fund. If there is a desire to do so, we would recommend limiting the chargeback to projects in which the Engineering Department staff would provide more than 80 hours of service. The need for the chargeback should be established upon approval of the project to allow time for the Engineering Department to properly schedule the work and the estimated cost should be a "not to exceed" amount. At the conclusion of the project, the cost of the services would be billed to the benefitting department.
Timing Considerations
The Five Year Plan is scheduled to be discussed at Special Workshops on Nov.7 and Nov. 19.
Fiscal Impact
NA
Recommendation
Suggested Action
No formal action is required at this time.
Submitted by,
Jeff Knoblauch, Finance Director