by Mari Radtke
Approval of an amended agenda opened the Paullina Council special meeting on Monday February 12. One agenda item was removed to be considered at the regular council meeting on Tuesday February 20. The removed agenda item is to address city revenue. The state has drastically changed how cities and counties determine property tax levies for the coming fiscal year beginning July 1, 2024. The new budgeting method, designed to bring down property tax levies, eliminates several special levies, including those with local voter approval, and over 4 years will combine what was once several levies into a single levy with a maximun $8.10 per $1000 valuation (for cities, $3.50 for counties) in 4 years. The amended budget was approved.
City Clerk Michelle Wilson opened proposed budget discussions with an explanation of the city’s administrative costs. A record of spending since the 2019-20 budget was used in the discussion. Liability insurance for the council and mayor is up causing an increase to that small part of the city budget. It is the first increase since the 2021-22 fiscal year.
Salaries are up for the clerk/treasurer by $9000. The line item includes treasurer and custodian. Prior, council set the wage for a cleaning person at City Hall at $20 per hour. FICA/Medicare and unemployment costs do not reflect any increase. IPERS, group health insurance and workers comp are budgeted with increases. Most operating expenses for the administrative budget are stable. Increases are seen in dues and memberships, telephone, audit and filing fees (the current budget had nothing for these expenses budgeted). Carol Honkomp noticed the increase in the telephone budget with Wilson responding that it had been over budget “for a long time.” Other notable cost increases are from dues and memberships, equipment and vehicle rent or lease, data processing/computers and postage. Wilson explained the dues and membership costs are up due to the new association with A&B, the new IT support provider. That line item is a $6000 projected increase alone. Expected decreases can be found in property and liability insurance, nsf check expense and miscellaneous expense. Overall the administrative budget, not finalized, is up by an estimated $20,000 for the next fiscal year.
The city’s electric utility budget is seeing wage increases, including parttime wages. FICA/Medicare show some increase as it should. IPERS is up while group insurance for this budget is down. Workes Comp and unemployment remain the same. Dues, memberships and subscriptions line item is increased by $1250 in the coming year. Auditing fees and engineering fees are both increased from $0 for the current budget year. Property insurance is up slightly. Equipment and vehicle lease/rent are up slightly. Unspecified taxes are up by $15,000. The budget to purchase power is unchanged while the building, ground and operating materials gets a $35,000 increase. Other capital equipment is down from $1,000,000 to $600,000. The switchgear project is being on-going (without a public hearing ever being held) across fiscal years. Overall the electric budget is projected to spend $305,000 less in fiscal 2024 than in the current budget year. Discussion of going underground around the school and on Main Street was had. Superintendent Kelly Top reported that a discussion with South O’Brien Superintendent was held on Monday. The indication was the the district would pay for 2 transformers and help with moving the lines underground on 2 blocks of district property. Materials for this project are being ordered as needed and shipping lead times demand. It’s not known if this project exceeds public hearing requirements. Scheduling a public hearing for this project was not mentioned at this special meeting or at the most recent regular council meeting when the project was discussed. Engineering,legal and auditing fees had nothing budgeted in the current fiscal year. Wilson suggested something be included into the legal fees for the coming budget year. She included $12,000 for engineerng and $3000 for audit expense. The search is on for diesel generator. Top announced a better purchase program from Missouri River Energy Services for generators.
Transfers out and the telecom fund did not have a proposed budget on Monday evening. Capital projects will get a new look before a budget proposal is due to the county auditor. Only the Iowa State Bank capital project remains with any liability. That budget remains unchanged from the current year.
The fiscal year 2024-25 Streets budget focused heavily on the need for repairs and street cleaning. Intersections on Main Street from Grand Avenue to Bertha were decided to be estimated and used to firm the street budget. Top said he also targeted alley approaches for his budget. Mayor Marlin Sjaarda said the intersection at West Broadway and Rutledge was one intersection that got a lot of complaints. He suggested that if the bucket and brushes were purchased some of the alley approaches may have to wait. The intersections would be repaired. Council did a deep dive into the issues with street cleaning and the city’s street sweeper. Top in taking the position that the sweeper is beyond its useful life. He described how staff used a skid loader, broom, bucket and truck to clean gutters. After discussion Sjaarda set the skid loader and broom method to clean the streets as a priority to move forward. Two reasons for a need for clean streets were spoken: first impressions and keeping sand, gravel and leaf debris out of the storm sewers.
Top believes that the sewer is in good shape once the aeration project is complete. Wish-list items for him was a dump truck and a backhoe. Neither item is an urgent need.
When the discussion of the water utility came up the mayor asked that A&B be moved from dues and subscriptions to data processing, being more self explanatory. Steve Heeren noted that dues and subscriptions for the water fund more than doubled from the current year. Wilson replied that the increase was not all from A&B, that there were other increases from DNR and others. Painting the reservoirs on Highway 10 needs to be done. The demoliton of another reservoir on the highway was budgeted once before but didn’t get done. Discussion of a storm sewer pipe that is broken at a corner location at the east industrial park. The project doesn’t need much for material to get done. It is a time consuming task.
Wilson noted that wages for street work was being taken from the electric fund and didn’t understand why. She suggested that wages for snow removal or mowing be taken from the street fund or parks fund which council supported fully.
Capital projects is a budget item that is a mystery to Wilson with only Iowa State Bank as the only item that falls into that category.
Budget work will continue until it has to be submitted.