Are we good?

All right, thank you all.

Glad to see the full house tonight for the budget and finance committee.

No, well, uh, thank you all for being here.

Uh Mr.

Clerk, we have all our attendees for the budget and finance committee, myself, uh CC, uh Councilperson Gerlock and Councilperson Moda is also in attendance.

Um we can, I guess we'll get started with a quick acknowledgement.

Um in the past month, we did receive news of some very great um kind of update as far as the city's bond rating that was shared to us from the finance department.

I'd like to thank Director Patel for that.

Um it's extremely telling about the state of the city's finances, the uh administration of the city's finances that obligations to date.

Um it it really paints a very positive picture from you know the public and and private world, just the way that they see Allen Town, the way that um our finance department has gone about uh administering these funds and providing that guidance and uh you know I I hope that we can continue being uh uh an arm to all the good things that we're we're doing to continue to bolster the city's position and just reiterating that for the residents.

This is an incredible thing.

Uh it gives us the opportunity to borrow at uh lower rates, it allows us to really invest back into our community and just Director Patel.

I would I want to like thank you just for that work and for your team.

I know it's a lot of work that goes into it, so the just congratulations and then thank you for that.

Thank you, Sampongo.

It is uh collaboration, it's a team work and uh uh can't do it without my team.

So and also my colleagues, uh directors who also support when we are um um you know managing our finances and and reviewing uh our budgets and they might have to give something back, and we we work together as uh as our colleagues uh you know department heads and of course the finance team has um a lot of uh um making journal entries and making sure our our we are uh being very transparent in the work we do and uh reviewing the budget and uh uh processing um uh the information, the transfers after you have approved and adopted the budget to continue monitoring and monitoring the budget that's approved and not going above and beyond that.

We work very hard to work uh within those limits that you have approved.

So that's a result of that you are saying that number of um for number of years.

Um thank you for the acknowledgement.

We appreciate that.

Absolutely, of course.

Um we do have as far as the agenda for today for budget and finance, just a review of our budget uh recommendations and then a review of that uh process.

I guess my my question is I know I know I have some of our reports here.

Did you have anything you wanted to share or anything that was uh based off what was provided?

Just a finance report.

It's all good if you don't, but so just basically we are in a good standing and after Q1, um not too much um variance from uh previous years, uh previous few years.

Um very comfortable with where we are at with revenues and expenditures.

Um you would see the cash balance is high around this time of the year because the property tax revenues have started coming in.

So that's what you're seeing about 58 million dollars in cash because that will sustain us for the rest of the year with our operating expenditures.

Um besides that I provided all of the highlights in the memo, uh, but nothing uh outside of that.

Um just one more comment on we have been um working on our implementation of Tyler Eden to Tyler Muniz uh since November of 2023, and we did module at a time.

So we began even within finance department, we begin with purchasing module, then we went to GL and purchasing simultaneously, then we we are working on budget and um payroll and HR uh at the moment, and we hope by September uh to go live fully with all of migration from Eden to Muniz.

And we hope by September to go live fully with all of migration from Eden to Muniz.

So there was a small update.

Generally, I provide that at a quarterly meeting.

So just wanted to give you that small update that teams still working very hard, and now we have HR involved as well, where granular details on personnel forms and all that.

So a lot of personnel time is spent on fully migrating to Munis.

Absolutely.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you, Director Patel.

All right.

So as far as kind of the next item here, we uh as part of the kind of the resolution put forth by uh councilperson Binder have been undergoing um the entire review of the budget process.

That process was completed last month.

Uh and you know, we're very interested in pretty much submitting those recommendations to council.

Sorry, guys, my notes not enough person.

Um so we do have the list of uh essentially findings that were provided and were reported on at our last uh budget and finance committee.

Um of those, there are just a couple that were would be really good to touch on.

There were uh a couple of proposed updates to the rules, so kind of you know, a couple of those would be um amendment deadlines and standards.

So just kind of making sure that we have our amendment process uh put together and that when we're issuing a budget amendments as part of the budget process that we are submitting them in a timely format.

I think there's a potential suggestion to do that, say for uh the second council meeting in November.

Um then there was also the kind of question procedure.

So give me one second, I'm just kind of going through that.

Let me pull down to that.

So there is a matter of how we communicate with the finance department.

So I guess Director Patel, the there was some conversation of if there is, you know, I think there's a standard of how we request questions during budget season, but if there's any opportunity to maybe collaborate uh on some sort of collaborative document where you know, as questions arise during the budget process, maybe we populate those somewhere where we can have you know the finance department and ourselves kind of going back and forth, and those questions could maybe be reported at at a public meeting, any answers to those questions so that way everyone gets an opportunity to answer as well as we get time to ask questions, and it's not like everyone's on the spot, and we're also not maybe getting the answers we would like because it's you know in the moment.

Um, so what I would like to propose is if anyone is interested in the committee to kind of go and sit down with Director Patel and see maybe what what that could look like if that's an online Excel document or if that's some sort of you know other vehicle or whatever makes sense, um, and then we'll take that and see what we can do and and go from there.

Does anybody have any thoughts on that specific item?

So we um currently work with other departments when we are working on a project that, for example, involves public works.

We'll create a uh Teams channel that um folks from public works and finance have access to, and we share whether it's a question or files or uh anything else that we saw an article that it is pertinent to the uh conversation we are having.

So that um, and then of course, whoever should be part of that conversation is included as a member of that uh team's channel, and then um so everyone's updated and at their own time.

So we are um most of us are here during the business hours, some of us also are busy and they work from home, or the time um or during off hours or during weekends, so that that access is there for them to review and respond, or just review and be updated on the information.

So if that works, we can work on creating a channel uh that has access to both council persons and the finance team, and we can communicate that way, or we can have an in-person meeting.

I know um some of you work and it becomes challenging to meet also.

This way you have access to the channel 24-7.

That's just a suggestion though.

We don't have to do it, but that's how we have been collaborating with other departments.

Okay, definitely.

I think it's it's a valid suggestion.

I I think the idea is it it's a resource for others who maybe have different workflows so that way people can be a part of the conversation.

Yeah, and go ahead.

So I just had one question.

Um, did we know?

And I I fully support us using Teams or some sort of other vehicle to collaborate on, but do we know?

Did we get an answer whether or not there's any um issue with respect to uh Sunshine Law and doing that exercise, even though it's you know it's something that can be void?

We haven't presented the issue as an LSR to Maria yet, because we wanted to flesh out what it would look like before we actually formally made the ask.

Okay, so that so it sounds like we could you know have to be.

I'd be definitely interested in collaborating to come up with that and then maybe producing an LSR request um an LSR um so that we can find out if it's actually okay.

So agreed, absolutely.

And that would be at the forefront.

Anything that was that was developed would be specifically to create more information to share publicly at our meeting.

So I think that's gonna be key for it.

So the sunshine law.

Isn't it three people or more at a given time?

Yeah.

I I know that you guys are gonna be looking into that, but um, but if it's in a form of um email or something to that, is then that's that's also considered to be um in violation if it's more than four.

That would be the legal question, I believe, is what we want, just want to make sure.

First of all, how can we facilitate that communication so that way you know it's not just emails going back and forth?

Because we all know how emails work.

Sometimes you miss one, sometimes you don't get you get one maybe two hours before the meeting.

If there's a place where it can live, so that way the finance department can maybe have a better opportunity to know where the questions are and they're gonna be able to do that.

Have that ever happened.

I mean before.

Yeah.

So I would I I would say what Jenny says said is you want to explore and put together a program and then figure that one out and then get the LSR.

Oh a program.

Yeah, and then it's hard to find out if it's legal or not.

Okay.

Yeah, got it.

Yeah, I mean, the idea is to be transparent.

So if there are questions going back and forth between the administration and council, we want to make sure that we're doing what we're supposed to do.

So posing the question to Maria, like how do we make sense?

Do that okay.

All right.

So that one specifically related to uh the kind of the process for asking questions.

Uh, and and again, we'll set up a meeting.

Anyone who's interested, even if we have to split it up to make sure it's not an issue, um, we can we can schedule something with with Director Patel.

Um there was another kind of standard operating procedure.

Um item, which essentially is about um specifically when amendments are proposed.

Do we um you know, any amendment if it's let's say adding um you know anything to the budget, do we have to then identify a revenue source, if it be it like taxes or if it's by a line item change?

I think that's something particularly, you know, I I think I would like to see just so that way you know we can make sure that when we're proposing things that we have a place to fund it from.

Uh, and again, I think it's just a matter of you know how we go about presenting it.

I think we're all if we're in agreement that'll be something that we would all pursue, and then we could just find the right you know, suggestion because I think ultimately the the finance department will know where you know the funds are best found.

Um, but I think it it it kind of puts the onus on us to say, hey, look, if we want to do something here, then we have to also then account for it somewhere else.

Um is one of those recommendations.

There's also um an item about um basically adding a more standard review of the five-year financial uh plan, which I think right now it seems like we're making a lot of decisions year to year, but realistically, if we know we have projects that have a longer time horizon, what implications do that have?

And I know we have our annual budget review, but do we create some sort of standard meeting, preferably before budget season starts?

Because then everybody's very honed in on the budget.

Uh, but you know, do we review the the five-year plan just you know, broad brush and maybe any basic questions with that so we can understand kind of what direction we're going to in that regard?

So I just want to be clear.

You are talking about five-year capital plan or five-year operating budget plan.

Uh I guess it could be a little bit of both.

I know I know it's yeah, I know it's potentially a challenge, one meeting to go through all of that, even if it's because I know, especially operating, you can you only know what you know for you know near term, you never know what things are gonna be like in four or five years from now.

Yeah, I know it's potentially a challenging one meeting to go through all of that, even if it's because I know, especially operating, you can you only know what you know for you know near term, you never know what things are gonna be like in four or five years from now.

Um, but I think the request was kind of you know, is there a way that we can find a time to just highlight that so that way um you know, if it's something that's a deliverable for the budget, is it really being looked at, or is it something that we need to kind of really hone in on at a meeting per se?

Um so I mean, yeah, do you have any particular thoughts about that?

Any concerns or I I believe the five-year operating plan is provided with the budget.

Um we can spend more time on the capital plan.

Um but we can sit down when the five-year plan is created and then go over that with council, have a meeting to discuss how we can we came about the five-year plan and explain what thought process went into it.

Um the capital plan and uh depends a lot on the other departments on on what's on their horizon for next few years or next five years.

And um currently we we provide a plan for capital.

Um we can work, I I think do a little bit better with captain five-year plan.

Uh so we can spend some more time and and provide that and and have whoever uh would like to meet with us, we can do that and set up a meeting.

Okay.

I mean, is there any better under council person?

So I think to uh council persongo's uh question on this one.

I understand like it's included in the budget.

I think what's more trying to understand over the next several years is there's a lot of projects that are coming up, capital projects that are gonna be going out, and obviously things have gotten more expensive year over year since some of those were were originally um uh at least uh entertained from this council.

It would be helpful to understand what that forecast is, especially in respect to or with respect to the you know here's our cost to operate, here's what our plan is and our goal with multiple projects, and this is how we're going to possibly meet that goal.

Um, because I think that's part of the questions that come up with a lot of um residents is how are we gonna are we gonna pay for all of that?

It's a valid question.

I I do understand.

So that's I think I'm in an agreement with what you are saying that we we can um couple with a five-year capital plan, is what you're actually talking about, and then have a meeting with you once we have come up with our our plan and go over that with you, give you opportunity to ask questions where and very valid questions.

What will be the in a projection, how long will it take to complete the project, the cost factor, what is the inflationary cost built into this project and et cetera.

I think that's the question you're asking.

Very valid question uh by you by taxpayers.

Um we have major capital projects that we are um planning um, you know, now and in the near future.

So um I completely agree that we uh we will create that plan, sit down with you, go over that with you and take your input as well.

And we did that when we introduced the parameters ordinance last year of August of 2025.

We listed the projects that departments were interested in working on, but the council still has every year opportunity to say yes to a project or no to a project, and have the department had um explain the project to you, the benefit of the uh, you know, have working on the project and all of that.

And and uh I do agree we'll work on that and have a meeting uh after it's created to go over that with you.

I guess just to kind of close out this item.

I believe kind of the way that we were thinking about it was this could be a meeting in the first or second quarter of the year, so that way it's not falling within budget season, which you know we know is starting through the summer or into the fall.

Um basically if we did a first quarter, it'd be right after, or if we did second quarter, it'd almost be right before the budget season starts.

Do you know if there's a time that you recommend?

We can um reach out to the department heads.

So this um a lot of this drivers will be the department heads who are uh thinking of capital projects, and um uh reach out to Genesis or Mike Henlin and see what works with your schedules and then and begin conversations on that before we get too far.

So uh within the next few weeks, maybe we can set up a meeting and uh and get started with thinking about what projects we would like to work on near future would be 2027.

But to be clear, this is a public meeting or is it public meeting?

I think go ahead.

And I I believe this should be internal meeting first before we have a public meeting.

Yeah, that being said, it would be reviewed at a public meeting.

Correct.

After the projects have been decided on, because council does have a say in which projects we we can work on.

You approve all of the capital projects and all budgets are approved by council.

So first having conversation, each um you know director should discuss that with council persons on what project and why they have decided to work on that project.

Once that conversation had uh we have had, then we can uh come up with a plan and then we can discuss it further in a public forum.

Thank you.

Any other thoughts on that?

Right.

Um there was another council budget priorities as part of the again, the the finance the conversations on budget.

It was discussed that department heads would like to know what are some of council's priorities, understanding that they have the things that they have to, you know, continue to provide, you know, for our city's operating um procedure.

But you know, if there are things that you know we would like to see incorporated to know that sooner, so that way it's not necessarily added during um the budget review, because at that point it's essentially too late.

Um the thought process here was that council would have a a special meeting uh where we would convene council as a whole and we could all get together and discuss those priorities and basically put it on a document.

So, like, you know, let's say if we wanted to fund a specific program or do a specific study, uh we could create that list and say, hey, we want CED to do this study, we want public works to do this specific project.

Um and it wouldn't necessarily say like, hey, we want them to have a quarter of a million, we want them to do that, we want them to have this much, it's just more so this is what we'd like to see, and we could provide that document, and that way, if it's provided, you know, before like during the month of June, before that starts, department heads can keep that in mind as they develop their budgets.

The administration could potentially consider that um and then it makes it so that way when October comes, it's we're all getting an opportunity to potentially see some of the investments we'd like to see done in the city.

Um so as far as what that looks like for council, the thought would be you know, either at the end of May or early June for us to have a special meeting, special committee of the whole, uh, and do that.

I guess any thoughts to just you know having that document where we could say here's what council wants to see.

I think it's a great it's a great idea because we can um we can do this ahead of time instead of waiting for the last minute, you know.

Um the more pre prepared we are um the better.

So yeah, give us enough time to uh ask questions and to come up with you know solutions, especially if we if we're plan planning, you know, because of uh heavy-to-dill project uh to uh increase you know taxes, you know.

So yeah.

Council President.

And then also within that meeting, if there's some sort of consensus that's reached, then it would make it clear to the departments that they ought to just include that within their budget instead of making it this political thing where we go ahead.

And I was just gonna say with that, I think that was the that was which I mean, I'm arguably excited about this because it's it's it's something that we all can have.

We have feedback from residents all over the place.

We could come together and say, hey, this is important to you, this is important to you, and then we collectively say, hey, I don't know if we vote on it, I don't know how we get to that point, but basically would come up and say this is this is what the council would really like to see the administration focus on, and and maybe this is the one, two, and three, and maybe one happens or whatever that looks like.

But I think it really gives us an opportunity to ahead of time give a clear directive of what we're looking for, so that to your point we're not having this weird political thing come November.

It's it's declared early.

So I'm I'm excited about it.

Yeah.

And just you know, to you know, touch on what council person and Jeremy were and Bender were saying, um, you know, we heard it from some department heads where like you know, they would they have certain funds that they can allocate to certain things that maybe they just don't know at the time, or maybe they you know already do something similar, and if by knowing what we want to do, they can kind of again reallocate that in a different way.

And and also please ahead of time, no meeting on a Saturday.

That was really it was really rough, and believe it or not, uh not a lot of people showed up.

So I think that uh weekdays, no problem.

But you know, weekends, I mean yeah, we have to meet be mindful.

Absolutely.

So we you know, if it's meanable and and you know, that we'll reach out between the clerk and reach out to the presidency, we can schedule the the session, a committee as a whole, uh, and just kind of review some of our priorities, and we'd issue something basically some sort of memorandum that basically says here it is.

And council person said a bender said uh we'll determine exactly how we go about that voting process or waiting, or if it's sponsorships, how many people sponsored certain I don't know, we'll figure it out.

Um but yeah, it'll give us an opportunity to kind of provide that input to the budget.

I'm excited.

I'm really am I think it gives us the opportunity to really have that communication.

Um I know we're running close on time.

There was one other thing.

Um that there again, there were several recommendations as far as one that I just wanted to touch on today.

Uh I know I'll be working towards putting together something.

I think it was very it was echoed throughout that the timeline for the budget approval is challenging.

Uh I you know, if if December, if it gets approved on December 31st for whatever reason, because that's the state law, um, it gives our finance department no time to put that together.

Uh so uh I know I would kind of want to be pushing towards getting something um instituted within our charter to set uh a budget deadline that's earlier than that.

I know the last referendum kind of altered some things at large.

I I don't know that I want to necessarily touch the entirety of that component, but I do think we need to have a very clear deadline budget and that we can work towards.

I know we can set our personal policies internally so we could say, you know, hey, when we want to approve the budget, but I think there's some value in and and making it so we have to approve it earlier.

So yeah, yeah, sorry, go ahead, council person.

Just one question.

Um, on with respect to if we if we'd go down that road timeline wise, since you have that experience on this one working backwards, if something wanted to be presented in November, when would that have to be um established from council to actually go through the whole legal process and all of those things?

Do you have a rough idea?

So we would have to work back back with the chart because if there's a different provisions when you give the mayor a budget, I think he only has five days rather than the usual days.

I I think one of the things that you talked about is like creating a narrative as to what that December 31st means and work back your narrative from that standpoint.

I was I was asking more specifically to the the the procedure to get something at on on the ballot.

All on the what's the time 13 Tuesdays before the 13 Tuesdays, okay, is when we would have to approve something, so we'd have to work a couple more before that then.

Is that fair to say?

So if you want something on November, it's like around August is a very good thing.

August.

Okay, sorry.

I just wanted to make sure I understand the rough timeline for doing that.

Okay.

Thank you.

When I was looking into it, so when they had it on the ballot for November 2019, council had passed it in June.

I think it was the June 7th meeting.

Wow.

So again, that would be purely just on the date of approval.

I don't know that we'd touch at least what I'm proposing wouldn't touch anything on default or anything on that case.

It would just be when we approve.

So uh we're open to have those conversations as council, but um, I just want to make sure we give our folks at the city some time to approve their budgets.

So um, yeah, and then there were some other recommendations that were reviewed at the that last council meeting, uh committee meeting that um, you know, I think we're gonna continue to work on and develop on.

I think there were comments on the budget narrative and the budget deliverable.

I think that's something we can continue to look at and see if it really is what we want it to look like.

Is it just a lot of stuff that is just fluff that we don't even read or that isn't useful, or do we need something different, something a little bit more detailed, but does it have to be 500?

Is it 200?

So we'll we'll we'll continue to have that conversation.

And there's some other things that by no means are they off the table, but I just think as far as some priorities, those were some of the key ones that I thought really came and and are actionable in the near future.

So all right.

Otherwise, uh I'll guess if anyone has any comments, any new business for the committee.

All right, if not, we'll adjourn this meeting.

Thank you.

Thank you.