Folsom City Council Regular Meeting – June 11, 2024 Budget Hearing and Key Decisions
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Folsom City Council Regular Meeting – June 11, 2024
The Folsom City Council met on June 11, 2024, at 6:30 PM in City Council Chambers. The meeting featured a proclamation for LGBTQ+ Pride Month, the City Manager’s Fiscal Year 2023-24 Third Quarter Financial Report, and a public hearing on the proposed Fiscal Year 2024-25 Operating and Capital Budgets. After extensive discussion and public comment, the council continued the budget adoption to its next meeting to allow further deliberation on amendments.
Consent Calendar
- Items 3 through 11 were approved unanimously by roll-call vote. These included routine approvals such as meeting minutes, agreements for community facilities district improvements, park slide replacement, pump maintenance, home repair program, concession assignment, landscaping district engineer reports, generator maintenance, and a grant application for the Johnny Cash Trail Art Experience.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Summer for Hope (youth group): Spoke about their fundraising initiative to donate $1,000 to the Folsom Zoo Sanctuary this year through sales of handmade jewelry. They previously donated $600 to Children’s Miracle Network. Councilmembers offered encouragement and suggestions for venues.
- Alma Redhead: Expressed support for the Juneteenth Festival at Black Miners Bar on June 22, 2024, highlighting the historical significance of the name change and requesting city funding and community attendance.
- Liz Gallagher: Shared a petition that helped change the name from Negro Bar to Black Miners Bar, and urged the community to attend the festival to create positive energy at the park.
- Sherry Richter & Nancy Perry: Provided a detailed presentation on the Folsom City Zoo Sanctuary’s educational programs, events, and community impact, including camps, tours, and Holiday Lights. They emphasized the zoo’s role as a sanctuary for rescued animals.
- Joanne Broush: Spoke in support of restoring Kids Play Park (Castle Park) but recommended the city reduce its allocation to $600,000–$800,000 and leverage community fundraising, for which she has already established a nonprofit and collected pledges.
- Brett Hofstead: Proposed that the city investigate a healthcare cost reduction model used by Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to save on employee health insurance costs.
- Nalima Patel: Urged the council to ensure that Beat 5 (south of Highway 50) receives consistent police officer coverage, arguing that all residents deserve equal basic police services and that property taxes from that area fund officers.
- Gary Quelsett: Offered budget process suggestions: start earlier, consider increasing the Transient Occupancy Tax, franchise solid waste services, and audit the state’s sales tax allocation formula for online purchases to potentially increase city revenue.
- Robert Goss: Expressed alarm at proposed cuts to park maintenance, warning that deferred maintenance will cost more in the long run. He urged the council to maintain current service levels at least until the November sales tax measure (Measure G) is decided.
- Bruce Klein: Praised staff and police, supported adding six police officers and a fire training chief, noted that park fields are already an embarrassment for tournaments, and argued that additional revenue (Measure G) is necessary to preserve quality of life.
Discussion Items
- Proclamation of June as LGBTQ+ Pride Month: Mayor Kozlowski read and presented the proclamation, which was unanimously accepted.
- City Manager’s Fiscal Year 2023-24 Third Quarter Financial Report: CFO Stacey Tamani presented revenues and expenditures. General fund revenues are projected at $114.5M, expenditures at $113.9M, with a $643K increase to fund balance. Unassigned fund balance is expected at 20.9% of expenditures. Sales tax remains flat, while property tax grows. The reserve has declined due to rising costs. Council discussed salary savings across departments and the risk management fund.
- Public Hearing on Fiscal Year 2024-25 Budget: City Manager Elaine Anderson responded to council questions. Topics included: fire apparatus replacement ($1.4M for a new engine), police beat coverage (Beat 5 covered 149 days in 2023; six new positions proposed – three funded by council, three via cost savings), homeless outreach team, parks maintenance reductions (from 80% grass/20% weeds to possibly 20% grass/80% weeds), Kids Play Park renovation ($1.1M proposed), Davis Park completion ($1.1M from impact fees), Benevento Park cost escalation ($1.65M additional, total $7.97M), Hazel McFarland Community Garden, and cost recovery policies for parks and recreation (targets 50–75% for moderate-cost programs). Council debated travel budget increase, public-private partnership for Castle Park, and deferring the Benevento Park funding decision.
- Council Requests for Future Agenda Items: Councilmember Chalamcherla requested a future discussion on cost recovery for city programs. Vice Mayor Aquino asked for a presentation on the economic development consultant’s recommendations.
Key Outcomes
- The budget (Resolution No. 11210) was not adopted on June 11. The council voted to continue the item to the next regular meeting on June 25, 2024, to allow further discussion and potential amendments.
- During discussion, a consensus emerged to amend the proposed budget by:
- Reducing Kids Play Park funding from $1.1M to $800,000 (maximum), with the expectation that community fundraising could cover the remainder.
- Allocating $300,000 from the unassigned fund balance to restore park maintenance to January 2024 service levels for the coming fiscal year.
- The council expressed commitment to funding six additional police officer positions, directing the city manager to implement cost-saving measures to cover the unfunded portion of those positions.
- Staff was directed to bring back information on potential cost savings of $15,000 to increase the council travel budget, though no formal action was taken.
- No changes were made to capital improvement projects (Davies Park, Benevento Park, etc.) pending further Parks and Recreation Commission review of cost escalations.
Meeting Transcript
Good evening, everybody. I'm gonna call to order the regular meeting of the Folsom City Council for June 11th, 2024. Madam Clerk, will you please call the role? Council members Rodriguez here, Roarba, Aquino, Chalum Chirla and Kozlovsky. Also here, and if everybody will please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance. My Pledge of Algonch. And to the Republic Richards, one nation. All right, we're gonna start the evening off with business from the floor. This is the opportunity for members of the public to address the city council on items that are not already on the agenda. Do we have any speakers? You do. Your first speaker this evening is going to be the group Summer for Hope. And that group will be followed by Alma Redhead. So come on down, girls. Summer of Oh, I like that. Right there. No. The podium. One day you will be here. I I I assure you. Yes. All right, you each get 20 seconds. That's awesome. Thank you so much for giving us this wonderful opportunity. Summer for Hope started off as a fun venture, but everything changed with one question. What is the purpose of the venture? That's when we stumbled upon the story of a girl named Ashley who had chronic health conditions and decided to help dedicate our initiative to a good cause. Last year we donated $600 to the Children's Miracle Network through our bracelet and kitchen sales and helped people like her and others through their very difficult situation. This year we are focused on the Folsom Zoo, where amazing animals need our help. Throughout the years, we have made incredible memories at our local zoo. It has come to our attention that recently the Folsom Zoo has been running out of funding and donations. So we immediately took action. We can't stand by and see these awesome animals lose their wonderful home. Our goal is to donate $1,000 to the Folsom Zoo this year. But we do not have a lot of funding for our material. So we donate, so we use a percentage of our sales to buy materials, as we already bought over $300 worth of materials. With each purchase, you directly contribute. You directly contribute to the well-being of the animals. Every dollar we make counts toward a better and more prosperous life for them. Let's ensure a brighter future for the Folsom Zoo and more. Join us in making a difference for a better community. One purchase at a time. Mother Teresa said, it's not how much we give, but how much love we put into giving. Thank you, and you and we hope you support our cause. Ladies, ladies, ladies. We don't normally uh ask questions of people in this part of the meeting, but uh what is what is it that you're making and you're selling? So we make um high quality handmade jewelry. So all of we create seed bead bracelets and um he she bracelets and also necklaces and inklets, etc. Okay, so for the millions of people that are watching this meeting at home, how can they get a hold of you to purchase one of these homemade or uh custom pieces of jewelry? So usually we go door to door and do sales directly to the customers' homes, and that way we can like give them whatever orders they want.
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