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Record of Proceedings

Grand Island City Council FY2025 Budget Study Session - August 6, 2024

City Council — Tuesday, August 6, 2024
BodyGrand Island, Nebraska
SessionCity Council
DateTuesday, August 6, 2024
StatusFILED
Video Record
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Transcript — Verbatim
0:22

Welcome to our meeting.

0:23

The date is August 6, 2024.

0:26

The time is 6 p.m.

0:28

This is an open meeting of the Grand Island City Council.

0:31

The City of Grand Island abides by the Open Meetings Act in conducting business.

0:36

A copy of the Open Meetings Act is displayed in the back of this room as required by state law.

0:42

Please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

0:53

And to the Republic for which it stands.

0:56

One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

1:09

Councilmember Mendoza.

1:11

Present.

1:11

Councilmember Kaczynski.

1:13

Present.

1:13

Councilmember Hazi.

1:15

Present.

1:15

Council Member Sheard.

1:17

Present.

1:17

Council Member Pollock.

1:18

Present.

1:19

Council Member Fitzkey.

1:20

Present.

1:21

Council President Stelk.

1:23

Present.

1:23

Council Member Nickerson.

1:25

Present.

1:25

Councilmember Lanfair will be absent.

1:28

Councilmember Conley.

1:29

Present.

1:29

And Mayor Still.

1:31

Present.

1:31

Also present are Jill Grenier, the city clerk.

1:33

Laura McAloon, the city administrator.

1:36

Patrick Brown, the assistant city administrator.

1:39

Gary Fisk, the city attorney, Keith Kurtz, the public works director, and Matthew Gleason, the finance director.

1:48

We'll start our agenda with 4A.

2:00

Good evening, Mr.

2:01

Kirks.

2:09

So I'll kind of kick off the presentation tonight based on or starting with the engineering and the admin portion of public works.

2:28

So for the fiscal year 2025, personnel services for the engineering and admin overall, as you can see.

2:50

And the admin portion of public works is actually down a little bit.

2:55

We're accounting that towards the the payroll taxes on that uh line item or that area were overestimated last year, so that made that budget look a little higher than what it should have been.

3:10

So our operating expenses, this portion of public works obviously doesn't have a huge operating budget.

3:16

Um very small purchases and whatnot.

3:20

As you could see, we're we're down just a little bit, basically, for basic items such as uh copiers and phones, so nothing too critical in that area.

3:31

Um our budget, as you can see, uh engineering is a little over a million.

3:37

Um approximately 275,000 of that is uh recovered.

3:42

Uh we account for all of our time.

3:44

Uh if we're working on a certain project with a certain project budget, uh, we'll uh bill that time out.

3:52

Uh there's some minor review uh plan review fees that we also collect that cover a little bit of money back towards uh this area, as well as some minor permitting fees that they don't make up a ton, but they are accounted uh in in these figures.

4:11

Uh majority of of the work is not billable just because the nature uh of the department were either investigating problems that citizens have or building new projects, investigating things uh kind of before we set a budget for a real actual project that you guys would approve.

4:32

Uh there's a there's a certain amount of time that's spent in this department looking at those issues to decide if we need to move forward with a bigger project that would show up in the budget in a future year.

4:44

Um and then as you can see, uh the next uh line item admin, uh a majority of that area is uh recovered through fees that are charged uh back to wastewater solid waste and streets.

5:01

One item that we put in here for next year.

5:04

Uh this was kind of uh we kind of all discussed it internally about where the best place to put this.

5:10

Uh we kind of put it just in the general public works area uh more as a placeholder uh than anything in a budget.

5:19

Um back it's probably been six months ago or so, we talked about the street and fleet facility that we currently have and some of the deficiencies that we have.

5:32

So we had kind of kicked around the idea of do we budget something in case either a property that is existing that we might be able to retrofit or or expand or remodel would come available, or if some land that we thought might be a good fit for this in the future might come available that we would be able to account for that budget.

5:56

Obviously, those purchases would be brought back to council prior to doing anything on that, but um sometimes those things not fall into our lap, but they they just make sense.

6:08

So uh we did account for that in this in this location again.

6:14

Um I don't know if if there's any questions or comments on that, but um that's what this is for.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Public Works███████████████████████████27%
Public Utilities██████████████████18%
Water And Wastewater Management█████████████████17%
Waste Management███████████11%
Public Finance████████8%
Engineering And Infrastructure███████7%
Transportation Safety███████7%
Procedural██2%
Legal Affairs█1%
Summary of Proceedings

Grand Island City Council FY2025 Budget Study Session - August 6, 2024

The Grand Island City Council met for a study session on August 6, 2024, at 6:00 p.m. to review the proposed Fiscal Year 2025 budgets for eight city divisions. Public Works Director Keith Kurtz, Transit Manager Arlie Wallman, Street Superintendent Shannon Callahan, Utility Director Ryan Schmidt, and Wastewater Manager Matt Walker presented their respective budgets and capital improvement plans. Council members asked detailed questions regarding land acquisitions, rate competitiveness, infrastructure lifecycles, lead service line replacement progress, and operational efficiencies. No formal votes were taken.

Public Works Engineering, Administration & MPO

  • Engineering & Admin Budget: Proposed budget is slightly down, attributed to corrected overestimation of payroll taxes in the prior year. The engineering budget is just over $1 million, with approximately $275,000 recovered through billable time.
  • Street/Fleet Facility Placeholder: A $1.5 million placeholder was included for a potential street and fleet facility. Councilmember Nickerson questioned the high per-acre cost ($50,000-$75,000/acre for ~20 acres). Kurtz explained the amount is a high estimate to allow flexibility and any purchase would be brought back to council.
  • MPO Budget: Total budget is $450,000, with the city share at $90,000. The increase is driven by a mandatory five-year update of the Long-Range Transportation Plan and Travel Demand Model.

Transit Division

  • Operations Update: A new urban-only operations contract was awarded to Brown Transit, transitioning maintenance, drug/alcohol testing, ADA compliance, and fare systems.
  • Fleet and Vehicles: The city ordered its first non-ADA vehicles, Ford Explorers, for their four-wheel drive and room for families. Councilmember Nickerson expressed support for the choice and praised the Crane transit system. Lead time delays were attributed to pandemic supply chain issues and Buy America requirements; vehicles are expected in October 2024.
  • Fare System Changes: Will-call scheduling was modified. Punch cards are being phased out for QR code cards and accounts, though cash remains accepted.
  • Proposed Budget: $3,156,172 total. Federal funding covers ~$1.9 million. The state PTAP program covers half of the city's match. The city's direct match is $558,000.

Street Division

  • Operations: No new FTEs requested. Personnel down slightly due to turnover. Operating budget up ~4%, driven by repair material cost increases.
  • Facilities: The division maintains 966 lane miles. The need for a larger facility reiterated.
  • Council Feedback: Councilmember Nickerson commended the work on detention cells and concrete crews. Callahan noted recent retirements but praised knowledge transfer.

Fleet Division

  • Operations: Maintains ~450 pieces of equipment. No new FTEs.
  • Budget & Rates: Cost share for new safety coordinator. Labor rate proposed at $121.50/hour. Councilmember Pollock noted the rate is very competitive ($180/hour reported in Colorado Springs). Fuel markup remains at $0.50/gallon.

Solid Waste Division

  • Landfill Capacity: Active cells have ~17 years left; finishing Cell 4 provides ~25 years. The city owns 300+ acres for future expansion. Councilmember Hossie questioned the reduced lifespan from the original projection and closure funds. Councilmember Nickerson asked about costly cell preparation (liners, monitoring).
  • Proposed Budget: Revenue up 25% (bond for Cell 4/Transfer Station). Personnel up 13%. Capital up 34%.
  • Permitting: Transfer Station improvements delayed by DEE permitting.
  • Rate Competitiveness: Proposed increases keep city fees competitive.

Wastewater Division

  • Operations: Revenue up 6.5% (rate study). Personnel down 4% (retirements). Operating down 2.5%.
  • Capital Projects (~$6M): Includes $300k for a collection staff facility (synergy with street/fleet search discussed). Over $1M for a fiber network (Councilmember Nickerson asked about dark fiber; Schmidt confirmed city-owned loop available). Master plan update, sanitary sewer district placeholder, UV system upgrades.
  • FOG Program: Dara Kuantono hired as Fats, Oils, and Grease (FOG) Program Manager. Council noted the positive early reception.

Electric Division

  • Operations: Personnel up 10% (union contract). No new FTEs. Power costs expected down 0.8%.
  • Capital: AMI meters and LED lights at 80% completion. Transmission upgrades. Final $2.8M solar farm payment.
  • System Improvements: New call center "Doppler" saved money. Councilmember Hossie asked about recent animal-caused outages; Schmidt confirmed and discussed faster triangulation via AMI.
  • Rate Comparison: Combined electric/water bill is 27% less than Kearney and 29% less than Hastings.

Water Division

  • Operations: Personnel up 10% (lead program). Operating up 17.9% (includes 20-year study).
  • Lead Service Line Replacement: Uncovered 444 of 3,000 services (ahead of schedule). 60% confirmed as lead. Replaced 33 lines. Mass replacement bid was extremely high; reanalyzing path forward. Byproduct is finding and fixing household grounding issues. Councilmembers praised discovery work.
  • Capital: 12-inch water main on Locust Street project. Well field upgrades.

Key Outcomes & Next Steps

  • No Formal Votes: The study session was for discussion and review only.
  • Guiding Discussion: Staff directed to explore combined property acquisitions, reanalyze lead replacement contracting, and continue technology improvements.
  • Future Agenda Items: MPO Long-Range Transportation Plan agreement and lead replacement path forward to be brought to future council meetings.

Meeting Transcript

Welcome to our meeting. The date is August 6, 2024. The time is 6 p.m. This is an open meeting of the Grand Island City Council. The City of Grand Island abides by the Open Meetings Act in conducting business. A copy of the Open Meetings Act is displayed in the back of this room as required by state law. Please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. And to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Councilmember Mendoza. Present. Councilmember Kaczynski. Present. Councilmember Hazi. Present. Council Member Sheard. Present. Council Member Pollock. Present. Council Member Fitzkey. Present. Council President Stelk. Present. Council Member Nickerson. Present. Councilmember Lanfair will be absent. Councilmember Conley. Present. And Mayor Still. Present. Also present are Jill Grenier, the city clerk. Laura McAloon, the city administrator. Patrick Brown, the assistant city administrator. Gary Fisk, the city attorney, Keith Kurtz, the public works director, and Matthew Gleason, the finance director. We'll start our agenda with 4A. Good evening, Mr. Kirks. So I'll kind of kick off the presentation tonight based on or starting with the engineering and the admin portion of public works. So for the fiscal year 2025, personnel services for the engineering and admin overall, as you can see. And the admin portion of public works is actually down a little bit. We're accounting that towards the the payroll taxes on that uh line item or that area were overestimated last year, so that made that budget look a little higher than what it should have been. So our operating expenses, this portion of public works obviously doesn't have a huge operating budget. Um very small purchases and whatnot. As you could see, we're we're down just a little bit, basically, for basic items such as uh copiers and phones, so nothing too critical in that area. Um our budget, as you can see, uh engineering is a little over a million. Um approximately 275,000 of that is uh recovered. Uh we account for all of our time. Uh if we're working on a certain project with a certain project budget, uh, we'll uh bill that time out. Uh there's some minor review uh plan review fees that we also collect that cover a little bit of money back towards uh this area, as well as some minor permitting fees that they don't make up a ton, but they are accounted uh in in these figures. Uh majority of of the work is not billable just because the nature uh of the department were either investigating problems that citizens have or building new projects, investigating things uh kind of before we set a budget for a real actual project that you guys would approve.

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