All right, good evening, everyone.

We'll call the Tuesday, April 28th, 2026 meeting of the Finance Committee to order.

Um Alderman Matthews is traveling for work.

Alder Person Wigderson had a commitment this evening, but we do have a quorum.

And I'd like to welcome Alderperson Mike Anderson to the finance committee.

Mike, welcome aboard.

That'd be bigger.

Um next item on our agenda is Pledge of Allegiance.

Please stand.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

And to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God.

Indisible with liberty and justice for all.

All right.

Next item on our agenda is public comment.

I do not see any members of the public here this evening, short of our library director.

So we'll move on to item number four A, which is approval of minutes for the 10th of March.

Any changes to those minutes from the committee?

None noted.

All right.

Seeing none, the minutes are approved through unanimous consent.

That'll bring us to our business items tonight.

Um item number five A is review and possible action for use of library impact fees on hand to fund a $30,965 change order related to the library HVAC project.

Bruce, you wouldn't mind coming up and introducing yourself to the folks at home.

And the floor is yours.

I'm the library director here in Walkershaw, and happy to be in front of the finance committee tonight to talk about the HVAC upgrades uh project that we are hoping to finish.

Um we have a series of minor excuse me, uh minor uh change orders.

Uh what we found was several of the air damper controls in the boiler room needed to be replaced in order to meet the war actuator warranty.

The damper control for the library's kitchen hood needed to be added to meet the ventilation and pressure requirements.

There's a heater in the kitchen, which needs to be capped in order for the Cutler Park bathroom heating unit to operate as planned.

If you know the library kitchen right behind it to the north of it is the parks new Cutler Park bathroom.

And so we have heat going in there from the library, and the um parks heater has not been used, it hasn't not been working.

And we want to add ceiling temperature monitors in the Carnegie Room maker space and IT space on the second floor to allow excuse me, local temperature monitoring, and the estimated cost from Lee Construction, who was awarded the contract is uh 31 30,965 questions for Bruce?

Alder Person Lumpke.

What is the balance of the library impact fees fund and how close does it come remaining?

How much will be remaining after this?

Um there's quite a bit more, but I know Joe will give you an exact answer.

Give me a second.

Let me look.

Let me look at this quick.

I guess is there will be 150%.

I just happen to be doing uh just happen to be doing financial statements for year end audit.

And it would appear that we have um a hundred and forty-four dollars, 144,000 in the fund right now.

Is that before I'm sorry, Rick?

Is that would that be before or after this $30,000?

That would be before.

Okay.

Sorry, Rick.

Go ahead.

Uh that that answers my question to uh for for funding it, but uh, I think Joe uh I think I've mentioned many times that I would like to see the common council get an uh semi-annual update on the balances in the impact fees, if at all possible.

So we can do that.

Just put that in that that Alderman Lemke would like to see it.

But we can't do anything about it.

We do try to put out uh some sort of a quarterly report related to our strategic plan.

Maybe we can throw a page in there with some of that information on there.

Thank you.

Sure.

And just for the uh for the committee's uh edification, this item was brought before the Board of Public Works back on the 23rd of April, which I sit on, and the change order was approved.

And Joe is our new facilities director.

Joe Walter.

Joe Walter.

Welter Walter was there, and it's not nice to say that he's the new Katie, but sometimes that's the best frame of reference for us.

Is with Katie Jalassic's retirement.

Um Joe is now taking over the role that Katie Jalassick held for many years at the city, kind of helping us manage all of our facilities.

Joe walked through this, and I'm looking at the the change order that was approved at Board of Public Works, and it matches to the dollar, $30,965.

So any other questions for Bruce?

All right.

With that, I'll make a motion to approve the item as presented.

Is there a second?

I will second that.

Second by Alderman Lempke.

We have a motion and a second.

Any further discussion?

All right.

Seeing none, all those in favor sign aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed?

That item passes unanimously.

Bruce, don't go anywhere.

Item number five B is review and possible action to approve a budget amendment to increase capital expenses by $50,000 for a door replacement at the library.

Bruce.

Yeah.

Um, so I did add additional details there.

This revolving door was added in 2005.

Um some brief internet searching found that the average lifespan for revolving doors is 15 to 20 years.

So we do we did get our life out of it.

Um in November of last year.

One of the uh panels split off of the central pillar.

We initially thought this would be a simple fix, but then it turned out as we had three different companies coming to look at it, that um the the structure was basically rotted away to some degree, and the easiest and the the best warranty we would get, and the easiest way to do this would be to replace the entire thing.

So instead of reusing that central pillar, which is 20 years old, we'll get a new pillar and new doors completely uh whole new whole new um revolving door.

Questions for Bruce?

Alderman Anderson.

Just out of curiosity, what's the value or the reasoning to have a revolving door versus just regular doors?

Well, um that question predates me.

So it is it was a decision made in in the 2000 early 2000 renovation to add that entire front space.

Um so is as far as I know it was an architectural and design decision to make it look modern.

I I I don't have a great answer for you on that.

I can try to look back, but I don't know what it is.

I guess at this point, though, it would probably cost more to reframe and reorganize that entry and put regular doors in than it would be just to replace the revolving door, I guess.

Tony?

Yeah, if I can touch on that for a second, that's one of the things that I had considered too is should we uh change this to just a regular common door that opens and closes.

Um but with the cost and what it would entail to do that, it would be a larger capital project.

Um so I think this is a cost effective way to get us through the next uh 10 years.

But I would say at that point in time, we probably should have a greater discussion about continuing to have that type of door.

Hopefully, hopefully that'll be a conversation for somebody 20 years from now.

Ideally, yeah.

Mike, did you have Mike?

Do you have anything else?

Um Joe, could you we walk the committee through where this $50,000 is going to come from?

Sure.

Um you notice we did ask for it to just increase the budget.

Uh so as such, uh, we are asking for uh this to come from existing cash on hand in the capital projects fund.

Uh we do have some uh accumulated interest earnings from past capital projects uh that is sitting in the fund that uh is available uh for such a project.

So will this require a vote of the council as well?

Because we're in a sense with the because and correct me if I'm wrong, are we are we looking to amend the capital budget for this item?

Yes.

So that would be well.

This is actually this.

I mean, it's it's essentially gonna be a project with this capital item.

So it will it will go.

I mean, just like even the previous item, it will go to council.

So but it's not a so it's it'll go council to be a to be a firm, but it's not gonna require a three-quarters vote of the council because it's not a it's not a formal budget amendment to the to the capital budget.

It's a it's an in it's a change in the project, not the entire capital budget.

Well, this has not been a pro this has not been a project.

This is a standalone.

Okay.

So then that answers my question even better.

So this will be this will go this will go to council for a simple affirmation.

It's not an amendment to the to any approved budget that the council's approved.

It's say that one more time.

So I guess the question that I have is to when I see when I see budget amendment, yeah.

I I go to the point of does this require formal council approval and are we amending the 2026 capital budget for this item?

That's my first question, because that's what I think of when I see budget amendment.

Well the intent was that it had that it that we were gonna have to get an amendment to the budget.

That was that's why it was written in there like that.

This is not there's no existing project related to this.

The building project, the old building library building project was complete.

This is a related uh there's the HVAC project, that was a separate project.

That was approved as part of the capital budget.

That was, and that that was just a change order related to that.

Uh, and we're utilizing other funds for it.

Uh this particular case, uh, we're asking to basically utilize funds in the capital project fund, and uh technically we're not able to spend the money without the budget.

Correct.

But we're not would require a budget.

But it's not these aren't, I guess the uh I'll answer maybe answers to my own question here.

So, in a sense, the these aren't these aren't capital dollars that we're using for this.

This is cash on hand that has come from interest earnings off of borrowed funds.

Correct?

That's where the the 50,000 is coming from.

Yeah, yeah, that's correct.

Okay.

So we we like I said, I don't mean to make a mountain out of a molehill.

I'm just wanting to make sure that this is so this this project wasn't wasn't in the capital budget for 2026.

This is a project that's come up because the doors broke.

Correct.

So I think it's just a matter of of just approving this $50,000 with the the sources of the funds coming from interest earnings on borrowed funds.

I was just I was just tossed a little bit by seeing budget amendment and wanting to make sure that we don't need a you know more of a more formal council vote or a higher percentage of the council vote because we're looking to amend the capital budget, which as we talk about this more and more, it doesn't sound like we're looking to do that.

Well, my intent was that um in theory, if we do not have something in the budget, we have to be able to increase the expense budget to spend money.

Correct.

And so uh the only way to potentially do that would actually be to amend the budget.

So let's let's do this.

If there's no objection to the committee, let's let's we'll call for a vote and ideally approve this item tonight, and then maybe we could talk a little bit more about how we how that passes the council.

How we present this to council, Alderman Lemke?

If we can use impact fees to pay for HVAC changes, why can't we use impact fees for the door replacement?

So generally speaking, impact fees are used for expansion or upgrade, like larger upgrades.

This is a replacement.

Okay, thank you.

The HVAC project itself was a was a improv of large improvement to the building.

So I would just say isn't that thank you.

All right, any other questions?

Ideally, I have not confused this issue more than I needed to.

So um I'll I'll tell you what, I'll make a motion to approve the item as presented.

And is there a second?

Second by Alderman Anderson.

So we have a motion and a second, and I think what we'll do is we'll uh ideally approve it this evening at at committee, and then perhaps we can chat a little bit about how this is presented to council.

All those in favor sign aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed?

Item passes unanimously.

Bruce, thank you.

Thank you very much.

Brings us to item number five C, which is review and possible action on a recommendation to carry over 119,454 from 2025 to 2026 in the general fund.

Mr.

Shuro.

Thank you.

All right, so I have um this is a standard process that we always ask you.

Uh we ask you for review and for uh approval.

Um these are uh several uh common items that we um bring forward each year of unspent items either related to specific grant funding or very specific activities uh that we uh carry over.

And uh as you can see here in the listing on top, the top half of the screen, that is the what we're actually asking for for the general fund carryovers this year, and uh, just thought it would be good to kind of give you an idea of what we did last year, and that's on the bottom half.

Uh, the biggest differences that you can kind of see here relate to the first line, which is uh uh really related to like a the senior management recruitment um uh in past years, uh it has actually been uh those funds have been utilized and uh knock on wood, uh we haven't had a utilize them or utilize them over the last year.

And so uh we actually when we when we did the 26 operating budget, we did not budget any funds for this line item because we knew we had this carryover.

Usually we budget about 35 to 40,000 to utilize for recruitment services for senior management positions.

Um, but because we our carryover looked like it was pretty well unspent, we decided to remove that in the 26 budget process and utilize the carryover in total.

So um so that is the complete unspent uh balance for that particular line item, and uh it looks like it it pretty much doubled.

So if we have another year where we don't have to utilize that, we'll continue not to specifically budget for it in the 26 budget, and we'll probably ask for the carryover again next year.

So just to kind of give you an idea, that's the biggest piece.

Is this so this change about 42,000 dollars, 36 of it relates to 35 of it really relates to that line item?

The other item that's a little unusual that you don't have every year is this planning item uh for $13,000.

Uh they are, as you probably know, in the middle of a zoning code update, and uh that project is actually budgeted in two different spots.

Uh one, we had some ARPA funding that went towards it.

Those those funds are almost completely utilized.

There's a little bit left, and then the remainder was supposed to come out of the general fund, which they had kind of assumed in the last year's budget, and about $13,000 is still left related to that in the general fund.

Maybe so.

And Joe, wasn't it a Joe Tony?

Wasn't there a situation where the that project took a little bit longer to get done because there was a change in the consultant or not a change in the consultant, but maybe a change from the consultant on who was working on it?

Or do I have that do I have that wrong?

Yeah, I'm not familiar with that being the case.

I know that um Jose Levine is the consultant that we've been working with.

Um I don't know what the current status of the project is in terms of the amount that's been spent to date.

Um, but I believe that this amount does get us through implementation and working with them to complete the project.

I'm not aware that this is actually related to any additional change orders.

It's just what was kind of under contract when the year ended uh for 25.

So we're we're carrying over whatever was remaining in the ARPA fund that was already committed, and then what was remaining in the general fund that was already committed.

So those really with those two line item differences, that's really what's driving the difference from last year's 77,000 to this this year's 119,000.

And I guess my only other question is I was just surprised to see that we had over $7,000 in building and grounds carried over.

And that typically is not the case because all of us like asking for stop signs and no parking signs and such.

So that was that Alderman Lemkey.

I was the committee and said no, no, no, no, no.

Thus we have $7,000 to carry over.

So anymore.

That does ebb and flow, right?

I'm not gonna say anything about that, but yeah, but uh that does ebb and flow.

Um, I mean, I think there has been years where it's been close to the same amount as it is this year, but definitely you can see last year was only a couple of thousand dollars.

So yes, as it comes up, uh things are addressed.

All right, any further questions from the committee for Joe on this?

All right.

Um I'll entertain a motion to approve the carryovers for the general fund.

Alderman Lemke.

I make a motion to approve the carryovers uh as presented.

Very good.

Is there a second?

Second.

Second by Alderman Anderson.

We have a motion and a second.

Any further discussion?

All right, seeing none, all those in favor sign aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed?

Item passes unanimously.

Item number five D is a matter of report.

So this does not require any action, but it's a matter of report as it relates to capital carryovers from 2025 to 2026.

Mr.

Shuro.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Um every year when we get kind of done with our year-end process, um, we look at uh basically both sides of the carryovers.

One you just approved.

Um the uh the second piece is really the capital, which the reason why it's a matter of report, our policies allow us to carry things over there unfinished without any specific approval, but uh it is customary that we report to you what those carryovers are.

And so uh the last couple of years uh we've kind of looked at it this way, where let's like historically break down in categories what the carryovers relate to, but then also kind of look at well, how do we stand up against what we've done in the past?

And so um, as you can kind of see in the the left side of this, this is kind of like a table of of the major things that are uh still kind of ongoing that we need to wrap up for the year.

And so like the we'll just kind of look at like each department's major things.

Uh you can first see there in public works, we have about 3.7 million dollars that is sitting in uh their particular carryover categories.

And uh I can tell you for the most part, uh you can see a lot of it's related to flood mitigation and storm pond uh improvements.

Um there's uh I know that they have some uh projects that we've had in the past, like related to Area 7, uh flood mitigation improvements, and uh the the second category of that is there's I believe a couple several hundred thousand dollars related to storm pond upgrades.

Um some of that's kind of is being kind of shoehorned together with what they have planned in 26 as well.

So anything that didn't have a contract, they're making sure that both what was left over and what's happening in 26 is going to be accomplished with whatever they bid out.

So um in actuality, a lot of those projects have already had been had bids and are already moving forward.

So um the engineering has a good plan for those items.

Um and then the other thing I want to mention here is fleet in general.

You can see that each of these departments have uh uh several items related to fleet.

Um this last year was kind of like the first full year where we've been trying to get everything really centralized related, you know, related to fleet with the city garage.

And so we've we've made some really good first steps in doing so.

So basically not just the maintenance of all of those fleet items, but also the procurement and and then even the the sale of the old equipment.

All of that is running through the city garage at this point in time.

The the vast majority of the items you see here in fleet and equipment is it's on order already related to the you know, related to the carryover.

And so uh my discussions with John Weinkoff, the fleet manager, is that uh he anticipates a lot of this being received uh if not already received this year um by some point in summer.

So and I would imagine that uh a lot of the the equipment that's related that's that's on order is needed.

So uh that's uh he sounds like he's catching up with all the departments.

It's requiring a lot of coordination and discussion, but I would say that we're getting really close to being where we want to be.

So uh those that's kind of like for all of those fleet items, um, had a lot of discussion with with City Garage.

Um, and then just the other thing I want to point out here uh, you know, in the IT side, we have 1.9 million, one and a half million related to CAD RMS.

That project is ongoing.

They're really getting into the details now, and so we do anticipate that project really to move forward uh by the end of 26.

So I will I will uh if you ever need an update on that, uh we can maybe pull in uh Chris Popall of the IT director to maybe give us an update.

But uh I don't have one specific today, but I do know from what I have my discussions with him uh that that is definitely moving uh in the right direction now.

So um any questions on the governmental side?

I do have one more tab that I want to show you for the business type activities, but uh any questions on this particular slide.

I guess I should also mention the graph that's on the right.

Um you can see at least uh when when it comes to this carryover at 8.1 million is the lowest carryover that the city has had in seven years.

So um we're again are moving in the right direction when it comes to utilizing our project and staying on top of them.

Alderman Anderson.

And I think you touched on this a little bit earlier with the purchases already being made, but if I'm misunderstanding this, just let me know too.

Sure.

I mean, the the carryover is because what we plan to do in this year didn't occur or didn't get paid in the year that we're in.

How much risk is there for now carrying this money over and still wanting to do those projects, but now the price of those projects go up because we didn't do it when we thought we were gonna do it, and now we're not gonna have money, even though we carried over the money, the cost is higher than we anticipated.

So does that cause problems?

And it it's a great job, you know, lowering it com comparative to the other five years.

And I think that's what the goal should be going forward.

But how much risk is there, I guess is my I mean there's some.

I mean, obviously, if especially if something that's is not started or under contract.

Uh a lot of the things on here are under contract, so we kind of know what the costs are.

Umcasionally, if uh it's something related to the exact same category that kind of wrapped up, um, we will utilize those funds in the same category in the next year's projects just you know because they haven't been bid out yet, we want to make sure that those funds are available to cover any contracts.

So I would say for the most part, contracts exist or the orders existed because I think the people that are responsible for these understand, like, yeah, the the construction cost inflation is gonna hit us every year.

So we gotta we gotta make sure we at least have some cost certainty when it comes to these things.

Thank you.

That's a good question.

Thank you.

Alderman Lumpke.

And the reason we were so high in 21, 22 through 24 is because we got a lot of ARPA money and we're finally able to spend it because the supplies come back.

So it's a good question, but actually not.

Uh the the one funny thing with ARPA, uh, it's not really a capital projects fund.

We used a lot of that stuff towards capital, um, but we it wasn't in our capital projects and we kind of separated that on purpose because of uh well, there was a a lot of different um motivations for it, right?

So we uh we we definitely put some capital in that fund, but this the big reason for some of those big spikes, we had a lot of building projects, right?

So, like when we built City Hall, for instance, we budgeted for the whole thing, and then we just carry it over to the next, you know, it took a number of years to finish the project, and we just carry that over.

So, like when that spiked in for the 26 million dollars in 2021, that was probably the last big spike with PD building and the city hall building kind of getting complete getting wrapped up.

Other questions for Joe or Tony.

Um Joe, I know we talked earlier in the day, but I forgot to ask you the the 461 for fire.

Is that is that it do you know if do we know if that's an engine or if that's there, there's that I think the vast majority of there's two different things.

I think it's one is the I think the two main items are the hazmat truck, uh which is under is on order and being built, and the other item is uh related to an uh ambulance rechassis.

Okay, very good.

Yep.

I know the the hazmat truck is I think being outfitted.

Yeah, that's it at City Garage recently.

So great.

Okay.

Yep.

Any other questions on this item?

So there's no action on this.

So Joe, if yep, you want to go to your next tab?

And I just wanted to kind of give you a brief overview on enterprise funds.

Uh the biggest pieces, as you can see, are of this $13.3 million is really sitting in clean water plant.

Uh, everything that every every capital dollar that comes through clean water is usually a very large project.

Um that the biggest two items you can see there are the phase three facility improvements.

That project has been on in CIP for four or five years now.

And really the reason why we did that was we kind of went to um from borrowing for a very big majority of the large projects to trying to cash fund the project.

So really that project is moving.

Everything's under contract when it comes to those improvements.

It's just that we've been rolling that project from year to year so that we could cash fund it.

So we we couldn't budget like the whole 20 million dollars in one year because we knew we didn't have the cash flow for it.

But we did, if we broke that up in three years, we did have the cash flow to cover that.

So this is really just finally carrying over the last bit of of it so we can finish the project.

So uh so that I know they have phase four already on the horizon and also even looking at updating their facilities plan, but uh this is really just a wrap up the project that currently already exists.

Uh the other of the four million dollars related to pump stations, there's some improvements and consolidation that's still going on.

I believe that that affects about three or four pump stations.

So that's really what's driving um that 12 million dollars uh related to enterprise funds.

But it like I said, all of their projects are underground, they're major or they're at the facilities, and so you're gonna see a pretty large dollar.

I think when we pass the capital budget every year, that's pretty typical.

Any questions on enterprise funds from the committee?

And gentlemen, could just for the committee and our viewers at home, can you remind us as to why the committee votes on carryover for operating, but we don't require a vote for carryover on capital.

So on the capital side, if it's uh if it if it's going to the I think the rationale relates to the project's already been approved.

And so in this particular case, um, we're just trying to get them finished.

And um that I mean that's also the reason why we want to make sure we are under contract so that hey, that budget that we had that we passed from the past year will cover those costs, right?

So that was why uh uh with all the person Anderson bringing that up, uh making sure that those do get moving because we want to make sure we have that certainty.

Um but yeah, that that's the the rationale is that council's already approved the project, we just want to complete it.

And so that's why I believe we have more flexibility when it comes to capital versus the operating side.

Very good.

Could you go back to your other tab, Joe?

Sure.

I just I this is we are in a much better spot than where we have been in years past, and I give a lot of credit to uh to Joe and the staff.

And I give a lot of credit to uh to Joe and the staff.

I also give a lot of credit to the idea to to centralize lead operations under a fleet manager, and I know John is doing a really good job.

Um I just would like to you know get this down even lower, and but I know we've got a couple of outliers with the CAD RMS project at a million four.

Um the other thing I will will say is that there seems to be some progress in Park Grec and Forestry as it relates to getting their projects done.

And I know that they've received a lot of help from engineering in terms of project management, which has helped with that too.

So I think this is a very good spot.

So gentlemen, thank you.

And and uh please extend the uh thanks of the finance committee to your respective teams.

We'll do anything else on this, gentlemen?

I don't have anything for carryovers outside of what we discussed.

All right, any communications?

I don't have any tonight.

Any referrals?

Any objection to adjourning?

Seeing none, we are adjourned.

Thank you, folks.