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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Minutes - City Council - Meeting Date: 12/16/2014 City of Glendale 5850 West Glendale Avenue Glendale, AZ 85301 ri7I i 11 Meeting Minutes - Final Tuesday, December 16, 2014 1:30 PM Workshop Council Chambers - Room B3 City Council Workshop Mayor Jerry Weiers Vice Mayor Ian Hugh Councilmember Jamie Aldama Councilmember Samuel Chavira Councilmember Gary Sherwood Councilmember Lauren Tolmachoff Councilmember Bart Turner City Council Workshop Meeting Minutes -Final December 16,2014 CALL TO ORDER Rollcall Present 7- Mayor Jerry Weiers, Councilmember Jamie Aldama, Councilmember Samuel Chavira, Vice Mayor Ian Hugh, Councilmember Gary Sherwood, Councilmember Lauren Tolmachoff, and Councilmember Bart Turner ALSO PRESENT: Brenda Fischer, City Manager;Julie Frisoni, Assistant City Manager; Jennifer Campbell, Assistant City Manager;Michael Bailey, City Attorney;and Pamela Hanna, City Clerk WORKSHOP SESSION 1. 14-478 NORTH GLENDALE PARK-AND-RIDE/TRANSIT CENTER PROJECT UPDATE Staff Contact: Jack Friedline, Director, Public Works Ms. Colbath introduced Debbie Albert, Transportation Engineer, and said this item was to update Council on the north Glendale park and ride and transit center project and to get Council feedback on the proposed concepts. She provided background on the project. She said a park and ride supports the bus riders and said it is typically located along a park and ride corridor. She also said park and ride lots are also used by carpoolers. The park and ride lots also provided shaded parking and security at these locations. She explained there is a park and ride lot at 99th and Glendale Avenues as well as a temporary lot at 59th Avenue and the Loop 101. Ms. Colbath also discussed the functions of a transit center. She said the city's transit center is located at Arrowhead Towne Center. She said the location of this transit center is not ideal as it does not offer passengers amenities and also the busses block traffic when picking up passengers. Ms. Colbath said several transportation studies have shown the need for a regional transit center. She said a needs assessment was completed in 2012. She explained the current demand shows there are over 100 express passengers per day and over 350 passengers per day boarding busses at Arrowhead Towne Center, as well as vanpools and carpools looking for a formal location to use. She said projected demand is expected to grow by 30 percent for local bus service and by 15 percent for express ridership. She said funding has been identified for this project. The majority of the funding comes from federal funds, with some regional and city funds as well. Mayor Weiers asked what happened to the other 1 percent. Ms. Colbath said the numbers were rounded. Ms. Colbath said due to this project being primarily federally funded, the federal process needed to be followed. She said Council would be updated with the federal processes as this project moved forward. Ms.Albert provided a project update, which included several areas identified as locations for the park and ride and transit center. She said the site selection criteria was accessibility, environmental considerations, traffic flow patterns and the estimated City of Glendale Page 1 Printed on 2/3/2015 City Council Workshop Meeting Minutes -Final December 16,2014 construction and ongoing costs. She also said consideration was given whether there should be combined together or two separate sites. She explained the public outreach portion included several public meetings and onboard passenger surveys. She said the park and ride passengers preferred the Church of Joy site and the most preferred that the amenity was covered parking. Transit center passengers preferred the Arrowhead Towne Center site and their most preferred amenity was shaded waiting areas. She said their analysis showed the preferred park and ride site was the Loop 101, between Beardsley and Union Hills and the preferred site for the transit center was at Arrowhead Towne Center. She said they did try and work with the Church of Joy, but that did not work out. They also tried to work with Arrowhead Towne Center and they only wanted a transit center located there. Mayor Weiers asked if there were any routes going east on the Loop 101 to 1-17. Ms.Albert said there were two express busses that go to the park and ride site. One will go from the new site to the 99th and Glendale site and then head into Phoenix off of the Loop 101 to 1-10. The other route heads east on Loop 101 to 1-17 and then travels south and is a direct route and does not stop at any other park and rides along the way. Mayor Weiers felt that would be a more popular route. Ms.Albert said people had the option to go either way, depending on their needs. Councilmember Aldama asked who they spoke to specifically. Ms.Albert explained they spoke with the people actually using the service today. Councilmember Aldama asked if those people mainly lived in that area. Ms.Albert said generally they did. Councilmember Turner asked about the options along the south side of the mall and explained it would give riders greater access to the transportation options available along Bell Road and wanted to know if the mall had a preference of locations. Ms.Albert said the mall prefers the current location as it is a shorter distance and allows riders to use the amenities located at the mall, such as restrooms and the shaded areas. She said the direction they got from the passengers was they wanted to be as close to the mall as possible. Councilmember Chavira asked about the preferred site at the mall. Ms.Albert said the preferred mall location was site F. Ms. Albert discussed a map showing the preferred location of the park and ride site. She explained the advantages were easy access to the freeway, blends with surrounding land uses in the area, the parcel size is ideal and allows for growth and it is one of the public's preferred sites. She also said the landowner is willing to sell the property. She also said the environmental documents have been completed and they are awaiting federal approval. They are also working on appraisals for the property and a purchase agreement will be brought back before Council once an agreement is reached. Ms.Albert next provided a map showing the preferred location for the transit center. She said with the upgrades, the city would be entering into a formal license agreement with the owner of the mall. She said there is convenient access for passengers, the area in City of Glendale Page 2 Printed on 2/3/2015 City Council Workshop Meeting Minutes -Final December 16,2014 general is a major activity center, the owner of the mall is a willing participant, and this location is also a top choice of the passengers. She also said the environmental documents have been completed and they are awaiting federal approval. She explained they will not be purchasing land at this site, but they will be entering into a license agreement with the mall owners. The license agreement will come before Council for approval. Ms.Albert next provided graphics for the park and ride concept and these were provided to the public as part of the outreach. She said major amenities would be covered parking and the shaded waiting area and seating. Mayor Weiers said he did not see any solar panels and asked why those were not being used. Ms.Albert said they are looking at using solar as part of this project. She said more specific details will be provided in the final design phase of the project. She also provided graphics for the transit center at the mall. She said one of the major upgrades would be the bus pullouts to get out of traffic while loading and unloading passengers. Another upgrade will be a shaded waiting area for passengers. She also said they were looking at a ticket vending machine to purchase bus passes. Councilmember Aldama said park and ride locations were used primarily during the week and asked what happens to those locations on the weekends. Ms.Albert said there are vanpool users on the weekends and informal carpool users who use that facility. Councilmember Tolmachoff asked what would be necessary to prevent busses from blocking traffic at the proposed transit center location. Ms.Albert said they were proposing recessing the curb a bit to allow the busses to pull out of traffic to load and unload passengers. Councilmember Sherwood asked if the parking was going to be further north. Ms.Albert said they are still working out the details with the mall about whether all park and ride activities would occur at the new location only, so the mall area would no longer be a park and ride site. She also said this project will not impact any of the mall parking. Ms.Albert explained that staff is working closely with the mall so any designs will fit into the general design of the mall. She explained these designs were presented at the public meetings and they have received positive feedback so far. Ms.Albert spoke about the design and construction timeline and said the two facilities will be moving forward with different construction and completion dates. She said the transit center should be completed in fall of 2015. She said the park and ride proposed completion is at the end of 2016. She explained the timelines include time to comply with all the federal requirements due to the large amount of federal funding for this project. Councilmember Tolmachoff asked if they have heard any concerns from the mall with respect to accessibility to the mall during the construction. Ms.Albert said staff is working very closely with the mall on this issue in order to have the least amount of impact to the mall. City of Glendale Page 3 Printed on 2/3/2015 City Council Workshop Meeting Minutes -Final December 16,2014 Councilmember Tolmachoff said this was the busiest entrance to the mall and wanted to make sure this issue was addressed. Ms.Albert said the next steps for the project include receiving environmental clearance, coordinating funding agreements with the city of Phoenix and RPTA to gain access to all the federal funding, finalizing designs and securing agreements for purchase of the property and license agreements with the mall. Councilmember Chavira complimented staff for the detail staff has provided for this project and their hard work. 2. 14-496 FIVE-YEAR FINANCIAL FORECASTS Staff Contact: Tom Duensing, Director, Finance and Technology Mr. Duensing provided a quick background and said this forecast serves as a starting point for the FY15-16 budget process. He said the forecast identifies how any major decisions affect where the city is headed financially. He said the forecast details projected trends and they will be reviewing the general fund, 3 enterprise funds, and 4 special revenue funds. He explained these are high level overviews and the details will be discussed during the budget process. Mr. Duensing said the general fund accounts contain all sources of revenue not designated for a specific purpose. Police and Fire accounts are most of the expenditures of this fund. He said they forecast moderate growth in city revenues and this will continue throughout the five year period. He explained there will be a$3 million increase in expenditure for police and fire services and continuation of the other remaining city services, continued contractual obligations, personnel cost increases, modest cost of business increases, and maintenance of current and projected future debt service. He explained the contingency line item, which is an annual unappropriated amount that is maintained for unforeseen expenditures. He said they cannot utilize contingency funding without Council approval. He explained the contingency fund can also be utilized if unexpected revenue shortfalls are identified. Councilmember Aldama asked about the$5 million appropriation. He asked if it was annual and asked if it rolled over. Mr. Duensing said he will get into a deeper discussion regarding this and will answer CouncilmemberAldama's question shortly. Mr. Duensing spoke further about revenue forecast methodology. He said they have forecast modest sales tax growth. He next discussed annual reduction in the sales tax rate. He said when the.7%was initially adopted;it was due to sunset in August 2017. In the forecast, they have built in reductions in that rate, beginning in FY15-16. He said they have assumed an annual sales tax rate reduction of.025%per year. He next addressed HB2111, which he said is tax simplification legislation. He said they are assuming no impact from HB2111. Mayor Weiers asked a question about an example Mr. Duensing brought up during his explanation of HB2111 regarding remodeling costs paid by a contractor. Mr. Duensing explained how the new process should work. He said the impact of this is really not known at this time and they are watching this closely. Councilmember Turner said it looked like they were just changing the taxing location. City of Glendale Page 4 Printed on 2/3/2015 City Council Workshop Meeting Minutes -Final December 16,2014 Mr. Duensing said that was correct, except for new construction. Councilmember Turner asked further questions about the sales tax revenue. Mr. Duensing said some issues are still being worked out. Councilmember Turner said it does sound much simpler than the way they have done it in the past. He asked another question about tax remittance and asked if there would be a delay in transfer of the money from the state to the city and asked who would get the interest on those funds. Mr. Duensing said there is a delay and it was one of the city's concerns. He said the interest the city would be losing is not a tremendous amount, and he said that loss of interest is in lieu of the state charging the cities for administering this process. He said the state is aware of this issue and they understand that they need to minimize that float time. Ms. Fischer said staff could come back and do a presentation on HB2111 to discuss it in more detail. Mayor Weiers said they would all like to get more information once it has been in place for about 90 days. Councilmember Sherwood spoke about lag and the hit to the city. Mr. Duensing went on to say there will be moderate state shared revenue increases and continued economic recovery with steady, slow growth. He explained the model assumes the primary property tax levy increases at 2%allowable by state law, and maintenance of level inter-fund support. He also said they project normal enterprise fund revenue growth with no rate adjustments. Mr. Duensing next discussed expenditures. He explained they are staying with best practices and moving away from general fund sub-funds and they are absorbing those. He said transparency will be one of the biggest benefits of combining these funds. He said they will continue debt service support with assumed refunding savings amounts, arena and Camelback Ranch operating and capital costs, lease payments and inter-fund loan repayments. He discussed some changes that may be coming before Council during budget discussions about the inter-fund loans and the ability to change them. He also said the expenditures forecast assumes increased police and fire expenditures, 2.5 percent salary adjustments for non-represented employees and MOU costs, health insurance increases,ASRS/PSPRS increases and a contingency line item. He explained there will be further discussions about contributions regarding the PSPRS, during budget discussions. Mr. Duensing next explained the general fund forecast. He talked about revenues and expenditures and said the line items shown on the slide do reflect a reduction in the sales tax rate. He said they are forecasting a surplus beginning in FY18-19. He also provided a comparison of where the city stood a year ago and where it stands today. He said departments have cut about$14 million in budget balancing items over the past year. He said every single department stepped up to assist in fixing the structural issues. Councilmember Chavira was glad Mr. Duensing mentioned the City Manager and staff working so hard to fix these issues. He said the city will be in the black in the near City of Glendale Page 5 Printed on 2/3/2015 City Council Workshop Meeting Minutes -Final December 16,2014 future. Ms. Fischer asked if it was fair to say the city's structural deficit no longer exists. Mr. Duensing said it was fair to say the city does not have a structural deficit. Councilmember Aldama said kudos to staff for everything they have done and it is great the city is working on a new way to operate lean. Ms. Fischer said they appreciate the collective team effort by everyone in the city. She said they realize they are not done and are going to continue to improve operations to make this better. She said the freefall has stopped and the city has plateaued. The city will continue to look strategically at reaching its goals. Councilmember Turner asked a question about the materials they were given about reducing the structural deficit and the items identified. He asked if there was a document which reflected those identified items. Mr. Duensing said there is a document and would provide that to the newer Councilmembers. Ms. Fischer said it was part of the budget process last year and was publicly discussed. Councilmember Chavira thanked Mr. Duensing for answering their questions and getting information to them in a timely manner. He said the city's future is bright and the hard work will come once the city is in the black and they learn to maintain that status. Councilmember Tolmachoff asked about the increase for benefits over five years. She asked if there was a preliminary breakdown how they arrived at the 32 percent figure. Mr. Duensing said there will be higher increases in health insurance and the increase in public safety retirement costs. Councilmember Turner asked a question about intergovernmental revenues and asked if this was the money provided by the Tohono O'dham nation from the casino agreement. Mr. Duensing said that is exactly what that was. Mr. Duensing summarized the general fund by saying the city needed to hold the line on costs and watch revenues and the economy very closely. He said they also need to monitor the impacts of HB2111. Councilmember Sherwood said he was sure they were also looking at the state and what was going on with the state and the state's budget in terms of HURF and state shared revenue. Mr. Duensing said he would like to address state shared revenue since it was very important. Mr. Duensing said the forecast assumed that there will be no new services throughout the five-year period unless costs are offset by additional cuts or sustainable revenues. He said they are not abandoning alternative service delivery and asset sales. This will help to rebuild the Capital Improvement Project(CIP) fund and they will continue to streamline and improve operations. Staff will also continue to examine contractual obligations, per City of Glendale Page 6 Printed on 2/3/2015 City Council Workshop Meeting Minutes -Final December 16,2014 Council direction. Mr. Duensing next discussed the enterprises funds for water and sewer, sanitation and landfill. He explained these are primarily from user fees or charges and these funds operate much like a business. These operations are more capital intensive and there is no indication that rate adjustments will be necessary in FY15-16. He discussed the numbers for the water&sewer enterprise fund. He said these funds are healthy and are rated highly. He said in FY13-14, this fund saw a net increase of about$9 million. He said they do not anticipate bond financing any of the capital for any of these projects in the near future. He also explained the sanitation fund was healthy. He said they will be discussing cash financing some of the purchases from this fund to save on interest. Mr. Duensing said he did anticipate bond financing the capital in the landfill enterprise fund due to the move from the south to north quadrant of the landfill. He explained the costs for this project are in excess of$15 million. In summary, Mr. Duensing said they will continue to hold the line on costs and watch revenues and the economy closely. They will manage capital outlay to minimize debt service costs, adequate fund balance and to ensure responsible timing rate adjustments. They will also plan for future debt issuance in landfill fund. They are going to determine optimal financing for capital outlay primarily for sanitation vehicles. Mr. Duensing said the primary funds in the special revenue funds include HURF, transportation sales tax, and PSST Police and PSST Fire. He explained these funds are legally restricted. He said the transportation and HURF funds are also capital intensive. Mr. Duensing said, like the landfill fund, they may need to go to market with the HURF fund. He said in order to fund the significant pavement management plan, they may need to do some bond financing, but will try and minimize it as much as possible. Regarding the transportation fund, he said in the past they have seen significant capital outlay projects approved, which run over multiple years. Mr. Duensing said he tried to build a little bit into this forecast, but dialed down the FY15-16 numbers. He said in reality, those capital outlay numbers that Council may adopt, the numbers in the near term may be higher than those shown. He said they may need to bond finance some projects in FY16-17. He said when they go to market is dependent on how much they spend on these capital projects. He said the transportation fund is watched very closely by staff. He said for the public safety sales tax for police and fire, they appropriate all expenditures for police and fire in the general fund and then offset those supplemental service costs from transfers from the PSST funds. He anticipates about$100,000 spend down in PSST fire fund balance. Mr. Duensing said the special revenue fund summary shows holding the line on costs, watching revenues and the economy closely, managing capital outlay to minimize debt service costs and ensure responsible timing rate adjustments and planning for future debt issuance in HURF and transportation sales tax funds. Mr. Duensing provided an overall summary of the funds, which were discussed above. Mr. Duensing asked Councilmember Sherwood to restate the question he posed earlier. Councilmember Sherwood said the cities have continually been raided for HURF and state shared revenue and asked what is that going to do to the cities. Mr. Duensing said this is the issue they need to watch out for. He said the state is looking at cutting costs or revenue enhancement. He said there could be legislation that passes allowing the state to keep some of the revenue that should go back to the cities in order to assist with the state's budget issues. He said the cities are watching this City of Glendale Page 7 Printed on 2/3/2015 City Council Workshop Meeting Minutes -Final December 16,2014 closely. Mr. Duensing said this forecast kicks off the budget process and staff will bring back a balanced FY15-16 budget and will schedule a series of workshops to discuss this. He said the discussions will be different than they were a year ago and to continue along the path of stability. Councilmember Aldama said Mr. Duensing was going to touch on the$5 million appropriated into the enterprise funds, but he indicated Mr. Duensing could get back to him on that. Councilmember Turner asked about the water&sewer and sanitation enterprise funds inter-fund loan proceeds as a revenue. He asked if that was to replenish those funds. Mr. Duensing said that was exactly correct. He said instead of calling those inter-fund loans, they call them transfers back into the enterprise funds. Councilmember Tolmachoff asked about the capital timed according to getting the money at the best rate. She asked what the process was and how long it would be before the city's bond rating is reviewed again. Mr. Duensing said they are going through a refinancing right now and are seeking a credit rating for that transaction. He said when they go to market in the other funds, he anticipates going out and getting another credit rating. He said the rating agencies want to see a track record. He said they want to be sure the city is doing what it said it would do. They want to see a stable fund balance. He said it might take a few years for those to improve. He said if the city continues to balance its budget, he anticipates rating increases. CITY MANAGER'S REPORT City Manager Fischer had nothing to report. CITY ATTORNEY'S REPORT City Attorney Bailey had nothing to report. COUNCIL ITEMS OF SPECIAL INTEREST Councilmember Hugh wanted to discuss the best way to recognize and thank the Boards and Commissions Members. Councilmember Tolmachoff wanted to explore the possibility of extending Phoenix's scenic corridor through Glendale. Councilmember Turner asked if staff could prepare a report on the Freedom of Information Act and what happens as inquiries are made by the press or citizens and how those are handled. He was curious about any feedback loop from those requesting information and how felt they were treated in the process. He wanted to know about a rewards process for transparency. Mayor Weiers asked if Councilmember Turner wanted a survey in house. Councilmember Turner said he wanted something that was low cost. Mayor Weiers said he received information about a resolution passed by the American City of Glendale Page 8 Printed on 2/3/2015 City Council Workshop Meeting Minutes -Final December 16,2014 Legion regarding automatic enrollment of veterans. He also wanted some discussion about having Councilmembers hire their own staff members at will who would answer to that Councilmember. Councilmember Chavira said that is not unlike what other cities do. Ms. Fischer asked for clarification and if this was related to the at-will ordinance presented previously. Mayor Weiers said he was not talking about all staff across the board. He was talking about staff specifically for Councilmembers only. MOTION TO GO INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION The meeting moved into Executive Session at 3:02 p.m. Councilmember Sherwood made the motion to enter into Executive Session. The motion was seconded by Councilmember Chavira. The motion carried unanimously. Aye: 7- Mayor Weiers, Councilmember Aldama, Councilmember Chavira, Vice Mayor Hugh, Councilmember Sherwood, Councilmember Tolmachoff, and Councilmember Turner City of Glendale Page 9 Printed on 2/3/2015