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CC - 06-09-09 - SpecialMinutes of the SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING June 9, 2009 The regular meeting of the Rosemead City Council was called to order by Mayor Clark at 4:30 p.m. in the Rosemead City Council Chamber located at 8838 East Valley Boulevard, Rosemead, California. PRESENT: Mayor Clark, Mayor Pro Tern Taylor, Council Member Armenta, Council Member Low, and Council Member Ly. OFFICIALS PRESENT: Acting City Manager Hawkesworth, Assistant City Manager Saeki, Director of Finance Brisco, Director of Parks and Recreation Montgomery-Scott, Economic Development Administrator Ramirez, Deputy Public Works Director Marcarello, and City Clerk Molleda. 1, PUBLIC COMMENT Juan Nunez - asked what the financial doing of the city was and how did it compare to last year. Also, asked if the lawsuit against the City and the County regarding the ballots was over. Council MemberArmenfa responded it was over May 22 and the court ruled that she had won the election. 2. MATTERS FROM CITY MANAGER & STAFF A. Workshop for the City of Rosemead's Fiscal Year 2009-10 Annual Budget Acting City Manager Hawkesworth went through a PowerPoint presentation; the goal of tonight is to get some direction from Council if there are any changes before we bring the budget back for final on June 23, 2009. Total general fund budget revenue for 2009-2010 is estimated at $16.8 million. We have experienced some revenue losses compared to the current year. As you know, the auto auction closed down and that was an instant loss of about $150,000 in franchise fees. Also, we have been seeing reduced payments from our utility providers that give us franchise fees due to lower rates and lower payments that they are receiving; so we are projecting $260,000 reduction there. Building and planning, that industry is certainly down and we are projecting about $487,000 reduction in permit fees that the City is going to receive next year. Various County reimbursement programs, the City is loosing about $203,000 next year; the VLF revenue that the City gets from the State, they are collecting less, so the city will be receiving less and based on current projections the loss will be of approximately $106,000 next year, which is about 35% of that revenue. Interest rates are down and sale tax, as you are aware, we had a lengthy 3 year process to regain money from Macy's and we won't be receiving that lump sum next year. Sales tax all across the community is down and all together it is about $1.1 million; what that means is $2.3 million in comparison to when we started this budget cycle. Mayor Clark had a question about the VLF revenue; stated the State had doubled their license fees and asked if the State was getting more and the city was not or was it because no one was buying cars. Rosemead City Council Special Meeting Minutes of June 9, 2009 Page 1 of 13 Mr. Hawkesworth responded that when the State approved the reinstitution of the license fees, they approved the new revenue that is generated to go to other programs and it's not part of the original VLF that is remitted to cities and counties. Mr. Hawkesworth continued and stated the good news was that staff had been able to identify some revenue increases to offset this loss. As part of Prop 1 A, the triple flip that the State instituted, the city gets a quarter of our sales tax back and property tax the following year and that will be a bump of $277,000. The city has been really conservative in our TOT and our TOT is actually doing all right and the hotel that was reopened on Glendon Way is also projecting TOT; we are projecting an increase of about $103,000. Also, animal licensing, staff is recommending that the city take back the collection of revenue from the County. The Glendon Hotel lease is going to be generating $96,000 next fiscal year. We have identified approximately $153,000 in stimulus funds that the city will be getting to help offset operating cost; this is separate from the Capital Improvement stimulus money that we are getting. This is mainly for public safety and CDBG operating programs. Our Public Works and Engineering staff has been working with the County and has identified about $368,000 in Prop A; this isn't transportation Prop A; this is recreation and community center money that the city has that you can get reimbursed for programs and it is something that we could have been reimbursed for several years but weren't. All together we were able to instantly recuperate $1.17 million of the $2.3 million that we projected to be down. Council Member Ly asked if the money generated by the hotel, the $96,000, went back to the general fund or did it go to redevelopment. Mr. Hawkesworth responded it was going back to the city not the agency Council Member Low stated that on the sales tax it showed a loss of $1.1 million but last year we got a big lump sum from Macy's and that chunck of money is probably accumulated from a couple years, so it's not a direct loss of $1.1 million. Mr. Hawkesworth responded no and stated that in total we are projecting sales tax to be relatively flat; it is not going to go down and it is not really going to go up. The $1.1 million is primarily made up of unusual things that happened this year. Mayor Clark clarified that there was an amount received by Macy's last year that the city will not be getting this year and although it looks like a decrease it is actually an increase. Mr. Hawkesworth responded that was correct and added that last year that was considered as one time revenue. Acting City Manager stated that if there were no more questions about revenues he would continue with expenditures. Staff has identified a total of approximately $1.68 million. Regarding staffing, as asked by Council, we have met with the association and they have agreed not to receive merit increases for 2009-2010. We have also eliminated 3 full time positions through attrition and we have eliminated several part-time positions. Rosemead City Council Special Meeting Minutes of June 9, 2009 Page 2 of 13 Mayor Clark stated she needed to ask a question regarding revenues; asked if staff had factored in if the State borrows the money through Prop 1 A. Mr. Hawkesworth responded that he had a couple slides that covered all the potential State take aways that at this point are unknown. Mr. Hawkesworth continued by stating that through the no merit increases and with the elimination of the staff positions the city was saving $632,000 next year. Council Member Armenta asked what positions and what departments they were looking at. Mr. Hawkesworth responded that one of the full time positions was in Public Affairs, one of them was in Planning, and one of them was in Public Safety. All the 3/ positions were in Parks and Recreation and actually two of those are happening as of July because those people have found other jobs and no longer qualify for our benefits and their other jobs benefits. And several of the other 3/ positions are already vacant this year. We are just proposing to continue those vacancies and not fill those positions. There are various part time positions, for example in the City Clerk's office, that are vacant and we are not going to fill but we have not laid anyone off for anything like that. Mr. Hawkesworth continued with his presentation; first departments he addressed were the City Manager's and Public Affairs. Total programs reductions is $36,000; staff is recommending that we reduce the Community Newsletter to bi-monthly; a reduction in the number of outreach community mailers and we have found that there is no need to do as many right now. Staff is recommending that we reduce the amount of calendar distribution; we will continue to provide the calendar in all facilities and continue to mail it to those who request it but we are proposing to eliminate the mass mailing of the calendar. Council Member Armenta asked if the calendars were available online. Mr. Hawkesworth responded that we can make the file available online but what staff had discussed was to make it available to the public to send an email and staff would mail them the calendar. He continued with his presentation and said that another cut was to reduce the outside art development; for example, we had some help with creating the 50th logo this year and that will no longer be needed. We are proposing some reduction on travel to meetings from staff and that is about $18,000; we've had a management retreat the last couple years and we are proposing to eliminate that. Mayor Clark asked if there was a conference that Council thought staff would benefit from could that be put on the agenda and approved. Mr. Hawkesworth responded that each unit had money in their accounts to attend trainings and conferences; we are just recommending that not as many staff attend as many. We are transferring the funding of the Chamber of Commerce contribution, which is currently $48,000 a year; we are transferring it from the general fund to the redevelopment agency. The total reduction from City Manager's and Public Affairs is $237,685. Rosemead City Council Special Meeting Minutes of June 9, 2009 Page 3 of 13 Mr. Hawkesworth also stated from the General City fund the staff picnic had been eliminated and that staff was recommending that there be a reduction in community contributions that the Council approves for example the RYA staff report is on the regular agenda today for a special request. Staff is recommending that the account be reduced from $100,000 to $25,000 and only allocate that for emergency case bases. He added that the last item from the General City would be the reduction in attorney's fee in the amount of $151,000; for a total amount of General City fund reductions would be $234,000. Internal Business, which includes City Clerk, Finance, and Human Resources because these jobs are very routine in nature there were not a lot of changes. Human Resources will focus on education and limiting liability in workers compensation claims. Regarding our Laser Fiche program will are going to continue to image all critical city documents and this is one of the departments, City Clerk's office, where we eliminated one vacant part time position. Steve Brisco our Finance Director has negotiated with our city auditing firm and they have agreed not to implement the cost increases that were guaranteed in their contract. In total we had a savings of $39,500 and because there is not election this year or one other time expenses this year the total is $214,000. Mr. Hawkesworth stated that Council would probably like to discuss Public Safety further because staff was recommending eliminating the STAR program for the next year. Mayor Clark asked why that was other than to save money. Mr. Hawkesworth responded that one was to save money and second after many discussions with the Sheriff's Department, the Lieutenant has assured us that one of his deputies is currently dedicated to the school. The Lieutenant has assured us that with that deputy and assistance from the special assignment officers they would maintain the same, if not, improve the educational programs that the STAR program provides. Council Member Ly stated he was very concerned about eliminating this program; it is a great program. Added that while having discussion with Mrs. Peterson from the Garvey School District, she was already talking about the reduction of their public safety team in the classrooms. Mr. Ly added that if this program was eliminated he would like to see, before that's done, what this program will be replaced with. Mayor Clark stated she agreed. Mr. Hawkesworth responded that what staff could do was to work with the Lieutenant and get a list of what he is proposing to do and also get a list of what the STAR program provides. Mayor Pro Tern Taylor stated that it had just been mentioned that the city has a deputy sheriff that assists the different schools and asked if he was full time. Mr. Hawkesworth responded yes. Mayor Pro Tern Taylor stated that there is also another full time sheriff in the high school so that there were two full time sheriffs in the school system. Rosemead City Council Special Meeting Minutes ofJune 9, 2009 Page 4 of 13 Mr. Hawkesworth responded that was correct and that we also get some education hours through the STAR program of another deputy that is not just assigned to Rosemead; she works for the STAR program and those are the hours that we will be looking to pick up and offset. Mayor Pro Tern Taylor stated that the $212,000 in 2007-2008 and we appropriated $110,000 when it was cut in half 2009 and now you are cutting it completely. Asked where the money of this deputy was that would be working with STAR. Mr. Hawkesworth responded that the deputies that will be used for this program would be covered under the current Sheriff's Department contract. Mayor Pro Tem Taylor stated they needed a better explanation on what the full time deputy is doing. Mr. Taylor reference page 32; it read that for traffic law enforcement for 2008-2009 $600,000 was budgeted estimated actual as of June 30 would be $171,000 and zero for this year So we appropriated $600,000, we spent $171,000, and now we are saying there is nothing in the request for this year. Mr. Hawkesworth replied that it was actually an accounting change of how we are accounting for things; for the last number of years the revenue that is received by the city for traffic fines has been put into a traffic safety fund and we have been directed by our auditors that unless there is a specific governmental accounting reason to have a separate special fund we need to be recording these revenues in the general fund. So this is basically, we've taken this traffic safety fund, we've spent the money for this year, and next year it will just be part of the general fund. The $600,000 will be spending this year; the $171,000 was just a projected amount that is calculated on a month to month basis. Mayor Pro Tern Taylor asked why page 32 stated we would have spent $171,000 this year. Mr. Hawkesworth responded that it was simply a mathematical formula in our system that states we are a certain amount of months through the year and you've spent this, it multiplies it to get to a 12 month year and it throws in an estimate amount. This is not an estimate that we put there, it is a formula based on our financial system. Mayor Pro Tem Taylor stated that he had marked a lot of items because they showed a zero column and he was trying to find out where that money went. Mr. Hawkesworth replied he assumed he was mostly talking about Public Works. Mayor Pro Tem Taylor responded Public Works and others but he did not want to get side tracked for everyone else. Council Member Low stated it seems we had a plan to spend $600,000 and asked what that plan was. Rosemead City Council Special Meeting Minutes of June 9, 2009 Page 5 of 13 Mr. Hawkesworth responded it was based on what we do every year we just charge a portion of our regular Sheriff's contract to the traffic safety fund. He continued with his presentation; aside for the STAR program staff is recommending to reduce the Emergency Preparedness account, staff had budgeted $39,000 for the acquisition of new radios and we've acquired those so we not need that additional money next year. We are proposing to transfer the responsibility of the Sheriff's contract to the Manager's office, as our Public Safety Director will be stepping down at the end of June. And rather than filling his position we will have the Lieutenant report directly to the City Manager's office. The next item is the animal control; the city was notified by the County of Los Angeles that they would be increasing their animal control cost to all their contract cities. Public Safety Director Don Anderson stated that the proposed increase from 2007 was approximately $150,000, going up for this year to $180,000 and next fiscal year going to $213,000. Mayor Pro Tem Taylor stated that a few years ago they questioned the aspect with checking with Temple City because they have their own animal control force and I don't recall if we ever got a report on what their cost was. Mr. Taylor suggested that staff contact Temple City and find out what their cost was. Mr. Hawkesworth responded that staff had contacted many agencies that provide animal control and what we are proposing to do is utilize existing full time staff to do animal control on their own but all the housing and medical, we are proposing to contract L.A. County just for those services. Mr. Anderson responded that San Gabriel Humane declined to do the services for the city because they are going through some tough economic times and they were looking to improve their service but not looking to increase service. Mayor Pro Tem Taylor stated that Mr. Hawkesworth had made some interesting comments about still using the County's services, some of them. Mr. Hawkesworth responded yes, the housing and boarding services and explained that staff had made calculations and had come to the conclusion that the city could do the same services for approximately $50,000 less than they can. Council MemberArmenta asked if the City Manager would be doing all the duties the Public Safety Director did since the Sheriff's contract would be transferred to the City Manager's office and the Public Safety Director position was going to be eliminated. Mr. Hawkesworth responded that staff was working through that process and that those services would be allocated to different people. He added that code enforcement, Mandy, and the administrative assistance would still be working out of the Public Safety Center. Council Member Armenta asked if any of the programs were going to be eliminated. Mr. Hawkesworth responded no. He added that the last note on this section of his presentation was that the Sheriff's contract was going to increase by 3%. Rosemead City Council Special Meeting Minutes of June 9, 2009 Page 6 of 13 Mr. Hawkesworth continued with his presentation and stated that next would be Parks and Recreation. Staff was recommending continuing with all special events but at a slightly reduced scale and the biggest thing would be to consolidate all of the senior programs special events to one center. Mayor Clark stated that would be fewer programs and asked how they would put more people in one center. Mr. Hawkesworth responded that currently some programs were held in one center and other programs at another center and that staff was confident that all programs could be held at one center since they are already being held there anyway. Director of Parks and Recreations Montgomery-Scott explained that currently the biggest special event for seniors was the "Sweetheart Jamboree" and that all the attendees were easily accommodated in the RCRC and the same was true with the biggest annual event at the Garvey Center, the senior volunteer and the Chinese New Year, both of those only occur at the one site, which is more than adequate to accommodate all that attend. Mayor Clark asked what he was proposing to do differently. Mr. Montgomery-Scott responded that currently they do two Christmas programs and several other special events and rather than do that, staff was recommending consolidating all of those programs; so there will only be one Christmas event handled at one center rather than have two separate ones. Mayor Clark asked if he had gotten any type of feedback from people who attend those programs in terms that they have to travel if they live closer to RCRC and vise versa. Mr. Montgomery-Scott responded that no feedback had been gathered because the change hadn't been made yet but that currently there are already a series of events that occur at one facility or the other and members of both of those centers are attending the events. Mayor Clark stated she understood but was not comfortable with that. Mr. Hawkesworth added that through the process staff could certainly do marketing and information outreach. Mayor Clark stated she wanted more information on this. Council Member Low asked if it was also possible to find out the percentage of people who attend, who are Rosemead residents and who are not. Mr. Montgomery-Scott stated he actually had those figures; the average daily attendance at each of the facilities is approximately run at 80. The Garvey Center for special events can accommodate 200 people and RCRC can handle 300. He explained that from the figures given 50% of attendees were Rosemead residents. Rosemead City Council Special Meeting Minutes ojJune 9, 2009 Page 7 of 13 Mayor Clark stated that what she was saying was if someone lived in the Northern side of Rosemead and had been attending that center for the Christmas parry and now they have to go to the Garvey center how many people are going to attend and asked if that was going to discourage them from coming and if the savings was worth that inconvenience for the seniors. Mr. Hawkesworth responded that staff would look into that and that he understood that the Valentine event was held at one site only and did not lose any attendees. He explained that this was brought up based on the fact that during the special events people were willing to make that shift and staff hadn't heard any negative complaints. Council Member Ly stated that he understood that one of the reasons there was discussion about consolidating the program was to free up more space at the centers for other programs the city might want to consider, he asked that staff include more information on the next report regarding the type of programs that would be considered to fill up the free space at the centers. Mr. Hawkesworth continued with his presentation and added that staff was also proposing to bring back a day camp at one of the sites, which would be an all day program rather than just an afternoon thing which is what the city has traditionally done. Also, staff is proposing for next year to change the city's traditionally afterschool program with more focus on an evening sports program. Council Member Armenta stated she was very apprehensive about changing the city's traditional afterschool programs because she knew how vital these programs were for children especially when they don't have the transportation to go to a certain center. Mr. Montgomery-Scott explained that staff had looked at the total number of students that are currently served by the two school districts within Rosemead and that number is approximately 7,700 students. The Woodcraft Rangers services the Garvey School District, those schools in and outside Rosemead, and ASES services the Rosemead School District. Currently through both of those programs they basically have a monopoly on afterschool programs. They provide a series of clubs, which provide various activities at each of those school sites, they provide homework assistance daily and they provide a snack. The program is a sign in - sign out program, which means it is guaranteed supervision of students from when school lets out till 6:00 p.m., those are things that the city can't really compete against and staff has asked both organizations to provide a sense of the level of services they provide to each of the districts. ASES services 16% of the total student body and that would exclude kindergarten and Woodcraft Rangers, again if you eliminate kindergarten level, they service more that 26% of the total student body. The city is currently, at peek season, only procuring about 8% of the student body through three city programs. Staff is finding out that the city is just not able to compete with these programs because it does not provide the same program elements. The rationale is, in addition to be able to serve the students the city is currently serving, the city will have access to reach the nearly 5,000 students who are served by those two programs by shifting the city's program to the afternoon and the city can actually do that with fewer resources. Rosemead City Council Special Meeting Minutes ofJune 9, 2009 Page 8 of 13 Mayor Pro Tem Taylor stated he agreed with the rationale but he was concerned about taking the children from the day time classes because Woodcraft Rangers and ASES provided services to the latchkey kids. He added he was concerned about creating a night program because then there would be a concern of how the children would get there and second he was concerned whether the parents would support a night program when they really needed a program during the day when they are working. Council Member Ly asked what the reasoning was for this and if there had been a demand from the residents to have night time sports programs. Mr. Montgomery-Scott responded the Woodcraft Rangers and ASES had just recently taken over the afterschool programs at the school districts and as a result of that they are filling the vast void that existed and that is why the city is only drawing in 8% of the students. At this point the city can continue with the day program but ultimately it is a duplicate services but Woodcraft Rangers and ASES are doing a better job at it , one because it is being funded by the State and second because they are providing services that the city is not, such as, snacks and homework assistance. Mr. Montgomery-Scott reiterated that the vast majority of students are being serviced by these two programs and what the city is seeing is a greater interest in sports. By shifting the program to the afternoon the city not only has access to the 8% that are already participating but also to the nearly 2,000 students that are participating in the other programs. He added that staff did not want to implement this without knowing how the community would respond and stated the city for the last several seasons had used Tiny Tots to determine whether there would be an interest in evening sport activities. Mayor Pro Tem Taylor asked what the Tiny Tots children had to do with the evening sport activities and the little kids that needed supervision in the day time. Mr. Montgomery-Scott responded that as he had explained, the city was seeing less grade school children because of Woodcraft Rangers and ASES. Mayor Pro Tern Taylor stated he understood but he was concerned about the grade school children and getting them out of the house again. Mayor Clark asked what age was Tiny Tots. Mr. Montgomery-Scott responded pre-school age, which were 4 - 5 year old kids and at this point the programs capacity was 60. Council Member Armenta stated there were a lot of factors to take into account because a lot of parents decided to stay home when their children are smaller and when they enter grade school the parents go back to work and added that if staff was only doing a survey of tots it would be a different result from grade school children. Also, added it that there is a waiting list for Woodcraft Rangers and asked what is going to happen to the students that can not get into Woodcraft Rangers or ASES. Council Member Ly asked if there had been discussion about providing transportation to the students. Also asked if there was a way for the city to provide monetary assistance to Woodcraft Rangers to help them provide services to the students on the waiting list. Rosemead City Council Special Meeting Minutes of June 9, 2009 Page 9 of 13 Mr. Montgomery-Scott responded that at this point there had been no transportation discussions because at this point he didn't know what kind of demand would exist. In response to the monetary assistance the cost for running the program is significantly higher than it is for the city. Council Member Ly asked if staff knew if the students on the waiting lists for Woodcraft Rangers and ASES were coming over to the city's program. Mr. Montgomery-Scott responded that some do and some do not. Council Member Armenta asked what would happen if the funds for the Woodcraft Rangers program ran out, since it is funded by grants and the economy was really bad, she asked if the city would then go back to the traditional day program. Mr. Montgomery-Scott responded that there was no question that the city could be very flexible and added that the only reason staff was proposing a change was because it was drawing fewer than 1 in 10 students in the districts. Council Member Ly asked what was the proposed maximum capacity for the evening program. Mr. Montgomery-Scott responded that currently he was looking at utilizing 15 staff members of which each could assist two sports teams and that at the very minimum the city could accommodate between 400 and 500 kids immediately. Mayor Pro Tern Taylor stated that there needed to be more information to back up this change because first there had been a reference of 60 tots and now it was mentioned that there could be a potential of 600. Mayor Clark asked that in relation to the budget was this cost savings or an addition Mr. Montgomery-Scott responded that this would be a cost savings from the current afterschool program of 25% of what the city is currently spending, which is about $50,000. Mayor Pro Tem Taylor asked how it could be a cost savings if the program is going from 60 kids to approximately 600. Mr. Montgomery-Scott responded that currently two staff members are assigned to each school site and the proposed change is to use three city facilities and assign five staff members in each facility thereby reducing staff cost. Mayor Clark stated that there needed to be more information on this subject. Mr. Hawkesworth responded that more information would be brought to the June 23 meeting and that staff would implement whatever programs they wanted it to. Council Member Low asked Mr. Montgomery-Scott if he could check with the two districts to see if they would be having funding for these two programs for the coming years. Also asked to bring back information on how the city's evening sports program would compete with the current sports organizations, such as, RYA and AYSO. Rosemead City Council Special Meeting Minutes of June 9, 2009 Page 10 of 13 Mr. Montgomery-Scott responded in regards to the first question by explaining that the currently the Woodcraft Rangers are up for refunding for the next year and he had been informed by the Garvey School district that they would be moving forward on that direction. Mayor Clark asked who funded this program. Mr. Montgomery-Scott responded it was the State. He responded to Mrs. Low's second question and stated that the current sports programs are provided at a significant cost and the city's program is provided at no charge unless the child wants to purchase a uniform for $10. Mr. Hawkesworth continued with his presentation and stated staff was recommending reduced funds on staffing by consolidated site evening supervision, which is something Council had approved nine months ago. Staff brought to Council an analysis from the JPIA regarding whether or not that would increase the city's liability and staff is proposing that the city just continue doing that. Also, to reduce part-time staffing hours at community centers but not reducing the centers hours. Another thing staff is proposing is consolidating the summer swim class hours but increasing the class offerings. Council Member Armenta asked if the concerts in the parks events were going to be affected by the new budget. Mr. Montgomery-Scott stated that last year there were four concerts in the parks and that this year as part of the City's 501^ anniversary, staff was proposing six concerts; however, in 2010 they will go back to only four concerts once again. Council Member Low asked in regards to the day camp program, if it was an increase or a decrease in program cost. Mr. Montgomery-Scott responded that it was an increase and that he did not have the exact cost figure but the cost would be off set by revenues generated by participants. Mr. Hawkesworth continued by reiterating that in Community Services one full-time position had been eliminated. Also, stated that staff had negotiated a $50,000 reduction for the building contract with Willdan. Mr. Hawkesworth reviewed all the Public Works projects that staff was proposing for next year. Mr. Hawkesworth stated that the current bottom line was that general fund revenue was $17,219,000 the general fund expenditures, as proposed this evening, was $17,341,000. Mr. Hawkesworth reviewed the unfunded projects that were not included in the budget, such as, the city's financial system, the voicemail system, the roof replacement for the RCRC, branding implementation, the renovation of the civic center parking lot, and the possibility of a skateboard park development. Mayor Pro Tern Taylorasked staff to get information from the JPIA in regards to how many cities have skateboard parks and what their liability expenses are. Mr. Hawkesworth stated he would bring back this information to Council in addition to the other requested information. Rosemead City Council Special Meeting Minutes of June 9, 2009 Page II of 13 Mayor Pro Tem Taylor also stated that there had not been a summary sheet provided to Council and he felt that was misleading because Council wouldn't know where the city stands overall. Mr. Hawkesworth responded that the workshop was for the purpose of letting Council know about the programs staff was proposing and that on the next Council meeting they would receive the entire budget book. He added that the balance sheet, the bottom line as of today the general fund was a negative $175,000. Council Member Low asked if it was correct that the city should have $21 million set aside, $15 million of that is unallocated that the city can use and then the approximate $6 million should definitely not be touched and asked Mr. Hawkesworth to explain the city's reserve policy. Mr. Hawkesworth responded that two meetings ago Steve Brisco had prepared a consent item, which explained the status and history of the city's cash balance and reiterated that the cash balance in the general fund is approximately $15 million and total city cash is $21 million, which included other funds other than the general fund. Mr. Hawkesworth stated that if Council permitted staff would use $175,000 out of the general fund to balance the city budget. Mayor Pro Tem Taylor referred to page 38 of the information attached to the staff report regarding animal control. He stated staff had mentioned a savings in the animal control contract but that as the sheet indicated in 2007-2008 the city had expenditures of $40,000; appropriations for 2008- 2009 are $56,000, and the estimated actual expenditures is $77,000 and its seems to have gone up to $116,000. Mr. Taylor asked staff to clarify that when it is brought back to them. He also referred to page 41 and asked for clarification on "the city garage operating transfer out $50,000." Mr. Hawkesworth responded that the $50,000 was transferred into the capital improvement fund to acquire hybrid vehicles. Mayor Pro Tem Taylor referred to page 42, 'facilities under general fund" and stated there was a new column "requested fiscal year 2009-2010, $259,000" and asked where those funds were coming from. Mr. Hawkesworth responded that previously the way Public Works was designed there were a lot of cost centers, such as, street lights, traffic lights, one for every single thing and this year staff consolidated those. He explained that one cost center was created to consolidate all the facilities; however, if you look at page 46 where it says field services you'll see a large reduction from last year because a large portion was transferred to the facilities fund. Also on page 51 regarding parks it shows a reduction because there was a portion also transferred to the facilities fund so this way there is a better understanding of what the true maintenance cost is for facilities. Mayor Pro Tem Taylor stated that the information provided did not explain how the funds were reallocated. Council Member Low stated she was not seeing the tax increment that goes in the redevelopment Agency. Rosemead City Council Special Meeting Minutes of June 9, 2009 Page 12 of 13 Mr. Hawkesworth responded that the worksheets only reference general fund money but that the whole budget book would be given to Council at the next meeting. Juan Nunez - asked if the city was factoring in the budget the amount that the State was going to take away. City Council recessed at 6:09 p.m. and reconvened at 6:11 p.m. City Council recessed to closed session at 6:11 p.m. 3. CLOSED SESSION A. Conference with Legal Counsel Government Code 54956.9(6): Potential Litigation The City Council reconvened out of Closed Session at 7:04 p.m. Interim City Attorney Joseph Montes stated there was no reportable action taken during Closed Session. 4. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 7:04 p.m. The next regular City Council meeting is scheduled to take place on June 9, 2009 at 7:00 p.m. ATTEST: Gloria Molleda City Clerk _~Zer.~-ci~~ ~lJ Margaret G rk Mayor Rosemead City Council Special Meeting Minutes of June 9, 2009 Page 13 of 13 STATE OF CALIFORNIA ) COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES ) SS. CITY OF ROSEMEAD ) I, Gloria Molleda, City Clerk for the City of Rosemead, do hereby certify that the special minutes of June 9, 2009 was duly and regularly approved by the Rosemead Planning Commission on the 27`h of October 2009, by the following vote to wit: Yes: Armenta, Clark, Low, Ly, Taylor No: None Abstain: None Absent: None AG cLck-01 Glofia-Molleda City Clerk