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Post by petergordonplace4 on Dec 12, 2022 19:56:48 GMT
I just finished my review of the consent agenda items on the draft agenda. Here are my comments for staff and fellow council members:
9.2
• The proposed expenditures for Utilities are $15k out of $40k budgeted. I’m assuming the $40k budget includes other utilities that also need to be spent this year, other than just for this particular project. What was budgeted for this particular line item, or are we really $25k under budget?
• Same question for ball field maintenance. The proposed expenditure is $12k – what was the expected expenditure for this particular item?
• Same question for salaries. You propose to spend $24k, but what did you plan to spend in the budget?
9.3
• There is no mention of whether the Parks Board was involved in this item. Please confirm what level of participation (if any) the Parks Board had.
9.7 & 9.8
• I was expecting there to be a summary presentation on each of these master plans to go over the highlights and key decisions. I would prefer to remove these from consent and receive presentations
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Post by mikesnyder on Dec 14, 2022 17:14:44 GMT
As the draft agenda was originally proposed, I asked the City Manager to take a couple of things off and add them to regular business as I think that a presentation is warranted. The items on the City's financial status was one.
9.2 I actually have a lot of questions on the HYBSA agreement. We had discussion previously on a YMCA agreement and the Parks Department seemed against the idea of the YMCA managing city owned buildings and improvements as those improvements were made by tax dollars. I supported the Y then. BUT, are agreements like this not the same thing? The City of Hutto somewhat subsidizes the Y by the taxpayers paying for a building and the Y in return using it and selling memberships. The Y however pays for all upkeep and staffing costs.
The HYBSA agreement looks to be a subsidy as well for baseball leagues. BTW, I am 100% in support of this as it takes operating costs AWAY from city personnel and transfers it to a 501(c)(3). I'm just more interested in if and why the Parks department is not consistent on agreements like this.
With regards to the agreement, I would like to know why the youth league can't chalk their own fields and why we need city staff to do that? Is there some special "system" for this that the league who knows about baseball is not able to do? With the team fee for the all-star game being $10/team, I'm not understanding why the city is involved with this part. Hutto should charge a use rate on the field and call it a day. Dictating who pays what and how much seems like an over reach of government. Besides, I'd bet money that the city will spend more $$ collecting $10 than we make. Seems like a losing proposition for the taxpayer.
Looks like the agreement has a few conflicts with various provisions in it. Some parts say that the city is paying for some things and being reimbursed for some and other parts say that HYBSA is responsible for everything. Also, there is some reporting requirements and I'd like to see what % of players are from outside of Hutto as the non-resident is not that much more than resident. I think that since Hutto tax dollars are subsidizing this, that the non-residents should be paying more.
9.3, I've got a lot of questions here. The specs appear to not be what is needed and could be the reason why we keep pouring sidewalks and have them shift and crack later. The Hutto Community Park is a prime example of sidewalks that have been poured in the last 2-5yrs and are needing a complete overhall. Also, we were just told that Hutto has the ability to pour sidewalks for HISD, so, why hire a company to do the work. Also, I'd like to see the difference in bids. Out of 4 bids, we are picking the cheapest by far and it is almost 3x cheaper which tells me that something is off. Also, I didn't see anything on Form 1295 or the Chapter 2274 items on gun and energy bans.
9.5, questions on several items. No money spent yet on Engineering Professional Services. We are spending close to $100k/month, so after 2 months of a budget, we should start seeing some money in there I would think. We sold a lot of bonds and I don't see where that money is at in the fund balances. Also, I'd like to start seeing what our General Revenue balance is because I still don't understand how we can say that there is $14.0M, but can only spend $9.0M. I can understand that in a new budget where we are budgeting an increase and haven't received all of the income yet. But on something that is a year close out item, I would think that what the balance is, is able to be used. CDC expenditure lines sees off or the net change is off. Community PID fees seem like a number is off, HOT funds, would like to know how often they come in and if we are properly reporting the use of those to the state.
9.6, Would like to see what was approved previously and what's changed
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