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2020 07 20 CC Minutes BudgetMINUTES OF THE SPECIAL BUDGET WORK SESSION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN July 20, 2020 The City Council of the City of Baytown, Texas met in a Special Budget Work Session on Monday, July 20, 2020, at 5:30 P.M., in the Council Chamber, Baytown City Hall, 2401 Market Street, Baytown, Texas with the following in attendance: Laura Alvarado Council Member Robert Hoskins Council Member Charles Johnson Mayor Pro Tern Charles Presley Council Member Heather Betancourth Council Member David Himsel Council Member Brandon Capetillo Mayor Rick Davis City Manager Karen Horner Interim City Attorney Leticia Brysch City Clerk Keith Dougherty Sergeant at Arms Mayor Capetillo convened the July 20, 2020, City Council Special Budget Work Session with a quorum present at 5:30 P.M., all members were present. 1. DISCUSSIONS a. Discuss the City of Baytown Fiscal Year 2020-21 Proposed Budget. Mayor Capetillo presented the item and stated that Council will continue the discussion of the City of Baytown Fiscal Year 2021 proposed budget, which was started at the last meeting which took place last week. He noted that the Council covered a lot of ground mainly concerning capital improvement programs and different budgetary items, mainly from an administrative and staff perspective. Mayor Capetillo noted that the Council did not have a lot of time to get into too much discussion or additional inquiry. However, he has been made aware that there has been communication between the staff and Council that have dealt with many of their individual questions and concerns related to the proposed budget. Mayor Capetillo further noted that if council members have any questions or concerns that were not addressed, the floor is open for discussion. Assistant City Manager Nick Woolery presented an update on the budget and noted that as a part of the budget, staff tried to answer all of Council's questions from the last meeting and is looking forward to having additional input tonight. He noted that as a part of the proposed budget, staff will have the notice of intent for the issuance of the COs for Council consideration at this City Council Special Work Session Minutes July 20, 2020 Page 2 of 6 Thursday's meeting, as well as the required tax rate calculation which is a new requirement from SB2. He further noted that staff is currently working with the tax office on said tax rate calculation, and because of this and some other factors, the actual budget public hearing will need to be moved back to August 13th. Therefore, the budget itself could not be adopted till at least August 13`h, after the public hearing and at the latest on September 24, 2020. Mr. Woolery noted that there may be some things that the tax office comes back with based on our interactions with them that could have a pretty big impact on the budget. Mr. Woolery presented the Council with a chart outlining the tax burden in Baytown as it compared to three comparable communities; Texas City, Pasadena and Deer Park added and noted that there is not a lot of change, but Baytown is right in line with the other two cities and this chart will change once the senior and disabled exemptions are adopted. The meeting was open to the Council for discussion, questions and comments. Council Member Hoskins stated that he was looking at the police and fire overtime line items and while he understood the budget, he still felt that it was imperative that staff hire the number of people that they need to fill its open position, and help reduce the million dollars budgeted for overtime. He further noted that staff should be doing whatever possible to hire people in both police and fire. He also commended the Library for budgeting zero overtime. Fire Chief Kenneth Dobson noted that there were 25 vacancies in the Fire Department when he hired on almost three years ago, and last year at the end of last fiscal year there were only two vacancies. He noted that hiring has been a bit of a challenge and have discussed maybe, changing requirements, certification requirements, but ultimately the challenge lies in hiring firefighter, that are non -paramedics and putting through paramedic schools, which is a long process, and then some do not make it. Chief Dobson noted that staff is now looking at hiring paramedics and putting them through fire school, so staff is really targeting paramedic programs across the country Council Member Alvarado thanked the Fire Chief and expressed her gratitude. She stated that there is an increase in Patrol or Police officers, and also have increased the admin to support those officers, and asked Police Chief Dougherty if there anything else that he would like to add as to overtime and how it relates to new recruits. The council discussed the Police Department overtime budget and wages and Council Member Himsel stated that it would be helpful to break down the overtime use by department, and agreed with Council Member Hoskins that they need to fix the overtime problem. Police Chief Keith Dougherty noted that a lot of PD overtime is spent a little differently than that in the fire service, and is more focused to special projects and activities internal to the PD and in support of other departments; such as Parks and Recreation events. Chief Dougherty further noted that PD rarely fills vacant positions with overtime, they instead adjust schedules and shifts to cover these spots, so it is not a backfill problem for them. Chief Dougherty again noted that the PD overtime is used on targeted projects; such as the Garth Road Corridor from Thanksgiving to New Year's to reduce burglaries and petty crimes by augmenting patrol, as well City Council Special Work Session Minutes July 20, 2020 Page 3 of 6 as, some those other special programs like the outreach and events. These extra things are handled through overtime as they are in addition to their 40-hour week workload. Council Member Hoskins stated that staff needs to look at overtime and consider taking some of those monies to justify the addition of new officers. Chief Dougherty stated that he understood the comments but he had to consider the financial needs of the city as a whole. He further noted that it a lot of the programs are seasonal and don't require a full time offers. Council Members Hoskins and Himsel stated that there is a problem with the overtime use for the city and it was something that had to be looked at and fixed because it went from $1.2 million to $2.2 million from one year to the next. Mr. Woolery noted that those numbers are for the general fund overtime for the entire city. Mayor Capetillo stated that the budget has $52 million budgeted for salaries and $2.2 in overtime for the entire city, which is about 4 to 4.5%, so he did not think it was necessarily out of control. Chief Dougherty stated that he, like all department heads, was asked to prepare a budget that would allow the department to function and still be good stewards of the public monies, and he feels that what he submitted was appropriate. Mr. Woolery noted that the increase in overtime for this year and next is inclusive of the unknowns related to COVID and the staff time needed to handle this unprecedented disaster. City Manager Rick Davis stated that it is the hope of the staff that the overtime monies used for COVID will be eligible for reimbursement. Council Member Presley noted that in the last session he had requested that the staff bring back some options as it relates to compensation increases for only some of the lowest level employees and not give a 3% raise to all non -civil service employees as is being proposed in the budget. Mr. Davis stated that he did not have those options. Council Member Alvarado stated from her recollection, the discussion focused on giving the Council some latitude associated with providing lower level employee raises. Mr. Davis stated that he felt that staff had provided the information Council Member Presley had requested at the last budget session, and asked for clarification on what he wanted done on this item. Council Member Presley stated that the approach he was asking for, in light of COVID, would be some options to where the lowest level employees would be at a little bit higher threshold than those further up on the pay grades; more of a sliding scale so to speak. Council Member Presley stated that the information that he received was empirical and historical data for the last 10 years and not any options regarding raises for this year's budget. Mayor Capetillo asked if there was a number related to the pay raise for employees as non- civil service. Finance Director Victor Brownlees answered the question and stated that the amount is $1.5 million for all of it and of that $600,000 is related to non -civil service raises. Mayor Capetillo clarified for the Council that the 3% across the board raises for non -civil service employees totaled $600,000. Mr. Woolery addressed Council Member Presley's desire to focus the 3% raise for non -civil service employees to the lower grade employees and stated that the reason staff did not recommend that option was because the City just completed a very extensive process to create a new salary structure based on an updated compensation study, and playing with different levels of the structure would negatively impact the whole structure and begin to skew the system, City Council Special Work Session Minutes July 20, 2020 Page 4 of 6 which is detrimental to the entire pay structure. He noted that if they pass the budget as adopted everyone would receive the three percent, from bottom on up and it would keep the structure in place. Council Member Presley stated that he understood the rationale, but was looking at something that would potentially compensate some of the lowest level employees a little more than some of the others, but if it messes with the system he would take that into consideration. Mayor Capetillo stated that in his experience he has seen the Council pull back on giving raises which impacted the salary scale and then later, they had to play catchup because the City has to compete with other cities and with other local employers, as well, so they want to remain competitive. Mr. Davis stated through the hard and prudence of staff, that the City is even in a position to give any raise at all is pretty extraordinary and noted that he does compete for talent at all levels. He further stated that beyond the issue related to the salary structure and its compression, he did not recommend picking and choosing which groups to compensate and at what level can send a negative message to staff that can be difficult to overcome. Council Member Presley stated that his idea that while everyone has been in the COVID storm together, they have not all been on the same boat and his idea is to reward the lower level employees for the work they did during this time period but it looks like wasn't really looked at yet. Mayor Pro Tern Johnson stated that he agreed with Council Member Presley as far as giving lower -end employees the raise, and as he said everybody went through it together, but everyone is not in the same category. He noted that lower -end employees make less money, and are not going through the pandemic the same way as employees making maybe six digits. Mayor Pro Term Johnson questioned what would that numbers look like if a line was drawn in the pay structure to give raises or more compensation to the lower level employees. Mr. Davis stated that drawing a line on the pay structure to only pay a certain level employee would reduce the number from $600,00, it just depended on where that number was drawn, and it seemed very arbitrary to draw that line. Mayor Pro Tem Johnson requested that staff look at drawing that line on the pay structure to only provide the 3% raise to lower tiered non -civil service employees; Mr. Davis stated he would bring that information back. The Council requested that the staff provide them with a list of the new pay structure, inclusive of the pay scale/grades because it was not in the proposed budget, like it had been in the past. Mayor Capetillo asked the council to look at said pay structure and draw a line where they think the line needs to be, so staff can look at options. He also noted that he values city employees, and believes that a three percent raise, in a sense, is just the cost of living allowance for goods and services provided, but that is a decision that they have to make as a council. Mr. Davis requested that the Council consider the City's senior level managers are the ones that do not go home from work a lot of the time and they are the ones that spend an extraordinary number of hours, off time, and they are the ones that worry about the city around the clock and there is a value to that. He also noted that these senior managers have tremendous responsibility as each one of them runs an enterprise, and so they are among our most valuable employees. City Council Special Work Session Minutes July 20, 2020 Page 5 of 6 Council Member Presley stated that the point was that everybody values the employees, that people that come in contact with those that are not in the office after hours, but are down in the hole trying to fix the water leak or trying to fix etc., that there are different perspectives of that issue, but he stated if there are some options to look at that would be great. If there was not, they would just vote it up or down and be done with it. Mr. Davis in response to a question from Mayor Pro Tem Johnson noted that the Grito Fest has fifty-eight thousand dollars budgeted for this year. Mayor Pro Tem Johnson stated that he appreciated the amount of monies set aside for African American Heritage celebrations, a total of thirty thousand for two events and requested an increase if staff could find the money in the budget. Mr. Davis stated that they would find it, and that they would make the necessary adjustments. Council Member Alvarado noted that if they can get more money for these events great, but she wanted to add that these types of events take time, and the bigger they grow the more money they add year after year, to support the event in terms of the attendance and participation. Council Member Alvarado noted that Grito Fest started out really small with its own committee, and while she didn't know if there will be a committee for African American Heritage, she thought it would be a good start that could grow over time, just like Grito Fest. Mayor Pro Tem Johnson stated that there is a committee, but in order to have it on the scale that they would like to have it on, thirty thousand dollars for two events is not going to be enough and they have requested at least fifteen thousand per event. Council Member Johnson asked what was the cost of the entertainment for Grito Fest? Parks and Recreation Director Scott Johnson stated that currently, the musical acts for Grito Fest come in at about thirty-eight thousand dollars, and about twelve to thirteen thousand for sound and lights. Council Member Johnson stated that taking those amounts into consideration, thirty thousand would not even be enough to find quality entertainment for one event, much less two: Martin Luther King or African American History Month and Juneteenth. Mr. Davis stated that they put a certain amount of monies into the budget as a placeholder, not knowing what the events would even look like and these types of events are kind of an organic process, but staff can be proactive and setup the authorization to spend up to a certain amount for these events, and come back to Council should that amount be exceeded. Mr. Davis also noted that the staff has some latitude built into the budget to respond to these types of contingencies in order to not have to come back and amend the budget, so there are discretionary funds that can be used to help fund these events. Mayor Pro Tem Johnson also noted that he wanted to see an increase in funding for police officer training in de-escalation, use of force, or mental health training. Chief Dougherty stated that some of their classes are paid for by outside agencies and grants, so they are of no cost to the city, as well as, the use of in-house instructors that are covered through their regular salary. Mayor Pro Tem Johnson stated that there should be an opportunity to find grants on a federal level with the Department of Justice (DOJ) as well as additional training opportunities. Chief Dougherty noted that the PD already uses the DOJ and several other groups that do not charge City Council Special Work Session Minutes July 20, 2020 Page 6 of 6 them for their services and that training are just a matter of scheduling and making them available to the officers. Mayor Capetillo stated he was contacted by the Bayou Bowl Committee in regards to next year's Bayou Bowl and the desire to have the City give them twenty-five thousand dollars that will mainly be used for advertisement. Mr. Davis stated that staff will look into this item. Mr. Woolery noted that this type of funding request would typically not be city -funded, but would instead be a MDD or HOT. He noted that staff has asked this group to go through the grant process, to see if what funding is more appropriate HOT or MDD. Mayor Capetillo stated that they just wanted a thumbs up, so they can tell the Greater Houston Coaches Association. Mr. Davis stated that one way or another they would address it and, would try to find the right mechanism. Mayor Capetillo stated that they are excited for next year in having some type of celebration for both Martin Luther King Day and Juneteenth. He stated that they just wanted a starting point for the committee and for them to come back with suggestions. Then they could have something to work with just as Council member Alvarado had previously mentioned. Mayor Capetillo asked if there were any other questions or comments on the budget, any items, any additional direction that they would want to give staff on final command. Mayor Capetillo stated that all questions from Council had been addressed, other than some stuff that they know is pending. Mayor Capetillo addressed staff for any final comments, or any additional direction that they are seeking. 2. ADJOURN With there being no further business to discuss, Mayor Capetillo adjourned the July 20, 2020, City Council Special Budget Work Session at 6:17 P.M. v qY ((lis oLL aO °� Leticia Brysch, City C1 rk City of Baytown -ix •`'�P�