07-27-2020 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday,July 27,2020 6:00 o'clock p.m. RECESS& RECONVENE Mayor Walsh recessed the meeting at 7:25 p.m. The meeting was reconvened at 7:28 p.m. FINANCE DIRECTOR REPORT 8. SECOND QUARTER FINANCIAL REPORT Olson stated revenues are looking pretty good at this point in the year with 55%of revenues. Last year at this time the City was at 58%of revenues. They did receive on the tax settlements another$900,000 on July 3, which is not recorded, and last week the City received$217,000 which would be the first and 70% of the late payments that were made after May 15 but before July 15. He thought by the end of the week the City should receive another$85,000 in tax settlement. He clarified this is general fund taxes. He said the City is around 50%for property taxes, which he was previously concerned about, but at this point the City is on track. Licenses and permits are at 52% for the year,which is pretty good. Building permits are down from a year ago, at 44%of building permits. That number is generally new construction. Johnson said that can be made up with other types of construction such as remodeling permits. Olson stated Johnson was correct. The City is$18,000 under 50%of the building permit money, which can be one single permit. Johnson said that he thinks there will be a surge in building permits soon. Walsh noted the City kind of depends on that for extra revenue. Olson stated the City receives the police state aid in October and receives the state training aid from the POST Board later in the year. Council Members and Staff talked about the golf revenue increase which they thought was due to people being off of work and the nice summer. It is particularly interesting because the golf course was not open right away in the spring, although it was one of the first activities that opened up. Olson displayed a graph showing building permits for 2020 and said overall the numbers were okay. Council Members discussed a building permit in the neighborhood not yet received by the City. Olson stated they are over budget for the year already on the mechanical permits with$62,000 in revenue, although one permit accounts for$31,000. He went over the plan review number and indicated a lot of times a plan review will come before a building permit is issued. He talked about the 2019 and 2020 numbers in that category and said that a plan review can almost be looked at as a leading indicator when it comes to building permits. Walsh said there is one more meeting in August to get July's numbers before they need to start setting the budget lobby. Council Members and Olson discussed the timeline for setting budget numbers. Page 16 of 21