07-30-2002 Council Work Session - Laserfiche WebLink

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will also be absorbed by the 10% City Administrative costs. The new contract recognizes (hat these are real service costs that should be shared. In light of this there will be a charge of 10% of (he Fire Department Operating Budget for City Administration costs starting in 2003. I have provided a preliminary work sheet based on last year ’s distribution percentages to help you estimate what your costs could be. Unfortunately, the County is still working on the 2003 Estimated Market Values for the fire service area but we should have those values soon. Your distribution amount will change based on these new estimated market values. As soon as we receive the values from the County, the staff will redo the distribution and send it to you. The Operating Budget has several adjustments that I would like to discuss with you. 1. The pension fund contribution has not been increased from what it was in 2002. We feel that this is a disser\ icc to our fire fighters in that we have one of the lowest contributions in the area. We have not adjusted the payment to the fire fighters since 2000. We decided to keep the contribution to the pension fund the same because of the e.xtra burden it places on you our customers. However, we will need to adjust this in the future. 2. We expect insurance to increase in 2003. Like you, we purchase insurance from the LMC Trust. They have indicated to us that liability and property damage insurance will increase from 4% to 7% next year. They are expecting Workers Compensation to increase by 10%. 3. We have established a new budget category called a Replacement Repair & Maintenance Reserve Contribution. This reserve fund is for major equipment repairs and minor equipment replacements that are not covered by insurance. For example this year Tanker Number 12 blew its engine and we needed to have the engine rebuilt. In the past the City of Maple Plain has funded these emergency costs but we were not reimbursed for your share of the advancement of funds until after the audit up to a year and a half later or longer. We plan to maintain this fund at about $35,000. 4. The Chief and 4 OtTicers lead the Department. We have decided to increase the amount we pay the Chief and Officers from a total of $4,950 to a total of $6,450. They have not received an increase since 1999, yet their responsibilities have substantially increased during this period of time. We have also decided to increase the amount that we pay our 23 and soon to be 24 fire fighters. This is a total increase from $48,000 to $60,000 or an average of $500 per year for each fire fighter. Like the officers the fire fighters have not received an increase since 1999. Although the fire fighters will be paid more per hour per call than the other area departments, the Officers and Chief are paid less. So the comparative costs are not substantially different. It is to the credit of the