09-12-2016 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday, September 12, 2016 7:00 o'clock p.m. MAYOR/COUNCIL REPORT (continued) McMillan noted there was a police commission meeting in August and that everyone seems happy with the amount of policing in their city. McMillan reported the Highway 12 safety coalition had a meeting in September and that the bids for the concrete barriers had to be rebid. McMillan stated at some point between October 10 and November 5 the bypass will be closed for the work. Traffic will be rerouted on 112. MnDOT is also looking at future funding for Highway 12 from County Road 6 to County Road 29 in Maple Plain and extending the concrete barrier on that stretch of roadway. McMilIan noted West Hennepin's police chief, who serves as the leader of the coalition, recently received a leadership award for creating the coalition. McMillan reported Long Lake Waters, which is a newly formed lake association created for monitoring issues on Long Lake, has two meetings coming up. The first meeting will be held on Wednesday, September 14, at 6 p.m. at the Orono Fire Station, and the second meeting will be held Wednesday, October 19, 6-7:30, same location. McMillan stated the association is looking at doing a water summit and that they would like to have the DNR, MN Pollution Control, and the Minnehaha Watershed District in and talk about water quality issues on Long Lake. CITY ADMINISTRATOR'S REPORT 22. 2017 BUDGET AND PRELIMINARY LEVY Olson stated this is the first public presentation of the budget. The preliminary tax levy will be adopted at the next City Council meeting and the final levy and budget will be adopted at the December 12 Council meeting. Olson noted public input is allowed prior to the adoption of the budget. The Council has discussed the preliminary budget as part of the last three Council work sessions. At the August work session, the Council expressed agreement with the General Fund expenditure budget and revenue budgets as they were presented. At that meeting the Council also expressed support for refunding the Series 2008 Pavement :Management Bonds. The 2017 revenue budget is projected to increase 3.8 percent, which does include an increase in the property tax levy for the General Fund of $180,744 or 4.5 percent. The biggest reason for the increase has to do with contract and step wage increases as well as an increase in public safety charges of $61,000. Olson noted the Mound police contract has an inflator of 2.5 percent. Olson reported the expenditure budget will increase $279,294, which is a 3.62 percent increase. Olson stated the City's expenditure budget consists largely of wages and contracted services, with 64 percent of the budget being personnel services followed by professional services. Olson commented Orono budgets very conservatively and does not have a lot of discretionary items in the budget. Olson noted supplies and maintenance is only 8 percent of the budget and that the other expenses category- includes electricity and gas and things like that. Olson stated in this year's budget wages have a lot to do with the increase. Page 31 of 34