Loading...
2024-07-16 Council FIN MinutesMinutes FINANCE COMMITTEE MEETING July 16, 2024 Elected Officials Present Staff Present Councilmember Will Chen (Chair) Kim Dunscombe, Deputy Admin. Serv. Director Councilmember Jenna Nand Leif Bjorback, Building Official Council President Vivian Olson (ex-officio) Brian Tuley, Information Services Manager Mayor Mike Rosen Scott Passey, City Clerk 1. CALL TO ORDER The Edmonds City Council Finance Committee meeting was called to order virtually and in the City Council Conference Room, 121 – 5th Avenue North, Edmonds, at 5:30 pm by Councilmember Chen. 2. COMMITTEE BUSINESS 1. Mountlake Terrace ILA Mr. Tuley relayed the RCW allows municipalities to piggyback on other municipalities’ existing contracts. Mountlake Terrace would like to implement the software Edmonds uses for public records requests. Committee recommendation: Consent Agenda 2. ERP Contract Finance Committee Review Mr. Tuley explained the City has been using a Tyler Technologies product, Eden, for over 20 years; Munis is their latest product, a cloud based ERP accounting system. The reason for the change is Tyler notified the City that will reach end of life in 2027, leaving the City 3 years to get something else in place. In polling the membership of the Association of County and City Information Systems (ACCIS) of which Edmonds is 1 of the 150 members, 7 accounting packages tended to be the market leaders. A process of elimination identified Tyler which over 150 municipalities run and they have a great deal of experience migrating from Eden to Munis. Munis is software as a service (SAS) which is cloud based and eliminates “under the hood” issues such as server maintenance, operating system patching, computer room AC, etc. Moving from the legacy package to the new package is an update, but because it is the same company and the same thinking, workflows are similar same, it is compatible with the utility billing software, it provides more bells whistles that the City’s current software does not have such as electronic timesheets, and it has the potential for creating public-facing dashboards. Questions and discussion followed regarding incorporation of AI into the ERP and whether Edmonds’ data will be aggregated into Tyler’s data sets and whether there are firewalls for non-public information, number of users and amount of memory covered by contract, cost based on the number of modules, migration of five years of data, length of the contract, cost of migration, January 1, 2025 contract start date, 26-36 month implementation, period of time when dual systems will be running, Tyler’s support of Eden during Munis implementation, and electronic legacy data. Committee recommendation: Short presentation at full council 3. Surplus Equipment Ms. Dunscombe relayed every year a list of surplus items is presented; these items were approved for surplus last year. Questions and discussion followed regarding a correction to remove the $2M fishing 07/16/24 Finance Committee Minutes, Page 2 pier, surplusing the library book drop, the City’s responsibility for fishing pier maintenance, depreciation, and the list of City fixed assets. Committee recommendation: Consent Agenda 4. Opioid Participation Form Ms. Dunscombe explained In 2022, the council approved the mayor’s signature on a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Washington Municipalities, opting the city into the settlement of specific opioid lawsuits. As new settlements arise, to participate in and be eligible to receive compensation under the Settlement Agreement, the City must complete and submit a new Settlement Participation Form. This approval is related to a new nationwide settlement agreement with Kroger Co. Discussion followed regarding encouraging the administration to create a 2025 budget item to use these funds in a manner related to the opioid response. Committee recommendation: Consent Agenda 5. Financial Policies Ms. Dunscombe advised the changes to the policies were the result of input at the May Finance Committee and have been reviewed by Mike Bailey. Questions and discussion followed regarding whether the fund reserve policy was too high, lowering the total reserve to 16 or 12% and using funds for services, support for a 20% total reserve, concern with lowering reserves depending on the financial situation, replenishing reserves, other cities’ reserve levels, GFOA’s best practices related to operating reserves (two months of General Fund expenditures), making a decision regarding the reserve for the next biennium and having a more thorough process in an off-budget year, analyzing how lowering the reserves would impact the City’s Standard & Poor rating, timeline for notifying council of utilization of fund balance or reserves, benefits of improved reporting, timing of the receipt of property taxes, and the water utility fund and sewer/wastewater treatment plant fund reserve. Questions and discussion followed regarding comparing utility fund reserves in other cities, adding a reserve level for the storm utility fund to the policy, notification/discussion when an interfund loan occurs, council notification when an interfund loan affects the CIP, the City’s municipal advisor, Long Range Financial Strategy, incorporating a plan for replenishing reserves to policy mandated levels into the Long Range Financial Strategy, current policy related to reserves, the mayor providing a replenishment plan within 60 days of any use of fund balances or reserves, replenishing reserves versus providing services, ability to suspend the policy related to the timeline for providing a replenishment plan, recognizing increased maintenance in the cost of projects, the need to approve financial policies before the budget process begins, and options for full council review. Committee recommendation: Received for Filing with agenda memo encouraging council to review for future council consideration. 6. June 2024 Quarterly Financial Report It was the consensus of the committee to extend the meeting until 8:00 pm. Ms. Dunscombe referred to General Fund highlights in the report, highlighting the following: • Transportation Benefit District license fee increased from $20 to $40. That revenue in the Street Fund increased from $327,000 in 2023 to $509,000 in 2024, an increase of $182,000 or 55%. 07/16/24 Finance Committee Minutes, Page 3 • Although it appears revenue is up current year compared to prior year on the Month Revenue Summary-General Fund graph (packet page 171), highlights in the report identify concerns with General Fund revenue at the end of 2024 • Although the Monthly Revenue Summary-Sales Tax and Property Tax graphs illustrate revenues are on budget or slightly below, the following graph explains why sales tax less than budget are forecast by year end. o The 2024 budget increased sales tax 5% over 2023, and actual experience is approximately 3%. The State’s June financials indicated about a 2% growth rate and consumer confidence reports are diverging, one up and one down. • Unanticipated grants and building & development services revenues are up although there are expenses associated with building and development services revenue • 2024 General Fund (001) Cash Flow Report (with ACTUALS) illustrates revenue compared to expenses at the end of 2024 will be ($2,766,486) Questions and discussion followed regarding Councilmember Nand’s intent to pull the amendment related to the Edmonds Homelessness Fund, source of funds allocated to the Edmonds Homeless Fund, interest in using the funds in the Homelessness Fund to address the homelessness crisis, interest paid when the General Fund has a negative cash flow, preference for the council to discuss the Edmonds Homelessness Fund Transfer as a separate agenda item, process for council consideration of budget amendments, identifying options to address the 2024 ending fund balance if the proposed budget amendments are not approved, expenditures from the Facilities Maintenance Fund, commendation to departments and the mayor for being fiscally conservative related to expenditures, whether funds for library repairs could be requested from Sno-Isle, and payment of library repairs from bond funds. 07/16/24 Finance Committee Minutes, Page 4 Committee recommendation: Received for Filing 7. 2024 July Budget Amendment Ordinance Committee members and Ms. Dunscombe discussed budget amendments related to the ARPA Funds for the Fire Contract, Parking Enforcement Officer Transfer, Library Repairs Interfund Transfer, and Edmonds Homelessness Fund Transfer during the previous agenda item. Discussion followed regarding the potential for an alternative proposal related to the Edmonds Homelessness Fund Transfer, Councilmember Nand’s efforts during the 2024 budget process to retain $250,000 in ARPA funds for small businesses and direct grants, and anticipation the council will face other difficult decisions in the budget process. Committee recommendation: Full council 3. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 7:56 pm.