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Home My WebLink About2014-05-28 Budget Meeting Minutes - Community Development Minutes of Budget Meeting Wednesday, May 28, 2014 Page 1 of 5 Deschutes County Board of Commissioners 1300 NW Wall St., Suite 200, P.O. Box 6005, Bend, OR 97708-6005 (541) 388-6570 - Fax (541) 385-3202 - www.deschutes.org MINUTES OF BUDGET MEETING DESCHUTES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS WEDNESDAY, MAY 28, 2014 – Afternoon Session ___________________________ Allen Room, Deschutes Services Building ___________________________ Present were Commissioners Tammy Baney, Anthony DeBone and Alan Unger. Also present were Tom Anderson, County Administrator; Erik Kropp, Deputy County Administrator; Mike Maier, Clay Higuchi and Bruce Barrett, Budget Committee; Nick Lelack, Community Development Dept. Director. Meeting minutes were taken by Sher Buckner. ___________________________ Nick Lelack introduced staff and said that our budget this year was very conservative. It was revised in November when we added a new permit technician. Our numbers are a bit dated already and May has been a very strong month for us. We expect to finish this year in great shape. This is the first year in the last few that we have not requested general fund support. Long-range planning support was requested to cover the difference between fees and our cost of services. Nick continued that staffing changes include adding one position to replace/supplement the work of Dan Haldeman with the Environmental Soils Division, and a new Building Inspector III position. We are maxing out our staff right now and keeping a conservative budget. We expect between two and four retirements of long-term employees this fiscal year, including a permit technician and Kevin Harrison. We are fortunate that with the increased activity we can pay off financed debt for our building this year. We will need to budget for capita l improvements, but they will be far less than in the past. We paid for Accela, our Minutes of Budget Meeting Wednesday, May 28, 2014 Page 2 of 5 new permitting program, this year and will have further expense s in fine-tuning it next year. Our survey result satisfaction numbers are lower than we would like – partly because of the implementation of Accela which is taking time. Also, people had become accustomed to rapid turnarounds and we are now a bit slower with permits. We have proposed a 2% fee increase to keep up with inflationary costs. Peter Gutowsky, Principal Planner, acknowledged our current planners who processed 459 applications last year and dealt with large -scale projects. For long- range planning, there are six projects that really stand out – a plan amendment/zone change for the airport; collaborating with the City of Redmond on a large-lot industrial project; our $400,000 US EPA brownfield grant to identify redevelopment opportunities; collaborating with DEQ and LCDC to do a goal exception under Goal 11 to facilitate sewering in South Deschutes Coun ty; Harper Bridge work with the homeowners’ association to remedy the traffic on Spring River Road and regarding the boat launch; collaboration with six other counties to address sage-grouse conservation. Commissioner DeBone asked if it would be more correct not to use the term “sewering all of…” South County but just refer to the rural areas . This will be a mix of solutions including sewers where appropriate. Dave Pedersen, County Building Official, spoke about departmental goals and the Building Division providing services to the City of Sisters. There has not been a very fluid flow of communication there and we are providing that which will help to avoid issues down the road. We are also providing inspection services for the City of Redmond. We continue to engage the local chapter of the homeowners’ association and are continuing to provide training seminars for staff. The goal is to get everyone on the same page and pinpoint areas for improvement. Employees are participating in all of the mandated training; right now five of our inspectors are participating in electrical cross-training. Todd Cleveland, Environmental Soils Division, also spoke about County goals and our partnerships with DEQ and local communities. We are making recommendations for the Goal 11 exception; doing individual site assessments and promoting water quality. We are looking at programs to provide loans for property owners to upgrade their septic systems. Todd also sat on a committee looking at the amount of loading going into the river and participates in other environmental resource programs. Minutes of Budget Meeting Wednesday, May 28, 2014 Page 3 of 5 Lori Furlong, Administrative Manager, said that our La Pine satellite office is being relocated to La Pine City Hall and we are also providing code enforcement services. The Code Enforcement procedures manual is being updated and we recently had a work session on that. Andy High, Central Oregon Builders’ Association, said they are op posed to the budget because they did not understand that any of the general fund support for the last few years was a loan, and they never would have recommended fee increases to their Board for loans for operations. Mike Maier and Clay Higuchi discussed the history of the loans with Andy. Andy said that Accela has been a bit of a problem with getting the contractors, etc., educated. We are seeing some slowing in growth right now. He thinks we’ll see about 30 permits a month on average, as Nick had stated. Mike asked Andy if he would support the budget without the fee increase but with payments back to the general fund. Andy said we should not be raising fees to pay debt incurred for operations. He heard this differently when he was here for the discussions. Clay said there was a concern that we needed a base or the building industry would be critical that we cut back too much. We felt we needed to maintain a core. Andy said he believes that the general fund should have supported that core during the time the building industry was slowed down, but is that a function of building fees? Or it a function of the general fund in service to the general public? He works for 16 people and has been directed to oppose the budget. Mike said the building industry is part of the economy, and the intention of the County was to maintain funding. Andy said his difference is that they advocated for general fund subsidies, not general fund loans. Commissioner DeBone said he has always felt they needed to invest in planning ; is there a way to slice this a little bit? Clay said we should go back and try to isolat e the money we put in to maintain a quality program. We’re probably looking at $1,650,000. Tom Anderson said that part of the misunderstanding is a timing issue – when CDD had exhausted its reserve funds and went through layoffs, there was a level below which we could not go without impacting service levels. He presented numerous options to the Board and Dave Kanner, and fortunately Dave recommended general fund subsidies to maintain CDD. At that time, there was no discussion of it being a loan. It just never came up whether or not it was. Two or three years into the subsidy, there was a discussion about looking at putting some back into the general fund when things got better. Minutes of Budget Meeting Wednesday, May 28, 2014 Page 4 of 5 Erik Kropp agreed there was no final decision at the time. Andy said that everyone comes to the builders and they are an easy target. Home building is the most regulated industry in the country, and he would rather be on the record opposing this fee increase until there is more discussion. Gail Snyder from Central Oregon Land Watch said they appreciate CDD and its staff. She would like to comment on the land use planning appeals fees and ask the Board to keep appeals fees affordable, in line with Goal 1. People have to be able to afford to participate. Clay asked about a line item expense. Nick said that it was for the brownfield grant, because we have a pass-through this year. It goes from $64,000 for this year to $204,000 for 2015. Clay said that as a citizen, he has walked in to CDD and asked questions, requested service, had copies made, etc., with no problems. He spoke about working with the City when he needed an inspection . He feels the service levels for the City and the County are very good and has had timely responses when he needed help. Andy said that the City of Bend had a former building official who caused a lot of problems and service levels are not the problem. He wants to make sure the debate about the budget is out there. He feels Dave Pedersen runs a tight ship. Things with both the County and the City are going well. Commissioner Baney felt we should have this conversation again and gather more facts. Maybe on Friday we could discuss what we are investing in long -range planning – we did update our Comprehensive Plan and have asked long -range planning to keep busy during the down time with other requested projects. She wants to make sure we capture the amounts so that the investment is held harmless. It was asked if we would be able to balance the budget the following year with the stated contingency. Tom and Nick said it is balanced off the reserves. Commissioner Baney felt there may be another hiccup and we need healthy reserves; $8.3 million may not be enough. There being no further discussion, the session ended at 3:20 p.m. Dated this 28 th day of May, 2014, for the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners. ~ Tammy Baney, Chair Anthony DeBone, Vice Chair Alan Unger, Commissioner ATfEST: J1.~ 7/1/'1 c]~~ ~JBtlekRer (Z~~ Recording Secretary Minutes of Budget Meeting Wednesday, May 28,2014 Page 5 of5 i BUDGET COMMITTEE AGENDA Wednesday, May 28 th , 2014 C, Program Budget Tab/Page 9:00 AM • Reconvene the Deschutes County budget meeting 9:00 -9:30 AM Fair and Ex:uo Center (Funds 617-619 and 601} 4/141 • Introductions • Budget discussion 9:30 -10:00 AM Countl: Assessor's Office (Fund 001-O2) 4/115 • Introductions • Budget discussion 10:00 -10:15 AM Break 10:15 -10:45 AM Countl: Clerk's Office (Funds 001-05. 001-06 and 218) 4/121 • Introductions • Budget discussion 10:45 -11:45 AM Solid Waste (Funds 610-614) , • Introductions 4/161 • Budget discussion 11:45 - 1:00 PM Elected Officials Compensation Committee (Lunch -Discussion) 1:00 -2:00 PM Road (F'unds 325, 328-340) 4/147 • Introductions • Budget discussion 2:00 -2:15 PM Break 2:15 -3:15 PM Communitl: Develogment (Funds 290-303} 4/127 • Introductions • Budget discussion 3:15 -4:15 PM Communitl: Justice (Funds 230 and 355) 3/80 • Introductions • Budget discussion 4:15 -4:45 PM Justice Court (Fund 123) 3/96 • Introductions Budget discussionC • Page 1