Minutes COW 3-16-2009Committee of the Whole
March 16, 2009
7:00 p.m.
A meeting of the Village of Lemont Committee of the Whole was held on Monday March 16, 2009 in the
Board Room of the Village Hall at 418 Main Street in Lemont, Illinois.
CALL TO ORDER
Mayor Piazza called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. and acknowledged that the following were present:
Trustees Peter Coules, Ron Stapleton, Cliff Miklos, Debbie Blatzer, Jeanette Virgilio and Brian Reaves
were present.
Also present were Village staff members Gary Holmes, Commander Dan Tully, Dan Fielding, George
Schafer, Ed Buettner, James Brown, Mark LaChappell, Tom Ballard and Jean Nona.
DISCUSSION ITEMS
'Discussion of Proposed FY 2009-2010 Budget
Mr. Wehmeier highlighted the major changes and updates to the upcoming fiscal year budget. Under
general revenues he noted a 6% increase in real estate taxes with an increase in the next budget year
limited to .1 %, according to the Chicago CPI. He also noted the reduction in state shared revenue
primarily due to declining property taxes. The licenses and permits will show an overall increase due to
FY 10 being a vehicle sticker year. Actual building and site development fees are down nearly $390,000
from the previous year. Some reductions in revenue include an elimination of a public safety impact fee
and reduction of public hearing/annexation fees due to slow housing growth. Other income includes a
sale of Village property in the amount of $150,000 for extra land acquired for the Castle Bowl
Engineering project.
Mr. Wehmeier also went through the major changes in expenditures for the upcoming budget. Some of
the highlights include a reduction in training funds, suspension of membership in DuPage Mayors and
Managers, a freeze of hiring in all departments, and a reduction of outside services for the building
department. In addition, the asset forfeiture account in the Police Department will be used for all
equipment and vehicle purchases, which will not have to be funded through the general fund. In addition,
any new officer positions will be funded through the Federal Stimulus COPS Grant program. In Public
Works specifically, training was reduced 70%, maintenance services was reduced 40% due to elimination
of snowplowing on downtown sidewalks and the first year of a transition from contracted mosquito spray
to doing the service in-house. In Community Development, $15,000 was budged for economic
development initiatives including a downtown landscaping plan and a Green Lemont Initiative event.
Other changes include the downtown commission being reduced and an increase in IRMA insurance
premium.
In the Downtown TIF Fund, initial engineering costs will be budgeted for Talcott Street reconstruction.
In addition, the facade/sign grant program will be discontinued in favor of kiosks, parking signs, and bike
racks to be budged this fiscal year. On the revenue side, the impact fees for the downtown linear park
will be utilized to fund landscape/hardscape improvements to the canal area, specifically the pedestrian
staircase south on the south side of the I&M Canal.
In Water and Sewer, nearly $200,000 reduction in charges for service is being shown due to the economy
and last year's usage rates. On the expenditure side, outside services for electricity has increased due to
an increase in power cost. However, all facilities have been switched over to a third party vendor to
reduce costs as much as possible. The original budget request for equipment was fora 2.5 ton dump truck
and a new street sweeper. Due to lack of available funds, we likely will only be able to fund one of the
requests. In addition, the budget is showing $55,000 for meter replacement program and $4,000 for a
new meter gun to improve efficiency of meter reading. The Water and Sewer Capital Fund is showing
the Village's contribution to the Main Street water main project, Singer/Norton Relief Sewer Project, and
the Village contribution towards the CDBG water main replacement phase 5.
The Motor Fuel Tax Fund is showing 43,000 for various engineering and $426,000 for maintenance
services. The Road improvement Fund is showing $979,500 worth of projects including McCarthy Road
STP, Walker/McCarthy traffic signal, Timberline/127th traffic signal, Derby Road LAPP, and Norton Ave
reconstruction.
Mr. Wehmeier also stated that the current budget included all funds needed for the various special events
in town including staff overtime, with the exception of the fireworks. There was a discussion on the
various festivals and events in town. Trustee Virgilio stated that the Earth Day clean-up as part of the
Environmental Commission should be in town, not out of town, the Mayor and Trustees agreed. Trustee
Virgilio said that the block party would be downsized this year and future meetings will begin planning
for the event. Trustee Reaves said he met with the Jaycees and said that the Village would need to be
reimbursed a larger portion of police time, from 50% to 75%. The car show was also brought up on
possibly making changes to the event. Mayor Piazza said to leave it to the chamber to make these types
of decisions and that it is a good event. Mayor Piazza said that the Village should attempt to cut back on
some event spending but recommends keeping the firework show. Trustee Virgilio also said that there
are ways to cut back spending while keeping the events. Commander Tully said that the Police would
attempt to cut down on overtime for these events while still staffing the events with shift supervisors on
their regularly scheduled work shift. Other suggestions included combining the Christmas events.
There was more discussion on cost savings for the Village. Mayor Piazza stated that the Village will be
looking at lay-offs and not filling open positions until the economy improves. In addition, there would be
pay freezes for Village employees as well as the possibility of mandatory furloughs if the finances
worsen. Another topic of discussion was the linear park impact fee donations. The Board was in favor of
keeping this money in the budget as revenue for downtown improvements. Mr. Fielding brought up some
of the maintenance issues to the wells that are down. He reported that all wells will be operational by
May 1St
The budget is still being finalized and the full budget with schedule of authorized positions will be in
front of the Village Board for a vote at the first meeting in April.
Discussion of Fee Collections - Building Department
Mr. Buettner discussed a new procedure for collection of permit fees for permits and land-use
applications with no activity. A recent audit of building permits shows review and reinspection fees have
gone uncollected due to the project being abandoned or construction has stopped. The Building
Department has taken steps to insure that fees are being collected by following up to property owners and
contractor to collect fees. In addition, the Building Department is seeking Board approval to having a
new policy of collecting fees in advance of review, inspection, or re-inspection. The Board did not have
an issue with this request. Staff would be preparing the appropriate ordinance to amend the municipal
code at a future meeting.
NEW BUSINESS
None.
ADJOURNMENT
Mayor Piazza adjourned the meeting at 8:45 PM