Lewiston Council Reviews FY27 Budget, Discusses 12 Frozen Positions and Cost Savings

[4:32] Carl L. Sheline: Hello and welcome. Hello and welcome to our Tuesday, Thursday evening budget workshop. We're joined here by Director Roy, Administrator Cain Rath, also in attendance is Deputy Administrator O'Malley. Thank you all very much. Director Roy, please kick us off. [4:49] Michael R. Roy: So I just want to remind the public that the budget is available on the city's website under departments, go under finance department, and then municipal budget. Hard copies can also be found at the city clerk's office and the library, the Lewiston library. Questions and budget suggestions should be emailed to Brian Cain Roth at BK ae and Rath at Lewiston main gov, or public comment at LewistonMaine.gov. Reminder, Monday March 16th is a school budget, which will be held at 530 for you at the Green Ladle. So we're going to start off with personal services and fringe benefits, which are on page 16 and 28 of your book. The overall increase is a million six, or 4.4. You will see the table of the organization on page 16. There is only one new position, as city administrator mentioned on Tuesday, which is the health position. There are 12 frozen full-time positions in this fiscal year 27 budget. We refroze the six from fiscal year 26, to police officers, three Class C highway workers, and one mechanic. The additional for fiscal year 27 is one more police officer, two more Class C highway workers, one Class B highway worker, and one more mechanic, along with the city senior accountant. Regular time and wages are on page 17 and 18. The overall increase of a million, or 4.5 percent. This includes all settled contracts and adjustments and state step increases. Then the contracts that are not settled are not in these budget lines for your salaries. In fiscal year 18, we made an accounting change to consolidate our utility charges. So in lieu of some of the charges showing as revenue and others offset the salary lines, you'll see credits within those salary lines. So for the salary reserve, you'll notice on page, I believe 18, you'll see a credit in the current column. That is for the credits for the utilities. So you'll see two hundred and thirty thousand four hundred. That is two quarters, so there'll be two more quarters coming in, so that will be a credit of 460 800. The city currently has 20 active employees that have re-entered the in-service retirement drop program, which reduces most of the salaries between 5 and 15 percent, depending on their labor union and Their employee contract, and remember there is one code officer that is budgeted in the CDBG line, which is $64,409. You won't find that in the code budget. That will be discussed on Tuesday at the CDBG budget. Over time on page 18, the overall increase is $110,000. Although contracts settle and step increases, some have more impact, additional replaced hours, and demand has produced increases of 82,700 in fire, 15,906 in police, and public works operation 22,754. There's a decrease of 10,000 372 in general government. This is all in elections due to they had two elections in fiscal year 26, will only have the one in fiscal year 27. Temporary wages is on page 19, the overall increase of ninety one thousand seven eighty four, or twenty one percent. The state of Maine minimum wage will increase January 21st, 2026, to $15.10 from the 1465. While salaries are contractual obligated, temporary wages are not. Just a reminder that departments that have temporary employees if they no longer have those positions, the city would need permanent employees, which would also have an additional cost of benefits. Decrease as I mentioned in elections of twenty one thousand ninety nine dollars due to one less election. An increase in temporary highway wages of thirty two thousand six hundred forty for the assistance with vacation. This gives the public works the ability to mentor temporary employees to potentially become full-time employees when vacancies arise. There's an increase. An increase in parks and open spaces of 16,560 for temporary wages, this is for summer help. An increase in central garage of 38,176 for hiring students enrolled in the automobile program. This also gives the opportunity for the garage the ability to mentor temporary workers to fill positions when they become available. If you remember last year we carry forward leftover funds from fiscal year 25 to 26, so that they could have that ability to get some temporary help in that department. Increase in armory by 12,000, which is the transfer from the general fund to the rec account. If you remember for the pool activities, the general fund puts in $62,000 to cover the wages and help out for the pool that's open in the summer. An increase in library temporary wages of $12,172. Other fees on page 19, overall $10,000 or 4%. This is the mayor, council and the board's stipends along with the attorney fees. Fringe benefits on page 19 and 20, the overall five hundred and forty nine thousand nine seventy eight, or four percent. Fringe benefits are considered contractual obligations due to union agreements, as mentioned in one of the last year and in one of the notes earlier. The only way the city could adjust these are to eliminate positions. Main pours decreased by two hundred and twelve thousand nine eighty five. The police plan and the fire plan are at thirteen point two percent for the employer. Contribution and the non-union and the office is ten point two percent, and then there's an additional 5% contribution for all employees that are retired and rehired in place. The decrease is due to those 12 positions being frozen, so the amount for those main purrs were removed out of the budget. Deferred comp increased eight thousand seven ninety five for employees choosing deferred comp instead of main purrs. FICA decreased eighty five thousand, reflected for the twelve positions that were are. Freezing retirement health services savings. This is a conversion of sick time in some of the group vacation times is converted to fund deposits for post retirement health cost. Contributions were estimated to increase four thousand. This is due to the budget needs to be completed before the actual calculation, so this is one of these numbers that might either go up slightly or go down. At the end of March we will know, we'll have the confirmed numbers. State of Maine family medical leave, if you. Remember last year the governor signed into law July 11 2023 for the new program for paid family medical leave. We did sign a contract with a private company, and those contributions will begin May 1st 2026, so we'll have a savings in fiscal year 26 budget because we had put in for the full year, and since we went with a company and not the state of Maine, we'll have that savings for half a year. City pension increased by 1,000 128. There is one remaining and pensioner. This is an increase for cola. Health insurance buyout increased by the combined health insurance and the buyout of 372 000. This is based on the current experience rate where we are budgeting 8.5 percent increase for half of the year, and we're using the fiscal year 26 for the other half, which was a six percent increase that we received. Health care educator are decreased by 1,258. During fiscal year 24 this was reduced for the health care appointments. This is now all done online, employees sign up and submit their information. Some unions still have their screening and are covered, and they count. Also covers gym memberships, additionally cross-charged to other funds, offset to the additional gym membership. Boston Mutual decreased three thousand six hundred and seventy-two. The plan was closed to new enrollees in 1989, so the active employees pay for the benefit, then it becomes a paid-up policy upon retirement. Flexible spending decreased four thousand six hundred eighty-eight due to less fees. Health reimbursement arrangements decreased 10,800. This reflects the anticipated usage of the fund. The current offset offer is 1,200 for single, 2,400 for employee child or family coverage. Workers comp increased the largest at four hundred and eighty eight thousand two hundred and eighty eight. This includes 150 for the unfunded liability, currently at 2.9 million for our self-insured pool, which went down from prior year that was at 3.4 million. The total aggregate benefits that we paid out calendar year for 2025 was 1.5 million, which is an increase of 224 000 from the 24. And this is due to the National Council on Compensation Insurances, their rates have increased, so therefore we're going to see an increase in our cost. Unemployment compensation remains flat. Other, which is on page 20, increased 199 thousand or six point five percent. This line item reflects both the internal and external billing for the Municipal garage, so you will see in the expense lines that all of the rentals from the municipal garage and other departments have gone up. Some have gone up slightly, some have gone up more depending on the vehicle that they rent, so this is where the revenue comes into that. So any questions on any of these items before we move to capital? Councillor Nijing, thank you Mr. Mayor. [16:50] Joshua L. Nagine: Thank you Director Roy. You had mentioned the drop program and I just don't know what line item it is in here, and if you could go over the drop program a little bit, I'd love to know more about it. So [17:05] Michael R. Roy: this is the retire in place. Let me find where that is. So the cities currently have their, are 20 active employees that were working for us and then they retire and come back into work for us, and the retirement they can only make so much for a wage. So most of their wages, when you look at like if you notice last year Chief Saint Pierre looked really low compared to other individuals in their department, that's because he was in that drop program, so his wage wasn't a full 100 % it was 90 or 95. I can't remember exactly, so that's you'll see in certain departments, so 20 active employees have that, they don't make their full 100% wage. [18:09] Joshua L. Nagine: But they do in retirement benefits, it goes into the retirement. Is that correct? [18:13] Michael R. Roy: They get the retirement, the 5% retirement, but they don't get the full wage. So if you were to look at steps on our tables and look and wonder why, say it was they were supposed to be making 140 and they're not, that's because they don't make the full, the percentage is decreased because of that retire. [18:37] Joshua L. Nagine: Okay, so they're actively collecting retirement and they're being paid a lower amount while they're also working, they're still receiving funds into the retirement account as well, correct? It's a certain percentage that goes in. Yeah, could you just point out the line item on that just so I'm [18:54] Michael R. Roy: aware of it, is it, is it busted out there? So that will be in every wage that has just built into the wage, so I can, I can get you which department has those 20s. Okay, I know there's [19:06] Joshua L. Nagine: quite a few in the police department. Okay, yeah, I would just appreciate just having an idea of like overall what that is, and then the health insurance piece, 4921, looks like our health insurance premiums went up considerably, is that [19:22] Michael R. Roy: correct? So what we normally do with health insurance is we budget the half a year what our actual increase was, because we receive our increases in January, so from January to June, to December, sorry, January to just not December, I'm like losing it, January, June, yep, we can budget at the six percent, but the remaining six months we estimate an eight point five percent increase just to be on the safe side. We did have a six percent purpose for 26, we had seven percent for 25, so to be on the safe side we budget for eight point five percent for that six months. And when will we know what are the actual [20:08] Joshua L. Nagine: premiums are? We won't know until we're closer to January. Okay, and then the last question I had was around the workman's comp shortage, and so we're currently 2.9 million dollars short of the funding suggested fund amount, correct, and our insurance costs for workman's comp went up. [20:31] Michael R. Roy: So no, the rates, so the national rates go up. So what we do to calculate our amounts is they will take our wages. So we have to do an audit every year with the state and an audit with the company that we source out, that we actually give them our actual calendar year wages, and it takes that rate and times by to make sure that we're at where we are. Sometimes we end up getting another bill if we've estimated too low for the amount of wages due to, mostly it's usually overtime that comes in higher than what we've estimated, so that rate per a code, so public works has a different code than us office individuals. We have a lower code because we have a less of risk. Public works, fire, police, they have higher codes. Those codes dropped for 2025, and that's why we saw a decrease in the budget for 25, I mean for fiscal year 26, but the codes have gone back up for the 26, so that's where we're gonna see the jump for our fiscal year 27, so it's not [21:48] Joshua L. Nagine: the amount of workers comp funding that people are actually, yeah, exactly, claims that are actually being placed, it's what we're being advised we need in order to cover our current employees, correct. Should, okay, and if you could just speak really quickly, because I know the workers comp fund has been underfunded for a very long time, could you tell me how long we've [22:09] Michael R. Roy: been running a deficit? Do you have any, I'd have to, I'd have to go back and look at all of the reports, but I believe most towns run a deficit because nobody funds their full, but I can go back and get you those amounts back years. If we could just have an idea of what the [22:27] Joshua L. Nagine: dollar amount deficit is over a period of like, let's say, the past ten years, that'd be helpful, because I know that in like 2024 we had assigned a larger amount to workman's comp then was even suggested because we did have some room there, but now seeing this increase, I'm just wondering like what our [22:45] Michael R. Roy: trajectory is, do you know, I mean like, right, are actually unfunded is going down from prior years, so it is going down, it hasn't been going up, as you notice if you look at the amounts, I did put the amounts in there for you, so last year it was at 3.4 million, this year it's at 2.9, so it is going down that we're getting closer to covering our full. Yeah, I would [23:16] Joshua L. Nagine: just love to see like on a decade long, yeah, trajectory, what percentage, I guess dollar amount and percentage of what we're supposed to have. Thank you very much, that's it for me. Counselor [23:28] Carl L. Sheline: herman did you have your hand up thank you my question was answered okay further comments about personal services and fringe councillor chittum yeah i'd like to explore a little bit [23:41] David B. Chittim: More about this workers compensation. This we're, we're underfunded based on the recommendations, underwriter or the people with whom we insure, but we're not underfunded in terms of our ability to meet what has been historically demands. Correct. And I think Councilmember Nettigeen is asking for the number that illustrates that difference. [24:02] Joshua L. Nagine: I will. Yes. [24:04] Michael R. Roy: We are never, we have never been in the negative in the country. We have paid what is need be. Okay. I will get those along with the deficit that their reports have. [24:15] David B. Chittim: Is there a penalty for us to pay the need be? Not to be funded to the level that we're told we need to be funded now these if [24:23] Michael R. Roy: you remember these reports do go to the bond Raider rating companies so they look at everything on our what we carry for fund balance what we carry for unfunded liabilities so this is a report that they also get and review okay is [24:42] David B. Chittim: there any way to quantify the effect that this would have on our currently we're at double-A I believe double-a negative double-a negative okay is there a way to quantify what financial or monetary penalty this underfunding would result in I could speak with the bond counselor thank you yeah thank you [25:07] Carl L. Sheline: Okay I think we're up to capital away so [25:17] Michael R. Roy: next is capital on page 29 just want to touch upon just a reminder of what it is we will go through these as you see in with the department so when the department head is in front of you this is when you will be able to ask them about their projects we're not going to go line by line tonight I just wanted to mention that with the sale of Main Street fire it looks like it's coming in higher than what we had originally credited for the fire station so I put in your breakout that will be reduced about 25,000 more from what they're going to request so it'll be instead of the 7 million 41 it will be 7 million 16 that will be needed for the new Lisbon Street fire station so with that reduction the limited cap is at 27 million over so that's it for capital. As I mentioned, we will be discussing projects, the projects as the departments come up, so that you can ask them questions on their LCIP capital that they requested. Unless you have any other questions, we'll move on to general government. [26:37] Carl L. Sheline: Councillor Nugent, did you have something? [26:40] Joshua L. Nagine: Just out of the TIF request this year, I know that some of these have been funded partially over a period of years, like for instance, THE BRIDGE STREET BRIDGE I BELIEVE WE HAD SIGNED A HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS IN THE LAST YEAR'S BUDGET UH TO IT UM IF WE COULD SEE UH LIKE JUST A BREAKDOWN OF LIKE HOW MUCH HAS BEEN REQUESTED AND FUNDED OVER A PERIOD OF TIME FOR CERTAIN PROGRAMS THAT WOULD BE VERY HELPFUL JUST SO WE HAVE AN IDEA LIKE OVERALL IN OUR MINDS LIKE YOU KNOW SUNNY SIDE PARK WE'D GIVEN SOME MONEY FOR last year and it's again here for another amount and so gives me an idea of how much we're asking for overall as well as like what the progress is so okay thanks so [27:28] Michael R. Roy: we're gonna move to general government so we'll start with a legislation and executive is page 30 to 31 your overall increase is eighty one thousand six ninety six city council remains flat the mayor increased four thousand seven hundred this is due to the digitizing of the mayor portrait and the mayor's coalition which is a new do dues city administrated on page 30 overall increase of seventy thousand six oh nine this is for that new position for public health and then marketing increased six thousand 387 it's all in wages if you would like to step up Angie if Angie's here to if you would like to ask her any questions on the marketing department questions [28:29] Carl L. Sheline: for our marketing department tells [28:37] Joshua L. Nagine: our new genius so overall all of the increases are coming in wages and I guess the question is are you putting another person on the team or what's happening that's just okay so that's just okay gotcha okay so [29:01] Michael R. Roy: next is city attorney on page 37 you'll see an overall decrease of 7 500 that is taking the estimate of the average over the monthly bills and seeing a decrease in that of 12 000 with an increase of 4 500 for legal services other than legal kind of like the investigations or anything that's down on the side that's not from the lawyers that line has been added is that everything for city yes that's everything for a city attorney you have [29:39] Carl L. Sheline: a question about city attorney councillor Herman yes just wondering [29:42] Scott A. Harriman: where to find that in our book page 37 covers assessing 32 actually oh sorry 32 [Michael R. Roy: my mistake thank] you next [29:59] Michael R. Roy: is city Clark on page 33 [30:04] David B. Chittim: Thank you. Yes, miscellaneous services shows up a lot. Are we going to get detail on what that is and why is the attorney going up from 500 to 5,000? What are miscellaneous services for the city attorney? [30:23] Michael R. Roy: So that's the new service that I mentioned, the 4,500 that's put in there. That's not for attorney fees. That's for other legal fees, such as an investigator. So currently, we have no line item for that when it comes up and we need to do an investigation. So that line has been added in there. So overall, the whole Department is a decrease of 7,500. [30:50] David B. Chittim: All right, so that line then comes out of the other fees for 15,000. So yes, so that [30:59] Michael R. Roy: is the legal fees for the lawyer. Mm-hmm. Okay, and that's just for our accounting [31:04] David B. Chittim: purposes, so we'll get a handle on what non legal fees are. Correct. But built to [31:10] Michael R. Roy: Brandon Isaacson or yep, don't Brandon Isaacson. Are all the other fees, the miscellaneous services, are for individuals who are hired that are not the lawyer, that are doing [31:22] Joshua L. Nagine: investigations which may be helpful so for example this past year as you know there have been a number of investigations we paid for various things maybe it'd be helpful if we could get the information of how much we've spent this year on investigations to show that 's you know probably smart to build into the budget in future years when these things do arise and do those [31:42] David B. Chittim: Do those investigations bill us directly or do, are we billed through Brandon Isaacson? No, we're billed directly. Okay. All right. Thank you. [31:51] Michael R. Roy: Nexus City Clerk in election on page 33, their overall decrease is 25,000 or 4.8 percent. City clerks on page 33 had an overall increase of 7088. The largest increase is their wages. Election had a decrease of 32 000 or 26.7. Their largest decrease is in salaries and temporary wages due to, as I mentioned earlier, one election instead of two. City clerk is here to answer any questions you may have on her [32:29] David B. Chittim: department. Any questions for the city counselor? Yeah, I noticed that telephone has gone up as have others, several other items across the board. Why is that? So in [32:43] Michael R. Roy: prior years, the city clerk did not get a cell phone stipend where she should, so that was put in for the budget. Is that going to be the same answer for all [32:55] David B. Chittim: the other telephone increases? Are we now giving cell phones to other employees or [32:59] Michael R. Roy: no, she is the only one. The other lines you see that are increasing in telephone phone are most likely for tablets, for the internet coverage for tablets. Okay. [33:10] David B. Chittim: Thank you again. Miscellaneous services. [33:20] Susan G. Longchamps: Can you speak into the mic, please? Thank you. We have the operations account and the elections account. Miscellaneous services for the operations side is simply for unexpected. I apologize, Madam Clerk, you probably still need to move the mic closer to you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Is that better? Possibly, yes. Thank you. For operations, miscellaneous services is if we need to replace any small equipment like a printer or something like that, or if we need to purchase any unexpected supplies that are not anticipated, not budgeted for, that's on the operation side. On the election side, miscellaneous covers the programming of our voting machines. I don't know why it's necessarily considered under miscellaneous and not its own account, but that's where it's always been budgeted for. So that's the programming of the voting machines. If it's a state election, the state will pay for the programming of the machines, but if [34:15] David B. Chittim: it's a city election, we need to cover that. And the increase of three thousand five hundred and thirty dollars over last year's proposed and revised budgets, why is that such a great increase? [34:29] Susan G. Longchamps: Sure, it is for the programming of the machines for a city election. And so it's the programming of the voting machines that people will use at the polls for the city ballots, and then it's the programming of the accessible voting machines, the touch screen that are for voters who need assistance, the ADA machine, is for programming that for city ballots as well as creating an accessible absentee ballot, which is an electronic absentee ballot for folks who have vision impairment. Was that expense [35:04] David B. Chittim: in another line in prior years? No, it's always been in this line. Well, again, we spent two hundred dollars, or we budgeted two hundred dollars last year, and we're looking at thirty seven hundred dollars this year. We can take a look at that and see if it was in [35:20] Susan G. Longchamps: another account, but it should always be in the miscellaneous account. Okay, I do see that we [35:25] David B. Chittim: actually spent thirty six hundred dollars this year, but I'm wondering why we under budgeted so much. We know when the elections are going to be and what we have, right? And we're going to have a city one every November now, right? Okay, if you could get an answer, that'd be appreciated. Thank [35:40] Joshua L. Nagine: you, Councillor Nageen. Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. Just a couple of quick questions, City Clerk. One, I'm showing that we have that advertising and marketing line, which looks like we've appropriated 2500, spent 600 so far. We're appropriating 2800. We're asking to budget for [36:04] Susan G. Longchamps: 2800 for 2027, what is that fund for specifically? So it is for legal ads for your land use code and city code of ordinances amendments, but the biggest cost is the LCIP bond ad, and that's almost a quarter page ad, and that always runs every May. So the budget is going to look like it's full and healthy right now, but it will, by the end of the fiscal year, we'll be using that, because that's a very end of the year expense that we have every year. Okay, makes sense. And the second piece was [36:37] Joshua L. Nagine: the code ordinances, so what is that? So that's 4141 42600. Looks like we've appropriated 1800, spent none, and we're approaching 1800 for next year. What's it for? Same situation. [36:55] Susan G. Longchamps: It's an end of the fiscal year expense, it's an annual expense. It's, we purchase, for whatever reason, in my budget, the fire, the national fire prevention set of fire codes, life safety fire codes have always been budgeted in my account. It's an electronic version that they receive, they need to get it every year as updates come out. So it's an eighteen hundred dollar bill, and I just signed it last week, so again, it hasn't hit the fiscal year accounting yet. And that's related to permitting, I assume, right? And any of the inspections at the fire department does, it's the national fire prevention code. Okay, thank you. Back [37:36] Carl L. Sheline: to you, counselor. [37:38] David B. Chittim: Thank you, Madam Clerk. It would seem to me that would be a fire expense. I'm wondering, could that be moved into the fire department? We can certainly talk about it. When I started [37:47] Susan G. Longchamps: here 30 years ago, it was in this budget, so it's just maintained in this budget ever since. [37:52] David B. Chittim: Probably because it's codes, probably, right? Is that available to anyone other than the fire [37:58] Susan G. Longchamps: department? Can the public access that? Not the public, because you need certain passcodes to access it, but I'm sure code enforcement, the code enforcement department could if they needed [38:07] David B. Chittim: to. Okay, thank you. I know, I know these codes are expensive. Is it just the NFPA? Yes, that's it. Okay, what about Boca? They have the same situation, they would budget it in their own department in enforcement. Okay, thank you. Next. [38:25] Michael R. Roy: Is finance on page 34 and 35? There's an overall decrease of fifty seven thousand dollars, or five point five percent. The finance and administration on page 34, overall increase of three thousand six fifty four, which is in wages. Purchasing on page 34, overall increase of six thousand six forty seven, mostly in wages. This is due to, as mentioned, every year LED gives funds whenever there's a big done the purchasing agent and the assistants time whenever there is a what ton a bid. Oh good, thank you. What The deputy director purchasing and the administration assistant portion of their wage for that hour, or however long that process is, credited from that has lessened because there's less bids going out, so that's why you see an increase of 7,000 in that wage. Accounting and auditing, overall decrease of 82,000. This is for that frozen position, the senior accountant. Tax and Treasury on page 35, you see an overall increase of 14,000 338. The largest increase you'll see in postage due to the certified mailing cost is going up. In 2025 it went up to ten dollars and forty four cents from nine sixty four, so we're gonna see an increase when we send out certified mail. They estimated to go up another six percent, so we're estimating in fiscal year 27 to see 1106 for a cost for each piece of mail that goes out that's certified. And central services is an overall decrease of 250 dollars. This is where our central large printer is that we use, like when I'm printing for the budget or any of those items, so there's paper there that gets charged off to departments. We're seeing an overall decrease in printing, so that's why this line is decreasing. That is division of finance. Any questions on finance? [40:50] David B. Chittim: You've been recognized. Thank you Mr. Mayor. The accountant position, which is now frozen, how long has that position been empty? It's been emptied, the [41:04] Michael R. Roy: individual has moved over to the tax and Treasury side and took the cash management position, so it has been vacant probably about a month. Okay, and [41:16] David B. Chittim: it will be frozen? It will be frozen for the full year. And what impact is this going to have on the ability of the finance department? So I have shifted [41:25] Michael R. Roy: Around responsibilities so things will be shifted around and the position the bank reconciliation the items that this person did will be shifted to different individuals. I'm taking over the supervising piece of the deputy therefore he can take on more of the other responsibilities along with we're shifting some of the responsibilities for to the senior utility accountant so we're shifting everything around so that nothing will be [41:58] David B. Chittim: forgotten. Okay that leads to the question which applies in all these frozen positions. What's the difference between freezing a position and eliminating a position? [42:08] Michael R. Roy: So in the hopes that next year revenues will be higher and the position can come back. If we eliminate it then it's usually harder to get back if the funds come back. When we do budget for fiscal year 28 [42:26] Joshua L. Nagine: It keeps it on the books, right? [42:28] David B. Chittim: If we want to increase let's say we have a banner year and a revenues come in way over projections and we want to add staff. What's the process for doing that if they're not frozen positions if we want to create new positions? Is that a complex process? Does that come before the council? How does that work? [42:48] Joshua L. Nagine: You talk about mid fiscal year [42:50] David B. Chittim: Or even budgeted if we wanted to for example this year, we're going to be talking about adding a public health officer. The council has requested that this be included in a budget that seemed like a fairly simple process. Can we have this position if? Administration had requested a position would it come for budgeting obviously budgeting purposes the council is there any other council approval that's needed to add a position. It [43:18] Joshua L. Nagine: would be the budget [43:20] Michael R. Roy: Correct it would be the budget if you decided say as we spoke last year about the police officers when we froze the police officers if you remember there was that discussion that if we end up doing good with revenues and we needed to hire another police officer it would come in front of the council to approve to use those excess funds or either look at the salary reserve in able to hire that position if it's not during the budget season okay [43:54] David B. Chittim: So what I'm hearing is that eliminating the position and freezing the position both to fill eliminated positions or create to fill frozen positions or create new positions both require council approval on the budget and that's that's it. So I guess I'm not understanding how it's easier and it's a matter of semantics but we're carrying frozen but 11 frozen or 12 frozen I heard the number earlier 12 positions if we have revenues and to fill those positions mid-year are they automatically filled or does it come back to the council? No, comes back. Then what's the advantage of saying we have 11 or 12 frozen positions? I [44:44] Joshua L. Nagine: I think again it's it's leaving them on the books versus eliminating so if we if we're in this position next year and the budget is looking a lot better than this year we have the ability to unfreeze or just fill those positions again if they're eliminated now we're creating a new position again into the budget so I think some of it is just you know semantics as you say but in effect we're leaving them on the books with the hope that in a future better climate that we're able to just fill those they have been identified as needed positions throughout the organization for sure. I don't think we necessarily want to see these positions eliminated for the long term forever but for this year with the circumstances that we're in it makes sense to freeze positions that are currently open rather than looking to layoffs. Certainly okay thank you so [45:37] Michael R. Roy: next would be MIS on page 36. There's an overall increase of 13,000 652 or 1.5. The increase is in maintenance and licenses for the Munis which is our financial software and Microsoft 365. The directors here if you have any questions on the MIS budget. [46:09] Carl L. Sheline: Counselor Jim, do you have a question? [46:10] David B. Chittim: Well, yes, I'm looking at a reduction in the salaries and wages line. That's unusual. [46:17] Michael R. Roy: That is, oh, sorry, go ahead. [46:19] Joshua L. Nagine: I was just going to say we had an employee that had many, years retire, [46:23] Carl L. Sheline: and we replaced them with a new employee, so the salary's much lower. Excellent, thank you. You're welcome. [46:32] Michael R. Roy: So next is assessing on page 37. The overall increase is $51,749, or 14%. Increase in wages due to the two assistants getting their certification. And an increase of $22,990 in contracted services. That's mostly in the miscellaneous services for the revaluation of the personal property. Last year, this was paid with fund balance. This year we have no fund balance. So it's been put in the budget. That's why there's a large increase. So the directors here, if you have any questions for him on assessing. [47:18] David B. Chittim: Councillor Chittim, last year you say it was paid by the fund balance, correct? If an item is paid by fund balance, it doesn't show up in the budget. [47:31] Michael R. Roy: budget last year it showed up in the budget and then we removed it for fund balance and went over this when we explained so it brings that budget to a zero for the original budget if you look in the line that says revised budget you'll see the 20 000 in there that's the fund balance that we put in to that account to cover that so it's not in the original budget because it's covered by FUND BALANCE BUT IT'S IN THE REVISED BECAUSE IT WAS AN INCUMBRENCE TO COVER FROM THE FUND BALANCE [48:01] David B. Chittim: I guess I view, perhaps naively, the fund balance as a savings account, and I don't understand why it makes a difference whether we're paying for a position from taxpayer revenue or revenue sharing from the state or a grant or the fund balance. It's a position that's in the budget and it costs the city money. Why, if it's coming from our savings account, doesn't it show up in the budget? Or am I missing the point completely? So it's, it's fund balance doesn't show. [48:35] Michael R. Roy: Up on in the budget for the original budget. Your original budget is what is going to be taking your revenues that you've received, reducing that expense, and then giving you your tax rate. So the amount of money that you need to raise for taxation, if fund balance was in there, then you'd have to have a line for fund balance to offset it. I see. [48:59] David B. Chittim: Thank you, that explains it. I mean, fund balance. [49:05] Carl L. Sheline: George, or a fund balance, you know, functions much as retained earnings does in the in the corporate world, is that correct? [49:14] Joshua L. Nagine: councillor in aging did you have anything yeah just real quick Thank you mr mayor assessor haley are you comfortable with the concept that we don't have any overtime budgeted for this particular year when we're going to be going through the reeval [49:32] Speaker H (unidentified): It's going to be difficult. Originally, in the first phase of my budget, I did request a position. Understanding the circumstances we're in, I completely get it. It will be challenging, there's no question. I will have to press the staff, and they're very good to work as hard as they can and try to get everything done in the regular course of. [49:56] Joshua L. Nagine: Business day, okay, I understood. And do we have a contingency? Well, we obviously do. When we said that, we only have that, we don't have any fund balance, we actually have 10 of our operating budget in fund balance, correct? So if there was a needed, correct. [50:13] Michael R. Roy: So there are also a lot of employees who comp their time instead of taking the overtime so that they can use it at a later time. So that's why you see a lot of departments don't have any overtime budget because most of those individuals like to comp their time and use it for time off. Okay. Understood. [50:33] Scott A. Harriman: Councilor Herman. You so it says under dues that there's there's an increase of 7338 due to the dues going from $40 to $65 it looks like that's $100 in the budget so where's the 7338 show up in here so [51:34] Michael R. Roy: There were other items within that account that was the largest increase so there's the main Association for assessing officers there is the main chapter of the international all those dues went up slightly it was just that was the largest one I didn't list every single one and I can if that's what you guys would prefer but I tried a lot list the largest increase in which dues so that you're not seeing every single thing in the breakout so there were other dues that increased to make up for That difference so I guess where on page [52:16] Scott A. Harriman: 37 are is the other seven thousand two hundred thirty eight dollars it [52:29] Michael R. Roy: May be I don't think it was seven thousand I might have added accidentally added so dues increased I think I accidentally added dues increased a hundred dollars so that was my error okay that shouldn't say seven thousand three thirty eight should say a hundred all right thank you any [52:56] Carl L. Sheline: Other questions for assessing I [53:03] Michael R. Roy: Think we're good next is human resources thank you for your department's effort on page 38 the overall increase is ninety six thousand four seventy three or thirty three percent the increase is mostly in wages for eighty three thousand eighty five this is due to the if you remember the DEI position that was in city administration that was covered by a grant last year or this year is now a workforce development specialist and moved to the human resources department that's the largest increase do You have any questions for [53:45] Joshua L. Nagine: The human resources grant is now expired that's the cost obviously questions [53:55] David B. Chittim: For Dr. Tarrio don't search it up can you explain the credit somebody explain the credit for school safety coordinator correct so the school because we have [54:07] Michael R. Roy: The safety coordinator at the city, the school pays a portion of his salaries due to the due to him going into the schools for safety issues. Okay, can you [54:19] David B. Chittim: explain the role of the safety coordinator? I guess this is for [54:22] Speaker I (unidentified): Director Terrio. Yep, so our safety coordinator, just move the mic closer to you for our folks at home. So you're asking as far as like going into the schools or in general what's his job or her job? Yep, so he does all of our work evaluations, he handles all of the workers comp claims, he goes and investigates the incidents, figures out how to prevent them in the future, he does a lot of training on prevention and safety, he monitors the different work sites to make sure that everybody is working safely as well. So this is Lewiston's own OSHA officer pretty much. Okay, [54:59] Joshua L. Nagine: thank you. Counseling aging, so just to check real quick here, did so we froze 12 positions, we have one new position in the budget, but this workforce development coordinator is a new [55:13] Speaker I (unidentified): position, is it not? It's not, so it was originally in the administration budget and then we moved it over to human resources to be able to utilize it to its fullest potential. Was it filled last year? [55:26] Joshua L. Nagine: It was. Yep. Okay, so this has not been a vacant position at any point. No. Okay, so basically I guess a little over a year ago or about a year ago the name of the position was changed and then the grant is expiring this year, so this is essentially you know I guess technically it is adding a position where we're covering funding for a position to be the grant is now expired but the name was changed. I guess that [55:52] Speaker J (unidentified): was it about a year ago last year's budget was the workforce development specialist and that was covered. We did change the job description and we did move it over to HR based on the responsibilities the workforce post development specialist I mean and I know it that probably the she had submitted a position which I denied what our budget but we have one person our HR director for almost 400 employees and then she has an assistant a general specialist so comparing our size of our workforce to other agencies having one person doing all of them you know dealing with HR to me did not seem a good use for our folks or good. So that's when we created that workforce amount you and it was but last year it was covered and that's what we're seeing now. But really what we did we just slid it from one department so instead of reporting to me Workforce Development reports HR director. Okay, perfect, and ultimately so [56:55] Joshua L. Nagine: We currently have three positions total in HR. Is that correct? It's four of you. [57:00] Speaker I (unidentified): You include the safety coordinator for okay. [57:05] David B. Chittim: Cancer Chittum, the grant that funded the DEI position renamed to workforce development specialist, where was that grant from and is it available anymore? [57:15] Speaker J (unidentified): That was from the Sewell foundation and no it is not. I will say the workforce development specialist is applying to for another grant from Sewell and I mentioned this a couple of meetings ago. She's applying for a 50,000 grant to HELP TRY TO OFFSET THE COST FOR THAT PUBLIC HEALTH POSITION. I DON'T KNOW IF SHE'S GONNA GET IT. I MEAN THERE'S A LOT OF COMPETITION FOR THAT MONEY AND WE WON'T FIND OUT TILL MAYBE MAY I BELIEVE THE END OF A PROBABLY EARLIER MAY IF THAT POSITION WOULD BE IF WE OBTAIN THAT $50,000 AND THAT'LL PRESUMABLY BE AFTER THE BUDGETS APPROVED. THAT IS CORRECT. I MEAN IF WE DON'T HAVE THAT POSITION I KNOW WHAT THAT'S A NEW POSITION WITH A TIGHT BUDGET. I'M NOT SURE HOW THAT will reflect in terms of our ask for the $50,000 but if we were got it could we get somebody to work part-time at $50,000 I don't know but [58:06] David B. Chittim: if the council now rejects the public health officer and says we can't afford that this year does that mean that the application of the Sewell Foundation for the grant to cover a portion of that could not be used for the workforce development [58:22] Speaker J (unidentified): SPECIALIST IF I CAN CONTINUE TO ANSWER THERE MR. KANE RATH WHAT WE COULD DO IS BRING IT FORWARD TO YOU AS WE OFTEN DO WHEN WE APPLY FOR GRANTS AND YOU WOULD ACCEPT AND APPROPRIATE IT AND WE COULD SAY OKAY IF WE CAN FILL THIS POSITION FOR $50,000 WE WOULD DO THAT BUT THAT WOULD COME IN FRONT OF YOU WHETHER OR NOT WE CUT THIS POSITION ON IF WE AWARDED THAT GRANT WE WILL COME TO YOU AND WE DO THIS FOR MANY THINGS BURN GRANT ALL TYPES OF THINGS THAT YOU would accept and appropriate it thank you counselor and just on that same note thank [58:55] Joshua L. Nagine: you mr mayor just on that same note we also have the ability to for instance if we're freezing police officer positions we can still decide to appropriate funds for them if we're advertising for them right like we don't have to necessarily say we're not going to advertise for these positions if we can find a candidate to fill them and then we just ask for that position to be appropriated at a later date so basically correct so we could [59:25] Michael R. Roy: unfreeze if the council decides when going through budget decides they do not want to freeze the position or all 12 positions that is the council's decision [59:35] Joshua L. Nagine: To make well, I'm talking specifically the police officer positions. And what I'm saying is even if we freeze the positions, we can continue to advertise for them and then ask for appropriation for that position at a later date. Is that correct? We don't, we don't advertise [59:52] Speaker I (unidentified): for any of the frozen positions. So I will say we currently have police officer positions still open, so it is posted. We're just freezing some of them but [1:00:07] Joshua L. Nagine: we could decide to unfreeze a position also, correct, if we wanted to. Meteor, we could decide to unfreeze something so for the budget purposes, again for the budget purposes, we would freeze a position but then at a later date, if we find that we have the opportunity to hire an employee for the police department in particular, we can unfreeze that position or appropriate the fathers. So if you know this fall, you know, we had a flood of candidates, we could, but then we could unfreeze the position, fund [1:00:38] Carl L. Sheline: fund it and make some hires. Okay, perfect, thank you. Yeah, and when we're talking about the police department, we haven't frozen all the positions, correct? There's still going to be some open and then I also understand there's going to be coming retirements that we also need to, right? So we have positions to work with for sure this year still. Yep, and just for the public's benefit, we can only send so many people to Police Academy at one time, so we're bounded by constraints here. Counselor Chittum, didn't I'm sorry, councillor Nijian. Did you have anything else? [1:01:12] Joshua L. Nagine: No, not at all. Thank you. Yes [1:01:15] David B. Chittim: Counselor Chittum. Did you have a final question? Yes, it's it's the same funding. But what is described labor relations, the $10,000 line item there, director Theriault? [1:01:26] Speaker I (unidentified): Which line item are you referring to? [1:01:29] David B. Chittim: For two eighty three hundred labor relations [1:01:42] Speaker I (unidentified): That line item is for mediation are in arbitration and salary surveys. So as we have open contract negotiations, those are the funds that we draw down from if we need to go to arbitration or if we have a situation within the union that we have to go to mediation, we would use those funds to draw down. [1:02:07] Michael R. Roy: So that concludes our budget meeting for tonight. I wanna remind everybody that the school budget is March 16th at the Green Ladle at 5.30, and then our next one will be workshop before the March 17th. We'll be going over economic development TIF and CDBG. Got sir Herman, did you have something [1:02:33] Scott A. Harriman: yes, thank you, just going back to Tuesday, are we covering revenue tonight? It was [1:02:38] Michael R. Roy: I'm sorry, it was next Thursday night that we're covering it. Okay, sorry about [1:02:44] Carl L. Sheline: That stay tuned council Roy. Yes, thank you Mr. Mayor. I just want to tell people out there in TV land, if that's the way to do it, please email us if there are any concerns about the budget, anything you want us to be aware of, to look at, to think about, please email us and let your thoughts be heard. I would appreciate that. Administrator Kainrath, I'm trying to find it here, but we have a budget hearing on this next meeting or no, the public hearing, the first public hearing April 7th is April 7th, April 7th. Okay, I see it now. Okay, yes counselor. [1:03:29] Joshua L. Nagine: Thank you Mr. Mayor. Quickly, I understand that there may be some retirements before the end of this fiscal year for certain departments. Has there ever been a situation where we've either frozen those positions for the following budget or considered a realigning of those positions in order to possibly streamline some of the I'll use an example, I think the police supervisory union has 16 members right now out of a total of 87 staff, and was there any consideration for possibly eliminating [1:04:06] Michael R. Roy: one of those positions? We have not any positions that have become vacant after this process that we did the budget, we have not frozen, so they're just expected [1:04:18] Joshua L. Nagine: to be filled for the night either from the ranks below. Normally correct, people get promoted up. Okay, thank you. [1:04:27] Carl L. Sheline: Councillor Chittim. Yes, thank you in [1:04:31] David B. Chittim: general this is a very tight budget and I'm sure you've gone over it with a fine tooth comb, but I see every department has dues and miscellaneous services. Have those been looked at minutely? Are all the dues absolutely necessary to perform the functions and our miscellaneous services ill-defined, but are they absolutely necessary in the amounts listed for every [1:04:55] Joshua L. Nagine: department? I'll just say something about dues. So dues, most of them are involving memberships and professional organizations which relates to training. I will say in general, I think you know having worked in other organizations, we need more training opportunities available here, not less. I think we're already sort of a bit short in a lot of areas in how much we do with staff development and training, so I'd be hesitant to start pulling. I understand we're in a tough year, we also have to continue to Invest in our people, and so I'd be hesitant to, in a drastic way, start cutting it dues and not allowing people to be a part of professional organizations and other things. Certainly something we could look at, but I think it certainly has an impact on the quality of staff, the training of staff, and the morale of staff for sure. [1:05:44] Michael R. Roy: So just a general statement on that, Patrice, along with certifications. So some of those dues are for membership that they need for their certification to keep certified. So just a thought on that. [1:05:58] David B. Chittim: Okay, thank you. And one final off-the-wall, blue-sky, out-of-nowhere question. Payroll represents a significant portion of the city budget. Much of that payroll is dictated by contracts. A contract between the city and an employee does not preclude that employee from saying, in the interest of public service, I will forego my increase this year. Has there been any exploration of asking employees if they are willing to forego their raise or a portion of it in recognition for some non, in exchange for some non-monetary recognition? Not this time. Is that something that's worth exploring? [1:06:45] Carl L. Sheline: My guess is probably no. Heading back to professional dues, yeah, the dues line item. So sometimes cutting dues can be counterproductive because many licensed professionals need to keep up on their CE, and these dues in these professional associations provide an opportunity for those cost CE that we would then be on the hook for higher cost CE if they were not in these organizations. Councillor Nagine. [1:07:18] Joshua L. Nagine: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Director Arroyo, one thing I just wanted to note really quickly. The reorganization within your department in order to absorb the work flow for the one employee that has shifted departments is greatly appreciated. I think that any place where we can do that in different departments, and obviously it's going to be the director's decisions in order to decide whether to do that or not, but what you've done is very accommodating for a very tight budget, and it's greatly appreciated by the council, at least by myself. [1:07:51] Scott A. Harriman: You did, you have something, I was just gonna say, while it's, I guess, a noble idea to ask employees to maybe forego an increase, I would think if they're covered under a CBA that would either be a violation of it or be very close to doing that, to have your employer come to you and ask you to not to forego something that is guaranteed in your contract. So I would just, I don't know. I just wouldn't think it would be seen as good faith. [1:08:29] Carl L. Sheline: Councillor Martel, did you have something? [1:08:31] Bret Martel: Yeah, just to that. I can't imagine Excuse me where anybody would be excited about not getting their raise or anything else, but I think it's important that we recognize that There's gonna have to be cuts or you know, we've heard from the public or at least I have These tax increases are not being received. Well and Something is gonna happen positions are going to be cut services are going to be cut something is going to have to happen or we're going to have pitchforks outside of city hall when these new tax bills come in and i don't imagine that anybody would welcome losing their raise but if the alternative is cutting positions or departments or services we have a lot of tough decisions in front of us and i just think we have to look at the lesser of two evils in some circumstances [1:09:28] Carl L. Sheline: that's all thank you counselor martel i would also you know these are obviously great discussions to have and you know we've kind of seen where the budget is headed before we start committing to things that we'd like to get a certain way through the budget you know understand everything all the expenses and then kind of go from there administrator kainrath yes [1:09:49] Joshua L. Nagine: yeah thank you just on to follow up on tough decisions as council martel mentioned we've already made 4.1 million dollars worth of them so far i think we're understanding that probably more need to happen and i want you know we're going to be discussing and meeting further to really devise a i'll call it a menu of options for the council to look at for additional cuts and additional areas of savings none of these are going to be fun or pleasant But I feel like it's also incumbent upon us to do that. So we are going to be developing I'll call it a menu of options to get to some lower numbers Again, they'll be pretty difficult. But I think we have to do this. So we're gonna be preparing some things We'll be sharing that with you as we go through this process. So just know we're already looking at Where else we could potentially go what scenarios we could potentially look at And so we're gonna be preparing some options for you to look at in addition to obviously entertain the ideas that you have to achieve [1:10:52] Carl L. Sheline: Further cost savings. Thank you. Mr. Ken Rath counseling aging. Did you have something? [Joshua L. Nagine: It can wait] And with that counseling aging yes, I [1:11:07] Joshua L. Nagine: Sorry, just to circle back around, so I don't know if this is the appropriate moment to bring this up, but the public health officer position, I had spoke with the public health committee today and I made it pretty clear that like there probably wasn't any funding source for this position. And I think in a very tight budget year, when we're looking at a four point, so sorry, seven point one percent increase on the city side, and with the tax revalues, the average homeowner looking at a fifteen hundred to two thousand dollar increase and their taxes, regardless of what we do with the city budget, is probably an appropriate time to suggest removing that position from the budget overall. And I don't know where everybody else, I would agree with you, I mean my recommendation would be to wait on that at least this next year and let us try to identify some grant funding. But I think this budget, I think it's, I think it's important to be able to say like no new positions were added in this budget, especially if we are potentially entertaining layoffs and we're already entertaining 12 frozen positions and we're now creating a new position. I don't think that's the right message in general. So it was put in the budget obviously because we discussed it, there was a request to have it in, we honored that request, but my recommendation would be to pull it out for this year. Maybe we can entertain it next year and we can also potentially look at [1:12:30] Carl L. Sheline: some areas for grant funding as we've been previously discussed. Yes, Councilor Chiddom. [1:12:36] David B. Chittim: Thank you. Back to semantics, can we leave it in the budget and freeze it? I guess we could. If that's the mechanism, then I would just as soon do that, create the position and freeze it immediately. It sounds silly, but I know there's a, there's a large drive to have a public health officer here. I think it's necessary and the only reason that we're not entertaining it, at least I don't think we're entertaining it this year, is because of budgetary constraints. So that to me is a prime candidate for this process of freezing a position. [1:13:12] Carl L. Sheline: Final thoughts before we wrap up this evening. [1:13:16] Joshua L. Nagine: COUNCILORS UH YES BACK TO YOU COUNCILOR AND AG I WOULD JUST REITERATE AGAIN THAT ANY DEPARTMENTS THAT ARE LOOKING AT RETIREMENTS OR DEPARTMENTS THAT EXPERIENCE A VACANCIES TOWARDS THE during this budget process perhaps we don't fill those positions or perhaps we figure out ways to reorganize those responsibilities in order to start to if we're losing an employee through a natural process right that employee has decided to either retire or that employee has decided to go work for another organization, is there an ability from the director's perspective, and it's gonna be different for each department for sure, to decide whether or not that workload can be carried by the remaining staff for however long, right, for one budget season basically. And ultimately, I think we're not going to get out from under this without creating revenues. And so revenues come from many different ways, but taxes are the big one. So we need to be able to create more taxable properties within the city. So thank [1:14:29] Carl L. Sheline: you all right, thank you both. Minister O'Malley, Deputy Administrator O'Malley, thank you. Thank you counsel, thank you to everyone watching. You all have a wonderful evening and we're gonna see you back on Monday. Green little other green light, yes, thank you.