September 18, 2018 - Workshop
The Town of Glen St. Mary held a budget workshop on Tuesday, September 18, 2018 at 6:05 P.M. at the Town Hall with Council Members Davis, Foster,Hodges, and Rhynehardt present. Mayor Juanice Padgett presided over the workshop.
The purpose of the workshop was to review the Town’s budgets before their adoptions.
Mayor Padgett began by telling Council there were no changes to the General Operating budget since our last workshop. The 2017/2018 Proposed Amended Water/Sewer Utility Fund budget has been changed. At the last workshop we had the Water Tap Fees at $0 and Sewer Tap Fees at $600, however we have changed them to $1,200 for the Water Tap Fees and $1,200 for Sewer Tap Fees to reflect one new home being built and the co-op school to be connected. There were no changes to the expenses. The 2018/2019 Proposed Water/Sewer Utility Fund reflects higher Fees to Macclenny due to the new sewer connections to be made. The Transfer in account line will be used to put the money in and take back out under the same line to zero out the amounts. Tap Fees are reflective of two new homes to be built.
Mayor Padgett told Council the 2017/2018 Proposed Amended Capacity Fee budget reflects one new home to be built and the co-op school has paid since our last workshop. She told Council the 2018/2019 Proposed Capacity Fee budget will be based on hookups so it will need to be changed next year as we have no way of knowing now.
Mayor Padgett then told Council the 2017/2018 Proposed Amended Impact Fee budget is being changed after something came up this month where the County says whoever collects the building permits should also collect the impact fees. So we have changed the budget to reflect no fees being collected. The same has been done for the 2018/2019 Proposed Impact Fee budget.
Mayor Padgett told Council we have not yet discussed the 2017/2018 Proposed Amended Water/Sewer Grant budget. She began explaining that we have three sources of funding. We have the CDBG Grant, SJRWMD Grant and Town funds to make up the difference. The 2017/2018 Proposed Amended Water/Sewer Grant budget is what has actually been spent. The 2018/2019 Proposed Water/Sewer Grant budget is the remainder of all the funds.
Maintenance employee Matt Torgerson was present to speak with the Council. He told them he is not asking for a raise, but feels maintenance employees need more work hours. Councilman Foster was in agreement to give more hours. Mayor Padgett was upset that he did not ask for the hours previously, saying she has offered more hours to get work caught up. Matt explained he is doing more repairs to the system now that some parts are 10-15 years old. Council member Hodges asked if the Town has two or three maintenance employees. There was some discussion on the difficulty of hiring a good summer employee. Matt told Council the pay is not enough to support a family with the current hours. Council member Hodges suggested cutting the summer employee position and give the current employees the hours. Council member Davis voiced her opinion that the grass will stop growing some in the fall. Councilman Rhynehardt suggested giving more hours until the grass stops growing and then cut hours back if things are caught up. He then asked Matt what he does when he gets to work. Matt replied that he comes in and turns the lights on, turns the air on, empties the trash, then goes over his To Do list. Council member Hodges asked about the hours in the office. She told Council she wants to have happy employees. She doesn’t want to lose assets. Mayor Padgett told Council if this is what Council wants, they can’t vote on the budgets tonight. Attorney Bense told her the budgets can be amended. Councilman Rhynehardt asked Matt what is a normal morning. Matt replied that it takes an hour and a half to test the water at the plant, check all the lift stations and ride the Town looking for ditches, limbs and street signs. He added that if a lift station goes bad, that takes away from other regular duties. During the winter they are supposed to be fixing sidewalks and do maintenance on all the equipment. He told Council that the monthly meter readings take both maintenance employees four and a half hours if it is dry and five hours if it has rained. Mayor Padgett told Council maintenance employees may have to take a lunch break. She will have to check on that matter. She told Council that so far we have just had to replace electrical fuses and replace seals at the lift stations, but once the north side is connected we will be near capacity and will have to start thinking about getting more capacity from the City of Macclenny. Councilman Rhynehardt suggested giving more hours. Council member Hodges stated the Town will have the same issues next year when trying to hire summer help. Council member Davis asked how long it will take to get caught up. Matt responded after next month they are to go to the winter maintenance. Mayor Padgett thought the trees had already been cut back. Matt responded they had only trimmed where they had been hitting the buses. Matt requested to put him at 30 hours and the other maintenance employee at 40 hours to cover all things that needed to get done. Council offered five hours extra if needed in the office for Donna. Mayor Padgett asked Matt if he was going to do code enforcement within the extra hours being asked for. He replied that it takes away from the list getting done. He has been doing code enforcement on Thursdays after hours. Council member Hodges asked how code enforcement is going. He told Council that most are low income that don’t have a chainsaw to clean up or money to fix unregistered vehicles. Council member Hodges then asked if knew whether any of them have a plan to remedy the problems. Matt replied that it is mixed, some do and some don’t. He can’t be referred to do the work for them because it is a liability for the Town. He told Council what his Code Enforcement procedures have been thus far with sending letters and notices. We will need to re-advertise in order to vote on new budgets. Councilman Foster suggested more hours for Matt who is licensed for the water plant, but did not feel comfortable giving more hours to the second maintenance employee to be at work alone. Council member agreed with Councilman Foster. Councilman Rhynehardt suggested giving extra hours unless we don’t see the work getting done then go back. Council member Hodges stated that sounds like a compromise. Councilman Foster then addressed the Mayor for more hours. Council member Davis agreed. Councilman Rhynehardt questioned if the Mayor was salaried why it mattered. Mayor Padgett asked if Councilman Rhynehardt was salaried or hourly when he worked at the prison. He responded he had done both. Councilman Foster asked if the hours were set. Mayor Padgett responded that she also handles business outside of the office when she is home.
Mayor Padgett and Council agreed to set a Special Meeting to be held on September 25, 2018 at 7:30 P.M. to vote on all of the 2018/2019 budgets.
Mayor Padgett told Council she needs an amount for herself to work numbers on an adjusted budget. Council replied with five hours.
Mayor Padgett closed the budget workshop at 7:08 P.M.