Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Meeting Recap: April 9, 2015

Note: Items of discussion in this recap include links indexed to that portion of the City Council meeting replay. Click on the bold headers that are linked to view that portion of the video.

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(STILLWATER, OKLA. / April 13, 2015) — The City of Stillwater City Council met for its regular meeting Monday, April 6, 2015. (View agenda here.)

Consent Docket
a.       Budget amendment to the storm water budget to obligate $147,319 to the 2014 Small Cities Set-Aside Program contract #16111 CDBG 14 and authorize the mayor to sign the documents

Council approved 5-0.

General Orders
a.       Preliminary presentation and discussion of the FY 2015-16 fiscal budget

Presentations made by City Manager Dan Galloway, Public Safety Director Norman McNickle, Chief Financial Officer Marcy Lamb, External Services Director John McClenny, Stillwater Utilities and Authority Director Dan Blankenship.

Galloway said there was no increase in the City Manager’s department.

Lamb said budget increases for the Finance Department were mostly due to reorganization. Increases in IT were due to maintenance contracts on software. The Bid Division would have the same budget until it could bring forward its budget at the end of the fiscal year. Capital items to be funded were all in the IT Department, including a fiber optic network. Another item was the OneSolution software for employees. One of the more critical items was the Storage Area Network because the current provider is going out of business.

Vice Mayor Joe Weaver said the Council needed to discuss how much the fund balance should be on the city and Stillwater Utilities Authority side. Lamb said there is also a small contingency funded each year.

McNickle discussed the Airport, Police, Fire and Emergency Management. The airport, the 4th busiest in Oklahoma, set a record for flights. Major airport funding was replacement and maintenance of buildings and runways. Emergency Management, Police and Animal Welfare are budgeted together. Capital projects include a use-of-force simulator, new incinerator and repairs to doors for Animal Welfare, funding to maintain rain and street systems and close circuit cameras for Emergency Management.

McClenny discussed Transportation, Human Resources, Parks and Recreation, Development Services and Operations. Transportation funding includes road maintenance and repair. Human Resources had no capital projects. Parks and Recreation is looking to expand programs for the developmentally disabled among other things, but had a decreased budget due to movement of something things to Operations and a contract for city sports programs. Development Services projects include form-based codes, building safety and planning progression, and paperless land use application (electronic documents). Operations has general and SUA fund components. McClenny presented the general fund component. Capital projects include replacing sun deck at Boomer Lake, buying an asphalt patch truck, and implementation of the skills-based pay plan.

McClenny and Blankenship also both discussed the consolidation and efficiency of the department. Blankenship discussed the SUA budget. The electric department is responsible for the Power Generation Station. Capital items include two bucket truck replacements, battery bank replacements in the substations. The top expenditure in the SUA is purchasing electricity. Capital projects for the water department include new water system components, a water tank mixer, trench shoring equipment, replacing variable frequency drives, lime system replacement design and inspection of the water towers. Wastewater projects include evaluating digesters and designing permanent improvements of the south interceptor. Waste management had no proposed capital, but there were possible additions of solar trash compactors.

Galloway and staff closed with thoughts about other miscellaneous budget items, such as updating the City of Stillwater website.


Councilor Gina Noble asked residents to email the City Council with comments and questions. 

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