- Go ahead and call to order this meeting of the special fiscal committee on Friday, April 24th, 2026.
- I'll be staffed for district three. It's about being on SNF district one. They were on district four.
- Jeff McKim, City Controller. Jennifer Crossley, Clerk's Office. Great, thank you. So.
- We have our agenda this morning and basically the only thing we have in our agenda are updates from
- our new folder. So starting with the quarterly reports, then state reporting, then finding questions
- and comments from CASA members with each of those sections and other comments on all of it at the end
- and then measurement. So we'll go with that agenda unless anybody has anything to add.
- I'm just turning it over to you. Great. Thank you very much. Good morning. I provided a couple of reports
- to you in the last meetings packet that I intend to keep providing and updating if that all works for
- you. One was a
- One is a budget expenditure performance report for the first quarter, which basically means budget against
- actuals. I provided the report at two levels of detail. One is the budget by fund and department. Then
- the other also goes down to the budget category level.
- and actually the actual line model. And you'll remember the category, there are four categories
- of expenditures, personnel, supplies, services and capital. So that's the budget performance. Then the
- other is the revenue performance for the first quarter. And again, I did this one in two levels of detail.
- Again, performance just means budgeted versus actuals.
- And yeah, so I provided this in two levels of detail. The one is just by fund and general category of
- revenue. So examples of that include intergovernmental charges for services, fines and forfeitures,
- licenses. And then the more detailed report also breaks it down by program area. And program areas are
- use differently depending on what departments it is. I will say that the by far the most detailed use
- of prep, the program level is in parks. They break their budgets and their revenues down by each of
- their program areas. We see examples here, Bryan Pool, Mill School, Baninger, Cemetery, and so on. But
- program area is different for
- for each each department and then the actual line item description of the of the revenue source and
- again for each of these i'm providing the projected the most projected for the year versus the actual
- um all both the both levels of detail should total up to be the same thing they're based on same data
- they're just summarized to different levels i'm sorry is this the chart
- You put in the packet for our last meeting. Correct, and it was. That should be in our packet for this
- meeting, too. But it's absolutely accurate? Yeah. Well, I copied over the exact same file from
- the information from our last meeting. I think it's just, it's farther down. It's the second, it starts
- with page 65. I see the projected
- Oh yeah, now we don't have a productive. I see. Fund department adopted budget and then the budget expended
- and percent expended. Oh, and then the details I have more, but I. Yeah, fund department category
- description, adopted, amended, and expended. Yeah, that's what we have. OK. That doesn't look the same.
- Okay, yeah, the revenue may be a little bit different. The other thing is that as you know, we have
- a lot of different funds, most of which are not very interesting. And so Council Member Stasberg and
- I kind of picked the funds that we list out in this report based on what we thought you would be most
- interested in.
- It's easy to add additional funds. So if you later want something else added to these reports on a regular
- basis, I can do that. So Council Member Stossberg passed on a couple of questions from the last meeting
- about these reports, which I can answer now. Council Member Piedmont-Smith had wondered why 64% of the
- controller's adopted budget had been already spent. And there was speculation as to whether that was
- related to inter fund transfers, and that is indeed the case. So with a couple, you'll see that some
- departments have different budgets in different funds. So the controller's office had the main controller's
- office budget is actually in economic development. So that's the controller's office budget that supports
- all of our staff and the vast majority of our functions.
- The controller's office also has a budget in the general fund that is just basically mostly inner fund
- transfers. There are some other things, but it's mostly, it's inner fund transfers and other things
- that aren't really about the operations of the controller's office. It's just a department
- and any expenditures that need to be associated with the department. So it's just expenditures that are,
- Therefore, essentially on behalf of the entire city. So the general funds controllers office budget
- 64% of that what has been spent because that consists of mostly of Interfund transfers and in fact 1,452,500
- in a fund transfer.
- And that actually brings me to another report that was included in your packet and had been asked for,
- and that is the report of an inter-fund transfers. And so I'll actually just temporarily switch to that
- for a moment. And you'll see this is a report of all the inter-fund transfers that would have happened
- so far this year.
- There are a couple on the general fund and then there are several that are associated with TIFF. Out
- of the general funds, and these are all budgeted fund transfers, they're all made at the beginning of
- the year to fulfill what was in the appropriation ordinance, but they include the general funds contribution
- to the vehicle replacement fund, the alternative,
- Transfer of 500,000 to the alternative transportation fund for the sidewalks. $250,000 transfer to the
- Fiber Connectivity Fund. The city as part of its agreement with Meridian Fiber agreed to transfer $1
- million into the Fiber Connectivity Fund that would then be used to, my understanding is provide connections
- for low income neighborhoods.
- I don't know the detail. That would be a reduced question on the details. But the $250,000 was in your
- 2026 budget for that. There's still $500,000 of commitment remaining after 2026 for that Fiber Connectivity
- Fund commitment. And so there was already 250 that had been transferred. Exactly.
- And yeah, so it'll be another 500,000 in future years. 500,000 for the Jack Hopkins fund. And then we'll
- over almost $1.6 million in transfer from the general funds to sanitation. So that's a subsidy of sanitation
- by. Yeah. I probably can't answer it.
- Why is that transfer made at the beginning of the year and not at the end of the year when you can tell
- what amount is actually needed in the subspace? That I don't know. I can find out. I mean, this transfer
- happened before I even started. I mean, it was appropriated by, was appropriated as part of the budget.
- It looks like all the transfers that were appropriated as part of the budget were made on
- Yeah, but we appropriated that as an estimate of what would be needed to subsidize that sanitation.
- I'm confused because when we had a complete work over sanitation, you know, the fans, essentially,
- It was to internalize the cost and not to rely on general fund subsidies. So I can't remember. So what
- you're saying, Isabel, or Jeff, is that this is in lieu of future revenue from essentially people paying
- for their trash. I mean, this is a general fund subsidy of people
- Yes, but I mean, instead of permanent subsidy, I mean, we have to recoup that at the end of the year.
- No, we've been subsidizing it for years. Well, and last year during budget time, I remember saying as
- part of the presentation that the subsidy this year was going to be a lot more because the expenses
- have gone up a lot, but we haven't actually raised rates enough. And we are supposed to, at some point,
- some kind of a proposal about raising rates, and I talked with Gretchen about that last year, late last
- year, and maybe even early this year about her presenting options to this committee as part of how to
- raise sanitation rates so that then we can reduce that general fund subsidy in different, I asked for
- for some different proposals from sanitation basically is like, well, what can we do to reduce this?
- Because there's, I think the biggest cost is the fixed cost of salaries simply of running the routes.
- And so that it's the time and the manpower to run the routes. And so then it's like, well, how can we
- reduce those possibly to run the routes? Or do we just need to increase
- costs of people's trash pickups and overspray that so I asked for things like well what happens if we
- uh only pick up recycling for example every other week and sort of what happens if you know so first
- crash every other right and I think we'd end up speaking and maybe problem yeah and and so just that
- you know coming up with some different proposals to go through this committee first before going to
- the full council. And I can't remember the last time I had a conversation with her about updates on
- that. But at this point, like, it's like almost May, so it's almost halfway through the year. Yeah.
- Can you follow up on that? Yeah. I mean, it just, you know, you may remember this debate, I don't know,
- before county, but, you know, we were
- We were bloodletting essentially money because of transfer fees, because of the lack of automation,
- which I was, you know, a little wheezy about, that everyone's displaced workers and so forth. So we
- put a lot of capital investment in to get these cans going, to get the trucks required. And we're still
- held hostage, I think, to essentially the fact that we don't have our own landfill. I mean, that's something
- that I think
- same for a long time. I mean, you know, looking forward to, you know, it would be better to reopen your
- landfill and control our waste stream rather than being really, you know, hostage to callers and their,
- you know, profit incentive and plus fuel and everything that goes into trucking into, you know,
- tens of miles, whatever, yeah, 100 miles or whatever, 80 miles, anyway.
- I'm just kind of surprised to see that here. That's now it gives me a lot of trepidation. So that is
- likely to be, I mean, we're not going to repeat that. That's no, it's going to be more. Well, this is
- the amount that they, this is more than last year. This is the full amount that they estimated for this
- whole year or subsidy. Yeah. And so they're better not. If there's another transfer over to sanitation,
- then it would have to come through.
- Council, I think, for approval. Yeah. This is the full appropriation that you put in your budget. Okay.
- But we need to- Yeah. Something needs to happen with rates or something next year because it's
- not sustainable for the general fund to be also subsidized and it's not- And I do suggest to you that
- this group will be a good opportunity to invest. I know that sanitation and public works are hard on
- other various options.
- Well, and the other, I don't know how long our current contract is for colored services is, but the
- waste reduction district of Monroe County has gone over to Bromfield because we actually get some money
- back for some of the recyclable materials from Bromfield. And so we might want to reopen the contract.
- So yeah, I don't remember what that was. Relatively. Yeah.
- You know this thing. If there's some particular thing that is responsible for the $1.6 million, or is
- just the amount of things or anything particular that accounts for that? I mean, the other thing- They
- had about a million for five, six years, so. Well, and the other thing was we were supposed to, because
- of the automation, you know, the trucks and everything, we're supposed to cut back on injuries and the
- associated cost of injuries of employees, but
- Yeah, these are all very good questions from public works. My understanding is there's also capital
- expenditures that have been behind the garbage trash is also an issue, but let's wait until we can get
- the right people in the middle and get an answer to those questions. Do you want to direct your attention
- to a couple of
- comments that have been made or questions. But why don't we save those? Yeah, I don't know if those
- might be relevant. I mean, yes, of course, the reason I have to deal with them. But in any case, I mean,
- I want to make it clear that those
- Where all of the experts were made as part of the preparation room. Okay. So, Okay. And then sorry,
- there are also some transfers from TIF, most of which are associated with the large payments. We're
- probably does not have as any surprise that
- The there are still a number of garages that are being paid for the 4th Street garage and the trades
- district garage bonds and then the Morton Street and Walnut Street garages. So those are those are the
- other transfers. I also put another one in there that is not actually happening yet, but will be in
- the near future and that's. You may remember that there was discussion Council last year about separating out
- That is the dispatch center from public safety of Lincoln tax, which is the way it always should have
- been. Those two funds never should have been coming in. So I counseled past an ad board that separated
- them out and only part of the transfer of lives has actually taken place. I went back and reconciled
- that fund.
- And there's still another $1.481 million in this transfer from PSLIT to PSAPLIT in order to completely
- fulfill the app. So I wanted to just kind of flag that because that's a future transfer. And those are
- really the only transfers I would expect unless somebody goes to council.
- What's that line nine refunding bonds? So in the bond world, refunding me is basically mutual financing.
- So they're just this is this is the series of TIF bonds that are that refinance for you specifically
- for parking garages or for what? I don't think that's one of the ones for parking garages. I can
- I can remind that I actually put together a detailed sheet on the history of each of these bonds. Why
- do we have lease payments for Morton Street, Walnut Street garages and bond payments video too? Do we
- not just own Morton Street, Walnut Street garages?
- I don't know if you know that. No, those are lease purchase arrangements. They're kind of like
- the convention, slightly different, but just like the convention center is done as a lease purchase.
- And so yeah, we actually make lease payments to the developer. So it's like an mortgage payment kind
- of equivalent to what we just call a lease payment. Yes, it is structured as a lease payment.
- How much longer do we have on those two? Definitely into the 2013s, surprisingly long. How frequently
- do those payments occur? The amortization schedule shows monthly, but I'm not sure.
- whether we actually pay them monthly or fully paid in like six months. I would be curious just about
- how frequently I guess, but that might show up quarterly then in terms of the transaction. Well, it's
- the transfer for the whole year. Those are more likely for six months, just looking at the numbers.
- But I'm certainly,
- Yeah, and maybe next quarter that will be kind of self-evident. In the future, when you give us these
- transfer reports, are you going to include these earlier transfers? Or maybe I should say can you include
- the earlier transfers? Yeah, I would categorize it for like quarter one, quarter two, et cetera, so
- that then we can look at the whole thing. I can certainly add additional information. Okay, yeah, just
- so that then
- So then by the end of the year, we have all of it. Just a second. Sorry, I'm actually just gonna get
- some. Okay, actually those numbers there are the annual.
- their annual. Yes. Okay. For the leases. Yeah. So that's $213,000 is the annual lease payment for the,
- you know, street garage. And $500,000 is the annual lease payment for the street garage. And those come
- out of TIF? Yes. As opposed to coming out of like income produced by those garages? Correct. Yes.
- The garage maintenance and operations are paid for by the revenue raised by the garages, but the capital
- expense of the garages is paid for by. Anything else about the transfers?
- be going back to the. Well, no, I mean, I intentionally went to press to transfers because it was answering
- one of them. Yeah, thank you. Okay, so let's see. And then Councilmember Piedmont Smith also wanted
- to know what fund was being used to pay the flop contract. Now I know that I provided that information
- as part of the report was provided to Council on flop. I can also find it now. I don't know if your
- question was answered.
- Well, I think it was answered in the written before. But yeah, it was split between a couple of different
- funds and a couple of different budgets, both hand and children.
- Council Member Piedmont-Smith also wondered about the ESD line that 53% was already spent and 89% of
- the organizational support was spent and Deputy Mayor Knapp reported that she thought it might have
- been BT and indeed she was correct. So the expenditures out of the organizational support line,
- There are a couple of small ones, but the four big ones are Bloomington Public Transportation Corporation,
- that's $3,806,100. Downtown Bloomington Inc, $25,000. BCT Management, $80,000. And Community Foundation,
- our following Project 46 membership, $40,000.
- Yeah, so when we look at all the SEA one other legislative changes Yeah Okay, so then
- Council Member Piedmont-Smith also inquired about whether the written report from READY that had been
- referenced at the meeting they had attended had been completed. And indeed, it had the financial plan
- through 12-31-2026. Sorry, I filled my notes wrong. 2025, sorry, was provided. I don't know if that
- goes over the packet as well. Yeah, let's see. That should pull it up here.
- Yeah, I think that's like the Yeah. That's that first financial update. I'm assuming that that's for
- me, right? Yes, limited financial update. Exactly. So, yes, this is the plan, the update from 1231.
- already is currently working on quarterly updates through 331. And the major change that I would expect
- to see in the next quarterly update is going to be the extension of a lit restructuring from 2028 to
- 2029. That was a more recent legislative change, as well as some different assumptions about lit to
- model the other changes that we already talked about, spent some time talking about what the different
- options are for lit.
- This financial plan, I think, requires a deeper dive and should be subject to its own meeting. But I
- did want to at least give you the most current version that I have, just so you can look at it. And
- I will call attention to just a couple of things. So if you look at any of the funds that receive property tax,
- Report does try to estimate the effect of SCA-1 viral attacks. So, and what you can see from these numbers
- is that the impact is real, but relatively modest compared to the overall average age 22 of our packet.
- Sorry. It's the general fund. You're good.
- I'm sorry to interrupt you. What is the shine projections for SCA? I'm sorry. Basically, I just wanted
- to call attention to the fact that REES included their estimates of those SCA-1 property tax impacts.
- for each of the funds that receive property tax. And just to kind of remind you right now, the general
- fund receives property tax, the parks general fund receives property tax. And as of 2026, for the first
- time, you've allocated property tax to NVH. And so for each of those funds in this financial plan, you'll
- see a line for the SEA-1 impact.
- And you'll see that the projection here that I've got on the screen, it's kind of highlighted in blue
- here, shows that out to 2030, the projection would be is of about $560,000 loss from the impacts of
- the new changes to SEDHM. So that's why I describe it as real but modest. It's non-zero, non-trivial,
- but it's not as catastrophic as it has been.
- Well, and they've added the new LIT estimated incomes, estimated revenues, right? Yes. And that's what
- I'm saying. That is pretty much all going to change. That is all pretty rough. So I would take this
- version with respect to the LIT with a serious grain of salt.
- Among other things, it's going to, the change was pushed out legislatively this spring from 2020. Yeah.
- Can you help me understand this a little bit? Because we currently have some lit, but where is our current
- lit on this chart? Because like all this stuff in blue, it's like there's nothing until 2028 because-
- Well, that first line, the second chunk.
- where it says here, local income tax lit certified shares. Yeah. That's the existing lit. There it is.
- You see they projected going away 20.8, but that's not 20.9. That's not 20.9. Right. The way that they've
- reflected this new change in lit is that they both reflect the new, they zero out certified shares and
- they zero out all the other ones that we got.
- public safety, which are different funds. They zero them out. They added in estimates of the new grid
- structure, which I think is not very valuable right now. Because that also is assuming because we get
- to set a lift up to a certain point. So did they just set like the maximum that we in theory? Yes, and
- it doesn't include new changes that came before we talked about the calendar.
- So they said the maximum. I think those bands when this number of reflect I have not actually gone back
- and then actually done the math just because like I said it's really not very valuable because there
- are some of the other changes there and then they also show there a transfer of the cash balance that
- would be left at the end of the day from those other big funds from public safety led and
- That's the way that they reflect this phasing out of leg. That's on the revenue side. Then if you scroll
- down on the same chart, so for general fund, they also reflect a shift of expenditures from public safety,
- PSAP, and economic development. What are you?
- Yeah, page 23 at the bottom. So that's. Expenditures. This section is expenditures. Expenditures. And
- so they're basically, I'm just kind of explaining in broad how they, how they modeled this.
- phasing out of the one system moving into another. They basically showed all the revenue changes at
- the top and then the expenditure changes at the bottom. Assuming all those expenditures would be in
- public safety or economic development, LID and PSAT would then just be moved to the jail. So just going
- on to the next page. So we're in deficit.
- over under expenditures. So, uh, $4.4 million plus whatever. And then we have $29 million plus because
- we've got $19 million coming from the previous blitz, right? Yeah, that would be their estimate of how
- much would be left. Assuming, you know, we all follow the plan and everything works, right? And that
- would be left in those other
- Funds that would just be transferred in general fund. So economic development lipids away. They're just
- saying, okay, whatever bounds that they transfer back to the general transfer all the cash balance,
- the expenditures and rentals. So like in the 2028 year, they were, that's why we have such right overage there.
- Yes, exactly. Like we're like eliminating some funds and so anything left in those funds is getting
- stuck somewhere else. So that counts as like one year. So I'm sorry, I wanted to ask some questions
- on the pages that we skipped over cash reserves. Okay. Yeah, I was really hoping to if we're going to
- do a deep dive into this,
- I was hoping we would have reviewed it because they'd be able to explain the kind of assumptions. But
- you're exausted question. Well, we had
- In 2023, we had huge ending balance. I wonder why that is, because ARCA funds, so we had 106% cash reserves
- at the end of 2023. What page are you on? I'm on page five. Where are you seeing those?
- So under the heading 2023 actual, we have under major operating funds in general, you see the second
- column. Revenue surplus slash deficit. We have revenue surplus of $28 million. And the balance of $50
- million on expenditure of $47 million. So we were starting 2024, ostensibly,
- with 106% cash surplus. How is that possible? I don't recall this miracle. Yeah, I will have to look
- at what assumptions that they use. Like I said, I just got this and I put it in the folder for you all
- and not had a chance to actually talk with really about any of the numbers that they use.
- It couldn't be ARPA, it couldn't be because we budgeted a whole bunch of, moved a whole bunch of expenditures
- and economic development lit, but I'd rather get actual answer to that and speculate. Yeah, I didn't
- see any fund called ARPA. So, that was a separate fund, so. Yeah. And then the one other thing I wanted
- to just to,
- Kind of the broad point I wanted to make and this was something again that we brought up at
- their presentation when they did on March 13th is that it would The bigger essentially recommending
- and in order for us to be able to balance our budget that we pull capital expenses out of the All the
- operating funds and instead long for that
- So that is reflected in this report. Is that actually realistic? But all the capital expenses will be
- able to be pulled out of operating funds, probably not. So that's something we're going to have to work
- with and figure out how to model correctly. But that is reflected. And so if you even look at the general
- fund, for example,
- Yeah, so if you look at their general fund spreadsheet, you will see that as the 2027 column, capital
- outlays have typically been, you know, the general fund of 1.6, 3.8, $6 million, $2 million,
- but in 2027 on, they showed a zero. So that reflects we've used recommendation for us to have a say for that.
- Where are you? Sorry, it's on the general fund tab. And I know I'm looking at the spreadsheet. Yeah,
- yeah, yeah. So it's in the general fund. And a line legal capital outlays. So again, those are the bottom page.
- Thank you. Thanks for the question while we're close to there. So in terms of the revenue over under
- expenditures, which is the bottom page that you're currently on. So in the 2025 update through 2025
- actual way up there, you scroll up. So we really did last year have a deficit of $10 million.
- that is the case. So do we have anywhere right now where our actual grant balances are? Well, you have
- these reports. You have the start of the year, this January, one fund balance. Oh, in the reports that
- I gave you? Yeah. No. Okay. That would be another interesting one. Yes, that would be another interesting
- one. It's an easy report. Yes.
- Yeah. I didn't think about that until right this second. I think we want that quarter. Yeah. You want
- that quarter? Yeah. Yeah. That would be concerning. Please. Yes. I didn't think about that until right
- this second. But yeah, that would be a good one to add into our list of- I'm just going to create a
- tab. Yeah. I'm just going to say cash. Of probably the same funds that you put into those detail reports. Okay.
- Anything else on this one? I know we're kind of running out of time. Do we want a cap balance for quarter
- one at our next meeting or do we just want to wait until quarter two? It's so easy. I can do your quarter.
- Okay. Great. Fantastic. Thank you. Okay. Anything else about the financial rules?
- If not, we're ready to move on to the next item. Okay, so this is an update on the audit and state reporting.
- So at long last, the 2024 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report and audit have been approved by the
- State Board of Accounts. The report and the audit are posted on the city website and are also posted
- on the State Board of Accounts public audit portal. I encourage you all to download and read the entire report.
- But I just want to give a couple of brief summary of the results of the audit. Again, you're encouraged
- to actually go to it yourself. There were two audit reports. One was from the auditors on what they
- call the audit of the financial statements. That's all the finances. Then the other one is known as
- a single audit report, which is on federal grant compliance. Start out with the audit on the financial
- statements.
- The auditors provided what's known as an unmodified opinion. This used to be called an unqualified opinion,
- but it's basically the opinion you want with no material findings for issues with go and concern. So
- that's on the financials. The single audit report, like I said, is not on the financials itself, but
- it is on federal grant compliance. There were two major programs reviewed, the Community Development
- Block Grants, or CBBG.
- and coronavirus state and local fiscal recovery funds, otherwise known as ARPA. Both those also did
- receive an unmodified opinion. However, there are two compliance findings and one is called a material
- weakness and one a significant deficiency, both that are in the ARPA program. The material weakness
- was about enforcing certain rules on procurement that are specific to spending federal funds that don't
- apply to normal procurement with respect to state law.
- This did require a corrective action plan. We've already put that in place with the changing procedure.
- The significant deficiency was that one employee in the controller's office
- Submitted the required quarterly ARPA expenditures without a review, which led to a mismatch between
- reports. And this corrective action plan was actually already put in place in the third quarter of 2025.
- So this is just one of the real downsides of among many of being late on your audience is that something
- can already be fixed, have been fixed in the previous year, but still show up, continue to show up in
- the results.
- Can you say that sent one again, the significant deficiency? Yeah, so it was that there's a required
- quarterly ARCO reports that people submits to the federal government. We have a one employee basically
- submitted that report without it being reviewed by another employee, and that caused error. Essentially,
- I think a report was correct, but it didn't match something else that showed in another report. So it's
- basically a mismatch between reports. And so the corrective action was to have dual control, was to have one
- Submitter and one reviewer. And like I said, that had already been put in place in mid-July 1, 2025.
- So that's that issue. Neither of those findings resulted in a qualified opinion, which the 2023 findings
- did result in.
- But both what I mentioned, the weakness and the deficiency did require corrective action plan, which
- I just briefly described. Both of those are also included in the audit report. So again, the reports
- are out there and I encourage you to read them. We also have a meeting scheduled after this meeting
- today with our auditor and GAP compiler and state board and council to discuss the project plan and
- timeline for the 2025.
- And then finally, this was something that came up, I think, last meeting where I wasn't in attendance,
- but I thought I would mention that the annual financial reports or AFRs have been stored on our website
- where we provide both the archived PDF reports as well as a link to the official reports on state's
- gateways. So they're both there. And that's all I have on state reports.
- Any other questions? Okay. Then finally, I want to talk a little bit about bonds. And this is just kind
- of a sneak preview of what we're going to be talking about in more detail in the future. So let me back
- up a little bit and talk about broadly, there are two categories of bonds, general obligation and refugee
- bonds. And
- General obligation in Indiana, a general obligation bond comes with a property tax rate to service that
- debt. So in other words, with the general obligation bond, we aren't paying the debt out of existing
- revenues. We're actually establishing a property tax rate to pay that debt. And you may remember from
- the presentation that we gave back on March 13th, I'm sure you will remember the presentation. But it
- is actually, and they have a good chart that shows all of this in the packet,
- for that date. We have six outstanding general obligation bonds currently for a total tax rate of 0.0868,
- which is usually referred to as 8.68 cents. What was it, 0.08? Yeah, we say 8.68 cents, so 0.0868. That's
- a total tax rate. 8.68 cents per $100 on set value of bonds.
- Those two general obligation laws. We have six of them. And that's the total. That's the total. And
- that packet from the meeting has a list of each of those with the tax rate along with the projected
- tax rates for each sub-supervisor. So you can see, for example, when each of them drop off, there are
- a lot of restrictions on general obligation dance, some of which can be quite complex.
- are described the constitutional debt limit a number of times, but that's actually kind of one of the
- less impactful remnants for us because our capacity is so high, but there are lots of other limits to
- bombing in addition to the constitutional debt limit, including new restrictions on rates.
- And there are also various thresholds for petition for monstrance and for referendum. So if you go above
- a certain point, then you're subject to the petition to a monstrance process. If you go above a certain
- point beyond that, you're in territory where it helps us change. So it's just kind of, you know, it's
- just a matter of
- General background, SEA 1 also put in place some additional controls, including a cooling off period
- on short-term bonds. You may remember that at that time, we, like all other municipalities, were essentially
- told that we could no longer use bonds for annual funding capital projects. And since then, a lot more
- clarity has emerged. Bond capsules are telling municipalities that bonds still can be used in the same
- way that they used before. They just have to be larger, longer-term bonds.
- Because there are so many complexities associated with general obligation bonding, you know, more detailed
- discussions need to take place alongside our financial advisor about bond accounts. In general though,
- bond, the general obligations are desirable because they're very secure.
- So they're going to see the pretty much the lowest interest rates that they would expect. And then also
- because they come with their own tax rates of services, so they're not being paid out of existing revenues.
- So that's your general obligation bonds. Then the other kind of bonds, the broad category. Again, there's
- a ton of nuance here, but the other broad category is revenue.
- And that's where you're pledging with some sort of existing revenue stream, which can be user fees,
- lit, tax increment finance. But the key is that with revenue bond is that unlike your general obligation
- bond, the revenue bonds don't come with a separate and new property tax rate to service. So some examples
- of revenue bonds that we have, the convention center, we have a revenue bond that's serviced by food
- and beverage tax.
- We have the Twin Lakes Recreation Center bond that's serviced by Parks Revenue. The big one we have
- is what's known as a general revenue bond that was used to purchase Showers West as well as build a
- fire resistance training center with the fire station referred. What did you call it? A general revenue
- bond. Isn't that the public safety bond?
- I mean, I think that was maybe the term that you used in the administration at that time, but that is,
- it is a general revenue bond. It doesn't pledge public safety or pledges economic development. Right,
- but the purpose was public safety. So we call it a public safety general bond. So what is the general
- revenue bond? The general revenue bond really means that
- We're not pledging some very specific type of revenue like parks, parks revenue or food and weather
- check. They were really pledging more general revenue source. And that's in this case, that's the economic
- development debt. But it's not a general obligation. That's the key. It didn't come with property tax
- or anything. So you're paying it out of your, we are paying it out of our existing economic development debt.
- And this is the bomb that, honestly, I watched the most carefully because we know that income taxes
- could be changing drastically. We know that the economic development is going away by now in 2019. We
- still have to pay that bond. So we basically, because it's not a general obligation because it's a general
- revenue bond, we have to pay it out of pie regardless of what happens to the economy.
- I'll have some reason. Okay. So, all right. So, yeah, my understanding was that it was, it was a public
- safety bond because that's part of the project. The projects were public safety. Fire, you know, some
- fire offices there, right, for that purpose. But since those are going away, those revenue we're going
- to pay from the general,
- Yeah, or any additional LIT that you have. So yeah, essential LIT to pay that out of our existing revenue
- sources. Can we get the details on that for next time? Like how much we'll still owe, how much people
- will still owe after the, yes, the, you know, right there anyway? Or is that in there somewhere?
- It should be included in the numbers, but maybe not called out directly. We can certainly go over the
- mobilization schedule for that specific bond. That would be helpful. And so in terms of the requirement
- of having public safety in there, that's written into the bond language itself, which is different than
- categorizing it as they can go bond or out of bond. It's like part of the bond paperwork is, what are
- you actually going to spend this money on?
- In that, we spent it on public safety through purchase in part of that building. And building of a fire.
- What I'm describing here is about the financing and how the bond is being paid. Associated with each
- bond is an appropriation ordinance and a bond ordinance specifies exactly what it's going to be spending.
- quite strict. So it's just less specific to each individual. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So one thing, oh, and
- then the other kind of revenue bond that we have a lot of are TIFR. Not general obligation, but they
- don't have separate tax rate, but they're paid out of TIFR. One thing that all these bonds have in common
- is that city council wants to move. So it doesn't matter what,
- what kind we're talking about if they are tools to come into existence. And the reason why I'm bringing
- up the topic of bonds, it's just we're beginning to discuss bonding strategy for this year. And I wanted
- to bring you in the loop with the earliest possible stage. So right now we're in the early stages of
- planning, but I just wanted to let you kind of know what we're thinking. And I kind of think this committee
- is the most appropriate forum for these early stage discussions.
- certainly open anything else that they would like. So bonds that we're currently thinking about, one
- would be a general obligation bond for a public works health center. This is streets, fleet maintenance,
- and covered by heavy vehicles. And I know Public Works Director Wason would be glad to give any of you
- tours of the existing facilities and the struggles that they have with them. It's worth a look just
- to see how badly they need them. I know. So that's one we're definitely looking at.
- and then a parks general obligation bond to address what I think is both your and our top priority in
- the administration, maintenance and enhancement of city assets. What did you say, a parks bond? Yeah,
- but I want to make it clear that we're talking about a parks bond. We're not talking about buying building
- new parks. We're talking about maintenance of existing facilities and parks is still working
- on prioritization based on the master plan.
- me if there's parks on student is part four they also do maybe you do okay yeah yeah and so i'm assuming
- that any go bonds from that are going to be part of essentially their massive money that's exactly that's
- what they're working on prioritization basin but again this is what we're talking about taking care
- of our our stuff uh and then similarly on the simple city side that we would um
- We will probably propose something similar that would be dedicated to maintenance and enhancement of
- city assets and this comes back to read these recommendation also that we move capital projects out
- of the the operational budgets.
- Would that be a GM bond? That would also be a GM bond, yes. And we've not created a list of potential
- projects yet, but obviously we're going to involve you in the project prioritization. And again, the
- bond would be for capital projects that you already have to be paying out of one of our existing operational
- funds to be able to maintain the payments of our existing assets. So those are on the general obligation
- side. And we would have multiple go bonds every year? Yes.
- Like new ones? Yeah, the restrictions are more on the total rates and size of the project also. So they're
- very, and that's why I say when we actually get closer to being specific, we need bond council to really
- tell us, give us the details. I just want to know, but it's 929 right now. Yeah, sorry, I literally
- have one more bullet. Great. And then you may also see some requests for TIF revenue bonds.
- But those would be needed to be initiated by the Redevelopment Commission. The two that you might hear
- about, of course, Wednesday night, you'll remember the discussion on the Senate PD. It would not surprise
- me to see a request for a Senate TIF bond, but we don't have the timeline or scope on that. And then
- similarly, you may see a request for a TIF revenue bond for police station construction. But again,
- this would have to be initiated by the artist, a scope or timeline.
- So that's where I am. All right, any questions fast on bond before we go to the recovery comment? I'm
- just curious about what's the estimated cost of this for the board of operations? We do not have an
- estimated cost yet. So I mean, what has been presented is often that it is needed for a put mat,
- you know, to protect the put mat. But I wonder if we can do it on a sheet, but just having it covered
- Like if you go, if you look over in Bloomington South, they have large cardboard systems for the process,
- not all of them, but I mean, is that an option? I mean, should we have other means of, you know, we
- can help you? I guess I'm just starting it out there because I don't know when to throw it out, so.
- Yeah, I will say that I think that Public Works Department is well aware that
- of the need to constrain that. If we're under 15 in the spring, then it would be great to have. Well,
- their work environment is terrible. So I mean, just their staff room is like a dingy old basement.
- It's not. It's actually a loft, but it's a dingy old basement. Can we bring in the flowers? I mean,
- we've got empty space there. No, I mean, the staff room for the mechanics to have their lunch and take a break.
- Believe me, there are a lot of constraints on the wish list that one might have for the ideal public
- works office center. But yeah, I think it would probably be better to have that conversation with Adam.
- Well, I think that it really sounds like we need to get out of here to talk about sanitation and then
- also the public works thing. I do agree that bringing bonds through proposals to this committee
- would be a great step. The other things that I think we consider is before we raise tax rates,
- before we, you know, cover new bonds through debt, that, you know, we used to have sort of a contingency
- plan in case of economic lean times where every department had to basically have a contingency plan
- to reduce their spending by 5%, 10%, whatever it was. I mean, I think there were different grades of
- reduced spending.
- Some of it was just, you know, we're not going to take as many trips. We're not going to take, you know,
- we're going to cut back on supplies. You know, some of the things like that are, is that happening as
- well. In other words, so if we're going to raise rates, I can say we're trying to, we're working with
- only the government.
- You know, we're taking the blow that if there's a blow, I don't know if it's a lot of that has already
- happened over the years. I will say that we are not the administration. So you're not proposing any
- new positions, which I was unusual. I mean, we are we are preparing for the kind of the 2029 cliff already.
- And I really anticipate that plans for potential cuts. I mean, we don't want to
- Preemptive a cut, especially when the legislative environment is still alive. There's still going to
- be additional changes with respect to legislation. So you don't want to lay people off while, you know,
- before the fourth student. Yes, I would anticipate that there will be plans for contingencies. And I
- don't want to sound like I want to get you to too, but I'm also not favorable to deferred maintenance.
- That is what we are fighting. There's a trade off. So anyway, I don't mean to keep us, but that's general.
- Any other questions, comments from members about bonding report? All right, great. Thank you so much,
- Jeff. Let's go ahead and go to public comment. There's nobody in the room, but if there are any members
- of the public online who would like to comment on any parts of the controller updates,
- Looks like Mr. Keough has raised his hand. I'll go ahead and time us on my watch for about three minutes.
- And whenever you're on mute, if you can go ahead and state your name for the record. Kevin Keough, a
- resident of Bloomington, a retired CPA and current IT auditor. I'd like to start by acknowledging the
- city's efforts to publish the 2024 Annual Comprehension Financial Report, published this week.
- This document is easily accessible to the public and is a critical step towards fiscal transparency
- and accountability. However, as a professional,
- who has just within the last year started to review these reports closely. I have two specific report
- areas concerned where I think believe require further attention to ensure the public is receiving clear,
- reliable information. The first is on the general fund budget to actual variance schedule. If you look
- at the table of contents of the ACFR, it's page 75. The PDF counter, it's page 94.
- I observed significant changes, particularly in the reporting of the fund balance at the beginning of
- the year when comparing this line to the previous year's ACFR for the same schedule. There is an error
- with the 2023 ACFR schedule. It seems to have been corrected in 2024. Also, such material variances
- in financial reports
- generally require a clear accompanying narrative to explain these line item variances. Without this
- context, the average citizens, or even the seasoned analysts, cannot effectively assess the city's fiscal
- health or accuracy of these variances. The next area is Table 12, the legal debt margin.
- Following the discussion with the fiscal committee with the Reedy consultants, I'm concerned that the
- current presentation of Table 12 lacks the necessary clarity and detail expected of a municipality of
- Bloomington size. It doesn't have all the three units in the same way Reedy presented the same information.
- I would like to point out that the City of Fort Wade, you can use that as a benchmark, they have three
- units much like Bloomington. It is clear that Bloomington can provide a much more transparent
- and comprehensive breakdown of our legal debt margins much the way Reedy did.
- A public trust is built on a foundation of accurate, transparent, and easy to understand financial data.
- I urge the controller's office to provide the missing narrative for budget to actual variances and to
- commit to adopting a more transparent, like Fort Wayne, for the debt margin table. That includes all
- the units in future reports. Thank you for your time and opportunity to comment on these vital transparency issues.
- Thank you. So anybody else on Zoom who would like to make a comment? You can see all the other hands
- on the big screen. Claire Crossley, is there? No. Are all people who are up there? Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
- I don't see any other answers right now. Okay, fantastic. The only thing left then is the charm vent.
- I do before I do that, our next meeting is going to be two weeks from today on, let's see, May 8th.
- Is that what's on there? Yes, it is, May 8th, and that one is going to be a council-based one. If you
- guys recall, our last one, it's assignments related to the elected official salary stuff. With this
- development map, we're going to rewrite that.
- This is why there's like a good month we can write this down from the call right the second principles.
- Yes, the guiding principles, you're going to assess those and potentially do some some edits around
- them. And Dave and I did actually get together, talked about little data already and
- looking at comparisons between other second class cities. Updating the spreadsheet that Clark Holden
- started a couple years ago in 2004 when we had that ad hoc committee and also we added some other potential
- cities in and talked about different data we want to get from those cities. So in two weeks from today
- we'll go ahead and start talking about those kind of report out and decide where we want to go next.
- I will also work to get in touch with
- and we send a version around sanitation stuff and see if they can come in. Maybe a month from now, we'll
- talk about that in terms of other than coming in on one of the city days that we have this meeting.
- Anything else for the order? Great. You're adjourned. Only nine minutes late.