City of Lincoln set to approve $22 million 2019-20 budget
Part one: General Fund Overview of smaller lines

 

[April 08, 2019] 

LINCOLN 

Lincoln Aldermen have been participating in budget planning for the new fiscal year which begins on May 1st. This year the budget proposal was prepared and presented to the aldermen by City Treasurer Chuck Conzo. Conzo worked with all the department heads as well as city administrator Beth Kavelman to present a first draft.

Aldermen reviewed that draft on March 25th and made necessary changes. The second draft was then presented after the regular council meeting on April 1st.

Altogether, the city’s proposed budget for the 2019-20 year comes to $22,849,288. Of the total, $7,393,722 is categorized as General Fund Expenditures. The balance of $15,455,566 is categorized as Special Fund Expenditures.

At the March 25th meeting, the city heard only one funding request from Diane Osborn with the Logan County Genealogical and Historical Society. Osborn had asked for $750 in support last year to help make up for the losses the LCG&HS had incurred due to street closures for construction work at the Lincoln Depot over the previous year. This year, Osborn reported that the $750 awarded by the city last year had been very helpful, but the LCGH&S was still in recovery mode and would come up short again this year on revenues. She asked that the council once again support the LCGH&S with $750 in support in the new fiscal year.

For the new budget year, Conzo had already penciled in the $750 for LCG&HS. Aldermen agreed to maintain that amount, which would be paid from the city’s share of the Hotel/Motel Tax.

General Fund/Consolidated sub-funds

After hearing from Osborn, Conzo moved on to the budget draft, staring with page one and explaining significant changes to this year’s expenditures compared to last year.
 

Conzo noted that the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund was showing a seven percent increase over last year, moving that amount from $108,745 to $124,078.

In repairs and maintenance Conzo noted that he had increased the expense for early warning sirens from $5,000 to $8,000, saying that reports from Chief Mark Miller with the fire department indicated there was one emergency siren that was probably going to need a large repair if not replacement. The extra $3,000 was to help cover potential extra costs for that siren.

Liability Insurance

Dayne Dalpoas asked about an increase in liability insurance from last year’s total of $444,834 to a projection of $456,052 in the new year.

Conzo said that with the exception of the Worker’s Compensation line, which has gone down for the new fiscal year, all the insurances are showing increases. He said in part this could be attributed to the addition of new buildings and facilities belonging to the city. In this past year the city has added the new police station, as well as the Lincoln Depot to its property list.

City clerk’s office

The line items for the city clerk’s office decreased from $125,835 last year to $124,175. Conzo said not to be too excited about this because, there would be some big changes in the sewer billing costs that would show up later in the sewer line item.

City Administrator Office

The expense line for the city administrator also dropped compared to the old year from $76,600 to $60,600 in the draft. However, Conzo noted that there would be one small change – an added $600 office supplies from $800 to $1,400. The final draft would reflect total expenses of $61,200.

Building and Zoning

Building and Zoning Department total expenditures increased by only about $1,400. Conzo said that there had been decreases in some costs, but he had also increased the line for demolition and cleanup from $28,000 to $30,000.

Ron Keller asked how many properties would be demolished and cleaned up this year. Building and Zoning Officer Wes Woodhall said he couldn’t say for sure. He noted that there is one very large property that he’s taken estimates for that would cost around $20,000 alone. He added that he doesn’t want to spend all the money allotted to demolition because he needs to have a reserve for emergency cleanup such as demo work in the aftermath of a fire.

Woodhall said in this current year he has spent $12,000 to date and is looking to do one more project, which would run around $10,000.

Ron Fleshman asked how many properties had been demolished in this current year. Woodhall said two on Fourth Street, one on Monroe and a garage on Tremont.

Woodhall also asked for a change to the budget, increasing the Equipment/Computers line item from $900 to $3,900. He explained that he needs to digitize the current archives of blueprint style plans the city has on file. He said that he had contacted a firm about scanning and loading into computer files the very large documents and the cost was quite high. Woodhall estimated that to have an outside source do the digital archiving would cost around $40,000. Woodhall said he had checked into the price of a scanner that would do the large tabletop sized pages and could purchase one for only $3,000. He said if the city purchased the scanner, the staff could work on doing the scanning as part of their regular work day and it would save the city a tremendous cost, and provide a scanner for future documents as well.

Aldermen approved that suggestion and the final draft reflected the increase. The total expenditures in the building and zoning department would then be $156,814.

Contractual Services

The Contractual Services line dropped from $96,500 to $91,500 due primarily to the cost of the city attorney contract. In the last year that contract was $84,000 and in the new year it will be $77,000. The only other change was an increase in the estimated costs of a labor attorney from $10,000 to $12,000. The actual costs of such an attorney won’t be determined until after the fact. The labor attorney is brought in only as needed during contract negotiations.

Contingencies

The big question in this category was what will be the final cost of a new contract for the 911 Dispatch. Conzo said he had kept the price level with last year at $228,085 because the cost of the new contract to date is unknown. Lincoln Police Chief Paul Adams said that was a safe number because he has been told the cost will definitely be less than the previous contract.

Software maintenance was also increased from $28,000 to $35,000.

With these smaller line items concluded, the council moved on to hear from Chief Miller regarding the fire department budget and from Chief Adams regarding the police department budget.

LDN will continue budget coverage with part two featuring budget requests from the Lincoln Fire Department.

[Nila Smith]