[1:59] Mhm.
[2:17] » Good evening. Welcome to the April 2026
New Canaan Budget Committee meeting.
[2:22] We will go ahead and get started. The
first portion of our meeting is devoted
[2:27] to public comment. Is there any public
comment now?
[2:30] This is the only portion of the meeting
where the public may comment.
[2:36] Seeing none, we'll move on.
Alderwoman Malone Marshall.
[2:40] Present. Alderman O'Brien. Here.
Alderman Osinga. Present. Alderman
[2:44] Marczak.
>> Present.
[2:46] Alderman Navares.
Alderman Johnson. Here. Alderman Jones.
[2:51] » Present. We do have a quorum. Thank you.
We do not have presentations or old
[2:55] business, but a few [clears throat]
items under new business.
[2:58] The first is consideration of the
minutes meeting minutes from the
[3:02] February and March meetings of the
Budget Committee.
[3:06] Those were in the packet there. Is there
any
[3:09] questions or changes regarding the
minutes?
[3:15] If not, is there a motion to approve the
February and March meeting minutes? I'll
[3:19] make a motion to approve the minutes for
February and March.
[3:22] » Is there a second? Second. Second. Any
discussion?
[3:26] All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed?
Okay.
[3:30] Next under new business, we have
presentation of our fiscal year 2025
[3:35] audit. Dale Garrett and Amy Eshelman are
here.
[3:39] Comptroller Rogers, I'll turn it over to
you and you can direct the conversation
[3:42] here. Thank you.
So, we did pass out the audits.
[3:48] We did pass out the audit books.
And I am going to turn the floor over to
[3:54] Dale and Amy and let them go through.
Okay.
[3:59] And if you have questions,
I will try to field them.
[4:04] Thank you. Um,
check out the booklet in front of you.
[4:08] I'm going to do an overview of the
booklet. Um,
[4:11] the binder has several sections.
The first section
[4:15] is the city introduction. It includes
officers, officials, and an
[4:18] organizational chart
of the city.
[4:22] Following that section, we have the
auditor's report.
[4:26] Uh, we have issued an unmodified or a
clean opinion for the year ended April
[4:29] 30, 2025.
The next section is the management
[4:33] discussion and analysis,
the MD&A we refer to.
[4:37] It's prepared by the city's
comptroller's office and I would
[4:40] encourage you to read that. It goes
through a narrative of the financial
[4:44] history of the year and a little bit of
forward-looking, uh,
[4:48] opinions as well, which I mean, they're
good reading material.
[4:52] Following the MD&A is the basic
financial statements, which I'll be
[4:55] discussing shortly.
And after that section is required
[5:00] supplementary information, which
includes budget actual comparisons for
[5:04] the major funds
and also the pension information related
[5:07] to IMRF,
OPEB, and police and fire.
[5:12] Then we have the combining schedules for
the non-major funds and other
[5:16] supplementary schedules after that.
And after the financial section, there's
[5:21] the statistical section.
It's unaudited, but it's it's a it's a a
[5:25] statistical selection of compiled
information from the city's
[5:30] comptroller's office from various
sources, which gives some historical
[5:33] data on
a variety of subjects
[5:37] of concern to the city.
So, I'll direct you to page 16 and 18 to
[5:43] start with.
It's at the very beginning the financial
[5:48] statements.
That section is the net position of the
[5:52] in statement of activities
of the city.
[5:56] It's reported on the full accrual basis
of accounting, which includes capital
[5:59] assets,
includes long-term debt,
[6:03] and deferred inflows and outflows
pertaining to IMRF,
[6:07] OPEB, which is
um
[6:10] post post employment benefits, and the
police and fire pensions.
[6:15] Pages 17 and 18
contain a statement of activities.
[6:21] If you look at the bottom line,
there's a about five lines up, there's
[6:25] changes
in net position.
[6:29] Under governmental activities, you had
an increase of $12,300,000,
[6:35] which is about 3.4 million more than the
prior year.
[6:38] An increase.
Uh major contributing factors there
[6:41] would be expenditures were down overall
from the previous year by about $3.8
[6:46] million, while revenues stayed pretty
consistent with the prior year.
[6:52] Page 19
[6:56] is a balance sheet for governmental
funds.
[6:59] These are prepared on the modified
accrual basis, which is focused more on
[7:02] the current financial resources.
It does not include items such as
[7:06] capital assets,
long-term debt, and liabilities.
[7:11] General fund column,
if you look at the general fund column,
[7:15] second line from the bottom,
overall fund balance increased by about
[7:19] 1.2 million, and the fund balance is
sitting there at 25 million 25.3
[7:24] million, approximately.
The if there's about three factors
[7:28] there, the unassigned balance
of the of the uh
[7:33] general fund
was $14.5 million. It decreased by about
[7:38] 1.5 million from the prior year.
Prepaid expenses are the primary factor
[7:43] in the non-spendable portion. Those
would be expenses paid
[7:46] in the previous fiscal year for the
current fiscal year.
[7:49] So, of course, those are not available
for for uh
[7:52] current use.
Those increased slightly from the prior
[7:56] year.
The amount committed to pension debt
[7:59] liability also increased.
On page 21,
[8:04] you have the statement of revenues,
expenditures, and changes in fund
[8:08] balance for the governmental funds.
About the fifth line from the bottom is
[8:13] also the net change in fund balance.
[8:18] The general fund decreased by about 2.8
million from the prior year.
[8:24] It's still increase
of 1.2 million.
[8:29] Overall expenditures increased increased
and was mostly for
[8:33] retirement.
General expenses also increased slightly
[8:36] and there's more details further back in
the report, which will break down
[8:40] and that's on pages 113 through 114.
Again, if you go to the back to those
[8:45] detail schedules, if you want to drill
down a little deeper on
[8:48] what up made up those uh
those expenditures.
[8:52] Overall revenues increased from the
prior year.
[8:55] Uh
areas of increase were income tax, sales
[8:58] tax, property tax, and ambulance fees.
And again, there's more details further
[9:04] back in the financials and that would be
on page 112.
[9:09] And also, we less money was transferred
from the general fund during the fiscal
[9:13] year than
to other funds
[9:15] during the year.
[9:19] Okay. ESU is also
Let's see. On pages 23 through 24,
[9:27] ESU is considered a business type
activity.
[9:30] Um
unrestricted net position increased by
[9:33] about 3.2 million dollars.
Uh part of the factors there were
[9:38] liabilities decreased down by paying
down principal on bonds and also paying
[9:42] down the Elmira EPA loan.
There was an increase in investment in
[9:46] the with Karma as well. The investment
in Karma went up by about 2.1 million
[9:51] dollars.
And lastly, on page 105,
[9:56] in the statement of revenues, expenses,
and changes in net position of
[10:01] proprietary funds.
Again, that was
[10:05] And it focuses on the Environmental
Services Utility Fund.
[10:09] Yes, you had an increase of
5.5 million dollars, which is about 1.1
[10:14] million dollars less
than it was in the previous year.
[10:18] Factors there were operating revenues
increased by about a million dollars.
[10:22] Well, sewer utility and solid waste
public works increased their
[10:25] expenditures by about 1.8 million
dollars.
[10:28] Uh, depreciation of fixed assets also
increased.
[10:32] And the net operating items such uh,
income and expenses remained fairly
[10:36] consistent.
Again, this is a pretty helicopter
[10:41] view of the financials.
Um,
[10:44] I said I encourage you to read the MD&A
and also the footnotes if you want to
[10:48] get a little more detail about
not just the numbers, but some of the
[10:52] what what makes up uh, the important
factors in the financial statements for
[10:56] the past fiscal year.
[11:01] And we're always open for comments or
questions, even
[11:05] subsequent to this meeting if needed.
[11:09] Thank you, Paula.
Thank you.
[11:12] It was kind of a rough year, but we got
>> Yeah, we got through it.
[11:15] » [laughter]
[11:18] » And that was kind of our fault for
taking some of your people away from
[11:21] you.
It's okay.
[11:27] Was there information in here, Dale,
about the pensions, like an update on
[11:31] where those are?
Uh let's see here.
[11:37] Look at the table of contents.
[11:53] Uh pages
[11:56] 102, I believe. Let me go there.
[12:04] I got to memorize 107 pages. That's
>> Yeah.
[12:10] This shows a 10-year
history of the uh
[12:15] various pension funds. You have IMRF,
which of course you have no control
[12:19] over. Um but then you have 102 and 103
is the uh
[12:24] changes in net pension liabilities
for police pension fund.
[12:29] And then the following page has details
on the firefighters pension fund. Yeah,
[12:34] okay.
And then if you turn to the page 14 in
[12:38] the MDA,
um the top of that starts with long-term
[12:43] debt.
Um and it gives a nice summary of the
[12:48] bond funding and how much we were able
to decrease uh liability.
[12:55] For example, oops, excuse me.
Mike? I'm on
[12:59] Mr. Brennan's um
For example, the police pension.
[13:03] In 2024, your net pension liability was
almost $53 million.
[13:09] That would be the second column on page
102.
[13:13] The net pension liability dropped to 13
million
[13:16] the following fiscal year. So, that was
quite a
[13:19] decrease
[13:22] due to due to the bonds.
And it's due to fund the uh pension
[13:25] plans.
Uh what is I'm not following that deal.
[13:29] » So, page page 102 he's on. If you go to
that second column that says that's
[13:34] police pension fund 2024. Yes.
And if you go down you can see that the
[13:38] net pension liability was almost 53
million. It's 52.895
[13:43] there about over what 3/4 of the way
down on the page. Okay. On that line
[13:47] that says employers net pension
liability. And because of the decision
[13:51] that you all made to go ahead and and go
out with that second tranche that
[13:55] drastically changed then from that 52
million dollar almost 53 million dollar
[14:00] liability down to that 13. almost 5
million dollar which is a drastic
[14:04] difference because of the switch out of
the debt basically, right? So, Wow. now
[14:08] the pension debt isn't the same. We have
more bond debt, right? But we know that
[14:12] the trade-off gave
gave millions of dollars of savings over
[14:17] the course of time with going ahead and
letting the stock market take over and
[14:22] get some gains there and also make sure
that you know that we are fully funded
[14:28] so we just have different schedules and
such to
[14:30] amortize everything over time.
You know on those on 104 you had the
[14:34] same effect
on the firefighters pension fund.
[14:40] So, in essence if you had a chart if you
looked at these numbers cuz it's 10
[14:43] years back and if you look at these and
you can see that you know back I'm going
[14:47] to go back to 16 here. So, we're at 50
50.5 million dollars, okay? So, it went
[14:52] down a a little bit in 17 which is
really low but then of course it it just
[14:56] kept going up and up and up. So, it goes
from 56 million, 66 million, 80 million,
[15:01] 92 million was our height. Then we did
some of the bonding brought it down to
[15:05] 65, had some wins in the marketplace and
such went down to 48, went back up a
[15:11] little bit to 52 and then that second
tranche came through and dropped that
[15:14] liability down to 13 million.
So, you can you can
[15:19] somebody who didn't even know what we
did could look at this and not even know
[15:23] they would say, "Well, something
happened in these two years that changed
[15:26] the debt." It's It's that obvious.
Yeah, I mean, it's just It's just a few
[15:30] million among friends, right? Uh but but
it's very obvious. I mean, if we graph
[15:34] this, it would be super obvious as to
what we did and that it's working
[15:37] because you can see that that liability
is drastically different.
[15:41] So, you could see where we just couldn't
keep up. Right. We were We were drowning
[15:46] would be the right word.
So, as of the end of last fiscal year,
[15:50] we were 80 for the police 86.09%
funded.
[15:55] Correct.
>> Yeah. Yeah. And I think sometimes as for
[15:58] your constituents and when, you know,
these decisions and questions come up in
[16:01] conversations, I think sometimes those
percentages are just the easiest thing
[16:04] to understand, right? Like everyone
understands what 86% means and things of
[16:09] that sort. You know, millions get kind
of lost, I think, in in translation when
[16:13] you're talking about, you know,
different size of forces, you know, it's
[16:17] a lot of money. But when you say, "Well,
now we are as of the end of April of
[16:20] '25, we were 86.09%
funded in the police pension fund and
[16:26] whatever it is in fire then." I didn't
flip the page, but fire was 86.16. So,
[16:31] those are very strong numbers and very
strong proof of the decisions that were
[16:34] made.
[16:39] Then on the next page is 106 and 107.
That's got the returns
[16:44] from the firefighters pension and police
pension funds. Those are not any longer
[16:48] invested locally. Is that correct?
That is correct. Yes, both are now with
[16:53] the downstate pension funds fully.
Um fire went first a couple years ago,
[16:59] and then police followed.
But all money's are downstate. They each
[17:02] have some some minor dollars locally um
just to make sure that they can make
[17:07] their payrolls and things with pensions
and make their bills,
[17:10] um which is basically what everybody
else is doing too so that they can keep
[17:13] as much in the marketplace as possible
and take advantage of these gains when
[17:17] they're there.
>> [clears throat]
[17:20] » Page 28, what am I what am I seeing?
[17:24] The assets and everything with 151
million for both firefighters and
[17:32] police officers pension investment fund.
166 for the
[17:39] Right, so that's that's exactly what we
were just talking about. That that
[17:41] investment held in Illinois. Yeah,
that's the downstate pension funds.
[17:44] Exactly. One's for police and one's for
fire. Mhm. That's 151 million is that
[17:48] for both? Together. Mhm. And then the
cash and short-term investments is some
[17:51] of the cash that they have in their
local accounts
[17:55] as of April 30th of 2025. Okay. All
right. Thank you.
[18:00] And I'm certainly not trying to take
over the comptroller here, but since I
[18:03] do sit on the police pension board, I
have a little bit more insight into this
[18:07] um with that, you know, current
appointment.
[18:11] The The difference in the returns there
is pretty interesting between the two
[18:15] funds. The last 2 years, police was
close to 10.
[18:19] Fire was closer to 2% return.
Is that
[18:24] Obviously, they
they make different investments or is
[18:27] that due to the size that they have or
That's a great question. They definitely
[18:31] are completely separate. So, the
managers that do police are not the ones
[18:35] who do fire. We have completely
different contacts and everything. I get
[18:38] completely separate emails
on those on those matters, for sure.
[18:44] I I think I think some of it has to do
too with
[18:48] um dollars too a little bit, you know,
and and the investments that they make,
[18:53] but I don't have a lot of those details.
Truly, when the money went downstate as
[18:57] much to many people's chagrin,
the control is gone. We we have no no
[19:03] control. We get the reports, you know,
um overall though, it is proving at this
[19:07] point in time to be to be beneficial.
And we're going to just keep hoping that
[19:11] that's exactly what happens. Obviously,
we have a lot more dollars working for
[19:15] us now in the market than we did before
and you know, because of the two bond
[19:19] issues. You know, so if market goes up,
you know, 8% in a year, we've got
[19:23] millions upon millions of more dollars
that went up 8% that year. So,
[19:27] but both both funds are doing well and
doing what they're supposed to do.
[19:31] Um,
we
[19:33] It took me years to believe in this, but
the math is working for the funds that
[19:37] are doing it. It is a switch out of
liabilities, of course, like we just
[19:40] talked about, but there is a lot of cost
advantage to switching out that
[19:44] liability.
And we're and we can see it now in
[19:47] paper.
[19:51] Okay. Does anyone else have questions?
[19:57] Thank you, Comptroller Rogers, for
leading the charge on this process and
[20:01] Mayor and City Manager as well.
>> Can I say something, Chairman? I just
[20:05] wanted to thank Paula and her staff for
everything that they did with the audit.
[20:09] Um,
it's it's not easy to do your first
[20:12] audit. I remember my first audit here
and it's not easy.
[20:15] It's a lot. I don't care how much you
studied or did before and how good you
[20:19] are, which Paula is all those things,
but it's it's a lot and um, just very
[20:23] appreciative of all the efforts that
went not only from our audit firm, but
[20:26] from our internal staff and that we have
this product and that we're ready to go
[20:30] and we've got some really good systems
in place and looking forward to the
[20:34] future. Uh, challenges will come. I
think this is the beginning of more
[20:38] challenges to cash shrinkage, but we
will get there and we'll figure it out
[20:43] and we'll continue to run the city as we
need to.
[20:46] I echo those comments as well. Thank
you, Comptroller Rogers and your team
[20:50] and the Mayor, City Manager, our
auditors. Thank you for your help, the
[20:54] committee members.
Uh, this is one of the the foundations
[20:58] of our city every year having this and
it's good news. Um, so thanks everyone
[21:02] for making that possible. Alderman
Osinga. Mike, I do have a question.
[21:06] Um, on page 106 107
it's showing police pension fund last 10
[21:12] years.
Uh,
[21:14] net investment expense
and on police side for 2025 is 9.68%
[21:22] and on fire side is 1.48%.
What would be the
[21:29] That's exactly what kind of the question
was before. I have not studied the
[21:34] statements that perfectly. To be honest,
I don't know if the auditors have
[21:37] anything to
the partners I should say because I've
[21:40] never [laughter] had two partners or I
should say the partners. Well, we'd have
[21:43] to drill down to the detail but uh,
a lot of these numbers I think
[21:48] there's a lot of work in the moment.
Mhm.
[21:50] They write a lot of these figures. They
do a lot of the accounting for this.
[21:53] Right. But the the numbers not only then
are done by, you know, these these um,
[21:58] the investments at the state and we get
those statements, you know, on a monthly
[22:01] basis. But then they have their at the
state level they have their own
[22:05] actuaries that do work on that and we
have our own actuaries that we pay
[22:10] because we want to make sure that we are
doing what we need to be doing. So, I'm
[22:14] not nervous that something's wrong. I
just don't know the why and that's
[22:17] something I'm going to dig into for you.
But it's it is very interesting. I
[22:20] thought it was closer than that. Um, I
really did until we just looked at it
[22:24] right now. So, definitely do some
digging on that.
[22:27] » [clears throat]
>> Okay, thank you. You're welcome.
[22:31] You can trust the state with the money.
They do good.
[22:33] » [laughter]
[22:37] » All right. Well, thank you Dale and Amy.
Thank you very much. Everyone here from
[22:40] as well. Thank you.
All right. We'll move on. Our next
[22:44] agenda item is the review of the regular
March financial statements. Comptroller
[22:50] Rogers, would you take us through those,
please? Thank you.
[22:54] So, you have the statements in front of
you. I apologize. My goal is still to
[22:59] get these statements in your hands
before our meetings.
[23:03] Um and I think this year we're on
track to be able to do that with the
[23:08] additional help that I've got in my
department now.
[23:12] Um so, I was looking at the revenues,
which start on page one of the revenue
[23:19] expense report,
um right after the minutes.
[23:24] And a few things stood out to me in the
area of the taxes, the corporate
[23:30] replacement taxes, and we had talked
about that before, is significantly less
[23:35] than what we expected it to be when we
budgeted. We budgeted quite a bit lower
[23:40] than we had the year before, but it
ended up being even less than what we
[23:44] were expecting.
Now, part of that is because the state
[23:48] has changed how the local use tax and
part of those corporate replacement
[23:54] taxes are going through.
So, a little bit of what we lost, we did
[24:00] pick up in the state income tax. If you
notice, that's 105%
[24:05] right now.
Um but it's not enough of an offset.
[24:10] There's still about $400,000
that we end up being short to this
[24:14] point.
Now,
[24:17] the only thing with that is we really
won't know until July when we've got our
[24:22] final accruals in there what this year
ends up shaking out because there is the
[24:27] timing difference. Right now, you're
looking at revenues as they were
[24:31] collected. When we get ready to close
the year, then we'll have um May, June,
[24:37] and July because the state is that far
in their payments, far behind in their
[24:42] payments. So, there may be some
differences in there, but I don't expect
[24:48] corporate or local use to make a rebound
this year, I guess is why I'm saying all
[24:54] of that. We will pick up some in the
income tax area, but I expect both of
[25:00] those to be lower for next year.
[25:05] Um, licenses,
that whole section down there is still
[25:10] way under what we budgeted because the
liquor licenses, which is a large
[25:15] portion of it, is going to be collected
this month. So, we won't really have
[25:21] good figures on this until end of year.
Uh, it's small dollars. I'm not too
[25:27] worried about it even if it is under,
it's not going to hamstring us.
[25:31] Uh, franchise fees, I changed the name
on this account to say franchise fees.
[25:37] We had it saying cable TV there, but I'm
looking at it, the lion's share of that
[25:43] was actually coming from Aqua.
Um, it was franchise fees for Aqua is
[25:49] the largest part of that component, and
they were up this year. They went up by
[25:56] about 11%.
So, Aqua drove that a little higher, but
[26:02] as we had discussed before, DirecTV and
Comcast both are down, and I don't
[26:08] expect that they're going to come back
up either. It's just the way of the
[26:12] world now. There aren't as many people
um, utilizing DirecTV and Comcast as
[26:19] there were before. So, DirecTV was down
17%
[26:25] over 17% for the year, and Comcast was
down over 11%.
[26:33] If you flip up to the next page,
um, all three of these sections, grants,
[26:41] service charges, and fines are all over
budget. Um, we had discussed we picked
[26:48] up that grant. Um, we had put in a
$50,000 place marker thinking we might
[26:54] pick up something in grants.
But then we got the $300,000
[26:58] related to Riverwalk on the grant
funding that we didn't know at the time
[27:04] we closed up budget was going to be
coming our way.
[27:07] So that's going to end the year well
over what the budget was.
[27:11] Service charges are really running right
along where I'd expect them to be.
[27:17] And fines
fines and liens on that next page, the
[27:22] top of the next page, have rebounded.
Um, we finally got the code department
[27:27] back up to staff so that they can be out
there doing the inspections.
[27:32] So those fees have gone up higher.
Um, and we're doing a good job, I think,
[27:37] of staying on track and trying to
collect them.
[27:42] Interest and other,
uh, on page three.
[27:47] So the interest section there, I
overestimated on our budget. We just end
[27:53] up falling a little short there.
Um, and then we're got a and hotel tax.
[28:00] I was afraid when I saw the hotel tax
that maybe we were behind on payments.
[28:05] We are not.
Uh, the biggest hotel in Kankakee has
[28:09] dropped in half.
Um,
[28:13] two years ago they were four times
higher than what they are now. And I
[28:17] don't think anybody's shocked by that.
Uh, and then the other two hotels we
[28:22] have are small enough it wouldn't have
made a dent, but they've gone down as
[28:25] well.
[28:29] As far as expenditures,
um, the expenditures really are pretty
[28:34] much all the departments running at or
under budget. There's only a couple of
[28:40] outliers. Um,
we've talked about this before, but one
[28:45] of the places that we've been hit hard
and we put in the budget this year, we
[28:50] put in a contingency of $200,000
for ECDA for economic development
[28:57] because we weren't sure they were still
in the audit process what was going to
[29:02] shake out. Well, what we feared worst is
what shook out. There are expenditures
[29:08] that they're no longer going to cover.
We're going to have to be on the hook
[29:11] for paying their rental and their lease
um and much of their administrative
[29:16] costs that before they were covering,
the city's going to have to find a way
[29:21] to absorb those.
Um
[29:25] So, overall, if we look at salaries and
this you won't find on the individual
[29:30] pages. I've been working on a summary
that I will start distributing with next
[29:36] year's financials. I wanted to make sure
the bugs were out of it first. It's
[29:40] similar to what I give ESU.
So, salary, wages, and overtime, we
[29:46] budgeted $16.2 million.
Um our year-to-date amount is only at
[29:53] 13.8
which is only 84.7%.
[29:58] So, we are significantly under budget.
Um not that we'll necessarily stay there
[30:05] with all the cleanup that's still going
on with the storm. We still have monies
[30:10] that's going to be coming out um which
we may or may not have reimbursement for
[30:16] somewhere down the line.
Um insurance and pension
[30:22] those expenditures
uh were pretty well along with budget
[30:27] except that
our pension contributions end up being
[30:31] slightly higher than what we expected.
Um and that really is just a learning
[30:37] curve on my part to figure out how much
we're going to be putting into pension
[30:41] [clears throat]
based on what's left over after we pick
[30:45] up the amount that goes through tax
levy.
[30:48] So, we were sitting at 102% there.
Training and travel is well under
[30:54] budget. It's only at 58%.
Um supplies and equipment, they're under
[31:01] budget at 56%.
Um contracts and services are at 87.8%,
[31:10] which is still a good place to be at
this time of year under budget-wise.
[31:16] Uh the only other one was the all other.
Uh it was sitting at 85%.
[31:22] Repairs and maintenance were down this
year. Uh we had quite a few things that
[31:27] went wrong last year that we had to fix.
Uh but this year we stayed right in line
[31:32] in budget and we're actually coming in
quite a bit under.
[31:36] So, the total expenditures, if we flip
up now to that page
[31:42] 12,
[31:45] we're sitting at 87 and 1/2
and we're 92% of the way through the
[31:51] budget year.
So, again, we're in really good shape um
[31:57] for being
through March.
[32:02] Yes. In regard to the uh hotel tax, um
the trend seems to be, you know, going
[32:07] to the Airbnbs and you know, that that
type of rental, which isn't really
[32:11] necessarily a bad thing with the
exception of the loss of revenue. Um I
[32:15] know it's been discussed um you know, in
far as collecting the taxes on these
[32:20] when they go through, you know, Airbnb.
Um
[32:24] is there any follow-up on where
>> Dawn is working on that. She is
[32:28] diligently working on that. Part of the
problem is getting our arms around where
[32:33] these Airbnbs are.
Um we actually were doing some research
[32:38] Mhm. like a booking agent would do to
try and pinpoint where in the city they
[32:43] are. Um, we've got to get some
compliance on how they register so we
[32:49] can know how much money is out there. I
know there was a conversation where um,
[32:53] you know, they booked online and they
were collecting tax. So if that's the
[32:57] case, I mean, you know, should we not be
looking at at the companies and going,
[33:01] okay, you guys are collecting it,
where's the revenue? The companies are
[33:04] supposed to collect tax, but it's my
understanding the city has to
[33:09] tell them where those monies are
supposed to be coming from.
[33:14] So it's a little of he said, she said
and the reason we don't have it is we
[33:19] aren't speaking the same language.
But that is something Don is working on
[33:23] to track down where they are um, to send
code out to tell them they're not in
[33:29] compliance if they're not recording the
revenues and giving us a percentage.
[33:35] Um, it's probably going to be a year or
two for we get our arms completely
[33:39] around it.
And I don't think it's going to be
[33:42] enough to make up for the hotel tax.
Mhm.
[33:48] I was just going to say too that I have
a feel Are you going to speak about the
[33:51] changeover? Is that what you're going to
speak about? Okay. I'll let you talk
[33:54] about that. The The other thing is is
that this is a very common theme across
[33:57] many municipalities right now. Uh, the
whole Airbnb and collection cost.
[34:01] There's a thread probably on my city
manager
[34:04] um, like thread from the from the group
that I'm in with city managers. There's
[34:09] probably one about this
every six to eight weeks that somebody
[34:12] says again, so how are you doing this?
And everyone's kind of struggling with
[34:16] it. So I think people will start to get
their arms around it more, which we're
[34:19] doing our best now as Paula said and um,
hopefully that'll come together and then
[34:24] mayor's going to feed in with you as far
as
[34:27] Yeah, as as controller mentioned, the
um, the hotel south of town down on
[34:32] Riverstone Parkway is down
significantly. At one point, um, and not
[34:36] that far long ago, probably less than
12 months ago or even 18 months ago,
[34:41] that was the number three hotel in all
of Kankakee County for revenue
[34:45] collection.
Um, when they lost the Hilton Garden
[34:48] Flagship and became Wyndham, they have
not, um, you can see the new signages
[34:54] and all, but just a banner at this point
or some things that I think that has
[34:57] dramatically affected their business.
Um,
[35:01] and so, and we have been having
conversations with them and emails back
[35:05] and forth, myself, uh, Director Brewer
Watson, City Manager Korboul, about, um,
[35:11] they're supposed to be doing a
significant renovation on that hotel
[35:14] starting this summer. They right now own
a hotel in New Orleans that is just
[35:18] finishing up a $7 million renovation
there and their next project is this one
[35:22] where they're going to come in and they
expect to spend easily
[35:26] a million plus, but closer probably to
$2 million in renovations to the hotel.
[35:31] I'm hoping that when they do that, that
will help bring everything back cuz
[35:34] Wyndham isn't a horrible brand name. Um,
they're all in municipalities and stuff,
[35:39] but where they're at right now, they're
kind of in a limbo of having the
[35:43] upgrades that need to be done. So,
um, but we are in conversations with
[35:47] them about what that means and we're
supposed to have a meeting here shortly
[35:50] with them.
And they did have a significant bump in
[35:55] the revenues that we picked up during
the time frame of Regatta. Yes.
[35:59] Um, but then this month was the lowest
I've ever seen it. Mhm.
[36:05] And, um, I heard
uh, um, Mayor was talking about how we
[36:09] were going to
Yeah, yes. I heard how we were going to
[36:12] I was just listening to how we were
going to pay for,
[36:16] um,
you know, the overtime and all that. I
[36:18] didn't really hear it. I mean, you say
we're going to handle it, you know, the
[36:21] overtime and how where is it going to
come from, you know, I know The overtime
[36:24] for?
For the, um, storm and everything
[36:27] because apparently not
I don't believe anything going to be
[36:29] coming anything going to be coming from
the state or federal
[36:33] » is the storm. We're going to talk about
that probably at city council. Uh we'll
[36:36] have we can talk a little bit about
tonight. It's It's as good as any time
[36:39] to talk about it. Um the city is going
to face some significant expenses from
[36:45] this storm.
And what I mean we're we're no different
[36:48] than anybody else with their homes.
So we have um just give you a quick
[36:53] update and I'm I have city manager
correct me if I'm wrong cuz she's been
[36:56] working on this diligently along with uh
David Guzman. Um
[37:01] we have had all of our vehicles
inspected. I believe it was roughly 78
[37:05] vehicles that have been affected.
And then we hired our own assessment of
[37:11] all the roofs along with the insurance
which just out in the last 2 weeks
[37:14] inspecting all of our properties. Not
just roofs, things like HVAC equipment
[37:18] on top, uh aluminum wrappings, things of
that.
[37:21] Basically every roof in the city of
Kankakee is going to need to be replaced
[37:25] including the new ones we just recently
did. Like we just did one at the hydro
[37:28] plant. We just did one at the depot 2 or
3 years ago. They're all going to be
[37:31] needed.
The key is going to be just like
[37:33] everybody else is facing, they're going
to depreciate probably some of those
[37:36] roofs. Right.
>> Meaning hydro plant and depot are
[37:40] probably going to going to get fixed
because they're fairly new.
[37:43] But we might have a fire station that
hasn't had a new roof replaced in
[37:48] 25 plus years. They're going to
depreciate that value out, things like
[37:51] that. Um we are probably going to face
just like everybody else a shortfall of
[37:56] whatever the insurance claim is and
we're going to have to figure that out
[37:59] moving forward. Okay, that's what I was
asking. So we're we're in hardship just
[38:03] as much as the residents are. We're just
in a bigger number hardship. I don't
[38:07] know what our final claim number will
be.
[38:10] Um I'm sure it'll be
well north of seven figures.
[38:14] But I don't expect that we will when we
go to replace everything and all that, I
[38:18] think there's going to be a gap.
And we're going to have to make up that
[38:21] gap and that's going to be a part of the
budget going forward next year that we
[38:24] had some gaps already going into this
year. Um and talking with comptroller
[38:29] this morning and city manager and past
um we're expecting significant um
[38:35] gap coming into the first draft of the
budget and part of that uh comptroller
[38:39] you want to talk about is just
the cost of expenses and everything are
[38:43] up roughly about 26% you said? Yeah. So,
in order to make sure I'm moving the
[38:49] cash, not moving too much of it at one
time when the bills come through, I've
[38:53] been tracking the bills to make sure I'm
moving money into general fund out of
[38:58] Illinois funds where it earns income.
So, I've been tracking very closely and
[39:05] we've been running steadily ticking up
and ticking up on the dollar value of
[39:11] those bills that are coming through.
We were like 26% higher this last bill
[39:17] time than we have been on the averages
um since I've been tracking it since
[39:24] September 24. So, so things like it
could be as much as
[39:29] repairs on vehicles are just more costly
this now cuz the rates have gone up,
[39:33] they're no longer charged I'm picking a
number $85 an hour it's now $95 an hour.
[39:38] The cost of a paperclip,
the paper, to whatever it is, just
[39:42] everything is much more costly now. Um
almost as you're seeing almost a quarter
[39:46] almost 1/4 of a expense there.
So, with figuring that out, we've got
[39:53] uh collective bargaining agreements that
we have obligations to. Mhm. Insurance
[39:57] and everything else is going up.
I'm we're a little nervous about what is
[40:01] going to be the insurance
come this December for
[40:05] property and casualty because if you
think the insurance companies are going
[40:09] to raise the area.
>> [clears throat]
[40:11] » I'm sure they will with this dramatic
storm and we're facing the same thing.
[40:14] So, back to your question about overtime
and everything,
[40:17] um we're going to we'll to play it out,
but we have no choice. We've got um
[40:22] our our team is working hard. They're
doing what they're supposed to be doing,
[40:26] putting in extra long hours and
everything to make sure that the
[40:28] citizens are taken care of and that's
the cost of business running the city
[40:32] because that's what we have to do, but
it is going to affect us. This storm
[40:35] we're not escaping the damage from this
storm either, whether it's physically or
[40:39] financially.
Okay, thank you mayor. Very thorough.
[40:42] Very thorough. Thank you, city manager.
Comptroller, thank you.
[40:52] Does anybody have any questions?
[41:04] Okay. Thank you, Comptroller Rogers.
And under updates, we have an ARPA
[41:10] update and the
note regarding the budget for next year.
[41:15] Can we turn Can I go back just real
quick? That last page is you got cash
[41:18] balances.
Because I'm going to let Comptroller
[41:22] talk about that, but I think what she's
going to point out to you is it's
[41:25] pretty strong.
And I go back to a lot of times people
[41:29] will say, "Why are we sitting on this
cash? Why shouldn't we get
[41:33] it's for instances like the
unpredictable.
[41:35] We're going to need this cash on hand
because of the storm
[41:38] to take care of the city
and we don't have ARPA. ARPA's ending.
[41:42] We don't have other things. So, I'll let
her go through cash, but this is exactly
[41:46] why
>> [snorts]
[41:48] » we try we're we're proud of our leaders
in the expense team. As you saw, revenue
[41:53] is really strong. Expenses is down again
consistently over the years because we
[41:57] prepare for things of the unknown,
whether it's a sinkhole in the street or
[42:01] unfortunately
a storm that happens once every 50 years
[42:04] in our community. We're going to need
these dollars
[42:08] whatever that gap is.
Yes, we end up we're we were sitting at
[42:13] 45 million at the end of February. We're
sitting at 44 at the end of March.
[42:19] Um we are in a good strong position. Uh
but you'll notice it was general funds
[42:26] that were at that time of year now until
the tax [clears throat] money start
[42:31] rolling in. We have to play it close to
the vest to make sure that we're putting
[42:36] the money in to fund. The one thing I
was very pleased with when I tracked the
[42:42] payroll since September of 2024, it's
less than 8% that it's gone up. And we
[42:49] have increased positions. We've brought
fire up to full staff. We've brought
[42:54] police up to full staff.
>> As a way We've added staffing in other
[42:58] areas around the city including the
comptroller's office.
[43:02] Um and we've had modest increases. So I
was really happy with the fact that
[43:08] payroll hasn't had that skyrocket to it.
Um but we really we really don't have a
[43:14] lot of control over the supply costs and
how they're going up.
[43:18] Um but yes, we are still in a very good
position. 25 million sitting there in
[43:24] Illinois funds where we're making the
highest percentage of interest is a good
[43:30] thing to have. As the mayor says, we've
got that money set aside for a rainy
[43:34] day.
[43:38] Um and then ARPA
[43:42] The only thing really to discuss
>> [clears throat]
[43:45] » perspective there, we're down to 1.1
million
[43:50] um as far as what's left outstanding.
The allocations are we're just running
[43:56] down the clock trying to get it all used
before December.
[44:04] We of course have another are ARPA
report that's due here in the next few
[44:07] weeks for the first quarter. Um
obviously we're you know we're we're
[44:11] dwindling it all down so there's a lot
less to report upon. No new projects to
[44:15] create so as I reported in the past it
goes fairly quickly now. About we in our
[44:19] meeting this morning the three of us we
spoke about the fact that we do need to
[44:23] start you know being very intentional
about making sure that those allocations
[44:26] that are still out there are utilized
the way that was intended by this very
[44:30] city council.
[44:40] » [clears throat]
>> Do you have questions about ARPA?
[44:45] If none will anything about the budget
or do we cover that already?
[44:49] » [snorts]
>> Um
[44:51] we talked this morning about budget. We
have so many other big pieces that are
[44:55] still missing. I [clears throat] am
starting to meet with the individual
[44:58] department heads. I met first with fire.
He's gotten most of his numbers to me.
[45:06] Uh our goal is to me individually meet
with the departments and come back with
[45:12] numbers for the mayor so that we can
start digging in because we are sort of
[45:17] fearful that this year is not going to
be a year that we're trying to figure
[45:21] out how to spend the leftovers. It's
going to be a year where we're trying to
[45:25] figure out how to trim down and make the
um expenditure smaller.
[45:35] Any questions about budget? And
um Chairman
[45:39] you want to speak about what will be on
the city council agenda for Monday night
[45:42] with the resolutions Paul? Oh yes, we do
have two resolutions that will be passed
[45:48] Monday night um to continue our spending
until we have passed the budget. It's
[45:55] something that we do every year. It just
has to be done before the end of our
[45:59] month.
[46:02] Thank you. Any questions about budget or
anything else?
[46:07] Sure, I just want to say uh man I think
uh thank you for that information
[46:11] because I don't all of us are dealing
with houses, you know, we all got so
[46:15] many different things going on. We never
really thought about as the city got the
[46:18] same thing what we call depreciation on
the roofs and all of the cars and all.
[46:23] Is there do we have anything that we
have a deductible to me or anything like
[46:28] that? You know, when you got a car, you
have to pay so much on a house. Do we
[46:32] have the same type of situation with our
insurance within the city? You know, if
[46:36] the cars are bad, they're going to get
thrown away. Do we do the same thing
[46:41] within the city? We do. We do have to
Just bigger deductibles. Mhm. Okay, so
[46:46] we do have a deductible. We have
>> have deductibles. You know, the
[46:49] unfortunate thing is we we can't partake
in the
[46:52] SBA program or just going to give
information out.
[46:55] » Right. Uh it's good for property owners,
it's good for rentals, it's good for
[46:59] businesses, and it's good for
nonprofits.
[47:01] The one thing they left out was
government. So, we're on our own.
[47:05] Um but again, we'll be able to handle it
and we'll figure it out. But the answer
[47:08] to your question is yes, we have some
cars that'll be totaled out. Uh we'll
[47:12] figure out what we're going to do with
that. I know there's things I'll give an
[47:14] example. I believe there's a truck in
DPW that is totaled out. Doesn't mean
[47:19] we're not going to get money for it, but
we can still potentially keep that
[47:23] truck. One
>> those ones that's great for maybe you
[47:26] splash paint all over or whatever
happened. But it just won't have
[47:29] comprehensive of a collision coverage if
you have it. It'll still have liability.
[47:33] Right.
>> But if it was to get further damage, we
[47:35] wouldn't be able to make a claim on it.
Um I'm working with Chief Kidwell today.
[47:39] We'll have to work with fire, but
there's certain vehicles that um
[47:43] he's going to work through what we got
to do there, but we expect that yes,
[47:46] there'll be some vehicles that'll be
totaled out. We'll have to buy some new
[47:48] ones.
Um
[47:50] But again, we'll get insurance money for
that. We'll we'll have to play that all
[47:54] out. There's a long long road ahead here
for just as much as as much as the
[47:57] residents. Right. Um and
if you think about the number of roofs
[48:01] that we have, we have four fire
stations, public safety building,
[48:04] administration building, code
department, sewer department, Willow,
[48:09] hydro plant, depot, I could keep going
on with some others, DPW. It's going to
[48:15] take us a while.
You know, it it we could be a year from
[48:18] now before we get all the roofs fixed
and replaced and everything. And then we
[48:21] haven't even got into things like HVAC
equipment
[48:25] » Mhm. other stuff like that. So, um It's
It's a huge It's a huge puzzle as you
[48:30] can as you can imagine cuz you all are
dealing with it so much on your on your
[48:33] own properties and then from
[clears throat] your constituents. The
[48:37] The thing that we did decide is we are
running this pretty centrally through uh
[48:40] the mayor's office. Obviously, insurance
matters are usually clerk matters, but
[48:45] this is so operational at this point
working with all the department heads,
[48:49] making sure that we have everything
that's listed. Um we just decided that
[48:52] we do need like a centralized location
for that so that we have one person
[48:56] basically speaking to adjusters and
things like that. And David um has been
[49:00] instrumental in in that coordination
along with all of our department heads
[49:03] who've been excellent reporting
everything that they're supposed to let
[49:06] us know about um on top of their regular
duties. So, it's it's kind of been a a
[49:10] side gig for everybody lately just
worrying about the storm, right? And we
[49:14] want to get those resources out to not
only our residents, but we have to take
[49:17] care of ourselves too eventually, you
know, we we patched up what was
[49:20] important first, but now we have to make
sure we make the long-term investments
[49:23] to protect our buildings.
About time
[49:26] » Not us. About time we get some work out
of Dave.
[49:29] » [laughter]
>> He works so hard. I know he does. And
[49:33] that's my guy. Oh, man. [laughter]
[49:37] Thank you.
[49:40] Okay. Any other questions or comments?
[49:45] If not, is there a motion to adjourn?
I'll move. Motion is there a second?
[49:49] Second. All in favor say I. Opposed?
Okay, thanks everyone.