Village Spillage - Whitefish Bay

Another week, another 4+ hour Trustee meeting.

What did we do?


First up, we were met by the largest audience in 2009, namely, the the dozens of young and old who want to keep ice skating rinks in Whitefish Bay.    While many Villagers have offered to volunteer to build and maintain the rinks, work like this is squarely owned by the DPW's union, which means delicious overtime for the over-night flooding process.

Trustee Fehring suggested we dispense with this annual budget request, and make it a regular item that did not need examination each year, however, other Trustees disagreed.  -- Personally, while not a skater, I believe the rinks should be built every year without question.  They are clearly a beloved attraction that draws people to our parks in the deepest of winter.

In any event, the Trustees voted 7-0 to create ice rinks in 2010.

Next, we passed Whitefish Bay's "Comprehensive Plan".   It's actually quite interesting reading, if you haven't had the chance.  120+ pages of detailed information about the Bay, its history, and future.  Click here to read.

We also addressed the roof-mounted HVAC building code question that was first debated on September 14th.  (Click here to read.)

In September, the Trustees voted (5-1, as I dissented) to allow HVAC units on the roofs of municipal buildings -- and Public school buildings, with the approval of the School Board.

The relevant quote from what I wrote last month was:

.. not only did the vote change the rules in favor of the Village & District Schools alone, it did so while discriminating against private schools, institutional buildings, not to mention homeowners.  I am hopeful this is rectified ... when we take it up again.

When we took this up last night, in short, the Trustees did not rectify, what I consider an unfair double standard, whereby the municipal buildings and public schools (only) get to play by relaxed rules.

During casual straw polling, Trustees Siegel, Roemer, Foster and President Pritchard believed the status quo should stand, while Trustees Miller, Fehring, and myself believed all of these buildings, including private schools (Dominican, Holy Family, etc) churches (United Methodist, Bayshore Lutheran, etc) and community facilities (WFB Women's Club) and should be under a consistent rule instead of favoring just the public buildings.

This outcome disappointed me greatly.  Good luck to everyone who will need to pay for, and beg the Board of Appeals for an exception.

--

Finally, we had a discussion about the 2010 municipal budget.   Part 1 of the Budget process began last Monday, as Trustees were presented with the draft containing the figures for many departments:  The library, police department, Village Hall, etc.

In the current working draft, Village staff had suggested a 2.8% tax levy increase with nearly identical increase in expenses.  2.8% is about $350,000 of our village budget.  For the record, the biggest category of increase is for Wages & Benefits, which are projected to increase 5.98%, most of which is for rising health insurance.

Trustee Fehring suggested the Village keep the tax levy increase to zero percent by using prior years' surplus.

In 2009, the Village will have collected a projected $849k in excess of expenses from homeowners.  Over the past 5 years, the Village has collected $2.8 million in excess, for a variety of reasons.

It is important to note, surpluses go into the Village's "General Fund balance" and that a healthy fund balance is vital for many reasons, especially for bond rating purposes.  If the General Fund is kept above 20% of budget, a municipality is usually in good graces.  By the end of 2009, our Fund Balance will have increased to 34% of budget. -- As an aside, the WFB School District keeps their fund balance between 15-18%.

I support Trustee Fehring's idea.  This year especially, as 2009 has been one of the worst economic periods in decades, we should be sensitive to the property tax we ask Villagers to pay. 

A zero percent levy increase should be the goal .. as well as keeping the increase in expense to a minimum.   It should be noted, due to a huge loss of State Aid, the WFB School District has actually cut expenses 3.37% for 2010.

Whether the idea of a zero percent tax levy increase will prevail is another matter.  There is the concept of "protecting the increase for the future" that may sway enough of the Trustees. 

Additionally, we are discussing paying a 5.5% loan off early, which could use $500k of the general fund, which would save the Village $25k/year in interest.  Doing both, paying down this loan, and keeping the tax levy increase at zero, would still keep the fund balance %age above the golden number of 20%.

We will (probably) finalize the budget next Monday, October 26th.   The public is welcome, as always.

Standard Disclaimer:  The commentary above does not represent the official position(s) of the Board. The above certainly shouldn't be considered official minutes, which will be eventually published.  This blog entry is your peek into one Village Board meeting from my perspective.

Posted by Kevin Buckley at Tuesday, October 20, 2009 Comments