Ashland City Council


MINUTES FOR THE SPECIAL SESSION OF COUNCIL
March 25, 2008



Council President Paul Wertz called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.

Note: The only thing that will be discussed tonight is what is on the legislative agenda and what I am going to do is ask for the Roll to be called for Council.  

ROLL CALL

Ward 1:    Robert L. Valentine    Present
Ward 2:    Robert M. Valentine    Present
Ward 3:    Ruth Detrow        Present
Ward 4/President: Paul Wertz        Present
At-large:      Stephen Stuart        Excused


Move to Excuse Stephen Stuart from tonight’s meeting by Paul Wertz, seconded by Robert M. Valentine W2.
    Ayes:  Robert L. Valentine W1, Robert M. Valentine W2, Ruth Detrow, Paul Wertz.


PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE


LEGISLATION

Ord.   8-08
Item (a) AN ORDINANCE TO MAKE APPROPRIATIONS FOR CURRENT EXPENSES
            AND OTHER EXPENDITURES OF THE CITY OF ASHLAND, STATE OF OHIO,
            DURING THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING DECEMBER 31, 2008.

Move for non-reading in full by Robert M. Valentine W2, seconded by Ruth Detrow to invoke Section 113.01 of the Codified Ordinances as the distribution of this Ordinance has satisfied the requirements of said Section and that a further reading be dispensed with at this time.
   Ayes:  Robert Valentine Ward 1, Robert M. Valentine Ward 2, Ruth Detrow, Paul Wertz.

Comments or Questions?

Ruth Detrow: I Want to make a motion to amend the Ordinance.  I want it to show the total figure for item 1501 Finance to be reduced $411, 500.00 to $381,500.00.  This will cause the total General Fund balance to become $10,985,148.00 and the Grand Total for Appropriations $54, 550,996.09.

Paul Wertz:  Do we have a second?   No second was made.  The amendment goes down.   The motion failed for lack of a second motion.

Discussion?

Robert L. Valentine W1:  Anna, you were going to explain the balance of December 28, which was 1.8 million in the General Fund and I did mention this once before, but I think was a total of 9 million over the 54 million.

Anna Tomasek:  Yes.  I provided Council a detailed spreadsheet, which is available in my office if anyone wants a copy of it.  The first part of the spreadsheet is going to have the history of the 2007 Revenue and I broke that down by what was actually budgeted when I put the appropriations together last year.  The projected Revenue, and this is just General Fund only.  We projected the General Fund Revenue to be 9.27 million dollars.  Our Actual Revenue for the General Fund for the year 2007 was 10.67 million which in overall results in the revenue was increased from our anticipated beginning projection of revenue as an actual difference of an increase of 1.4 million and in the bottom of the spreadsheet it goes into the history of the expenditures.  Overall the expenditures for 2007, the appropriations was 10.9 million that was appropriated last year and with all the combined departments in the General Fund this year are 17, it came in at 10.395 million which was a difference of $562,224.00 dollars of a savings we did not spend all the money that was appropriated.  The bottom portion of the spreadsheet, we started the year with the beginning balance of 1.73 million, actual revenues was 10.674 million.  We appropriated and actually expended 10.395 million; we have encumbrances of $112, 736.00 dollars leaving us with an ending balance as of December 31, 2007 at $1,898,732.00 for the City of Ashland.  

Robert L. Valentine W1:  Could you repeat that?

Anna Tomasek:  Revenue is basically, Projected 9.27 million, we actually received 10.674 million, that is a gain of 1.4 million from what we had projected back in January of last year, 2007 and as you can see for the Revenue, the differences came in at State Levy taxes which is an increase of $375,242.93 and the majority of that revenue was due to an inheritance of state tax and the other number to be looking at would be the transfers and reimbursements; we had an increase of $792,000.00 there.  The majority of all of our revenues were up from what we anticipated in 2004.  Do you have any questions on the Revenue before we move on to the expenditure side?

Robert L. Valentine W1:  My question was and is pretty much the same, the idea if we projected that and projected the zero balance and we ended up with 1.8 million and now we are projecting a balance for the end of 2008 at 30,000.00.

Anna Tomasek:  Yes.  I have a second sheet explaining all of the history budget vs actual.

Robert L. Valentine W1:   Well is it possible we will make that?

Anna Tomasek:  With the revenues being conservative and we technically appropriated all the money that we had; as you can see the history with the City of Ashland is our Revenues have typically exceeded our estimates and all of the divisions with their cooperation, being tight on our budgets, we don’t spend everything we appropriate, you have two factors; Revenues going up and the expenditures being less than what we appropriated.  You have two variables equaling a carryover.  Now even though we appropriated and are right now projecting a carryover of 29 approximately 30,000.00, in reality we will probably have a carryover of about 800,000 to 1 million but it all depends on how the revenue comes in with the state levy, property tax, charges of services, miscellaneous revenue, etc.  It also depends on how much we actually spend throughout the year.

Robert L. Valentine W1:  Will that effect our spending over this 2008 if we do receive the 800,000 or 1 million?

Anna Tomasek:  Well, right now this appropriation is going to allow these departments, the 17 departments in the General Fund to spend by this Ordinance $11, 015,148.08.

Robert L. Valentine W1:  It allows them to spend that?

Anna Tomasek:  They cannot spend any more than that unless we go back before Council and amend the appropriation Ordinance.  

Mayor Stewart:  That is what we talked about in our Regular Meeting last week, during the Public Hearing, that if the Revenues are showing a very positive trend beyond the projected Revenue, I think I turned to Anna and we agreed mutually that we would look at those revenues and give serious consideration to revising our revenue back to the auditor.  If that trend is shown at the end of the 6 month period.

Anna Tomasek:  Right, I mean the trends could go either way but typically for the City of Ashland from a historical standpoint, our revenues have always been higher than what we anticipated and the expenditures less than what we appropriated.  

Comments or questions?

Motion made and moved to approve the appropriations by Robert L. Valentine W1, seconded by Robert M. Valentine W2 to invoke Section 113.01 of the Codified Ordinances as the distribution of this Ordinance has satisfied the requirements of said Section and that a further reading be dispensed with at this time.
   Ayes:  Robert L. Valentine W1, Robert M. Valentine W2, Paul Wertz
   Nays: Ruth Detrow

Move to suspend the rules, 3 separate meetings, 3 separate nights, by Paul Wertz, seconded by Robert L. Valentine W1, to invoke Section 113.01 of the Codified Ordinances as the distribution of this Ordinance has satisfied the requirements of said Section and that a further reading be dispensed with at this time.

Ruth Detrow:  I would like to say something at this point.  It is pretty obvious that this Council is going to pass this budget as it is.  I do not agree with that but that is fine, that is the way our Democracy works.  I am going to approve doing it tonight.  It would be a total waste.  I am aware that with four of us, if I vote against doing it all tonight, against three separate readings, three separate days, we would have to come back another time and a third time this month and the result would be the same.  That is foolish, that is a waste of these good people’s time and I won’t do that so I do disapprove of the way the Ordinance is, I do not disapprove of if we are going to pass it anyway, I do not disapprove of doing it all in one night.
 
  Ayes:  Robert L. Valentine W1, Robert M. Valentine W2, Ruth Detrow, Paul Wertz.

Move that the Ordinance be passed by Paul Wertz seconded by Robert L. Valentine W1.
    Ayes: Robert L. Valentine W1, Robert M. Valentine W2,  Paul Wertz.
   Nays:  Ruth Detrow

Ord.  9-08
Item   (b)   AN ORDINANCE AMENDING SECTION 221.05 OF THE CODIFIED ORDINANCES
                  OF THE CITY OF ASHLAND, OHIO, RELATIVE TO THE ALLOCATION OF MU-
                   NICIPAL INCOME TAX FUNDS; AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY.

Move for non-reading in full by Ruth Detrow, seconded by Robert L. Valentine W1 to invoke Section 113.01 of the Codified Ordinances as the distribution of this Ordinance has satisfied the requirements of said Section and that a further reading be dispensed with at this time.
   Ayes:  Robert Valentine Ward 1, Robert M. Valentine Ward 2, Ruth Detrow, Paul Wertz.

Comments?

Anna Tomasek:  This Legislation allows the income tax collections to be move and transferred
into the General Fund for Park Fund and Street Fund.   This is a typical housekeeping item that
allows the appropriation to be passed.  This is the Income Tax allocation part of the budget process.

Robert L. Valentine W1:  Anna, this hasn’t changed from last year?

Anna Tomasek:  No.  The same percentages as last year.

Comments or questions?  None

Motion to pass the Ordinance on the first reading by Paul Wertz, moved by Robert L. Valentine W1,

Richard P. Wolfe II, Director of Law:  Wait a moment, there is no change?

Anna Tomasek:  The amounts have changed, the totals have changed.

Paul Wertz:  The percentages haven’t changed.

Continued Motion:
seconded by Robert M. Valentine W2 to invoke Section 113.01 of the Codified Ordinances as the distribution of this Ordinance has satisfied the requirements of said Section and that a further reading be dispensed with at this time.
   Ayes:  Robert L. Valentine W1, Robert M. Valentine W2, Ruth Detrow, Paul Wertz
   
Move to suspend the rules, 3 separate meetings, 3 separate nights, by Ruth Detrow, seconded by Robert L. Valentine W1, to invoke Section 113.01 of the Codified Ordinances as the distribution of this Ordinance has satisfied the requirements of said Section and that a further reading be dispensed with at this time.
   Ayes:  Robert L. Valentine W1, Robert M. Valentine W2, Ruth Detrow, Paul Wertz

Move that the Ordinance be passed by Ruth Detrow, seconded by Robert L. Valentine W1.
    Ayes: Robert L. Valentine W1, Robert M. Valentine W2, Ruth Detrow, Paul Wertz.
   
Motion to adjourn meeting by Paul Wertz, moved by Robert L. Valentine W1, seconded by Robert M. Valentine W2.
   Ayes:  Robert L. Valentine W1, Robert M. Valentine W2, Ruth Detrow, Paul Wertz.

Meeting Adjourned at 7:15 p.m.
                                        Submitted by
                                        Valarie F. Bishoff
                                        Clerk of Council