Maplewood Voices* public policy news and commentary from a citizen's view

6/4/2007 5:00 PM Council Manager Workshop - Capital Improvement Plan

[Update 6/7 8:30 AM. Additional linked pdfs, minor rewrites for clarity]

After 45 minutes on the closed agenda item to discuss CoPar litigation, and with the meeting scheduled to adjourn in time for those wishing to attend a 7:00 PM moratorium neighborhood study session in south Maplewood, a council quorum met for less than one hour to discuss the $85,562,714 Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) for 2008-2012. Ms. Juenemann and Ms. Longrie were not present.

The CIP is an annual forecast of capital spending for the next five years, setting project priorities and acting as a debt management plan. This was the first CIP presented since the council majority was elected, since no formal 2007-2011 CIP had been prepared. It was also the first public financial discussion since the appointment of Finance and Administration Manager Robert Mittet. Mr. Mittet did not participate in presenting the CIP except for a brief response to a question.

In his brief introduction, Mr. Copeland referenced summary pages from the packet (proposed CIP 2008-2012 [large pdf]) covering the overall plan by category and projects for 2008 [small pdf]. He did not discuss the capital improvement planning process, how goals and priorities were set, the implications of a project being on or left off of the plan, or what decision steps remained to put the plan in place.

Category	2006-2010 CIP	2008-2012 CIP	Change	% Change
Building Maint	157,300	994,644	837,344	532.3
Redevelopment	11,705,000	15,100,000	3,395,000	29.0
Equipment	3,056,170	1,854,170	(1,202,000)	(39.3)
Parks	2,900,000	790,000	(2,110,000)	(72.8)
Public Works	47,071,200	66,823,900	19,752,700	42.0
Total	64,889,670	85,562,714	20,673,044	31.9

Reference was also made to this deferred project list [small pdf] A graphic (not searchable text) version of this document was included in the publicly available packet, but without a Table of Contents entry. Mr. Copeland ended his introduction by suggesting an increase to the percent of street improvement costs collected through assessments from property owners on the street being improved. He suggested those residents who in his view directly benefit from a street improvement pay for more of that improvement, thereby reducing the general property taxes paid by all residents.

Police Chief Thomalla presented in-squad video camera and laptop replacement projects deferred to 2009.

No agenda or presentation sequence had been announced by Councilperson Cave, who was chairing the meeting. So, when Thomalla was finished Councilperson Rossbach began asking questions about the 72.8% decrease in the Parks plan, and who on the staff speaks for Parks. He also wondered about the comment on the deferred project list suggesting trails have priority over parks, although there are few if any trail projects in the CIP. Cave asked him to hold his park questions so the Fire Department and building maintenance projects could be discussed.

Fire Chief Lukin presented plans for refurbishing an ambulance, and laptop replacement coordinated with improved data flow from the new dispatch operations.

Maintenance manager Larry Farr presented plans for replacing boilers, chillers, and other equipment, along with a detailed discussion of a $121000 contingent amount for replacing the gym floor if a currently underway repair is insufficient. Councilperson Rossbach questioned why this contingency was in the CIP when nothing else has been handled this way. Carpet replacement funding for the Maplewood Community Center (MCC) also has priority, which Mr. Copeland justified by asserting the MCC was supposed to be revenue producing and needed to compete with other facilities. That led to this exchange:

In fact, page 33 of the proposed CIP includes $812,534 from Community Center Operations as a funding source for the CIP. Separately, depreciation is the standard accounting mechanism for an annual expense allocation of the value of capital improvements over their useful lifespan. For 2005, the most recent year for which actual financial results are available, the Community Center Enterprise fund included a depreciation entry for $257,136.

The remainder of the meeting was spent on Public Works, with Director Ahl encouraging the council to move projects from 2008 into 2007 to take advantage of the current favorable market conditions. He explained that Maplewood is able to do this since the current debt load, at about 1.5% of market value, is well below the statutory debt limit of 2%. He suggested most cities operate much closer to the limit.

Mr. Ahl also discussed the redevelopment budget, which is consumed by Gladstone. The planning assumption is to push Hillcrest back until Gladstone is complete, since it competes with Gladstone for city and developer resources. Mr. Rossbach thought this made little sense as Gladstone is not doing anything more than Hillcrest, and Hillcrest was started earlier.

The last minute or so was given over to Mr. Rossbach's question about Parks.

Although page 33 of the CIP indicates the Park Development fund is to contribute $1,690,000 to the total CIP, only $790,000 is planned for Parks. Aside from the question of whether Park funds can be spent on non-Park projects, this is a 72% decrease from the most recent plan from two years ago. Even that sharp decline masks what actually happened to individual projects.

Mr. Rossbach ended the session by observing that "we rolled the Parks Department into Public Works, and now we have a CIP full of public works projects and no parks projects…. And this is a council that has said it's committed to parks."