Board of Finance Meeting Minutes 2016

CALL TO ORDER:

Mr. Forbes called the January 28, 2016, Special Meeting for the Board of Finance to order at 7:40 p.m.

ROLL CALL:

Clerk Treasurer, Beth Hernandez took roll call with the following members present: Michael Forbes, Greg Volk, Mark Barenie, Christian Jorgensen, Steve Hastings. Attorney David Austgen was present. Town Manager, Steve Kil, was present.

ELECTION OF OFFICERS:

Mr. Forbes stated that the first item was the election of officers. He asked if there were any nominations for President. Mr. Volk nominated Mike Forbes for President. Mr. Forbes asked for any other nominations. There were none. The motion was carried by voice vote (5/0). Ayes --- all. Nays --- none.

Mr. Forbes moved on to the election of Vice President. Mr. Forbes nominated Mark Barenie. Mr. Forbes asked for any other nominations. There were none. The motion was carried by voice vote (5/0). Ayes --- all. Nays --- none.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES: January 29th, 2015 Special Meeting

Mr. Forbes said that the next item was the approval of the meeting minutes from the January 29, 2015 Special Meeting. Mr. Forbes asked if there were any questions. Hearing none, Mr. Forbes stated he would like to entertain a motion. Mr. Volk made a motion to approve the minutes. Mr. Hastings seconded the motion. The motion was carried by voice vote (5/0). Ayes --- all. Nays --- none.

NEW BUSINESS:

A. CONSIDER 2015 ANNUAL FINANCE REPORT

Mr. Barenie explained that he did work pretty extensively with not only Steve, but Ms. Hernandez, our Clerk-Treasurer. He would like to give a few highlights on the report. This an annual report that is done each year. It is similar to the last report that he went through. It is great to hear that the Town continues to have a AA Credit Rating with Standard Poors. What does that mean? Well, at some point we will probably need some construction, and at some point we will need bonds. This will help us to get the lowest rate possible. So, that is a very strong rating for us. The Town had a cash position at the beginning of the year of $22,808,000.00. We ended the year with $8,000 less than that at $22,800,000.00. So, the cash is in good standing. There is more information on the report, but Mr. Barenie only wanted to hit the highlights.

Home Construction remains strong in 2015 with 154 new residential housing starts that generated fees of approximately $605,000.00. Moving on to the second page of the report. It was fascinating this year that we found out that St. John is actually the second lowest corporate tax rate in Lake County only following Winfield, which is actually just getting into a Public Safety Department. So, keeping that in mind, we are at the top for the lowest tax rate. Kudos to St. John for that. We also rank number eleven for the most populated municipality in Lake County, but hold the highest median income at approximately $96,000.00, as well as, home value at $262,000.00 on average. St. John has not used tax anticipation notes/warrants for a long time, so that is in good standing for us as well.

Current debt of our organization is about $22,000,000.00. That is broken up into about three areas. The Town Building Corporations, the buildings, Public Works, the Police Department, etc. is about $10,000,000.00. The Waterworks and Sewage makes up about another $5,000,000-6,000,000.00. Followed by the recent bond on the roads of about $5,200,000.00 for that total of 22,000,000.00.

Mr. Barenie explained that other reports that are attached are just more on the General Fund and different departments within St. John but he would probably just cover our General Fund for the year-end. Our General Fund is made up of our Clerk- Treasurer’s Office, the Town Council, Police Department, Fire Department, Building & Planning along with Park Properties. On an annual basis, those budgets for this last year are $4.4 million. If we go back to 2012, which is what the schedule has for a comparative and a trend, we were at $4.2 million dollars. So, over the last four years we have increased about $250,000.00 in running most of the Town with all of the payroll. That is roughly about $250,000.00 for three years; it came out to be a little less than 2% a year. 1.5% of an increase in cost for those three or four years. Mr. Barenie said that he thinks that the expenses are being monitored very from a standpoint that 6% of a four year gap. There are some inconsistencies in one of the quarters, but he has got Mr. Kil taking a look at those. Overall, a very good flow.

One additional report that the Clerk-Treasurer’s office provided was a Town Balance sheet. This is the first time that Mr. Barenie has seen one. What he was just talking about was for the Town’s Revenues and Expenses. This is actually the stuff, or the things that we own as a Town; our gross amount of assets that the Town of St. John owns is $180,000,000.00. It is a lot of funds. That is our gross asset size; key areas are infrastructure, buildings, improvements to the buildings, machinery, equipment, and vehicles total almost $10,000,000.00.

Again, the total capital assets are $184,000,000.00. On the bottom side, on the liability side, the key areas are what we just kind of covered; those bond areas, about $22,000,000.00.

Mr. Barenie said that is all he had out of the additional reports. He wanted to again thank Mr. Kil and Ms. Hernandez for helping him.

Mr. Forbes asked for any further comment. There was none.

Mr. Forbes stated that he would like to entertain a motion to accept the 2015 Annual Finance Report as submitted. “So Moved,” from Mr. Barenie. Mr. Hastings seconded the motion. The motion was carried by voice vote (5/0). Ayes --- all. Nays --- none.

ADJOURNMENT:

Mr. Forbes stated that hearing no comments he would entertain a motion to adjourn. “I’ll make that motion,” by Mr. Hastings. Mr. Barenie seconded the motion. The motion was carried by voice vote (5/0). Ayes --- all. Nays --- none.

(The meeting adjourned at 7:49 p.m.)

ATTEST:

_____________________________________________________
Beth R. Hernandez
Clerk-Treasurer