Colfax City Council members adopted the city’s 2009-10 fiscal year operating budget on Tuesday, with the assumption that midyear revisions would be necessary.
The council also agreed to purchase two vehicles and discussed reservations about renewing the Placer County contract for animal services, details of a grant program to help property owners cover the cost of sewer lateral replacements and the possibility of moving council meetings from Tuesday to Wednesday.
Budget passes
As the council agreed on Aug. 11, the current budget includes salaries for both the interim city manager and, until her contract expires in September, former manager Joan Phillipe. It also factors in savings from reduced City Hall hours, eliminates the positions of public works director, building official and one public works employee as of Sept. 15 and creates a new position for a community services director.
“I want the council to realize there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done with the budget,” Finance Director Dau Luc said. “There are still things coming down pipe here.”
Since the last meeting, the city discovered an additional $64,000 in funding left over from Roseville’s Douglas bypass project. However, the money can only be spent on road-related improvements.
In all, changes reduced an approximately $200,000 budget shortfall to about $36,000.
But that number could continue to adjust based on a number of factors — for instance, whether the council agrees to enter into a contract with Tahoe-Truckee Disposal for garbage collection, whether they opt to use CalPERS or require employees to contribute more towards benefits and whether contractor Eco Logic can receive grant funding for mapping city sewer laterals, required as part of a cease-and-desist order by the state water board.
Sewer grant
Council members discussed creating a grant to help defray costs for individuals and businesses forced to replace defective sewer laterals — the lines that connect residences and businesses to the city’s sewer system — as the city complies with the state-issued cease-and-desist order.
The Building Lateral Sewer Grant Replacement Grant Program could cover up to 50 percent of replacement costs, or a maximum of $2,500 per applicant. Before applying, residents would have to receive at least one bid for the replacement work.
Councilman Steve Harvey requested the city provide $30,000 for the grant annually from the city’s I & I (Infiltration and Inflow) fund.
Applications would be prioritized in the following order: streets that need repaving, homeowners and businesses.
Since four city streets are already scheduled for repaving, council members wanted to ensure those laterals are repaired before improvements happen.
“I don’t want to end up repaving the road and having to go back in and retrench for the laterals,” said Councilman Steve Harvey. “We’ll have the same bumpy roads we have now.”
Part of the grant could be set aside for businesses that need to meet new FOG (fat, oil and grease) reduction requirements.
Harvey said he would likely have two ordinances for the council on Sept. 8 — one for the FOG requirements and one for lateral replacements.
Council members have yet to resolve the issue of multi-laterals — laterals that connect to several private properties.
If approved, the grant will be added to the budget as a midyear revision.
City waits on animal control contract renewal
Council members agreed to hold off renewing the city’s contract with Placer County Animal Services.
Placer County currently provides services to every county jurisdiction with the exception of Roseville, which has its own system. Its most recent contract with Colfax expired June 30 and was scheduled for renewal Sept. 8.
But council members cited numerous violations over the past three years, including discrepancies in response times and failure to contain costs. Currently, the city must pay an average of $150 per animal control call.
At the end of the most recent contract, animal services billed Colfax for an additional $27,000 — though that amount was since reduced by $8,000 following a credit for last year.
Because costs for the animal services department are fixed, there is no incentive for them to reduce cost to cities — even if cities reduce usage, explained Interim City Manager Bruce Kranz.
“Even though we’re paying our bills, they have the opportunity to go in and modify what we owe them at the end (of the contract),” Kranz said. “The problem is that this is an operation that is fully funded by its participants. Why should they change if we’re always going to foot the bill? I don’t want to be perceived as just slamming the county for everything…but it just happens that, in this particular department, we’re not seeing cost containment.”
The council authorized the interim city manager to coordinate a protest with other cities at the Sept. 8 Board of Supervisors meeting and, if necessary, to solicit private bids to perform its own city animal control services.
Council approves purchase of two new trucks
After determining the city was ineligible for the Cash for Clunkers program, council members gave staff permission to purchase two new city trucks for a maximum of $46,000 total.
Kranz said he didn’t anticipate any cost to the city because the trucks would replace city vehicles that are more than 20 years old, get poor gas mileage and require frequent maintenance.
“The amount of money we’re spending in upkeep could probably more than offset cost of purchasing new vehicles,” said Interim City Manager Bruce Kranz.
Council meetings could move to Wednesday
Council members introduced an ordinance that would change city council meetings from the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month to second and fourth Wednesdays to accommodate council schedules.
The council will take action at a future meeting; the ordinance would go into effect 30 days after adoption.