VILLAGE OF NORTH AURORA
COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE MEETING MINUTES
Monday, March 18, 2024
CALL TO ORDER
Mayor Gaffino called the meeting to order.
ROLL CALL
In attendance: Mayor Mark Gaffino, Trustee Jason Christiansen, Trustee Laura Curtis, Trustee Mark Guethle, Trustee Mike Lowery, Trustee Todd Niedzwiedz, Trustee Carolyn Salazar
Staff in attendance: Village Administrator Steve Bosco, Finance Director Jason Paprocki, Community Development Director Nathan Darga, Village Attorney Kevin Drendel, Public Works Director Brian Richter, Police Chief Joe DeLeo.
AUDIENCE COMMENTS – None
TRUSTEE COMMENTS – None
DISCUSSION
- 2024-2025 Budget Review
Administrator Bosco reminded the Village Board of the Committee of the Whole meeting held on March 4, 2024 in which Finance Director Paprocki gave a general overview of the upcoming 2024-2025 Village Budget being prepared by the staff. The agenda item was to be a presentation by Finance Director Paprocki, giving more in depth information regarding the Budget.
Finance Director Paprocki began with a general overview of each department and their budgeted revenues and expenditures for the 2024-2025 fiscal year.
Paprocki stated that the Village’s largest revenue source was Sales Tax, this was made up of the General Fund 1%, the 3% municipal cannabis tax and the .5% non-home rule taxes. What the 2024-2025 budgeted number of $4,425,000 did not include was the removal of the proposed 1% Grocery Tax, should it be approved. It could decrease the Sales Tax by potentially $700,000. Staff needed to look for other ways to make up for the loss in revenue, most likely removing the Capital Transfer, reviewing the Vehicle Equipment Transfers made from the General Fund, as well as possibly moving some Utilities Tax from the Capital Projects fund over to the General Fund.
Trustee Curtis asked about the “Miscellaneous/Other” source of revenue. She pointed out that the sources had been losing an average of a million dollars annually. She asked what that “Miscellaneous/Other” category consisted of and why the Village was losing revenue from it. Paprocki explained that the “Miscellaneous/Other” category consisted of revenue sources that would come and go, he stated that he did not have a list of the sources available with him.
The second largest source of revenue was “Other Taxes”, made up by things like Income Tax, Replacement Tax, Utility Tax, and Amusement Tax which makes up about 18% of the Village’s revenues.
The third largest was the Property Tax which makes up 14% of revenues.
Paprocki then spoke about Village Expenditures. He stated that Personnel makes up the largest expense at 31%, this was up 4.2% from the previous year.
Capital Expenses make up 28% of expenditures.
The Expenditures list did not include the Public Works Facility project, should that be approved, it would be brought back as a budget amendment. He also spoke about some of the budgeted projects that had not been completed within the current fiscal year would be brought back and budgeted for next year.
Paprocki offered a more detailed look at the proposed Personnel changes. He spoke about the Personnel Budget Assumptions for the next fiscal year:
- Pay adjustments effective June 1, 2024
- Public Works-TBD
- Police Sergeants-TBD
- Police Officers-4.25%
- Non-Union-3.0%
- Assumed Health Insurance Increases:
- Medical-HMO increase 5.7%, PPO decrease 0.8%
- Dental-HMO no change, PPO increase 7.9%
IMRF rate-9.63% for 2024, projected 11.0% for 2025
Police Pension contribution- $1,852,530
Paprocki spoke about the Village’s two outstanding debt issuances. The first being the 2014 bonds that were used to build the Police Department, and the 2017 bonds for the Water department. The 2014 series is funded by Sales Tax and the 2017 water bond is funded by water user charges.
Paprocki went into General Fund revenues and expenditures. He stated that over the past few years the Village had experienced significant revenue increases but these are now expected to begin decreasing.
Paprocki spoke about the General Fund balance history and explained that the Village’s fund balance to expenditure ratio was normally 40%-50%. The 24-25 Budget General Fund balance percentage was projected to be 62.2%.
Paprocki went into detail about the major revenues expected for the General Fund.
- Sales and Cannabis Tax- down by -0.4%
- Income Tax- up 0.7%
- Use Tax-up 0.4%
- Property Tax-up 3.8%
- Building Permits-down -55.1%
- Cable Franchise Fees-down -2.9%
Paprocki then spoke further about the General Fund Sales Tax, stating that the Village’s 3% Cannabis Sales Tax coupled with an increase in auto sales allowed the Village’s Sales Tax to peak in 2021. It was expected to recede a bit.
He then broke down some of the General Fund department budgets:
- Legislative and Boards-$105,830 total budget
- Donations/sponsorships/community engagement-$12,500
- Admin/IT-$1,160,030 total budget
- Part-time IT Assistant upgraded from part-time to full-time
- Contracted document imaging services-$30,000
- Finance/HR-$678,225 total budget
- Broken out separate form Admin
- Springbrook financial software-$40,500 ($12,250 increase)
- Police Department-$7,900,000
- Beginning blood hound program-$10,000-$15,000 (paid with DUI funds)
- City of Aurora dispatching services-$250,000
- Community Development-$962,000
- City View online portal-$330,000
- Public Works-$3,000,000
- Contracted snow plowing-$150,000
- Parkway tree trimming-$150,000
- Non-Departmental-$509,250
- Sales tax rebates-$395,000 ($50,000 increase due to Genesis)
- Special events-$45,000
- Transfers-$1,025,675 total budget
- Transfer to capital projects-$400,000
- Transfer to Police Station debt-$625,675
Chief DeLeo spoke about the Police Department’s desire to purchase a hound dog and the benefits it could provide the department including tracking. He spoke of incidents where surrounding municipalities allowed the use of their hounds during searches for memory care patients.
Trustee Curtis asked how many calls the Village receives regarding memory care patients wandering from facilities. She expressed concern for the role and the responsibility the care facilities have in preventing events like this from happening. There was a brief discussion regarding this and the senior service outreach that the Police provide.
The Trustees expressed positive feedback in regard to the idea of adding a hound dog to the Police Department.
Mayor Gaffino asked if the Village came in under budget this past year for snow removal. Paprocki stated that the Village had come in under budget. Public Works Director Richter stated that $150,000 was the number that had been used for multiple years, with some years the Village going over budget and some under.
There was also discussion regarding the parkway tree trimming program, with Richter saying that the Village was looking to step up the program with more trees within the Village maturing. There was discussion regarding the program and what to expect in the next year.
Paprocki spoke about the Capital Projects Fund and broke down some of the major expenses to expect on the 2024-2025 budget:
- 2024 Annual Road Program-$2,300.000
- Orchard Gateway resurfacing-$780,000
- Public Works facility engineering/design/construction management-$1,365,000 (partial FY 2023-24 carryover)
- Boiler replacement: Village Hall ($60,000), Police Department ($120,000)
- Village Hall lift replacement-$100,000
- Riverfront Park electrical improvements-$100,000
- New Village message board-$75,000
Administrator Bosco explained that staff was interested in erecting message boards, similar to the one on the corner of Routes 56 and 31, closer to the geographic center of the town around Randall Road and Oak Street.
Paprocki spoke about the Water Fund major expenses expected:
- New Lead Water Operator position
- Debt principal-$380,000; debt interest-$114,175
- Water system master plan-$125,000 (FY 23-24) carryover
- Planned Capital-$3,197,000 total
- SCADA System upgrade-$600,000 (FY 23-24 carryover)
- Well #6 Improvements-$300,000 (FY 23-24 carryover)
- Various West Treatment Plant improvements-$191,000
- Various East Treatment Plant improvements-$106,000
- Clearwater, Lovedale, Offutt, Fox River crossing lining-$500,000 (FY23-24 carryover)
- Watermain replacements: Aspen Ct.-$150,000, Rt. 31/Marvo valve-$250,000
- Start of central water tower construction-$1,000,000
- Water tower mixers-$100,000
Paprocki reminded the Village Board that in 2023 a water rate increase was passed, a 50% increase that will be phased in over five years. The budget was put together assuming that the rates will go up 12.5% in June.
The Vehicle & Equipment Fund major expenses were to be:
- New Vehicles requested:
- Outfit 4 Police Dodge Durango Squads-$80,000
- 5-yard truck with hook lift, V-box spreader, anti-ice tank-$300,000 (carryover)
- Major equipment requested:
- PW wood chipper-$82,000
- Police Department AV system-$60,000
- Police Virtual Reality Training system-$69,500
- Riverfront Park Audio and Camera system-$45,000
In other funds, expenses to expect:
- Motor Fuel Tax Fund
- MFT allotments budgeted at $809,000 total
- Operating budget: salt-$300,000, street/alley repair-$90,000, street light maintenance-$78,000
- Capital: Orchard Gateway resurfacing-$1,000,000
- Route 31 TIF
- TIF reimbursement/grants-$100,000
- $700,000 transfer to TIF
- Unite TIF
- Property tax revenue-$1,062,000
- Property purchases-$700,000
- I-88 Corporate Park developer note-$371,500
- Airport Rd/Route 31 intersection and traffic signals-$575,000 ($500,000 DCEO Grant)
- Insurance Fund
- Liability insurance coverage-$388,250
- Tourism Fund
- Hotel Tax budgeted at $111,000; 90% remitted to Tourism Council ($99,000)
- North Aurora Days-Revenues $42,000 versus expenditures $66,000
- Special Service Area Fund
- Oak Hill mowing and maintenance-$14,960
- Willow Lakes fence repairs-$25,000
- Town Centre wetland/basin maintenance-$25,000
- Sanitary Sewer Fund
- Sewer repairs/improvements-$150,000
- Cleaning and televising-$60,000
- Police Station Debt Service Fund
- Principal-$550,000; interest-$88,200
- Police Pension Trust Fund
- Service/disability/surviving spouse pensions-$1,896,480
Paprocki informed the Village Board that the 2024-25 Budget timeline was to include additional budget discussions at the Committee of the Whole meetings on April 1st and April 15th, if needed. The official Public Hearing would be on April 15th and then the FY 2024-25 Budget Ordinance presented on May 6th.
Paprocki circled back to Trustee Curtis’ question from earlier in the evening regarding “Miscellaneous/Other” sources of revenue. He stated that a lot of the revenue had to do with grant funding, such as Recovery Act funds $2.3 million dollars that the Village was using on water improvements. Much of that had already been utilized.
Trustee Niedzwiedz asked if the referendum passed on March 19th, when would the sales tax increase begin. Director Paprocki stated that he believed that during one of the two scheduled April Village Board Meetings an ordinance would be brought back to increase the tax on the Village’s side. It would be sent to the Department of Revenue and then on July 1, 2024 we would see the tax rate take effect. The Village would see the first revenue coming in October.
Trustee Salazar asked if there was any update on interest in the old Verilife space, once they move to their new location. Administrator Bosco said that there was an agenda item in regard to that on the next Plan Commission meeting agenda.
There was discussion regarding what was to be expected in the event that the referendum passed as well as if it failed.
There was discussion regarding the decreasing cannabis tax revenue.
Administrator Bosco spoke about some forward momentum of new businesses within the Village.
EXECUTIVE SESSION – None
ADJOURNMENT
Motion to adjourn made by Trustee Guethle and seconded by Trustee Curtis. All in favor. Motion approved.
Respectfully Submitted,
Jessi Watkins
Village Clerk
