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Finance Committee Minutes 20-07-09FINANCE COMMITTEE JULY 9TH, 2020 VIRTUAL ZOOM MEETING 1. ROLL CALL Present- Committee Members: Dee Wisor, Steve Coyer, and Linn Brooks Town Council: Mayor Sarah Smith-Hymes and Councilor Scott Prince Staff: Town Manager Eric Heil, Finance Director Scott Wright, Senior Accountant Nelly Burns, Executive Assistant to the Town Manager Ineke de Jong, and General Government Intern Charise Bishop Absent- Markian Feduschak, Craig Ferraro 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES No comments were made. Steve Coyer moved to approve the April meeting minutes. Dee Wisor seconded the motion and the motion passed unanimously. 3. PUBLIC COMMENT No public comments were made. 4. STAFF UPDATES ON FINANCIAL RESULTS MARCH, APRIL, & MAY Finance Director Scott Wright explained to the Committee that the Finance Department did not have much time to gather data about the impact of closures during COVID-19 because some businesses took advantage of the sales tax deferral. The Town has recently signed up for the state portal that collects sales tax from out of state vendors; that should increase revenue once all of that is submitted. The Finance Department compared year-to-year sales tax between 2019 and 2020, and overall sales tax was only down 9.8%. Some industries such as grocery stores actually did better than they did in 2019. About 16 businesses deferred their sales tax and once those businesses pay, it should only improve these numbers. The Committee commented/inquired: A. Is there anything in the “Other” category that does not include online vendors? B. Are the 16 businesses that deferred their sales tax still in business or have they closed? C. Is this data only comprised of sales tax and does not include other taxes? Craig Ferraro joined the meeting at 5:45pm. 5. STAFF UPDATES ON CARES ACT GRANT AWARD FUNDING Finance Director Scott Wright explained to the Committee that Governor Polis decided to issue some of the Federal relief funds given to the State to local governments. Eagle County is expected to receive $4.7 million. Those funds are meant to cover the costs incurred by local governments because of the pandemic. The costs to the Town have been just short of $600,000, but the Town is expected to receive $560,000 from Eagle County. Mobility Director Eva Wilson was also able to secure grant funding from the CARES Act for transit in the amount of $240,000. The Committee commented/inquired: A. Did we include the Transit costs in the spreadsheet submitted to the County? B. What was the grant funding for the Transit for- costs already incurred or increasing the amount of buses? C. Will we have to buy more buses? D. What will the increased cost be a result of- more buses, more labor, more fuel? E. Should we be cautious about if we need more buses, so will every other community and there could be a shortage? F. How long until we receive the new buses we already ordered? FINANCE COMMITTEE JULY 9TH, 2020 VIRTUAL ZOOM MEETING 6. REVIEW STRUCTURE OF 2020 BUDGET DOCUMENT Town Manager Eric Heil presented to the Committee about the 2020 Budget and the improvements he would like to make in 2021. He would like to add an introduction to explain the budget and how it is adopted which would include a joint message from himself and Finance Director Scott Wright. In 2021, Eric believes it is important to highlight the differences between this upcoming year and the year before. Instead of listing the goals/accomplishments of each department in the budget, Eric states it will make more sense to have the departments present a year-end report to Council. Eric wants to make changes to how the information about the funds is presented, including reordering the funds, changing the pie charts to bar graphs, showing trends from the last five years, and including information such as the Holy Cross community grants and what those funds are used for. Eric reviewed other communities’ budgets and felt that Avon was doing a great job with their budget. He still would like to hear feedback and suggestions from the Committee about how the Town could improve. The Committee commented/inquired: A. Could we do an executive summary of the budget to make it more accessible? B. Does the Finance Department already create a summarized document? C. Do you get any public engagement about the budget? D. The budget is overwhelming because it is so much data. E. If the Town wants to emphasize certain information, they could make a more user-friendly interface with that information. F. Could you include a column about what was forecasted the year before? G. Trends better convey more information than percentages. H. They like the idea of bar graphs because it makes it easier to understand information so dense. I. Has the Town investigated a business intelligence program? J. Is there a long-term capital projects budget? K. Do I understand correctly that the Town chose not to cut back on capital expenditures to stimulate the economy? L. Could we buy the Pier One building with capital improvement funds? 7. REVIEW REQUIREMENTS OF BUDGETARY PRESENTATION The Committee did not discuss this agenda item. 8. OPEN DISCUSSION ON STRUCTURE OF 2021 BUDGET DOCUMENT The Committee discussed the budget during a previous agenda item. 9. NEXT COMMITTEE MEETING DATE The Committee agreed to August 13th, 2020 as the next meeting date. 10. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 6:25 p.m.