Consider Directing Staff to Draft a Proposed Charter Amendment Relative to the Creation of a Mayor-Nominated and Council-Appointed Five Member Municipal Finance Commission.  (Councilmember Daysog)
Nine is considered directing staff to draft a proposed charter amendment relative to the creation of a mere nominating counsel. Appointed five member in a Civil Finance Commission. And this is submitted by member de SA. Would you like to speak to this? Yes, thank you. I am presenting this for your consideration. The creation of basically a municipal finance commission whose tasks are narrowly defined, largely because and appropriately so. The city budget is prepared by the city manager's office for the city council. So the way that I'm framing this is, as is indicated in the summary, is basically being a sounding board for the city manager as he goes about or she or he goes about preparing the city budget. In a way it kind of ties in with where city treasurer Kevin Kearney said earlier tonight when he indicated that perhaps there should be involvement ahead of time when, when, when the Budget is 90% done. I mean by the time it comes to city council for draft, I mean, it's, it's almost there. We just have to make the policy choices as council members. But prior to that initial first draft of the budget, I think what usually comes in May, I think first meeting in May. This would be an opportunity to have a finance commission to do and, you know, sound as a sounding board. And the other particular thing that I'm interested in is also a charter. Having it having an institutionalized way that says there is a group of people who are also a sounding board when it comes to our unfunded liabilities, particularly CalPERS and OPEB. I think the city manager has he discussed the trust fund idea? And we've also taken on a preliminary basis, there's been some initial concepts that that illustrate how the trust fund idea in terms of dealing with OPEB can get dealt with over a 20 to 30 year period, well beyond the time that I'm on council or beyond the time that many staff persons are here. Perhaps there can be this institutionalized vehicle that kind of. Is by charter. Um, yeah. Is one of his primary task is to say, okay, what kind of progress are we making with regard to these unfunded liabilities? So there is really no if from my vantage point, I have no real. This doesn't have to be done before the. The budget season is just happens to be coincidental that the budget our budget season is coming. I don't require staff to suddenly, you know, change heaven and earth to deal with this matter. I mean, it, you know, July, August I. But I did want to begin to have that discussion. I think many other cities. Have finance commissions and committees. So. So that's the viewpoint. Any members have comments on this? Remember I had. I've been talking for so long. You go first. Well, a couple of quick things. First, to those who asked me if I was not feeling welcome, that did not do a referral. Meaning I am fine because it is very much. We heard a lot of coughing up here today. Secondly, no, in all seriousness, I have a personal preference that if we're going to have new commissions that, you know, each council member gets an opportunity to appoint someone to that commission, because I think we all bring a diverse background, diverse views, and I think a diverse group of supporters. So I think that that would help if we do do something like this. I guess I'm kind of wondering, you know, kind of how this is different than will a the budget process be the council's ultimate responsibility to be the decision maker on these things? And then kind of it going on, Treasurer Kennedy's remarks, you know, the timeliness of it, you know, OPEB, you know, that's for my understanding, something that, you know, we either have to take an action on as a council if we want to do something unilaterally or we have to collectively bargain if we want any of our our public safety unions to, you know, make concessions or contribute, you know, in retirement pensions. I mean, we all know that, you know, CalPERS comes out with their rates. You know, we unless we have some state bailout, which I'm not saying that's going to happen, but, you know, that might be an option that is considered considering that all cities are kind of facing this. I guess I'm just kind of a little bit confused as to what, you know, the ultimate deliverable and the ultimate outcome of this is. And if we're going to have some type of finance, you know, committee now, I think, well, the Treasurer might be a person to have on there. But you know, my understanding is he gives us advice and the city manager, you know, consults him readily on these type of issues. And, you know, I don't think we're going to have any finance type committee without any representation from our public safety unions. I swear. I really like the point that was made on Tassie and that is to, to raise on a periodic basis. And I think Treasurer Kennedy spoke to it the frequency of it. But I think the nugget here is that it is put out in in front of the public that we have this unfunded liability. We have these background liabilities, I think is the term that Treasurer Kennedy used that need to be periodically checked. And I think I think that the council should have the front line on this and. I think it's our ultimate responsibility to approve the budget. And I think back in. In front of that approval. They have something that is codified either as a practice or as part of our budget process that accomplishes what's outlined in Task C is very important. So I think that that's a very good point. Whether this is a charter committee, I think the notion of charter is to make sure that it's it's there and it's constantly being looked at. I'm not sure of an. I guess. I don't know what other cities our size. Have. And in that regard, I know at one time we had a fiscal sustainability committee which. Did a certain amount of this type of work. I don't know how valuable that was. Given the times, but I'd like to see us at least address this as as a council, this this check on these unfunded liabilities. But I'm not convinced that we need a charter established commission to do that for us. Member. Ashcroft Thank you. And I agree with the vice mayor and council member. I, I think that one does not undertake a charter amendment lightly. And I think this is. A significant step. And again, yeah, are there other ways to achieve the same objectives, which I think are laudable, by the way, and I really appreciated hearing from the city Treasurer earlier this evening. We do need to keep our eye on those very important balls are unfunded liabilities in our and OPEB, but to the point made by the City Treasurer, adding even more meetings for the public to have to keep up with and attend is not necessarily increasing transparency. In fact, sometimes it's just the opposite because the public has a hard time keeping up with all of our meetings as it is. And I also look at the amount of staff time that is required every time we add a new a new task force. And I think that or committee or commissioner or what have you and I think there's something in here about that could meet twice a quarter. And ultimately, this is, as we said, the role of the city council. I think that it's a great idea to get these issues out before us, as the city treasurer alluded to, sooner than when 90% of the work in the budget is done. I think that's something the council can, through the city manager direct to be done. I'm asked staff to do. I think the the process described would be time consuming require extra staff time in duplicate a function already performed by the council. We can't always convene an ad hoc committee similar to the OPEB task force, which may be. And if that's different now, that is different from the Fiscal Sustainability Committee. So we've done this in the past, and I think that bringing together those kinds of task forces or committees that are tailored to a particular need at a particular time is more effective than something as extreme as a charter amendment that fixes it for all time. So why I again laud the the objectives that are are laid out in this council referral? I think that that's something that all of us on the council should pay special attention to. And I'd love to see these issues come to us well ahead of the budget. Thank you. I'm really sorry. Oh, thank you. I think everyone's comments are taken to heart. I do think that the magnitude of the challenge that we have with regard to our unfunded liabilities is some of which is $200 million, $100 million on the OPEB side and $100 million on the CalPERS side. And I'm not even including the unfunded liabilities when it comes to capital improvement. I think the magnitude of the challenges and the long term solutions that we will put in place, especially for OPEB, requires, in my opinion, a charter change so that we can have a vehicle to track this over time. And I mean, the voters will, one way or another, vote on this. And also, I think the magnitude of the. Of just our budget as the city council. We've got not only the $75 million general fund budget, but we have all our other non general fund items and you know, annually we're dealing with it a quarter of $1,000,000,000 budget. I think the magnitude of what we're dealing with requires at a minimum. Additional community input. So in my mind, this ranks up there as being a charter type of committee. Along with a library commission or the or the planning commission. And there will likely be a vote on this in the chart. So whether we decide on this tonight. So I appreciate that. And I and I do appreciate the goal here of it's my understanding that staff is planning to have a workshop about the budget. Mr.. R.M. Thank you. And you. Share with us what the process is. Certainly. So actually we have I'm just pulling up the schedule right now. We have six meetings planned, the first two. The first is sort of an introduction of the process. The second is introducing the preliminary budget, including assumptions. And I think that would be the time that I'd suggest that we include early on the discussion of OPEB, CalPERS and maintenance. So that would be the second meeting. Then the next three meetings are our departments doing their departmental presentations. And then. The final meeting, which is roughly in the early, early. June, is adoption of the budget. So we're looking at a total of six working meetings. Do you have dates. March 17th to June 2nd? Are any of these would any of these be a special meeting like on a Saturday, which is what I believe. So we have right now tentatively. Three regular meetings and three special meetings. The special meetings. Are during the week. We're not planning on having them on the weekend. Okay. So that would be something that I would be interested in trying to do a Saturday morning meeting to if we or some other time so that to include different members of the public because I do appreciate the concern of making sure our public is. That we're very transparent about what we're doing and including the public. And I'm so so maybe that would be another way. To tell if we talk about one of those weekdays. Exactly. Exactly. Instead of a. But these are be like Tuesdays or Thursdays. You know, I know the dates. Yes. One is the one is a Thursday. One is a Wednesday. And then one is a Tuesday in an opposite week. And my only concern about Saturdays is I think families with children are. I mean, I remember when hours were home, you're just going from activity to activity. So I hate to. I hate to. Leaves them out. I. So I hear the same thing about evening meetings that, you know, only certain people can come that parents can't because they're doing homework or babysitting or whatnot. So I was just thinking a choice so we could have some on the which we already have evening meetings on weekdays if anyone else is interested in making a different time available for different members of the community to be able to attend. But of course, this would be a special meeting, so there's nothing else on the agenda, is that correct? That's right. That's right. The special will and we can bring this back so that you all have the dates in front of you and then we can talk about it. But the first two meetings were regular meetings on Tuesday evenings. The special meetings were actually the individual presentations by the departments. So you would want to have one of those on a Saturday because they're not going to be able to hear the whole budget. You're only going to hear, let's say, police and, you know, a few departments. So those special meetings are just departmental meetings. And just a few of the departments will be going each time. And then the adoption of the budget is we're proposing that to be the beginning of June. So June. 2nd. And then in regards to Mr. Kennedy also brought up the certain slides. Be always part of the presentation. Absolutely. Duly noted. Yeah, they will be. So then that I think goes to the slides are in regards to the capital projects, summary unfunded projects, the CalPERS rates, projected increases in rates. And I, you know, I mean, don't get me wrong, I understand the the substance and the process by which we deal with the issue, the budget issues from time to time, whether it's through, you know, workshops on Saturdays or or weekends or whether it's through the normal channels. This really is kind of independent. This is about creating a lasting institution. And to me, this is a missing piece. So from my vantage point, I mean, I would like to go out and collect signatures and and try to put this on the ballot. I we'll leave it at that. All right. So so then we're going to move forward. All right. So then we have our next agenda item nine B. What was the what was the outcome of this? If it's tabled. Is that what you're saying? Now, I. Mean. Well, I bet I would prefer that that that it be moved forward, but it's being tabled. So I will move it forward on my own. Oh, there is no motion. Okay, got it. And if I may, just technically it should be described as withdrawn. If it's tabled mean it's coming back and it has to come back by a date certain. Call it if you like. If I may suggest to the council member the chair that you consider it withdrawn and you can say withdrawn at this time, but I think that'll be cleaner in the minutes. Well, I prefer not to withdraw it, so. What would be the cleanest way to. Well, then I would make a motion to to pass to adopt the recommendation. And if it. And then it's. But that's different from tabling it when it's tabled, my understanding. And it could come back at a later date. Sounds like you don't want to eat that way. You'd rather make the motions. Yeah. All right. All right. So there's a motion. Is there a second? Motion fails for lack of a second, and then we move forward with 9090. Thank you. You. Recommendation that the City Council adhere to the Council referral process adopted by the City Council on December four, 27. The Senate was placed on the agenda at the request of Councilmember Rosa Ashcroft.