Elko County Board of Commissioners

Transcription

1 Elko County Board of Commissioners 540 Court Street, Suite 101, Elko, Nevada Phone Fax Commissioners Delmo Andreozzi Demar Dahl Cliff Eklund Jon Karr Rex Steninger Elko County Manager Robert K. Stokes STATE OF NEVADA ) COUNTY OF ELKO ) ss. Executive Assistant Michele Petty The Board of Elko County Commissioners met in special session on Tuesday, April 10, 2018, at 4:00 p.m., at the Nannini Administration Building, Suite 102, 540 Court Street, Elko, NV There were present: County Commissioners Delmo Andreozzi, Chairman Demar Dahl Cliff Eklund Jon Karr Rex Steninger, Vice Chair County Manager Robert Stokes CFO/Asst. County Mgr. Cash Minor Comptroller Debbie Armuth Deputy District Attorney Kristin McQueary Deputy County Clerk Michele Merkley A) CALL TO ORDER Chairman Andreozzi called the meeting to order at 4:00 p.m. and noted all commissioners were present. B) PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Commissioner Dahl led the meeting participants in the Pledge of Allegiance. C) COMMENTS BY THE GENERAL PUBLIC There were no public comments. D) ELKO COUNTY BUDGET D.1 Review, discussion and Commission direction with regard to the implementation of a tax rate (.25 cents) to fund the operations of the Elko County Fire Protection District in the Tentative Budget.

2 Debbie Armuth, Fiscal Affairs, advised the primary reason for this meeting was to discuss implementation of a district to levy a tax for the fire protection district. She stated they had run the numbers and come up with these calculations. With a 25 cent tax rate it would generate about $3 million, and the annual cost for a home valued at $100,000 would be $87.50 annually. A 20 cent tax equaled $70 and generated $2.4 million. A 15 cent tax would generate $1.8 million and cost about $52.50 annually. A $10 cent tax would generate $1.2 million and would cost $35 annually. She advised the Department of Taxation had told her they would take the County s total centrally assessed value and exclude the incorporated cities to come up with the amounts. Chairman Andreozzi advised any home that was not on a permanent foundation was considered personal property and wouldn't be paying this value, they would just be paying on the land itself. Commissioner Steninger asked Commissioner Karr if he thought the level they were funding was inadequate. Commissioner Karr advised he did and stated, for example, the air masks have a 10 year life but they weren't able to replace them for years. He thought they should do a 25 cent tax and take a look at the infrastructure tax. Commissioner Steninger stated this was a specific tax for a specific purpose. Commissioner Karr stated it would move the fire protection out of the general fund so there would be money in the general fund. He thought they should look at how it was first set up and see if it needed to be changed now that they had been operating for a while. He stated the whole budget would change. Chairman Andreozzi agreed if they went forward with this the infrastructure tax needed to be reevaluated. It was based on the revenues of today and if the revenues change it would be prudent to reexamine that. Commissioner Karr stated they needed to look at the five year plan and if they passed this they could finally look long term. Commissioner Steninger agreed and stated they needed to make certain the ending fund balance was taken care of before they use the money elsewhere. Chairman Andreozzi agreed and stated everyone should still be on a flat budget. He thought this was an opportunity to look at their structure and make sure they were operating efficiently. He advised the City of Elko had commissioned a study to evaluate the management of the Police Department and it led to a lot of changes. He stated it was not cheap and could cost $50,000. Commissioner Dahl stated it might cost them $50,000 but could save them $200,000. Rob Stokes advised they met with department heads and told them if this were to pass, stabilization of the general fund, ending fund balance, and contingency would be priorities. Commissioner Eklund advised if they could free up $2.6 million from the general fund or infrastructure tax they could look longer term. He asked if this would bring them to an 8% ending fund balance. Debbie advised she had included $225,000 for the fire district that would have to be funded. She stated they identified $350,000 that could potentially have to pay for expenses that weren't part of the base budget. After that, they had a 13% ending fund balance. She stated $622,000 was net proceeds and they needed to be cautious in using that for operations. Commissioner Eklund asked how they come up with the figure for net proceeds. Debbie advised it was net proceeds times the tax rate. Commissioner Eklund advised the price of gold could fluctuate and asked if net proceeds were tied to that. Debbie advised it was. Chairman Andreozzi advised it was safer to have it there than in the operating fund. Commissioner Steninger asked if the net proceeds were property tax. Page 2

3 Debbie advised it was based on assessed value and the mines were within that district. Cash Minor advised net proceeds was considered a property tax and based on extraction of the minerals. Commissioner Karr asked if they were hoping for net proceeds plus the.05 capital projects tax for long term capital projects. Debbie confirmed it was. Chairman Andreozzi advised they had not had a tax increase since Debbie advised it went up in 02/03 and again in 03/04 and dropped in 05/06. She did not know why it went down. She stated in 03/04 the state raised their rate and in 11/12 the assessed value dropped primarily due to net proceeds of minerals. MOTION: Commissioner Karr moved to implement a 25 cent tax. Commissioner Steninger seconded the motion. Commissioner Steninger advised he supported this because they had to do it in order to keep the county solvent and wanted to explain that this was a difficult position for the commission. He stated they are responsible for controlling the budget but they had no control over the spending because the state handed down $4 million in unfunded mandates. He stated the Judges were at fault too and the security at the court house cost $300,000 per year and was not something they had a choice in. In 2015 Judge Simons ordered them to add a second Justice of the Peace even though the case load had declined. He stated they couldn't control the spending but had to come up with ways to fund it. He didn't see where they had a choice. Commissioner Eklund advised everyone here was reluctant to raise taxes but they had made numerous cuts and it came to a point where they had no other choice. They could either increase revenue or cut services. He stated if this passes he would ask every department head not to see this as a raise in revenues for their department, there were other areas they had to catch up on. Commissioner Dahl stated he would support this but if the revenue wasn't keeping up with expenses the only alternative was to reduce expenses. He thought they may need an outside opinion on where they could make reductions. Commissioner Steninger asked Rob to look into that. Commissioner Karr stated this was a first step but he wanted to revisit all the outlying areas and relook at water charges and all other options. He thought they should look at the report that the City had done. Chairman Andreozzi advised this budget was finally stable. He thought they should have some contingencies in the motion to include direction to all of the county departments that budgets remain flat, to include $75,000 in the budget to hire a firm to conduct a county wide management efficient study, and to reevaluate the infrastructure tax. Rob Stokes advised they would like to be able to have those as directions rather than absolutes. He stated they would be back in future meetings to discuss the budget. Commissioner Eklund thought the study should be an absolute. Commissioner Karr did not wish to change his motion. Commissioner Steninger agreed and would like to look into the study before they commit $75,000. Cash Minor advised they could bump up contingency by $75,000 so it wasn't a specific line item. The motion passed unanimously. Page 3

4 D.2 Review, discussion and Commission direction with regard to other revenue enhancements previously discussed (operating tax rate, building permits and Tax overrides) which may be deemed to be included within the Tentative Budget Cash Minor advised this was added as a catch all. They received information from Community Development in regards to building permits but would discuss it at the next meeting. They have identified a few options where they could potentially generate fees. Chairman Andreozzi asked if an ad valorem increase would be subject to the business impact statement. Cash advised it would not but building permit fees would be. E) COUNTY COMMISSIONERS AND COUNTY STAFF COMMENTS Commissioner Karr thought they made the right choice. Commissioner Dahl agreed. F) COMMENTS BY THE GENERAL PUBLIC There were no public comments. G) ADJOURNMENT There being no further business before the Board, Chairman Andreozzi adjourned the meeting at 4:39 p.m. APPROVED, DELMO ANDREOZZI, Chairman ATTEST: MICHELE MERKLEY, Deputy Clerk Page 4

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