Village of Bartlett Committee of the Whole Met Dec. 15.
Here is the minutes provided by the committee:
CALL TO ORDERPresident Wallace called the Committee of the Whole meeting to order at 7:27 p.m.
PRESENT: Chairman Carbonaro, Deyne, Gandsey, Hopkins, Reinke, Suwanski and President Wallace
ABSENT: None
ALSO PRESENT: Village Administrator Paula Schumacher, Assistant Village Administrator Scott Skrycki, Sr. Management Analyst Samuel Hughes, Management Analyst Joey Dienberg, Finance Director Todd Dowden, Director of Public Works Dan Dinges, Planning & Development Director Roberta Grill, Building Director Brian Goralski, Police Chief Patrick Ullrich, Village Attorney Bryan Mraz and Village Clerk Lorna Giless.
BUILDING & ZONING, CHAIRMAN REINKE
Brewster Creek Business Park, Lot 2A (Cook County), Site Plan Review and Variations
Chairman Reinke stated the proposal is for a 436,000 sq.ft. warehouse, very similar to the other project in the Cook portion of Brewster Creek. There are a few variances requested including parking spaces and docks in the side yard.
Roberta Grill, Planning and Development Services Director, stated this is the second review of this project. They have been to the Plan Commission for Site Plan Review and the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) for their variation request. The Plan Commission recommended approval at their November 12th 2020 meeting. The ZBA reviewed the variation request for reduced parking and loading docks in the corner side yard at their meeting on December 3rd, 2020. The ZBA recommended approval as well.
The item was moved on to the Village Board for final vote.
FINANCE & GOLF, CHAIRMAN DEYNE 2020-21 Six Month Budget Review
Todd Dowden, Finance Director, stated that we started out this year when we were in the pandemic lock down and weren’t sure what was going to happen. We put a plan in to cut spending as much as possible and put a freeze on other items, but it didn’t get as bad as we thought. We thought property taxes would get held up and income taxes would be a problem, but with other things that came through, we really didn’t have a problem with revenue.
He presented the annual budget for the year, year to date through October, percent of the budget used so far, end of the year protection and the overall over/under so far. As far as revenue goes, we are projecting to end up with $24,687,000 which would be $503,750 over budget. A big part of this is because we received $1,268,000 from DuPage County for Cares Act funding in October. At the beginning of the year, we didn’t know if we would be getting anything.
President Wallace stated it was a major ordeal putting together all of the information to get those funds back. He wanted to congratulate staff on putting all of those numbers together.
Mr. Dowden stated that was the maximum distribution. The village will receive about $144,000 from Cook County. We have not seen much of a variation from income taxes. A lot of that has to do with the income taxes collected on the $600 a week given on unemployment. We think sales tax is going to be down about $250,000. Home rule sales tax could be down as much as 20% for the year. So far, we are only down about $60,000 in sales tax, so that is a conservative estimate. The gaming tax is down about $125,000. We are also down a little bit in permits, fines and interest income. Another surprise income is transfer stamps. We could be up about $400,000 due mostly because of the business park transactions. Use tax is up 18% so far.
On the expense side, the largest variation comes from the police which is listed at $550,000 under budget. DuComm waived 1⁄4 of their fees which was about $175,000 savings to the village. The police department is also down because of not having special events or crossing guards. We have also delayed the cost of living and merit increases for personnel where we could. Professional development also went down with staff meeting online or things being cancelled. Overall, we project expenses to be down $731,000. That would put the general fund at $466,000 in the positive. We budgeted to use $768,000 in fund balance, but we could end up in the positive $466,000.
Mr. Dowden stated, moving on to the water fund, another result of the pandemic was a lot of people were staying home and water usage was up about 10% over the summer. We project to be about $400,000 over budget on the revenue side. On the expense side, we will also be over budget about $64,000. The projected year end income is projected to be about $2,000,000 which is about what our capital projects are for the year, so we do not project to use any cash balances for those projects, this year.
On the sewer side, we did not increase the rate we planned for on May 1, so we are under budget. We are up compared to last year, but we had budgeted to increase sewer revenue by $1,130,000, so that is why we are showing $964,000 under budget even though revenue is up. Operating income is about $2,000,000, just like the water fund. We are using $1,000,000 in the sewer cash balance because we have about $3,000,000 in capital outlay this year.
The parking fund normally takes in about $230,000 in revenue, right now we $11,137. As you drive by the parking lots, there are not a lot of people parking there. A generous estimate is $30,000. We are holding off on capital improvements, did not seal the parking lot, etc. but we will still have a deficit because of the salaries, parking maintenance, contract services, etc. so we will be about $117,000 short in that fund.
The golf fund through October is at $1,144,167 for golf alone. We are looking to be over budget about $60,000 in that category. The restaurant and banquet revenues are down significantly. On the expense side, we are under about $395,000 overall for a total projected loss of $208,923.
Chairman Deyne stated that the loss of revenue at the golf course is mainly attributed to the restaurant and banquet facility.
Village Administrator Paula Schumacher stated its almost entirely attributed to the fact that we had to cancel events due to COVID. We were almost entirely booked for this year.
Assistant Administrator Scott Skrycki stated that last year we had 27 weddings. This year we were projected to have 41 weddings. As of right now, we have 48 weddings in the books for next year.
Ms. Schumacher stated we found out that we won “The Knot” award again this year for our banquet facility and because this is the 4th year we have won that award, we are officially in “The Knot Hall of Fame”, the top 1% of venues.
Chairman Suwanski asked if we have 48 weddings scheduled or projected for FY 2021.
Mr. Skrycki stated we have 48 scheduled for 2021.
President Wallace stated that it’s a difficult situation when you are going into a year with 14 more weddings than the previous year and we would have paid off the expansion of that facility. It is tough numbers to look at, but he truly believes with the changes made and professionals running that facility, once the pandemic passes, we are going to really start making it work out there. We need to try to be as frugal as possible throughout the winter and try to get into the spring with some bookings.
Ms. Schumacher stated it’s a real credit to the staff out there. We book them in the winter so they can have the weddings in the summer so they have really been hustling not only to keep the ones they had from 2020, but to fill the empty dates that were in the calendar and they have really been doing a good job of that.
Chairman Gandsey asked if the budget will need to be changed for marketing or advertising the banquet facility.
Mr. Skrycki stated they are knee deep in google analytics, The Knot and the Wedding Wire, to be frank with you, given the number of weddings that were booked for next year, marketing won’t be the issue, its going to be getting staff in and making sure we can accommodate the events they have.
Chairman Carbonaro stated that there are a lot of intercounty rules that are different and he had a nephew that was supposed to get married in Kane County, they closed all banquet facilities right before the wedding so they had to go to Tinley Park for another convention hall to have the wedding.
President Wallace thanked everyone for all the work this year. Leadership is way harder than it was in previous years. There is a lot of people that are hurting out there and all of us can pull together to provide some sense of stableness. He thanked the Chief and rest of the police department for all of their hard work and professionalism. He thanked the public works director for their great job this year. The brush complaints are the biggest issues, but that will be figured out soon. He appreciated all of the trustees and staff’s leadership.
Ms. Schumacher thanked the mayor and stated she would be remiss if she didn’t recognize you and your championing the municipal perspective on regional calls and statewide calls. You have been on constant calls since March and putting up the good fight.
President Wallace stated it has been tough and he has been very irritated on how it was handled in the beginning. He learned a ton about the pandemic and about diplomacy throughout this time. He thinks sometimes the village needs to stand its ground and we have done a good job with that. The next challenge is to work on how swiftly we can push things to open up safely.
Chairman Deyne moved to adjourn and that motion was seconded by Chairman Suwanski.
ROLL CALL VOTE TO ADJOURN
AYES: Chairmen Carbonaro, Deyne, Gandsey, Hopkins, Reinke and Suwanksi
NAYS: None
ABSENT: None
MOTION CARRIEDThe meeting was adjourned at 7:52 p.m.
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