HomeMy WebLinkAboutCouncil Minutes Financial Management & Legacy Flight Museum Budget Meeting - May 15, 2026 (208) 359-3020
35 North 1st East
Rexburg, ID 83440
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City Council Airport Budget Meeting Minutes – May 15, 2026
Mayor Jerry Merrill
Council Members:
Bryanna Johnson David Reeser
Colin Erickson Bill Riggins
Eric Erickson Alisha Tietjen
City Staff:
Spencer Rammell – City Attorney
Matt Nielson – Finance Officer
Keith Davidson – Public Works Director
Alan Parkinson – Planning & Zoning Administrator
Scott Johnson – Economic Development Director
Deborah Lovejoy – City Clerk
2:30 P.M. Fiscal Year 2027 Budget Meeting – Legacy Flight Museum, Financial Management/Investment Report, Information Technology/Fiber, Customer Service, Human Resources, and Legal.
Finance Officer Nielson reviewed the Legacy Flight Museum Budget Report.
Finance Officer Nielson reviewed the Financial Management/Investment Budget Report.
Financial Management: Rental – Carpool Car: carpool vehicle rentals has been discontinued because the administrative cost outweighed the benefit. City Departments can now check out
city vehicles as needed, while departments with independent revenue sources usually maintain their own vehicles.
Salaries Full Time, Certification Raises-Budget, Merit/Salary Raise-Budget, Full Time Overtime, Accrued Leave/Vacation Buyout, Benefits, W/C Refund: The finance department staffing includes
approximately 6–6.5 full-time employees, including positions such as utility billing clerk, accounts payable clerk, controller, payroll clerk, senior staff accountant, and others. Budget
includes funding for professional certification, specifically upcoming state treasurer certification through the Idaho City Clerks, Treasurers, and Finance Officers Association (ICCTFOA).
About $7,800 is budgeted for overtime, mainly for accounts payable and occasionally payroll operations. Part-time wages are budgeted at approximately $23,000 for two part-time employees
and an intern. The department prefers hiring accounting or finance students as interns to provide experience and longer-term support. Accrued leave expenses are largely tied to employees
cashing out vacation time during Christmas. Employee benefits costs have increased significantly in recent years, like trends across other departments. Workers’ Compensation claims are
uncommon within the department. A small portion of the budget goes toward wellness.
Supplies, Supplies-Janitor: represent a large expense for the department, and the amount fluctuates from year to year. Department staff expect costs to decrease this year, but future
computer replacements will likely increase expenses again. The department also covers most janitorial costs for City Hall. However, a portion of those costs are allocated to Engineering,
GIS, Building Department also pays its share of janitorial expenses.
Fuel and Oil, Postage, Audit & Consultation, and Lease-Principal Piece, Hired Work and Insurance: the fuel and oil expenses are mainly associated with two shared vehicles, the Highlander
and the Durango, which employees can use for travel. Many employees use these vehicles almost every day. The department is also responsible for postage expenses and pays the largest
share of those costs, which total approximately $6,000. The audit expenses have increased significantly over the last five years, which reflects a broader industry trend rather than
a problem unique to the city. Department Staff mentioned they do not hire outside firms for additional audits during the year, but they do conduct internal reviews. The Lease Principal
Piece is tied to the city’s Tyler software costs. Each year, combining lease principal and interest, the software cost is $90,000. We just can’t technically classify it as software costs
because we were under that agreement. Smaller items like hired work and insurance. The liability insurance will probably increase from about $630,000 to around $643,000, which is minimal
compared to the increases they have seen recently. The liability insurance costs are spread across every department.
Travel and Training, Banking Fees, Heat & Lights-Tenant-RBDC Share: Department staff budgeted for about $12,000. Typically, that covers the costs for the Chief Finance Officer and Finance
Controller to attend ICCTFOA conferences. The Finance Controller also completes training to maintain his CPA, through GFOA. Chief Finance Controller attends the GFOA as well, where they
learn about new GASB standards. City banking Fees, membership Dues, telephone, internet, and heat and lights for City Hall—not just the finance department. Heat and Lights – Tenant RBDC
Share. Department Staff might merge those accounts because the Cultural Arts is now occupying that space.
Building/Grounds Repair, Computer Program/Software Maintenance Overhead Shop Expenses: The building and grounds repair cost is budget at $15,000. Only spent about $1,400 so far this
year, but last year they spent around $21,500. The account covers the city hall building. HVAC, plumbing issue, parking lot repair, or things like the ADA door buttons breaking, those
types of expenses all come out of that account. Department staff indicated reducing the budget amount to $10,000. Office equipment expenses. Computer software covers the remainder of
our software costs, which are around $25,000. Some Overhead- Shop Expenses are budgeted for about $8,000 for city hall building general repairs.
Finance Controller Miller reviewed the city’s Cash and Investment Report based in the March. The city has total of about $46.6 million in cash and investments. Of that amount, approximately
$40.6 million is in the managed investments. At the end of March, there was about $2.6 million in CD’s. The city has two accounts that are managed accounts, meaning those institutions
are authorized to make investment decisions on our behalf, which are Morton’s and Zions. The TBI account is more of a brokerage account. The State Investment Pool accout does not bring
in the highest rates, but it is extremely liquid. The funds in that account can be accessed within a day.
Finance Officer Nielson reviewed the Information Technology.
Lease-Proceeds from New Obligation: is tied back to the M2 software. The city entered into a multi-year agreement for that software, so under the GASB lease accounting standards, it
must be treated as a lease. You’re going to continue seeing those entries show up throughout the budget going forward because of all the GASB lease accounting requirements.
Salaries FT and New Hire-Budget-IT Tech Supcen: the IT budget itself: for salaries, currently has five full-time employees budgeted, including management. The total salary allocation
for next year is about $518,000. Discussion about the additional IT position currently being recruited, that position is a new role. The department has struggled with continuity because
it has relied heavily on part-time student employees who frequently rotate out each semester. A new full-time position is being created to improve stability, especially in systems administration
and infrastructure support.
Discussion: the proposed full-time position would cost the general fund approximately $121,000, including wages, benefits, and operational costs. City overhead costs include services
such as IT, finance, payroll, HR, legal, customer service, and mayor/council support, totaling nearly $3 million annually. The new full-time role would replace two part-time installation
positions, reducing part-time staffing from three employees to one. Estimated savings from reducing part-time staffing would be approximately $20,000–$25,000 annually. The part-time
savings, reducing the net increase from $121,000 to roughly $101,000.
Benefits and W/C Claims Surcharge and Supplies: the benefits costs are projected at $246,000 overall, already including a 2.73% COLA increase scheduled for later in October. A substantial
increase in health insurance costs affecting both the employer and employees. A significant workers’ compensation claim will result in a surcharge impacting that department’s budget
for the next three years. Supply expenses currently sit at around $6,200, with forecasts projecting approximately $10,000 for the year and slight increases moving forward. Computer
Program/Software Maintenance, expenses are projected to be around $24,000, in addition to separate lease-related software costs already included elsewhere in the budget.
Virtual Server Cluster/Maintenance and IT- Network Maintenance Upgrade: are considered capital expenditures and are budgeted at approximately $27,000. IT upgrades to maintenance a rotating
server replacement schedule, replacing roughly one of six servers each year to keep equipment on a five- to six-year lifecycle.
Finance Officer Nielson reviewed the Fiber Construction and Fiber Construction Budget Reports.
Discussion: the Fiber Construction Fund has roughly $100,000 in outstanding Silver Star construction invoices awaiting proper PO documentation before payment can be processed. Once
those invoices are paid, the Fiber Construction Fund is expected to be closed out, supported by a planned $127,000 transfer from the Fiber Operating Fund.
The Fiber Operating Fund began the fiscal year with approximately $703,000 in reserves and supports ongoing fiber infrastructure operations. Recurring lease revenue from agreements
with Silver Star, Silver Light, Light Bridge, and related entities generated about $127,000 this year and is projected to increase to approximately $130,000 next year due to annual escalators
in the agreements. Portions of the recurring fiber revenue are now being transferred to support other city operations, including proposed transfers of approximately $75,000 to the General
Fund and $75,000 to the Street Repair Fund next year. The Fiber Operating Fund is projected to retain approximately $540,000 in reserves. City Staff emphasized the importance of maintaining
large reserves because the city owns the fiber infrastructure and must be prepared for unexpected major repair or replacement costs.
Finance Officer Nielson reviewed the Customer Service Budget Report.
Licenses-Beer & Wine and Registrations-Business: The Customer Service Department manages business license and registration fee revenue, which currently brings in just under $70,000
annually. The business registration revenue will decline the city can no longer require short-term rental registrations, eliminating an estimated $6,000–$8,000 in annual revenue. The
projected business license revenue was adjusted downward to approximately $62,000 while still accounting for expected business growth throughout the year.
Salaries FT, Part Time Wage, Benefits, Training, Travel, & Meetings: staffing currently includes Deborah, Mary, Amanda, Marcie, and Sarah, with Marianna’s salary split partially between
departments. Part-time staffing costs increased significantly due to Sarah transitioning into the Customer Service department, with projected part-time salary of around $52,000. Employee
benefit costs are lower than they were a few years ago because of staffing and benefit structure changes. Travel and training expenses primarily include ICTAFOA conference attendance
and Mary’s annual grant-writing certification coursework. Marianna’s ICTAFOA-related expenses are paid through the Customer Service budget. Because next year’s ICTAFOA conference will
be held in Boise and some training is completed online, officials felt the training budget could reasonably be reduced from $6,500 to approximately $5,000.
Computer Program/ Software Maintenance: this line item decreased, partly due to changes related to the discontinuation of Airbnb/short-term rental registrations. The city will need
to address website accessibility compliance requirements before April 27 of next year, when city websites must meet ADA AA compliance standards. Estimated costs for the accessibility
compliance work are projected around $4,000–$4,500, depending on how many websites, microsites, and pages require review. Because the total scope of work remains uncertain, officials
suggested budgeting closer to $4,500 to ensure adequate funding.
Finance Officer Nielson reviewed the Human/Resources Budget Report.
Salaries FT, Accrued Leave/Vacation Buyout, Benefits, Supplies, Drug Test/Shots/Background checks, Insurance, Training, Travel, and Meeting: the budget with current staffing levels is
projected at approximately 182, which may decrease slightly later. Minimal overtime is included in the budget. The accrued leave buyout costs will increase significantly this year
due to a separation agreement but are expected to return to normal afterward. Benefits budget has slightly increased due to two new employees and uncertainty regarding their coverage
needs (family vs. single coverage). Supplies budget is projected between $4,000 and $4,200. Drug testing expenses currently show credit because supplies are purchased upfront and later
reimbursed by departments as used, resulting in minimal long-term departmental cost. Insurance amounts may be adjusted in the coming days. Travel and training budget is projected at
$7,000 for Tyler training in San Antonio in 2027. Previous San Antonio training in 2024 cost approximately $5,800. Rising travel and airline costs led to discussion about increasing
the training budget slightly to ensure both employees can attend required training.
Office Buildout: an office build-out was completed this year to create an additional office space for the department. The office changes addressed liability concerns related to conducting
drug testing in open areas. Office assignments were rearranged.
Finance Officer Nielson reviewed the Legal Report.
Salaries FT, Hired Work and Computer Program/Software Maintenance: the legal department currently consists of one full-time employee plus several part-time contracted workers. The “Hired
Work” budget line was currently set at $65,000 and reviewed for appropriateness. City Attorney Rammell stated the amount was generally acceptable but anticipated making some adjustments.
Land use issues were identified as a major legal concern because: ICRMP does not cover land use litigation. The use of AI research assistants and digital software tools to help manage
workload instead of hiring another full-time employee. City Attorney Rammell proposed reallocating some funds from “Hired Work” into the Computer Program and Software Maintenance fund.
Supplies: funding was budgeted at $1,000, the projected increase to $2,000. The additional supplies funding would support creating: An isolated laptop system, or an independent server
environment for AI tools. City Attorney Rammell requested an additional $500 increase for AI software subscription costs. The proposed increases: the software budget to $6,000. Reducing
the “Hired Work” category from $65,000 to approximately $60,000–$63,000.
Adjournment
APPROVED:
________________________________
Jerry Merrill, Mayor
Attest:
________________________________
Marianna Gonzalez, City Deputy Clerk