MINUTES OF THE METRO COUNCIL BUDGET & FINANCE COMMITTEE

Wednesday, December 12, 2001

Council Chamber

Members Present:  Susan McLain, Chair, Carl Hosticka, Vice Chair, Rod Park, Rex Burkholder, David Bragdon, Bill Atherton

Members Absent:  Rod Monroe

Chair McLain called the meeting to order at 2:03 p.m.

1.  Consideration of the Minutes of November 28, 2001, Budget and Finance Committee Meeting.

2.  Report from the Chief Financial Officer

Jennifer Sims, Chief Financial Officer, indicated she had no report.

3.  Staff Report Related to Central Service Costs

Casey Short, Financial Planning Manager, gave a power point presentation on Central Service and Cost Allocation (a copy of which is found in the meeting record). He recognized financial planning staff.

Councilor Burkholder asked about level of reimbursement on federal and state grants. What was allowable and what was their level that they permitted. He also suggested including a chart that compared central services to revenue rather than expenditures.

Councilor Atherton asked what caused the 98-99 cost allocations to go down.

Mr. Short responded that they were told to cut their budgets because revenues were not what were expected.

Councilor Park asked about the lobbyist contract and the increase in costs.

Mr. Short said those lobbying costs had not originally been in the Office of General Counsel, so his budget had increased by $100,000 in the past two years. The cost of lobbying services had also increased from $40,000 to $100,000 in the past two years. Chair McLain further clarified Mr. Short's response.

Chair McLain spoke to privatizing the print shop.

Ms. Sims responded that they had been approached by private sector to take care of printing, the increment of savings was marginal. There had been other suggestions as to services that could be privatized but there were always trade-offs.

Chair McLain added that there were pros and cons both on a financial and service level.

Councilor Burkholder added that reducing costs may include reducing services or eliminating some programs that were currently allocated.

Ms. Sims spoke to “getting along with less”. It was in fact a reduction of standard in some way. She gave several examples when reducing staff what the costs were. You also had to look at the long-term benefits.

Councilor Burkholder pointed out it was not necessarily lowing standards, automation of phones and structure of committees could reduce the number of staff necessary in the council office.

Ms. Sims continued by saying that some costs were operational costs, some costs were chosen to be done on a centralized basis, and then there was administrative costs, all of these costs were included under centralized costs.

Chair McLain felt the presentation was a useful resource.

Councilor Atherton asked about privatizing to reduce costs and be more efficient. What would happen if we were to privatize the Oregon Zoo? Were there examples of this other places.

Mr. Short said he was not familiar with anyone who had done this. He was only suggesting ideas where the council might want to look for savings. He would have to further research where true savings would occur.

Chair McLain spoke to centralization of contracting versus decentralization. Metro had gone through this often, this had to be looked at on a year by year basis. She gave an example of the Human Resources entity in MERC as well as in our building.

Mr. Short said when the Zoo opened the new exhibit, part of that was catering services. They had to determine if those services should be in-house or contracted out. You have to look at both the financial end as well as the service provided.

Chair McLain suggested that the committee give their ideas to Ms. Sims as well as having staff review their own ideas on savings as they progressed through the budget.

4.  Budget/Finance Related Calendars

Chair McLain spoke to the Budget and Finance Committee Work Plan for 2001.

John Houser, Council Analyst, presented the information on the work plan for 2001 (a copy of which may be found in the meeting record).

Chair McLain said she normally summarized the work of the committee for the year, this calendar would be included in that summary.

Ms. Sims overviewed the Budget Review Calendar for FY 2002-03 Budget (a copy of which is found in the meeting record). She gave an update of what had already occurred this year for FY 02-03 and what would be occurring in the near future. All of the steps were aimed at having this information available to the Council on March 7, 2002.

Chair McLain asked when it must be sent to TSCC. Ms. Sims responded it must be to TSCC by May 15, 2002. Chair McLain said they must then adopt the budget by the end of April and the budget must be to Council no later than March 7^th.

5.  Councilor Communications

There being no further business before the committee, Chair McLain adjourned the meeting at 3:10 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Chris Billington

Clerk of the Council

ATTACHMENTS TO THE PUBLIC RECORD FOR THE MEETING OF DECEMBER 12, 2001

12/12/01    Centralize Services/Cost Allocation Power Point Presentation  121201bdg-01

12/12/01    Budget Review Calendar for FY 2002-03 Budget    121201bdg-02

12/12/01    Budget and Finance Committee Work Plan, 2001    121201bdg-03