HomeMy WebLinkAbout[02] September Minutes
September 2, 2015
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Pursuant to due call and notice thereof, the Fire Board for the City of St. Joseph, Town of St. Joseph and
Town of St. Wendel met in special session on Wednesday, September 2, 2015 at the St Joseph
Community Fire Hall.
Members Present: Fire Chief Jeff Taufen, Bob Loso, City of St. Joseph; Jeff Janssen, St. Joseph
Township; Greg Salk St. Wendel Township. Judy Weyrens, Administrator.
Others Present: Justin Honer, Assistant Fire Chief; Lori Bartlett Finance Director.
2015 Fire Contribution: Weyrens reported that since the last Fire Board meeting it was discovered that
the market valuations provided by the Stearns County Assessors Office was incorrect. City staff was
discussing the large shift in market valuation and contacted the Assessors Office to gain a better
understanding. Jeff Johnson, Stearns County Assessor was able to determine that when the market
value was determined for 2015, staff included the tax exempt properties, which is specifically excluded in
the Fire Contract. Johnson indicated to staff that there has been a large turnover in staff and they had
limited information. He apologized for the error and it will be corrected moving into the future.
Weyrens stated that the error does not impact the budget that was set for 2015 or the anticipated
contribution of each Township; rather it changed the actual contribution. When the budget is set for the
coming year, part of the budget preparation is projecting the annual contribution for each jurisdiction.
Therefore, the amount that was anticipated to be paid by each party was correct, it only changed once the
data was received from Stearns County. The table below is a summary illustrating the 2014 budget and
contribution along with the 2015 proposed, actual and impact of the error. As can be seen that the error
created an over payment for the City and under payment for each Township. The column entitled
Needed Correction list the amount that has been overpaid by the City and the amount under paid by the
Township. It can also be seen that when the budget was prepared the correct amount was anticipated to
be paid.
The following table illustrates the impact for 2016, stilling showing a decrease in annual payments for
each of the Townships.
September 2, 2015
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Salk questioned how the fire contributions can still go down in 2016 if the apportionments are not have
changed. Weyrens stated that the Fire Board agreed to buy down the budget by using reserves;
therefore the apportionments are fulling funding the budget. If the Board had not bought down the
reserves then the amount due from each party would have changed significantly. Salk questioned how
this error was caught. Weyrens stated that after the last Fire Board meeting staff was discussing the
large shift towards the City and decided to gather additional information from Stearns County. When we
received the market values in January, staff assumed that the annexations in Waite Park had a significant
impact as we knew that they were annexing the OA area in two increments. The Board agreed that while
it was commendable that the error was caught we should be more cautious and questioning in the future
when large shifts occur.
Salk questioned what the Townships have paid in the past for fire protection as the amount due seems
high compared to other years. Finance Director Lori Bartlett indicated the amount is similar and provided
the following illustration:
Weyrens stated that to correct the apportionments for 2015, each of the Townships has an additional
th
amount payable and can be added to the 4 Quarter payment or divided into the 2016 payment. The
table following illustrates the payments for 2015 and amount due. Both Janssen and Salk concurred that
they had budgeted the correct amount and the City should forward an invoice with the information.
Adjourn: Loso made a motion to adjourn at 6:30; seconded by Janssen and passed unanimously.
Judy Weyrens
Administrator