Metro East Sun

City of O'Fallon Finance & Administration Committee met Feb. 24

Here are the minutes provided by the committee:

CALL TO ORDER: 5:30 pm

ROLL CALL: COMMITTEE MEMBERS: PRESENT: Chairman Parchman, Lotz, Fohne, Smallheer, Blackburn Absent: Campbell

NON-COMMITTEE ALDERMEN: PRESENT: Rosenberg, Hudson, Van Hook, Albrecht, Roach, Carney, Muyleart

Approval Minutes from January 27, 2025 Motion Lotz, Second Smallheer. All Ayes

Items Requiring Council Action:

2.1 Resolution to declare a surplus of funds in the special tax allocation fund for the City's Tax Increment Financing Redevelopment Project Areas: Robin Costello, Sr. Accountant explained that this Resolution is required by the IL Tax Increment Allocation Redevelopment Act when declaring a surplus (pass through) and is done annually. The pass through amount of $533,429.50 is sent to the County Collector who distributes this amount to the respective taxing districts in the same manner and proportion as the most recent distribution by the County Collector to the affected districts of real property taxes from real property in the redevelopment project areas. The amount of $322,898.06 represents the pass through amounts from TIF #3- Central park from Menards, Commercial R.E. LLC (Gander Mountain property) and Central Park Retail redevelopment agreements. The amount of $181,401.24 represents the pass through amounts from TIF #4 from Hwy 50/Scott Troy Road-Metroplex. The remaining balance of $29,130.20 represents the pass through from those parcels in TIF #5- Central City TIF area. Staff mentioned that Menards appealed their property tax for 2021 & 2022 reducing the tax increment distribution for this upcoming year.

Motion to approve: Lotz, Second Campbell All Ayes

2.2 Motion to approve the allocation of Build O'Fallon Trust Fund for projects in the FY 26 Budget: Director of Finance explained the background of the Build O’Fallon Trust Fund. In November 2021, the City Council approved a half-cent sales tax increase as part of the Property Tax Relief and Build O'Fallon Trust Fund initiative which was implemented in July 2022. The tax levy was reduced by $680,000 (which was the Parks portion) and was replaced with 0.25% of the new Home Rule sales tax. The other 0.25% of the sales tax was deposited into the Build O'Fallon Trust Fund (BOTF) to be used for City Council approved, unfunded capital projects that align with the 2040 Master Plan with the intent to grow the Trust Fund for future projects.

The projected revenue for FY 26 is $1,600,000. In order for the fund to grow, the City Council agreed that 33% of the sales tax be put in reserve, which will be approximately $528,000 for this upcoming fiscal year.

The following projects were submitted to the council for consideration of funding from the Build O'Fallon Trust Fund.

• Alert System for Fire Station/EMS: $100,000

• North Parking Lot (Phase 1) Lights at the Family Sports Park: $150,000

• North Parking lot and lights (Phase 2) at the Family Sports Park: $700,000

• Replacement Turf for Championship Field at the Family Sports Park: $700,000

These projects, listed by priority, total $1,650,000 with available funds of only $1,322,000.

After discussion by the committee and council members present, it was decided to move forward with the top three projects and wait for the replacement turf next year. In order for have full council approval, a motion out of committee will be made to approve the allocation of Build O'Fallon Trust Fund for the following projects in the FY 26 Budget.:

Alert System for Fire Station/EMS $100,000

North Parking Lot (Phase 1) Lights at Sportspark $150,000

North Parking lot and lights (Phase 2) at Sportspark $700,000 (depending on cost, might consider adding the entrance/exit off of Porter road)

Staff will update the FY 26 budget to include these projects under Fund 05 and will present at the March 24th finance committee meeting.

It was mentioned that next year, there should be more “exciting” projects for review such as Streetscape along Lincoln and Forward 50 projects.

Motion to approve: Lotz, Second Smallheer All Ayes

Other Business:

3.1 Presentation of the FY 2026 budget: Director of Finance presented the proposed FY26 budget reflects expenditures in all funds except the Build O'Fallon Trust Capital Fund of $100,659,175, which are equally balanced by revenues. Due to the nature of Fund Accounting, the budget total is inflated to reflect inter-fund transfers of $9,855,144 so the actual budgeted revenues and expenses for FY 26 is $90,804,031, not including the Build O'Fallon Trust Fund. This is an increase of approximately 4% increase over last year which is mostly due to personnel costs.

After council recommendation of projects to be funded by the Build O'Fallon Trust Fund, the revised Budget summary will be presented at the March 24 Finance and Administration Committee meeting along with any other changes that might need to be made. The following reports were reviewed.

1. Overall budget summary with charts/revenue projections

2. Dashboards of revenue/expense trends for departments

3. Large spend detail

4. New positions

5. Debt Charts

6. NWS line item detail for the following departments

Staff stated that the other departments will be presenting their budgets at their next committee meetings and then the final presentation of the budget with any changes will be presented at the March 24 finance committee meeting before approval at the council meetings.

Staff did mention that the latest report from the county shows that the City’s EAV is $997M and with the estimated multiplier would put the City’s EAV a little over $1Billion dollars. Staff also mentioned that it looks like the governor did not put funds in the State budget for the DAV reimbursement fund so this will be discussed at the March meeting as to how abatement back to the residents will occur.

3.2 Update on Resident Assistance Task Force Available funds: Director of Finance provided a summary of what funds were remaining as of 2/14/25. 

Water Assistance Program- $18,752.34 remaining FY 25 budget amount $25,000

Ameren Electric Assistance Program- $17,492.94 FY 25 budget amount $65,000

Staff also mentioned that the County's LIHEAP program is now open for residential assistance, so our agencies are also providing information to residents in need for that program as well.

Staff commented that the FY 26 Budget includes a $5000 increase to the Ameren Assistance line item but no additional funds for the Water Assistance. As a reminder, any remaining funds are not carried over from year to year.

3.3 Treasurer’s Report as of 1/31/25- Info Only

3.4 Administration Committee Reports- Info Only

3.5 Other: Director of Finance announced that Cemetery Cleanup is scheduled from March 1-8. New items can be put out starting March 9th.

4.1 Public Comments: Public comment was made by resident V. Malare

Motion to Adjourn: Lotz Second Smallheer All Ayes

ADJOURNMENT: 6:16 pm PREPARED BY: Sandy Evans

https://go.boarddocs.com/il/ofallon/Board.nsf/files/DEAN2V5DB270/$file/250224FCMinutes.pdf