City of Gillett - State of the City Address
Presented by Mayor Brandon Miller - January 20, 2011

Good Evening – It is a great honor and privilege to represent The City of Gillett as Mayor and deliver my first State of the City address to you.

Tonight I would like to take a brief look back at 2010 and a look ahead in laying out a plan for the City of Gillett. The decisions we make in 2011 and the decisions we made in 2010 are the first steps in creating the needed momentum to form a vision for the future.
2010 was a year of transition. With the majority of the current City Council being elected in April there was a lot of work to be done. We are still in that transition; the transition from reactive actions to proactive actions and we are progressing well. In 2010 we took a deep look at the organization and structure of the City and made necessary changes and additions to further advance the City. We took a look at all the City’s past projects and prioritized those projects in an effort to bring them to completion. There are some projects that we had to postpone because of the financial situation of the City and others that we have no choice but to follow through with because of State mandates.

Our Parks and Cemetery committee in conjunction with the Public Works Committee wanted to resurface E. Park Street which goes through Zippel Park and pave the gravel parking areas that are near McKenzie Ave. and to the East of the 4H and Beer Stands. In reviewing the financial situation of the City we decided to postpone that project until a complete review of the City’s accounts could be done.

For many years the City of Gillett has been trying to accomplish the development of a Skateboard Park and has gotten it as far as pouring a concrete foundation and the City installed a fence around the perimeter of the concrete. Since the Skate Board Park was built about 2 years ago we have been trying to drum up community support to raise money for various equipment such as ramps and obstacles for the skate boarders. We have placed ads in the local paper, had Pat’s Market stuff flyers in grocery bags and posted flyers throughout the City requesting volunteer support to sit on a committee that would raise the necessary funds. We have had two different committees in place over the years and neither was able to continue the support that is necessary for the completion of the project. Our last request for support was unanswered with the exception of Gillett Cement offering a couple of nice benches. We placed the benches in the park and within weeks the kids were nailing boards to them trying to create makeshift ramps. We had one child injured in the skate park and that was when the City locked the gate and began rethinking the idea.

The most recent development in regards to the skateboard park is to convert it into a synthetic ice skating rink. We have had comments stating that people from outside the community would come to Gillett just to skate. The Parks Committee has met and thinks it would be a good idea to place the synthetic ice where the skateboard park is. They concluded that it would be more of a family facility and not catered to such a small demographic. We have received estimates in the neighborhood of $70,000 to purchase enough of the material to cover the concrete slab that is in the park. Once in place this synthetic ice skating ring would be usable all year round, even in the summer. We began looking for funding sources for this project and while it is still in its infancy I believe this will be a project that we can see to its completion.

The Public Works Department Head, Tim Christensen, applied for and received a $27,000 Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant which allowed the City to replace the lighting in all the City buildings including City Hall, The Gillett Public Library, the Fire Department and the New Beginnings building. The old lighting was replaced with energy efficient lighting that will save the city more than $15,000 this year alone.

Chief Gary Pemrich applied for and received a $195,377 COPS Grant from the U.S. Department of Justice which has allowed the City of Gillett to add an additional full time officer. This additional officer has helped the City of Gillett Police Department fill gaps in coverage, put in place a school liaison officer and promote community policing efforts within the City. In addition to the COPS grant Chief Pemrich has created a Cadet Program in which cadets that are obtaining their law enforcement education will work on various projects throughout the City. One example of a project is the creation of a City map that will display all street signs, parking regulation areas and other pertinent items as required by the State of Wisconsin.

Chief Pemrich has also begun the process of implementing a Joint Municipal Court which will allow surrounding Townships to join our court system. Currently townships have not had the ability to enforce their local ordinances and have in some circumstances decided against passing necessary ordinances because of the lack of the ability to enforce those ordinances. By joining a joint municipal courts system they have the ability to issue ordinance violations and have them tried in Gillett by our court system. This will create a small revenue stream for Gillett which will more than offset any additional expenses incurred by the City. Presently there are five townships, the Towns of Gillett, Underhill, Mountain, Riverview and Green Valley that have requested to join our court system. This is a great program for all parties involved and is a great step in pooling local resources to benefit each other.

The Utility Committee had a very busy year with $376,000 of repairs and maintenance to various components of the Water system. Over the summer the water tower was painted. The $166,000 project was necessary to avoid any possibility of the water tower rusting and that rust being introduced into the water system. It is required periodically that the water tower be inspected and it must pass the inspection. The average life of and interior paint job is 15- 18 years and the tower has never been re-painted since it was built more than 20 years ago. The water tower received a fresh coat both inside and out and a new exterior look with the addition of new lettering and pinstripes.

After an inspection of the reservoir on E. Washington Street it was determined that it was in the best interest of the City to replace the reservoir rather than attempt to repair it. The cost of the replacement of the reservoir was $150,000. In addition to the reservoir replacement the Utility Committee approved the needed rehab of Well #2 with a cost of $47,500 as well as a $12,500 Booster Pump.
The Utility Committee is continuing to work on the renovation of the Waste Water Treatment Plant. Because of tighter DNR regulations the Utility is currently looking to install a recirculating gravel filtration plant to meet the current and ever changing future water standards. The Utility has been investigating the most cost effective plan for the upcoming project. In 2008 the Utility began raising sewer rates in yearly increments rather than a onetime rate increase. The next sewer rate increase will begin this year and another increase will begin on 1/1/2012 to help the funding of the project. A $12.00 increase per sewer user per month will take effect starting with the February 2011 water billing. Department Head, Ron Anderson has been working diligently with the engineers to find the most cost effective way to complete this project. Ron Anderson also was able to obtain a $5,000 energy grant from the Oconto Electric Cooperative for the Waste Water Treatment Plant project.

Another major project the Utility faces is the current water and sewer infrastructure that is ran below our city streets.  This more than 80 year old system is more than 30 years past its life expectancy. We are mandated by the DNR to replace all the 4” water lines in the City by the end of 2012. The streets that still have 4” water lines are North and South Zippel and Armstrong Streets. The Utility Committee along with the Public Works Committee continues to collaborate on a process to find funding and effectively work together to see these large projects thru to completion.

The Planning Committee along with Brian Wayner and Omni and Associates is continuing work on the Econo-Wash property. The City received a $100,000 grant to raze the former Econo-Wash building and remediate the land. There is a 20% match that is required by the City and it is the intensions of the City to invest the 20% in a temporary green space until use of the land is structured. The Community Development Authority along with Rod Fifield has begun a facility plan for a proposed “Gillett Mall” that would be located at this location. This is in the very early stages and it has been proposed to be a three story building with the top story being set up for a café style business that would have a walk out deck. The lower two floors would have movable walls throughout which would allow there to be between 2 and 12 different businesses at the location.

A final draft of a new City sign ordinance is near completion and the Planning Committee will be scheduling a public hearing in the near future to allow city residents and businesses to review the ordinance in its entirety. The planning committee held many meetings specifically to create the sign ordinance. The ordinance will allow the City to monitor sign activity, prevent non-complying  signs from being displayed and help the City to enforce removal of signs when events are completed and when businesses are no longer in operation. Careful consideration of business and organization needs and expense as well as the appearance of the City was a top priority during the development of the ordinance.

The City currently has 13 parcels that it owns that we are currently looking to sell. We have six lots and one out lot remaining in the Ridgewood Subdivision, two lots that are connected which are located at 303 E. Main Street and N. Zippel Ave., a parcel that is located on Railroad St. behind the New Beginnings building and three out lots located by the industrial park. There is no reason for the City to continue to own these properties and the City would benefit by getting the properties back on the tax roll.

On January 5 I attended the County’s Law Enforcement / Judiciary Committee meeting to discuss the possibility of the County’s new Law Enforcement Center being located in the City. I listened to and reviewed the needs of the County in regards to land and services. On January 6 the City Council met and I presented the information I obtained. The County is not looking to add on any jobs with the new facility. When we took into consideration the expense the City would incur by locating the needed property and then purchasing it, basically gifting the property to the County and running the needed infrastructure to the location we decided that it was not in the best interest of the tax payers to submit a proposal because there would be no tax revenue and no additional employment created. While we were extremely interested in the Law Enforcement Center being located in the City we could not justify it at the expense of the City tax payers.

The Finance Committee along with the Clerk/Treasurer’s office has been working diligently to get the City finances in order. When I came into office in April of last year I asked what I thought would be very simple questions to answer. What is the balance of the various City accounts? What is the borrowing capacity of the City? How much of the borrowing capacity does the city have available? What debts does the City have? To my surprise these questions could not be answered.

Since 2006 the City auditors have been doing the City’s bank reconciliations because it wasn’t done by the City staff. Quoting from the Management Letter from our auditors, “As a result, we noted numerous financial transactions that were not properly recorded in the City’s financial accounting system.” As of October of 2010 again no reconciliations were done. I am happy to say now all accounts are fully reconciled and up to date.

Last year alone the City of Gillett spent over $30,000 to have the City Books audited. In a meeting in September with the auditors I asked, “What is the cost of a typical audit for a city this size?” The answer was six to ten thousand dollars. That is $20,000 worth of services the taxpayers paid for that should have been done at the City level in the normal operation of the City.

While preparing the 2011 budget a $51,895.50 error was recognized on the 2010 budget. This error occurred after the first erroneous tax bills were sent out that everyone was told to discard. When the city realized that the first error had occurred they changed the initial property tax figure of over $500,000 (which was the original tax levy that was sent to the county and what created the first set of wrong tax bills) down to $324,635.40. It is assumed they came to that figure because they wanted to keep the mill rate the same as in 2009. What they failed to realize is when they adjusted the tax levy they also needed to adjust the tax increment figure as well. They did not do that and it remained budgeted at $89,967.50. The tax increment is calculated off of the tax levy so when the city levied $324,635.40 - regardless of what the budget summary states the tax increment was recalculated and the city actually received $38,072.00 for the tax increment which resulted in the $51,895.50 short fall for the city because of the error. This dropped the actual mill rate down to 6.0765 from 6.9459. The 16% tax increase that we budgeted for 2011 is to get our mill rate back to where it should be. The mill rate for 2011 is 7.08058. If the budget would have been done correctly last year this increase would have only been about 2%. Also the city would have had an additional $51,895.50 that cannot be recovered by the city.

As it stands now our bank accounts are reconciled but we still need to determine our capital outlay balance. The reason we currently do not know what we have in capital outlay is because for years the City has been budgeting more than it has received in revenue to operate the City cutting into the capital outlay funds. There have been monies transferred from various funds to the general fund and vice versa. On nearly a daily basis we are uncovering misallocated funds or erroneous entries in the accounting system and correcting them as we come across them. Currently we are postponing any capital expenditures until we can make the needed adjustments in our system to determine how much the City has available in its capital outlay funds. We are expected to have all the City books complete and accurate by the middle of February. Once we know exactly where the City stands we will be scheduling a special meeting to determine the appropriate allocation of the capital outlay funds.

For years the City auditors have been telling the City that we should separate the duties of the Clerk/Treasurer. We welcome Stephanie Schmutzer to the City staff and her experience will allow us to do just that. Contrary to some of the comments that we have read publicly, there are no additional employees needed or cost incurred in doing this. There will still remain the same number of staff members in the Clerk/Treasurers office. What will change is the employee titles. As the auditors stated in their management letter, “Segregation of duties is an internal control intended to prevent or decrease the occurrence of errors or intentional fraud. Segregation of duties ensures that no single employee has control over all phases of a transaction.” As I am sure you can tell from the last few minutes of listening to me in regards to the city finances the decision to segregate the duties of the Clerk/Treasurer is imperative to ensure we do not repeat the same errors we have in the past. In April there will be a referendum on the separation of the Clerk/Treasurer’s position and I ask the residents of the City of Gillett to vote to allow the separation.

The Finance Committee is also working to re-write the City’s employee hand book. Over the course of years this hand book has been modified both in committee and council as well as out. There have been changes made since 1994 that have not been documented and changes have been made that the employees were not aware of. It is because of this fact that we decided to put our pencils to paper and along with the employees of the City we are completely reviewing the current hand book and are nearly finished with the revisions. This has been a large priority for me because everyone needs to be on the same page. With multiple versions of the hand book it is difficult for both the employees and City Council to know what rules to follow.

Another project that we have taken on is creating a policy manual. The days of “that is how we have always done it” are over. I was shocked when I asked in April to review the policy manual only to be told there wasn’t one. The Finance Committee is creating the policy manual as issues come up rather than trying to think of every possible policy that is needed. So far we have or are in the process of creating policies that handle the use of Council Chambers by other organizations and individuals, bleacher use and dumpster rentals. This will always continue to be an ongoing project.

In June I began re-developing the City website. I presented the new website at the August City Council meeting and it immediately was put live. The City website is much easier to navigate and much more informative. Some of the key features of the website are, the complete code book is available online, the City Calendar is posted online which displays items such as garbage pickup day, recycling day, committee and council meeting dates and other special events, public service notices are available and soon permits, forms and all city ordinances as well as meeting minutes will be available on the website as well. There has been no expense incurred by the City for the work that I have performed on the website and I have been updating it as time allows.

After a League of Wisconsin Municipalities Chiefs Executive Workshop meeting I decided to begin holding regular office hours at City Hall. My regular hours are on Wednesday afternoons from 1-4pm. I also began having Department Head Meetings every Wednesday as schedules permit. These meetings have been valuable in collaborating across departments and getting any issues on the table.

The department heads of the City have been put in charge of their budget and are now receiving never before seen budget vs. actual expense reports on a monthly basis. Each invoice that is related to the department head is now given to the department heads for their approval and then handed in for payment. This is another process that has never been done before. In doing this the department heads have an opportunity to review the invoices for accuracy and report any discrepancies before the bill is paid. Most recently it was un-covered by Department Head Tim Christensen that the City has been paying taxes on fuel that they are purchasing for equipment that has tax exemptions. By finding this discrepancy the city will save thousands of dollars over the course of the year. This is one example of what can happen when the right people are given the necessary tools to do their job effectively and also a perfect example of what the auditors stated in their management letter in regards to segregation of duties.

Moving forward into 2011 the City of Gillett has many items on the plate. The Planning Committee is beginning to work on some key ordinances such as a Home Base Occupation Ordinance, a Mobile Home Ordinance, an Ordinance for Membrane Storage Structures and an Ordinance that will put timeline restrictions for building in the industrial park. The City Utility will continue putting their efforts towards the renovation of the Waste Water Treatment Plant. We will continue to improve the accounting system of the City and have already made great strides in doing that. We will begin to promote and educate everyone in regards to the Commercial Revolving Loan Program as well as the Community Block Grant Program. We have been and will continue to collaborate with the Gillett School District in the development of the Charter Schools and other projects as well.

The state of the City is strong and is continuing to get stronger. In 2010 the City Council, City Employees and volunteers have done a superb job. We have accomplished a lot in a short amount of time and I would like to thank you for that. Also, I it is important that we recognize the spouses of our City Council. Without their support, contributions and tolerance we would not be where we are today, thank you.

The City of Gillett truly is a great place to live. We have great residents, great organizations that spend hours upon hours putting together wonderful events and it’s imperative that we as a City continue to support these fine organizations in any way possible. I want to personally and on behalf of the City Council thank everyone that makes Gillett such a wonderful place.

On behalf of the Council, it is our honor to serve and represent you as we begin what will be a great 2011 and would like the residents to know that you can contact us at any time. Thank you.