Belleville City Council criticizes budget work by Plante Moran

Plante Moran is highly regarded as a financial consultant, but the work it is turning out for the City of Belleville is not detailed enough.
At its July 5 meeting, after a lengthy discussion on the shortfalls of the Plante Moran employee doing the financial work for the city, the Belleville City Council agreed to defer requested budget amendments for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2016 until the next meeting on July 18.
Kelly Howey, the Plante Moran employee doing the financial work for the city, was not present, but she will be advised to attend the July 18 meeting and bring a complete line item review and more complete amendments.
The amendments had been on the agenda of the June 20 council meeting, but they were tabled because Howey and her supervisor were both on vacation and the council needed a full accounting of revenues for the discussion.
City Manager Diana Kollmeyer said on June 30 she had a “major conversation” with Howey on ways the handling of the budget needed to improve.
She said, “The answers I’m getting are that there are always adjustments at the end of the year, always allocation changes, changes to FICA,” City Manager Kollmeyer said.
Because the amendments were not approved by the end of the fiscal year, “This will be a footnote in our audit,” Kollmeyer said.
“I’m not comfortable with voting on this and I’m not comfortable with letting it set by the wayside,” Mayor Kerreen Conley said. “I want to see amended line items.”
“I told them this is not acceptable,” Kollmeyer said.
Councilwoman Kim Tindall said the city charter specifically states that the council will be presented with quarterly reports, which it is not getting.
“The issues have been rectified,” Kollmeyer said. “Last Thursday. All the issues have be addressed. We will get charter reports…”
Councilwoman Tindall said she got into a habit of getting amendments as they happened, not all at the end of the year.
“We should get amendments as they happen,” Kollmeyer agreed.
“That’s what we’re paying them for,” said Mike Renaud from the audience.
There were 12 amendments requested, but scant information on why these changes were needed.
“It seems we had $19,400 worth of overages and miraculously we got $20,000 in state shared revenue,” Mayor Conley said.
“I don’t know why we’re paying them for their expertise,” Renaud said.
Fire Chief Brian Loranger said that his department’s fine from MIOSHA could have been cut by an appeal, but there was no appeal.
Kollmeyer agreed it needed to be paid within 15 days or get a penalty.
Chief Loranger said, “I spent $6,000 on something I didn’t need.” He said the first MIOSHA report said he needed something and then another official came in and said, “Oh, you don’t need that.”
“I copied a pile of papers and sent it to them,” Kollmeyer said of MIOSHA. “And, then they said we didn’t respond, so I did it again.”
Renaud asked if the Downtown Development Authority budget had been submitted yet and he was told it hadn’t.
Mayor Conley, who sits on the DDA, said the DDA needs information from quotes that aren’t in yet.
“They would like to see it on their July 20 agenda, but I don’t think it will be ready,” Conley said. She said the DDA has questions on whether it should pay the city all it does.
“They want more details,” Kollmeyer said. “They want to know exactly what they are paying for, what the DPW is doing.”
“It’s a work in progress,” Conley said. “…We are working at it, I assure you.”
In other business at the July 5 meeting, the council:
• Approved naming Police Chief Hal Berriman as acting city manager when the city manager is not available. That charter-required position was held by City Clerk/Treasurer Lisa Long, but she has retired;
• Approved the 21st-annual Bridge Walk from Doane’s Landing at 5:30 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 18, in conjunction with the Central Business Community’s Taste of Belleville at Horizon Park;
• Approved the Municipal Employees’ Retirement System (MERS) of Michigan amendment for new hires of police officers and DPW/clerical employees. This is a defined-benefit plan for much-reduced pensions at much-reduced rates and is inside the POAM and GELC labor agreements;
• Approved Accounts Payable of $47,072.01 and departmental expenditures in excess of $500: to Action Training Systems, $2,250 for software from General/Fire budget; to BMI Collision, $2,461.23 for vehicle repair, Police (paid for by insurance, except for the $250 deductible); to Cadillac Asphalt, $541 for street repair, Water/Sewer; to Digicom Global, $16,500 for emergency radios, Capital/Fire budget; to ES&S, $2,249.80 for elections coding, General/Elections; to Fuller Appraisal, $3,062.50 for appraisal work, from General fund; to R&R Truck Repair, $1,797.19 for Engine 461, General/Fire; to SLC Meter, $1,108.88 for water meters, Water/Sewer;
• Learned Councilman Fielder had taken the proposed Special Events Ordinance Up North with him to study and will come back with a recommendation. The review of the ordinance was requested by the council on Aug. 5, 2014 and a committee assigned;
• Heard Mayor Conley say a proposal for a special assessment district for upgrades to city streets will be brought to an upcoming meeting and the council will have to decide on bonding or a SAD. There will be another public meeting on the subject, she said. The council requested a city street evaluation on Dec. 15, 2014, an assessment was done, and a public meeting held June 15;
• Heard Jeff Vernon ask about having no functioning water fountains in the parks during very hot weather. DPW Chief/Building Official Rick Rutherford said it is an ongoing battle with vandals. He said they fix the damaged fountains and they don’t last a week’s time before being vandalized again. “So many people from out of the city come and we have a very hard time keeping them working. We just had a plumber in to fix the sink in the women’s bathroom at Victory Park,” he said. Vernon also complained about broken-up, worn-out signs by the candy shop on South Street and city trucks blocking sidewalks;
• Heard a representative of Victoria Commons ask about Doane’s Landing park being shut down for so long and City Manager Kollmeyer said the seawall is separating and it’s very costly to repair. The representative also said she went to a city restroom during Strawberry Festival and it was completely out of soap and toilet paper. She said she volunteers at a festival in Plymouth and they get an extra service to come in and tend to restrooms. Also, she asked if it was possible to get a slow-down sign in Victoria Commons where drivers are racing around. Kollmeyer said she will ask for more police enforcement and Mayor Conley said they will ask for the street speed trailer to be placed in the subdivision. The representative also said she called the police about neighbors lighting fireworks late at night and a guest was parked right on the sidewalk. The police officer came and told them to move the car and let the fireworks continue. Tindall said there is no place in the City of Belleville where fireworks are allowed. Police officers will be educated in what the ordinance says; and
• Heard Councilwoman Tindall say she is waiting for someone to fall in the lake because the ropes at Horizon Park are deteriorated and in multiple places don’t even exist. Rutherford said the ropes have not been replaced because the previous week all hands were on deck for pouring cemetery footings. He said when the ordered rope came in it said there was 375 feet on a roll, “but if we got 75 feet, we’re lucky.” He said he thinks the city should look at a different kind of rope.