City of Pontiac, Michigan
Office
of the Emergency Financial Manager
Fred
P. Leeb
To:
Michael Stampfler
From: Fred Leeb, Emergency Financial Manager
Subject: Status Report and Recommendations
Date: June 24, 2010
First,
I would like to thank the many good citizens of Pontiac for their support and assistance in
trying to improve the financial health of the City during very difficult
economic times. It has been a pleasure
and very fulfilling to work in a positive manner with the City’s staff, other
professionals and the citizens to accomplish many tangible achievements over
the last 15 months. Without constant
communication, teamwork and sharing the workload and responsibilities with many
others, we could not have a accomplished:
- Generating
a $1.4 million surplus last year (with a very favorable outside audit report
having no significant negative findings),
- Developing
a $3.0 million surplus for the first nine months of this year despite a revenue
decline of almost $5 million this year as compared to last year,
- Obtaining
numerous opinions from the circuit court that were completely in the City’s
favor regarding the Silverdome sale and management conduct,
- Receiving
multiple letters from the State Treasurer complimenting our work and
- Achieving
from an unbiased outside agency a significant upgrade in the City’s bond
ratings and an improvement in the financial outlook for the City from “negative
watch” to “stable”, during an era when the same agency is downgrading many
other governmental units due to the economy.
The purpose of this letter is
twofold: 1) provide a brief status report on many of the significant projects
either recently completed or underway and 2) begin to discuss major strategic
options for the financial health of the City going forward.
Status Report of Significant
Projects Recently Completed or Underway
1.
Signed
an agreement with the Teamsters for them to contribute 20% to their health care
costs. A full contract is being
finalized.
2.
Reached
tentative agreement with American Federation of State County and Municipal
Employees to have them contribute approximately 20% to their health care
expense.
3.
Attempting
to finalize a new contract with the Pontiac Police Officers Association causing
them to contribute the equivalent of 20% to their health care expense.
4.
Completed
previously agreements with the Firefighters, the Supervisors and Administrative
Employees Association, the Pontiac Professional Management Association and the
non-union personnel requiring approximately a 20% contribution to their health
care expense.
5.
Beginning
additional negotiations with the Firefighters to reduce cost further.
6.
Now
operating without furlough days for almost all employees.
7.
Completed
negotiations with Blue Cross Blue Shield to provide health care coverage to
active employees and pre-65 retirees at a savings of approximately $500,000 for
the coming year in comparison to Humana.
8.
Finalizing
negotiations with health care providers for coverage for post-65 retirees;
expecting minimal cost increases from the current year.
9.
Held
actual medical insurance cost about $3 million below the expected budgeted
cost.
10.
Signed
new property, casualty and liability insurance policy which will be at a cost
of about $150,000 less than the current year due to lower than expected actual
claim costs and favorable negotiations on the settlements of claims.
11.
Signed
new long-term agreement with Detroit
to reduce the cost of drinking water for Pontiac
by approximately $1.4 million/year.
12.
Hired
United Water to provide one person for on-site professional management of the
drinking water facilities and the waste water treatment plants; processes are
being modernized and upgraded, overtime is being reduced significantly. An RFP should be issued soon to obtain
additional management expertise to achieve operating savings of at least $1-2
million/year.
13.
Working
to finalize an agreement with an outside professional promoter to manage Phoenix Plaza to bring in events on a regular
basis and promote downtown businesses.
14.
Working
to collect large past due amounts (a total of over $1 million being loaned
without interest charges) from the Housing Commission, the Police & Fire
VEBA and the pension funds; have already collected about $343,000 from the
Housing Commission.
15.
Negotiating
with Veolia to reduce costs of garbage pickup due to lower numbers of
households in Pontiac.
16.
Negotiating
with General Electric to reduce large lease payments (possibly by over
$100,000/year) by extending the lease on heavy equipment such as trucks and
police vehicles.
17.
Discussing
the sale of the tower fire truck to a consortium of nearby communities
(including Pontiac) to obtain cash and to share the remaining cost of the lease
of approximately $500,000.
18.
Hired
an outside law firm on a contingent basis to pursue banks and other lenders who
have obtained foreclosed property in Pontiac
and who have not paid their property taxes.
19.
Signed
a new contract with the Michigan Prisoner Release Initiative (MPRI) to have
them pay the full cost of a Pontiac Police Officer to patrol the downtown area.
20.
Working
on finalizing an agreement with MPRI for them to provide free supervised labor
(10-20 people) and equipment to help clean and mow City-owned vacant lots and
parks. [Pontiac is currently able to afford only two
people to cut grass on vacant lots and two other people to cut and clean
boulevards and parks.
21.
Working
with the new movie studio to facilitate construction and bring new jobs to Pontiac.
22.
Facilitating
efforts to improve and enable operations at the Silverdome which is now
operational.
23.
Selecting
professional developers to manage home rehabilitation efforts and new home
construction (for Home and NSP programs) using Pontiac contractors as much as possible.
24.
Hired
a professional consultant to evaluate a new telephone system which could save
the City up to $12,000/month and provide greater capability.
25.
Considering
hiring an IT consultant to provide a second opinion on the City’s technology
needs before moving ahead on major expenditures.
26.
Finalizing
new proposals to provide basic security (cameras, mirrors, panic buttons, etc.)
at City Hall.
27.
Going
ahead on the FY11 budget with the understanding that certain changes will be
required: a) to reduce the payment for retiree medical benefits from the
General Employee Retirement System from approximately $6.8 million to $3.9
million, b) after receiving an upcoming actuarial report on GERS, c) after
obtaining more precise insurance claim expense estimates, d) to incorporate possible
revisions from the City Council and/or the Mayor as well as the new Emergency
Financial Manager, and e) other necessary changes.
28.
Structuring
a payment in lieu of tax program regarding the water and sewer facilities to
charge them for City services such police, fire and streetlights.
29.
Working
on a program to pay off the remaining approximate $5 million related to the
failed DOCO project near Great Lakes Crossing.
30.
Beginning
to work on preparation for the FY10 audit.
31.
Considering
hiring up to 16 interns under a new program through Baker College
to help in various City departments.
32.
Purchasing
sorely needed new breathing apparatus and ambulances for the Fire Department,
equipment for DPW and personal computers for other departments.
33.
Obtaining
28 new laptop computers for the City Clerk for the upcoming elections.
34.
Continuing
work on the leasing of the Ewalt, Hayes Jones and Howard Dell community
centers.
35.
Preparing
for the upcoming Dream Cruise.
36.
Facilitating
the construction of the new Pontiac
Transit Center
and the new monument on Woodward welcoming people to Pontiac.
37.
Working
with the State of Michigan Land Bank
so that it would take over the maintenance of certain properties that are held
for development.
38.
Collaborating
with Oakland County to manage Pontiac funds for micro-lending in the City.
39.
Working
to obtain certification for the City through the Main Street Program.
40.
Developing
a new plan to reduce manning costs for parking.
41.
Developing
a new plan for water meter reading.
42.
Developing
a centralized collection unit for all tax, parking and water collections.
43.
Working
to collect Fire Insurance Withholding Account reimbursements for the City.
44.
Applying
for up to $400,000 of funding from the federal government to reimburse the City
for retiree medical benefits.
45.
Negotiating
on outside management of the two City’s cemeteries.
46.
Working
on the possible sales of 8 Saginaw,
business incubator property on Orchard
Lake, and 500 Huron.
47.
Coordinating
with General Motors on their cleanup of their abandoned properties.
48.
Improving
and speeding up home demolition processes.
49.
Analyzing
the reorganization of the Building and Safety and Finance Departments to
improve efficiencies.
50.
Finalizing
the City-wide capital expenditure plan.
Major
Strategic Options
Pontiac must deal with a number of years of
declines in tax revenues. The financial
future for the City is likely to be extremely difficult. For example, one of the City’s major
taxpayers is attempting to reduce the property value for just one of their
parcels from $52 million to $10 million.
Due to these economic factors, the City will run out of cash if nothing
is done.
For
example, there is at least a $4 million gap in the General Fund in FY11 unless
major actions are taken as described below.
There are only about 280 active employees in the General Fund of which
about 80 are in the Fire Department and not subject to layoff. If $4 million would have to be cut from the
City’s personnel costs there would need to be a layoff of 35-60 people very
early in the fiscal year. This would represent
a huge cut of 17-30% in the General Fund headcount, leading to an extremely
difficult situation.
Potential
strategic options are as follows:
1.
Request
a millage increase for the Police Department in the upcoming fall
election. This will be desperately
needed to hold headcount in place. Long
lead times, however, are necessary to accomplish this and the impact will not
be felt until tax collections come in FY12 (July 2011) even if this initiative
is successful.
2.
Obtain
needed cash through the successful settlement of a multi-million dollar ongoing
lawsuit. This is unpredictable as to
whether it will be successful, the amount and the timing.
3.
Work
to grow downtown Pontiac
as an educational campus for nursing and for new R&D facilities. This also is likely to be difficult to
predict as to the timing and the extent of the prospective program.
4.
Conduct
successful negotiations to regionalize Pontiac
waste water treatment facilities to bring cash from this enterprise fund into
the General Fund. This has the potential
for generating many tens of millions of dollars for Pontiac but is also likely to be a slow and
unpredictable process. If a fire sale
process is utilized, the proceeds are likely to reduce by a large amount.
5.
Work
to withdraw $1.5 million from the General VEBA this year and possibly a larger
amount next year. This VEBA has about
$5-6 million at the present time but is inadequate to generate enough income to
generate meaningful amounts of income for paying retiree medical benefits. The principal should be withdrawn and used
during these difficult years for retiree medical benefits.
6.
The
General Employees Retirement System has excess funding, provided by the City’s
taxpayers, of approximately $50-$100 million (an actuarial study is currently
being prepared) even after all potential pension liabilities and risks are
covered. Even though an attorney has
stated that this withdrawal is illegal, I have obtained other legal advise from
the City’s outside attorneys that it is legal under certain circumstances. I believe, however, that this is only likely
to be accomplished if people put aside their infighting and work together as a
team. If one side digs in its heels it
is likely to result in a massive unnecessary layoff. The City should take advantage of this fresh
start with a new EFM to enable this necessary withdrawal to be successful.
Success
is highly unlikely if there are personality cults.
Sincerely,
Fred
Leeb
Emergency
Financial Manager
City
of Pontiac
