2 7 19 City Council Proceedings Official_Special Budget Hearing 11
CITY OF DUBUQUE, IOWA
CITY COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS
SPECIAL SESSION
OFFICIAL
The Dubuque City Council met in special session at 6:00 p.m. February 7, 2019 in the His-
toric Federal Building, 350 W. 6th Street.
Present: Mayor Buol, Council Members Del Toro, Jones, Larson, Resnick, Rios (Joined at
6:12 p.m.); Shaw; City Manager Michael Van Milligen.
Mayor Buol read the call and stated this is a special session of the City Council called for
the purpose of discussing various City Departmental Fiscal Year 2020 budgets.
FISCAL YEAR 2020 DEPARTMENTAL BUDGET REVIEW
Prior to the budget hearings, Mayor Buol reviewed a memo from City Attorney Crenna Brum-
well regarding options for City Council Members to call out budget items for further discussion,
removal from, or inclusion in the final budget recommendation.
Motion by Jones to adopt Option #2 calling for an informal poll of Council to call out such
items. Mayor Buol confirmed that an individual Council Member can call for the poll. Seconded
by Resnick. Motion carried 6-0.
Fiscal Year 2020 City departmental budgets were presented by staff from the following de-
partments.
1. Information Services: Chris Kohlmann, Information Services Manager.
2. City Attorney’s Office (Legal): Crenna Brumwell, City Attorney.
3. City Clerk’s Office: Kevin Firnstahl, City Clerk
4. Cable TV Division: Craig Nowak Cable TV Division Coordinator
5. City Manager’s Office: Teri Goodmann, Assistant City Manager; Cori Burbach, Assistant
City Manager.
a) Sustainable Dubuque: Gina Bell, Sustainable Community Coordinator
b) Neighborhood Development: Jerelyn O’Connor, Neighborhood Development
Specialist.
c) Budget Office: Jenny Larson, Finance/Budget Director
d) Personnel: Gina Noel, Personnel Assistant.
e) Public Information Office: Randy Gehl, Public Information Officer.
f) Geographic Information System: Nikki Rosemeyer, GIS Coordinator
6. City Council: City Manager Mike Van Milligen
Presenters responded to questions from the City Council. Following the City Clerk’s presen-
tation and discussion of the Sister City improvement package request, City Manager Van Mil-
ligen stated that some flexibility is built into the budget allowing for changes that would not
impact the recommended and published tax levy amount. A poll of Council requested by Coun-
cil Member Shaw to include the request for additional Sister City funding failed 3-4 with Shaw,
Larson and Rios voting yay.
Mayor Buol called for public input on each department’s respective budget presentation.
2
Public Input
Nino Erba, 1505 Fairview Pl., asked what was being done by the Information Services De-
partment to help reduce carbon emissions related to the 50% reduction by 2050 climate goal.
Information Services Manager Chris Kohlmann stated that many of the project s that the de-
partment is engaged with and the IT equipment choices are energy efficient and produce meas-
urable outcomes related to the climate goal. Mr. Erba also asked about the possibility of ar-
chived cable programs being closed-captioned as part of the Division’s improvement package
request. Cable TV Coordinator stated that due to the cost of closed-captioning and the turn-
around time, they will be selective in which programs are of priority for captioning. Following
the City Manager’s Office budget presentation, Mr. Erba expressed his concerns for allocati ng
funds for staff t-shirts at this year’s Iowa League of Cities conference held in Dubuque while
the salaries of Council and staff members was not part of the budget discussion.
There being no further business, upon motion the City Council adjourned at 9:33 p.m.
/s/Kevin S. Firnstahl, CMC, City Clerk