Phase II - January, 2012
You will recall, the 2012 State Appropriations bill eliminated Statutory Revenue Sharing and replaced it with a new program, namely the Economic Vitality Incentive Program (EVIP). The bill earmarks $215 million for this program; $210 million will be spread equally among three separate individual program categories; accountability and transparency; consolidation; and employee compensation. The remaining $5 million is reserved for a grant program aimed at helping to fund community consolidation efforts.
Again, the City of St. Joseph did receive statutory revenue sharing in 2011 and, therefore, we are eligible to receive up to $196,143; one third for each of the three categories. To qualify for these funds, the Michigan Department of Treasury must receive the following documentation as indicated:
By October 1, 2011 – Accountability and Transparency
· Signed Certification Form (#4886)
· Copy of our Citizen’s Guide
· Copy of our Performance Dashboard
· Both must be readily available to the public and include reporting of local finances and unfunded liabilities (other post employment benefits)
By January 1, 2012 – Consolidation
· Signed Certification Form (#4887)
· Listing of any previous services consolidated with cost savings realized
· Listing including one or more proposals to increase cooperation, collaboration or consolidation efforts, including estimated cost savings
· These listings must be readily available to the public
By May 1, 2012 – Employee Compensation
· Signed Certification Form (#4888)
· A plan developed to modify personnel policies and contracts to include the following requirements:
o New hires to contribute 20% to the total cost of their health care
o Definition of FAC that excludes overtime hours and limits paid leave hours to 240
o Caps on retirement benefits:
* Social Security eligible employees
* Defined Contribution plans – employer contribution - 10%
* Defined Benefit plans – Maximum multiplier with health care benefit – 1.50%; or without health care benefit – 2.25% (currently 2.25% General Employees)
* Non-Social Security eligible employees
* Defined Contribution plans – employer contribution – 16.2%
* Defined Benefit plans – Maximum multiplier with health care benefit – 2.25%; or without health care benefit – 3.00% (currently 2.5% Police; 2.7% Fire)
· These plans must be readily available to the public
In December, the City Commission approved and submitted the Accountability and Transparency Certificate. We are now asking that you approve the Consolidation Certification to be submitted to the Michigan Department of Treasury by January 1, 2012.
We continue to work on the remaining certification including plans to adopt revisions to the City Employee Personnel Policy Manual.
If you have any questions regarding this matter, please contact Finance Director/Clerk Deb Koroch at 983-6325 or email her at dkoroch@sjcity.com.
Phase I - October, 2011
As part of our continuous efforts to keep our citizens informed on city matters, we are pleased to provide you with a new tool to view our financial condition as it pertains to the City’s governmental funds; these pages do not include the city’s business type funds.
The Citizen’s Guide will provide a more transparent understanding of our finances. The intent of the Citizen’s Guide is to provide a simple presentation of graphs which measure our most important financial elements. The Guide is four pages and includes one page each for revenues, expenditures, fund balances and debt service.
The Performance Dashboard includes the financial and operating benchmarks that are most important to the City, because these elements are most relevant to our strategic goals and objectives, such as financial stability, economic strength, public safety and quality of life. This one page compares twenty-two (22) different performance benchmarks indicating our progress in these areas.
If you have questions regarding these pages, please contact Finance Director/Clerk Deb Koroch at 983-6325 or email her at dkoroch@sjcity.com. .