Village Begins Planning for Another Rough Fiscal Year

Nearly five months before the end of the fiscal year, the Mokena Village Board began considering funding options for next year during a work session after Monday's regular meeting.

Village administration provided the board with a laundry list of items, including police and public works fleet replacement, computer and phone upgrades and radio re-banding.

Village Administrator John Downs said recommendations were made with an eye toward economic recovery, with the goal to rebuild or maintain fund balances at 25 percent of expenditure. Currently, three of the four funds—general fund, water, sewer and parking lot—are projected to end fiscal year 2011 below 25 percent. The water fund is expected to end the year above 25 percent.

Projected expenses from the general fund include:

• Public Works and Police fleet replacements ($370,000): The village made no replacements last year. Trustee Joe Siwinski suggested the village could save more money and potentially prevent laying off employees if it kept vehicles for another year beyond the 100,000-mile mark. His suggestion was met with resistance from other trustees and administrators, who said the issue wasn't mileage but maintenance. Public Works Director Lou Tiberi said one of the village's snow plows was down for most of the severe snowstorm a few weeks ago "and we felt it with the number of calls we got." 
• Equipment replacements ($46,000): Includes electronic fingerprinting technology for immediate identification of offenders (fingerprinting is currently done manually) and public works equipment.
• Computer and phone upgrades at the village and police station ($90,000): Finance Director Barbara Damron said the village's system still runs on Windows 2000 and technology problems have started to create performance issues. Downs added the phone system is 15 years old and the village will no longer be able to receive service for the system past July 1. 
• Facility maintenance ($39,000): Includes replacing the roof at the police station.
• VHF Radio Re-banding ($22,000): Police Chief Randy Rajewski said police radios need to be re-banded to comply with Federal Communications Commission Standards. The radios are used to communicate with Public Works in emergency situations and also activate area warning sirens.
• TOTAL: $568,000

Downs recommended a one-time transfer to the general fund from another fund to cover the costs of the projects. He said the water fund, which has a projected end-of-year balance of $879,000, was the best bet because there were no legal or contractual obligations that required the funds be put to a specific use and because it holds enough cash to cover the projects. Including the $570,000 transfer, the projected ending balance of the water fund in fiscal year 2012 is projected to be $320,000.

Trustee John Mazzorana described the transfer as the "best alternative," since it doesn't deplete the general fund and doesn't require raised taxes.