Birmingham okays $46.6 million budget

By Grace Lovins and Lisa Brody

Birmingham commissioners voted to approve an estimated $46.6 million general fund 2023-2024 fiscal year budget, at the meeting on Monday, May 8, after reviewing each department’s proposals at a budget hearing at the end of April.

The fiscal year beings July 1, 2023, and ends June 30, 2024.

Finance director Mark Gerber said the city's millage rate will remain the same, at 11.0901 mills. Under the Headlee Amendment, the city cannot collect operating millage on the increase in taxable value derived from existing property which exceeds the Headlee inflation factor, which is 7.9 percent for 2023-2024.

Estimated revenues are $33.5 million from property taxes, comprising 47 percent of budgeted revenue, is an approximate 7.2 percent increase over fiscal year 2022-2023; $3.6 million from revenues from services, $2.8 million from state grants, $2.7 million from permits and $2 million from fines and forfeitures.

Projected state shared revenues are about $5.3 million, in the form of revenue-sharing payments, gas and weight taxes, and reimbursements for personal property tax exemptions.

Estimated expenditures are for personnel, $27 million, up from $24 million in 2022-2023; $19.5 million in other charges; $6.1 million in charges out; and $5.5 million in capital outlays.

Gerber presented two amendments to the sewage disposal fund that were identified after reviewing the budget. The sewage disposal cost increased $116,030, which he says is primarily due to the Evergreen-Farmington sewage disposal district. Storm water increased $61,650 related to George W. Kuhn drain, which resulted in a $177,680 increase to revenues and expenditures.

The budget for the Baldwin Public Library was also corrected. According to Gerber, there was supposed to be a $260,000 revenue from the library trust to help get the fund balance out of the negative. At the budget hearing, the Baldwin Library budget was in the negative due to ongoing renovations, but the funds were to be brought from the trust to offset that. The proposed skylight element for the renovation was removed from the plans to help shrink the cost.

Commissioner Brad Host said he was still concerned about the increased cost for the 48th district court. During the budget hearing, Gerber explained that the court operates on a calendar year, not a fiscal year, so the budget was readjusted based on the percentage of caseloads from 2021. The projected total cost is expected to be approximately $1.6 million.

The increase in expenditures to the court will also create an increased revenue, but the city will still be in a deficit, according to Gerber. Assistant city manager Jana Ecker said she would push to be involved in the court’s budget earlier on in the process for a better understanding of the costs and how the budget is being formulated.

The commission voted 7-0 to adopt the 2023-2024 fiscal year budget.

Board okays water, sewer rate hikes

By Dana Casadei

Resolutions to raise water and sewer rates for the 2023-2024 fiscal year passed unanimously at the Bloomfield Township Board of Trustees meeting on Monday, April 24.

The approval of the new rates follows a year and a half worth of study sessions and meetings, and will increase water rates by 2.5 percent, as well as sewer rates by 3.5 percent.

Residents currently pay a fixed quarterly charge based on meter equivalent units (MEUs) and a volumetric charge based on the amount of water used, and Bloomfield Township has historically experienced a decline in water usage per customer account.

While some residents were displeased during the evening’s public comment about the proposed rate increases, this will put the township in line with the national standards, and is consistent with other local communities who charge their rates based on meter and pipe size.

As part of the evening’s presentation, Noah Mehalski, township director of public works, presented staff recommendations for not only the approved water and sewer rates, but also for no fixed fees being added for secondary meter programs participants which involves metering of water use outside of homes. Mehalski also proposed utilization of the $7 million in surplus cash reserves to fund $4.4 million emergency sewer projects, and $3 million for the first year of a meter replacement program, which will be a three-year project and move the township towards their ultimate goal of charging usage based rates and getting away from water and sewage rates based on pipe size as they are now.

“It seems any which way you do it, it’s not a perfect system, it’s going to benefit some more than others, this was trying to make it more equitable,” said trustee Valerie Murray. “Replacing those sending units end goal is to make it as fair as possible.”

The meter program would help replace the 52 percent of meters in the township that are over 15 years old, and would take advantage of the technological updates to meters, giving the township the data to better accurately reflect the amount of water passing through the pipes. This new data will be used to improve customer service and drive future rate considerations.

This new technology would be updated on all meters, and only replace the sending unit on the meters that aren’t old enough to be fully replaced. The sending unit transmits a data packet four times a day to the receiver, compared to radio, which is constantly getting data.

“We want a program that’s much better about providing users with data about their usage and then pricing based on that usage,” said Martin Brook, Bloomfield Township Clerk. “The sooner we get there, the better.”

Township decides on ARPA funds spending

By Dana Casadei Bloomfield Township Director of Cable and Community Relations

Carrie LeZotte presented the board of trustees on Monday, April 24, with the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) survey results, which mirrored the board’s own thoughts on the priority for township spending of the federal funds.

The survey link was sent through the township’s eNewsletter to roughly 4,800 residents, and the survey ran from March 2-17. Participants were given seven spending options, then asked to rank the options from highest priority to lowest.

Results from the survey found that 27 percent of residents ranked disaster recovery as the number one priority; followed by updates to Fire

Station #3, which would allow for longer fire trucks to fit and update the changing rooms to include women; and 17 percent ranked a police station remodel as the highest priority for spending. Updates to the Town Hall Auditorium were lowest on rankings of importance with only two percent rating it as the highest priority.

Over the course of the survey, the department received 409 submissions, giving them a good starting point for future surveys. The survey also received over 100 written comments on township spending.

This was the first survey of its kind that the department had done, so while they learned about the community’s wants, officials said they also found it to be quite educational regarding running a survey.

After LeZotte presented the results, Bloomfield Township Supervisor Dani Walsh opened up the discussion with the other trustees, who agreed that the survey results' rank of importance mirrored many of their own thoughts.

Overall, the board was quite pleased with the results and thought they should be able to complete all seven projects. As far as an order of priority goes, they agreed primarily with going in the order of the survey results and then re-prioritizing if something changes, or if costs estimates are too high.

The only item not on the survey, which brought some concern to the board, was the absence of a drain study. Ultimately it was decided to put a drain study into the budget for next year instead. This would also allow for companies to be notified the township is considering it.

Bloomfield Township Treasurer Brian Kepes made a motion to move forward with requests for proposals (RFPs) for all seven of those items ranked in the ARPA survey.

His motion also included that they receive the assistance of IT to help decide between the two options available to replace the existing onsite phone system, also mentioned in the survey.

Kepes’ motion passed with unanimous support.