Cityof Burlington,Vermont Audited Financial Statements Year Ended June 30, 2012 20201212 table of contents City Government ACKNOWLEDGMENTS City Organizational Chart . 2 Mayor’s Message . 3 Design/Production: Futura Design City Officials Appointed Printing: Queen City Printers Inc. by the Mayor . 6 Printed on PC Recycled Paper Vermont Legislators . 7 Photography: Photos by Patricia Braine ©2013 Mayors of Burlington . 7 SilverImagesVermont.com. Available for purchase to support Burlington Parks & City Council . 8 Recreation Scholarship Program. City Council Standing Committees . 9 Cover photos: Raychel Severence, Ted Olson, Carolyn City Departments & Office Hours . 10 Bates, Launie Kettler, Patricia Braine, Karen Pike. Important Dates . 11 Project Managment: Jennifer Kaulius, Mayor’s Office City Holidays . 11 This report can be made available in alternate formats for Board of School Commissioners . 12 persons with disabilities. City Commissioners . 13 This report also is available online at Regularly Scheduled www.burlingtonvt.gov. Commission Meetings . 18 Department Annual Reports This publication was Airport, Burlington International . 19 printed on paper certified Arts, Burlington City. 20 to the FSC® standard. Assessor, Office of the City . 22 It was manufactured using Attorney, Office of the City . 23 high solid inks containing Church Street Marketplace . 26 no VOCs and 100% Green-e® Certified Clerk/Treasurer, Office of the City . 28 Renewable Energy Code Enforcement . 30 through the purchase of Community and Economic Renewable Energy Development Office . 32 Credits (RECs). Electric Department . 36 Fire Department . 38 Housing Authority . 40 Human Resources Department. 41 Fletcher Free Library . 43 Parks & Recreation Department. 46 Planning & Zoning Department . 51 Police Department . 53 Public Works Department . 57 School District . 63 Telecom, Burlington . 65 Regional Organizations’ Annual Reports Chittenden County Transportation Authority . 66 Chittenden Solid Waste District. 68 Winooski Valley Park District. 70 Miscellaneous Annual Town Meeting Day Results . 71 Salaries . 73 General Obligation Debt . 98 Appraised Valuation . 98 Tax Exempt Property Summary . 98 Financial Statements. 99 Annual Financial Report 1 city organizational chart WARD CLERKS & SCHOOL THE VOTERS INSPECTORS OF COMMISSIONERS4 ELECTION4 MAYOR CITY COUNCIL 4 AUTHORITY TO: AUTHORITY TO: • Carry out laws and ordinances • Set City Policy with Mayor • Pass Legislation through passage • Appoint department heads of Ordinances subject to Mayor’s • Assure performance of jobs by veto* subordinate officers • Pass Resolutions with Mayor* • Recommend measures • Approve Mayor’s budget • Approve supplementary • Act as Chief Peace Officer interbudgetary transfers • Prepare annual budget • Set annual tax rate with Mayor • Act as Chair of Board of Finance • Establish rules for City Council meeting conduct 7 7 CITY OFFICERS & COMMISSIONERS! KEY DEPARTMENT HEADS (for list, see pages 13-17) Elected at large (for list, see page 6) 4 Elected at large by ward Appointed by the Mayor subject to City Council approval ! Appointed by the City SUPERINTENDENT L BOARD OF Council or City Council FINANCE M with Mayor presiding AUTHORITY TO: L Appointed by the Board • Act as trustees of public money of School Commissioners • Establish accounting system * Ordinances relate to external matters while • Provide monthly reports and Resolutions relate to PRINCIPALS annual audit internal matters • Select official depository M Mayor, Chief Administrative • Authorize budget line item changes Officer (non-voting), President • Be responsible for care and of City Council, and three control of public buildings Councilors elected by the City Council Photo by Patricia Braine 2 city of burlington mayor’s message am pleased to present to you Burlington’s Annual • Conversion of $12 million of expensive, risky, short- Financial Report for Fiscal Year 2012. The distribu- term borrowing related to the expansion of the Air- Ition of this report on Town Meeting Day each year port garage into a long-term, stable, voter-approved is an important City tradition. In these pages, you will revenue bond last December. find reports from each of the municipal department • Unanimous passage of an FY13 budget that will heads and an enormous amount of information about eliminate multi-million dollar deficits in the Water the workings and progress of our City. We are a small and Sewer enterprise funds that had contributed to City with a deep tradition of coming together to en- the Moody’s June 2012 down- gage a wide array of challenges to move our commu- grade of the City’s credit rating. nity forward – once a year, all this work is bound • Overhaul of the FY13 budget for- together and illustrated in the volume before you. mat so that it is clear and under- standable by the City Council and public for the first time. • Transition of the City’s finances to a new accounting system. The Miro transition has been difficult and is Weinberger not quite complete, but when fin- Mayor ished, the system will give City Hall the ability to monitor the City’s finances through- out the year to a far greater degree than ever before possible, and will address many weaknesses in the City’s financial system that have been called out in past audits. Mayor’s Office Team, L to R: Assistants to the While we have made considerable progress at restor- Mayor Mike Kanarick and Carina Driscoll, ing the City’s finances in the first year of my Adminis- Administrative Assistant Jennifer Kaulius, and tration, our work is far from done. Burlington’s once Mayor Miro Weinberger excellent credit rating was downgraded again to the edge of junk bond status in June 2012. The road back Burlington’s finances – challenged, to a solid rating that saves the community millions of but improving dollars in wasteful interest premiums will be a long one For the first time since 2006, the Annual Financial Re- and will require more difficult decisions and hard work. port published and distributed for Town Meeting Day Putting the City’s finances in order will remain our top includes fully audited and complete financial state- priority in the year ahead. ments. I congratulate our interim Chief Administrative Officer Paul Sisson and his team for this accomplish- ment – the timeliness of this work is an indicator of the broader progress and return to municipal financial sta- bility that is underway. The financial report documents modest progress in Fiscal Year 2012 (which ended June 30, 2012, three months into the new Administration’s term), ad- dressing the financial strains caused by currently unre- coverable spending on Burlington Telecom and deficit spending in other areas. Much additional financial progress has been achieved in the months since June, including: • The passage of the $9 million Fiscal Stability Bond by 72 percent of the voters last November. This bond stabilizes the City’s finances by converting risky, variable, short-term borrowing to amortizing, long-term, low-interest debt, thereby addressing the top concern of our independent auditor and one of the top concerns raised by our independent credit rating agency. Annual Financial Report 3 mayor’s message ment in the northern waterfront in 2013 using fed- eral grants, TIF funds, and other sources that do not put new strains on taxpayers. • The City achieved a new consensus in 2012 that both the long-standing Champlain Parkway and a new Railyard Enterprise Project should move for- ward. Following a unanimous October vote by the City Council, both of these projects are moving for- ward in collaboration with the State and Federal transportation departments that are responsible for more than 90 percent of the project funding. • The multi-year PlanBTV effort to create a new con- sensus vision of the downtown and waterfront to guide future investment made great progress in 2012, through the leadership of the Planning and Zoning Department and the participation of over 1,000 Burlingtonians. In the coming year, the draft plan is expected to be adopted by the Planning Construction to bolster the bike path near Lakeview Cemetery— Commission and City Council. this was one of the five bike path sections badly damaged in • The Community and Economic Development Office the May 2011 floods. (CEDO) has launched the Public Investment Action Plan (PIAP) to transparently and efficiently identify Investing in Burlington’s future what investments the City will make in its waterfront Fortunately, even while working our way through a and downtown TIF districts. The first phase of the period that requires financial discipline and restraint, PIAP effort is scheduled to culminate with a public we have been able to take advantage of opportunities vote one year from now on Town Meeting Day to make new investments in the City’s future that do not 2014. put new strains on the wallets of City taxpayers. Since Town Meeting Day 2012, the City has moved forward with a number of important investments, including: • Substantial completion of over $1.5 million of pri- marily FEMA-funded repairs from the May 2011 floods that badly damaged five sections of the Burlington Bike Path. Crews worked through the first half of winter to finish the work, and the final paving will be done as soon as weather allows this spring. • The Parks and Recreation Department has been fo- cused on eliminating a backlog of nearly $1 million of funded, but not yet built, Penny for Parks upgrades by the end of 2013. As we begin the year, about a third of the projects have been completed, and the effort is on budget and on schedule. • The City committed to and began implementing a plan to fully design, permit, and construct the first phase of the Bike Path Task Force’s vision of a mod- ernized, rebuilt Bike Path. This critical first phase of the effort will be largely paid for by Tax Increment Financing (TIF) investment that will have no impact on property tax rates. • The Waterfront Access North project—the first major progress on the waterfront in a decade—is now shovel-ready as a result of a permit settlement in 2012 and overwhelming voter approval of ballot item #2 last November.