INCLUDES:

1. Budget Deficit survey (Chicago Heights)
2. Seeking Employee Dental Plans (Granite City)
3. Deputy Treasurer Job Description (Granite City)
4. Seeking Policy concerning Outside Employment by Staff (Robinson)
5. Responses Annual Audit Fee (Dixmoor)
6. Seeking Cash Handling Policy (Antioch)
7. Utility Billing Due Date (Neoga)
8. Certification Benefits (Neoga)
9. Link to IRS' Taxable Benefit Guide
10. Mandatory Trash Pickup (Creal Springs)
11. APT Disaster Preparedness Manual

Watch for conference information in your mail!!!
June 25-27, 2006
IMTA ANNUAL CONFERENCE
Four Points Sheraton, Fairview Heights

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1. BUDGET DEFICIT
In working on our annual budget we are having great difficulty in balancing due to our decrease in revenues, and the wage increases that are mandatory due to union contracts . I was wondering if any other municipal has passed a deficit budget? Are there any laws stating this?

We are in heated discussions daily so any help I can get is greatly appreciated.
Joy Nardi
City of Chicago Heights
JNardi@chicagoheights.net

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 2. EMPLOYEE DENTAL PLANS
 If your municipality is offering an Employee Dental Plan, I would be interested in knowing:
Municipality:
Dental Plan Company:
Contact/ Phone:
Percentage paid by employer & employee:

Thanks
Gail Valle, Granite City Treasurer
treasgc1@charter.net

RESPONSE:
Municipality: Grayslake
Dental Plan Company: Met Life
Contact/ Phone: customer service 800/275-4638
Percentage paid by employer 85% & employee 15%

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3. DEPUTY TREASURER
Looking for Deputy Treasurer Job Description..............
Thanks
Gail Valle, Granite City Treasurer
treasgc1@charter.net

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4. OUTSIDE EMPLOYMENT BY STAFF
I was wondering if any other municipalities had employment policies regarding outside employment by city workers that cover the following items:
1. Training costs -- for example, specialized training costs incurred by the city for certain employees to perform their job.

2. Regular work hours -- to make sure that employees cannot accept outside employment if it could potentially interfere with normal work hours.

3. Use of city owned equipment or fuel.

If anyone has any samples, I would appreciate it. Our auditors would like for us to have something on hand that addresses this.

Thank you,
Denise Jobe
Treasurer, City of Robinson
treasurer@cityofrobinson.com

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5. ANNUAL AUDIT FEE

Hi Mike, I need information from our IMTA pals. I need to know the audit fees that the members expect to pay for the fiscal year ending 2005/06?

Thanks,
Yolanda Williams-Corner
Village of Dixmoor population approx 4,000
yoyodean@hotmail.com

RESPONSES:

Antioch (Pop: 8800)
Audit Fee: 50,000
Single Audit Fee (if applicable): 1,200
GASB 34 Implementation: 3,800

COAL VALLEY (Pop: 3606 )
Audit Fee: $8000.00

CREST HILL (Pop: 18,163)
Audit Fee: 31,000
Single Audit Fee: 2,000
Police Pension Audit Fee: 3,200
Fire Pension Audit Fee: N/A

Hometown (Pop: 4,467)
Audit Fee: $16,780
Police Pension Audit Fee (if applicable): 1,390 (included in total above)

Machesney Park (Pop: 22,426)
approximately $13-14,000 this year.
Note: We have no Proprietary or Fiduciary funds. We also do not have any Police of Fire Pension Funds. We out source Police Services and we have volunteer fire districts.

NORTHFIELD
The Village of Northfield (pop 5548) has been quoted a fee of $25,300 by McGladrey & Pullen.

North Riverside will pay $18,300 in total audit fees including 2 separate reports for both PPF & FPF, electronic filing of both DOI reports and State AFR.

PLANO
Plano recently received news from Crowe Chizek that due to our growth, we can expect to pay $30,000 for this year's audit.
They said this was within line with other communities our size who are in the growth mode. For those who do not know Plano, in the 2000 census, we were at 5,633. We are doing a special census in June, but estimate our population around 8,000.
Our auditors perform the audit as well as complete and file our Annual Statement. I do the info on the officers, they do the rest.

 South Elgin (Pop: 20,844)
Audit Fee: $12,700

Sterling
Audit Fee: $16,500 (third year of contract)
Single Audit Cost: $2,050

Timberlane (Pop: 750)
Audit Fee: $1500-$1600

Tuscola (Pop:4448)
Audit Fee:**9850.00

Wood River (Pop: 11,290)
Audit Fee: 19,850
Single Audit Fee (if applicable): 1,800
Police Pension Audit Fee (if applicable): Included in lump sum city audit fee
Fire Pension Audit Fee (if applicable): Included in lump sum city audit fee

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6. CASH HANDLING POLICY

Can anyone help with a Cash Handling Policy?
Also, does anyone audit their hotel/motel receipts to ensure they are reporting the correct hotel/motel taxes? If so, how do you go about performing this audit?
Thanks
Joy McCarthy, Finance Director
Village of Antioch
jmccarthy@antioch.il.gov

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7. UTILITY BILLING DUE DATE

Our council wants to extend the due date on water and sewer bills for businesses. Currently all bills (residential and business) are mailed out the last working day of the month and are due by the 15th of the following month. The council wants to extend the due date for businesses so they will have 30 days to pay because they feel it is difficult for them to get the bill paid in 15 days if it has to be sent to a corporate office in another state. Could anyone let me know the time frame for their bills?
Thanks!
Diana Foor
City of Neoga
diana@neoga.org

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8. CERTIFICATION BENEFITS

I am interested in knowing how other towns handle pay increases when an employee gets a certification.... such as when a public works employee passes a water or sewer certification. Does the employee get a raise, and if so, how much? Also, do the clerk and treasurer get an increase for attaining their certification, and if so, how much?
Thanks!
Diana Foor
City of Neoga
diana@neoga.org

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9. IRS WEBSITE TO THE TAXABLE FRINGE BENEFIT GUIDE (119 pages)

I'll mention it in the Prime Times. I heard Ted Knapp (IRS) will be a speaker at this year's conference.
 Shortcut to: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-tege/fringe_bnft_flsg.pdf

Sharon Rusteberg
srusteberg@ci.highland.il.us

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10. MANDATORY TRASH PICK-UP ORDINANCE

I am looking for sample ordinances from anyone who has> town wide "mandatory" trash pick up that you bill along
with your other services - water, sewer, gas, etc. If you could please email or fax them to me that would be great.

Thanks for your help,
Kristien Hamilton
City of Creal Springs
CityofCskhamilto@aol.com

Hey Mike- I was wondering if I could get the responses also on the trash request. thanks

kelly avery
City of Marquette Heights
contact_us@cityofmarquetteheights.com

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 June 25-27, 2006
 IMTA ANNUAL CONFERENCE
 Four Points Sheraton, Fairview Heights

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APT's 41st Annual Conference- Memphis, TN
July 22-26, 2006
Largest Government and Finance Conference in the United States