Buxton Process

We are making good progress with Buxton. We contracted with Buxton to identify and find up to 10 new retail contacts. Buxton had developed a map of our major and secondary trade areas and sent a report on our retail demographic characteristics.

When I was doing my background checks with other Kansas clients, one of my colleagues told me his greatest surprise was seeing the makeup of his community was not like he thought it would be. With that information, I expected to see demographics that looked more like the college town that we are. No, the demographics look like my colleague's community.

Buxton uses some unusual terms for their population segments. I had a great time looking at their terms and definitions. One is "Blue Highways." It represents a lower middle class population living in a rural community on highways that are usually connected by blue lines on a map. Boomer men in the group generally like to hunt and fish and the women enjoy sewing and crafts.

One of the surprises to me in our demographics was the largest population cohort was the 35-44 age group followed by the 25-34. The second table below shows the larger to smaller Cohorts. It is a interesting look at the population.

Cohort	Pop	% of Grp	Cum %
0-4	368	5.06%	5.06%
5-9	392	5.39%	10.46%
10-14	463	6.37%	16.83%
15-17	349	4.80%	21.64%
18-20	398	5.48%	27.11%
21-24	460	6.33%	33.44%
25-34	736	10.13%	43.57%
35-44	843	11.60%	55.17%
45-49	524	7.21%	62.39%
50-54	493	6.79%	69.17%
55-59	374	5.15%	74.32%
60-64	333	4.58%	78.90%
65-74	606	8.34%	87.24%
75-84	596	8.20%	95.44%
85+	331	4.56%	100.00%
Cohort	Pop	% of Grp	Cum %
35-44	843	11.60%	11.60%
25-34	736	10.13%	21.73%
65-74	606	8.34%	30.07%
75-84	596	8.20%	38.27%
45-49	524	7.21%	45.49%
50-54	493	6.79%	52.27%
10-14	463	6.37%	58.64%
21-24	460	6.33%	64.97%
18-20	398	5.48%	70.45%
5-9	392	5.39%	75.85%
55-59	374	5.15%	80.99%
0-4	368	5.06%	86.06%
15-17	349	4.80%	90.86%
60-64	333	4.58%	95.44%
85+	331	4.56%	100.00%

 

 

Utility update

Last week I promised to write about the utility rate analysis I am going through. In the weeks before I started work while I was working on the 2008 budget, I spotted a problem that needed attention. Each of the four utility budgets were being balanced against the existing cash balance. The expenses of the four were not covered by the revenues of the four utilities.

Our problem comes from at least two points. The cost of the recourses we resell has risen due to improving the utilities. We have built a new water plant and we have not yet adjusted the rate to recover the additional cost of debt service. We are building a new waste water facility and that debt service will add over $4 million to the mix. The Rural Development Agency is funding our construction project. They have projected that we need to adjust the sewer rate to an average of $35.00 per month per customer. Westar is no longer the contract supplier of our electric energy. They were going to increase our wholesale cost of power and the City chose to join the Kansas Power Pool to help control prices. Even at that, the cost of electricity will be higher than what we have paid in the past.

The other point comes from taking funds from the utility funds to offset costs of the general fund and other property tax generating funds. The “subsidy” accounts for 20% of the four utilities total budgets. It is normal for cities like Hillsboro to have their utility funds cover some costs of general operations. The impact is that property tax levies are held artificially low.

The decisions the Council and I have in front of us will focus on how to keep the cost of utilities low while covering the costs associated with the operations of the utility and the general operations. With a $3.8 million annual budget, the dollars are there but fixing the imbalance will mean reprioritizing what we do in local government.

The total transfer to general operations is $781,500 from the four utilities. A portion of those funds would be transferred to general operations under normal conditions. We have come to rely on those transfers a little more than we should. That is, in itself, an understatement too.

So, what do we do? Our City Council is committed to rebalance the contributions from utilities but, as with all problems, the fix is not easy. It is not a problem that can or will be fixed within the course of this budget. It will be more likely the next one or two budgets. As we go through the strategic planning process, we will begin to see how the fix will occur.

Progress on two fronts

There are two projects that the City Council and I are working on. The first is developing a new strategic plan. The second is reviewing the budget around our utility rates. Since this post is longer than I expected, I will write about the utility rate issue later this week.

Twice last week, we met in work session to talk about the future of Hillsboro. Monday, I gave a presentation on what the strategic planning process is all about. In a nut shell, I described two approaches that communities use. There is a “citizen based” process where all the ideas come from community members involved in the process. This process usually takes about one year to complete. The other is a Council/Staff process where specific questions are directed to Council and staff about the direction they see Hillsboro going. A community can usually get through this process in a month to six weeks.

I generally prefer the second model because it involves me directly in the discussion with the two groups that have to implement the results of the process. I see the end results as something the City Council can then evaluate my performance by. As a new resident of Hillsboro, one cannot expect that I would have a complete handle on the needs of the community. That is the key to having both staff and Council in the same room together at the same time. I can draw on the knowledge, experience and aspirations of that key group to lay a foundation for the work we are about to do.

Our second work session began the hard work of identifying how we think about Hillsboro. I am not going to write (yet) about the results of the initial meeting except to say there is excellent raw material to work with. Here are the questions I posed to Council and staff:

Exercise 1
· How do you see Hillsboro in 10 years? Responses here tell me about the hopes and dreams we have for our town. It also compares reality with what we would like to see
· Describe the positive elements of this change
· Describe the negative elements of this change
· How would you influence things so the negative elements do not happen?

Exercise 2 (a SWOT exercise)
· Strengths – what is the community doing right
· Weaknesses – what should the community stop doing?
· Opportunities – what should the community start doing
· Threats – What is the most important problem or project that needs to be addressed?

Exercise 3
· Identify 5 significant EXTERNAL factors that will affect local government in the next two to five years.
· Identify 5 significant INTERNAL factors that will affect local government in the next two to five years.
· What trends might have a major impact on the local government in the next five years:
o Demographics
o Economic
o Social
o Technological
o Environments
o Political
o Regulatory or legislative

We spent 2 ½ hours identifying our responses to these questions. Our next step is to start analyzing the answers we came up with and develop an action plan around the response.

Boomtown Bolg

I have been reading the Boomtown USA Blog written by Jack Schultz for a number of years.

In the January 7th post, he describes the top 10 trends he sees for 2008. http://boomtownusa.blogspot.com/ is the URL. While you are there, sign up to get his blog feed every day. It will come via email like this does. He does a great job keeping us all up to date on development issues and what folks are doing around the country to grow jobs and opportunities in their communities.

I prepare a Blog posting from time to time from other Blog's I read. when I read and think something is important from a Blog, I will write about it and send you to the site too.

This is a Planning Week

The City of Hillsboro has a big week planned starting Tuesday. The Council will have a work session Tuesday noon and Wednesday afternoon (4:00 PM) to talk about strategic planning. Thursday, the Planning Commission will be holding a Public Hearing on adopting a new Comprehensive Plan, Subdivision Ordinance and Zoning Ordinance. All of these will seriously affect what will be developing in Hillsboro in the next 5-10 years.

Through my teaching with the League of Kansas Municipalities, I developed a short seminar on strategic planning. I will be giving this presentation to the Council and the staff Tuesday and Wednesday. I do Introduction to a full blown strategic planning process and show a version of “strategic planning lite.” What the Council and the staff will participate in on Wednesday night will be the “lite” version.

The session will focus on four questions. I’ll outline those after the work session.