CITY OF
SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING
COUNCIL
MEETING
CITY
OFFICES
PRESIDING Council Chair LeRoy Turner
CONDUCTING Council Chair LeRoy Turner
SERGEANT-AT-ARMS
COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT:
Marilyn Brusch, Casey Fitts, Rea Goddard, Michael Rutter
LeRoy Turner, Shane Siwik and John Weaver
STAFF PRESENT:
Mayor Robert D. Gray
Cherie Wood, Assistant Mayor
David Carlson, City Attorney
Janice Frost, Deputy City Attorney
Larry Gardner, Director, Community/Economic Development
Kyle Kershaw, Finance Director
Chris Snyder, Police Chief
Steve Foote, Fire Chief
Dennis Pay, Public Works Director
Geri Tessman, Public Works Supervisor
Sonya Crouch, Human Resource Director
Amy Dalley, Quality Committee
Craig D. Burton, City Recorder
Karen Rynearson, Deputy City Recorder
OTHERS PRESENT:
See Attached List
As
provided by Section 10-3-502,
Members LeRoy Turner and Rea Goddard
ordered a Special Meeting of the
City Council to be held at
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Council
Member Weaver moved to hold the minutes of the
Council Meeting.
MOTION: John Weaver
SECOND: Marilyn Brusch
Voice Vote:
Brusch Aye
Fitts Absent
Goddard Aye
Rutter Aye
Siwik Absent
Turner Aye
Weaver Aye
Council
Member Fitts arrived at
ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION AND VOTE
1.
Appointment
of administrative law judge. Janice
Frost introduced Kenneth R. Wallentine as the person the Mayor recommends for
the Council’s approval as the Administrative Law Judge.
Mr. Wallentine said he enjoys serving as administrative law judge.
Council Member Fitts moved to suspend the rules.
MOTION: Casey Fitts
SECOND: John Weaver
Voice Vote:
Brusch Aye
Fitts Aye
Goddard Aye
Rutter Aye
Siwik Absent
Turner Aye
Weaver Aye
Council Member Brusch moved to appoint Kenneth R. Wallentine as the administrative law judge.
MOTION: Marilyn Brusch
SECOND: John Weaver
Roll Call Vote:
Brusch Aye
Fitts Aye
Goddard Aye
Rutter Aye
Siwik Absent
Turner Aye
Weaver Aye
Council Member
Siwik arrived at
2.
Employee
raises on anniversary date. Amy
Dalley, of the Quality Committee for
Council Member Weaver reviewed the history of the City moving from an anniversary date to fiscal year date for raises and the number who have benefited over that time and the number who now will not benefit. He also expressed his lack of confidence in the employee evaluation process, the way it is done currently being done on an annual basis. He believes it needs to be done more often.
Council Member Fitts pointed out that the number of people who will be hurt changing the raises back to anniversary dates are the same ones who benefited when they were changed to July 1. Over a three-year period all employees, who have been here that amount of time, will be equaled out.
Mr. Kershaw and Mrs. Crouch agreed.
Council Member Fitts is sold on the fact that the City needs to go back to the anniversary date for employee raises.
Council Member Weaver agreed. The Council has done a lot to try and take care of the employees. They want the employees to have a good work environment. That’s the message he believes has been sent. At the same time, where there are abuses, incompetence, poor decision making that costs the City significant funding, there has not been accountability to this point. That is a concern. The more they invest in the employees, the more they will scrutinize those things on the other side of the coin.
Mrs. Dalley said that the employees appreciate the wage adjustment that was given by the Council two years ago. The Quality Committee has explained to them that the City has a tight budget this year and that there may not be any other way to have raises.
Council Member Fitts explained that one of the reasons they have taken the approach they have is that they will be able to fully commit the four percent merit increase to the employees at their anniversary date. If they make that change it becomes more feasible. He also asked what the realistic possibilities are of the City going to a four day work week. It’s caught on recently because it decreases significantly an individual’s gas consumption by twenty percent a week.
Mayor Gray said they have been looking at that for over a year. As a general consensus everybody wants the four/ten. Part of the consideration is what do the citizens want?
Council Member Fitts asked if the staff levels were such that the City could stay open five days a week while shifting to a four-ten work week.
Mayor Gray said some could but some couldn’t. The reason some couldn’t is because they are at such a reduced staff. They’re still working on it, trying to come up with something that will work.
Council Member Weaver thinks the Council would be more than happy to entertain that proposal. There may be some functions that could be automated that could facilitate the change. An example would be scheduling an inspection on line, as opposed to talking to a live person on the phone.
Council Member Fitts asked Mr. Kershaw how much money it would take to go with option one that was presented by the Quality Committee.
Mr. Kershaw answered an additional $75,000.
Council Member Weaver moved to leave the compensation package as it is currently structured, giving merit increases to employees on their anniversary date. Knowing it’s not all they would like it to be, but they’re looking at investments that, in the future, will put them in a position to continue to meet the step commitment.
The Council determined they didn’t need to make a motion because they weren’t making a change from the current budget they have.
Mr. Kershaw noted that the current budget does not contain raises for elected or appointed officials.
Mrs. Paula Melgar, a City employee, said if an employee’s anniversary date is in May or June in 2005-2006 they got their raise one or two months early. That’s
not a great benefit when they now have to wait eighteen to twenty months to get a raise.
Council Member Fitts explained that the raise given in 2005-2006 was given ten months early. He also said they haven’t looked at Option Three of the Quality Committee to give a two percent COLA to the appointed officials.
Mr. Kershaw explained that Option Three is misstated. It is actually a merit increase of three or four percent for the appointed officials. If the elected and appointed personnel were done on an anniversary date basis it would cost $12,000 vs. the $29,000. It would be about $10,000 or $11,000, for appointed officials only, if done on anniversary dates.
Council Member Rutter expressed that he would not accept a raise.
Council Member Fitts said he was fine not giving the Council a raise but the Mayor being a full-time employee is different and the Council shouldn’t make that decision for him.
Mayor Gray thanked but said he wouldn’t accept it.
Council Member Fitts moved to adopt Option Three into the budget, changing it to department heads on their anniversary dates.
MOTION: Casey Fitts
SECOND: Shane Siwik
Roll Call Vote:
Brusch Aye
Fitts Aye
Goddard Aye
Rutter Aye
Siwik Aye
Turner Aye
Weaver Aye
The Council then moved to the issue
of the
Mr. Kershaw explained that in the Capital Fund next year’s streets budget has one million dollars for road projects. In talking to Mr. Pay and the Mayor, they think they can reduce that by $60,000 and put it into the building remodel.
The Council agreed with the change.
The Council then moved to the East/West Trolley Line Study.
Mr. Carlson explained that the
Trolley is a dynamic process. They
decided to do an RFP and get a finance plan where they would get some guidance
on how they were going to pay for the system first. That plan would be substantially less than
the environmental impact statement.
Since then they have had additional discussions with Salt Lake City and
UTA and now the recommendation is that we continue with the finance plan but we
also do some other steps that can be done right now. For example, some of the preliminary
engineering could be done now and save time on the other end. Up to now
Council Member Siwik asked Mr. Kershaw what the current total is coming out of Fund Balance at this point.
Mr. Kershaw answered that with the action on the appointed officials, Chamber of Commerce, and then reducing convention travel and Council and Attorney legal fees, they are currently $27,000 in the red that will need to come out of Fund Balance. The City currently has about 3.5 million in Fund Balance which is approximately at sixteen to seventeen percent of the General Fund budget. The highest it can be is eighteen percent and low is five percent. They try to keep it near the top. It is our “rainy day” fund.
The Council moved to the discussion of a mechanic for fleet management.
Council Chair Turner asked if $60,000 was an accurate figure for the position.
Mrs. Crouch answered yes. That includes salary and benefits.
Council Member Siwik was in favor, believing they could recoup some of the costs of the position by freeing up the fleet manager to be a true fleet manager. He believes it’s a good investment.
Council Member Rutter asked if the City is on schedule to put the fleet management program in place.
Mayor Gray answered yes, the policy is written and they have already started implementing some of it. They have also purchased software to help the fleet manager.
Council Member Fitts asked if it would be implemented before any vehicles will be purchased this year.
Mayor Gray answered he believed so. The two chiefs and the fleet manager just met today.
Council Members Fitts and Siwik expressed their desire to have it in place before vehicles are purchased.
Council Member Weaver said he didn’t want to see another vehicle purchased period, until we’ve got our ducks in a row.
Chief Snyder explained that the
Capital budget for the coming year allots them about fifteen new vehicles. He ran a fuel economy report for May and the
Patrol Division averaged about fifteen miles per gallon between the Crown
Victorias and the Dodge Chargers. The
Detective Division was nineteen miles per gallon. For next year they are looking at
hybrids. He has had Mr. Roosendaal talk
with
Council Member Siwik asked if they were going to change the color of the police cars.
Mayor Gray answered that he had never been a fan of the black car but he doesn’t drive them. He will rely on the officers and department heads to help make those decisions. They will meet together as a group with the users, department heads and the fleet manager to make final decisions on the type and color of cars.
Chief Snyder assured the Council that there’s a tremendous amount of collaboration between the police and fire departments and Mr. Roosendaal. They research every vehicle purchase they do extensively. The Mayor gets a recommendation that is typically a unified recommendation and everybody’s on the same page with that and it’s typically what’s going to be best for the City.
Council Member Siwik asked if Mr. Roosendaal would have more time to analyze the gas cards and make sure there are more controls put in throughout the whole fleet.
Mayor Gray answered yes. They are going to purchase some software that will help Mr. Roosendaal track that.
Council Member Weaver asked about the number of vehicles that have limited usage. He’s concerned the City is sitting on assets.
Mr. Roosendaal answered that half of those limited use vehicles are needed. They didn’t say that they can sell all of them. Those that are needed are part of the fleet but are not on the replacement schedule. They’re getting treated differently. The Mayor makes the final decision on which vehicles are kept in this category.
Council Member Fitts agreed with Council Member Siwik that it would be good to go into Fund Balance for another fleet mechanic. He believes that freeing up the fleet manager to better mange the fleet would offset some of that cost.
Council Member Weaver explained that when the tax increase was done it was acknowledged that the first year there would be funds above the need in order to purchase additional time. He asked if Fund Balance had been increasing or decreasing the last few years.
Mr. Kershaw answered that the Capital Fund had been increasing the last few years to about fourteen million at the end of 2006/2007. Then in the current year they spent about six million dollars on a fire station and roads. So he’s anticipating that the Capital Fund will end up at about eight million in fund balance at the end of this fiscal year. The General Fund balance has stayed constant at sixteen or seventeen percent. The amount of General Fund balance you can have is a percentage of the ensuing year’s budgeted revenues. So as budgeted revenues have gone up that has gone up a little bit also. In the last three or four years it has gone from about 2.6 million to 3.5 million.
Council Member Siwik moved to amend the budget up to $87,000 to include the $27,000 in the red and another $60,000 to fund the full time mechanic and that be taken out of fund balance.
MOTION: Shane Siwik
SECOND: Michael Rutter
Roll Call Vote:
Brusch Aye
Fitts Aye
Goddard Aye
Rutter Aye
Siwik Aye
Turner Aye
Weaver Aye
Mr. Kershaw reminded the Council
that they still had to decide what they wanted to do with the
The Council then moved to the ambulance service.
Council Member Weaver asked if they ever found out the difference between a lease and a purchase.
Council Member Fitts asked if he had seen the memo. The cost to purchase is $550,000. A four year lease option was $155,000.
Council Member Rutter asked if it was a “true” municipal lease, meaning that they can get out of it if they don’t have the funds down the road.
Mr. Kershaw answered that it is a lease/purchase and the ones he’s been involved in weren’t like that. They will repossess the asset and he can’t guarantee that our credit rating will not be affected
Council Member Weaver said there is about $345,000 difference between purchasing and leasing.
Mr. Kershaw said he hasn’t seen the material he is referring to. The numbers he saw was a purchase of $550,000 and debt service would be $600,000 over the course of four years. Those were raw numbers.
Council Member Siwik asked how much the City is currently collecting from Gold Cross for ambulance service.
Mr. Kershaw answered about $100,000 to $120,000 a year.
Council Member Siwik asked if they do their own service will they still get this same full net amount.
Chief Foote answered that the Gold Cross numbers would go away but they would be charging for their own ambulance service and would get that amount back plus some Medicare and Medicaid monies as well.
Mr. Kershaw said that if an ambulance service is done it would be contained in an Enterprise Fund, whereas, the Gold Cross fees now subsidize the General Fund.
Council Member Weaver asked if they leased ambulances, when is the projected breakeven date.
Chief Foote answered that the Wikstrom study said they would be at breakeven in year three/four.
Council Member Weaver said that’s what he remembers.
Council Member Siwik said he hasn’t received a copy of that study.
Council Members Brusch and Turner said they hadn’t either.
Chief Foote answered that it was in draft form.
Mayor Gray said they have the draft but that’s all they got at this point. Mr. Carlson reviewed that and gave it back to Wikstrom who is going to come up with the final product.
Council Member Siwik said he’s not comfortable committing $1.5 million dollars tonight without being able to review the study.
Mayor Gray said he would be glad to give them a copy of the draft but it’s not final by any means.
Council Member Weaver explained that to start the ambulance service they would establish an enterprise fund doing an inter fund loan from Capital Funds to the new Enterprise Fund and that would be the seed money. After obligations are paid for ongoing operations, any remainder would go back towards repaying the Capital Fund.
Mr. Kershaw pointed out that in
addition to the seed money, there would be an operating loss for the first
while. In the case of
Chief Foote said the breakeven
point on capital was projected to be three to four years. He said the numbers in the study were real
robust for expenses and very conservative for income. He believes he will be substantially under
the $550,000 and the revenues will be more.
They will need some seed money but he projects the operating loss to be
150 days.
Council Member Fitts believes the City has lost significant amounts of money because they have delayed this process. The longer they wait the farther out the breakeven point is. The longer they wait the longer they are saying they’re fine to have budget problems and not do anything about them.
Mr. Carlson said he didn’t think there was anything in the study that said the ambulance service is going to generate money for the City. We may be heading down the road where there is no other choice because there won’t be a provider to do it. It’s really more of a service issue.
Council Member Weaver said that one of the benefits of this is to provide trained firefighters with cross-over skills, who happen to be in an ambulance, that would arrive on scene and give the functionality of a four handed engine without having to fund the additional FTE to make it happen. Additionally there’s the issue of continuous patient care. The same agency that arrives on scene is the one that transports rather than the “handoff.” There’s no question the ambulance service provides better patient care and augmented fire fighting capabilities. If they do this they are upping the level of service significantly.
Council Chair Turner said he’s having trouble voting to spend over one million dollars out of the City’s reserves on a study he hasn’t seen yet.
Council Member Brusch moved to table this item so they can have the study and address all the issues.
MOTION: Marilyn Brusch
SECOND: Shane Siwik
Roll Call Vote:
Brusch Aye
Fitts Nay
Goddard Aye
Rutter Nay
Siwik Aye
Turner Aye
Weaver Nay
Motion carried with 4 “aye” votes.
Council Member Weaver took a point of personal privilege to say he thinks it’s been looked at by experts, inside and outside the City. He looks forward to seeing the final report as well. He’s uncomfortable with the notion they can back burner the issue indefinitely. As much pressure as can be put on Wikstrom to get the final report back, the better. If we can provide better care and a better level of service in the City for equal dollars, the revenue pays for itself, they’re delinquent in not jumping on board.
Council Member Fitts also took a point of personal privilege to say one of the things of urgency is that the Safer Grant cannot be used for a new program. It has to be used for a program that is in place. So if they delay this too long they could miss out on the opportunity to qualify for that grant.
Chief Foote said his personal agenda as the Fire Chief is, number one: patient care and service to the community. Number two: safety for our firefighters. The current system delivers two untrained personnel, in terms of firefighting, and all the things firefighters do. They show up, load somebody in the ambulance and take them away. They are of no value to him whatsoever in terms of fighting fires and taking care of business in this City. They have been going over this for six years, lobbying and politicizing. They’ve got the current vendor ready to sign an agreement letting them have the service. He’s not trying to force anybody on a decision but he does request, and demand, that Wikstrom get this thing back to the Council quickly. The window of opportunity is going to close. He believes in his numbers. He believes he will deliver ambulance service here and in the long run it won’t cost the City one penny. The Safer Grant is just a bonus on top of that if they can get it.
Council Member Siwik moved to adjourn to Executive Session to discuss the purchase, exchange or lease of real property, sale of real property and discussion of the character, professional competence, or physical or mental health of an individual.
MOTION: Shane Siwik
SECOND: John Weaver
Roll Call Vote:
Brusch Aye
Fitts Aye
Goddard Aye
Rutter Aye
Siwik Aye
Turner Aye
Weaver Aye
The Council
adjourned to Executive Session at
In accordance with U.C.A. Section 52-4-205(d)(e), 1953, as amended By Chapter 180, Laws of Utah, 1987, as amended, written minutes were made of the portion of the Executive Session held to discuss the purchase, exchange or lease of real property and sale of real property. Such minutes are protected records under Title 63, Chapter 2, Government Records Access and Management Act. In accordance with U.C.A. Section 52-4-206(a), Council Chair LeRoy Turner made a sworn statement affirming the sole purpose of the second part of the Executive Session was to discuss the character, professional competence or physical or mental health of an individual. Such sworn statement is attached to the minutes of that meeting.
Executive Session ended at
Council Member Rutter moved to adopt the General Fund budget for 2008-2009 in the amount of $20,894,080.
MOTION: Michael Rutter
SECOND: Marilyn Brusch
Roll Call Vote:
Brusch Aye
Fitts Aye
Goddard Aye
Rutter Aye
Siwik Aye
Turner Aye
Weaver Aye
Council Member Brusch moved to adopt the Capital Improvements Fund budget for 2008-2009 in the amount of $4,536,500.
MOTION: Marilyn Brusch
SECOND: Casey Fitts
Roll Call Vote:
Brusch Aye
Fitts Aye
Goddard Aye
Rutter Aye
Siwik Aye
Turner Aye
Weaver Aye
Council Member Fitts moved to adopt the Water Utility Fund budget for 2008-2009 in the amount of $2,023,000.
MOTION: Casey Fitts
SECOND: Michael Rutter
Roll Call Vote:
Brusch Aye
Fitts Aye
Goddard Aye
Rutter Aye
Siwik Aye
Turner Aye
Weaver Aye
Council Member Goddard moved to adopt the Sewer Utility Fund budget for 2008-2009 in the amount of $1,698,000.
MOTION: Rea Goddard
SECOND: John Weaver
Roll Call Vote:
Brusch Aye
Fitts Aye
Goddard Aye
Rutter Aye
Siwik Aye
Turner Aye
Weaver Aye
Council Member Weaver moved to adopt the Sales Tax Debt Service Fund budget for 2008-2009 in the amount of $667,000.
MOTION: John Weaver
SECOND: Shane Siwik
Roll Call Vote:
Brusch Aye
Fitts Aye
Goddard Aye
Rutter Aye
Siwik Aye
Turner Aye
Weaver Aye
Council Member Siwik moved to adopt the Housing Fund budget for 2008-2009 in the amount of $530,300.
MOTION: Shane Siwik
SECOND: Marilyn Brusch
Roll Call Vote:
Brusch Aye
Fitts Aye
Goddard Aye
Rutter Aye
Siwik Aye
Turner Aye
Weaver Aye
Council Member Rutter moved to adopt the Insurance Reserve Fund budget for 2008-2009 in the amount of $429,500.
MOTION: Michael Rutter
SECOND: Rea Goddard
Roll Call Vote:
Brusch Aye
Fitts Aye
Goddard Aye
Rutter Aye
Siwik Aye
Turner Aye
Weaver Aye
Council Member Brusch moved to adopt the Recycled Waste Fund budget for 2008-2009 in the amount of $27,000.
MOTION: Marilyn Brusch
SECOND: Casey Fitts
Roll Call Vote:
Brusch Aye
Fitts Aye
Goddard Aye
Rutter Aye
Siwik Aye
Turner Aye
Weaver Aye
Council
Member Fitts moved to pass the ordinance adopting the budget for fiscal year
ending
City of
Official Budget for Fiscal Year
Ending
With the following fund budgets therein in the following amounts:
General Fund $20,894,080
Capital Improvements Fund $ 4,536,500
Water Utility Fund $ 2,023,000
Sewer Utility Fund $ 1,698,000
Sales Tax Debt Service Fund $ 667,000
Housing Fund $ 530,300
Insurance Reserve Fund $ 429,500
Recycled Waste Fund $ 27,000
MOTION: Casey Fitts
SECOND: John Weaver
Roll Call Vote:
Brusch Aye
Fitts Aye
Goddard Aye
Rutter Aye
Siwik Aye
Turner Aye
Weaver Aye
Council Member Siwik took a point of personal privilege saying he liked the way they did the budget this year, voting on things line by line. He encouraged the Council to go this way again next year.
Council Member Weaver took a point of personal privilege asking that if special meetings are called next year they should make it known in advance what the purpose of the special meeting is and not create the appearance of pre-made decisions and leave Council members out of loops.
Council Chair Turner explained that it wasn’t intended and his point is well taken.
Council Member Weaver said that’s understood.
Council Member Siwik said that the
Council Member Weaver encouraged parents to take care of their kids so the government doesn’t have to use tax dollars to do it.
Council Chair Turner thanked the Mayor and staff for the all they’ve done on the budget. He appreciates the work that was done and enjoys working with them. He extended special appreciation to Mr. Kershaw.
Council Member Fitts moved to adjourn.
MOTION: Casey Fitts
SECOND: John Weaver
Voice Vote:
Brusch Aye
Fitts Aye
Goddard Aye
Rutter Aye
Siwik Aye
Turner Aye
Weaver Aye
Special Meeting of Council
adjourned at
____________________________________
LeRoy R. Turner, Council Chair
_____________________________________
Craig D. Burton, City Recorder