Finance Committee

200 South Hamilton Road City of Gahanna Gahanna, Ohio 43230 Meeting Minutes Finance Committee Michael Schnetzer, Chair Karen J. Angelou Merisa K. Bowers Nancy R. McGregor Kaylee Padova Stephen A. Renner Trenton I. Weaver Jeremy A. VanMeter, Clerk of Council Monday, November 14, 2022 City Hall, Council Chambers Immediately following the Committee of the Whole meeting on November 14, 2022 A. CALL TO ORDER: Councilmember Michael Schnetzer, Chair, called the meeting to order at 8:19 p.m. The agenda for the meeting was published on November 10, 2022. All members were present for the meeting. There were no additions or corrections to the agenda. B. DISCUSSIONS: 1. FY 2023 Budget Chairman Schnetzer recapped that the course of business here is that Council submits questions to him. He then batches them, eliminating any duplicates. Then, he provides them to the administration for review. He noted that these questions were attached to the agenda through the Budget document as well. He noted further that for anybody watching at home and following along, he was going to take the questions a bit out of order. They are going to start at the bottom of the question list and then work around to the other questions. He offered time for the administration to provide any opening remarks. Mayor Jadwin thanked Chairman Schnetzer for getting the questions in on time on Thursday for staff so they could get started working on them, especially with Friday being a holiday. This was very important, as it gave staff an opportunity to do some research and pull the information together so that staff could give Council thorough and informed responses. 2022-0311 2023 City of Gahanna Proposed Budget Capital Improvement Fund Chairman Schnetzer started the discussion with the question regarding the Capital Improvement Fund. With a total of $4.1 million requested for streets, ($2 million for asphalt overlay and $2.1 million for what's labeled as rebuilds), City of Gahanna Page 1 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes November 14, 2022 at this annual run rate, how many years remain on the Detroit-style Street rebuilds? How long until the city streets would reach the desired PCR level? For reference, these are found in the budget book on pages 37 and 115. Tom Komlanc, Director of Engineering, said that as it relates to concrete streets, we have about 6 1/2 center-line miles of street remaining for rebuilds. We are rebuilding approximately a mile annually. With the present value of roughly $1.92 million for that one mile or slightly above, we are looking about 6-7 years to replace the balance of the concrete streets. As it relates to the pavement rating within the 2023 Budget, we are looking at redoing our pavement management system, using newer technology, and gaining some efficiencies through Lidar machine learning type equipment that drives the streets, rates the streets, and provides a more objective review of our pavement. From that, it will give us the capability of scoring, putting metrics and KPI's around preservation of the pavements going forward. Komlanc will outline this once the City gets the vendor on board. Schnetzer asked if this would replace the current method of using the handheld device and driving around the streets. Komlanc said this is correct. He noted that when he was previously with the City, the process was driving around with a piece of paper and writing it down, bringing it back, putting it into an Excel spreadsheet. The new equipment and process will be much more efficient. Schnetzer said that with regard to the question on the pavement condition rating levels, it sounds like that is to be determined based on the revised system. Komlanc said yes. Councilmember Bowers asked whether the cost for the new system is included in Komlanc’s proposed budget. Komlanc said it is included. Bowers asked if this would reduce or free up staff time to work with items. Komlanc said yes. Parks & Pool Maintenance Chairman Schnetzer noted that there was a question previously asked about park and pool maintenance. He asked the administration for comment. Mayor Jadwin responded that she believed this question was asked last week when Director Bury presented the budget and gave a summary of what the capital expenditures were going to look like. Jadwin said she believed it was Vice President Bowers who asked a question with regard to the pool maintenance number that was shown. Jadwin asked if Bowers wanted to clarify the question any further and added that the administration is prepared to explain what that number looks like. Bowers said she is just supportive of continued pool maintenance as an avid and frequent user of Parks & Rec facilities. She is encouraging of continued investment or reinvestment in those structures and interested in hearing more about what that number entails. Stephania Ferrell, Director of Parks & Recreation, stated that the number that was displayed on the presentation from last week was a compilation of many maintenance programs. There are a lot of assets within the Parks division, with over 700 acres of land and assets. Therefore, there is a lot of upkeep that needs to happen. These maintenance programs exist to help maintain those properties. For the pool infrastructure, the request is for $65,000. That request is to replace diving boards. There are also some replacement City of Gahanna Page 2 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes November 14, 2022 structures planned for competitive stands for our swim meets and repairs to pumps. That is the request for 2023 and something that will continue to be a request because there is never going to be a time that the City is just done fixing things with the pools. Chairman Schnetzer added that pumps and boilers seemed to be recurring item. Ferrell said that is correct. Schnetzer said that for reference, this can be found on page 115 for capital maintenance and improvements in the budget book (the $65,000 that Ferrell was referencing). Councilmember McGregor asked how long the liner in the front of the Gahanna Swimming Pool had been in place. She thought there was about a 10-year life expectancy. Ferrell responded that it was installed in 2017. There is a 10-year warranty. She added that is something to address with the Parks Master Plan. The City cannot wait for that 10 years to then decide on replacement. Ferrell said this will be in the forefront. Schnetzer said he assumed this would be in the CIP that is forthcoming. Ferrell confirmed. General Government Chairman Schnetzer said that with salaries and benefits request of the General Fund at 10 percent more than in the prior year (2022), could the administration deconstruct the components of this growth? How much in absolute dollars is being driven by the union contracted wages that were agreed to? How much is attributed to wages in the revised pay plan? How much is being driven by benefits? How much is new or reclassified positions within the City’s organizational structure? He noted that for reference, a lot of this can be found on page 49 of the budget book. Joann Bury, Director of Finance, said she could answer the cost questions first and then have discussion. She projected changes on an Excel spreadsheet. She said she would refine this a little bit more before the next Committee meeting. She explained it was easy to pull out and look at the union groups, but when it came to the unclassified, considering we have had changes in 2022, trying to capture that cost plus the changes made to staffing during 2022 on the unclassified side, was a little bit tricky. Bury noted what she had prepared should give Council a pretty good idea about where the majority of that [$1.7 million increase] is coming from. Bury explained that with the FOP increase ($459,746), this is related to the contract, and this includes the fringe benefits. She said she knew Council wanted it broken out and that is the piece that she will work on and clear up. At the top of the spreadsheet is FOP and then a little further down is the steel workers for the USW ($141,386) and then the dispatchers, which is the OLC increases ($113,592). Those three are the union increases. With the unclassified positions and the new compensation program, this figure is in the middle ($150,629). She said Council will see a net change to insurance ($395,438) and that is because it is driven by more than just premium rates; it is also driven by level of coverage. The City automatically assumes family coverage for vacant positions, but then coverage also changes during the year from beginning to end during open enrollment. We also had the changes for the two union groups that were negotiated in 2022 for the FOP and the dispatchers that City of Gahanna Page 3 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes November 14, 2022 bring on the high deductible plan with the healthcare savings account. It also puts them on a four-tier level. Bury explained that the only information we have until all the information from open enrollment is in is that they are either family or single. The projections include going back to their old thresholds still based on the new rates. They do not have that breakout into the four-tier. Bury said this is why you will see that insurance was pulled in as one total number, including all new employees and any changes to those premium levels until open enrollment is done. She added that this is one of the changes that we usually bring in at the at the end. Insurance is pulled out separate. Bury moved on to the additions, or new staff requested ($349,425). She showed a separate line for the new organizational change breakout ($253,614), referencing the chart on page 10. There is also an increase for net uniform ($55,333) towards the bottom of the spreadsheet. She said this is driven by higher rates or increases for purchasing uniforms. Lastly, she reviewed the “all other” category (-$118,041). There was a balancing act to that number. She noted that there were a lot of changes in 2022 from what was originally planned throughout the year based on staffing needs and hiring individuals. So, where we may have potentially planned for a higher paid position, it may have been reclassified or there were some positions that did not get filled. There was a change in allocation from 2022 to 2023. This “all other” is a catch all for capturing what the change is there at the bottom, which shows the $1.7 million for the General Fund. Vice President Bowers clarified for understanding that the third line labeled “ADD” was additional positions being requested at about $350,000. Bury said this is correct. Bowers asked if Bury could go over what the “NEW ORG” line is again that shows about a quarter of $1,000,000. Bury said that on page 10, it shows the breakout of the new organizational chart showing the senior director of administrative services, senior director of operational services, and then the senior deputy director. These amounts were not included in any of the new (“ADD”) position amounts. Bury wanted to pull those out separately as a change to the organization, since the administration mentioned this and laid it out in the book that is a change. She said there is also one position that is currently existing. Therefore, this is just a net change for that those organizational changes going on. Bowers asked if this number includes the increase from director of administrative services to senior director of administrative services and also includes the senior director of operational services and the senior deputy director. Bury said that is correct. She added that this would be all of their associated benefits, too. For the next Committee, Bury will give the breakout that was requested: salaries versus fringe. Bowers confirmed that these were not duplicated in the “ADD” line. Bury said that is correct. Schnetzer asked if Bury could go over again what the “all other” category was. Bury said this was what she was trying to get balanced to what the overall change was. When she pulled the union groups, these were easy to segregate and get the totals. It was the unclassified side that Bury was having a little bit of trouble. She was trying to back into it once she had isolated the knowns, the union groups, the new adds, and the new organizational changes. But this was extremely low. Therefore, she said she knew that there had to be something else in there. Stepping back again, she City of Gahanna Page 4 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes November 14, 2022 pulled out the unclassified that are currently existing and just looked at what their new rates would be based on the compensation program going into 2023. After that, she determined that what was left was everything else that changed throughout the year based on allocation changes, potential changes in those that the City hired. Again, at the beginning of the year, she said there could have been higher paid employees and then filling positions maybe with a lesser [paid] or just leaving them vacant and using those funds for another purpose. Schnetzer asked when Bury had this polished a little bit more, would it be possible to just send it out to Council via e-mail with just a couple sentences of explanation or something? Bury said she could do this. Councilmember Angelou asked if Council could know who is doing what. Bury said she could do this if Angelou wanted it broken down to that level detail but said everything is listed in there. Angelou referred to the senior director of administrative services and senior director of operations being new items. She asked if there could be a conversation about that. Mayor Jadwin said she could speak to this in the next question. Angelou said it would be nice to know who would be in these positions because Council did not really have that day-to-day interaction with people that are actually doing things. She said Council just hopes that everything is going well, and it usually does. Schnetzer clarified if the ask from Angelou was for the names of the individuals, such as seeing the names on an org chart or something. Miranda Vollmer, Director of Administrative Service, asked if Angelou wanted the entire city or what would Angelou like? Vollmer said she can run a report out of the City’s system, but she cannot print it because of the size of paper that would be required. Schnetzer asked Angelou if the ask was for just the new positions. Angelou said yes and for those that do not have any. Vollmer responded that if you look on the department narratives for each department, the new 2023 requests are in there, but there are not names. Schnetzer said the way he understands the question, it deviates a bit from what Council is asking of Bury with regard to the numbers, how they all feed into the year over year increase. There is an ask for maybe the next Committee meeting that would help to shed some light on the revised org chart that seems like there are some individuals that are moving around, perhaps moving up, or wearing a couple of different hats. Schnetzer added that to the extent that it might help to understand who those individuals are, could Council have names for just those? He did not think there was an ask for the entire City. Vollmer said she can do that. Angelou added there have been changes with COVID-19, and councilmembers have lost track of who is doing what and where. Vollmer said she would put together a new org chart. Angelou expressed her thanks. Director Bury moved onto the deconstructed amounts for the Special Revenue Funds (Public Safety, Public Service, and Parks). For the Public Safety Fund, majority of that increase is coming from the new position that was requested and the increases related to the FOP agreement. Also, there is the changes net to insurance based on those multiple factors that go into those insurance changes. Regarding Parks & Recreation, Bury noted some changes for added positions. There is an adjustment in there. This was another one that is going to require a little bit of work. For 2022, seasonal City of Gahanna Page 5 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes November 14, 2022 hiring has been quite challenging. The City had an original budget for the seasonal employees in the part time budget line that was set at what we were expecting. The City was not able to hire the number of employees that the City planned, so there was a budget adjustment for 2022, which reduced those part-time accounts. The challenge was trying to track down once those reductions were made, what was the other side of the entry. The adjustment is not actually increase for 2023, but a decrease to 2022. Schnetzer clarified that was being added back for 2023. Bury said this is correct. She said that as had been discussed, the City was hoping it could bring those seasonal levels back up to par with potential increases that were requested. Schnetzer said he was trying to reconcile hearing the word decrease and seeing a positive number. Bury acknowledged this was tricky in that we actually did not increase 2023, but we actually decreased 2022. She said she was not exactly sure how to show it. Thus, it is in there as an adjustment item. Schnetzer said he understood. Bury said it is not really adding anything, but it is hopefully getting the City back to where it wants to be with those seasonal employees. Bury continued, the other one is the steel workers. We do not have many steel workers going through the special revenue funds. The majority of those positions are in the General Fund or in other funds when it comes to equipment operators and such. She noted that the biggest change to see is the addition of some new positions. There is also a “catch all,” which is partially in this case part of the unclassified increase. On the Public Service side, there is a big decrease in net insurance. It is all related to Engineering. Allocations were changed based on the split of the Public Service and Engineering departments. Within the Public Service Fund, all of Engineering is funded through there. Therefore, there is net decrease in insurance that is based on those factors. Bury added that we have some new additions. We have part of the organizational changes running through here. When you look, you will see that there is a change in allocation to place a portion of those salaries and benefits within each of the departments that is being supported by those new positions. A portion of the senior director of operations runs through the Public Service Fund. Lastly, there is again the “catch all,” which is a part of the unclassified increase but may contain some others that still needs more work to breakout. At the bottom is the related increase for the pension costs for the FOP increases. She said this was not asked for, but it sits in its own special fund. This is to show the total to the increase of that contract. Schnetzer said he thought Bury had mentioned that in her presentation last week. Bury said that is correct. Vice President Bowers said for clarification, when looking at the special funds, the ADD line is the new positions that are being added. Bury said that is correct. Bowers said this meant about $100,000 for new Public Safety, $196,000 for new Parks staff, but with Public Service new it was only about $19,000. She was confused on the Public Service part. Bury responded this is a percentage. She said it is basically taking each of those positions and then allocating to each of the areas that they served. So, since the senior director of operational services also supports the engineering department, a portion of those salaries and benefits were allocated to this fund also. Bowers said that with that specific position, the senior director of operations would be City of Gahanna Page 6 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes November 14, 2022 under the “NEW ORG” line or under the “ADD.” Bury said “NEW ORG,” since she broke those out separately since it was a separate request. Bowers said that then with the General Fund number, the $254,000 for reorganization, Council would add the ($28,000) to that for a total cost of the proposed reorganization. Bury said that was correct. She noted that this all includes benefits. Schnetzer said on that topic of that particular position, to help connect the dots, that is reflected on page 10. Bury said yes. Schnetzer added he thought there were four individual departments that flow up to that particular position, consisting of Engineering, Public Service, Planning, and Parks & Recreation. Bury said that is correct. Schnetzer noted that would be 3/4 pay from special revenues and 1/4 from the General Fund. Bury said she would need to doublecheck on how that is broken up. Bowers clarified items with Schnetzer. Bowers said what they were side barring about is that the senior director of operational services impact is under the “NEW ORG” line. Bury has not treated that as an “ADD,” as an additional position in her numbers. Bury said that is correct. Human Resources Chairman Schnetzer read the next question as follows: could you please provide a more thorough explanation for the need for the senior deputy director role, its purpose, and the overall restructuring of the leadership team? Schnetzer added that this references pages 10 and 34. Mayor Jadwin explained that from the time she took office, she said she would be committed to always looking at how operations can be streamlined. Jadwin referred to the new organizational chart on page 10. The request for the senior deputy director and the other two positions that were referenced tonight is an effort to streamline the reporting that we have within the City, streamline the oversight and management of the various departments. She said it is part of the ongoing evaluation of staffing and operations that we are doing as we continue to seek to elevate not only the level of services that we provide to our residents, but the manner in which we are doing so. We have already heard tonight of a few of the efforts that we are taking in terms of efficiencies of operations from changing how we are rating our street programs, which will save not only staff time but also improve our consistency with how streets are rated, updating codes to align with the Ohio Revised Codes, etcetera. Staffing is one of those things as well. From an organizational perspective, the first step that Jadwin took to try to align those operations and to streamline how we are reporting was with the establishment of the director of administrative services position which took place in 2021. Rather than create a new position and hire from the outside, Jadwin said she utilized an existing staff member who had demonstrated the capacity and the skill to perform at a higher level and assume some additional responsibilities. Jadwin promoted a staff member into that position. That was Director Vollmer, who was the Director of HR. Jadwin said Vollmer is still the Director of HR, but she also has the title of Director of Administrative Services. Vollmer is still responsible for the oversight of the HR Department, but also as the Director of Administrative Services she is also responsible for the oversight of IT and Finance. Jadwin said that ability to have one person City of Gahanna Page 7 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes November 14, 2022 overseeing those three departments has proved to be extremely beneficial because we have been able to identify overlap in our operations, redundancy that we have in processes, and processes that we need to have in place. It has allowed us opportunity to streamline job functions and to better utilize the staff that we have amongst all three of those departments. She added that there was one employee in one department who did not have enough to do and another employee in another department who had too much to do. They were able to reshuffle those job duties because those job functions in the administrative departments of HR, IT and Finance are all very much interrelated. Jadwin added that as the City continues to add more projects to its workload, that position also has assumed responsibility for the strategic plan, the oversight of that and will be assuming responsibility in 2023 for new initiatives that we have that are citywide initiatives, such as the DE&I program, which will be both internal and external, as well as developing a new safety program which we critically need within the City. The position will also be taking over the responsibility for the City’s risk management because that is an area of opportunity to go through and evaluate how the City has been handling its insurance, how it has been handling claims and making sure that we are being most cost effective in this area. Similarly, with the continued growth of projects, Jadwin said she now seeks to do the same thing for the external facing departments, operational departments, that we did for the administrative, internal facing departments. The external departments include Planning, Parks & Recreation, Public Service and Engineering. The senior director of operations would provide oversight to those four external facing departments, just the same way that the director of administrative services has been doing for the internal facing departments. The senior DOS (director of operations) would provide oversight to the external departments in the same way, looking at the processes, looking at the workflow between departments, communication between departments, identifying where we have redundancy, identifying where we have shared platforms that we are not utilizing to full effectiveness, and identifying how we are utilizing our staff. That position also will have responsibility and oversight for high-level projects including management of the Capital Improvements Project, management of our facilities project, and the asset management project that we have undertaken this year and will be rolling out fully within the next four months. Jadwin said to answer Councilmember Angelou's question, that position would go to Mr. Schultz because she thinks Schultz has demonstrated throughout this past year his ability to operate at a much higher level than his position is. She said he is already performing at the level of the senior director and should be in that position. With the CIP and the facilities project underway, he is going to have a lot on his plate. The ability to provide macro-level oversight will be critical. The senior deputy director will support both the senior DAS (director of administrative services) and the senior DOS. The deputy will provide citywide support wherever needed, and while the senior directors will be providing oversight at a macro-level, the senior deputy director will be more at the micro-level, making sure that we have the correct City policies in place that are necessary for efficient operations and looking at procurement practices (a new procurement policy that was spurred on by COVID). With the procurement policy, the City needs to understand what the City of Gahanna Page 8 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes November 14, 2022 practices are that it needs to follow internally. Additionally, the position would be doing a continuous reevaluation of staffing needs. Jadwin said we no longer sit down with the directors to ask what staff is needed for next year. Instead, we are looking at five-year staffing projections, so that we can plan out accordingly. Jadwin said they are not just putting things in the budget to put them in the budget. They are being strategic in the request that they are bringing forward to Council. Looking at waste reduction opportunities, looking at inventory control, grants and grant compliance are part of this. She said leadership has talked repeatedly within Chambers about the opportunity and need to pursue outside funding. Having somebody to provide oversight to that process and to be able to help with that task, which applies to multiple departments across the city, everybody from Public Safety to Parks & Recreation to Engineering and to Public Service. All need to look for outside funding opportunities. The deputy director position would have the ability to flex based on priorities. She noted that sometimes projects developed that had not been anticipated but being able to shift priorities and flex to those needs will be one of the functions of this role. She said the City already had somebody on staff who has demonstrated the skill set and the experience to be able to perform at that level. He currently has a list of over 100 items of opportunities for the City to explore and that would be Finance Manager Corey Wybensinger moving into that role to support both the senior DAS and senior DOS. With the new structure, we would be streamlining the oversight and management of the work that the City is charged with. Jadwin said the City is no longer operating the way that it was 10, 15, or 20 years ago. She added that in many ways we are not operating the way we were three years ago. COVID-19 changed a lot with operations and what the City needs to do and also changed the number of projects that are now on everyone's plates as a result of Issue 12. This significantly changed how the City needs to operate going forward. We now have a dedicated funding stream, which mandates a higher level of responsibility and accountability to taxpayers in ensuring dollars are being invested wisely. When we have a project, we need to be following through on that project in a timely manner. That also means our vendors are being held accountable to what they are doing. Every time we add a project, it needs oversight. Thus, the reason for this organizational change is to heighten that level of oversight that within the City to provide consistency moving forward as well as a heightened level of accountability and transparency. She noted that for many years when we did not have a dedicated funding stream, the City was doing what it needed to do to maintain the status quo. We were keeping the lights on and the doors open. Jadwin stressed that now we have a duty and responsibility to be proactive in what we are doing and making sure that we are enhancing the essential services that we are providing. Jadwin believes that this organizational structure sets us up for that in 2023. It will be something that we continually look at and evaluate as we move forward. Every time we have a position that changes, Jadwin said we look to how we are operating and what we need to do. Vice President Bowers said she appreciated a lot of what Mayor Jadwin said. She thinks Jadwin touched on some really important points with streamlining processes and having some continuity on grants and grant compliance. City of Gahanna Page 9 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes November 14, 2022 Bowers wonders if the Mayor had explored a grant analyst or different levels of positions in order to accomplish the things. Why are we creating higher level positions? Bowers said this is irrespective of the people that are filling these roles because she would completely agree that Mr. Schultz and Mr. Wybensinger have really demonstrated a lot of value to our community. Jadwin responded that she threw grants out as an example of one of over 100 initiatives here. She did not in any way mean to imply that Wybensinger is going to be our grants writer for everything. Jadwin said she suspects that we will in the short term but going forward the administration will be looking at a grants analyst. She said she had money in her budget with professional services to look for an outside consultant to help with grant writing because it is time consuming. She stressed there is a need to have the ability to be able to look at how we are operating internally with all of our processes and our policies. Do we have the right policies in place? How are our departments spending their dollars? How are our departments utilizing their staff? What code changes need to occur? Jadwin said all of those things need to align so that we are improving our efficiencies of operation. There is so much work to do. It must be spread out. It must be at a higher level to provide oversight and management and direction to the rest of the departments. The department directors are running their own departments. They have their own staff and their own projects within their departments. Having an umbrella so that we are taking a unified approach has become critical. With the development of the CIP, Jadwin said it has been like an onion as layers are peeled back and things have been identified for what we should be doing that we are not currently doing. She said what we are doing is not wrong. She explained that while we are doing fine, this did not mean we could not be doing better. To have somebody in those positions to be able to see from a higher level looking down across those departments to see the unifying thread through them is critical to Jadwin. Councilmember Padova said she is having a hard time understanding the structure of the senior deputy director where it is placed. She wants to understand it correctly. Is everyone underneath that position going to be reporting up to the deputy director or is it just in that spot because it is going to be kind of a branch of both (senior DAS and senior DOS). Jadwin said it is in that spot because it will be a branch of both of those. It will really be supporting both the senior directors and working with all of the departments. Department of Public Safety Chairman Schnetzer said there was a question asked about the necessity behind the mental health clinician in the budget and whether this would be a classified or unclassified position. Additionally, the request from Council is to provide any details of the cost sharing arrangement that is outlined in the budget with Mifflin Township. For reference, Schnetzer said he believed those topics are discussed on pages 35 and 91 in the budget book. Jeff Spence, Chief of Police, directed Council’s attention to the projected City of Gahanna Page 10 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes November 14, 2022 display he had prepared that outlined mental health contacts. He explained this would be an unclassified position within the City’s structure. The purpose is to address a growing need in Gahanna. It is also really across country and come to the forefront post-COVID. He added that previously there was a lot of support services in the mental health arena, whether it be Children Services, Office of Aging, Netcare, or clinicians in the field. He said all of those have essentially retracted. Those experienced clinicians have gone into either a hospital setting or a primary care facility like a Columbus Springs or other internal setting. There is not that availability of field personnel. Chief explained that just this month, Netcare announced it is going to cease all intake operations, which means when we run across somebody in crisis, officers are going to have to transport them either to Ohio State University Hospital for intake, or, if they are juvenile, through the behavioral pavilion in Children's Hospital. All of that takes time. He pointed to the top left corner of the display. These are the Department’s mental health runs for 2020-2021 and then year to date in 2022. He said if you look on page 94 of the budget book, you will see the Department’s average cost per call for service detailed for 2020 and 2021. For 2022, this data is pending, but in 2020, he noted that the 725 calls for service, the mental health runs, represent $291,203 of the City’s funds that were dedicated for an officer response. While we spend a lot of time, effort, and training dollars related to making sure our officers are CIT trained, making sure that they have those crisis intervention skills, they are not clinicians. They are not licensed clinicians. They do not have those contacts. Chief said this request is designed to provide continuity of operations. It is designed to provide those outreaches and provide a triage initially. Chief explained he wanted to be careful, saying that it is not that the Department is going to get into the treatment business, but that this is designed to provide connections between those services. It is making sure that there is continuity from the standpoint of when an officer responds to that call on first shift and someone is in crisis that there is follow-through. He said what we are seeing, especially in Franklin County, there is the rapid response, emergency, addiction, and crisis teams that are in use by the City of Columbus. This is marrying up Columbus Fire, Columbus PD, and mental health clinicians. They respond to these mental health calls. Chief said what we are attempting to replicate that locally. The City has the community liaison officer. It is a very new position. The Department was able to deploy officer Kelie Moffitt in May. He added that we also have a community paramedic, and that is where we are getting into the discussions with Mifflin Township’s Community Paramedic Program. We are lacking a trained clinician. Chief stressed they spent a lot of hourly commitments on these. These are very long. It is not respond to the call, take a quick report, and move on. Oftentimes, it involves hours and hours, especially if there is a hospitalization or further treatment that is needed. Regarding the cost sharing, Chief said those discussions are between him and the Fire Chief. The initial ask was $40,000 over three years. The remainder would be paid by the City. We would be looking for someone not only with the credentialing as a licensed social worker, but also to have some degree of experience preferably in the field. He thinks that about five years of experience would be ideal. With salary and benefits, that is going to be around $80,000 to $85,000. He said this splits about 40 percent of total cost with City of Gahanna Page 11 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes November 14, 2022 Mifflin Township. He said this is making its way through [Mifflin Township’s] budgetary process. We do not have any firm commitments. Schnetzer said he appreciated the data displayed on the mental health contacts. Councilmember McGregor asked with one person working 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., what is the plan or how would this be staffed? Chief acknowledged that the Department is a 24-hour, 7 days per week operation and those calls continue to come in. He said this person would not be responding on every call. What this position would be able to do is provide some continuity on the back end. He said they do follow-ups on every overdose call. They contact the victim, the victim's family, and then provide some resources. The clinician would be in that follow-up process. Chief envisions with continued work on the staffing model that there will be some direct responses. The 988 number has rolled out nationwide. That is a crisis and addiction number similar to 911. Unfortunately, with that rollout there is not a lot of infrastructure at the local level to provide a response other than a uniformed police officer. With that, Chief said they are going to continue to work on what that best response model looks like. Again, a lot of this is going to be triage, follow-up and providing some consistency potentially after the call, but also giving support to officers. Chief noted the City had a lot of chronic conditions, a lot of people in chronic crisis in Gahanna. A first shift officer may respond. Another officer is not familiar with that location and will respond. In a couple of days, it is trying to bring consistency and follow-up and bridge those community support programs. He noted that clinicians have a lot more success than police officers do a lot of times in reaching out to those community-based providers. This is another avenue the Department is hoping will improve its service delivery. Councilmember Padova asked if Chief felt confident that Mifflin Township will approve this. If they do not, would we still move forward with that with the cost increasing for the City a little bit? Chief responded that the request was through the Fire Chief Kauser. It is working its way through their budgetary processes. If they ultimately do not approve that, Chief thinks the next step would be to reapproach the administration post-passage of the budget and potentially ask for supplemental if it is a value. Chairman Schnetzer asked what the Chief’s estimate is for “fully staffed” from a sworn officer perspective? He said he understood there were situations with maternity leave and workers comp situations. He acknowledged escalating juvenile vehicular thefts, but if the Chief could provide his best guess right now on what is “fully staffed” with regard to sworn staff. Chief responded this was very hard to answer at this point. Annually, they do a staffing analysis. The Department is a little bit behind in completing that analysis for this year. They run that analysis on a September-to-September time frame to capture data in a little different window. Chief said this is a very unique year for the Department. They have added positions and due to the academy training, the lengthy in-house field training program, the Department has not quite realized any of those positions yet. There are four officers that are going through field training. They are City of Gahanna Page 12 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes November 14, 2022 gradually coming out. Some have been released to solo patrol, and will come on over the next few weeks. The Department also has an individual in the academy. They have two other positions to fill. Chief concluded that the Department is gradually catching up to a backlog of many vacancies. He did not think he could provide Schnetzer an ideal number right now because the Department had not yet realized an entire shift of officers in training that are going to be deployed over the next few months. This is going to significantly impact and hopefully reduce overtime. It will also impact our response. Schnetzer said he understood this was not complete but is wondering if Chief could answer if he feels like he is fully staffed now. Chief said that on any given day he did not think they were ever fully staffed. Schnetzer said the basis for the question is would this position be in addition to what Chief views as fully staffed or would this be in lieu of adding another sworn officer? Chief said this would be in lieu of adding another sworn. He said that a sworn police officer has arrest powers. The value of a police officer is the power of arrest. Chief added that these are very critical calls and do require a police response because there is an element of public safety and potential risk to life and property. However, the best person to respond may not be a police officer. All of the numbers in terms of hours that officers are spending, if that can be cut down just a fraction by a licensed clinician that provides a better response, those are all hours of productivity that could be better directed toward traffic mitigation strategies, speed in the neighborhoods, crime reduction in other areas of the city, retail theft, deterring motor vehicle theft, all the things that we have talked about. Those are hours that a clinician can take away from sworn officers that can go be better directed of their time and better use of that clinician’s time and better service to the public. Schnetzer said it was very difficult to put a price tag on life-saving care that this position would be intended to fulfill or administer. He said in the cold hard world of budgetary figures, the fact that Chief is saying this is in lieu of a sworn police officer, Schnetzer thinks it simply makes economic sense. He thanked Chief for bringing it forward. Vice President Bowers said she echoed Schnetzer's comments. She added she thinks this is very forward thinking and applauded Chief for working with Chief Kauser on bringing this forward. Bowers said she and the Chief had the opportunity to attend a forum regarding the rapid response team that Columbus has been working on implementing. She is excited to see that Gahanna is addressing holistic community health in this way and supporting our sworn officers through a strategic deployment of staff. Chairman Schnetzer concluded the Committee’s discussion with asking if there was an appetite to the have a Committee meeting after the regular session of Council next week or if people felt like they needed a couple of weeks to wrap their heads around the document? Bowers said that in reviewing the tentative schedule, the first public hearing is set for next week on November 21 and the second public hearing on December 5. She said her thoughts are that Council would have the opportunity to have a short Committee meeting next time. Other councilmembers indicated their desire to meet again next week. Schnetzer confirmed with the Clerk to get Finance City of Gahanna Page 13 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes November 14, 2022 Committee on the calendar for next week after the regular Council meeting. C. ADJOURNMENT: With no further business before the Finance Committee, the Chair adjourned the meeting at 9:18 p.m. Jeremy A. VanMeter Clerk of Council APPROVED by the Finance Committee, this day of 2022. Michael Schnetzer City of Gahanna Page 14