Board of Commissioners Meetings

A Regular April 10, 2012 A regular meeting of the Board of Commissioners of the City of Henderson, Kentucky, was held on Tuesday, April 10, 2012, at 5:30 p.m., prevailing time, in the third floor Assembly Room located in the Municipal Center Building at 222 First Street, Henderson, Kentucky. INVOCATION was given by Pastor Charles Cameron, Ambassador Baptist Church, and Mayor Steve Austin lead the assemblage in the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance to our American Flag. There were present Mayor Steve Austin presiding: PRESENT: Commissioner Robert M. (Robby) Mills Commissioner Alan C. Taylor Commissioner Mike Farmer Commissioner Robert N. Pruitt _________________________ ALSO IN ATTENDANCE INCLUDED: Mr. Russell R. Sights, City Manager Mr. William (Buzzy) Newman, Assistant City Manager Mrs. Dawn Kelsey, Staff Attorney Mr. Joe Ternes, City Attorney Mrs. Carolyn Williams, City Clerk Mr. Robert Gunter, Finance Director Ms. Tammy Willett, Community Development Specialist Mrs. Kay Mulligan, Revenue Supervisor Mr. Danny Froehlich, Fire Chief Mr. Jerry Long, Assistant Fire Chief Mr. John Reed, Police Chief Mr. Frank Cates, Police Major Mr. Marty Wilson, Police Officer Mr. Ron Burleson, Police Officer Mrs. Emily Gilliam, Parks & Recreation Director Mr. Mark Simmons, Recreation Program Manager Mr. Paul White, Recreation Facility Superintendent Ms. Kim Frederick, Recreation Center Worker Mrs. Connie Galloway, Human Resources Director Ms. Karla Beckgerd, Human Resources Specialist Mr. Sam Lingerfelt, Safety Training Coordinator Mrs. Pam Whitter, Transit Superintendent Mr. Owen Reeves, Gas System Director Mr. Leason Neel, HWU Chief Financial Officer Mr. Bruce Shipley, HWU General Manager Mr. Tom Davis Mr. Mike Richardson, Police Reserve Officer Mr. Frank Boyett, The Gleaner Media Representatives: WFIE TV _________________________ PROCLAMATION: “FAIR HOUSING MONTH” MAYOR AUSTIN proclaimed the month of April to be “Fair Housing Month” and urged all citizens to join him in reaffirming the obligation and commitment to fair housing opportunities for all.  A Regular April 10, 2012 PRESENTATIONS: 20-YEAR SERVICE AWARDS POLICE MAJOR FRANK CATES AND POLICE OFFICER MARTY WILSON MAYOR AUSTIN expressed his appreciation to Police Major Frank Cates and Police Officer Marty Wilson for their years of service and dedication to the City. _________________________ PRESENTATION: 35-YEAR SERVICE AWARD MR. PAUL WHITE, RECREATION FACILITY SUPERINTENDENT MAYOR AUSTIN declared his deep appreciation to Mr. Paul White for his distinguished service and offered best wishes for continued success in all his future endeavors. ___________________________ MAYOR AUSTIN announced that Mr. Joseph Ternes, City Attorney, will be retiring on May 31, 2012. The Board of Commissioners and the City Manager thanked Joe for all his help and dedication to our City. __________________________ APPROVAL OF CONSENT AGENDA: MAYOR AUSTIN asked Carolyn Williams, City Clerk, to read the following item included on the Consent Agenda: Minutes: March 27, 2012, Regular Meeting MOTION by Commissioner Mills, seconded by Commissioner Pruitt, to approve the Consent Agenda. The vote was called. On roll call, the vote stood: Commissioner Farmer --------------- Aye: Commissioner Pruitt ----------------- Aye: Commissioner Taylor ---------------- Aye: Commissioner Mills ----------------- Aye: Mayor Austin ------------------------- Aye: ________________________________ ORDINANCE NO. 11-2012: FIRST READING ORDINANCE AMENDING SECTION 2-212 OF ARTICLE VI. PERSONNEL; BY ADOPTING REVISED RULES AND REGULATIONS FOR EMPLOYEES OF THE CITY OF HENDERSON On first reading of the Ordinance, it was moved by Commissioner Farmer, seconded by Commissioner Taylor, that the Ordinance be adopted. COMMISSIONER FARMER asked what the Board’s ideas were on allowing the employee to use sick leave time for children who need to see a physician or a parent to care for them while they are ill. FIRE CHIEF DANNY FROEHLICH AND POLICE CHIEF JOHN REED explained how they managed their departments relating to sick leave.  A Regular April 10, 2012 MS. KAY MULLIGAN, REVENUE SUPERVISOR, suggested that a clarification is needed on whether we are speaking about a minor child or adult children or a sick family member, etc. The Board agreed that a definition needed to be made. MAYOR AUSTIN asked if there were any other items that needed to be discussed, and if not, what did the Board think about tabling this ordinance for more review. COMMISSIONER FARMER asked that the committee look at the Voluntary Referral to a Substance Abuse Treatment Program or Facility statement #1-E that the employee has to volunteer and admit themselves before certain situations happen, such as being arrested or charged by a law enforcement entity for a drug or alcohol offense. He felt that if an employee had two DUI’s, he probably has already lost his license and his job performance is already affected. He would like to give the employee the same incentive for the first DUI as we did with those people who may have already realized they had a problem. MAYOR AUSTIN asked if there were any other parts of the employee manual that need to be revisited. COMMISSIONER PRUITT suggested that the “social media” be held. “Since we all in good graces and everybody is giving away the kitchen sink and Santa Claus is here, we said something in this discussion that really did catch my ear.” “It said that we are putting our employees in a position that we make them lie.” “ If we approve this social media policy the way we are going to approve it, they are going to have to lie when they go on that internet site because they are going to have to lie and make up a new name and lie about who they are just to put something on there that they want to put on there anyway so we are making our employees lie about that.” “The second thing that I heard said something about {in a perfect world}and I mentioned that last meeting and in a perfect world we would not want our employees to get on there and say Commissioner Pruitt is not a good commissioner and all that but that is in a perfect world.” So, they say that now; that I’m not a good commissioner so that’s in the real world so I did some research and Reno vs. ACLU, and I will summarize what it meant, there was a group who wanted to take off adult words off the internet so that they wouldn’t have their kids able to go to a site like that. Well, it went all the way up to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court ruled that “if you did that, taking words off and explicit pictures, it would be like walking in a library and snatching every book away from everybody in there.” “One thing that they did say was that people’s jobs, like policemen and firemen, would not be upheld under the First Amendment because they have clauses in there for certain things that policemen can’t say and report what they have seen, and we know that but it said that employees that don’t sign involuntarily, a contract like that or it is in their contract for employment, it would uphold the first amendment with those employees. MAYOR AUSTIN commented that the City was not alone in dealing with the rules for social media guidelines. COMMISSIONER PRUITT added that he was in favor of postponing this amendment to our Employee Manual until others have been tested. MR. RUSSELL SIGHTS, CITY MANAGER, stated that when this policy comes before the Board for first reading, he was going to recommend that we change the reimbursement policy for education back to what it is currently. Our most recent change has only been in effect for three months and in order to see what experience this change would bring, he recommended that we keep the present policy.  A Regular April 10, 2012 MAYOR AUSTIN stated that the Board has discussed about four issues: 1. Substance Abuse Program Referral System 2. Social Media 3. Reimbursement on College Classes 4. Sick Leave He asked if we needed an opinion by the Board of Commissioners to agree or disagree to look at each of these four issues further? How do we need to handle that? MR. JOE TERNES, CITY ATTORNEY, responded that maybe the easiest thing to do is to table it and then the committee could look at other cities and other jurisdictions in reference to the sick leave policy and then bring it all back as recommended and consider the ordinance at that time on firsts reading. DISCUSSION WAS HELD. VERBATIM DISCUSSION IS ON TAKE OF THIS MEETING. MOTION by Commissioner Pruitt, seconded by Commissioner Taylor to table Ordinance 11-2012. The vote was called. On roll call, the vote stood: Commissioner Farmer --------------- Aye: Commissioner Pruitt ----------------- Aye: Commissioner Taylor ---------------- Aye: Commissioner Mills ----------------- Aye: Mayor Austin ------------------------- Aye: WHEREUPON Mayor Austin declared the Ordinance TABLED. _____________________________ RESOLUTION NO. 33-12 RESOLUTION APPROVING CHANGE ORDER #1 TO THE CONSTRUCTION CONTRACT BETWEEN THE CITY OF HENDERSON AND HAZEX CONSTRUCTION COMPANY, INC. REGARDING THE HENDERSON RIVERFRONT DEVELOPMENT PROJECT PHASE III, TENNIS COMPLEX/RESTROOM FACILITY IN THE AMOUNT OF $49,016.15 MOTION by Commissioner Farmer, seconded by Commissioner Taylor, to adopt the resolution approving Change Order #1 to the Construction Contract with Hazex Construction Company, Inc. for additional fees for services on the Riverfront Development Project Phase III, Tennis Complex/Restroom Facility project in the amount of 49,016.15. DISCUSSION WAS HELD. VERBATIM DISCUSSION IS ON TAPE OF THIS MEETING. The vote was called. On roll call, the vote stood: Commissioner Farmer --------------- Aye: Commissioner Pruitt ----------------- Aye: Commissioner Taylor ---------------- Aye: Commissioner Mills ----------------- Aye: Mayor Austin ------------------------- Aye:  A Regular April 10, 2012 WHEREUPON Mayor Austin declared the Resolution adopted, affixed his signature and the date thereto, and ordered that the same be recorded /s/ Steve Austin Steve Austin, Mayor April 10, 2012 ATTEST: Carolyn Williams, City Clerk ________________________ CITY MANAGER’S REPORT: MR. RUSSELL R. SIGHTS, CITY MANAGER, informed the Board that there would be no Work Session on April 17, 2012. ________________________ COMMISSIONER’S REPORT: COMMISSIONER MILLS declared he wanted to clarify his opinion on the Employment Manual by stating that his opinion on the Social Media is that he has no problem with the policy that has been offered. COMMISSIONER FARMER stated that he would echo Commissioner Mills’ comment on the Social Media policy and thinks that the policy does provide a good separation between what a person does personally and what they do as a City employee. He added that he and Joe Ternes go way back in this city government thing. He continued by saying that not only did he learn to respect his legal opinion and have gladly gone him when he had legal questions. He continued by saying that his relationship with Joe has been special to him and he has learned that you can take Joe out of town and he won’t embarrass you at all. COMMISSIONER PRUITT also agreed that Joe would be hard to replace. He repeated that he wanted Joe, on the Social Media, to take a look at that committee and take a real good look. One thing that he wants Joe to take a look at is the narrowing on some things as far as what firemen and policemen can do but when it comes to a sanitation worker who did not sign any contract or legal obligation to report what he sees or this and that, he is just doing his job. He thinks that he should go home and get on the internet and if he feels proud enough to take a picture with his baby girl and has the City emblem on there, I think he should be able to do it, without asking us, if it’s ok to take a picture and put it on your face book that you are proud to have a picture with your baby girl and you are proud to be a city worker for the City of Henderson. I think it is crazy to have to ask us and “can Officer Cates take a picture for the internet and put it on face book that he is proud to represent the City of Henderson. That goes for him, all the way down to a fireman and way down to a sanitation worker; to the guys who cleans the streets. We got a lot of proud employees that are proud to say that I work for the City of Henderson and I don’t think they need my permission to get on face book and show it off so there’s some things I think that social media hinders and infringes on personal freedoms and are guaranteed by the Constitution. As the Mayor said, the Pentagon is trying to figure out what a Marine done on the internet speaking about the Commander in Chief and was that covered under the First Amendment. When you got the Pentagon asking is that covered under the First Amendment, can you imagine what we are getting ready to do to these employees. When I got through reading the whole thing I determined that we have gone too far in my opinion and some other people’s opinion that is just where we need to be; they need to be held to a higher standard but where I come from every bodies held to the same standard and if it is good enough for them, it should be good enough for this Commission up here.”  A Regular April 10, 2012 MAYOR AUSTIN answered that the Pentagon is not asking for clarification, it’s the Marine Corps asking the Pentagon for clarification and to set a policy so they will know exactly what the policy is. COMMISSIONER PRUITT said “They want to know what they can and cannot do legally. COMMISSIONER TAYLOR stated “addressing the work of the committee, the employee manual committee, you all spent obviously years working on this thing. I think the integrity of allowing every, every employee to see a draft via email and/or hard copy and with “zero” objections coming from the employee body about the language in the manual speaks volumes all by itself. I don’t think I need to make any political comments about the good job or the bad job, I think you guys did a great job and when no employee comments come back, that pretty much tells me if you have satisfied 400 people, good job! Great work. __________________________ REAPPOINTMENT: CITY UTILITY COMMISSION MIKE VICKERS AND RON JENKINS – TERMS TO EXPIRE APRIL 25, 2015 MOTION by Commissioner Farmer, seconded by Commissioner Pruitt,, upon recommendation of Mayor Steve Austin, to reappoint both Mike Vickers and Ron Jenkins to three-year terms on the City Utility Commission. The vote was called. On roll call, the vote stood: Commissioner Farmer --------------- Aye: Commissioner Pruitt ----------------- Aye: Commissioner Taylor ---------------- Aye: Commissioner Mills ----------------- Aye: Mayor Austin ------------------------- Aye: ________________________________ MEETING ADJOURN: MOTION by Commissioner Pruitt, seconded by Commissioner Taylor, the meeting adjourned WITHOUT OBJECTION Mayor Austin declared the meeting adjourned at approximately 6:50 p.m. ___________________________ Steve Austin, Mayor ATTEST: April 24, 2012 _________________________ Carolyn Williams, City Clerk