Board of Directors

MINUTES BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING JANUARY 4, 2011, AT 6:00 P.M. The regular meeting of the Board of Directors was held on Tuesday, January 4, 2011, at 6:00 p.m., Board Chambers, City Hall, with Mayor Ruth Carney presiding. The invocation was given by Pastor Conley Henderson, and Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag was led by Mayor Carney. Mayor Carney called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. (Note: The time for this meeting was changed from 7:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.). 1 Roll Call Roll call was as follows: Present: Directors Peggy Maruthur, Elaine Jones, Cynthia Keheley, Pat McCabe, Karen Garcia, Tom Daniel, and Ruth Carney, total 7. 2 Approval of Agenda A motion was made by Director McCabe, duly seconded by Director Keheley, that the agenda be approved; and upon voice vote, the motion unanimously carried. 3 Approval of Minutes of December 21, 2010 Board Meeting A motion was made by Director Maruthur, duly seconded by Director Jones, that the minutes of the December 21, 2010 Board Meeting be approved. Upon discussion, Director McCabe stated the minutes needed to be corrected on Page 9 to reflect a comment was made by Mr. Stan Grise and not Mr. Munro. A motion was then made by Director McCabe, duly seconded by Director Maruthur, that the minutes be approved, as corrected; and upon voice vote, the motion unanimously carried. 4 Recognition of Guests No guests were present for recognition. 5 Board of Directors Announcements Director Jones showed a photo of Mayor Carney, Director Jones, Director McCabe and Director Garcia, who were sworn into office on January 1, 2011, and said it was an honor to have their picture taken together. Mayor Carney mentioned that was a gift from City Attorney Brian Albright to the Directors and Mayor. Director Garcia expressed appreciation to Mayor Carney, each member of the Board, City Manager Lance Hudnell, City Attorney Brian Albright, the department heads and staff who have welcomed her so graciously onto the Board. She also thanked the voters of District 5 who gave her the opportunity to serve on the Board. She mentioned that she recently hosted a citizens’ information meeting regarding recycling and thanked Mr. Bill Boyles from the Sanitation Department who gave a wonderful presentation. She added several citizens signed up for recycling, and she has had excellent feedback from the citizens in how promptly they responded once they called. She said that a lady told her she was able to move enough to recycling to go to a smaller container, thereby reducing her monthly bill. She stated if citizens are interested in recycling, the Sanitation Department will respond very promptly; and the number to call is 321-6911. Director McCabe stated that on December 31, he donated a carload of nice clothing to the Salvation Army and encouraged citizens to remember the Salvation Army at year-end and throughout the year. Director Maruthur announced that the Whittington Valley will hold their meeting this coming Monday at 6:30 p.m., at the Presbyterian Church on Whittington Avenue; and Everyone is welcome to attend. Mayor Carney thanked everyone for their support and for those in attendance. She mentioned as she was running for office, she read the City’ web page and noticed the Code of Ethics. She said she believes it should be read more often just to keep focused. At this time, she read the Code of Ethics for Hot Springs, which was adopted by Resolution No. 3597 on February 18, 1997. Board of Directors Meeting 2 January 4, 2011 at 6:00 P.M. 6 Acknowledgment of Financial Statements Notice for November 2010 Mayor Carney announced that the Financial Statements for November 2010 are on file in the Finance Department for review by the Board and the public. CONSENT AGENDA The Consent Agenda consisted of the following: 7 Public Safety Committee Report (December 21, 2010). 8 Proposed Resolution No. R-11-1 Authorizing the Mayor to Execute Addendum No. 4 to the Contract with Delta Airport Consultants, Inc. for Runway 13/31 Rehabilitation, Phase III. A motion was made by Director Jones, duly seconded by Director Maruthur, that the Consent Agenda be adopted; and upon roll call, the following voted “aye”: Directors Maruthur, Jones, Keheley, McCabe, Garcia, Daniel, and Carney, total 7; motion unanimously carried. NEW BUSINESS 9 Proposed Resolution No. R-11-2 A resolution entitled, “A RESOLUTION APPROVING CHANGE ORDER NO. 4 TO AN EXISTING CONTRACT WITH UTILITY METERING SOLUTIONS FOR INSTALLATION OF AUTOMATED WATER METERS; AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES,” was taken from the agenda and read by title only. A motion was made by Director Daniel, duly seconded by Director Keheley, that the resolution be adopted as read. Upon discussion, Mr. Steve Mallett, Deputy City Manager for Public Works and Utilities, explained this is to approve Change Order No. 4 with Xtra Light Manufacturing Partnership, Ltd., also known as Utility Metering Solutions, in the amount of $313,724.14, and is in conjunction with the water meter replacement project. He pointed out there is no change to any line item amount; and everything that was bid, as Board of Directors Meeting 3 January 4, 2011 at 6:00 P.M. far as the amount of each item, remains consistent just an addition and subtraction of the items. He advised the City used about 400 meters for new installations and did not order any extra inventory for new installations. Therefore, it was not logical to install new accounts with old manual meters only to return later and replace them. He said there are also approximately 1,000 meters that are needed to fully implement the rest of the project and that is primarily due to the report that was used during the development of the project to not account for inactive accounts. He stated it was an active billing account, which was presented to the engineer; and that is what it was based on. He added at the time of this contract, there are about 3,000 inactive meters that are in the ground that are not being used, and staff decided it was wise to replace the majority of those meters since it would be likely they would be turned on in the near future. He advised that staff has evaluated that listing and found around 800 that would be prudent to move to other locations where it has been more than a year since they have been used and may be a while before they are used. He said those will be moved to other locations. He stated the Change Order also includes a decrease of 98 residential meters and 29 larger meters, totaling around $50,000; and the total resulting increase for the Change Order is $313,724.14, which is a 3.1 percent increase over the original contract amount and when added to previous three Change Orders, results in an overall change of 4 percent. He pointed out while that is within staff’s authority to approve (less than ten percent), staff thought it was prudent to present this to the Board due to the dollar amount of the project. Regarding the other three Change Orders, the first and third were wording changes to the Change Order culminating in a decrease of $10.21; and the second Change Order was an increase of $90,454, which was an addition of a number of 1½ inch meters, which were on inactive accounts. He reported this will conclude the project with the exception of all of Royal, and all of Royal will not be remotely read because the City currently has drive-by remote meters on part of Royal. He pointed out they are newer meters and are drive-by; therefore, it is a system that if fully remote read. However, there will be a small pocket that will require staff to drive by once a month to get those remaining meters until they have time to replace those. Director Keheley questioned the 3,000 inactive accounts and said she understands that some of those were meters that were not being read. She asked if it the number of locations are known where the water was being used but not being paid for and could that have been part of the lost water in the 35 percent total estimated that were missing. Mr. Mallett stated that the City may not be reading them all on a monthly basis because they are inactive. However, if there is usage now, there is no labor involved in taking the reading since they are all remote. Therefore, the City will get actual readings on all of the accounts now whether they are active or inactive and will Board of Directors Meeting 4 January 4, 2011 at 6:00 P.M. receive a note within a day of someone using water on an inactive meter. He stated the City should be able to catch some of the water that was being used unauthorized from a meter that was left in, and some of the older meters may not have even registered. He added they may have been turned on but were not registering. He said with all the meters, that may be the case for some of them that were over 20 or 25 years old. He stated that is one of the reasons the City decided to replace them because if they are in the ground there is the potential for them to be used and now there is no effort in reading all 36,000 meters that are in the system. Director Keheley questioned if it the number missing is known, and Mr. Mallett replied there are approximately 3,000 as of today. Director Garcia thanked Mr. Mallett for providing the background on the original contract and the previous Change Orders and answering the questions to get her up-to-date on this contract. She asked after this Change Order, the most would be $40,000. Is that what your estimate is, but there should not be any more expense than that to complete this project? Mr. Mallett replied as of right now, there is the possibility if we decide to contract out the relocation of the 780+ 46meters that we recommended being moved, if we ask UMS to do that for us, they have provided us a quote of $45 per meter. I don’t believe we can get anywhere close to doing that with our in-house staff so if we decide to move forward with that plan, we will likely be coming back and asking for an additional $40,000 to $45,000 to do that. Director Garcia asked if he would still expect it to be completed by the end of March, and Mr. Mallett replied that he would. City Manager Lance Hudnell asked what the date was in the contract, and Mr. Mallett replied that we hope to get done by the end of this year but he believes they have almost a full year left on the contract. He said it was a two-year contract and it is going to end up being a year and three or four months. There being no further discussion, Mayor Carney called for a vote on the motion to adopt; and upon roll call, the following voted “aye”: Directors Maruthur, Jones, Keheley, McCabe, Garcia, Daniel, and Carney, total 7; motion unanimously carried. Whereupon the resolution was declared adopted. 10 Proposed Resolution No. R-11-3 A resolution entitled, “A RESOLUTION APPROVING A LICENSE PERMIT WITH ARKANSAS MIDLAND RAILROAD COMPANY, INC. FOR INSTALLATION OF Board of Directors Meeting 5 January 4, 2011 at 6:00 P.M. WASTEWATER PIPELINE WITHIN RAILROAD RIGHT-OF-WAY; AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES,” was taken from the agenda and read by title only. A motion was made by Director Jones, duly seconded by Director Garcia, that the resolution be adopted as read. Upon discussion, Mr. Steve Mallett, Deputy City Manager for Public Works and Utilities, advised that this resolution authorizes staff to enter into a License Agreement with Arkansas Midland Railroad Company to accommodate installation of a 3.4 mile stretch of wastewater pressure main within the railroad right-of-way. We are currently under contract with Coakley Company to install a wastewater pressure main designed to be within Arkansas Midland Railroad for 3.4 miles as opposed to obtaining numerous private easements along that same stretch. After several conversations reviewed by our attorney and their attorneys we have mutually agreed to the language included in the License Agreement, which is a little different than what they have with other entities. There was some language in there about having us move within a 30-day timeframe. Now, it all has to be mutually agreed upon. We had some concerns that we didn’t want to put an investment in some kind of a corridor that may dissolve later or they have the right to make us move. So we feel like we have protected both sides of the interest. The cost to the Utility Department will be $152,000 and that is different than the standard method of making annual payments for the duration of the agreement. This is a big part of our commitment to addressing the Consent Administrative Order and is one of our main projects that we have committed to EPA to do. It takes a lot of pressure off one of our major pump stations that we have experienced numerous overflows with and we have already seen a marketed decrease in those occurrences over the past few months. This will allow for the completion of that project and it is about a $1.9 million contract and this section of pipeline probably is estimated about $1.5 million of that $1.9 million so the majority of this project is within this right-of-way. Director Keheley thanked Mr. Mallett for providing answers to her today and as he worked it out with her in a memo but said that City Manager Lance Hudnell stated that he is working on some type of a consistent-type structure with the City Attorney for a blanket coverage. Mr. Mallett said there are many places in town where we cross some of them and may even be prior to getting agreements so we want to make sure they are all covered. The railroad also has an interest in a blanket agreement so every time we have one of these, there is some kind of mutually agreed upon language that we don’t have to keep rehashing this every time. We are going to put a committee together and they are fully aware of that. Board of Directors Meeting 6 January 4, 2011 at 6:00 P.M.  City Manager Lance Hudnell explained that each time an attorney changes in their corporate level, we have to go through this all over again and if we could get a blanket agreement, then that would solve some of that. There being no further discussion, Mayor Carney called for a vote on the motion to adopt; and upon roll call, the following voted “aye”: Directors Maruthur, Jones, Keheley, McCabe, Garcia, Daniel, and Carney, total 7; motion unanimously carried. Whereupon the resolution was declared adopted. OTHER BUSINESS 11 Board of Directors Items for Discussion Director Jones announced that on Saturday, the meeting of the Pleasant Street Association will be held at the Illinois Street One-Stop Home Ownership Building instead of the normal place where they meet. We have a realtor coming to discuss a home on Pleasant Street and this is a 1 p.m., and the Executive Board will meet at 12 p.m. Mr. Elmer Beard is president. Director Garcia announced that on January 15 at 8:30 a.m., Horner Hall, is the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Prayer Breakfast and tickets are on sale at the Webb Center. 12 City Manager’s Report City Manager Lance Hudnell gave the following report: 1. The Police Chief interviews this Thursday and Friday and the schedule is the same as we had last time with lunch at the Austin, followed by the 4:30 p.m. meeting public forum in the Board Chambers. He wanted to make the public aware of the public meeting at 4:30 p.m. in the Board Chambers on this coming Thursday and Friday. 2. January 12 through January 14 will be the Arkansas Municipal League Winter Conference. He, several Directors, and some staff members will be attending. 3. There are several vacancies on the various committees and commissions. If any citizen is interested in serving and lives within the City, application are available on the City’s website or may call the City Manager’s Office at 321-6810. Board of Directors Meeting 7 January 4, 2011 at 6:00 P.M. 13 ADJOURNMENT There being no further business to come before the Board, the meeting adjourned at 6:30 p.m., to meet again on Tuesday, January 18, 2011, at 7:00 p.m. ATTEST: _____________________ APPROVED:__________________ Lance Spicer, City Clerk Ruth Carney, Mayor Board of Directors Meeting 8 January 4, 2011 at 6:00 P.M.