City Council

CITY OF LACONIA ­ CITY COUNCIL MEETING May 20, 2019 7:00 P.M. 5/20/2019 ­ Minutes 1. CALL TO ORDER Mayor Engler called the meeting to order at the above date and time. 2. SALUTE TO THE FLAG 3. RECORDING SECRETARY Cheryl Hebert, City Clerk 4. ROLL CALL Mayor Engler noted four (4) Councilors were in attendance and quorum has been established. Not present at the beginning of the meeting were David Bownes and Henry Lipman David Bownes and Henry Lipman arrived to the meeting at 7:01 pm. 5. STAFF IN ATTENDANCE Scott Myers, City Manager Glenn Smith, Finance Director 6. Department Budget Presentations (1) Water Department ­ Seth Nuttleman, Water Superintendent Superintendent Seth Nuttleman reviewed the proposed budget with the Council. Superintendent Nuttleman has requested a 6.8% budget increase. A new full­time hire in Maintenance and Distribution which will be coming on in December of 2019, last year there was not an increase in the net appropriations, and the Capital Labor are the three items that are causing the 6.8% increase in the budget. The reasons for the increase are due to the capital work that is being done within the City and the Water Department is a part of that. If some of the capital work does not materialize within a budget year, it causes line item numbers to change with more being taken from O&M and not capital labor. Labor is either doing something in Capital or O&M. The amendment changes the proposed total income from $2,956,165 to $3,018,847, the proposed total expenditures from $2,955,806 to $3,018,156, with the total capital purchases and projects remaining unchanged at $756,500. These changes will not result in a rate increase. This is reducing the dependency on the amount of labor for the Capital Projects. Pat Mohan, Manager from Melanson and Heath Company explained the reasons for the increase in the budget request. Looking at the budget, it remains similar, it is a matter of if the salaries are being recorded in the O&M or recorded in the the Capital. Superintendent Nuttleman updated the Council on the projects that are currently being worked on. (2) Library ­ Randy Brough, Librarian John Moriarty ­ Chairman of the Library Board of Trustees ­ Mr. Moriarty stated 121,500 people visited the library and 105,000 items being circulated. There were two retirements in 2017/2018 and an additional retirement this year. These positions have been filled. The card catalog servers are being moved to the Cloud which will hopefully show a savings between $5,000 and $10,000. Mr. Moriarty also mentioned that a decrease in the line item books of $12,000 and an increase of $12,000 for the line item Non­Print Media. This will not reflect the bottom line. Mr. Moriarty also mentioned the work that was done back in 2004 to the bricks and then in 2007 waterproofing was done. He stated within the next year or so waterproofing will need to be done again which is around $30,000 and they will be looking at it for a CIP. Discussion was also had in regards to the programs at the Goss Reading Room. The Goss Reading Room is located in Lakeport and open year round, two days a week.  (3) Assessing ­ Steven Hamilton, Assessor (Whitney Consultant) City Manager Myers explained to the Council that the Assessor position had been vacant since November of 2018. After conducting many interviews City Manager Myers decided the best fit was to hire a consultant company. The company the City decided to go with is Whitney Consultant Company, with Steven Hamilton and Emily Goldstein being the two Assessors that will be working with the City of Laconia. City Manager Myers does plan on having Steven Hamilton at a Council meeting in the near future to talk about assessing trends and abatements. The contract with Whitney Consultant is for three years. The benefits are not on this budget as in years past. (4) Police Department ­ Chief Matt Canfield Chief Canfield noted for the record that Commissioner Whittum and Commissioner Mello are both present. Also present was Captain Graton. Chief Canfield also made mention of the late Armand Maheux. Chief Canfield updated the Council on how many officers were killed in the line of duty in 2018, the 2018 FBI Synopsis, department activity statistics, and criminal offenses. The Chief also spoke of staffing levels. There are currently three vacancies within the department. The department has been working to improve the recruitment efforts. Some of the departmental initiatives was the installation of a new school resource officer at Laconia Middle School as well as rolling out new body and cruiser camera's. Some other updates are the new app Tip411, the Cop Card Program, and the reinstallation of the Police K­9 Team and Bike Patrol. The Chief also spoke about the changing environment of the drug use within the City. An increase of $5,000 was requested under the line item Special Duty/PT due to the new body cam's and the time it may take for redaction's. Another increase was for O/S Contracts due to the second installment of the body and police camera's. A majority of the overtime derives from Court. Significant efforts have been made over the years to reduce this but it is dictated by the courts. Chief Canfield spoke about the 2019 objectives for the Police Department and gave the Council an update on the opioid crisis. Chief Canfield did state that the number of true homeless within the City is two dozen or less. (5) Fire Department ­ Chief Kirk Beattie Deputy Chief Roffo and Deputy Chief Riley were also present. Chief Beattie thanked everyone involved in helping with his budget and budget presentation. During the presentation, Chief Beattie broke down the Fire Department's Organizational Chart and explained his budgeting philosophy and goals. Some of his goals are to make the Laconia Fire Department a destination department again for firefighters looking for employment, increase the retention rate of current employees, continue to grow a self­sustaining EMS Division, and increase training opportunities/hours, including paramedic education. Some of the administrative positives within the department are that Jay Ellingson was promoted to Assistant Chief, Rick Hewlett and Brian Keyes were promoted to Lieutenant, in the calendar year 2018, two firefighters completed probation, a new three year contract was signed between the Firefighters and the City, as well as, Scott Lewandowski was named LRGHealthcare EMS Provider of the Year. The Chief went over some of the statistics for the Council. Assistant Chief Ellingson has been tasked to reorganize the training program for the department to help with finding more training hours. The Chief would also like to maintain the self sustaining EMS Division. The Fire Department is asking for funding through the EMS budget to send a firefighter to Paramedic school, plus additional funding for staffing coverage while a firefighter is in the classroom or other school related sessions. The Capital Improvements being requested are the replacement of Engine 5 and to finalize the upgrade to the radio system for LFD and LPD. Chief Beattie is also requesting an incremental amount of overtime in order to eventually move back up to a nine person staff during the day when people are at training's and such. Discussion was had regarding whether replacing Engine 5 needed to be a brand new apparatus or could it be used and whether one could be used from a surrounding town when needed. Discussion was also had regarding the relationship the department has with Belmont and regionalization. It was stated that the bunker gear is repurposed until it has met it's ten year capacity. 7. Any other business that may come before the Council 8. ADJOURNMENT With no further business to come before the Council and hearing no objection, Mayor Engler adjourned the meeting at 9:03 pm. Respectfully Submitted, Cheryl Hebert, City Clerk MINUTES OF THIS MEETING WERE APPROVED BY THE COUNCIL ON MAY 28, 2019