Measure P Committee Meeting

Measure P Oversight Committee Meeting Minutes May 27, 2015 The Measure P Oversight Committee Meeting was called to order by Police Chief Gary Brizzee at the hour of 5:30 p.m. at Los Banos Fire Station No. 1, 333 7th Street, Los Banos, CA. Committee Members and staff present: Mark Bodley; Arlene Cardoza; Gerry Giesel; Tom Neeb; Hoang (Ichabod) Nguyen; Rhonda Rusk; Diana Thurston; Tim Marrison, Fire Chief; Gary Brizzee, Police Chief; Kim Tomas, Staff Accountant and Mary Lou Gilardi, Administrative Assistant. Chief Brizzee started the meeting off with the pledge of allegiance and having everyone introduce themselves. Agenda Item I Chief Brizzee went over Item 1 and asked if there were any questions in regard to the Quarterly Reports that were presented. It was moved by Diana Thurston, seconded by Mark Bodley to approve the 2013/14 3 rd and 4th Quarter Measure P Reports and the 2014/15 1st, 2nd and 3rd Quarter Measure P Reports as submitted by staff. Motion carried unanimously. Agenda Item II Chief Marrison gave a little history of what happened in the last year in regard to Measure P. The Police Department and Fire Department were able to move Officers and a Captain out of Measure A/K and back into the General Fund. For this next fiscal year 2015/16, we will have two Police Officers and one Fire Captain remaining in Measure K. Chief Marrison indicated that the hopes are that within the next two years we can be completely out of Measure K and have those 3 positions back into the General Fund, and those funds can go back to being put aside for Facilities Fund, the original intent of those funds. Committee Member Giesel asked for clarification on a few different funds: SLESF; CFD; CHRP. Chief Brizzee explained that the SLESF is the Supplemental Law Enforcement Services Fund is a State Funding mechanism which is specific to Law Enforcement (Approximately $100,000/year). CFD is Community Facilities Districts and that is an ongoing tax collected from all new housing developments. CHRP is an expired grant that had to do with Cops Hiring Recovery Program. The CHRP goes back to when the recession hit, we picked up two officers on a grant for three years, and as a requirement of the grant, the City had to maintain those positions for one year after. Chief Brizzee added that the Police and Fire Departments both have funding sources from the CFD. Chief Marrison explained how the Fire Department was in charge of Code Enforcement going back about 6 to 8 years. Marrison stated how staffing for Code Enforcement was paid. The Code Enforcement Officer was paid out of the General Fund while the clerical support was paid ½ out of the General Fund and ½ out of Measure P Fire funding. About 1 ½ years ago, it was determined that Code Enforcement could be better managed by the amount of staff that the Police Department had. So when Code Enforcement was moved to Police Department, we lost one full-time clerical position. We were able to come back to Measure P Committee and a part-time clerical position was authorized. The part-time position is not meeting what our former clerical staff used to do for us. We can’t keep up with all of the projects we are managing, scheduling occupancy and annual business inspections, incident management, training, etc. There is a lot more than what 1 ½ persons can handle. So in the budget this year, the Fire Department would like to go back to what we had previously – 2 full time support staff. Finance has determined that ½ of that person’s salary can be funded through the General Fund with the other ½ coming from Measure P Fire fund. This funding would not be coming from the Facilities Fund where the Captain is funded from; it would be funded permanently out of Measure P. We are asking if the Measure P Committee is in favor of allowing us to take the funding back to the way we had before for the other full-time clerk ( ½ – General Fund; ½ Measure P) Thurston inquired about our commitment to the citizens. Marrison explained that once we get that last Captain out of Measure K – Facilities Funding, then we will be putting money aside again for the Facilities Fund to build that tower. That will be our last commitment to meet in our original 10 year plan. Marrison went on to say that because the Measure P Facilities money is not something we can really rely on now, we do have a developer impact fee account that we can utilize to construct a secure fueling site for both Police and Fire Departments with reliable power to the pumps. If City Council approves the Budget on June 17th, we are going to pour the concrete out back where the future tower would be, continue with electrical and water infrastructure, and purchase fuel tanks so that Public Safety can have a secure location to fuel up. This first phase would be constructed with Impact Fee money. Committee Members inquired about the current part time help and if she is interested in full-time and how the hiring process would go. Chief Marrison explained that we would open up the position through an In-House Recruitment so that all current part time and full-time City employees would have the opportunity to apply for this position. Committee Member Nguyen asked for an explanation on the chart that was provided to them on the Proposed Changes to Measure P. Kim Tomas explained how the costs would impact Measure P. 2 It was inquired as to when this position would come into effect. Chief Marrison explained that July 1st we would start the recruitment process for this position. It was also mentioned by one of the committee members that we haven’t had a Committee Meeting for a while. Chief Marrison apologized for that and indicated that it won’t happen again. Committee Member Rusk inquired about the Captain moving out of Measure P (K) soon and coming from the General Fund in the future. Chief Marrison added that is our goal. However, we can’t tell you how long at this point. Rusk also inquired about the clerical position being ½ funded out of Measure P indefinitely? Marrison confirmed that would be true, but not out of the Facilities Fund portion, it would be out of Measure P. Rusk wanted to know why we would never want to get the Clerk 1 position funded from General Fund. Chief Marrison wouldn’t argue about getting this position funded from the General Fund because we have a total of seven firefighters that are funded out of Measure P (half of our staff). This clerical position would be supporting those Measure P employees. Chief Brizzee gave a brief explanation of Measure P and stated if sales tax is good, we can continue to add personnel. Committee Member Thurston stated that as one of the original committee members, we created an incredibly good program with Measure P. Committee Member Bodley asked about the cost of benefits for this new employee which exceed the salary for this person. Kim Tomas explained that step increases were restored for all employees. Benefits always go up and PERS always goes up so that is why benefits shows more than salary. Committee Member Giesel inquired whether population has increased or decreased dramatically over the last few years. Chief Marrison stated that it has stayed right around 37,000 count. Committee Member Nguyen asked a question about the wording to support clerical staff. He indicated that he is having a hard time to find where we can justify this new clerical position to half-fund. The original plan was very specific about sworn officers, fire fighters, CSO’s etc., but it doesn’t talk much more about fire staffing (support staff). Chief Brizzee stated that if you read down, support staff is also included in the expenditures in Measure P. Chief Brizzee indicated that it is in there and he would be happy to show the committee members where it is. Kim Tomas handed Chief Brizzee the Ordinance so that he could show the members the section that they were looking for. Chief Marrison was explaining that as our town grows so will the tax revenue that will be generated from the Measure P sales tax. Once we have met all of the original 3 expectations of the Ordinance, it will be up to the Committee to decide how we can continue to spend any increased funding. Chief Marrison stated that once everyone is out of Measure K and Measure P is healthy again, he would like to see the Chiefs be able to come to the committee with a 5 year plan of items that they would like to see funded. There was also some discussion regarding another fire station. Chief Marrison stated that was not part of the 20 year plan, but that is why the Facilities Fund was put there so that there would be money set aside for building. Kim Tomas indicated now that the City is starting to become healthy, the City is looking into 5 year plans for each department. Committee Member Nguyen asked what the cost of the Training Tower would be. Chief Marrison stated that the cost for the entire project is somewhere between $750,000 to $800,000. This training tower will not be top of the line, but it will meet all the necessary requirements. Committee Member Giesel asked if they could see a five year plan at the next meeting. Chief Marrison had no issue providing the committee with a plan for the Fire Department. There was some discussion regarding the 5 year plans that each department will be providing to the City. Chief Brizzee asked if there were any other questions in regard to the modification of staffing to Measure P. It was moved by Diana Thurston, seconded by Ich Nguyen to approve Measure P Staffing Modifications as submitted by staff to increase the funding from a part time employee to a full time employee, with the cost being split 50/50 between the General Fund and Measure P – Fire. Motion carried unanimously. Chief Brizzee applauded the committee members for asking questions about the Ordinance and whether or not this type of expenditure would meet the guidelines of the Ordinance. Committee Member Neeb also appreciates the question that Committee Member Nguyen raised because the content of the citizens question is the kind of stuff that shows up in Letters to the Editors when the Ordinance isn’t followed particularly with funding. You’ve all read and seen over the years, when somebody has a beef with how the money was spent. Chief Brizzee stated for the record, the Ordinance Section that he was referring to earlier was 3-12.1.10. Agenda Item III 4 Committee Member Reports: Committee Member Thurston indicated that it’s good to be here. She is excited, having gone through some sparing times; it’s nice to know things are turning around. She thanked both Chiefs for how supportive they have been of the Committee over the years. Committee Member Bodley is very glad that the committee approved the funding for the other half of this clerical position because he is sure that the Fire Department needs it. Committee Member Cardoza had nothing to report. She concurred with Diana and Mark and stated to keep up the good work. Committee Member Nguyen stated that it is odd to not have Chief Brizzee ask for another officer since he sees the number of officers that are leaving. Question - between Q2 and Q3, Ich noticed that on the Police side the expenditure budget dropped by $118,000. Kim Tomas explained that was due to the mid-year adjustment taking one officer out of Measure K and putting them back into the General Fund. Committee Member Rusk had nothing to report. Committee Member Giesel had nothing to report. Committee Member Neeb stated that things have gone well particularly through some really bad times. He just wanted to thank the public for their support in getting us through these times by supporting Measures A & K. Neeb had a question for Finance for clarification about revenue projections. Kim Tomas explained how that works. The State is slow in paying us our sales tax. We are always a good 2 – 3 months behind. Agenda Item IV Chief Brizzee stated that he was at a Police Officers Memorial in Merced today. He happened to speak with Judge McCabe, who is presiding judge, and he is in charge of the new facility, court house, being built in Los Banos. If you have driven by G Street & Mercey Springs lately, you probably have seen lots of movement happening. The proposed end date for this project is next August/September. Chief Brizzee has always wanted to see the Courthouse, Police Department and County Offices all in one campus. You may not see all of the County offices, but hope to have Police and County Offices, County Clerks all at that location. There has even been some discussion that maybe the CHP might move out there as well. There is also supposed to be a commercial strip out there on the eastern edge of the property. He also stated that they are in the movement to purchase the land and start the design phase of the building. The Police Department continues to struggle with staffing. We just made conditional offers of employment to 4 trainees sending them to the Academy in Morgan Hill. One person is resigning in June. We have a few bodies out on a long term injury. 5 A committee member inquired – out of the 39 sworn personnel the Police Department has, how many are actually working? Brizzee replied 21 patrol officers because we have 2 out on injury leave. Committee member inquired as to why the City hadn’t purchased the land yet for the new Police Station. Chief Brizzee explained in detail that they are in the process. Chief Marrison stated that since Chief Guintini’s retirement, it’s been pedal to the metal, trying to get caught up and understand the new position. He has really enjoyed his new job. The best thing that we’ve accomplished within the last six months, but was also the most difficult, was promoting and hiring a new fire fighter. Mason Hurley was promoted from Captain to Asst. Chief; Roger Hughes was promoted from Engineer to Captain; Fernando Garcia was promoted from Fire Fighter to Engineer; and we just hired Jacob Sawyer as our newest Fire Fighter from our Volunteer Dept. The Fire Department is going to be celebrating 125 years of service to the community this year. We hope to have an event that promotes all the different programs out there that the City has to offer: Volunteering for Vital; Volunteering for the Fire Dept.; signing up for different programs that people may not be aware that the City offers. We want to make it a large event that brings a lot of attention to Public Safety. We ordered a new engine that was paid for out of Capital Improvement Funds. It should be here in December or January of 2016. In November, we received a new OES Engine owned by the State of California. We staff it to respond to calls throughout the State. The State reimburses us for personnel costs to man that apparatus. We only have three people left to take out of Measure K (2 Police Officers/1 Fire Captain). We are that much closer to keeping our promise to the public. Chief Marrison expressed his appreciation to the Committee for approving the Measure P Staffing Modifications. Tom Neeb mentioned one more item. Jeff Rhea – former CHP died in a scuba accident this past weekend. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 6:41 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Tim Marrison Fire Chief Measure P Min150527.doc 6