CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS COMMITTEE

200 E. Wells Street City of Milwaukee Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53202 Meeting Minutes CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS COMMITTEE ALD. JOSEPH DUDZIK, CHAIR Ald. Robert Bauman, Ald. Michael Murphy, Ghassan Korban, Martin Matson, Mark Nicolini, and Mariano Schifalacqua Staff Assistant: Tobie Black, 286-2231; Fax: 286-3456, tblack@milwaukee.gov Fiscal Planning Specialist: Kathleen Brengosz, 286-3926, kbreng@milwaukee.gov Wednesday, April 14, 2010 9:00 AM Room 301-B, City Hall Meeting convened: 9:05 A.M. 1. Roll call: Members Present: 7 - Ald. Joseph Dudzik, Chair, Ald. Bauman, Ald. Murphy, Jeffrey Mantes, Craig Kammholz (W. Martin Morics Alternate), Mark Nicolini, and Mariano Schifalacqua Members Excused: 0 Also present: Venu Gupta, Dept. of Public Works, David Schroeder and Eric Pearson, Dept. of Admin., Budget & Management Div., Marianne Walsh, City Clerk's Office, Barry Zalben, Legislative Reference Bureau, Amy Hefter, Legislative Reference Bureau and Kathleen Brengosz, Fiscal Planning Specialist 2. Review and approval of the minutes of the March 25, 2010 meeting Mr. Nicolini moved approval of the minutes, Mr. Mantes seconded. There were no objections. 3. Presentations given by the following City departments on their proposed 2011 capital improvements budget requests: ---Police Department (Capital Improvements Requests forms - Exhibit 1) Police Chief Edward Flynn, Chief of Staff Judy Pal, John Ledvina, Budget and Finance Manager, and Debra Lewis, Information Technology Manager appeared on this matter. Chief Flynn gave an overview of the department,s 2011 capital improvements requests. (Exhibit 2) Ald. Bauman said that the cost of $210 per square foot to renovate the MPD building is high and before the City commits to that renovation project a complete analysis should be done. It may cost less to relocate to a new building. City of Milwaukee Page 1 CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS Meeting Minutes April 14, 2010 COMMITTEE Ald. Bauman said there has been a plan developed by the UWM School of Architecture and Urban Planning that would completely redesign MacArthur Square and could enhance the commercial value of that site. Perhaps the Police Dept. could be relocated to another site that the City already owns. Ald. Dudzik said he feels the current building is sufficient, but he agrees with Ald. Bauman that the renovation cost is high. He asked if the space in the current building is adequate for the Police Dept.? Chief Flynn replied in the affirmative. Chief Flynn said he has a new master plan that he can provide to committee members. He said it would cost $300 per square foot for a new building. He said the problem with going with a new building is that the City would still need to pay the cost for the remediation of the current building before they could sell it. Mr. Nicolini moved to make the Police Department's PowerPoint presentation (Exhibit 2) and the MPD building master plan (Exhibit 3) a part of the record and asked that both be provided to committee members and staff. There were no objections. Ald. Dudzik referred to the request for the front end loader and asked who would be operating the front end loader and how would it be moved from location to location? Mr. Ledvina replied that front end loader was proposed by the staff at the Safety Academy. He said the Police Department is currently contracting out the snow removal for the Safety Academy and other police department locations. Mr. Mantes said the Dept. of Public Works got rid of most of its excess front end loaders a few years ago, but he thinks they may have one left that the Police Dept. could use. Mr. Ledvina said civillian police staff would operate the front end loader. Mr. Mantes said that union Local 61 will have a problem with staff operating the equipment. Mr. Ledvina replied that they would consider getting a civillian staff person certified to operate the loader. Mr. Schifalacqua referred to the digital radio request and asked if there has been a request for additional monies for those radios? Mr. Ledvina replied in the negative. Ald. Dudzik asked how much capacity does the open sky radio system have, because DPW and Fire are looking to be included on that radio system. He asked has a study been done on the capacity? Chief Flynn replied that digital offers more channel capacity; therefore, it is feasible to expand. Ms. Lewis replied that the system that was purchased has plenty of space to expand. She said theier back-up plan would be to use digital phone lines. She said no study has been done, but the RFP did request that the vendor be able to provide the capacity that the City needs. City of Milwaukee Page 2 CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS Meeting Minutes April 14, 2010 COMMITTEE Ald. Dudzik asked if the old system is still up running? Chief Flynn replied that the old system had to be taken down, because it was interfering with the new system frequencies. Ald. Murphy asked when will the Police Department get the new radios? Chief Flynn replied in the fall. Mr. Schifalacqua asked if there has been any problem with the hand held radios getting the digital frequency inside buildings? Chief Flynn replied in the affirmative. He said they will never be able to get the frequency in every building. He suggested that an ordinance be enacted that would require all new high rise buildings to put the signal tower equipment in the buildings. Ald. Bauman asked if an ordinance can be introduced today to accomplish that. Chief replied that the Police Dept. can put something together. Ald. Dudzik asked what would the dollar amount be to put hand held radios in all the officers’ hands? Chief Flynn replied that it would cost about $1.6 million. Presentations given by the following City departments on their proposed 2011 capital improvements budget requests: ---Department of Public Works - Sewer Maintenance (Capital Improvements Requests forms - Exhibit 4) Mr. Martin Aquino, Engineer and Tim Thur, City Sewer Engineer appeared on this matter. Mr. Aquino said the Sewer Maintenance Section's 2011 capital improvements requests are for four projects with a total cost of $38.3 million. Those four projects are: sewer maintenance relay, storm water improvements, by-pass pumps and infiltration/inflow reduction program. Ald. Dudzik said that it seems that there is more infiltration/inflow work being done, but the cost is decreasing and asked Mr. Aquino to explain why that is. Mr. Aquino replied that the cost has actually increased. He said the infiltration/inflow is a newer program that started about 2 years ago. Mr. Schifalacqua referred to the 89 by-pass pumps and asked how is the Source Control and Data Acquistion (SCDA) system working? Mr. Aquino replied that he has about $1 million to redo the SCDA system and the communication system. He said they currently have a consultant doing the engineering study. Mr. Schifalacqua asked if there has been any effort to eliminate some of the by-pass pumping stations? City of Milwaukee Page 3 CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS Meeting Minutes April 14, 2010 COMMITTEE Mr. Aquino said that the DNR would like the City to, but because of the basement back-ups it's not feasible. Mr. Nicolini asked Mr. Aquino how are the repairs to the sanitary pumps being prioritized? Mr. Aquino replied that the contractor inspects the pumps on a monthly basis and provides City staff with a monthly report. That report data is reviewed by staff and the pump repairs are prioritized accordingly. He said, thanks to Alderman Murphy, the department has received additional funding that will cover the cost to increase the number of inspections. Mr. Thur replied that this year the department will do four complete by-pass pump station rehabilitations and five partial rehabs. Mr. Kammholz asked how much relay replacement will $30 million achieve and where does that place them in the replacement cycle? Mr. Aquino replied that based on today's dollars they would need $32 million to cover the 90 year replacement cycle. Mr. Aquino said they will face a spike in pipe repairs in about 10 years, because the 90 year replacement cycle will come due. Mr. Thur replied that they have a backlog of about 200 miles of sewer pipes in need of repair. Mr. Kammholz asked how much would it cost to cover all the backlog and keep up with all the current useful life of the sewer pipes? Mr. Aquino replied that it would cost about $150 per foot. Ald. Murphy asked how much of the stimulus funds are earmarked for sewer repairs? Mr. Aquino replied that they have received close to $34 million in stimulus funds and of that, 50 percent was is in the form of an interest free loan. He said most of those funds have already been used. Mr. Kammholz replied that there was $14.5 million in grant funds that were received last year and will be available for use this year. Presentations given by the following City departments on their proposed 2011 capital improvements budget requests: ---Department of Public Works - Water Works (Capital Improvements Requests forms - Exhibit 5) Ms. Carrie Lewis, Superintendent and Ms. Dinah Gant, Chief Design Engineer appeared on this matter. Ms. Lewis said that she would like to correct a couple of the comments she made at the March 3, Capital Improvements Committee meeting. She said the first comment was about the water main breaks and said she neglected to mention that the Water Dept. has an outstanding water maintenance program. The second was her reply to Mr. Schifalacqua's question on how the ozone generators were holding up. She said the consultant said that the City is very lucky right now, because the ozone generator vendor is still in business, but getting parts in the future may be problematic. She said the generators are in good condition and will last a long time. City of Milwaukee Page 4 CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS Meeting Minutes April 14, 2010 COMMITTEE Ms. Lewis gave an overview of the Water Works capital program. She said the Water Works program is composed of three parts; distribution, water and feeder mains and water treatment plants. She said about 10 years ago the City spent $100 million upgrading the treatment portion of the water treatment plants and because of those changes the City is ahead of all the regulation requirements. She said the department is now focusing on repairing the treatment plant buildings and distribution pump and storage facilities. Ald. Murphy asked Ms. Lewis to explain the Linnwood plant improvements scheduled for 2013 in the amount of $6 million? Ms. Lewis replied that $4 million is for filter media replacement and $1 million for motor control center replacements. Ald. Murphy asked Ms. Lewis to explain what the recent water rate increases have been? Ms. Lewis replied that there was a rate increase of 3.8 percent in September of 2009 and 6 percent in 2007. She said they have not received approval from the Public Service Commission (PSC) for the current increase request. She said right now the rate of return is in the negative. She said when the department devised its 2011 capital improvements plan, they thought the rate increase would have been in affect in early 2010 and that did not happen, therefore, the plan will have to be changed. Mr. Schifalacqua asked if there is a filter media replacement planned for the Howard Plant? Ms. Lewis replied in the affirmative. It is scheduled for 2014 and 2015. Ald. Dudzik asked Ms. Lewis to explain the meter shop capital request in the amount of $3 million? Ms. Lewis replied that the Water Department will embark on a meter replacement project starting in 2010. That project will take 5-8 years to complete. She said the PSC requires that the City replace the meters every 20 years. She said the batteries in the electronic meters are also coming to the end of their lives. She said the department has to test all the meters that go in and all those that are taken out. She said they will also be renovating the Cameron distribution yard located on N. Teutonia Ave. and that will become the new meter shop. Presentations given by the following City departments on their proposed 2011 capital improvements budget requests: ---Library (Capital Improvements Requests forms - Exhibit 6) Ms. Paula Kiely, Library Director and Ms. Taj Schoening, Business Operations Manager appeared on this matter. Ms. Kiely gave an overview of the Library's 2011 capital improvements requests. She said the Library's 2011 request is higher than usual, because of the renovation needed for several library buildings and for the construction of the new facilities. Ms. Kiely provide a PowerPoint Presentation (Exhibit 7). She explained how the library system was founded. She gave an overview of the library's current inventory. She also gave an overview of the library's previous operating budgets (2000-2009) City of Milwaukee Page 5 CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS Meeting Minutes April 14, 2010 COMMITTEE and on its plans for the future. Lastly, she explained in detail each of the library's capital improvement requests currently in process and those they are planning for over next few years. Ald. Murphy asked where does Ms. Kiely see the library in the next five to ten years? He asked will there be a need for all the library buildings, with all the new technology that offers downloadable books, etc.? Ms. Kiely replied that she see the library as being much stronger in the future and will be needed more than ever. She said the libraries will always need to have books and computer access available to the community. She said the libraries are also used by the community for a meeting place, etc. Ald. Bauman asked who controls the Library's capital improvements budget decisions, the Council or the Library Board? Ms. Kiely replied that Library budget is approved by the Common Council. Mr. Schifalacqua referred to the Library's capital improvements request under Neighborhood Library program - new construction and it shows a cost of $1 million in 2011 to be used for planning and $6 million in 2012 and asked Ms. Keily to explain what that cost would cover. Ms. Keily replied that the total amount of $7 million will cover the cost for the planning, the property, the construction of one new library and for all the furniture. Ald. Murphy asked what monies does the library have in its budget to deal with the closure and consolidation of the two libraries into one new library? Mr. Kammholz replied that Library Board has reviewed and discussed a plan for the closure of those two library buildings. He said that the plan showed a $17.5 million net savings over 35 years. He said the 35 year is related to the existing life of those facilities, but the the first 15 years there will be a debt service, therefore, the net would probably break even. Ms. Kiely replied that they have a plan that was prepared by the Budget Office and shared with the Library Board and she will provide that to the members. Mr. Schifalacqua said the dollar amount requested doesn't seem like it would be enough to cover the cost to close and constructed a new library. Ms. Keily replied that the amount requested is an estimate. 4. Next meeting date, time and agenda May 5, 2010 at 9:00 A.M. in Room 301-B. The following Department will give their 2011 Proposed Capital Improvements requests presentation at the May 5 meeting: Fire Department Dept. of City Development Health Department Port of Milwaukee Dept. of Admin., Business Operations Div. City of Milwaukee Page 6 CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS Meeting Minutes April 14, 2010 COMMITTEE Dept. of Admin., Information Technology Management Div. Assessor City Attorney Common Council - City Clerk Meeting adjourned: 11:12 A.M. Terry J. MacDonald Staff Assistant This meeting can be viewed in its entirety through the City's Legislative Research Center at http://milwaukee.legistar.com/calendar. City of Milwaukee Page 7