Budget Review Committee

BUDGET REVIEW COMMITTEE JUNE 12, 2013 A meeting of the Budget Review Committee was held Wednesday, June 12, 2013 at 7:01 p.m. in the Aldermanic Chamber. Alderman-at-Large Brian S. McCarthy, Chair, presided. Members of Committee present: Alderman-at-Large David W. Deane, Vice Chair Alderman-at-Large Mark S. Cookson Alderman-at-Large Jim Donchess Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire Alderman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja Alderman Richard A. Dowd Also Present: Mayor Donnalee Lozeau Alderman-at-Large Barbara Pressly John Griffin, CFO/Comptroller PUBLIC COMMENT - None COMMUNICATIONS MOTION BY ALERMAN WILSHIRE TO ACCEPT A COMMUNICATION FROM CHIEF SEUSING AND PLACE IT ON FILE MOTION CARRIED WRAP-UP SESSION Alderman Donchess I have a question about one of the resolutions that was referred to the committee - the $270,000 from the last meeting. It's just a brief question. Chairman McCarthy The skateboard park? Alderman Donchess Yeah. Chairman McCarthy Yeah I'm not planning on taking that up this evening. Alderman Donchess I know but my question is if we do this, can we get a bronze statue of the namesake of the park - David W. Deane in front of... Budget Review – 06/12/13 Page 2 Alderman Deane No. Are you implying there's a flock of pigeons looking for a place to hang out? Chairman McCarthy I will ask to entertain the items on the last department - the wastewater user fund. Is there any other motions on wastewater? Alderman Deane I don't have a motion but I have a question on the wastewater capital replacement schedule. What's the current balance in the account? We used to have one called "SWRF", then we had a "WERF", and then we had a "CERF". The SWRF I think was abolished because of the fact that solid waste, which is what stands for the SW, was not really financially able to since it was getting a $8+ million from the tax base. Everything was rolled over into CERF right all the trucks? That's what I noticed. The WERF, which is the wastewater equipment reserve fund... Mayor Lozeau I think we're going to find that in the CAPHR page 41. Alderman Deane I was just wondering what we had for a current...Mr. Griffin you went through you and your predecessor and everybody else went through a painstaking process of looking at CERF and as the Mayor stated the other night, they had rolled out some of the equipment that was in there and funded through I call depreciation. Other people call it other things. Then was taken out and adjustments were made, and we looked at the implementation of the trash plan, and the truck replacement, along with fire trucks. In order to get caught up, we were going to be bonded. The wastewater equipment reserve fund - when I looked in here, it shows a vactor truck being replaced this fiscal year which we bought right. That might have been a couple of months ago. That was it for expenditures that I saw in fiscal 2013. In fiscal 2014, Fulton Street pump station and then there's 4 other pump stations - the Spaulding pump station, and then it looks like a 2004 Chevrolet pickup. How do we stand with our funding and what part of the wastewater rate increases are associated with this plan that I have a copy of anyways. John Griffin The response to an information request provided the same schedule for equipment replacement for the wastewater treatment facility. So we have the same document that was in the study as was in the response to the information request. As we discussed the night that we presented the capital projects as well as the study itself, there is an unrestricted net asset balance audited as of June 30, 2012 slightly over $5 million. As we further discuss which cause a bit of confusion, my predecessor and probably his predecessor was keeping track through the study of the capital equipment replacement (inaudible) to keep a balance I'm gonna just throw out a number $9 million positive offset by a $4 million deficit in the so-called retained earnings portion. So the long winded answer is it's roughly $5 million as of June 30, 2012. Alderman Deane But that $5 million wasn't dedicated just to this was it? Budget Review – 06/12/13 Page 3 John Griffin It's not. Its unrestricted net assets. Unrestricted net assets would be the sum of the internally developed capital replacement fund as well as retained earnings for wastewater. Mayor Lozeau Just for wastewater. Alderman Deane Mayor weren't the funds separated for this in the past though? They didn't keep all retained earnings and just draw out of the retained earnings or unrestricted net assets, which is what it's called now to fund this. Wasn't there a separate account just for the capital replacement schedule? John Griffin Internally there is but the financial reporting, the two are combined. The challenge we're facing now is do we maintain and I think the discussion if I remember correctly there was kind of an academic struggle of carrying a $9 million balance in the equipment reserve fund coupled with a $4 million deficit in the retained earnings part of it. Mayor Lozeau So Alderman Deane like in 2002 there was $24 million in the account. In 2003, there was still $24 million. In 2004 it was $25.8 million, then it went to $26.5 million. It '06 it went to $25 million and in '07 it went to $13 million, and now is where we start going down. In '08 it went to $1 million. In '09 it went into a negative. In '10 it went back up to $8.6 million. In '11 it went down to $4.6 million. That's when we were starting to spend that $1 million a month on the facility. Alderman Deane When it went from like zero that year it was it '08 - when it went from like zero back up to 8 was that when money from the wastewater equipment reserve fund was that when the retained earnings was now considered unrestricted net assets. Is that when that change was made? Mayor Lozeau No it went up Alderman Deane because that's when we increased the rate the first time. So that's what increased the fund. John Griffin One key component was the bonding of the $32 million wet weather facility. We bonded $14.7 million. Alderman Deane So the spending of the cash stopped and the spending of the bond began and the rate increase hit and that increased the unrestricted net assets from zero up to $8 million and what's happened with that balance since then? Budget Review – 06/12/13 Page 4 Mayor Lozeau So now it's at the number that Mr. Griffin gave you. It's about $5 million. Alderman Deane What's the number that you had after 2008? Mayor Lozeau So after 2008, it was $1 million. Then it went negative to $6 million. Then in 2010 it went up to 8.6 and that's what we were just talking about with the increase. In 2011 it went down to 4.6; 12 it was at 5 million; 12 was when we did the next increase, and then my numbers after that were just a projection and then we didn't end up doing the next rate increase until now that we're talking about. Back then, we were looking at doing a 15 percent rate increase. Volume rate only. That was in 10. We learned from that that if you do volume with everybody's conservation efforts, that doesn't deliver what you'd expect. In 12 the plan was to go to 15 percent demand and volume but - did we do the 15 or did we do the 10? I think we... John Griffin We did the 15. Mayor Lozeau 15 but then we planned on 10 not long after that and then we didn't have to do that based on where we were with the plan. So we didn't do that and we've come in now. So I only have estimated numbers for 13 and 14. When I was doing this, it was during the first rate study when we were looking at the 15 percent. I had hand written notes on one of the wastewater presentations. I remember when I discovered that, this is what was going to be happening was that they were spending this down. Hold on, who's doing the rate analysis? I still remember my first rate analysis was when Director Seymour came in. I hadn't even been here I don't think a year or within that first year. Then we discovered that that analysis wasn't correct so then we hired somebody and then they got to work on it, then the Superintendent's predecessor looked at it and said okay that needs to be changed. We really did a significant amount of work on it to get it back up to where it needed to be. I think the conversation that we need to have now that we've talked a little bit about is really looking at the wastewater plans moving forward because the analysis has been completed. Perhaps we don't have to do the increase. Maybe we can look at other costs and whether they should be bonded or paid for with cash, and whether it should be strictly a rate increase or not. I think the Chairman has indicated that we'll have a meeting to talk a little bit more about that to try to make some decisions over the best approach to that. Alderman Deane I appreciate your answers. I understand that Alderman McCarthy wants to meet at a separate time and a separate date to discuss this. I was just wondering I really didn't want to hopefully get into a CERF situation with the wastewater treatment plant although borrowing money for capital improvements I think - we're doing it now because of the size of the project or whatever but when you look at capital outlay for depreciation, it would be nice to understand...they've given a pretty detailed list. It does really kind of drop off. You have to also understand that everything is new or a lot of thing are new. The project Budget Review – 06/12/13 Page 5 moving forward obviously when you look at the sludge processing, mechanical piping, and all of this stuff, you're looking at $700,000 for that work. That's 2033 but I'm just trying to... Mayor Lozeau Mr. Chairman if I could I think it would be very beneficial for this group to have a more in depth discussion about it. Everybody has a different experience that they bring to the table. If we can find another way to solve the problem and still pay to get the work done, I think we're all better off. I welcome anybody's thoughts about okay maybe we should bond this but not this, or maybe we should do all cash and do it that way. It has seemed to be for such a long time a moving target. We're coming pretty close to the end of a lot of what has to be done. We'll start looking at replacement of some of the older parts which is as you know, we've been doing some of that as it relates to mechanical equipment. I think it's a really big project that we ought to get our arms around the best that we can. I think it warrants a discussion about that. That's what this rate analysis - I think it's a good starting point but I don't think it has to be the final solution. I think there's opportunities to talk more about it. Alderman Deane I agree with you. That whole cash liquidation thing just really bothers me that that went on. Yeah there was a lot of cash but as we've discussed in this room, the plan was to bond those necessary improvements or required improvements in the out years and maintain a healthy balance in our capital account so that we wouldn't be in the same predicament that we are in the CERF where we're bonding fire trucks and now we're purchasing vehicles like the trash trucks that are very, very expensive and have a 7 year life on them at $300,000 a pop. You're putting away $42,000 a year for 7 years to replace those when they finally wear out. I don't know. This list is pretty set in stone right? Mayor Lozeau That was in the wastewater plan? Alderman Deane Yeah. Mayor Lozeau I think so. Alderman Deane When I go through all of this, all of this stuff is going to be done...have they totaled up what they're going to need for available cash for - the biggest item I see other than the anaerobic digester grinder which is $100,000 is $140,000 for a sewerage pump three plus the controls. The primary tanks chain of flights isn't that part of that project down that they're doing to replace all that stuff? Mayor Lozeau I'm not sure if it's all in the same project but there is some of that being done as part of the project. When we did the presentation that night, we put up the screen that kind of walked through kind of the history and what the big components left in the project are, and when we anticipated them being done. Budget Review – 06/12/13 Page 6 So I'm trying to remember Alderman Deane but I'm not sure. You can appreciate I have a lot of different numbers running around in my head. Alderman Deane Yeah we all do kind of. When Alderman McCarthy calls that special meeting, can you Mr. Griffin look at I guess I can look at the uncompleted project status report document that I have to look at some of it but can you find out just exactly what's going to be happening in 2014 pertaining to what they have? They have quite a few items listed in here. I'd just like to know what the net effect of that is. I can go through and add them all up I guess. Mayor Lozeau We'll be prepared for that. John Griffin Yeah. Just for background purposes, in order to put together the right revenue requirement study, the team over at wastewater analyzes the then current replacement schedule, determines whether the items need to be replaced, and validates whether they're in 2013, 2014, 2015, etc. 2015 is going to be a challenge where you will notice some gray shaded boxes that maybe appropriate to bond as opposed to paying cash. So similar to the CERF schedule, in certain fiscal years the capital requirements may be significantly greater than an average capital requirement. We talked about that the other night with ladder trucks, towers, and things like that that no matter how much you put away, it's very difficult to have that cash available. The other thing that will clearly describe because I think it is very important, is to go back to 2002 forward and do a cash requirements look at the fund and there will be no mystery as to how the cash was spent at that point. What the Mayor just referenced, the drain on the fund from '04 to '07 such that you went from a very large positive number to a minus 6 million number, that tells you that you spent more than you had the capacity to spend number one, or we didn't bond enough for the capital projects that had been identified. I know there was a lot of discussion back then but the most recent presentation is we're talking about $70 million worth of investment in capital projects. Alderman Deane But back in that time frame, I don't think any bonds were they for wastewater? John Griffin No. Mayor Lozeau No. The question is Alderman Deane when you look back at it, it's easy to be the Monday morning quarterback but when you look back at it, you have to ask yourself whether we should have bonded something that we didn't or whether we should have increased the rate at some point sooner than we did, or you know what I mean. I think that at some point when they knew that the build was going to start happening and they knew that it was a million a month, that was the time that somebody should have come in here and said we need to look at this. Budget Review – 06/12/13 Page 7 Alderman Deane I believe what we were told back then was the design and engineering, they were going to start that and they were going to fund it out of retained earnings and then once the actual approvals through the entire process were completed and the construction was going to start, they were going to start the construction and then they were going to come in. At that point in time, they'd have a good idea of the beginning of the project what the project cost was and come in and let a bond cover the cost of the construction. It appears to me is what they did is they just kept spending out of retained earnings and then the day came when they came in and said you know what we have a problem at wastewater we're out of money. Mayor Lozeau I can remember asking the question of Mr. Seymour who as you know really knows the wastewater stuff very well and asking him - it was in my first few months in here seeing well there's a lot of money going...his response was well we're at that point where we've got to build all these components and so we understood that piece of it. I think that the piece that was missing was the financial discussion about what should be done. So he's worrying about managing and building and doing what he needs to do under all the agreements, and the timing, and the schedules, and all that stuff but from my perspective, and I could be wrong, but we didn't have somebody on the other end saying okay so what's the plan? What's the analysis? There's a big stretch where that didn't happen. I agree. We shouldn't do that again. It should be... Alderman Deane It's where the expenditures exceeded the revenue and then some. Mayor Lozeau Exactly. Alderman Deane You had the operational costs of the facility plus the capital improvements. Can you, if you don't mind, discuss the philosophy behind this plant manager position and what the benefits are? Mayor Lozeau Mr. Chairman, I can explain it from the perspective that I have. I think a better explanation would come from the Director and from the Superintendent. The reason that the Board of Public Works made this decision was because we were looking at what the demands were and what the skill level had to be particularly around the ability of the Superintendent to be able to take care of all of the monitoring and reporting that has to be done. You can appreciate it, it's pretty significant from EPA and DES the requirements. So you really need a couple of people that have a sense of that and you need somebody that's really going to be on top of the plant so the Superintendent is able to do some of the other work that needs to be done, including the problem surrounding the phone that they were looking at and things like that. When we were looking at hiring a foreman for the position, we had that foreman position posted 189 days if not more and had no bites on it. No qualified candidates on that. Budget Review – 06/12/13 Page 8 Alderman Deane Well a lot of the guys that they hired over there other than some that worked within the plant to the best of my recollection came from outside. They came from other facilities. It wasn't like you could transfer from the Park Department to Wastewater. There's the criteria of the job is just totally different than going from like Parks to Streets or whatever. Mayor Lozeau Right so if you have somebody, you want to be able to build a job that meets the skills and demands you need for a growing plant. When we're done, it's going to be significant. It needs to pay enough to be able to attract that position and it has to be more responsibility than a foreman. So that's where we ended up. For some people in the plant, I don't think they were interested in the foreman position. I'm not sure that any of them would have qualified. I'm not certain if we're going to get bites or how soon we might get bites. I'd like to think that we would do better than we did with the foreman. So we've implemented a plan and that includes changing the responsibilities as I said. We need somebody that can really - we had the wet weather facility on Friday night. The Superintendent always comes in when that's on. There's just a lot of moving parts - no pun intended as you can certainly understand. Alderman Deane Basically other than the title, it's basically an Assistant Superintendent or an Operations Manager of the plant itself who can fill in when the Superintendent isn't there but can run the facility and basically act in the Superintendent's behalf or is going to be aware enough to maybe not file all the paperwork but have an understanding of the mechanics of the plant. Mayor Lozeau Understand the mechanics of the plant, the monitoring that might be necessary. We didn't think that it was an Operation Manager position. We looked outside and talked to other companies like Veolia and others about how they're running theirs and other communities. That's where the Plant Manager position came in. They mimicked what they were seeing in other communities. As you know, our Superintendent is actually very knowledgeable in this field and is called on often times from people throughout the region. He speaks at conferences. He's out there doing stuff. He came back and this was - it started as his recommendation to solve the problem that he had relating to the foreman position. I don't think that I can do it the justice that he certainly could. Alderman Deane I like the guy. I think he does a good job. Mayor Lozeau He does do a good job. Alderman Deane He's up front and... Budget Review – 06/12/13 Page 9 Mayor Lozeau It's growing and the responsibilities there are growing. We can't afford to be in noncompliance with anything. There's too much at stake. Alderman Deane I guess you can look at how - when you look at a facility like this, this is probably one of the most important facilities in the City in my mind anyways - the wastewater treatment plant. If there was catastrophic failure, the wastewater plant you'd be able to see the glowing phone lines on Main Street. When you look at these other departments - so if the Superintendent decided he was going to up and leave, what would happen? Who would be there to assume the role and responsibilities of the Superintendent of the wastewater plant? Mayor Lozeau The bench is not very deep Alderman Deane. That's an analysis that we've done for every department. We did do a catastrophic failure analysis - emergency management and the Superintendent, and the Director of Public Works. So they've documented what are the things that we need to be prepared for if something like that happens. So that's been done. Equipment identified and things like that. You're right. If something was happening and the Superintendent wasn't available for whatever reason or at some point he's going to age like everybody else, what do you do then? As I mentioned before, this field wastewater does not generate a lot of new people coming into the field. I also mentioned that we see that same thing at Pennichuck. There are just not people going into that field. It's similar to some of the manufacturing jobs. When we go out and meet with businesses in the community and they say I need skilled people to work in my manufacturing plant, people think about manufacturing as those dirty finger nail jobs that they don't want their kids doing. They don't recognize that there are different kinds of manufacturing and that it's actually a very highly skilled job. There's efforts underway and a lot of those different things to introduce more people into the field. We're trying to do what we can to make sure that we run the plant in a safe and healthy manner in compliance. Alderman Deane In his absence who on this list of folks that work there would step in to take over the reins of the treatment plant? Mayor Lozeau We have a Division Operations Manager who could be there to assist in some things but typically if the Superintendent of Wastewater is on vacation, the Plant Manger that we're hoping to have - you've got the Collection Foreman and the Maintenance Foreman, and folks like that that can help. I think we really wanted that other foreman position filled and it wasn't. That's what we're trying to get to and I'm hopeful that we have a qualified candidate willing to take on that responsibility. Alderman Deane Okay I guess it would be if something did happen, I guess it would be a team effort amongst the long list of folks on this list. Budget Review – 06/12/13 Page 10 Mayor Lozeau It would be. I mean the closest one that I can think of after losing Mr. Sheehan is Mr. Adie. I'm only mentioning his name because I'm not sure which of these positions is his title. He'd be the closest one... Alderman Deane He's been there a long time. Mayor Lozeau Exactly. He's the one that we've looked to in the past and as I've said, we've looked to Mr. Sheehan too. He was very good as well. Alderman Deane Well he retired didn't he? Mayor Lozeau He did. That's how the position opened up. Alderman Deane Thank you Mr. Chairman. Alderman Pressly Thank you Mr. Chairman. As you know I'm not a voting member of this committee but I like to come because I always learn a lot. The last couple of times I decided to watch you all at home and I heard something that brought me in tonight to ask about. I don't know if it was an off the hand comment - off the cuff comment - or if it's part of the budget. I heard the Mayor indicate that she is planning to take the future funds that are received from the Pennichuck Corporation from the eminent domain costs reimbursement after the regional is played. She intended or had hoped to put it into Public Works for streets or sidewalks fund. I'm wondering if she understood and if the rest of you understand that I've had legislation in for over a year at the water committee regarding what to do with that money. It was first read in August 14, 2012 and we've only had 4 meetings since then. Three of them were very specific. The Pennichuck people were here. We didn't deal with it. I am concerned about that and my legislation had specifically suggested that any funds that were given back from the purchase would go into the conservation fund. I remember at the time the Mayor was not happy about that. I had hoped that through this legislation we would have some sort of discussion. There are other funds in the City that are related to land use and the environment. One that comes to mind is the river fund. I think it's really important - I know it is to me and I think for those of you who were around when the Pennichuck was debated extensively, I think whatever that money was spent basically with the hopes of saving land. I think if any of it is reimbursed, it should be somehow related to the protection of the land. There are other funds if the Aldermen believe the conservation fund is not the place to put it, to find another environmentally sensitive area that would honor the land and not just go into a routine maintenance. I don't remember if it was streets or sidewalks but you had mentioned you were going to do that. I don't know if that's part of the budget or not. You probably did not know that this legislation Budget Review – 06/12/13 Page 11 has been there this long. There have been many reasons that we've talked a lot about having water meetings and other events have sort of taken precedent. I hope that there was nothing in the budget that finalized what I heard the Mayor say. If so, I hope that it could be debated in a different venue. Chairman McCarthy There is nothing in the budget related to the disposition of the Pennichuck money at all. Mayor Lozeau That's correct. Alderman Pressly But I did hear you say you were intending to put it into - did you not say that at the Budget meeting? Chairman McCarthy It's an issue that this Board was going to have to take up when the money is available to deal with. Alderman Pressly I just wanted to clarify that it's not a done deal and to sort of indicated that I think we really should - I'm hoping that it will become an issue that we can debate, and talk about, and decide where that because there will be disbursements on a year for the next 5 years I believe. The first year there will be less of it. It's not a secure amount. It can vary. I see the Chairman shaking his head so maybe you have a different opinion but I hope we keep an open mind. Chairman McCarthy It's a debate for when that money is available. It has nothing to do with the budget that's in front of us. Alderman Pressly Okay but there was a statement made. So that's what brought me here. Mayor Lozeau Mr. Chairman I made the statement Alderman Pressly in the context as Alderman McCarthy has described. There'll be another opportunity for the forum. I was talking about it. I would like the money to go to paving. I intend to bring in legislation relative to that when the time comes. I understand that yours is in with conservation and I think it's a healthy debate and discussion to make a decision by this Board on where they want those funds to go. It does not have anything to do with this budget. Alderman Cookson Just a quick follow up on the Plant Manager discussion. Seeing that this is - and correct me if the terminology is incorrect - this is a new job description in the Wastewater Plant. Is there a new PDF associated with it? Budget Review – 06/12/13 Page 12 Mayor Lozeau There is and it replaces the foreman position. Alderman Cookson All right. And it will only be posted as a vacancy or you will only go out to search for that individual to take on that responsibility after the budget is approved? Mayor Lozeau I'm not sure if we've posted that position yet. It's a position that... Alderman Cookson Are you actively searching now? Mayor Lozeau I can't answer that one directly. I would not... Alderman Cookson Can you answer it indirectly? Mayor Lozeau No I'm sorry. Let me choose my words more carefully. Alderman Deane Point of information. Mayor at the last meeting you stated it was not posted. Mayor Lozeau Thank you. What I was going to say is I just can't recall right now sitting in this chair whether it's posted or not. I can tell you that the vacant foreman position has been vacant for a long time. That creates a problem with the union as well because we are supposed to as you know post it and hire within a widow or eliminate the position. Alderman Cookson All right well that was part of the question. I didn't see it posted and I was curious if you would only post it after the budget was approved or not. Mayor Lozeau I don't believe Alderman Cookson that that's the driving factor. It would certainly be helpful. Budget Review – 06/12/13 Page 13 Alderman Cookson Very good. I had just a few more questions if I might. I had a question about the Building and Utilities Inspector. I believe that is... Chairman McCarthy In the wastewater fund? Alderman Cookson Unfortunately it's not. I'm happy if there are any other questions. Alderman Deane On page 206 Mr. Griffin under the debt that's issued and I know Mr. Fredette is working diligently on reworking some of these interest rates. Is there anything included here? The digester since that's a State revolving loan, can there be refunding on that? Can we work that to a lower rate? We still have 9 years left on it but we're paying 4.46. Can that be included in that? Mayor Lozeau That is included in what he's looking at. Alderman Deane But we haven't seen a - I know we authorize the $38 million is that what it was? Mayor Lozeau I believe it was 28. I know that he's looking at it. What he's looking at right now is whether or not we can get a better rate from the State Revolving Loan Fund or whether we can get a better rate by doing it as a bond - refunding, refinancing. So that's what he's looking at. I think right now he's leaning towards looking at probably a better rate from the State on the Revolving Loan Fund and a guaranteed rate. When he's completed that, we'll be certain to tell you which ones. I know that Alderman Pressly had asked to see which ones are captured and what that rate will be. Chairman McCarthy Will the State when interest rates are low basically adjust the rate on existing loans? John Griffin We'll refund to the refunding process. Mayor Lozeau They'll compete against the private sector one. So we were in a good position. Budget Review – 06/12/13 Page 14 Alderman Deane So we can take the Haines Street and the digester - Harbor Ave. What was the last rate he got 2.42? Mayor Lozeau 2.43? John Griffin 2.425 the new debt to be issued - storage tank, irration blower, dewatering equipment - 2.425. Alderman Deane What's the cost associated with going through that process? Mayor Lozeau Well if we're going through it with the State, I don't think we're going to have a cost at all. If we go out to refinance for bonds, I think its minimus. I think that he looks at whether that value outweighs whatever the costs might be. I think it depends on how much he does as well. Is that about right? John Griffin Correct. Alderman Deane So it's more than just picking up the phone and calling the State and saying hey by the way your interest rates are just a tad high? John Griffin That call is probably made and then once we basically told them the Board of Aldermen passed a resolution not to exceed. There is significant competition between the bonding folks and the State. As the Mayor indicated... Alderman Deane Is there a chance that it might even drop below the 2.425? John Griffin It may. I don't recall what the final numbers are but Mr. Fredette is diligently working on that effort right now and is very optimistic. Optimistic from the standpoint of reducing these rates that are shown on this page to something lower. Alderman Deane What are we getting for an interest rate on new debt? The 2.425? We could get that again? Budget Review – 06/12/13 Page 15 John Griffin According to Mr. Fredette, the bond market has ticked up a little bit. So we might be lucky once again with this and we get the 2.425. Mayor Lozeau That is the lowest that we've ever gotten. Alderman Deane Not low enough. That's why I'm looking...if you're looking at the refunding process and we're looking at wastewater and we can drop that... Mayor Lozeau Every little bit helps. Alderman Deane Take 2 points off that...well that's a lot. That's 2 points off the digester. We still owe a significant amount of money. It's probably one of the best things the City every did was putting in that digester. I'm all set in wastewater Mr. Chairman. Alderman Donchess Yes Mr. Chairman just on that same page. My recollection - I just wanted to see if my memory is correct. The new debts to be issued - bonds - are those all authorized but not yet issued? John Griffin Correct. Alderman Donchess Thank you. Chairman McCarthy Any other questions on wastewater? Alderman Cookson I did have a question as it relates to page 161. I know that there's a vacant position for Building Utilities Inspector. I didn't know whether that was a full time position or if it was the part time position which was vacant? Mayor Lozeau Alderman Cookson I'm just making sure that I understand the question. So is it building and utilities inspector that you're asking about? Budget Review – 06/12/13 Page 16 Alderman Cookson That is correct. Mayor Lozeau So we have 3 full time positions there. Alderman Cookson Correct and you also have a part time position in 2014 as well. I know that I see on the City's website that you've got a vacancy for Building and Utilities Inspector. It's been vacant since April of this year. The question was is that position that you have posted is that for the full time position or is that for the part time position? Mayor Lozeau I believe it's for the full time position. The Building and Utilities Inspector that we had in 2013 was a half time, part time, .50 and it's going to .75. Alderman Cookson The posting is for the full time position? Mayor Lozeau I'm not raising my right hand. It's either the full time position or the .75 position. I'm sorry. I just don't... Alderman Cookson Can we find out? Mayor Lozeau Oh sure. Alderman Cookson Thank you. Mayor Lozeau Maybe if I just take a minute, I can look it up. It probably says on the posting. Alderman Cookson I've got a couple more questions so if you do have the opportunity and we can resolve that this evening, that would be fine with me. I have a feeling that the Chairman might want to have a final vote on the budget this evening. Budget Review – 06/12/13 Page 17 Chairman McCarthy It would be nice. Alderman Cookson I also had a question on page 84, the Assessing Admin. Specialist I CSR. Again, vacant since March of this year. I was curious and I really apologize for asking for specific questions. Are there any applicants that have applied for this position and how close are we to offering it? Mayor Lozeau I'm looking up here and I'm digging up over there. They are in interviews. Alderman Cookson They're in interviews. First round? Second round? Mayor Lozeau I know that Mr. Marino was out for vacation. So I'm not sure that they've - I think they've determined the interviews. How many of those have happened yet I would say first round. Again if I have any of these on the spot answers incorrect, I will be certain to correct myself and let you all know. Alderman Cookson Thank you. A question for the Chairman the Legislative Transcription Specialist that's identified on page 55, Department 102 for the Board of Aldermen. What are our plans with that position? Has that been posted? Chairman McCarthy No it has not. Alderman Cookson Let me rephrase that. I see a posting here for Legislative Transcription Specialist, job ID173, posted on February 21st. Are we moving forward with that position? Chairman McCarthy February was I think the second round where we hired someone who left within a week of being hired. Alderman Cookson Okay. So could somebody - would they like to speak to somebody in the HR Department to find out why - is the position going to continue to be posted or... Budget Review – 06/12/13 Page 18 Alderman Wilshire I know that the Legislative Manager was hoping to get through budget because of all the minutes and all the time she spent being tied up doing this, she didn't want to dedicate to training someone and falling behind on this. So she was hoping that as soon as we got the budget passed and all the minutes done that she would have time at that point to train someone. Chairman McCarthy I'm going to review that with her after the budget is done. What we've done through the budget process is simply to hire out the additional transcriptions. Alderman Cookson Understood. Chairman McCarthy We're actually able to keep up with the load and I'm not prone to hire someone at this point because it is a lot cheaper to do it the way we're doing it because there's a benefits cost of course. Alderman Cookson So remind me Mr. Chairman that $28,000 or the $27,000 that is slated for this individual in the fiscal year 2013 budget, that money are being diverted to pay for the outsourcing of the transcription? Chairman McCarthy That would be moved into the other services account at some point when we make that decision. Alderman Cookson Okay so with that being said... Chairman McCarthy I would point out that if you look at line item 52300, none of that expense is for our Legislative Manager. Alderman Cookson You're looking at page 60. You're saying that value of $17,000 is what? Chairman McCarthy Was entirely the Transcription Specialists benefits package. So when I look at what that position... Alderman Cookson Where's the other full time benefits package? Budget Review – 06/12/13 Page 19 Chairman McCarthy Our Legislative Manager does not receive health care through the City. There may be some portion of it that's in there but the majority of it is not. We do not incur for that employee. Alderman Cookson Thank you. Chairman McCarthy So when I look at the cost of the position and the amount of time that we actually need 2 people to deal with, it just doesn't strike me that filling that position over and over again, which seems to be the only way can keep it filled, is the right way to go. Alderman Cookson All right so in 53 the stenographic services, that's the line item that's being used for transcription? Chairman McCarthy Yup. Alderman Cookson And we've got $250 in there for 2014. Spent year to date - well through March $4,000. Chairman McCarthy Right. We had transferred some money into there this year. Alderman Cookson How much do you recall? Chairman McCarthy It was around $5,000 I think. I don't remember the exact number. Alderman Cookson Mr. Griffin would you happen to have that number for 53428 actual through I believe you had June 5th? John Griffin I don't have the June 5th other than summary. I would be able to put my hands on April but monthly from time to time I get transfer requests from the Legislative Management office to transfer money from the salary line to the outsource line. Budget Review – 06/12/13 Page 20 Alderman Cookson Stenographic 53428. Mayor Lozeau While Mr. Griffin is doing that Mr. Chairman, the answer to your question Alderman Cookson is full time. Alderman Donchess Could I ask a question on this particular item while we're... Chairman McCarthy Sure. Alderman Donchess When we hire someone to do and the outsourcing is that by page or by the hour? How do we pay for that? Chairman McCarthy Typically by the hour. Alderman Donchess What is the hourly rate? Chairman McCarthy It varies somewhat. It's in the $13 to $20 range depending on who it is. An hours worth of meeting typically results in about 5 hours worth of transcription costs. Alderman Donchess Thank you. John Griffin If I may the answer to the question as of April 30, 2013, the available budget in stenographic services line is $5,350. We've expended to date would be $4,680. Alderman Cookson All right. So it doesn't seem like we're using a lot of the salary for that position and in fiscal year 2014, you're looking at $20,000. You're going to have a surplus this year I would guess in the neighborhood of $22,000? Budget Review – 06/12/13 Page 21 Chairman McCarthy That's probably about right. Mayor Lozeau Mr. Chairman I know that that number went up in May because of the budget - transcriptions. That's through April. I think it's... Chairman McCarthy I would imagine it would be in the $20,000 range and that will be just returned to surplus. Alderman Cookson And you said this process is going to move forward after the budget is adopted in the next fiscal year. You will begin in earnest looking for a Legislative Transcription Specialist? Chairman McCarthy No. What I said was we'll begin an earnest evaluating whether we want to fill the position or not. If we decide that we do, we'll begin in earnest looking for a Transcription Specialist. Alderman Cookson In that case, I'd like to make a motion. MOTION BY ALDERMAN COOKSON TO REDUCE 51200, WAGES AND FULL TIME, DEPARTMENT 102 BOARD OF ALDERMEN, BY $7,200 AND THE APPROPRIATE BENEFITS AS WELL ASSOCIATED WITH THAT POSITION ON THE QUESTION Chairman McCarthy Would you like to explain where that number comes from? Alderman Cookson Certainly. It comes specifically from the Legislative Transcription Specialist that we've just been discussing. Depending on the length of time it's going to take to bring somebody in, we've got $20,000 potentially surplus in fiscal year 2013 and I've taken a quarter of the salary, reduced it for the search process, so that's where the $7,200 gets reduced. So you have approximately $21,000. Alderman Deane 51200. Mayor Lozeau You want it from the part time not the full time. Budget Review – 06/12/13 Page 22 Alderman Cookson Thank you. It's 51200. My apologies. Chairman McCarthy My only concern with that is that if we fill the position, that then makes us have a 25 percent increase in the budget for that position simply to return it to full year funding next year. Alderman Deane What are you anticipating for unexpended appropriations in this line? Chairman McCarthy $20,000 there abouts. Alderman Deane What are your plans with the escrow process to go into the general fund? Chairman McCarthy I have no plan. I would let them lapse at this point although we're looking at where the money to fund the technology program would come from. There may be an escrow request there. I just don't know yet. Alderman Deane Okay. Thanks. MOTION FAILED Alderman Cookson I've got similar motions for a few of the other positions. One being Superintendent of Streets is the one I would ask. I would make a similar motion to reduce it to 75 percent of the value with the associated fringe benefits, page 133 is where the dollar figure is and 138-51100 wages full time, Department 161 Streets reduce it to 75 percent of the $89,441 planned in fiscal year 2014. It would leave $67,000 in that line item. Chairman McCarthy What's the actual dollar reduction in the... Alderman Cookson $22,360. Budget Review – 06/12/13 Page 23 MOTION BY ALDERMAN COOKSON TO REDUCE DEPARTMENT 161, STREETS, LINE ITEM 51100, WAGES FULL TIME, BY $22,360 ON THE QUESTION Alderman Cookson Just a quick statement. We made the identical motion for the Community Development Director position the other evening. Seeing that these are very similar and the retirements, this is why I'm making the motion. It was adopted by the way the Community Development Director. Chairman McCarthy I voted for that motion because we believe we will hire that person at a substantially lower salary. I don't believe we'll replace the Street Superintendent for substantially less than the current was making because he's only been in the job a few years. I understand there will be some savings because the position will be vacant for what I hope is a very short while but I'm not convinced that we can save much out of the salary over the course of a year. Alderman Cookson Thank you. Alderman Deane Back to my favorite subject. The department created this position that totals $81,000. That's what it is right? Almost $82,000. It's second in command to the Public Works Director. I talked about this the other day. I really think that the Street Department is going to go down the path that they're going down, we need some people there that knows what's going on and you have to pay those people. To take somebody that's floating around now from wastewater, to streets, to park rec., to landfill, to the traffic department or whatever and pay them more than somebody that's going to be really qualified to run that department, I think you're going to be hard pressed to find an individual to...although people look at the Street Department - the employees are seasonal yeah, they're seasonal until it snows. It's an unpredictable job. Sometimes we have tough winters. Sometimes we don't. If you don't have those people in place and you don't have somebody who knows that they're doing, it's a situation where I get some heartburn with what went on. I know that I believe the Mayor had talked when we had talked about Superintendent of Parks' salary and how the Public Works Board wanted some parity amongst the Superintendents with their pay. That's how all this was done. I'm just wondering what sort of list of candidates we would get for that kind of money and what we'd expect out of them. This department spends a ton of money. Nothing they have is cheap. I just think that we need to find a qualified candidate and pay them a decent salary to run that department. There's a lot that goes on in that department. That's the bit of heartburn I have with this. The Community Development Director is a little different. A lot different. I didn't really have an issue with that but this I think - this is an important position to me anyways. I think a lot goes on. A lot of responsibilities and you have to fund...I wouldn't want to find a candidate that was predicated on a salary that we've offered and it didn't work out. Then you look at the financial damage we might be dealing with because of inexperience or whatever the case may be. I would just assume be able to leave the money in place and be able to hire a formidable candidate that's going to provide leadership and dollars that this department needs. Budget Review – 06/12/13 Page 24 Alderman Cookson I don't disagree with Alderman Deane. I guess my expectation is and what I've been seeing is it takes a while to find that qualified candidate. The math that was behind this was that the salary was prorated over - figured out a monthly salary and then multiplied by 9. That would give you 3 months to do a search and you would have $67,000 which would be probably what the individual would make in that fiscal year based on this same dollar figure. It's just that it's prorated based on a 3 month search to find a qualified candidate. I think 3 months is an appropriate time frame to go out and do that. So you either save the taxpayer's money now or you get it back at the end of next fiscal year. You know that your Superintendent of Streets isn't going to make $89,000. Chairman McCarthy Any further discussion? Everyone understands the motion. MOTION FAILED MOTION BY ALDERMAN WILSHIRE TO RECOMMEND FINAL PASSAGE OF R-13-123 AS AMENDED ON THE QUESTION Alderman Deane I'm not done yet. Chairman McCarthy Okay. Motions to amend while the motion for final passage is on the floor? Alderman Deane I wanted to go back to page 55. I wanted to speak to the Citizens Services Director position briefly. Mayor I'd like to thank the Director Hill of the Human Resources Department for providing me with a couple of files that my candy 1000 couldn't open. I finally figured out how to open it. Mayor Lozeau Should I admit that I don't know what a candy 5,000 is? Alderman Deane You used to buy them at Radio Shack. It was a DOS program. When you send docx files, I have problems. There is no PDF for the Citizen Services Director. The Public Works Department has a position that's a coordinator not a director with some tasks and job duties and responsibilities listed with it. As I wrote to the Human Resources Director that the Hay system pertaining to grade and step is all predicated on PDF. That's the way it works and that's the way everybody in the merit plan works. I think a PDF should be drafted up for this and the duty should be looked at. I found it interesting when I looked through the work conditions and environmental factors under significant work pace pressure. Nature of reason of exposure was dealing with hostile uncooperative or uninformed persons. I hope I wasn't one that was being detailed in that area. Budget Review – 06/12/13 Page 25 Alderman Donchess What is he reading? Alderman Deane I'm looking at the PDF for the Citizen Services Coordinator for the Public Works Department. What I want to know is when the PDF is completed along with whatever evaluation process is done and a grade and step is defined. Say you don't have enough money to cover the job responsibilities as the PDF, the Hay, and everything that sets it. What are you going to do? How would you fund that? I know that there's always the reverse of that. What if the person is making too much money to begin with? That's really not a problem because - it's a problem for the person in the position but it's not a problem financially within the budget. If the person after the process is completed has to have an increase in compensation, where would you get the money for them to do that? Mayor Lozeau I think in the Mayor's office staff is different than other places in the city. So I think you and I may agree that the Director of Citizen Services in my office is underpaid for the work that happens as is the Executive Secretary AA in the office, which I discovered upon the search for the job description that you asked for. I have two staff in my office that don't have PDFs. One is my Executive Secretary/Administrative Assistant and the other one is the Communications Director. I looked back in other prior Mayor budgets to see what some of their staff was paid and would I consider similar positions. It was more than I was paying. Mr. Diaz was able to help me find an e-mail trail that he and I had - well that actually he and the Director of Citizen Services had had looking for PDFs in 2007 when we were making the transition in looking for PDFs for positions that were in the current Mayor's office. They didn't have the ones that applied to the things that we were interested in doing. Then there was one that went and said could we get an electronic version of the following ones. Got them and then asked for others and said don't have those. But had to start from scratch on some of them and that's like why that never got completed. Then you get into office but we looked at what the pay was. One of the things I wanted to be careful of in my office is I didn't want to set it up as Chief of Staff, Office Manager, those kinds of things. I wanted people's jobs to be more about kind of specific duties and have them be colleagues and not one person made a greater salary than somebody else. So if you look at the staff in my office, they're pretty much all in the same striking distance of each other. The Citizens Services Director started one step above everybody else in the office because she had a lot of experience having been a former city employee working for two different divisions in the city. So I knew that she would be in a position where she would be helping to train the others in the office - the lay of the land and that sort of thing. So that was something that she and I negotiated when she started. We included the HR Director in the discussions at the time and interestingly enough, the HR Director who was the Director when I came in from my transition had just started in November. We were a little bit without some of that as I like to call it "institutional knowledge" about how some of it had been done before. So I had looked at the salary budget in the Mayor's office for prior years, divvied it up differently amongst my staff, and had one less position. When you see an increase in my budget at some point, I want to say it was probably a good 2 to 2 1/2 years in was when we hired the position downstairs - the Resource Coordinator that took on the responsibilities of the information line that the City Clerk's office used to handle and the HR Department used to handle and took on directing people, and took on some responsibilities in Mr. Fredette's job and that changed. That position and the receptionist position are both in the 30s versus the other 3 positions that are in the 40s in my office. I think it's probably a good Budget Review – 06/12/13 Page 26 exercise to go through creating a PDF and if I ran into trouble with both of those PDFs being underpaid, I think the staff would have to live with it until the time came that we're in a position to change it. As you know, I'm fortunate to have really top notch staff that enjoys their job, although some days I'm not sure the Director of Citizen services doesn't want to run out with her hair on fire. Some days are more challenging than others. I don't think that it would be a problem. I don't think I would lose them because of that and I'm grateful for that. Alderman Deane I always thought all the discussion that we had about the merit plan was to get everybody on the grid, and everybody in their right grade, and everybody in the right step. Just hear me out for a second. You're of the opinion was well how I understand it is if these two positions, a PDF should be done. It's required by Ordinance to be done regardless. It's like if they come in and it's done and they're below their step and their grade, they can just suck it up and deal with it. I don't know. I look at a lot of this and I look at a lot of spending that goes on but if you're going to have staff in place and you go through this whole Hay system and the way the evaluation works, then they should be dropped in on a grade and a step where they should be according to the same process that everybody else is on. Mayor Lozeau Mr. Chairman if I could. I don't disagree Alderman Deane. It was not purposeful but that never happened. Alderman Deane I'm not saying it was. Mayor Lozeau I know. I know you're not. So I just thought we brought them in at a reasonable salary. As I said, we worked with the HR Director. I know that I had the intention to do the PDFs. As Mr. Diaz pointed out to me, that's why I think he showed me the e-mails cuz he knew that I was concerned that that had happened. Do I think that we should do those PDFs and go through the exercise of them being on the Hay system, I do. If there's an opportunity to do that and pay them properly, I certainly would like to do that. What I guess I'm saying is should I not be in a position to pay them more, I think we're fortunate enough not to lose them over that. If I come into next year's budget and say here's what it looks like and here's what I should do - if it's significantly different, then maybe we should have a discussion. Chairman McCarthy I don't think that's the issue that Alderman Deane is bringing up which is if we go through and scientifically set the grade based on the PDF and from looking at it, the Citizen Services Director is currently grade 12. If we were to decide that that position was really grade 14, then by Ordinance we would be required to pay that position substantially more. I think the question is what do we do...it's not an option to just say do you want to work for less cuz the Ordinance says this is what you get paid. The question is what do we do in that case. Mayor Lozeau I think I understand that to be the question. I think the best thing to do is to do it sooner rather than later so that we can look at any surplus that I may have in my budget and come in and make the case Budget Review – 06/12/13 Page 27 for this is what it is. There are some jobs that you look at and you can I think all of us can think of some that you couldn't pay me enough to do the job. Other jobs that you think you could never pay the person what their value. Some of these jobs are like that but we do have the Hay system as you've identified and we've talked about and I did not know that we had not completed that task. So I'm willing to do that and then we'll see where things fall. Alderman Deane What do you mean where things fall? Mayor Lozeau Where things they fall on the grade and the steps. Alderman Deane What are you anticipating for surplus? Mayor Lozeau I don't know exactly. My receptionist recently just moved downstairs. Alderman Deane What do you mean she moved her desk and everything? Which receptionist is that the Resources Coordinator lady? Mayor Lozeau No, no, no the Secretary Receptionist. The one that answers the phone when you walk in the Mayor's office. Alderman Deane The Executive Secretary? Mayor Lozeau No that's Ms. Cloutier. Alderman Deane Secretary Receptionist. Mayor Lozeau Secretary Receptionist. That's the job. Alderman Deane So she bailed. Budget Review – 06/12/13 Page 28 Mayor Lozeau She got a better opportunity let's just say. Alderman Deane Money is better on the first floor? Mayor Lozeau That it is. Alderman Deane Did she have a PDF? Mayor Lozeau Yes. Chairman McCarthy Now she apparently has a better one. Mayor Lozeau That she does. So I would anticipate - it's only been a week but I would anticipate that they'll be a little something there. I don't know Alderman Deane. It guess it will have to depend on how much of a difference there is between where we are right now and where they maybe should be. Alderman Deane Well yeah, I can't wait to see the PDF. I think you should take the hostile stuff out of here but... Mayor Lozeau Actually I think somebody in that position should know that. Alderman Deane A chance that one time when they answer the phone there might be a somebody on the other end - Santa Claus isn't always on the end of the phone. Mayor Lozeau Alderman Deane we've had times where we've actually had to call the police in the office. We have an emergency plan for people that sometimes that come in the office in not the best frame of mind. Alderman Deane Yeah we had a button here that used to do that. Budget Review – 06/12/13 Page 29 Mayor Lozeau We have those too but we also have another system. Alderman Deane Remember when Jim Mealey picked it up when we were reviewing the School District's budget. He picks up the remote and says what's this thing for and he pushed it. I said well in about 2 minutes you're going to find out. I said the School Department will get the bill and all these police officers showed up. I just pointed to him. I said he's the one who pushed it. Mayor Lozeau That happened to me my first Saturday when we were moving into the office. People were in helping us get everything straightened out, picked it up, thought it was like a doorbell that somebody used for something, and all of a sudden there were 3 or 4 officers in the office. I said hi, don't know how you got in. It did make you feel a little safe. I will go through that exercise. Alderman Deane I don't agree with creating this other position. I don't know what anybody else does but anytime - I have a Public Works thing, I just send it to Patti. Like when the trees almost fell on those St. Chris kids coming out of Greeley Street. Greeley Street starts and Sargent Avenue goes all the way down to the corner. Artillery Lane starts in the corner and just that little strip of roadway that goes up in the back of Holman. That's all Greeley Street there. That was taken care of and she got a hold of the tree warden to go down. Those little kids were walking back and a huge limb fell out in the street. I guess the Park Department cleaned it up. I think this is a duplication of efforts. I attempted to cut it and my colleagues felt otherwise. Mayor Lozeau Mr. Chairman just for what it's worth Alderman Deane. It's a huge job in my office. Although she does a remarkable job, it's just a never ending stream of work for what she's doing as responsible for the Mayor's office; her responsibilities for constituent services trying to work with all of you; her navigating through Public Works at the same time. We're trying to find a way to efficiently deliver as much service as we can. The letters and some of those other things that should be going out directly from Public Works for the people that go directly to Public Works needs some level of a similar service. Alderman Deane What letters? Mayor Lozeau We hand out letters to people telling them their street is going to be paved, or we let them know that there's a disruption coming and if they... Alderman Deane Is there somebody in charge of the administrators over there? Budget Review – 06/12/13 Page 30 Mayor Lozeau There is. Alderman Deane And who's that? Mayor Lozeau The Executive Secretary for the Director. Actually, the Financial Manager has been doing that because there was an extended absence. Things happen but I think that the Board of Public Works has taken a hard look at this and recommended that we do this. That's why it's in the budget. Alderman Deane I think it's a service that's already being performed and I think the balance of the other stuff can be dealt with administratively over there. I don't think that position is needed. That's just my opinion. What's the PDF timeline? I know it's probably not on the top of your list but how long would it take for the Human Resources Director to perform such a task? This one didn't take long. It's in the budget right? Mayor Lozeau Well that had been done before the budget. Alderman Deane Well the Director never signed off on it cuz the Director is supposed to highlight it - red pencil in the appropriate spaces and contact the HR Department if you want to make revisions. So this is the final... Mayor Lozeau I don't know Alderman Deane. I don't know if it's still on my desk for signature also. Alderman Deane There's... Mayor Lozeau I've got a stack of PDFs, some of which get out faster than others. But sometimes the draft PDF is what we go with until everybody has a chance for review. It's always our goal to make sure we have the final before somebody is hired. That doesn't always happen. Alderman Deane But the position is posted right? Mayor Lozeau The position is posted. Budget Review – 06/12/13 Page 31 Alderman Deane Unnecessary. Thank you Mr. Chairman. Alderman Donchess Yes Mr. Chairman. I want to turn to page 238 in the blue section. I'm looking at line 7042, which is a welfare trust fund in the amount of $357,458. MOTION BY ALDERMAN DONCHESS TO REDUCE LINE 7042 WELFARE TRUST FUND BY $157,458 TO MAKE IF $200,000 ON THE QUESTION Chairman McCarthy You can't do that. That's the balance that's in the account. Alderman Donchess Well it could be done by resolution. Chairman McCarthy We'd have to transfer the money somewhere. We can't just make it not exist. This is money that has been transferred out of the welfare line into the trust fund for use in a future year. Alderman Donchess But it could be done by resolution? Chairman McCarthy What could be done by resolution? Alderman Donchess Money could be transferred out of it and this is a resolution. The budget is a resolution. Chairman McCarthy Where do you want to transfer it to? Alderman Donchess Into the fund that will reduce the tax rate. Chairman McCarthy I think that would be best done as a separate resolution and not as part of the budget resolution. Budget Review – 06/12/13 Page 32 Alderman Donchess Okay. Alderman Cookson Just a quick question. The performance evaluation process. Each employee gets an evaluation annually. Can you tell me what the time frame is on that when the evaluations are complete and finally delivered to the HR Director? Mayor Lozeau Mr. Chairman they all have to be complete for July 1st. So reminders go out. The only exception to that is the staff in my office that gets their performance evaluations on their anniversary dates, except for the new hires. So the people that have been in my office since January of my first year get it on January as does the City Legal Counsel. Alderman Cookson So they have to be into Director Hill by the first of July? Mayor Lozeau Correct. Alderman Cookson Do they come in on the first or do they float in? Mayor Lozeau Most of them are in before then. Alderman Cookson Fire too? Mayor Lozeau Yes. Alderman Cookson I know that I had asked this the other evening and it was that about unsatisfactory performance. Is that your decision not to share that information? Mayor Lozeau No. It's actually - we are in a process where a significant amount of what we do as it relates to our employees is public information. So for instance if you said to me right now as The Telegraph has done every year, please give me a list of the names of all your employees and what their pay is. We provide it. Budget Review – 06/12/13 Page 33 Alderman Cookson Correct. Mayor Lozeau If you say I want a list of when they were hired. We provide it. When they left, what their compensation was when they left, all that is public information. It would not be hard for somebody to then take a look at people's pay and try to determine whether they didn't get an increase because of a poor performance or something like that. We owe it to our employees to keep their personnel information about their job performance confidential. It's not like when a company could say well I can tell you that I've got 100 employees and 5 are on probation. I can't tell you that because it's too easy for you to discern who those are. I think that that's a problem. So it is a decision that myself, legal counsel, HR Director have recommended that information not be provided. As a matter of fact, we don't even track that information. Each manager and director is responsible for anybody they're working with that has a corrective action plan or whatever the case may be. Different union contracts require different things. Some purge after a certain amount of time. Some don't purge at all. Some can't be put in their file. It depends. With 15 bargaining units, they're not all harmonious about how that happens. So I wouldn't provide that. Alderman Cookson Can Legal provide that opinion that you've just spoken of? Mayor Lozeau Certainly. I don't think they've written it down but I'll ask them to do that. Alderman Deane Mayor your Executive Secretary that position was approved by the Board of Aldermen right? Mayor Lozeau Yes. Alderman Deane So that's you're Administrative Assistant. Mayor Lozeau That's why it says Executive Secretary/AA. Alderman Deane So if that position was to be personnel change would have to come back here right? Mayor Lozeau That's right. There's an ordinance that says this Board approves that hire. Budget Review – 06/12/13 Page 34 Alderman Deane Is that the only hire? Mayor Lozeau In my office, yes. You also approve outside of my office you approve Corporation Counsel, Public Health, and City Treasurer, and Welfare Officer. Alderman Deane Can you tell me what the Communications Director does? Mayor Lozeau Communication Director does a significant amount. The Communication Director is responsible for all resolutions, proclamations, responsible for all of the management for my outside events that I attend, manages letters that go out, manages press calls, manages boards and commissions, all the volunteer interviews, all of the letters that go out to the volunteers on boards and commissions... Alderman Deane If that's the case, what does the Executive Secretary do? Mayor Lozeau All of the internal work. I think to date I've had over 300 events that I've attended off site coordinated by communications as far as - so if somebody wants to come in and see me in the office, that goes through the Executive Secretary. She also manages all of my correspondence that is not - for instance if I send a letter to Nashua High School South thanking them for or congratulating somebody for something, that would happen through communications work. If I send a letter to a State department responding to a letter they sent to me, that would happen from the Executive Secretary. Alderman Deane So other than responding to letters, what else does that position do the Executive Secretary? Mayor Lozeau Manages my calendar. Alderman Deane I thought that was the Communication person that dealt with the calendar. Mayor Lozeau Only external. Budget Review – 06/12/13 Page 35 Alderman Deane Internal calendar. Mayor Lozeau Exactly. Sets up appointments, returns the phone calls, manages the legislative information that I need for meetings. Alderman Deane What does the Secretary/Receptionist do? Mayor Lozeau Answers the incoming phone calls, manages the filing, works on - there isn't anybody in my office that doesn't have something to do Alderman Deane. I think you know that. I don't have anybody with time to burn. Alderman Deane Did I say that? Mayor Lozeau No I'm just saying it. Alderman Deane I wouldn't want you... Mayor Lozeau Just a significant amount of work. Alderman Deane I wouldn't want you to imply that I was making those... Alderman Deane I didn't intend to imply anything Alderman Deane. Alderman Deane Well I mean when you say stuff like that, it kind of sounds like it. I just want an understanding of what goes on in there. That's all. One lady went downstairs the Resource Coordinator. Mayor Lozeau So I have somebody filling in at the desk because I can't have somebody not there. Budget Review – 06/12/13 Page 36 Alderman Deane So the part time Communications Director and then you have 2 Communications Directors or just one? Mayor Lozeau I have one full time position. It's a job share by 2 people doing it part time. So I had a full time person in that job. Alderman Deane So one lady works at the Hunt right for half. Mayor Lozeau That's the other half of her time yes. It was an opportunity for me. When my full time person had to move to part time or leave, I kept her and looked for somebody that could fill in part time. Being a Hunt Trustee, I knew that they had an Administrator there that was working part time. So I approached that person and said would you like to have a full time job because if you can put 20 hours in on my job, then you can have a full time position. It's worked out beautifully. The Secretary/Receptionist manages all the e-mail that comes into the office. All the Mayor's office e-mail, all the questions that come in. Alderman Deane Thank you Mr. Chairman. Chairman McCarthy Anything else? Alderman Deane Do we normally discuss the uncompleted project status report during budget? Chairman McCarthy I don't remember discussing it during budget. Alderman Deane Are we going to do it during escrow? Chairman McCarthy Yeah that's probably a good place to do it. Alderman Deane Okay. Thank you. Budget Review – 06/12/13 Page 37 MOTION BY ALDERMAN WILSHIRE TO RECOMMEND FINAL PASSAGE OF R-13-123 AS AMENDED MOTION CARRIED Chairman McCarthy Mayor Lozeau do we have information and is there urgency to act on either R-13-116 or R-13-118? Mayor Lozeau Not the street lights... Chairman McCarthy The street lights and the Police Department contingency transfer. Mayor Lozeau The street lights I think we're pretty close to knowing what the number is. I think we could act on that. We've been waiting but happy to move that along. What's the other one? Chairman McCarthy R-13-118 the... Mayor Lozeau I don't think they've given us a final number yet have they Mr. Griffin? John Griffin I'm currently working with Ms. Smith at the Police Department. Chairman McCarthy Is there any urgency to do 116 street lighting? Mayor Lozeau I wouldn't say that its urgent but if we could have it before year end so we can pay the bill that would be good. Chairman McCarthy I anticipate we'll have at least one more meeting by then so. I had a question for you which is the communication received from Chief Seusing this evening. I don't know that - it was Alderman Donchess's question about whether overtime occurred on Saturdays and Sundays or week days. He points out that they have a problem actually figuring that out. Is that something CitiStat could help them with? Budget Review – 06/12/13 Page 38 Mayor Lozeau I'm sure they'd be happy to help them with it. They do that with other departments. If the police would like that, we'd be happy to help. Just let us know. Chairman McCarthy Anything else for the committee? Alderman Deane Mr. Chairman you're going to schedule another meeting? Chairman McCarthy At some point cuz we have other items. We need to have a meeting to go over the sewer user fee resolution. Alderman Deane Are we going to have a separate meeting just on that item? Chairman McCarthy Yes. Well we may include those two resolutions that we just talked about cuz I don't think we have much work to do on those other than amend the amounts but I anticipate having a full evening's meeting on the sewer user fee. Alderman Donchess Mr. Chair my intent in asking those two questions was the first one pertaining to the POP Unit was because at least I would like to see that Unit on the street as much as possible because I think it does an important job in fighting serious crimes. On the second one, the intent of the question is to see if the overtime money could be spent more efficiently if there's some kind of inefficient distribution of overtime. Chairman McCarthy Yeah his indication when I spoke to him today was that he didn't think that it was particularly unevenly distributed at all. It's pretty much the same on a daily basis. I think looking at the answer to question one, we didn't actually ask them to try to cut down on the overtime for the end of the year but simply to get us an accurate number of what it would be. I think they took the step of trying to keep the deficit to a minimum. As you recall, they told us that they had not hired full compliment in time to get the savings they thought they would. I think from what it looks like, we will make some transfer to cover the end of the year and they should actually be in pretty good shape for next year's budget based on the numbers that we've seen and what we think they'll get with the new officers and dispatchers that have been hired. UNFINISHED BUSINESS – None Budget Review – 06/12/13 Page 39 NEW BUSINESS - RESOLUTIONS R-13-123 Endorser: Mayor Donnalee Lozeau RELATIVE TO THE ADOPTION OF THE FISCAL YEAR 2014 PROPOSED BUDGET FOR THE CITY OF NASHUA GENERAL, ENTERPRISE, AND SPECIAL REVENUE FUNDS MOTION BY ALDERMAN WILSHIRE TO RECOMMEND FINAL PASSAGE OF R-13-123 AS AMENDED MOTION CARRIED NEW BUSINESS - ORDINANCES – None TABLED IN COMMITTEE R-12-69 Endorsers: Alderman-at-Large Jim Donchess Alderman-at-Large David W. Deane Alderman-at-Large Mark S. Cookson Alderman-at-Large Barbara Pressly Alderman Arthur T. Craffey, Jr. REGARDING ACCOUNTING FOR THE COSTS OF THE MAIN STREET PROJECT  Tabled 9/18/12  Also assigned to the Board of Public Works; Tabled 9/20/12 R-13-116 Endorser: Mayor Donnalee Lozeau RELATIVE TO THE TRANSFER OF $40,000 FROM DEPARTMENT 194 – CONTINGENCY INTO THE DEPARTMENT 162 – STREET LIGHTING, GENERAL FUND OPERATING BUDGET FOR THE PURPOSE OF FUNDING THE COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH STREET LIGHTING ABOVE THE AMOUNT BUDGETED IN FY2013  Tabled 5/16/13 R-13-118 Endorsers: Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire Alderman Arthur T. Craffey, Jr. Alderman Kathy Vitale Alderman Richard A. Dowd RELATIVE TO THE TRANSFER OF $33,143 FROM DEPARTMENT 194 – CONTINGENCY INTO DEPARTMENT 150 – POLICE FOR THE PURPOSE OF FUNDING THE PAYROLL AND NON- PAYROLL COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH THE HIRING OF TWO POLICE OFFICERS ABOVE THE 177 POSITIONS BUDGETED IN FY2013  Tabled 5/16/13 O-12-28 Endorser: Alderman Diane Sheehan PROHIBITING THE CITY FROM CHARGING FOR THE COSTS OF CERTAIN OFFICIAL VISITS AND CAMPAIGN EVENTS  Also assigned to Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee; Indefinite Postponement 12/17/12  Tabled – 11/28/12 Budget Review – 06/12/13 Page 40 O-13-39 Endorser: Mayor Donnalee Lozeau AMENDING SEWER USE FEES RATES AND CHARGES  Personnel/Administrative Affairs Cmte Referred to Budget and Tabled in Cmte – 5/6/13  Tabled 5/16/13 GENERAL DISCUSSION PUBLIC COMMENT Paula Johnson Paula Johnson, 15 Westborn Drive. I did pretty good off the Budget Committee all the time. I made them crazy about all my reductions. I'd like to know how much has been reduced from the budget at this point in time? Chairman McCarthy $38,000. Paula Johnson So that's going to really mean nothing on the tax rate. That's a drop in the bucket. I might just want to kind of go on with what Alderman Deane was talking about with the Mayor's office. There's redundancy in that office. We have a part time communications person here that takes care of her outside business, her volunteer work. It's obvious we have somebody inside to reduce it by $21,000. I'm sitting here saying reduce it, reduce it, reduce it. There's just too much in that office. She doesn't need all that staff people in the office. Maybe she should just have some volunteers to help her coordinate her schedule. I think we really need to reduce this budget by a lot more money. It's out of control. As a matter of fact tonight as I was coming over, our Street Department was out there in the middle of Main Street. This overtime - they've done a great job. I'm not going to knock the Street Department. Those guys have done a fantastic job. They've even done a great job in the back of City Hall. I guess that's a night box. I don't know what we're going to put in the night box. We're not a bank. I guess we're going to have a night box there it looks like. If you look at it and that's a big project. Those are half bricks. Those don't even hold bricks and those cost more money than a whole brick putting in there. We're wasting money here. We really are. Again, I'm saying the Street Department is doing a great job on that sidewalk project but we didn't have (inaudible) and that's costing us money in this budget. I hope when it gets to the full Board and you know I'll be here unless I slip and fall or have another medical problem, which I hope I don't, we need to reduce this budget. This is a disgrace to the citizens of the city. We can't afford any more increases in our taxes. I know everybody has done a lot of good work. Some people don't say very much and some people do but let's get together here and really take a look at this budget. Election year is coming. We can play political games and we don't have to play political games but we know people are going to vote with their wallets this year because I hear the race is going to get pretty strong out there. I hope you do your due diligence and really reduce this budget further rather than the 30 some odd thousand dollars. Thank you. REMARKS BY THE ALDERMEN Budget Review – 06/12/13 Page 41 ADJOURNMENT MOTION BY ALDERMAN DONCHESS TO ADJOURN MOTION CARRIED The meeting was declared closed at 8:49 p.m. Alderman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja Committee Clerk Hi Sue, Here are the best responses I can give you now regarding the 2 questions from Alderman Donchess. 1. A couple of months ago we felt that we might end up with a payroll/OT deficit at year's end due to se that were discussed previously with the Mayor's Office and if I recall correctly at our budget review meetini reduce any deficit that might result we filled some vacant positions in patrol with officers from the POP uni reduce the cost of OT. Since we started doing that, (approx. 2 month ago) we have filled 25 eight hour shift officers from the POP unit That doesn't necessarily mean that the entire POP unit was used on a given day one officer. It depended on the need at the time. We also utilized members of our traffic unit a total of 15 times for the same reason over the same time per unit, when used was primarily on 2nd shift since that is the shift they normally work. The traffic unit, which 1st shift and 2nd shift were likely used on both shifts whenever the need arose. 2. A quick look from our finance division gives the appearance that any OT spent is fairly consistent fron as opposed to more being spent on the weekends. Our patrol bureau and detective bureau don't have we« we have just as many officers/detectives scheduled to work on a Sat/Sun as we do a day during the week. I reasonable to think that there might be a slight increase on average on OTon a weekend day since they w< popular to take off as a vacation day rather than a midweek day. But without doing a more in depth analys say with any certainty if we spend more on the weekends. We will look into that and forward the informati we can. John J. Seusing Chief of Police Nashua Police Department PO Box 785 Nashua, NH 03061 (603) 594-3500 1