Finance Committee

REPORT OF THE FINANCE COMMITTEE JULY 7, 2010 A meeting of the Finance Committee was held on Wednesday, July 7, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. in the Aldermanic Chamber. Mayor Donnalee Lozeau presided. Members of the Committee present: Alderman-at-Large David W. Deane, Vice Chair Alderman-at-Large Ben Clemons Alderman-at-Large Barbara Pressly Alderman Kathy Vitale (7:05 p.m.) Alderman Arthur T. Craffey, Jr. Alderman Paul M. Chasse, Jr. Members not in Attendance: Also in Attendance: Jennifer Hinderer, Director, Nashua Public Library COMMUNICATIONS From: Robert Gabriel, Purchasing Manager Re: Contract Award for Library Automation System Requested by Nashua Public Library (Value: $38,810) Account: 575-74010-7301 Maintenance Contracts – Library Account Balance Remaining After Purchase: $790 MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS TO ACCEPT, PLACE ON FILE, AND AWARD THE CONTRACT, CONTINGENT UPON RESOLUTION APPROVAL PER NRO § 5-74 (B), TO SIRSI-DYNIX IN THE AMOUNT OF $38,810. FUNDS ARE AVAILABLE IN ACCT. #575-74010-7301 ON THE QUESTION Alderman Chasse This $38,000 is for one year and the rest of the contract is a 3% increase for the next 7 years? Mayor Lozeau For the next 6 of the 7 yes. Alderman Chasse Is that similar to the old contract? Mayor Lozeau It is somewhat similar to the old contract. Alderman Chasse They were getting a 3% raise every year? Mayor Lozeau Their former contract? Finance – 07/07/10 Page 2 Alderman Chasse Correct. Mayor Lozeau I have the library director here if we need to ask her. I am not sure if she would know because that was before we watch, but one of the things that sold them on this company was not only that they have this company now, but the cost of migrating all of the services over to the new software and having the cap on the increase for the entire period, was one of the selling points for them. Director Hinderer would you mind joining us? The question Alderman Chasse had, in case you didn’t hear him, was the contract that you have with them now, are you aware of whether or not there has been a 3% increase? Jennifer Hinderer I think the increase may have been 2.5%. The last contract we had is a little bit complicated. I did some research; it started out a contract that we signed in conjunction with the school department, and then a year into the contract the school department pulled out so the cost was kind of pro-rated because it was now a smaller program. This isn’t a long-term contract that we have experience with yearly increases because it started out at $45,000, was discounted to I think $35,000, and then went up. Actually I think it went up 5% because I think we paid closer to $36,000 this year. To answer your question, it is a similar increase, but I cannot give you a 5 or 6 year history of increases. Alderman Chasse The implementation for this is $63,000. That is on top of the $38,000 Jennifer Hinderer No. That has been discounted sir so that is what they would charge if we were a brand new customer. If you go to page 5 of that contract, it shows you the discounts that they offered us. That $63,000 was discounted. On page 5, we have a total of $81,770 in discounts so that would cover what they would charge a new customer for migration services. The total cost for FY11 is that $38,000 figure. Mayor Lozeau Then the 3% increase is on top of that $38,000. Jennifer Hinderer Exactly. Alderman Chasse It said something in here about 910,000 units. Is that what it is or 40 users? Jennifer Hinderer Forty users those are the number of concurrent staff members we can have working on the system and the 910,000 units that is how many individual items we can have in the database at any time. Right now we have about 900,000 items that we own at the library. Alderman Chasse So you only have leeway for another 10,000. Finance – 07/07/10 Page 3 Jennifer Hinderer Well that is true, but I think as with any collection and any kind of a static building, as we add new things, old things fall away so we feel comfortable with that 910,000 figure. Alderman Chasse And if we add users we have to pay another… Jennifer Hinderer Precisely so we would not add users. Forty users is more than adequate. It lets everybody who needs the system have their own individual station with the exception of in the administration office, the assistant director and myself share one of those user licenses rather than pay for an additional one. Alderman Pressly Thank you. First, I think we have a wonderful library. Jennifer Hinderer Thank you. Alderman Pressly I just find the 7 years sort of an unusual number. The only thing I could think of, I did read somewhere that the trustees have 7 year appointments, so I wonder is this a magic number for the library that everything has to be in a 7? It seems like a strange number for a contract. Jennifer Hinderer It does seem like a strange number and we negotiated that particular number because at a 7 year commitment, which we are comfortable making because we have had experience with Sirsi-Dynix in their support and their product, which we find excellent. In return for that 7-year commitment, they have discounted all of those migration costs and they have agreed to that 3% per year cap. In the upcoming fiscal year, we are really not paying any more than the fiscal year we are in now, and we can count on for the following 6 years only that 3% increase. Alderman Pressly Along that line, the discount of $81,000 is significant. I was struck by that as being rather unusual. Jennifer Hinderer Right, and that is sort of a .. Mayor Lozeau More like a good faith because we have been working together. Alderman Pressly What would happen if during this 7 years you sort of become uncomfortable with the contract or find something better? What do you do then? Finance – 07/07/10 Page 4 Jennifer Hinderer Well we can’t leave the contract without penalty. I don’t have those terms memorized. Steve Bennett and I negotiated for months with the company to sort of come to a compromise between what the company wanted and what we wanted. If we find a part of the product to no longer work, it ceases functioning, or the company ceases operation, we can get compensated for the unused portion of whatever we have paid them. But it is a commitment to use this product for 7 years. Because it is such an integral part of every single function we do at the library, it would not be really conceivable to me as the library director that we would even think of moving before 5 years. I would say at the end of 5 years there is a good possibility we will be looking at a completely different… Mayor Lozeau Technology. Jennifer Hinderer Thank you. Exactly. So I think the field of library automation services will be radically different in 5 or 6 years at which point we will be ready to undertake a longer, more detailed bid process as the landscape changes in library automation. For the moment, Sirsi-Dynix is the best company there. Mayor Lozeau And the library is such a specialized field for the services that they are purchasing here. Some of us do not like long-term contracts. Now there is the 5-year contract, the 7-year contract, the 3-year contract, but then we have things like the hydro dams that 20 years or the cell towers at 30 years, and those are a different kind of long-term contract that makes some of us uncomfortable as the term that you used. We don’t have any escape clause for we are uncomfortable we are not liking something, but we certainly do have an opportunity, as the director was saying, that if the service isn’t what it is supposed to be, if our deliverables aren’t what they claim to give us, then we have an opportunity to get out of the contract. There are also a couple of other things that you should be aware of. This is going to come in by resolution. You may have noticed in the motion that the Clerk read, it spoke about subject to the resolution, which is going to come in Tuesday night. The problem is the library didn’t really understand, and with Mr. Gilbar leaving, that a multi-year contract required going before the Board of Aldermen not just the Finance Committee. They are in the process of trying to get this done, and they are going to look to the board to take this up Tuesday night, and hopefully suspend the rules and pass it so they can enter this contract because they have had a bit of a time delay not realizing that they had this extra hurdle. There is a companion piece of legislation that is going to come in that builds off of this with another software component that doesn’t have such a rush behind it. That will come in Tuesday as well, but will go through the normal process. This is a little bit unusual because it is coming to Finance before the full board even though it is a multi-year contract. Typically, it would have come to the board, the board would have then sent it to Finance, and Finance would have sent it back with a recommendation. This is just a little bit unusual and I wanted you to know that before Tuesday came along and you were wondering what was going on with that. Alderman Pressly I haven’t read every word so forgive me if it is in here. Did you have other companies competing for this or is this a carry over from what you currently have? Jennifer Hinderer It is a carry over from what we currently have so it is the same company that we are currently using; the software product has a different name. They are discontinuing Horizon, which we are using, and they are moving us to Symphony sort of like Microsoft phases out Windows 2002 and invite you to go to Windows 2007. Finance – 07/07/10 Page 5 We did look at features for several other companies, and they don’t compare to the product that we currently have. Alderman Pressly Do you get any assistance in operating your library from the state library? I know that you I am sure have a network of libraries throughout the state. Do any of you share information or think of sharing functions like this? Jennifer Hinderer There is actually a library consortium in the state. The acronym is GMILCS, and forgive me because I cannot recall what that actually stands for, but libraries like Amherst, Merrimack, and Manchester do share a common integrated library system like this. They are able to share materials between libraries and their patrons can go from library to library. We did pursue that. I did make overtures to that consortium, and the price tag for joining them was $235,000 as an initial investment and then the annual cost is more in the range of $50,000 to participate. It also comes with other costs; staff time, because we would be sending more materials on the van through in-library loan, we would be serving more patrons than we do now because people from Merrimack and Manchester could come and use our library. The Trustees decided not to pursue that. They really thought that was outside of our price range at this time. Alderman Pressly Do you still share information with each other? Jennifer Hinderer We do. I participate in what is called the Urban’s Consortium, a monthly meeting of library directors from urban regions. My assistant director participates in a different sort of fellowship group like that with library directors from some smaller libraries. Alderman Pressly You had mentioned that in 5 years you think you will be looking. Did you consider having this a 5 year instead of a 7? Jennifer Hinderer What I meant by that is the process for evaluating and putting out to bid as big as this, as integral as this, could easily take us a year to a year and a half. I think in 5 years we will be ready to sort of look at what the landscape looks like for this kind of software and then move forward from there with a more traditional bid process, unless we go open source. Mayor Lozeau And then they are able to have something in place while they are doing the looking. Jennifer Hinderer Right. Alderman Pressly Thank you. Finance – 07/07/10 Page 6 Mayor Lozeau Is there further discussion or further questions? Alderman Deane How long has the automation been in place? Jennifer Hinderer We’ve only been automated since 2004. Susan may be watching this from home and saying it is 2006 Jen, but I am pretty sure it is 2004. We were one of the last libraries in the region to become automated. Mayor Lozeau Further question Alderman Deane? Alderman Deane No, I am all done Mayor, thank you. Alderman Craffey Thank you Mayor. Could you explain to me the statement of work on page 2 of 15? Initial term of maintenance – cost of ownership – it starts out year 2 subscriptions. Is that in addition to the $38,000 that we are paying? Jennifer Hinderer No. That is the actual cost for next year. Alderman Craffey So actually we will see a decrease? Jennifer Hinderer Yes. It is sort of a creative pricing thing. Our sales rep. really went to bat for us in getting the best price that he could. That $32,000 is the cost for year 2. Year 1 is $38,000. I think with his fabulous discounts he couldn’t quite get us all the way down to $32,000 for year 1. There are costs that they incur for setting us up on their new software. Mayor Lozeau Alderman Craffey I see where you are going with this, and I guess it is where Alderman Chasse started. The $38,800 isn’t just the cost of subscription for the first year it is the other associated costs of getting it installed and some of the training and that sort of thing. Jennifer Hinderer Right. Mayor Lozeau When you look at the page Alderman Craffey just called our attention to, those numbers that start at $32,000 and then go $33,000, $34,000, and so on are that 3% increase… Finance – 07/07/10 Page 7 Jennifer Hinderer Precisely. Mayor Lozeau …which is that $38,000 minus those other costs we are talking about. Jennifer Hinderer Right. Mayor Lozeau So you looked at that and said how come it is not 3% on top of $38,000 each year. Alderman Craffey did you want to finish on that? Alderman Craffey I am all set with that. Thank you Mayor. Mayor Lozeau Further discussion? Alderman Clemons I would note, for the record, Alderman Vitale arrived about 15 minutes ago. Mayor Lozeau Seeing no further discussion on this, did anybody have any questions as it relates to coming Tuesday night or anything like that? I want the committee to be in a position where we are comfortable understanding that is going to occur. Alderman Craffey My understanding is that we are going to approve the finance before the Board of Aldermen votes on it. Mayor Lozeau The motion is to award the contract contingent upon the resolution approval, which we are hoping is Tuesday night. Our action tonight for recommendation of this contract is hinging on the board’s approval of the multi- year contract. As I said, normally, it would come to the Board of Aldermen Tuesday night, get assigned by the President to the Finance Committee and it would wait until our next Finance Committee meeting. Then we would make a recommendation and it would go back to the board. It came in differently this time because staff that was involved in it just was not aware of the requirement that it go to the full board. Rather than delay it and cause a problem with the contract and lose I think what is a pretty well negotiated deal here, we decided that we would bring it to Finance now, lay it out for you what the problem was and what the process is, and then hopefully the board will be okay taking it up Tuesday night. Alderman Craffey This contract is effective when? Finance – 07/07/10 Page 8 Jennifer Hinderer Actually our payment on the old system is due July 15th so this contract, if it is signed, would take affect July 15th. Mayor Lozeau Hence the problem because they didn’t know. I think it was just an honest mistake and I think that we are still honoring the process of the board having to vote on it as well. Alderman Pressly Thank you. Is there anything that can be done to help the different departments so that this doesn’t happen? I know these mistakes are made and we suspend the rules a lot, but I think a lot of us would like to avoid it as much as possible. What can be done so that staff such as the library and other staff can somehow have a red flag this is coming along? Mayor Lozeau If Mr. Gilbar would have been here when the paperwork was coming through and the director wasn’t new and unaware of it; I don’t see all the stars being in that same alignment again any time soon I hope. Most of the directors are aware of this and we talk about it in cabinet meetings, when things like this come up we will remind people. But, we are always going to have some human error. Alderman Pressly I fully appreciate that. Mayor Lozeau I will tell you the ordinances, some of them, it is just hard to keep up with which ones trigger which things. Alderman Pressly We keep adding them too. Mayor Lozeau We do. And that is why I wanted to make it very clear tonight. I didn’t want any surprises, I want people to understand. If this was something that the full board would need some significant deliberation time on or we were suspending the rules without it having gone to committee, I think it would be a different discussion. That is why I said to them let’s at least get it on the Finance agenda so that we can have the discussion. That is also why I invited the director here tonight to make sure that all of those questions could be answered. Alderman Pressly Thank you. Mayor Lozeau Not all of the Trustees know some of this either or they might have done their process a little different too. Alderman Pressly But they have been here a long time. Finance – 07/07/10 Page 9 Mayor Lozeau Not all of them, and not all of them are necessarily familiar with some of the ordinances that relate to if it is a million dollar thing it goes to Finance and the full board, if it is a multi-year, you know… Anyway, here we sit. But I think that we have had an opportunity to have the discussion that we need to have, which I think is what is most important. Alderman Pressly Thank you. Alderman Deane We could always give them a copy of this. Mayor Lozeau Yes. They have that available. But I would say Alderman Deane that it is still hard for somebody new coming in to keep up with learning their responsibilities and their new job and familiarizing themselves with the purchasing manual at the same time that they are finishing their budget year, closing their books, and meeting their new trustees. There is only so much we can all absorb. Is there further discussion? MOTION CARRIED From: Robert Gabriel, Purchasing Manager Re: 2010 Drainage Improvements Change Order #1 (Value: $27,574.75) Account: 792-53181-3794 Stormwater Abatement Account Balance Remaining After Purchase: $12,326 MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS TO ACCEPT, PLACE ON FILE, AND AUTHORIZE CHANGE ORDER #1 TO THE CONTRACT WITH DBU CONSTRUCTION FOR A NET CHANGE IN THE AMOUNT OF $27,574.75. SOURCE OF FUNDING IS ACCT. #792-53181-3794 ON THE QUESTION Mayor Lozeau The committee should know all of the items that relate to Public Works have gone through the Board of Public Works for approval. Are there questions on this item? This is a great opportunity of hitting a couple more areas where we have some problems. MOTION CARRIED Mayor Lozeau It is probably worth also making clear that this item is FY10 dollars. From: Robert Gabriel, Purchasing Manager Re: Contract Award for Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Flow Monitoring (Value: $45,800) Account: 802-53075-8330-8700 Professional Services - NWTF Account Balance Remaining After Purchase: $0 MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS TO ACCEPT, PLACE ON FILE, AND AWARD THE CONTRACT TO FLOW ASSESSMENT IN THE AMOUNT OF $45,800. FUNDS ARE AVAILABLE IN ACCT. #802-53075- 8330-8700 Finance – 07/07/10 Page 10 ON THE QUESTION Alderman Pressly I am just going to ask for leaning purposes and I know we have members from the Board of Public Works here. This all seems to be connected to upgrading the roads. Can you tell us a little bit about how this goes on and the different pipes and… I presume that once you start doing something you discover other things and so you have to come back and say this project is going to be more complicated, this project is not, etc. I would like to hear from you Madam Mayor and from Alderman Deane. Anybody else here on Public Works? Mayor Lozeau The way the Public Works board works; they are elected members, the Aldermanic Liaison is Alderman Deane, and then I serve as the Chairman because the Mayor chairs the Board of Public Works. The other Commissions would not be members of this board. Alderman Pressly Correct. Mayor Lozeau I am pretty casual during Finance and I am willing to go off the path here, but I will remind you that our responsibility here isn’t to know how the pipes work or not work. Our responsibility as the Finance Committee is to ensure that the dollars are available in the budget, that the policy decision has been made, and that the bid process and the purchasing manual and ordinances were followed. That is our responsibility here. In the spirit of trying to help you get a sense of some of what this is that we deal with, particularly as it relates to the CSO projects, where you probably remember because it started back when you were in the Senate, that we are under a Consent Decree with the State and the EPA to do work relative to our storm and our sewer water. We currently, throughout the city, have a combined system. Our storm water and our sewer water share the same pipe. We were first starting down the road of separating the pipes into storm water and sewer like we have in some of the newer parts of the city where there is development, and when the costs apparently some years ago were determined to be prohibitively high, came up with some other options. Part of that was our treatment plant and the expansion we have done there. There is about $70 million worth of a project between overflow locations and disinfection units and treatment plant upgrades and things like that that have made a difference on how we approach it, which has saved us a significant amount of money. Items like this one are related to different equipment that they need in order to meet the monitoring and be able to answer questions. We do come across things that sometimes we didn’t know were there. We have something in here tonight where we discovered there is concrete paving on Amherst Street. That is another item here. So yes there are some unexpected things. We also have things like the one that came up before where we have drainage problems – sometimes we are able to solve them. One of the things that I have implemented since I started was generating a collective database list of where are drainage problems, where can we fix them, what are the priorities, and which things can we do and which things do we need a company to come and do like our Haines Street separation where we were having really significant flooding problems and it was flooding sewer water and not storm water and so some of those decisions get made. When you see things like this it relates most often to that Consent Decree project and what is required of us. Finance – 07/07/10 Page 11 Alderman Pressly Thank you. That is helpful. Just being new to this and reading this it seems as though you have a well thought out plan. If it goes through the Board of Public Works that gives us some comfort. What we mostly deal with in Finance are the minor changes, the surprises that are discovered, and where they have to do some switching from what they originally planned… Mayor Lozeau And the contracts. Alderman Pressly …which I am very comfortable with. It is just you brought up the fact that these are all Public Works so it seemed appropriate to discuss those. Mayor Lozeau I understand. So the Consent Decree storm water CSO things, the plan is as you described, well thought out. It has been approved by Public Works and it has been approved by both the State and the Federal Government. We have actually gone back a couple of times to make changes after we re-assessed on different things, which allowed us to have less structures or smaller tanks and things like that that we have adjusted that need approval up there. Once all of that is done, it will come to Finance to say okay that work that we have to do, here are the guys that bid on it and here is why we picked this company or that company. Alderman Pressly Thank you. Mayor Lozeau You are welcome. Is there further discussion on this particular item? Alderman Chasse We brought in a company to do this work for us and this company is supposed to be qualified. They ended up putting the monitors on the wrong side of the regulators, which means that all the data they received was no good. Now they are going to take those monitors and move them to the other side and they have to recalibrate them, and are charging us for it. Wouldn’t somebody with a little expertise in that company have known that maybe those monitors should have been on the overflow side and not the intake? It is right in the middle of the… Mayor Lozeau I understand where you are looking at where the issues with the accuracy of the data being collected at two or more critical monitoring sites. Those monitors will be relocated and re-installed. It is not clear to me that this is the company that installed them incorrectly. Alderman Chasse I guess that is my question; who installed them? Mayor Lozeau I don’t think that this particular company had done the installation work on these other CSOs. This is the same company and the same price that we have had for projects like this, but I don’t think that they have done it Finance – 07/07/10 Page 12 incorrectly. When I talked to the staff about the work that had been done and that this company was going to provide, one of the questions I always ask is have we had problems with the company… Alderman Chasse Did the City of Nashua install those? Mayor Lozeau I can’t tell you who installed them. Alderman Deane No. Alderman Chasse They were installed by somebody else, they were calibrated, and then all of sudden they find out the data is no good. They have to move them to the other side, recalibrate them, and it is costing us money. If this is the company that did it, they should have had some expertise saying well these belong – I am sure it is not the first CSO they have worked on, at least I hope not. I am sure that somebody should have had an inclination that these things go on the down side, the overflow side, and not the intake side. Mayor Lozeau Alderman Chasse all I can tell you is the staff that I am working with on this project has recommended this company is the right company. I don’t believe that they will do that if this company has not been providing the service that we need so I don’t believe it was this company that did it. If it was this company that did it, I am sure there was a reason why it was done one way and needs to be done a different way. But I am confident that… Alderman Chasse I am not questioning that, I am just saying… Mayor Lozeau I understand that, but again there is so much preparation that we can do for a Finance Committee meeting. But your point is a legitimate one in the Finance Committee meeting because why would we award a contract to somebody that we didn’t have faith that they were going to do a good job. I understand why you are asking, but as I said, when I spoke with the engineer responsible for this project it was clear to me that this is the company that they know is going to do the job they need them to do. Alderman Chasse The thing I am worried about is we have already dedicated a lot of money to these projects. Therefore, the data, if we were using that data to make these decisions and that data wasn’t valid, and we happen to get some really different data on the overflow side maybe we have spent money we didn’t have to or on the flip side we could be putting out more money to that project. It is kind of like we are stuck right in the middle here. Hopefully we won’t have to spend any more money. Mayor Lozeau It is a very expensive project, no doubt about it. Finance – 07/07/10 Page 13 Alderman Chasse I don’t have any problem with it. It is something that needs to be done. Alderman Deane I just wanted to assure Alderman Chasse that the wet weather facility that has been built – this is a miniscule issue. I guess you could take a reading depending upon what data you wanted from each side of the overflow. The big problem was the modeling that we paid Metcalf & Eddy to do on which they screwed up big time that changed the cost of the project significantly. I think the capacity in which the engineering work was done and the building of this facility here meets the corrected modeling that was done after the mistakes that Metcalf & Eddy had made were found. This is a small problem. Yeah it was a mistake or maybe the folks that put them in wanted to read it on one side rather than the other, but when you read through how they can get dry weather reports, wet weather reports and flow monitoring a thing like that to build to see how much flow is actually going through the system itself. The wet weather facility was re-designed and increased significantly in size. The chances of that being too small at this point in time would be a huge problem, but I don’t believe it to be. I think the engineering firm that we hired that looked at the modeling that Metcalf & Eddy did and saw significant flow mistakes, corrected that problem and then in turn changed the size of the wet weather facility, which in turn increased the cost of the project significantly. Alderman Chasse I will keep my fingers crossed. Alderman Vitale I wanted to point out, because at first when you were speaking Alderman the amendment #1 was the recalibration, which was the $2,799 and what we are approving now is for amendment #2. Is that correct? Mayor Lozeau Yes. Alderman Vitale And then I would like to say I agree with what Alderman Deane just said about the changes that have taken place. I am comfortable with this also. Mayor Lozeau Thank you. “Based upon our overall satisfaction with their performance, an extension… to their contract is being sought.” When the engineers that are overseeing this project are telling me that, I just know they are doing a great job. As Alderman Deane pointed out our biggest problems have been with some of the companies that we have learned not to work with. Is there further discussion on this item? Alderman Deane I can name one of them; Metcalf & Eddy. Don’t ever approve a contract that comes to this committee with that firm’s name on it. It cost us millions of dollars. Finance – 07/07/10 Page 14 Mayor Lozeau Is there further discussion? MOTION CARRIED From: Robert Gabriel, Purchasing Manager Re: Sewer Improvements Phase 2 Change Order #1 (Value: $11,250) Account: 792-59232-3795 Capital Improvement – Sewer Rehab Account Balance Remaining After Purchase: $157,238 MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS TO ACCEPT, PLACE ON FILE, AND AUTHORIZE CHANGE ORDER #1 TO THE CONTRACT WITH FL MERRILL FOR A NET CHANGE IN THE AMOUNT OF $11,250.00. SOURCE OF FUNDING IS ACCT. #792-59232-3795 ON THE QUESTION Mayor Lozeau This is the one I mentioned earlier where they found the concrete street. Is there discussion on this item? MOTION CARRIED From: Robert Gabriel, Purchasing Manager Re: Extension of Cooperative Agreement with USDA Wildlife Services for Integrated Gull Management Program (Value: $65,300) Account: 801-53075-8001-8100 Solid Waste – Professional Services Account Balance Remaining After Purchase: $100 MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS TO ACCEPT, PLACE ON FILE, AND AUTHORIZE EXTENDING THE CONTRACT WITH USDA WILDLIFE SERVICES IN THE AMOUNT OF $65,300. FUNDS ARE AVAILABLE IN ACCT. #801-53075-8001-8100 ON THE QUESTION Mayor Lozeau Is there discussion on this motion? Alderman Deane This is FY11 money? Mayor Lozeau This is FY11 money. The last one was FY10 and all of the rest are FY11. Alderman Chasse Do you have to be specialized to get rid of the birds? Mayor Lozeau Yes you do. Alderman Chasse You just can’t hire someone to use dynamite, ammunition.. Finance – 07/07/10 Page 15 Alderman Deane You have to know how to use a shotgun. You can take two of them out a day… Mayor Lozeau There are requirements that we fall under. There are not many out there that can do this. Alderman Deane This contract encompasses the church and everywhere else too right? I mean St. Joe’s and any other problems that we have they will go and look at addressing. Mayor Lozeau They respond to other concerns that are raised where we think birds or other things are attracted because of the landfill. Last year the turkeys that you brought to their attention on Echo Ave. and that sort of thing, they went out and handled that. Alderman Deane How did they handle that? Do you know? Mayor Lozeau Actually it is apparently very interesting. They blew up balloons that mimic something else and … Alderman Deane These are turkey vultures that were roosting on residential homes and they would land and it sounded like… Mayor Lozeau I don’t know if I could do it justice, but they solved the problem. MOTION CARRIED From: Robert Gabriel, Purchasing Manager Re: Contract Award for Shady Lane Landfill Groundwater and Air Testing Requested by Solid Waste Dept (Value: $19,489.52) Account: 801-53080-8001-8100 Solid Waste Department – Shady Lane Operations and Maintenance Account Balance Remaining After Purchase: $5,510 MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS TO ACCEPT, PLACE ON FILE, AND AUTHORIZE EXTENDING THE CONTRACT WITH ENVIRONMENTAL COMPLIANCE SERVICES IN THE AMOUNT OF $19,489.52. SOURCE OF FUNDING IS ACCT. #801-53080-8001-8100 ON THE QUESTION Mayor Lozeau Alderman Pressly, the next two items on the agenda are required testing that we have no alternative but to do. Finance – 07/07/10 Page 16 Alderman Pressly My question did pertain to the next two. I often read in the paper and hear from citizens that there is an odor problem. Can you tell us what is being done, if these two things are going to help that at all? Mayor Lozeau They don’t relate to the odor at all. These relate to ranges for air quality and post closure testing of the landfill and things like that. The odor mitigation; we try very hard to be what I call a good neighbor. Some of the buildout of the wall as we are closing cells is having an impact. We have trouble with out compost pile and that moving and sometimes that creates an odor. We are very careful about how we move that pile. We have added new piping into the methane system at the landfill, which has had a significant impact on the odors. We also purchased software and scanning devices this past year that we are now using so that if somebody talks about an odor we can actually go out and scan and see where it is, we can follow trends, and figure out whether the heads are calibrated right and things like that. I will confidently say that until technology changes, I don’t think we can ever eliminate odor from a landfill. We may be able to have great stretches of no odors, but things happen. The humidity level changes, the rain changes, the heat levels change, odors are affected in different ways. We have had better luck since we have pulled all of the construction debris out of the landfill because the gypsum and sheetrock used to have an odor that was hard to overcome. These, while they don’t have anything to do with that, I can assure you that we do a significant amount of work out there. To this day, we have neighbors that maintain the tracking of odors in different areas around the landfill and they provide them to the State on a regular basis, and the State has a certain expectation of what we do. Alderman Pressly Thank you. Mayor Lozeau You are welcome. Is there other discussion on this item? It is bid out every couple of years just so people know. Alderman Deane I remember years ago one of the big issues with the air testing – now this says air testing gas collection system – sampling indoor air quality at the New Searles Elementary School. One of the big problems they had was the way the janitorial staff was storing and maintaining their chemicals; covers off, chemicals congealing with one another, which was a big problem with some of the air quality inside there. How is the cost broken down? The indoor air quality is $9,657 of this total? Of the $19,489.52? Mayor Lozeau If that is the breakout that you are looking at I would say that is probably accurate. The indoor air quality relates to what is underneath the school; whether the methane is leaking and whether they are having that kind of a problem because as you know – were you on the board when the problems happened at the school? Alderman Deane Yes. Back then what they were going to do is they were going to test for I think it was 5 consecutive years of indoor air quality testing, and back then Director Petkus figured after the third year they weren’t going to do it anymore. The agreement back then with the school district and the Board of Education I believe was to do it for 5 consecutive years to see if there were any problems, and other than the initial issue with the cleaning solvents, chemicals, and whatever the janitorial staff was using that weren’t stored properly in a closet and they did some SUMMA canister testing showed some high levels of certain chemicals, but those certain chemicals Finance – 07/07/10 Page 17 were the ones that the school district had purchased and stored in there, but didn’t quite manage to get the tops screwed on tight enough and things like that. I am just wondering how the air quality has been in the school. Mayor Lozeau It actually has been not a problem. I checked on that when I saw these contracts. We are well within the appropriate range and compliance. We have not been in any violation. Now irrespective of whatever they had talked about at the time that you are describing, DES now requires that we have to maintain testing. It is part of our, we have to have a DES Groundwater Permit, and then the landfill post closure rules require testing consistently, so we can’t say well we think we have done it enough and for these years they have been fine. They have changed the rules to make it a permanent requirement. Alderman Deane Years ago they tried to forego this $9,600 test, it wasn’t a good thing to be doing, and it started WWIII with the people down in that end of the city whose children went to school there. Especially when you looked at the testing results that had come back in, but then to find out that the issue wasn’t from the landfill it was from the storage habits of the products purchased by the school district, which was kind of a good thing to find out knowing that you weren’t getting anything leeching from Shady Lane Landfill over in that direction. Like you said if DES requires it, it is not a lot of money, and it is a piece of mind for people whose kids go to school there too. I take it the janitorial staff has learned how to screw the covers on tight. It was interesting when that issue came up and we finally realized, once they identified what the chemicals were, they were all in the school itself, in containers. It had nothing to do with chemicals leeching up out of the ground or anything else like that. Alderman Vitale As kind of a follow up on Alderman Deane, if it is found that it is something we are purchasing through the school district for cleaning supplies or something more school related versus landfill related, do we then go and check our other buildings for similar problems with chemicals they might be using at other schools? It just happens that we are monitoring it, but if they come up with something that is our own generated problem, do we then take that information and make sure that we are checking our other buildings for like conditions? Mayor Lozeau I would say that they probably did that at the time that Alderman Deane is mentioning because I am sure they were using similar chemicals in all of the school buildings, but people just assumed that because this one was next to the landfill it was the landfill. Alderman Vitale But if we get information from a test that we are doing for other purposes and it comes up with something… Mayor Lozeau You would like to think. I wasn’t here when that took place, but … Alderman Vitale We do it every year, and I would say that if we are going to be paying for a test and it comes up with an air quality condition that is generated internally by us then we should use that information wisely. Finance – 07/07/10 Page 18 Mayor Lozeau This testing that is being done here is monitored by our staff and not the school staff. I am quite comfortable that is something shows up, as Kerry Converse says, raises a red flag, it will get the attention that it needs. So far, since this has been in place, we haven’t had that problem. Alderman Vitale Great. Alderman Pressly Thank you. This brings up a problem that has happened in many places. I am wondering, as a follow up to this, have we checked out all of the cleaning supplies that we have in all of the buildings? No? Well the reason I say it is worthwhile and this is silly to bring up, but at the PUC hearings that man of us attended on the purchase of Pennichuck, they had a new building and one of the staff at the PUC got so sick she had to wear gas masks to the hearings. Finally after people started to think she was a little bit nuts, they finally figured out it was the cleaning fluid that they were using on the carpeting throughout the building. It happens all over. Mayor Lozeau It is not farfetched. I understand that. Alderman Pressly It is not farfetched. I think it is worthwhile. Maybe the Green Team can do this. There are lots of products now that really take great pride in being free of these harmful chemicals. Mayor Lozeau I can tell you that since I have been here, we have had at least the incident that I am aware of where a staff person reported concerns, we followed up, tested, and we did what needed to be done. I know that we pay attention to that. Alderman Pressly That is great. It is something that is happening all over and it is always smart to do the wise thing. Thank you. Mayor Lozeau You are welcome. Is there further discussion on this item? MOTION CARRIED From: Robert Gabriel, Purchasing Manager Re: Contract Award for Four Hills Landfill Groundwater Testing (Value $25,890) Account: 801-53130-8001-8100 Environmental Monitoring – Solid Waste Account Balance Remaining After Purchase: $4,910 MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS TO ACCEPT, PLACE ON FILE, AND AWARD THE CONTRACT TO ENDYNE, INC. IN THE AMOUNT OF $25,890. FUNDS ARE AVAILABLE IN ACCT. #801-53130-8001-8100 Finance – 07/07/10 Page 19 ON THE QUESTION Alderman Deane Has any of the former Gilson Road waste site chemicals ended up over in our landfill area? Do you know offhand? Mayor Lozeau I think it is quite possible. I have been looking at some maps where it has been leeching for years. The typography sends it towards West Hollis Street. I’m pretty certain that yes. Alderman Deane So they are testing for all of that too? Mayor Lozeau Well there are test wells throughout the Gilson Road site. It is one of the reasons that we didn’t take all of that land behind the building when we got the building. I know there is a lot of testing going on right now over there especially as Jensen’s as you know is trying to put in a septic system. I mean they are trying to eliminate their septic system and connect to city sewer. Alderman Pressly That is probably why. Mayor Lozeau Actually they have had a septic system in there since they started. They are interested in getting on the sewer system because it is kind of a quality of life issue for their residents. To be in the city system is good for all of us. They are pursuing that right now. There is a lot of testing going on out there. I think the Gilson Road tragedy is going to be something that the city is going to be hurt from for a very long time. Is there further discussion on this item? MOTION CARRIED From: Robert Gabriel, Purchasing Manager Re: Contract Award for FY11 Pavement Marking Requested by Traffic Department (Value: $87,900) Account: 555-59170-6944 Contracted Services Signing & Striping $52,750 Account Balance Remaining After Purchase: $0 Account: 590-23555 Prior Year Escrow $35,150 Account Balance Remaining After Purchase: $0 MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS TO ACCEPT, PLACE ON FILE, AND AUTHORIZE EXTENDING THE CONTRACT WITH MARKINGS INC. IN THE AMOUNT OF $87,900. SOURCE OF FUNDING IS ACCTS. #555-59170-6944 ($52,750) AND #590-23555 ($35,150) ON THE QUESTION Mayor Lozeau I would just tell the committee that last year we did a similar thing. When budgeting for this painting and striping, we put in last year $57,000 I want to say, this year $35,000, but we put in a certain amount and wanted to get it higher, but really didn’t know if we would have available funds. As we are closing out the year Finance – 07/07/10 Page 20 and looking at escrows, we have an opportunity here where some of the dollars could be escrowed to be used for this to increase the ability to do more painting and striping and thermal plastic throughout the city. This is done in two pieces so the contract is going to get started on the part that we budgeted for and that work will begin being done, and then hopefully when the escrow legislation passes some time in August, the remainder of the work available under these dollars will take place. That is again the same we did it last year; in two pieces in order to get more work done. Last year we concentrated a lot of the work on D.W. Highway, Spit Brook Road, and Amherst Street. This year we are concentrating on Main Street, East Hollis Street, Broad Street, and we are hoping we can add West Hollis and Kinsley depending on how the numbers work – just so you are aware. Is there further discussion on this item? MOTION CARRIED UNFINISHED BUSINESS - None NEW BUSINESS - None DISCUSSION Alderman Chasse I am just wondering are you still having your one-on-one with Aldermen? Mayor Lozeau Yes, trying to schedule them. Alderman Chasse I found it very helpful when I first came back as an Alderman. I found out who the chain of command was, who not to call, who to call, how to get things done, how things work, and I think it is a great refresher course and would be very helpful for some of us out here to find out how things work at City Hall. I think that is one of the greatest things you have going because at least it put us in the right direction. Mayor Lozeau Yes it is time. I try to do it every 6 months. I met with most of the new Aldermen in December I think. This is a good time to be bringing it up again. Alderman Chasse Thank you. Mayor Lozeau You are welcome. Is there further discussion? Alderman Pressly Just as a follow up to that, I just want to say that I learn more at this committee than I do at most of the other committees, and I thank you for that. You are capable of going in depth on most all of the items. I am sure many of you get impatient because you know the answers to my questions, but they have really been very helpful and I have to hope that they might be helpful to the public too. It has been a very informative committee. Thank you Madam Mayor. Finance – 07/07/10 Page 21 Mayor Lozeau You are welcome. WARRANT MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS TO APPROVE WARRANT #24 IN THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF $18,439,809.12 OF WHICH $4,158,813.27 ARE ACCOUNTS PAYABLE, $8,459,079.00 ARE PAYROLL AMOUNTS, $426,460.61 ARE PREPAY AMOUNTS AND $5,395,456.24 ARE WIRE TRANSFERS MOTION CARRIED ADJOURNMENT MOTION BY ALDERMAN CHASSE TO ADJOURN MOTION CARRIED The Finance Committee meeting was adjourned at 7:57 p.m. Alderman-at-Large Ben Clemons Committee Clerk