City Council

JOURNAL OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NORWICH DECEMBER 1, 2014 A regular meeting of the Council of the City of Norwich was held December 1, 2014 at 7:30 PM in Council Chambers. Present: Aldermen Desaulniers, Noblick, Wilson, Eyberse, Bettencourt, Nash and Mayor Hinchey. City Manager Bergren and Corporation Counsel Michael Driscoll were also in attendance. Mayor Hinchey presided. President Pro Tem Desaulniers read the opening prayer and Ald. Bettencourt led the members in the Pledge of Allegiance. Upon motion of Ald. Wilson, seconded by Ald. Eyberse, it was unanimously voted to adopt the minutes of November 3 & 17, 2014. Mayor Hinchey called for a Public Hearing on AN ORDINANCE REGARDING: AN INCREASE IN CERTAIN PARKING FINES AND AN EXTENSION OF THE TIME WITHIN WHICH TO PAY ALL FINES TO THE PARKING COMMISSION BEFORE THE AMOUNT OWED IS DOUBLED Speaking in favor: No one spoke Speaking in opposition: Rodney Bowie, 62 Roosevelt Ave, felt that raising the fines will hurt the downtown businesses. David Crabb, 47 Prospect St, echoed the previous speaker’s comments. He stated if the fees are raised we will loose customers and businesses downtown. Beryl Fishbone, 19 Bliss Place, spoke against raising parking fees because people go to meetings, programs, lunch and events that last longer than one hour and shouldn’t be penalized. She asked for there to be a direction for the City as a whole. John Blackburn, 15 Alice St, stated these restrictions will limit new businesses and people from coming downtown. He felt the City should be friendlier. John Lavangie, 85 Lawler Lane, asked to get rid of the Parking Commission because they chase people away he suggested privatizing. Sheila Hayes, 288 Central Ave, spoke in opposition to the increase now and suggested having a dialog with businesses to see what impact the new fees will have. She agreed with the extended time limits. There being no further speakers Mayor Hinchey declared the public hearing closed. Mayor Hinchey called for the second reading and action on AN ORDINANCE REGARDING: AN INCREASE IN CERTAIN PARKING FINES AND AN EXTENSION OF THE TIME WITHIN WHICH TO PAY ALL FINES TO THE PARKING COMMISSION BEFORE THE AMOUNT OWED IS DOUBLED 1 JOURNAL OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NORWICH DECEMBER 1, 2014 Upon a motion of President Pro Tem Desaulniers, seconded by Ald. Bettencourt it was unanimously voted to waive the reading of the full text and incorporated it into the minutes. Upon a motion of President Pro Tem Desaulniers, seconded by Ald. Wilson, it was unanimously voted to put the following ordinance on the floor introduced by President Pro Tem Desaulniers and City Manager Bergren. Upon a motion of President Pro Tem Desaulniers, seconded by Ald. Bettencourt, it was unanimously voted to amend the following ordinance by changing “48 hours to 14 days“, “ 96 hours to 30 days”, “ (L) Overtime parking 5.00”, “(M) Parking at meter over legal limit 5.00 15.00- remove in the entirety”. Motion passed 7-0. The following ordinance will be brought back December 15, 2014, 6:30 pm. BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NORWICH, THAT CHAPTER 20, ARTICLE II, SECTION 20-19 SUBSECTION (l) AND (m) BE AMENDED TO INCREASE THE FINE FOR VIOLATION OF THESE SUBSECTIONS FROM FIVE DOLLARS ($5.00) PER VIOLATION TO FIFTEEN DOLLARS ($15.00) PER VIOLATION AND TO INCREASE THE TIME FOR PAYMENT OF FINES WITHOUT DOUBLING THE AMOUNT TO FOURTEEN (14) DAYS; THE AMENDMENTS STATED AS FOLLOWS: Sec. 20-19. Same-Fines and penalties. Each owner or operator receiving a notice provided in section 20-18 may pay to the public parking commission personally or by mail as a penalty for and in full satisfaction of such violation the following sums: (a) Obstruction driveway. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $25.00 (b) Parking too far from curb. . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00 (c) Parking too close to corner. . . . . . . . . . . 15.00 (d) Double parking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00 (e) Parking on wrong side of street. . . . . . 15.00 (f) Parking in crosswalk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00 (g) Parking too close to fire hydrant. . . . . . 25.00 (h) Violation of snow regulations. . . . . . . . . 25.00 (i) Parking in handicapped zone. . . . . . . . . 100.00 (j) Parking in fire zone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00 2 JOURNAL OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NORWICH DECEMBER 1, 2014 (k) Parking in posted no parking zone. . . . 15.00 (l) Overtime parking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00 15.00 5.00 (m) Parking at meter over legal limit. . . . . . 5.00 15.00 (n) Parking at bus stop, taxistand or loading zone 15.00 (o) Parking on sidewalk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00 (p) Parking in intersection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00 (q) Obstructing traffic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00 (r) Left wheel to curb. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00 (s) Other. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00 Chapter 20, Article II The failure of such owner or operator to make such payment to said commission within 48 hours 14 days shall render him liable to payment of double the above fines. The failure of such owner or operator to make such payment to said commission within 96 hours 30 days shall render him liable to the penalty provided by the Connecticut General Statutes for infractions. And be it further ordained by the Council of the City of Norwich that this ordinance shall become effective on January 15, 2015. City Manager Alan Bergren gave his report as followed: DATE: December 1, 2014 TO: Mayor Deberey Hinchey & Council Members FROM: Alan H. Bergren, City Manager SUBJECT: City Manager’s Report 1. Dime Bank Lot Report We received an engineering report on the condition of the retaining wall and significant estimated repair costs which would be the responsibility of the owner. Now that we have this information, we will be scheduling a meeting with Dime Bank to continue discussions on property acquisition. 3 JOURNAL OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NORWICH DECEMBER 1, 2014 2. UCFS-Access to Care Specialist UCFS has a dedicated specialist on staff dedicated to assist people in enrolling for healthcare coverage. To find out more information or to enroll, call UCFS at 860-822-4798 or email accesstocare@ucfs.org. 3. Volunteers Needed! The City Council is seeking applicants for the newly formed Norwich Commission for the Disabled and volunteers are always needed to fill vacancies on other City Boards/Committees/Commissions. For more information and to see a list of current vacancies, minutes from past meetings, specific qualifications (if any) and to fill out an application, please visit the City’s website, www.norwichct.org or call the Mayor’s office at (860) 823-3742. In addition to any Board specific qualifications, volunteers must be current on taxes and resident electors of the City. 4. One City Tax Over the last several weeks, when we embarked as a community to discuss the one city tax, this has sparked a great deal of interest. It has left me concerned and disturbed that there has been misinformation put out on our streets that is not tolerable. I have been sending information to our Charter Revision Commission so that they have the facts and have accurate information. The spreading of misinformation has been very disrespectable to members of this Council and the Mayor and this is something our community should never tolerate, and we should speak up against that. We need to talk about the facts; we need to have civil discord in the community; and we need to face the fact that as we move forward we move forward, we move together as one. No one is talking about dismantling any agencies or changing the way our agencies work. I expect all the public safety agencies (fire, police and emergency management) to work together as one. The number one thing in our City is to provide public safety for our City, but we need to have a civil discourse, and we need to cooperate, collaborate and have respect for each other. I have a meeting scheduled and will hold regular meetings with our City Fire Chief and Volunteer Chiefs on a regular basis. I expect that the leadership will come from all department heads and leadership will come from the Chiefs of all our agencies. I expect that and that is what this Council expects. It also disturbs me that we are talking about a twenty year old study; if we are going to talk about fact based information we should be talking about current studies and not information that was done twenty years ago when the City had a lot less population and where the City is different as to where our population has been distributed, and how housing stock has changed. There is no place for intimidation; people have to right to express their views, people have the right to talk with their Council members and you need to have a civil discourse. This is something I expect that anyone who receives funding from the City will show the leadership and respect to our elected officials and in turn we will show the leadership and respect to them. We need to move forward as one, this is one City; we need to look at the way we pay for things and how we fund services in the City. Were going to be faced with a lot of challenges going forward in the future; there are a lot of capital needs including our public schools that we will have to start looking at down the road. We have a sewer plant to rebuild and we cannot move forward when we have people using misinformation or being disrespectful of any past or current member of the City Council. We need to move forward and we need to show leadership (everyone does). I expect we will have a civil discourse going forward. I was somewhat pleased when I tuned into the last part of the recent Charter Revision public hearing that it was a civil discourse and I did talk to the Chairman of the Charter Revision Commission. I think that when there are people out there that are using 4 JOURNAL OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NORWICH DECEMBER 1, 2014 misinformation to besmirch the reputations of anyone whether it’s our elected officials, our career staff or volunteer staff, there is no tolerance for that. That is the signal we need to send and that I intend to send to all out there and I hope then we can move forward. You have been copied on my memos to the Charter Revision Commission; I will be sending further information to the Charter Revision Commission. Upon a motion of President Pro Tem Desaulniers, seconded by Ald. Noblick, it was unanimously voted to schedule public hearing, second reading and action on December 15, 2014 at 6:30 pm on following ordinance. AN ORDINANCE INCREASING THE THRESHOLD FOR SEALED BIDS FOR CITY CONTRACTS AND PURCHASES BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NORWICH, THAT SECTIONS 7-39 AND 7-43 OF ARTICLE II OF CHAPTER 7 OF THE CODE OF ORDINANCES OF THE CITY OF NORWICH BE AMENDED AS FOLLOWS: Sec. 7-39. - Competitive bids on purchases, contracts, sale—When required. (a)All single purchases, contracts, or sales in which the amount of expenditure or sale is estimated to exceed $12,000.00 the greater of $25,000 or such higher amount allowed by section 7-148v of the general statutes either shall be made from or let by sealed bids or, when considered advantageous, be made from State of Connecticut-negotiated or other consortium-negotiated contracts from which the City of Norwich is allowed to purchase. Sec. 7-43. - Same—Authorization of open market transactions; emergency purchase procedure. All purchases of supplies, materials, equipment or contractual services, and all sales of supplies, materials and equipment determined, after consultation with the head of the department or agency concerned, to be surplus, obsolete or unused, of less than $12,000.00 in amount shall the threshold for bids specified in 7-39(a) may be made in the open market, without bid advertisement and without observing the procedure prescribe by sections 7-39 to 7-42 and 7-46 and 7-47 for the award of contracts. In case of an emergency which requires immediate purchase of supplies, materials, equipment or contractual services, the city manager may authorize the purchasing agent to secure, without competitive bids at the lowest obtainable price, any supplies, materials, equipment or contractual services regardless of the amount of the expenditure; provided, however, a full explanation of the circumstances of such emergency shall be entered in the purchasing records and shall be open to public inspection. Purpose: To increase the amount by which the City may enter into contracts and purchases without the formal sealed bid process. Upon a motion of Ald. Bettencourt, seconded by Ald. Wilson, it was unanimously voted to schedule public hearing, second reading and action on December 15, 2014 at 6:30 pm on following ordinance. 5 JOURNAL OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NORWICH DECEMBER 1, 2014 AN ORDINANCE REGARDING THE ADOPTION OF FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT POLICIES BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NORWICH, THAT AN ARTICLE VI – SECTIONS 7-131 THROUGH 7-132.4 – AS MORE PARTICULARLY SET FORTH HEREIN BE ADDED TO CHAPTER 7 OF THE CODE OF ORDINANCES OF THE CITY OF NORWICH: Article VI – Financial Management Policies 7-131 – Unrestricted Fund Balance of the General Fund The city shall maintain an adequate unrestricted fund balance (UFB) in its General Fund. The UFB is the amount of fund balance that is not constrained by externally enforceable legal or contractual restrictions. 7-131.1 – Contingency Appropriation During the annual budget process, the city shall include a contingency appropriation. The contingency appropriation may be used to offset unanticipated, unbudgeted revenue shortfalls or expenditure overages which cannot be mitigated by reducing other operating expenditures. Any unspent and unencumbered contingency appropriation, along with any operating surpluses in the General Fund shall close out into the UFB at the end of the fiscal year. 7-131.2 – Size of Unrestricted Fund Balance The city shall accumulate a UFB of not less than 12% of the current fiscal year’s budgeted expenditures and operating transfers. 7-131.3 – Permitted Uses of Unrestricted Fund Balance UFB may be used to absorb operating deficits caused by unanticipated, unbudgeted revenue shortfalls or expenditure overages which cannot be mitigated by utilizing the contingency appropriation. However, UFB shall not be used in the place of normal operating revenues in the annual budget process. To the extent that UFB exceeds 17% of the current fiscal year’s budgeted expenditures and operating transfers, the Council of the City of Norwich may appropriate, by ordinance, some portion of such excess for one or more of the following purposes: a) Additional capital improvements beyond those required by Charter Chapter VII, Section 17 which can be demonstrated to reduce the future operating expenses of the city b) Make transfers to a bonded projects fund to pay for projects with authorized, but unissued debt c) Retire existing debt early d) Make employer contributions to the Pension or Other Post-Employment Benefits Trust Funds above the amount required by 7-132.4 e) Fund projects and other expenditures for which the City of Norwich is authorized to incur indebtedness pursuant to Charter Chapter VIII, Section 1 6 JOURNAL OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NORWICH DECEMBER 1, 2014 7-131.4 – Replenishment of Unrestricted Fund Balance Should the Unrestricted Fund Balance of the General Fund, having reached the minimum level set in 7-131.2, fall below that minimum level, in the fiscal year following such occurrence, the city shall increase the contingency appropriation called for in 7-131.1 according to the following schedule: a) If the UFB is below 8% of the current fiscal year’s budgeted expenditures and operating transfers, the city shall restore UFB to the 8% level within two budget cycles. b) If the UFB is greater than 8%, but below 10% of the current fiscal year’s budgeted expenditures and operating transfers, the city shall restore UFB to the 10% level within five budget cycles. c) If the UFB is greater than 10%, but below 12% of the current fiscal year’s budgeted expenditures and operating transfers, the city shall restore UFB to the 12% level within five budget cycles. 7-132 – Pension and Other Post-Employment Benefits Funding The city shall have actuarial valuations of its pension and other post-employment benefits (“OPEB”) plans performed at least biennially. 7-132.1 – Actuarial Cost Method The city shall use an actuarial cost method which conforms to the current actuarial standards of practice and allocate normal costs over a period beginning no earlier than the date of employment and should not exceed the last assumed retirement age. The selected actuarial cost method should be designed to fully fund the long-term costs of contractual benefits while equitably allocating the costs over the employees’ period of active service. 7-132.2 – Actuarial Asset Method The city shall recognize actuarial gains or losses on the differences between actual investment returns and the assumed rate of return over no longer than five years on a straight-line basis. 7-132.3 – Amortization of Unfunded Actuarial Accrued Liability a) Generally – The Unfunded Actuarial Accrued Liabilities (“UAALs”) that exist as of the last published valuation date prior to the adoption of this ordinance shall be amortized over no longer than 25 years. Changes in UAALs that occur after this date shall be amortized over no longer than 20 years. b) Plans closed to new entrants – The UAAL amortization for such plans shall be treated the same as in a) until such plans have no remaining active members. When a plan is closed to new entrants and has no remaining active members, changes in the UAAL shall be amortized over no longer than 10 years. 7-132.4 – Contributions a) Generally – The city shall contribute the amount recommended by its actuary each fiscal year unless the amount varies by more than 15% +/- from the previous year. This variance shall be calculated by division (e.g., Norwich Public Utilities, Norwich Public Schools, Police, Fire, Volunteer Fire, and all other General City). 7 JOURNAL OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NORWICH DECEMBER 1, 2014 b) Contribution recommended by actuary is less than 85% of the previous year’s contribution – The city shall contribute an amount equal to 85% of the previous year’s contribution. c) Contribution recommended by actuary is greater than 115% of the previous year’s contribution – The city shall contribute an amount equal to 115% of the previous year’s contribution. Purpose: To establish policies with respect to the unrestricted fund balance of the general fund and contributions to the pension and other postemployment benefits funds. Upon a motion by Ald. Noblick, second by Ald. Bettencourt, it was unanimously voted to go into Executive Session pursuant to Connecticut General Statute Section 1-200(6), for the purpose of discussing the acquisition of real estate or an interest in real estate when publicity regarding the proposed purchase would cause a likelihood of an increased price for the property and to review feasibility evaluations made for the City of Norwich regarding such property. City Manager Alan H. Bergren, Comptroller Joshua Pothier, Planning Director Peter Davis, Corporation Counsel, Michael Driscoll, and Attorney Kimberly McGee shall be asked to participate during all or portions of this Executive Session at the request of the City Council. The council was in Executive Session from 8:10 pm to 8:25 pm, at which time Mayor Hinchey, stated no votes were taken. Upon a motion of Ald. Noblick, seconded by Ald. Bettencourt, it was unanimously voted to return to regular session. Upon motion to President Pro Tem Desaulniers, seconded by Ald. Noblick, it was unanimously voted to adjourn at 8:26 pm. CITY CLERK 8