Finance Committee

123 Madison Street Village of Oak Park Oak Park, Illinois 60302 www.oak-park.us Meeting Minutes Finance Committee Monday, September 12, 2016 6:30 PM Room 130 1. Call To Order Call to order 6:30 p.m. 2. Roll Call Present were members of the Finance Committee Trustees Glenn Brewer, Adam Salzman and Robert Tucker. President Anan Abu-Taleb arrived at 6:50 p.m. Others present were CFO Steve Drazner, Budget Manager Paul Gasiecki, IT Operations Specialist Tomas Kilikevicius, Village Engineer Bill McKenna, IT Director Alvin Nepomuceno, Village Manager Cara Pavlicek, Village Clerk Teresa Powell, Deputy Village Manager Lisa Shelley, Village Attorney Paul Stephanides and Public Works Director John Wielebnicki and Civic Information Systems Commissioners David Baker and Brent Kolasinski. Visitors included Chris Donovan, John Murtagh and Anne Polaski. 3. Public Comment Anne Polaski spoke about her concerns for traffic, safety and business failures if a proposed "bend" is approved for Madison Street and urged the Finance Committee to vote against this expenditure. Chris Donovan spoke of his concerns about the process for considering changes to Madison Street and opposes expenditures for the "road diet" and the "bend". 4. Approval of Minutes A. ID 16-275 Minutes from the August 29, 2016, October 12, 2015 and October 22, 2015 Meeting of the Finance Committee. It was moved by Trustee Brewer and seconded by Trustee Salzman that the Minutes of the October 12 and October 22, 2015 and August 29, 2016 Finance Committee meetings be approved. A voice vote was taken and they were approved unanimously. 5. New Business Village of Oak Park Page 1 Printed on 10/11/2016 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes September 12, 2016 B. ID 16-274 Review of the FY17 Recommended Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). Manager Pavlicek asked that the fiber optic project upgrade discussion follow other portions of the meeting as President Abu-Taleb was delayed arriving. Committee members agreed. FLEET REPLACEMENT FUND Director Wielebnicki described the current fleet replacement strategy of bringing the majority of the fleet up to planned service life. This strategy has shown benefits over the past several years with 81% of the fleet within that range and a goal in the high 80s. Service life varies by type of vehicle, considering age,mileage, type of use, downtime and maintenance costs. Police cars are replaced in rotating 3-4 year cycles and some trucks after up to ten years. The funding of $150,000 for five police squads has come from the RICO fund through an inter-fund transfer. The Fire Department has recently made major upgrades to vehicles and only purchased an ambulance this year. Four years ago 2 pumper trucks were purchased and last year a ladder truck purchased to replace the truck previously shared with River Forest. Additional pumper trucks will be needed in future years. Trustee Salzman asked about purchasing; through a co-op. Director Wielebnicki responded that Public Works uses the State of Illinois co-op and a west suburban consortium, which has provided better options for police cars. Prices for each are compared when making purchases. For certain less common purchases, such as a backhoe, an RFP may be used. Equipment for vehicles is purchased separately, from computers to lights, sirens and other specialized equipment. This equipment may be reused for new vehicles when an old vehicle is retired. Director Wielebnicki pointed out the original budget for truck purchases was reduced from $680,000 to $570,000 through cuts in the number of vehicles purchased. Trustee Brewer asked whether outsourced services provide their own equipment or use Village resources. Director Wielebnicki said that only Village staff use Village resources and that the equipment is sufficient to handled a large winter storm. Trustee Brewer asked about forestry staff; there are five employees on the forestry staff. WATER AND SEWER FUNDS Director Wielebnicki explained that the water mains, sewers and water pumping stations are significant investments, and noted the importance of Village of Oak Park Page 2 Printed on 10/11/2016 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes September 12, 2016 water meters to bring in revenue. 2017 is the third year of water billing increases from the City of Chicago; the good news is that unlike recent large increases, near future anticipated increases are only expected to be for the annual cost of living. Public Works anticipates future repairs of pumping and delivery systems to coincide with street work. Water loss in Oak Park's aging sewer system is currently at 18% with a goal of 10-12%. The Village's aggressive water leak program includes repairs of 100 year old sewer sections through projects related to capital infrastructure improvement. An example of coordination is the repair work on Fillmore Street in conjunction with the Village of Brookfield water pipe project to increase their municipal water flow. Village Engineer McKenna thanked the Board for early approval of 2017 capital projects which allows design now and bids next winter, thus getting better prices. Director Wielebnicki discussed the Lake streetscape improvements. Trustee Salzman asked about disruption to local businesses. To minimize impact in 2017, only the portion from Oak Park Avenue to Euclid will be done, with construction in 2018. Manager Pavlicek added that this will be coordinated with the local business community through outreach to them. President Abu-Taleb asked how the comprehensive parking study will be coordinated with the Lake Street project. A traffic consultant will work with the Parking department. The Sewer Backup Protection Grant Program has been very successful, with new applications after heavy rains and a waiting list for grants. Staff recommends an additional $200,000 for this project. Annual sewer and water improvements include $300,000 for water main replacements to address breaks in the system, with three years to finish this replacement project. Low frequency radio is now being used to read water meters with the capacity to go from quarterly to bimonthly billing. An instant-read program would allow for the ability to advise owners of leaks immediately to minimize loss. The new BS&A system plus meters will allow daily readings by owners to improve both water conservation and billing. Ten to twelve year-old meters are now being replaced on an ongoing basis for the 12,000 meters in the system. Trustee Brewer asked if a larger expenditure could justify quicker replacement. This would mean the need to make a major replacement again when new meters become obsolete. Public Works is talking with the top five users, the Park District, hospitals and schools and doing large Village of Oak Park Page 3 Printed on 10/11/2016 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes September 12, 2016 meter tests as they prepare for replacement of these meters. The Park District isnow recapturing water for reuse to reduce their demand. IT EQUIPMENT Manager Pavlicek introduced IT Director Nepomuceno and Civic Information Systems Commissioners Baker and Kolasinski. Director Nepomuceno explained that the fiber system connects 12 Village facilities and is more than 15 years old. The system, developed over time, suffers from distance and data capacity limits and from power outages which provide ongoing challenges to keep the system operating. This proposal would build for the future with added and excess capacity for the current growing system to use. Some of the uses are described below. The Fire Department currently provides distributed training programs to allow staff to remain at the three stations ready to respond to emergencies; outages affect communications and training capabilities. The Parking department uses the system for data transmission, data security and intercom services, which allow remote monitoring and response at lots without dedicated staff. The water system can adjust usage in real time, as with the fire on Roosevelt which allowed staff to put more water into that portion of the system to fight the fire. There is a need for redundancy to assure that service continues even if a system goes down. Trustee Tucker asked if this was the best and cheapest way to provide needed connectivity. Will fiber still be the technology of the future? Director Nepomuceno said it was the technology of the future to push information and to expand capacity for additional bandwidth. Copper is not the future; it lacks sufficient bandwidth. Wireless is great but requires a big investment and is less reliable. Fiber provides rock-solid service and redundancies. Commissioner Kolasinski added that the Village will need a dependable backbone such as fiber; when questioned about his background he stated that he is employed by Argonne National Laboratory maintaining an international weather network. Commissioner Baker added that current and growing need for high definition video is increasing the demand for additional bandwidth. Director Nepomuceno reviewed a map of current fiber coverage in the Village where gaps and lack of redundancy exist. He also displayed a map showing the additional private fiber networks in the Village. The advantage of owning fiber is that the Village knows who is using it. The City of Aurora has this type of system. President Abu-Taleb noted that Aurora is four times the size of Oak Park and asked if this was the future Village of Oak Park Page 4 Printed on 10/11/2016 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes September 12, 2016 and a priority. Director Nepomuceno explained that the current fiber network is outdated like the Village phone system which has gone down at times. The Village is now buying replacement parts on E-Bay to maintain the system; technology evolves, and this is outdated. Trustee Tucker asked about future excess capacity on the fiber optic network. The City of Aurora provides excess capacity to the business community. District 97 is building a fiber network. Manager Nepomuceno noted that others may want to share in this capacity. The cost of the City of Evanston's fiber network was paid by Northwestern University. Trustee Tucker asked Manager Pavlicek about the Village of Downer's Grove. Staff will check with them and other comparable communities about what is being done in this area. Trustee Salzman referred to the IT Strategic Plan and noted that the GIS system is now partially implemented. He expressed concern that capacity is not adequate for the system. Manager Pavlicek noted that if no decision is made to expand, the Village can invest in products but will be limited to internal use. She added that the creation, transmission and storage of massive new amounts of video by the police department is creating the need for a five year plan for future spending. Trustee Salzman noted that it would be helpful to discuss the IT Strategic Plan in that context. President Abu-Taleb raised the possibility of hiring a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to help the Board understand the need to spend. He asked how much is currently being spent on fiber optics. Director Nepomuceno noted that there is not a formal maintenance plan but that needed repairs come to a few thousand dollars per year. Trustee Tucker asked when the Strategic Plan will be presented. Manager Pavlicek said that this item is scheduled for Tuesday, October 4, at the Regular meeting of the Village Board. The Finance Committee will cover the operating budget on October 10 and review what CISC and staff recommend. This will be under discussion with a December deadline. Trustee Salzman asked about the involvement of the Intergovernmental Committee in this topic. Manager Pavlicek said that the IT Directors from each government meet collaboratively. There was further discussion of the impact on public safety training and response time. Director Nepomuceno noted that the T-1 line at $2,400 has one thousandth of the speed of new systems. President Abu-Taleb asked for a comparison report on the best value. Trustee Brewer asked how security issues might impact use. Manager Pavlicek referred to access by police to the law enforcement database and Village of Oak Park Page 5 Printed on 10/11/2016 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes September 12, 2016 loading video for transmission on fiber systems. President Abu-Taleb again suggested a CTO to take this process to the next level. Trustee Salzman suggested that with the aging system something needs to be done with the Strategic Plan in mind. Trustee Tucker asked that members present at next week's Board meeting let the rest of the Board know of this discussion. Commissioner Kolasinski noted security concerns with the complexity and cost of police requirements. OVERVIEW OF CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM Director Wielebnicki provided an overview, noting that the Village is in year three of an accelerated street and alley improvement program. Annual expenditures were increased from $700,000 to $2.7 million for alleys and to $2 million for road repairs annually. Engineer McKenna added that on the 100 point scale of quality the alley program has increased the overall rating by 2 points per year with a rating of 66 at the end of the year. Streets age faster but street funds have increased street quality by more than one point per year to 75.6 from 73 in 2014. Trustee Tucker noted that in his neighborhood the ratio of complaints to complements is much improved. Director Wielebnicki noted that design work is being done in the fall to be prepared to go out to bid in January and February to lock in good pricing. He added that this design work is being outsourced for alleys and staff are doing streets. Engineer McKenna explained how the rating system for streets and alleys is administered. Director Wielebnicki noted that during the time of the state's work freeze on state roads the Village received excellent bids for work. Director Wielebnicki displayed the maps showing road work plans for this year and coming years. This will be updated after the budget is approved. Adjustments may be made as certain locations may deteriorate faster and need to be addressed sooner than originally projected, leaving another location till later. Director Wielebnicki next reviewed highlights of 2017 work plans. The Colt streetscape utilities improvement involved underground utility work and impacts Westgate. Historic sidewalk replacement ($600,000 grant) has included an inventory of the 4200 stone slabs (some slate) which the Historic Preservation Commission recommended for repair in 2000. $25,000 is spent each year if grant funds are available to relevel and repair slabs. The Park District completed slate repairs at Cheney Mansion. Village of Oak Park Page 6 Printed on 10/11/2016 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes September 12, 2016 The Home Avenue Bridge needs deck repairs. This has been delayed to address East Avenue and Lombard bridge issues where the concrete deck is deteriorating. The Letter of Intent (LOI) with IDOT designates that IDOT will be responsible for bridge repairs for new structures. There was discussion of the impact of IDOT construction on the community and businesses. This construction is projected to begin in 2020. There is discussion of a staff liaison to work with IDOT over a 10 year period through a grant opportunity. Engineering is moving forward on Lake Street with some costs being moved to 2018. Grant funds from Cap the Ike have been requested for this, but if no grant funds are available work will still go forward. A grant for the third and final section to get viaduct lighting will cover these costs. Street maintenance will use a maintenance approach to extend the life of streets instead of pavement patching where feasible. . Design of the Madison Street "bend" will be paid through the Madison TIF in 2017 and 2018 for the water and sewer component. Without grants, delay are likely. For the five year capital plan, fund are approved in the budget annually but only allocated by the Board at the time that work projects are awarded. The Village received $15,000-$20,000 annually in insurance subrogation proceeds for trees damaged by cars. These funds are used to replant parkway trees. More streets and alleys are being resurfaced this year. Manager Pavlicek noted that constructions is "saturating" the community, and as a result, some Lake Street work may be deferred. The South Boulevard streetscape between Harlem and Marion was reviewed where the alley is being completed. The Wild Onion is scheduled to open in November. Manager Pavlicek noted that a Tiger Grant application is being submitted with Forest Park and River Forest for the UP viaduct at Harlem and the Green Line. This infrastructure upgrade is important to complete before work begins on the Ike. Director Wielebnicki covered some additional maintenance projects. The traffic signals on Washington came in at a high price than expected and Village of Oak Park Page 7 Printed on 10/11/2016 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes September 12, 2016 have been scheduled for 2018, and must be coordinated with IDOT. The sign fabrication for the wayfinding project, though managed by Director Grossman, are included here as a public works project. Several old IDOT projects completed in prior years but not yet billed are listed here to keep them on the list. The building improvement fund has focused this year on Village Hall. The biggest item "furniture" also includes electrical work. Other major items to be addressed are elevators and doorways which challenge accessibility in the building. Work on the structural slab for the parking garage is ongoing. Other interior improvements include the roof structure,electrical, plumbing and landscaping work. Public works is beginning review of needed maintenance on the "new" public works building and on the fire stations. Manager Pavlicek added that the Village is requesting use of CDBG funds for accessibility work, as such use requires special permission. C. ID 16-276 Review of the Finance Committee meeting schedule for October and November 2016. An updated draft of the Fiber proposal will be scheduled for discussion by the full board as part of budget discussion in October. Manager Pavlicek has rescheduled October Finance Committee meetings for October 10, 19 and 24, with Board review beginning November 3. Board members asked for an updated list of these meetings via Outlook. 6. Old Business 7. Adjournment It was moved by Trustee Brewer, seconded by Trustee Salzman to adjourn the meeting. Ayes: All Nos: None The meeting was adjourned at 8:35 p.m. Village of Oak Park Page 8 Printed on 10/11/2016