1. Board of Commissioners (BOC)

MINUTES ' TOWN OF PITTSBORO I BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 2020 SPECIAL MEETING 6:30 PM Due to COVID-19 there will be limited seating at the meeting to allow for social distancing. If one wishes to make comment about an Agenda item, they may email the Town Clerk or drop off written comments at the drive-up window at Town Hall. Regular Meeting - Call to order - Mayor Nass Members present: via Zoom: Mayor Jim Nass, Mayor Pro Tern Pamela Baldwin, Commissioner John Bonitz, Commissioner Michael Fiocco, Commissioner Jay Farrell, Commissioner Kyle Shipp. Staff present: Interim Chief Shorty Johnson, Finance Director Heather Meacham, Planning Director Jeff Jones, Public Works Director John Poteat, Interim Town Clerk Cassandra Bullock. I Motion to approve the Consent Agenda was made by Mayor Pro Tern Baldwin, seconded by Commissioner Bonitz. Vote Aye-5 Nay-0 CONSENT AGENDA 1. Adopted Resolution of Sympathy Mayor Pro Tern of Siler City James Larry Cheek. End of Consent Agenda. Motion to approve regular agenda was made by Commissioner Fiocco, seconded by Commissioner Bonitz. Vote Aye-5 Nay-0 I REGULAR MEETING AGENDA  COMMISSIONER/MANAGER UPDATES Mayor Updates • EDC • RPO • Fairground Association • PEA/Downtown • Triangle J Council of Governments • Main Street • Climate Change • Human Relations Committee • Chatham County Arts Council BOARD DIRECTIVES - 1. FY 2020-2021 MANAGER'S RECOMMENDED BUDGET. Action recommended: Interim Town Manager Bob Morgan presented a power point to the Board on the Manager' s Recommended Budget. Commissioner Fiocco questioned the transferring of funds from Capital projects to our Enterprise fund, pursuit of I&I issues because of manholes . He mentioned for the storm that blew out the covert @ Pittsboro Elem School Rd likely did a lot of damage to our system along Roberson Creek. Public Works Director John Poteat confirmed it was on of the main areas that the Town plans on doing some rehab to and that stretch has always caused an issue, but they will be replacing manholes in that area as well. Commissioner Fiocco asked under the Enterprise expenditures for the Water Treatment Plant it says water treatment is increasing, sounds like revenue should be increasing or are we losing more water? Finance Director Heather Meacham advised Adam Pickett the Water Plants Director advised there has been an increase in the amount of water he ' s been treating. His increase expenses are due to using more chemicals and switching up the type of chemicals they are using. Commissioner Fiocco asked John Poteat if he has an estimate of the volume we are not seeing in the revenue? John Poteat advised we need to conduct a water loss study and there are a lot of companies that will do it for free. 2 ,--, Commissioner Fiocco believes that would be very helpful to have done. Commissioner Shipp asked if we are tracking what we are spending in treating unrelated chemicals vs. general water treatments . John Poteat advised Adam Pickett is pretty good with keeping up with what he spends, so he will be able to provide the Board with those numbers. Heather Meacham advised we are still tracking the pilot study funds separately, there is an amount that will carry over from last FY year because the project is completed. It won 't affect the operating budget because it will come from fund balance. Commissioner Fiocco asked what are we allowing to be paid in lieu of? Heather advised only for sidewalk fees. Commissioner Bonitz asked was bulk water sales mainly referring to when a customer sets up a hydrant meter. Heather explained if they want to retrieve water from our station, they will need to set up an account and then we will invoice them for the usage monthly. Commissioner Shipp believes for what we spend in treating the water it seems to a be low cost to charge. Do we know what other municipalities are charging? r John Poteat advised we are right in line with other municipalities. Heather advised we do have companies or people that tap onto our hydrant meters around town and steal the water, but we have no way of knowing until we catch them in the act. Mayor Pro Tern Baldwin wanted some clarity on the Health Insurance Stipend change from 90% to 65%. Heather advised we have six employees that are covered under other insurance and the Town pays them a stipend at 90% currently and since it 's not a common practice we should reduce it to 65%. Commissioner Shipp had concerns about not giving raises and question are other municipalities doing the same as well. Heather advised the county will not be giving raises this year, but she hasn ' t polled other municipalities. Commissioner Shipp mention we also have cut out travel and training. Heather advised that we hardly ever spent up what we budgeted for that those line items and with the COVID-19 we have suspended our travel for training because they are doing all online classes now. 3 Commissioner Fiocco asked as the year goes on and we decided our numbers are looking good and improving, could we do raises and go back retroactive? Mayor Nass also stated that we should be rewarding our employees that are going above and beyond their normal duties. Heather advised we currently don ' t have it structured whereas we do reviews for merit bonus or raises but maybe we should relook at our policy. Commissioner Farrell advised he brought up merit raises a couple years ago . John Poteat advised we used to have merit raises and elevations. Interim Town Manager Bob Morgan recommends the Town do a pay study, most companies just give cost of living raises and once the pay study is done, they realize employees that have been there 20yrs + aren 't even at the market value range. Mayor Pro Tern Baldwin states we have very loyal and hardworking employees and they need pay increases. Mayor Pro Tern Baldwin also wanted to mention that she is in favor of Main Street Program, but she is not in favor of increasing their budget to $85,000. Commissioner Bonitz would like to echo the same concern, after the May 14 email no one wants a tax increase. 75,000 UDO projects have been in the works for so long and needs to be completed. We need to focus on public works, law enforcement, and inspection services because the staff is doing the best, they can consider the work load they have. Bob Morgan advised main street isn't having an $85 ,000 budget increase the $15 ,000 is for fa9ades. Commissioner Fiocco advised main street entered a long-term commitment with the Welcome Center and their case was presented to the county for funds. They said we needed a project and main street came up with one and that is when the Welcome Center was formed . When Capital Bank moved out, they moved in and approached the county with their budget they were going for the improvement of the building. The Welcome Center is named The Pittsboro-Chatham County Welcome Center. We have long term residents making contributions and they have received 4 additional fa9ade grants applications. Commissioner Farrell advised he will echo with Pam we need to pay more attention to our employee ' s vs facades. The COVID-19 has affected everyone, and our employees are hurting because of this virus and we have employees that are being paid well below market level. Just wanted it known he has issue with Main Street requesting extra monies. Commissioner Shipp questioned three areas 1. $15 ,000 economic vitality 2. $86,000 program cost 3. $75 .00 registration 4  Commissioner Fiocco advised $87,000 is the operating cost for the Welcome Center. $85,998 .04 is under Programming Costs and that is split into four categories. Programming Cost, Events, Design and Economic Vitality. Mayor Nass stated that coming out of COVID-19 is going to be hard to recover from because of the loss . At this point downtown does need to be a high priority project. Commissioner Bonitz it's a very worthy project and no one doubts their work. Just very concerned and want to hear from staff on what they think about the Engineering Position being cut. Planning Director Jeff Jones discussed that at this point we have an outside Engineering company assisting our current inspector Jeff Harris which is more expensive and he knows it would be valuable to have a second Engineering Inspector with the volume Pittsboro is getting at this time and in the near future. Heather discussed that the construction fees have been coming in and our revenue was over what was projected, and we could make changes anytime if we needed to hire someone else. Commissioner Fiocco mentioned that Chatham Park and Mosaic has shown interest to prepay some of the fees and would just take it off the back end of their expenditures. Heather advised we can ' t do anything until an agreement is signed. Commissioner Shipp asked when talking about adding back later in the year, do we have a time r frame? Bob Morgan advised it hasn't been discussed yet, he will speak with Department Heads about the time frame. Commissioner Shipp questioned the part that was cutting the building maintenance and tank maintenance and maintenance all together, he believes that will give us a higher cost later. Heather advised last FY that line item was increased because of special projects, but this FY the line item is showing a decrease because of now special projects in the future. Commissioner Farrell asked if we could use Fund balance to give the pay for the 2.5% raises? Heather advised we can but doesn ' t recommend taking operating fund from fund balance, fund balance should be used for one time use only. Commissioner Shipp asked what is our current fund balance? Heather advised as ofJune 30, 2019 the unassigned is 2.6 million we made budget amendments in the amount of $260,00. We have 2.5 million in Enterprise fund and we have done $168,000 budget amendments. I Mayor Nass advised when things get better, we can replace what was used. 5 Commissioner Bonitz asked did we dip into our fund balance to support the police during the protest? Heather advised we did; a budget amendment was done for $50,000. Commissioner Shipp asked could raises come out of the general fund and main street come out of fund balance since it would be a one-time deal? He has issues what was pulled off the budget such as website design, electronic agenda and pay raises. Commissioner Fiocco stated it's interesting the ABC revenue in the budget are down but the sales are up. Commissioner Baldwin advised that she isn ' t in favor of the pay study at this time, previous study showed we are under paying employees and we already know we need to increase their pay. Heather advised if we do the pay study, we need to be prepared to increase the employees pay. Commissioner Shipp asked the Mayor asked about the funding for affordable housing. Mayor Nass advised funds can be deferred but he has commitments for the work to be done for free. 2. FY 2020-2021 MAIN STREET PITTSBORO, INV PROPOSED BUDGET AS OF 05/06/2020. Action recommended: ADDITIONAL UPDATES AND REPORTS 1. Commissioner Concerns. Commissioner Fiocco advised the trees downtown look very nice we just need the lights back up . 6 I ADJOURNMENT I Motion made by Commissioner Fiocco seconded by Commissioner Shipp to adjourn at approximately 8:47pm. Vote Aye-5 Nay-0 Jami/:f;._yor ATTEST: Cassandra Bullock, Town Clerk [ 7