City Council

December 29, 2009 CITY OF SARATOGA SPRINGS City Council Meeting Agenda 11:30 AM CALL TO ORDER ROLL CALL SALUTE TO FLAG PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD / 15 MINUTES PRESENTATION(S) EXECUTIVE SESSION CONSENT AGENDA 1. Approve Budget Amendments 2. Approve Budget Transfers 3. Approve Capital Budget Transfer MAYOR’S DEPARTMENT None ACCOUNTS DEPARTMENT None FINANCE DEPARTMENT 1. Discussion and Vote: Authorization for Mayor to Sign MOU with CSEA-DPW 2. Discussion and Vote: Authorization for Mayor to Sign MOU with PBA 3. Discussion and Vote: Authorization for Mayor to Sign MOU with Firefighters Local 343 4. Discussion and Vote: Accounts Department Payroll Transfers 5. Discussion and Vote: Department of Public Safety Payroll Transfers 6. Discussion and Vote: Department of Public Works Payroll Transfers PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT 1. Discussion: Public Works Dispatchers PUBLIC SAFETY 1. Announcement: Promotions in Police and Fire Departments City Council Meeting 12/29/09 SUPERVISORS Joanne Yepsen None Matthew Veitch None ADJOURN Page 2 of 8 City Council Meeting 12/29/09 City of Saratoga Springs City Council Meeting City Council Room Tuesday, December 29, 2009 11:30 AM PRESENT: Scott Johnson, Mayor (arrived 11:38 a.m.) Ken Ivins, Commissioner of Finance John Franck, Commissioner of Accounts Anthony Scirocco, Commissioner of DPW Ron Kim, Commissioner of DPS (arrived 11:36 a.m.) STAFF PRESENT: Shauna Sutton, Deputy Mayor Kate Jarosh, Deputy Commissioner, Finance Michele Boxley, Deputy Commissioner, Accounts Eileen Finneran, Deputy Commissioner, DPS Joe Scala, City Attorney ABSCENT: Patrick Design, Deputy Commissioner, DPW RECORDING OF PROCEEDING The proceedings of this meeting were taped for the benefit of the secretary. Because the minutes are not a verbatim record of the proceedings, the minutes are not a word-for-word transcript. CALL TO ORDER Commissioner Ivins called the meeting to order at 11:34 a.m. PUBLIC COMM IENT PERIOD Commissioner Ivins opened the public comment period at 11:35 a.m. Commissioner Ivins said the public comment period is limited to a total of 15 minutes and individuals are limited to two minutes each according to the rules approved in February of 2004 by the City Council. Commissioner Ivins closed the public comment period at 11:36 a.m. as no one spoke. Consent Agenda Commissioner Ivins moved and Commissioner Franck seconded to approve the consent agenda as presented: 1. Approve Budget Amendments Page 3 of 8 City Council Meeting 12/29/09 2. Approve Budget Transfers 3. Approve Capital Budget Transfer Ayes – 4 Mayor’s Department Nothing at this time. Accounts Department Nothing at this time. Finance Department Discussion and Vote: Authorization for Mayor to Sign MOU with CSEA-DPW (09-376) Commissioner Ivins moved and Commissioner Kim seconded to authorize the mayor to sign a memorandum of understanding with the PBA as previously distributed to the Council. Commissioner Ivins stated the contract is unclear on the payout of vacation time since it is granted on the employee’s anniversary date and not the 1st of each year. This MOU will give the full unused vacation time to each full time employee scheduled for layoff on December 31st. There are a couple typos as follows:  The opening line should read “…,by and between the City of Saratoga Springs, New York (herein after known as the ‘City’) and the Civil Service Employee’s Association, Inc., Local 1000 AFSCME AFL-CIL, the City of Saratoga Springs DPW Unit #8457, Saratoga County Local 846 (herein after known as ‘CSEA’).” All references to DPW will also be changed to CSEA.  2nd paragraph- 3rd line should read as CSEA and not PBA. The cost of this is $4,449.28 and transfers have been requested. This amount is based upon the original list of layoffs they received from Civil Service and as in the MOU under identified employees. He asked each department for a final list and did not receive one from DPW. Commissioner Scirocco stated he has no changes to the employees listed in the MOU at this time. Commissioner Ivins stated the contract stipulates the payout of sick time which equates to $8,584.29. The city attorney has requested that this MOU be subject to his approval meaning when he brings it to the union to sign, if they want to make changes, it will be brought back at the January 5, 2010 meeting. Commissioner Scirocco asked if CSEA signed off on this yet or at what point do they sign off on it. Joe Scala, city attorney, advised the unions haven’t signed off due to concerns about the language, therefore he has asked that this be subject to city attorney approval. Ayes - All Discussion and Vote: Authorization for Mayor to Sign MOU with PBA (09-377) Commissioner Ivins moved and Commissioner Kim seconded to authorize the mayor to sign a memorandum of understanding with the PBA as previously distributed to the Council. Commissioner Ivins stated the contract is unclear on the payout of sick time and the interpretation of retirement. This MOU will allow for sick time payout in accordance with the language of the contract under retirement. The amount is $8,136.70 and transfers are later in the agenda. This is based upon the list of Page 4 of 8 City Council Meeting 12/29/09 lay offs received from Civil Service as the beginning of December. The Finance Department did not receive an updated list from Public Safety. Commissioner Kim stated they are going to take the following people off the agreement: Justin Ahigian, Amy Evertsen, and John Guzek. Commissioner Ivins asked Commissioner Kim if he had the adjusted dollars. Commissioner Kim advised he did not. Commissioner Ivins stated they do not have those numbers so they will have to pass this contingent upon the numbers changing. Ayes - All Discussion and Vote: Authorization for Mayor to Sign MOU with Firefighters Local 343 (09-378) Commissioner Ivins moved and Commissioner Kim seconded to authorize the mayor to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Firefighters Local 343 as previously distributed to the Council. Commissioner Ivins stated the contract is unclear as to the payout of sick time and interpretation of retirement. This MOU would allow for sick time payout in accordance with the language of the contract under retirement. The amount is $28,682.88 and transfers are later in the agenda. This is based upon the list Civil Service provided. Commissioner Kim advised they are removing Russell Robinson from this list. Commissioner Ivins stated that will adjust the $28,000 figure. Ayes – All Discussion and Vote: Accounts Department Payroll Transfers (09-379) Commissioner Ivins moved and Commissioner Franck seconded to approve the Accounts Department payroll transfers as previously distributed to the Council. Commissioner Ivins stated transfer is to deputy registrar and data collector salary lines for year end expenses. Ayes - All Discussion and Vote: Department of Public Safety Payroll Transfers (09-380) Commissioner Ivins moved and Commissioner Kim seconded to approve Department of Public Safety payroll transfers as previously distributed to the Council. Commissioner Ivins stated this is for transfers from animal control/PEO, assistant police chief, traffic control PT, juvenile aid comp. time, juvenile aid investigator line, stop DWI OT line, fire 207A, police 207C, and fire 207A pensioner’s lines, transfers to sick leave, sick leave social security, juvenile aid social security, stop DWI social security, unemployment, fire travel, police tuition reimbursement, and police publications lines to cover year end expenses and accrual payouts for lay-offs. Ayes - All Discussion and Vote: Department of Public Works Payroll Transfers (09-381) Page 5 of 8 City Council Meeting 12/29/09 Commissioner Ivins moved and Commissioner Scirocco seconded to approve Department of Public Works payroll transfers as previously distributed to the Council. Commissioner Ivins stated transfers are from garage social security, highways social security, streets labor, parks/Casino social security, sewer pump OT, and garage labor. Transfers are to DPW administrative social security, public works director social security, off street parking social security, off street parking labor, compost social security, sewer OT, flowers, streets tools, parks/Casino repairs, tree tools, and streets repair. Capital Budget payroll transfers are from payroll and social security to Vanderbilt storm drainage capital project outlay and Broadway drainage capital project outlay to encumber funds to 2010. Ayes - All Discussion and Vote: Add an Item to the Agenda (09-382) Commissioner Ivins moved and Commissioner Scirocco seconded to add a late payroll transfer from DPW to the agenda. Ayes – All Discussion and Vote: Department of Public Works Payroll Transfers (09-383) Commissioner Ivins moved and Commissioner Scirocco seconded to approve Department of Public Works payroll transfers as previously distributed to the Council. Commissioner Ivins stated these are transfers from street labor line to City Hall professional service line for anticipated year end expenses; transfers from engineering administrative assistant, highway labor, water meter supervisor, and senior engineering tech to survey auto cad, DPW director salary line, and compost social security to cover year end deficits. Ayes – All Discussion and Vote: Add an Item to the Agenda (09-384) Commissioner Ivins moved and Commissioner Scirocco seconded to add two late payroll transfer s from DP S to the agenda. Ayes – All Discussion and Vote: Department of Public Safety Payroll Transfers (09-385) Commissioner Ivins moved and Commissioner Kim seconded to approve Department of Public Safety payroll transfers as previously distributed to the Council. Commissioner Ivins stated this is for transfers from code administrator and police officer salary lines to sick leave buy out, deputy commissioner public safety salary line, code social security line, PT police cleaner, and police cleaner salary line to cover year end lump sum payouts and deficits. Ayes – All Public Works Department Discussion: Public Works Dispatchers Page 6 of 8 City Council Meeting 12/29/09 Commissioner Scirocco advised he lost 5 of the 7 dispatchers they had due to lay offs. There will only be coverage from 7 a.m. – 11 p.m. Mondays – Fridays; assuming no one takes off sick time, persona time, or vacation time. There will not be any weekend or holiday coverage. He is currently working with the telecom people to put a recording at the garage indicating if there is an emergency, to call the Police Department. He will give the Police Department a list of people they can call. He is concerned with the sewer pump stations throughout the City and is working with Mahoney Notifier about installing a unit at the garage to monitor the pump stations. Mahoney will monitor the pump stations from 11 p.m. – 7 a.m. After 11 p.m. they will be locking the gate. There will be no gas on the weekends. He spoke with Commissioner Elect Wirth and suggested the police get credit cards since they will not be able to get gas on the weekends at the garage. He can’t trust anyone with a key or that they will lock up. Cameras for the park will record but will not be monitored after 11 p.m. He doesn’t see any other resolution at this time other than putting the dispatchers back in. Commissioner Franck asked if the sewer alarms are going to be moved to the water plant; it seems that would be cost effective. Commissioner Scirocco stated that would cost $12,000 to move the alarms. It is cheaper to put Mahoney Notifier on them; they install a unit and we will pay them a monthly monitoring fee. Commissioner Franck asked if swipe cards could be given to people; this would be good from a liability and security issue. Mayor Johnson stated it is good that Commissioner Scirocco is looking at alternative measures. He asked that Commissioner Scirocco to report to the Council what he finds out. Commissioner Franck asked the Council to consider the people who have been laid off first should there be any new positions in the future. Commissioner Ivins stated he is happy to see Commissioner Scirocco is trying to find alternatives. He asked what Mahoney Notifier is charging the City monthly for the monitoring. Commissioner Scirocco stated the $12,000 fee was to take the panel box and move it somewhere else. Commissioner Ivins confirmed that Mahoney is therefore charging less than the $12,000 per year. Commissioner Scirocco stated that was correct. Public Safety Department Announcement: Promotions in Police and Fire Departments Commissioner Kim announced the following changes to the Police Department:  Michael Biss is being promoted to assistant chief  Lt. Mike Chowske will be promoted to captain  Sgt. Tom Mitchell will be promoted to lieutenant  Tim Sicko will be appointed as sergeant They were able to save 2 of the potential lay offs. One of the people being laid off did get hired by the Rensselaer Police Department. They will only have to lay off 4 individuals from the Police Department. They were only able to save 1 of the firefighters that were to be laid off. Changes to the Fire Department include:  Bob Murphy is being promoted to lieutenant  Tom Knight is being promoted to captain Page 7 of 8 City Council Meeting 12/29/09 Commissioner Kim stated all these decisions were difficult as he had so many fine people to choose from. He also thanked Eileen Finneran for help and work. PUBLIC COMMIENT PERIOD Mayor Johnson said the public comment period is limited to a total of 15 minutes and individuals are limited to two minutes each according to the rules approved in February of 2004 by the City Council. Phil Diamond of 29 Waterview Drive stated he wasn’t aware of the DPW dispatch situation until today. He suggested the Council consider combining emergency dispatch with the DPW dispatch into one team. He stated with the technology that is out there today, this would be possible and he is willing to help put that in place. Kevin Genier of 51 Hathorn Boulevard asked when he could expect to see the MOU for the firefighters. He was informed he could speak with the city attorney after the meeting. Al Callucci of 9 Lexington Road inquired if everyone moving up in the police and fire is mandatory. His assumption is these people would need to cash in compensation time with the promotion. If his assumption is correct, which budget does that money come from – 2009 or 2010? He has never seen so many people in the $70,000 - $100,000 salary levels; even with the people having been here 20 years plus. We need to generate a 4 - 6% increase in revenue every year for the next 5 years just to maintain where we are at, including the cuts. We need to look at this and think about it. Something is out of control somewhere. He wished everyone a happy new year. ADJOURNMENT Mayor Johnson moved and Commissioner Ivins seconded to adjourn the meeting. Ayes - All There being no further business, Mayor Johnson adjourned the meeting at 12:16 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Lisa Ribis Clerk Approved: 1/19/10 Vote: 5 - 0 Page 8 of 8