City Council

DocuSign Envelope ID: 259DE31E-3821-4156-9880-EA8E7743CEA1 MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL CITY OF SEAT PLEASANT REGULAR WORK SESSION MONDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2024 6:00P.M. 1. OPENING 1.1 Call to Order Council President Raynor called the meeting to order at 6:06p.m. 1.2 Roll Call Present: Councilmember Donovan Bilbro, Councilmember Monica Higgs, Councilmember Hope Love (Late Arrival at 6:35pm), Council President Shireka McCarthy, Mayor Kelly Porter, Councilmember Gerald Raynor, Sr., Councilmember Kizzie Scott (departed at 6:35pm and joined via Zoom at 6:55pm), Councilmember James Wright Staff: Dashaun Ball, City Clerk, Beverly Barber, Human Resources Manager, Michael Barber, Environmental Justice Director, Demetrious Harris, Chief of Police, Betty Logan, Chief Financial Officer, Myneca Ojo (departed the meeting early at 9:20pm), City Manager, and Kyrthlyn Rhoda, (virtually) 1.3 Invocation and Pledge of Allegiance: Mayor Porter gave the invocation. 1.4. Approval of Agenda Motion to approve the agenda. Motion by Shireka McCarthy second by Donovan K. Bilbro Final Resolution: Motion Carried Yes: Monica Higgs, Gerald Raynor Sr, Kizzie Scott, Shireka McCarthy, James Wright Jr, Donovan K Bilbro 2. PRESENTATIONS 2.1. Payroll System Presentation  Ms. Logan stated that the presentation is for the proposed transition for another payroll provider.  Ms. Logan stated the Three payrolls processed per month: one monthly for the Mayor and City Council and two bi-weekly for an average of sixty employees. However, the employees’ payroll process is manual, time- consuming, and prone to errors. The timekeeping and reporting process needs to be automated to allow for an efficient and effective payroll operation. Three different timekeeping and reporting processes are used: Page 1 of 10 DocuSign Envelope ID: 259DE31E-3821-4156-9880-EA8E7743CEA1 Eight (8) City Hall employees complete a paper timesheet to record hours worked, leave taken, etc. These are salary employees. Twenty (20) Environmental Justice Department (EJD) employees use an ADP time clock to punch in and out daily. Each pay period, EJD runs a Payroll Detail Report listing the employee’s’ hours worked, leave taken, leave without pay, etc. Changes are consistently made to adjust hours due to employees either not clocking in or out daily or reporting overtime worked. The Director of EJD prepares a paper timesheet. The Director and the Special Operations Assistant are salary employees; other staff are paid on an hourly basis. Thirty (30) Police Department employees use Planit Police Scheduling software, built specifically for law enforcement agencies. Planit tracks hours worked, time off, assigned shifts, and other activities. Officers and administrative staff time is entered into Planit. Each pay period, the Chief of Police prepares a manual Master Timesheet listing all employees’ hours worked, overtime, night differential, leave, etc. Timesheets are approved by the City Manager and sent to Finance. Once timesheets are received, it takes Finance about three days to review the documents for accuracy and manually enter each employees’ hours into ADP. Finance runs a payroll preview report to verify the accuracy of data, and the CFO performs a final review before payroll is processed for payment.  Ms. Logan stated that the current provider is ADP, and it is cloud-based system, and they provide payroll and tax services. The monthly fee is $3,648, and annually $47,477 per calendar year, and the revised agreement enter in May 2023 for comprehensive Human Resource, Payroll and Employment verification services for an annual cost of $63, 861.50. They wanted finance to review the report and compare it time keeping. ADP does not integrate with the police department planit system. It will bring the city back to a manual process, and the city withdraw from the service agreement.  Ms. Logan stated that the ADP Resources service satisfaction, and they are not satisfied with the system. They are having a problem with reimbursing the elected officials, and the reimbursement has been deducted from the pay due to error in set-up in the system. They can only process one payroll at a time, and one of the payrolls was lost due to the system set-up with a delay in receiving a processed payroll report for at least an hour. The payroll report has been stuck, lost in the ADP system. The process of running a report is cumbersome. The paystubs for the mayor and council did not run a paystub for February 1, 2024. They inquired about the paystub not being generated, and they encountered the same issue for the FY20 Page 2 of 10 DocuSign Envelope ID: 259DE31E-3821-4156-9880-EA8E7743CEA1 Audit. The leave balances do not coincide with the payroll system and the balances have been incorrect. The city has received numerous letters from IRS about payroll taxes due for prior periods. ADP stated that they did not have power of attorney from the city to discuss or file tax reports.  Ms. Logan stated that the recommended payroll provider is Paychex offers a cloud-based payroll services, they were the city's payroll provider in 2017, and the system integrate with the planit system. Employees will have self- services, with approval of leave request, and employees can log-in online, and the supervisor can approve the time. This will eliminate the paper process and will capture the time and attendance modules. Paychex once time is entered into the module as flex time. The finance department will run the payroll report, and the process will be easier and simpler. The cost will be $1,084 per month and annually $13,862 and to purchase the time clock it will be $2300 per month. They will assign a consultant to work with the city.  Councilmember Bilbro inquired if the timeclock will automatically transition into the system.  Ms. Logan stated that it will allow the automatic transition.  Councilmember McCarthy inquired if she could log into the Paychex system to see her paystub and W2's?  Ms. Logan stated that it will be the same and a lot easier.  Mayor Porter stated that he hopes the council will move forward with the recommendation as soon as possible since the Paychex system is a lot easier. How long will the transition take from to the system?  Ms. Logan stated it will be six weeks to provide the information and set up the system.  It was motioned by Hope Love and seconded by Shireka McCarthy to accept Paychex. The motion carried:  Yes: Donovan Bilbro, Monica Higgs, Hope Love, Shireka McCarthy, James Wright, Jr., and Gerald Raynor, Sr.  Not Present to Vote: Kizzie Scott 3. REPORTS 3.1 Mayor’s Report  Mayor Porter stated that his report can be found in BoardDocs, and it details the meeting he attended in the month of January 2024.  Mayor Porter read his report for the record. Page 3 of 10 DocuSign Envelope ID: 259DE31E-3821-4156-9880-EA8E7743CEA1 3.2 City Manager Report  Ms. Ojo stated that the city begins working diligently for the Performance Audit. Meetings with the department will begin at the end of the month for FY25 budget.  Ms. Ojo stated that she has been working with OB4 to learn about phishing and scamming with the many devices. She has received several emails, which were scams to request the approval to use the city credit card. They will be implementing/presenting this to the council.  Ms. Ojo stated that she had been working with the council and committees with the learning Seat Pleasant and the focus is to have a level of transparency in the organization, and the process with the benefits, and the information will be available on the intranet page and the resource for training and mandatory training for the employees. Cyber-attacks are important for the city employees to know what that looks like.  Ms. Ojo stated that the January weather with the rain, snow and ice and she thanked Mr. Barber, Chief Harris, and Assistant Chief Heyward for being on call to address the road concerns. They made sure the roads were clear and passable.  Ms. Ojo stated that they are looking to have an action review to make the citizens aware of what to do in a storm, with information in the newsletter on how to shovel out. The ice and snow event were challenged, but they worked diligently, and they used over half of the salt reserves, and they assisted Fairmount Heights who did not have any salt.  Ms. Ojo stated that they worked on Insurance claims, automobiles, and to ensure that the assets are properly captured. The city filed two claims in the month of January. They are revising coverage to input new equipment and moving assets that are no longer owned by the city.  Ms. Ojo stated that the city is monitoring state legislation, and they are monitoring HB165, and the city will be opposing the bill and going to the committee on tomorrow, February 6, 2024, and SB747, and the additional bill HB0212, and it discusses noise abatement monitoring systems for the vehicles.  Ms. Ojo stated that the city is mandated to complete a performance audit from FY19-23, and it will be coming up later for the city approval. Page 4 of 10 DocuSign Envelope ID: 259DE31E-3821-4156-9880-EA8E7743CEA1  Ms. Ojo stated that they are using budget strategy to address crime, potholes and tree maintenance and speeding in the area with the capital improvement plan to do long range planning in the city.  Ms. Ojo stated that they received three citizens’ comments in the month of January, and the response was the city does not address short term rentals, and Airbnb should not be operating for short term stay. The city does have an auction process for affordable homes.  Ms. Ojo read the citizen comment responses.  Councilmember Bilbro requested an update on the contract with the HR Firm that is assisting the city, but where is the contract?  Ms. Ojo stated that the contract for the HR Firm is not the same contract for the Learning Institute contract has not been filled but a firm was contracted out for employee time review.  Councilmember Bilbro stated that the council wanted to see the contract before being implemented. All contracts above $5,000 need to be approved by the Council.  Ms. Ojo stated that she had come to the council and stated that she wanted to hire a contractor to review the time from January-December 2023.  Councilmember McCarthy stated that the council requested a copy of the contract under $5,000 to see the work they are doing.  Ms. Ojo stated that she met with the Governmental Affairs Committee for the Learning Institute for Seat Pleasant, which is still on the table, but the contract has not been approved.  Councilmember Higgs stated that she had asked on more than one occasion to see the contract. They are concerned with the company that is doing the reconciliation for the time from January to December 2023. She has asked multiple times for the contract.  Ms. Ojo stated that the company was taking the timesheet for every employee as the time in ADP is incorrect.  It was requested for the contract be sent to the council.  Councilmember McCarthy inquired if the city had charged for the salt.  Councilmember Bilbro inquired about the EJ&T report on tonnage to be broken down by each day. The committee wanted something a little more detailed.  Councilmember Bilbro stated that they wanted to see the increases and decreases for each day of collection. Page 5 of 10 DocuSign Envelope ID: 259DE31E-3821-4156-9880-EA8E7743CEA1  Mr. Barber stated that this month’s report provides the tonnage, but each day is going to be different, and it is going to be a challenge for each day. They cannot provide set numbers for each day.  .  Mayor Porter stated that there was an indication of 60% of the salt being used and we are still in the winter months, and they need to make sure that we have supplies for the winter and record-breaking rain in December/January.  Ms. Ojo stated that they provided Fairmount Heights with one ton, which is truck load, and they made a second request, and the city did not honor the request.  Mayor Porter stated that he inquired of the payment from the municipality.  Ms. Ojo stated that the city had been in the process of acquiring the firehouse and it was an initial ask of $325,000 and last week it was a flooded and a vagrant entered the station and vandalized the station. They received an e-mail reducing the price to $200,000 and they came in immediately with Servpro to clean up the damage. The city had agreed to accept the $325,000, and the next step is to contact the real estate attorney, who will be Jason to move to the next step.  Mayor Porter stated that this would not be a bad transaction for the city as the problem will become the city.  Councilmember Higgs inquired if the building has been inspected and can the city ensure that the building is worth the asking price. The city hall was renovated prior to coming on council and we have had multiple issues with this building, and it was closed about month ago.  Councilmember Love stated that she was against the purchase of the firehouse due to the concerns about the condition of the building and how it would impact the city financially to ensure that it could be occupied. She does not think the building is in good enough condition.  Councilmember Wright requested clarity on if the city will shuffle the snow for residence.  Ms. Ojo stated that the city does not shuffle snow for the residents.  Councilmember Bilbro requested an update for Seat Pleasant Day?  Ms. Ojo stated that she is hearing mixed reserve from Councilmembers and the city needs to determine if they want to have Seat Pleasant.  Councilmember Bilbro inquired of what has been done so far for Seat Pleasant Day. Page 6 of 10 DocuSign Envelope ID: 259DE31E-3821-4156-9880-EA8E7743CEA1  Ms. Ojo stated that they are in the process of hiring a Public Engagement Director and searching out bands and the parade route for the city. The staff has not worked on Seat Pleasant Day except Ms. Rhoda.  It was stated that all staff worked on Seat Pleasant Day.  Councilmember McCarthy stated that it is getting a little late, and it is February, and we can start with just the parade for this year and grow on it as the years grow.  Councilmember Love stated that they can have it at Goodwin Park and scale it down.  Councilmember Higgs inquired about sustainability and technology on page 4.  Ms. Ojo stated that it is important to look at the technology as some of the technology has waned or died, and the city needs to hire two IT services to assist with concerns the information technology to compete with Smart City's initiative.  The Department Directors read the reports that are in BoardDocs.  Councilmember Scott of Pepco has completed work in the city, and specifically Ward III.  Mr. Barber stated that Pepco has not completed the seventy work orders for the city.  Councilmember Higgs inquired if the Human Resources Manager has been involved with the process for the time review.  Ms. Ojo stated that all staff were invited to the meeting, and Ms. Barber was not available. A meeting was held with the larger departments to discuss how to gather information. Council Committee Reports  Councilmember Love stated that the Budget and Finance committee met on January 30, 2024, to discuss the FY21 Audit, Payroll Provider Transition. Due to the missing bank statements for SPICE to be obtained by the City Clerk from the City Attorney. The city did receive a refund from SPICE in the amount of $208,412.62.  Councilmember Higgs stated that the Governmental Affairs and Technology Committee met on January 10, 2024, to review and discuss the proposal for the Human Resources Consultant to be addressed with the City Council. The voting recommendation for non-Citizens and they are still working on this Page 7 of 10 DocuSign Envelope ID: 259DE31E-3821-4156-9880-EA8E7743CEA1 matter with additional research. The committee will be meeting on February 7, 2024.  Councilmember Wright stated that the Chief covered the materials discussed in his report, but the committee discussed departmental changes, legislative updates, and FUSUS Connect and Business Roundtable. 4. CITIZEN COMMENTS 4.1. Marverly Nettles-Simpson, Hello, I spoke during resident input, and I realized I would need to leave a contact for the items I wish to have answered. I have left my email address and here are the items I wanted to hear back on: 1. Getting a code compliance officer since we are down to just one, adjusting their pay to make it more attractive. Can they add to their agenda for discussion? 2. Adding a number at the door of the Town Hall or having a doorbell so that residents can enter the building during public session. Any chances on making that easier? 3. Who is going to follow-up to ensure WSSC re-paves the patch work on 71st Ave and Pleasant Valley Court? Is there a paving schedule for the streets and how far is 71st Ave on that list? 4. Street Clearing: Ice was still on Dry Log, 71st Ave, 70th Street, 70th PL at 10- 11am. There was only one pass for 71st Ave per day of the ice emergency. That one pass was inefficient and ineffective. One truckload was sold to a nearby municipality and there was still ice on streets in Seat Pleasant. 5. LEGISLATION 5.1 Ordinance O-24-09 Amendment of Fiscal Year 2023-2024 Budget for Highway User Expense Account 2nd Reading.  Ordinance O-24-09 Amendment of Fiscal Year 2023-2024 Budget for Highway User Revenue Expense Account was introduced by the City Council and read by the City Clerk on Monday, January 8, 2024.  Ordinance O-24-09 Amendment of Fiscal Year 2023-204 Budget for Highway User Revenue Expense Account and the second reading was conducted by the City Clerk on Monday, February 5, 2024.  Motion by Shireka McCarthy, second by James Wright Jr.  Final Resolution: Motion Carried  Yes: Monica Higgs, Hope Love, Gerald Raynor Sr, Shireka McCarthy, James Wright Jr, Donovan K Bilbro  Abstain: Kizzie Scott Page 8 of 10 DocuSign Envelope ID: 259DE31E-3821-4156-9880-EA8E7743CEA1 5.2 Ordinance O-24-10 Amendment of Fiscal Year 2023-2024 Budget for National Capital Strategic Economic Development Fund Program Funds for Goodwin Park Revitalization Project 1st Reading  Ordinance O-24-10 Amendment of Fiscal Year 2023-2024 Budget for National Capital Strategic Economic Development Fund Program Funds for Goodwin Park Revitalization Project was introduced by the City Council and read by the City Clerk on Monday, February 5, 2024. 6. UNFINISHED BUSINESS 6.1 None 7. NEW BUSINESS 7. 1. Fiscal Year 2024-2025 Budget Calendar  City Clerk Ball stated that the Proposed Budget Calendar provides the dates for the budget review and hearing for Fiscal Year 2024-2025.  The City Council agreed to have two Proposed Budget Hearings for the Fiscal Year 2024-2025.  City Clerk Ball stated that the dates will be added to the calendar. 7.2 Approval of Professional Services Contract for Performance Audit  Ms. Ojo stated that she is requesting the council to approve the professional services with MGT for the Performance Audit of the city and she feels that they meet the needs to review the FY2019-2023, and the proposed price is $59,920.  McCarthy inquired is it any reason that there is only one firm listed for the council to review.  Councilmember Love stated that it was a certain criterion to complete the Performance Audit.  Councilmember McCarthy inquired of the funding source to pay the vendor, and the money will be deducted from the City Administrator Contractor Services.  Councilmember Love requested a detail report from the CFO on the importance of the Performance Audit  It was the consensus of the Council to include the approval of the Professional Service Contract for the Performance Audit and for the City Page 9 of 10 DocuSign Envelope ID: 259DE31E-3821-4156-9880-EA8E7743CEA1 Manager/CFO to provide additional information on the responses to the RFP. 8. ANNOUNCEMENTS 8.1 Public Session, Monday, February 12, 2024, Hybrid and Zoom Video, at 7:00p.m. Meeting Link details will be on the city's website. 6301 Addison Rd., Seat Pleasant, MD 20743 8.2 Regular Work Session, Monday, March 4, 2024, Hybrid and Zoom Video at 6:00pm. Meeting Link details will be on the city's website. 6301 Addison Rd., Seat Pleasant, MD 8.3 Public Session, Monday, March 11, 2024, Hybrid and by Zoom Video at 7:00p.m., Meeting Line details will be on the city's website. 6301 Addison Rd., Seat Pleasant, MD 20743 8.4 Ward I Meeting, Saturday, March 23, 2024, Seat Pleasant Activity Center, 5720 Addison Rd., Seat Pleasant, MD 20743 from 10:00a.m.-2:00p.m. 9. ADJOURN 9.1 Adjourn and Logout-The meeting adjourned at 9:33p.m. Respectfully submitted, Dashaun N. Ball, MMC City Clerk Page 10 of 10