City Council Workshop Meeting

City of Trotwood 3035 Olive Road Trotwood, Ohio 45426 937-837-7771 www.trotwood.org Meeting Minutes Monday, February 17, 2014 6:00 PM WORKSHOP MEETING HAS NOW BEEN MOVED TO MONDAY, FEB. 24, 2014 AT 6:00 P.M. T-M Schools Board of Education Meeting Chambers 3594 N. Snyder Road Trotwood, OH 45426 City Council Workshop Meeting Mayor Joyce Sutton Cameron Vice Mayor Barbara Staggs Councilmember Bruce Kettelle Councilmember Bettye Gales Councilmember Rap Hankins Councilmember Ron Vaughn Councilmember Mary McDonald Sandra L. Riege, CMC Clerk of Council City Council Workshop Meeting Meeting Minutes February 17, 2014 NOTE: Feb 17 Workshop Meeting was postponed due to bad weather conditions until Monday, February 24, 2014 @ 6:00 p.m. I. Call to Order - Mayor Joyce S. Cameron Mayor Cameron called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. II. Pledge of Allegiance - Moment of Silence III. Roll Call: Clerk of Council Councilmember Gales entered the meeting at 6:43 p.m. Staff members present were; City Manager Michael J. Lucking, Public Safety Director/Deputy City Manager Quincy E. Pope, Fire Chief Steve Milliken, Police Captain of Administration John Porter, Manager Barbara Brooks, Public Works Operations Manager Dalton Hines, Planner I Jeannie Peyton, Sandra L. Riege, Clerk of Council. Visitors in attendance: Janice Chinn, Gayle Horton, Dave Norvell, John T. Fecke, Tomn Grady. Present: 6 - Mayor Joyce Sutton Cameron, Vice Mayor Barbara Staggs , Councilmember Bruce Kettelle, Councilmember Rap Hankins, Councilmember Ron Vaughn and Councilmember Mary McDonald Absent: 1 - Councilmember Bettye Gales IV. Motion to Approve Workshop Agenda Mayor Cameron requests a motion on this item. A motion was made by Councilmember Hankins, seconded by Councilmember McDonald, that this be approved. The motion carried by the following vote: Aye: 6- Mayor Cameron, Vice Mayor Staggs, Councilmember Kettelle, Councilmember Hankins, Councilmember Vaughn and Councilmember McDonald VIII. Presentations - Introduction Michael J. Lucking, City Manager City of Trotwood Page 1 City Council Workshop Meeting Meeting Minutes February 17, 2014 A. PR002-14 Community Partnership with YMCA Attachments: YMCA Partnership Presentation Q Pope 2-17-14.ppt Councilmember Bettye Gales entered the meeting at 6:43 p.m. City Manager Lucking introduced Public Safety Director/Deputy City Manager Quincy E. Pope to speak about the Parks and Recreation program partnership with the YMCA. With the recent transition of this department, the city is wanting to contract with the YMCA for all recreational programming. The structure of this partnership is now underway related to our city Strategy Plan to increase our programming 100% as our goal. The YMCA has the expertise to assist us under the direction of Gail Horton, Senior Executive Director. This will save the city approximately $30,000 per year. Some of the primary duties and scope of responsibilities of the YMCA will be: 1) development of a comprehensive annual parks and recreation programs including fees and procedures, 2) improvement and maintenance of all city parks and facilities based on our best practices, 3) continued safety maintenance of all play equipment, 4) work closely with area sport associations, schools, and private businesses for use of recreation facility space, and 5) have the YMCA designate a programming and recreational manager to assist the city with all managing our goals to raise the participation of citizens within our committee. Our next step is to have city council review for approval the agreement at the next council meeting on March 3, 2014. Mrs. McDonald asked, when and how will we measure our plan? Mr. Pope said, we'll be able to report the outcomes by benchmarking our results around June for City Council. Mrs. Horton also indicated their process to reveiw all park & recreation programming benchmarks are evaulated twice a year which is mandatory. The city will be using the city newsletter to promote our events with the assistance of our Parks and Recreation Board. City of Trotwood Page 2 City Council Workshop Meeting Meeting Minutes February 17, 2014 B. 14-33 Travel Policy Discussion - Mayor Joyce Sutton Cameron Attachments: TRAVEL POLICY RESOLUTION 11-33.pdf Mayor Cameron wanted council to review the most recent city council travel section of the city travel policy. New updated travel forms were presented for all city employees to use after they return from their travel. Adjustments were made throughout under "Section IV Authorization for Elected Officials" for all to consider. In 2014 the travel budget for all of council is $4,000.00 each. Mr. Vaughn asked for clarity on Item IV - D. Mayor asked Is there is consensus to removed item D or just reword if the wording is ambiguous? Mr. Vaughan said we need to define the language for better clarity where needed. Mrs. Gales Item IV. (H) what about adding a written trip report. Most felt a written trip report is really up the individual to report back to council. Under IV. (E) names the "Finance Committee Reviews Eexpenses", but is no longer an active committee. Rap stated, this is a policy was imposed under another Mayor. City Manager stated, this section was intended to keep the money as designated within the year and to exceed it. We added this section as the O.R.C. code is the driver of this section. All agree, we need to strike out the text referring to the "Finance Committee" throughout the document. The Municipal Clerk will draft up another copy for their review. Mrs. McDonlad had a question about the reimbursement clause in Section IV - (D) . She also felt elected officials need their own travel policy and employees need their own. Not everyone agreeed, this travel policy is for all employees and drafted years ago. Mrs. MdDonald asked the Law Director to explain the American Disability Act to better understand our responsibilities. Acting Law Director Chris Conard stated, under the O.R.C. Code Chapter 102 prohibits discrimination for all disabled people. Most city's have a policy that is fair to everyone under the ADA for all state, local, federal government's according to the federal law. Mrs. McDonald asked what about covering the expenses. Law Director stated, once the policy is set, the policy has to be implemented in a non-discriminatory manner. Mary asked, if there is an individual in the municipality that falls in this category, is it our responsibity to pay for expenses for their companion? Acting Law Director said, yes if the cost is responsible in nature. Mrs. McDonald would like to have a written opinion from our Law Director stating this. City Manager reviews, signs off and is responsible for the financial accounting as the Chief Operations Officer of the city for all travel reimbursements under the O.R.C. code along with the Finance Director. Mr. Hankins said for the record, he feels this is discriminatory in nature as her comment relates to him personally as a handicapped person. We have already had a written opinion from the law office in the past. Rap would prefer questions of this nature be dealt with in private. Mrs. McDonald said, it was not her intention to single anyone out, it could be for any employee. Mayor Cameron intervened, we will not continue this discussion on the council dais it will be done in private only. Mayor Cameron directed the Clerk to make the adjustments with the changes mentioned for city council to revist. City Manager asked the Law Director to provide the the most current ADA responable accommodation requirements for city employees to travel. Mrs. Gales wanted to know where in the budget is the companion dollars coming from. This money has already been allocated and passed in the 2014 budget as stated by the City Manager. City of Trotwood Page 3 City Council Workshop Meeting Meeting Minutes February 17, 2014 C. 14-34 Council Meeting Time Change Discussion - Mayor Joyce Sutton Cameron City Manager made a suggestion and wanted council to talk about changing all the council meeting times to maybe 6:00 to 6:30 pm. Mr. Kettelle said based on tradition the meetings have always started at 7:30 p.m., but he's willing to make changes and be mindfull of the citiznes that do attend. Mrs. McDonald is not opposed to seasonal hours in the summer and maybe change times in the winter. Some of our meetings last really late at night making it difficult for people to attend. All agree, they would like to see it moved up. A trial period is recommended. City Manager said, based on the consensus of council it seems the 6:30 p.m. time frame would work best. If we need to have an executive session we could do so around 5:30 - 5:45 to give us ample time to start the regular meeting at 6:30 p.m. It was decided thisw change would go into effect at the April 7, 2014 meeting. We will have to advertise the change on our city web page etc. . Mayor Cameron would like council to consider replacing their old outdated council identification badges. A sample was passed around, but they would like to see more. The Clerk will obtain more as directed. City Manager Lucking annouced a new city web site presentation will take place at the next workshop session. Our website is old and also outdated, needs a upgrade. XIII. Motion to Adjourn Mayor Cameron asked for a motion to adjourn the workshop meeting. A motion was made by Vice-Mayor Staggs and seconded by Mr. Vaughn at 7:40 pm the meeting was adjourned. City of Trotwood Page 4