City Council Planning Sessions

MEMORANDUM TO: Record FROM: Susan Bishel, Public Relations Coordinator SUBJECT: February 12, 2018 City Council Planning Session Minutes DATE: February 13, 2018 CC: Mayor and City Council, City Manager, City Clerk, Department Heads The Planning Session took place in the Council Chambers, Wheaton City Hall, 303 W. Wesley St., Wheaton, Illinois. Those attending the Planning Session included: Councilman Barbier, Councilwoman Fitch, Councilman Rutledge, Councilman Scalzo and Mayor Pro Tem Suess. Mayor Gresk and Councilman Prendiville were absent. Also in attendance were City Manager Dzugan, Assistant City Manager Duguay, Director of Public Works Laoang, Director of Finance Lehnhardt, Director of Information Technology Michaelis, Director of Engineering Redman, Assistant Information Technology Director Keegan, System & Data Analyst Kolamkar, Senior Project Engineer Lagvankar, Senior Project Engineer Tebrugge, and Public Relations Coordinator Bishel. The session began at 7:00 p.m. and concluded at 8:55 p.m. The following items were discussed: I. Call to Order The Wheaton City Council Planning Session was called to order at 7:00 p.m. by Mayor Pro Tem Suess. II. Public Comment There were no public comments. III. Approval of January 22, 2018 Planning Session Minutes The Council approved the January 22, 2018 Planning Session Minutes. IV. Strategic Goals Update Assistant City Manager Duguay stated several City staff members were present to assist in providing an update on the work they have accomplished in the past 6 months toward meeting the City's strategic goals. They also presented information on what they will be working on in the next 6 months relating to the strategic goals. Director of Finance Lehnhardt reviewed the Finance Department's work to ensure the City is meeting its policy goal of 40% of General Fund operating expenses in reserves. He stated staff have been providing monthly financial reports to the Council and are working on the City's transition to a fiscal year that matches the calendar year. The upcoming budget will be an 8- month budget, and then the City will be on a calendar year schedule in 2019. The Council will receive the draft budget prepared by City staff by March 1. Director of Finance Lehnhardt stated staff have also been working on a 5-year financial forecast. Director of Finance Lehnhardt summarized the ways City departments are measuring their progress toward having operating expenses increase by 2% or less, and he stated most funds have had increases of less than 1%. City staff are working to develop dashboard-type reporting for departments to identify key expense drivers and ensure compliance with the budget. In response to Council questions regarding expenditures, Director of Finance Lehnhardt stated the increases the City is measuring include the City's pension obligations and estimates for future increases in obligations. In relation to the goal of implementing a 5-year capital improvement plan, Director of Finance Lehnhardt stated staff has worked to update this 5-year plan, prioritized capital improvement requests, completed the stormwater rate analysis and provided funding strategies for the downtown streetscape project. City Manager Dzugan added that the Council will be receiving a breakdown from staff on projects that are currently funded versus those for which the City would need to raise additional revenue to fund. Council members requested that City staff provide a summary of what was completed in the first year of this plan and associated cost savings to show progress made. Council members also requested that the Council be included earlier in the process of prioritizing CIP projects. Assistant City Manager Duguay reviewed the progress made toward the City's strategic goal of quality infrastructure, specifically related to the downtown streetscape plan. He stated underground utilities for Phase 1 are completed, and the City went out to bid for the Phase 1 streetscape. He stated one bid submitted came in approximately $850,000 below the City's expected cost estimate, which is positive news. The City staff will be recommending a bid award March 5, with the next portion of Phase 1 planned to begin in late March and finishing by Aug. 31. He reviewed the City's plans for construction and stated the City has been proactively communicating with business owners in the downtown to ensure they know what to expect. Director of Engineering Redman spoke of the City's efforts to eliminated backups and overflows in Basins 3 and 4. RJN developed recommendations for storage alternatives, and the City will be working in the coming months on developing a long-term plan that eliminates backups/overflows in Basins 3 and 4 to the level of a 10-year rain event. In response to Council questions, Director of Engineering Redman stated the City has a goal of eliminating 100% of backups and overflows in this area to a 10-year flood level, but the City will be looking at associated costs to determine what is feasible. Senior Project Engineer Tebrugge spoke about actions the City has completed toward the goal of flood-protecting structures after an established rain event. He stated they have completed Planning Session Minutes 2 studies #4, #5, and #6; they are finalizing studies #7 and #8; studies #9, #10 and #11 are in progress, and the City has awarded the bid for studies #12, #13 and #14. The City has also met with the Forest Preserve District and are working to see what the City needs to do to ensure the District is agreeable to the City's plans to improve stormwater systems in the Briarcliffe area, as it would send additional water downstream to Rice Lake. Modeling the City completed shows there would be no impact downstream of Rice Lake. Senior Project Engineer Tebrugge stated the City will continue working on forecasting and surveying floodplain areas in addition to flood-prone areas, and the City is working on a Benefit Cost Analysis for areas #4, #5 and #6. Also, the City continues documenting stormwater storage areas. Senior Project Engineer Lagvankar spoke about the projects completed as part of the CIP plan, including determining the necessary flat/consumption rate increase for the stormwater fund, and resurfacing roadways. The City will be having another pavement rating evaluation done, as the City does every three years, and working with Public Works and Engineering to develop a resurfacing and reconstruction maintenance program for both departments. In response to Council questions, Senior Project Engineer Lagvankar stated the pavement evaluation process costs $40,000, and the City prefers to have this done every three years to ensure the City is keeping on track with its goal of all roadways achieving at least a "good" rating. Assistant City Manager Duguay reviewed the work done by City staff toward achieving the goal of efficient and effective services. He stated the City has done a significant amount of work identifying core services departments provide and the appropriate service levels to meet expectations. Also, the City departments are working to provide cost/efficiency improvements, such as the Police Department's move to 12-hour shifts, HR's change to paperless pay stubs, bringing wireless fire alarm management and billing in-house, improving the City's website and getting rid of a document management system that can now be handled by the City's website software. In the next 6 months, the City will be evaluating these changes, begin implementation of a parking payment management system, and integrating several City systems to eliminate double entry and inefficient workflows. Council members requested that staff provide additional information on the amount of money the City is saving through these changes. To achieve the City's goal of reducing/minimizing/eliminating a service, Assistant City Manager Duguay reviewed several examples City staff completed, including switching to a less costly video service for City online videos, and a Blue Cross Blue Shield Member Rewards program that can help the City reduce costs for its health insurance. Planning Session Minutes 3 V. Data Analytics Demonstration City Manager Dzugan introduced members of the City's Information Technology Department, who are working to make the City more data-driven by capturing additional information and leveraging it to make the City more efficient. System & Data Analyst Kolamkar summarized ways in which municipalities are using data analytics to make informed decisions, identify and reduce inefficiencies and enhance transparency and service. She stated the IT Department has been working extensively with the Building and Public Works departments to find valuable information on City operations, such as what types of permits are taking the most time to process, and which part of the process is slowing the City's response times. In order to successfully collect meaningful data, System & Data Analyst Kolamkar outlined how the City worked to analyze and standardize its workflow so that all departments were consistent in entering data. The City then needed to work to clean the data, and measured KPIs. The City researched benchmarks from other communities for how long it should take to process permit applications. System & Data Analyst Kolamkar demonstrated the Power BI Dashboards the City has created to show where there are bottlenecks in the workflow. Through this work, the City has already reduced the amount of time to enter a permit into the system by 40%. In response to Council questions, City Manager Dzugan stated many City departments have a part in permit processing and all enter information into the same program, so it has been a complex process to standardize and produce meaningful data. In response to Council questions, System & Data Analyst Kolamkar stated the amount of time recorded also includes the time that the process is waiting on the applicant to take action, such as resubmitting certain elements if a part of the application was denied. Assistant Director of IT Keegan reviewed the concept of open data, which is data and content that can be freely used, modified and shared by anyone for any purpose. He stated it is becoming an expectation for all government agencies to make more data available to the public. Doing so can increase efficiency, enhance service and increase transparency in government. Assistant Director of IT Keegan reviewed one area where people seek open data, which is Freedom of Information Act requests. The City analyzed what types of requests the City is receiving and found that the largest portion of these are people requesting information on Planning Session Minutes 4 permits that the City has issued. Director of Building & Code Enforcement Kreidl stated this is often homeowners or business owners looking for plans when they are looking to remodel or add onto their home/business, or as part of a lawsuit, or businesses looking to solicit data so they can sell specific goods to people doing specific types of work. Assistant Director of IT Keegan showed a demonstration of an open data site the City developed using data the City has collected. He showed how the City could provide much of the requested information, such as permits, to residents through the website dashboard, and they would no longer need to submit a FOIA request to obtain the information they sought. This would lead to efficiencies in staff time needed to process the FOIA requests. Other data sets the public often is interested in includes contractor information or crime data, or the City could use data on things such as response times for emergency responders to determine how the City compares to other communities. In response to Council questions, Assistant Director of IT Keegan stated City staff has not yet determined which information would be available to the public through this method and is working with legal counsel on this. In response to Council questions about businesses using FOIA for commercial purposes, City Manager Dzugan stated the City is required to provide this information by law. Council members expressed interest in the City pursuing what the Illinois Municipal League can do to lobby for changing laws related to commercial use of this information. City Manager Dzugan stated the City is in the beginning stages of better using data analytics, but he commended the IT Department for excellent work done so far. VI. City Council/Staff Comments City Manager Dzugan complimented the Public Works Department for their exemplary efforts clearing snow from City streets over 9 consecutive days. Councilwoman Fitch thanked City staff for all of their work toward the downtown streetscape project. Councilman Suess stated he was glad to see the initial bids coming in much lower than expected. VII. Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 8:55 p.m. Planning Session Minutes 5