Board of Aldermen Meeting

CITY OF WILLARD BOARD OF ALDERMEN SPECIAL MEETING SEPTEMBER 25TH, 2006 7:00 P.M. Board present: Mayor Thomas J. Keltner, Aldermen Charles Whitehead, Aldermen Bill Caplinger, Aldermen Gordon O’Quinn, and Aldermen Richard Simpson. Also in attendance: City Administrator, Fred Gress; City Clerk, Kathy Snyder; CFO, Karen Robson; Director of Development, Randy Brown; Director of Public Works, Charlie Jones; Chief of Police, Tom McClain; Director of Parks and Recreation, Jill Simmons; and Emergency Management Director, Donna Gordon. Guest present: Brenda Webster with Cross Country Times Newspaper. Mayor Thomas J. Keltner led the Pledge of Allegiance. Mayor Thomas J. Keltner called the meeting to order. City Administrator Fred Gress stated that he had prepared a budget format and Karen had also prepared a budget format. Fred presented his format first as follows. General fund has six (6) departments, Community Building, General Administration, Streets, Police, Planning and Development, and Emergency Management Division. Community Building is 2% of the budget. General Administration covers the City Hall building and staff. Public Safety is the largest part of the General Fund at 54%, which provides for the Police Department. Street Department is the second largest department in the General Fund at 22% of the budget. Planning and Development is a new department created in 2005. Emergency Management counts for 2% of the General Fund budget. In General Administration Fred proposed to codify the ordinances. This would make the codes easier to reference. Estimated cost is $20,000 for codification. The city also needs to continue with computer upgrades. We will also continue to pay off the telephone system that we purchased this year. Other small items would be some storage cabinets. Public Safety (Police Department) has 10 or 11 people. In 2007 we will be discussing additional officers as Willard continues to grow. Street Department is responsible for street maintenance, sidewalks, snow removal, storm water, flood issues, trees on public right of ways, lots of items. Fred stated another item in the Street Department that is becoming expensive is streetlights. Streetlights will probably exceed $40,000 this year. Proposed budget items for Street Department include a one-ton four wheel drive truck with a dump bed, and a new snow plow attachment. This would not be a brand new truck. Mayor asked if this would be replacing one of our trucks that we have now. Fred stated that this would be an addition. The city will continue to do the micro sealing on the streets. There is $60,000 in the budget to do micro sealing. Storm water and Floodways are another big part of the Street Department Board of Aldermen Special Meeting Page 1 of 4 September 25th, 2006 budget. The city has four (4) major floodways that have been designated by FEMA. We do not know how many houses are involved because our flood study hasn’t done the cross sections. It will be a long time before FEMA gets to us and does a detailed flood study. Fred proposed that we do a hydrology study on the largest floodway area to find out where are problems really are. In the Planning and Development Department Fred proposed an in house codes department. The city currently contracts with Greene County for this service. If we hire a code enforcement person we will need more office space. We have discussed moving the council chambers over to the community building which would service meetings, court, and any governmental meeting. The room that is now the council chambers would be split up into additional offices. The main entrance would be on the West side of the building. Emergency Management was created in 2005. All city employees except Charlie Jones are now NIMS certified. Charlie will finish his training this week. Fred stated that the biggest goal for the year 2007 will be the creation of an in house Building Codes Department. Codes officer will be involved with all the building codes, nuisance codes, and the Land Development Regulation codes, and the blasting ordinance. The code inspector will work with Director of Development, Randy Brown and City Clerk, Kathy Snyder. The second goal is the codification of the ordinances. City staff will continue to pursue with the Willard Fire District a new public service center. Also in 2007 we will be requesting road improvements on Miller Road from Jackson all the way to New Melville Road. Brenda Keltner arrived at the meeting and stated that she and the Mayor had a new grandson. Mayor Thomas J. Keltner left the meeting. Aldermen Bill Caplinger asked Fred how much problem he seen in getting the right of way and easement from everybody down Miller Road. Fred stated when we put in the sidewalks we had a little problem just getting the easements for the sidewalks. The critical part of Miller Road is the geometric improvement at Jackson and Miller, which would involve a realignment of the street. Karen stated that the proposed budget was 3.95 million for the city. Aldermen Richard Simpson asked on the Planning and Zoning line item why was $11,000 more budgeted? Karen stated that Planning and Zoning is all of the permit fees and infrastructure fees. On the Community Building Aldermen Richard Simpson asked why the telephone line item was down from $1,000 projected 2006 to $600.00 proposed 2007 budget. Karen stated that it is just a flat fee now of $50.00 a month. Aldermen Simpson asked on Public Safety if the payroll charges were going up, how come the payroll taxes are down. Karen stated that she forgot to add in the overtime on the taxes. Aldermen Bill Caplinger asked about the $10,000 decrease from 06 to 07 on the group insurance. Karen stated the change was because we had switched plans this year and it is now cheaper. Aldermen Bill Caplinger asked why the telephone dropped $2000. Karen stated that we are now voice over internet we don’t have the higher cost that we had with regular phone service. Aldermen Simpson asked on the line item under streets/salaries, why is there a decrease from $97,000 to $44,000? Karen stated that the salaries are distributed among all the Board of Aldermen Special Meeting Page 2 of 4 September 25th, 2006 departments depending on the amount of work done for that particular department. Aldermen Gordon O’Quinn asked on the vehicle gas expenses, why is the street department decreased $1000, and down on the police department $5000? Karen stated that on the street department she is spreading that between streets, water, and sewer. It looks like it is down in the street department but with all three departments together there is an increase. Aldermen Bill Caplinger asked how it was working out with Donna Gordon working 20 hours at the Police Department and twenty (20) hours as Director of Emergency Management. Chief McClain stated that she has not been working twenty (20) hours at the police station. Fred Gress City Administrator stated that Emergency Management has a lot of training in the beginning. Chief said that he was notified up front that she would need more time in the beginning for Emergency Management. Aldermen Richard Simpson asked Karen why the miscellaneous line item under water fund/expenses went from $10,000 to $60,500 for 2007 budget. Karen stated that that included security fence for 2 wells, ½ backhoe, leak detector, and well monitoring. The well monitoring is the software and supplies to monitor the level in the towers. Fred stated that the goals for the water fund include continuing to construct new and replace waterline, complete the Wellhead Protection Plan and put in place the five year master plan for the water system. Goals for the sewer wastewater system include preparation of the wastewater master plan, identification of I & I sources on the repair of those. Aldermen Richard Simpson asked what was the difference on the sewer/supplies line item, 2006 projected was $15,000 and the 2007 proposed budget was $219,500. Karen stated that that was the Certifications of Participations that are remaining from last year. Aldermen Bill Caplinger asked about purchasing pipe in bulk to save money. Fred stated that we would look into it. Karen stated that for the water/sewer fund the city based the budget on 200 houses starting next year. Fred stated that the Park Fund in 2004 the city provide services to 8,213 people. By the end of this year the city is looking at 15,000 people with the same staff. City staff is proposing another full time employee for the 2007 year for the Parks Department. The Parks Department will also be proposing to purchase a new mower. Aldermen Bill Caplinger asked how the pool did this year. Director of Parks & Recreation, Jill Simmons stated that it did really good. The pool did lose money again on the pool but it was better this year. Numbers were up by approximately 2000 people. Aldermen Richard Simpson asked why there was a $75,000 difference in the salaries. Fred stated that part of it was due to transfers out of general fund and part of it is the new position that the city is proposing for the parks. Karen stated that salaries were split into three different line items, full time, seasonal, and overtime. City Administrator, Fred Gress passed out bids that were submitted for the Parks irrigation system for review. Bids will be reviewed at the October Board of Aldermen Meeting. Board of Aldermen Special Meeting Page 3 of 4 September 25th, 2006 Motion made by Richard Simpson with second by Gordon O’Quinn to adjourn the meeting. All votes yes. Motion carried. Meeting adjourned. _________________________ Kathy Snyder, City Clerk Board of Aldermen Special Meeting Page 4 of 4 September 25th, 2006