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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1989-06-09 MinutesMINUTES OF A CITY BOARD RETREAT A retreat meeting of the Fayetteville City Board of Directors was held at 8:30 A.M. on Friday, June 9, 1989 in Room 326 of City Hall at 113 West Mountain Street. PRESENT: Mayor William Martin; Directors Michael Green, Russ Kelley, Ernest Lancaster, Paul Marinoni, Jr., Shell Spivey and Fred Vorsanger; City Manager Jim Pennington, City Clerk Suzanne McWethy, members of the staff, press and audience. INTRODUCTION The Mayor (noting that at this time; no members of . the public were present) told the staff and press in the audience that, because of time constraints, there would not be a chance for public input at this meeting. OVERVIEW The City Manager suggested questions from the Directors be taken at the end of the meeting. He said the City was a constantly changing and growing organization. He said staff's time has concentrated so much on the infamous incinerator project that it took away from the fact that we have a multitude -of other programs going on. He said, following his arrival in Fayetteville, the staff prepared a summary of objectives to accomplish this year. He said a_number of them have been accomplished but said other issues will still be facing the B6ard. Pennington said he was pleased thatwe have had a lot, more accomplishments than we have had potential problems. He said, overall, the City is geared into a period of major decisions for the Board and staff. He said the staff was under a serious time crunch, noting the citizen's task force on the incinerator problem has requested a considerable amount of information, and the staff was trying to put together (with a law firm) a procedure to take care of the Arts Center bonds so we don't lose arbitrage on them. t , POLICE DEPARTMENT 191A.1 Police Chief Watson distributed a handout (on file in,the agenda file for 191A.2 this meeting) summarizing the duties and responsibilities of the Police Departments, major issues facing the department now_ and in the future, budget, organizational makeup, staffing, t strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and current projects.. A video presentation was made on behalf of the department.• 440 • • June 9, 1989 The City Manager commented that the department was to be congratulated in 191B. its efforts over the last two years, in its actions to bring our department up to the point where we can get national recognition. He said they had done a fantastic job which was something we should really be proud of. FIRE DEPARTMENT Fire Chief Mickey Jackson distributed a handout (on file in the agenda file 191B.2 for this meeting), containing a description of the day-to-day operations of the department, an organizational chart, and information from the 1988 annual report of activities. • Jackson said fire fighter safety and fitness was the number one subject in 191B.3 the profession today. He said the department had identifiable strengths and weaknesses but hopes for making improvements in the future. He said since becoming Chief over three years ago, the department has been able to hire some excellent people. Jackson presented a slide show and video presentation. Director Marinoni asked how many areas in the City were not served with fire 191B.4 hydrants. Jackson said a lot of the area out Highway 62 West were not, and some areas are under -served by hydrants. He said Mt. Sequoyah is one of the most critical areas of the City, because hydrants are scarcely spaced. He II/said a plan is in process for installing more fire hydrants. He said the water supply must be improved on most hills in the City. Pennington said the City is going through the process of removing asbestos 191B.5 . ceilings from all city facilities. PLANNING >t4'3AGE1ENT Planning Management Director John Merrell distributed handouts (contained in 191B.6 the agenda file for this meeting) containing information on its four divisions - Inspection, Planning, Engineering and Community Development. Merrell spoke about the work being done to update the City's General Plan, 191B.7 and a new Unified Development Ordinance (which will contain a new zoning ordinance, new subdivision regulations, ordinances on tree protection and landscaping). Merrell said the Planning Department needed a full-time professional planner, and said a lot of his time was taken up doing routine planning and interpretation of development regulations. Merrell summarized the work being done by the Engineering Division, 1918.8 particularly that done in-house versus work done by outside engineering firms 0 June 9, 1989 Merrell highlighted some of the work being done by the Inspection Division, 191C.1 noting they issued permits totalling about $13.5 million in revenue to the City, compared to $15.4 million last year at this time. Merrell spoke about the new concentrated Code Enforcement Program to be conducted jointly between Inspection and Community Development divisions. He said this would be a more aggressive from of Code enforcement than was done in the past. Merrell summarized the programs of the Community Development Division, 191C.2 highlighting public improvements, the Elderly Taxi Program and the Housing Rehab Program. RECESS The meeting recessed from 9:40 to 9:50.a.m. ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES Assistant City Manager Linebaugh presented an overview of the divisions in 191C.3 the Administrative Services Department - Budget and Research, City Clerk, - Internal Audit, Water and Sewer. Services, Municipal Court, Personnel, Data Processing, Building Maintenance, Animal Services, Accounting, Purchasing and City Shop. Major accomplishments highlighted by Linebaugh were Policies and Procedures drafted for every division and Operating. Procedures developed for every employee. Included in a handout was a summary of accomplishments for the department in 1988, accomplishments from January through May of 1989, important projects for the remainder the year and 1990 .special, needs as seen by the division heads. 191C.4 Addressing special problems, Linebaugh said the City had a software problem 191C.5 which needed to be attacked. He said be felt the department was a training ground for many employers in the community, particularly for management employees who he said were moving bn to better pay; and benefits in the community. He said work space was`also a problem. Hesaid lately the major problem is the difficulty in handling as many special projects which have come up with the existing staff available. Rd Linebaugh highlighted each division under the..department (detailed in a handout which was distributed and which is available in'the agenda file for this meeting). - Addressing the budget, well underlay. He said Board, with a special approval of the budget. 191C.6 Linebaugh said the budget and CIP preparation was 191C.7 on November 13 a presentation would be made to the Board meeting scheduled for November 29 to consider • June 9, 1989 Linebaugh said it looked like the City would not be able to do a water and 191D. sewer bond issue or a capital improvements bond issue in 1989 and it was doubtful we would be able to do it in 1990. He said we would have to live off a little over $4 million we are receiving in sales tax. Linebaugh presented the staff's recommendations (on page 58 of the handout) 191D.2 for funding about $4.5 in capital improvements in 1989, and about $4.6 million in projects in 1990 (shown on page 60 of the handout). He noted the school system (see page 61 of handout) proposes to spend $4.8 million in 1990, but said that money will not be available. Addressing computer problems, Linebaugh said as of May the City reached the maximum amount of devices which can be used on its computer system and he said something would have to be done about that. Highlighting software problems, he said we weren't getting what we needed from the Cameo software package. He said the auditors will be reporting that the software has problems. He said we had been trying to get the software to work for about a year and a half. He told the Board there was no possibility of receiving a refund but there was a possibility of taking legal action. He said it would cost $50,000 to get the new systems coming out now which he said were much better. He said a recommendation will come before the Board in the next several months to switch over to another software. He explained the Cameo system was recommended by IBM and a committee had been formed to review the package before the City purchased it for $60,000. He said an additional $30,000 had been set aside for training. 191D.3 Addressing personnel turnover, Linebaugh reported a 14.6% annualized 191Dill turnover rate in 1987, 15.9% in 1988 and 13% this year from January through April. He said monthly statistics are misleading because of the time taken to fill vacant positions. Linebaugh said, in the new Personnel Director's opinion, the level of turnover is not uncommon, particularly in view of the number of low classified and/or stressful jobs from which employees terminated. Linebaugh said approximately 85% of the turnover was from hourly -paid non-exempt employees. He said Personnel Director Don Bailey felt with the two reorganizations we have gone through, that "turnover is sitting right about where it ought to." PUBLIC WORKS AND C.I.P Bob Kelly distributed a handout from the Public Works Department (included 191D.5 in the agenda file for this meeting). He said the department included the following divisions: Airport, Traffic, Parks, Solid Waste Management, Street and Water and Sewer. Kelly presented slides and a recap of each division (detailed in handout). A video presentation was shown on the operation of the City's sewer television camera. Kelly said the department was running "slightly on the risk side" of good ( operations. 191E June 9, 1989 trz RECESS The meeting recessed from 11:10 to 11:25 a.m. WRAP-UP & DISCUSSION Pennington recommended to the. Board that their agenda sessions become 191E.1 workshops for various issues. He displayed a copy of the City's new operating policies and procedures. He said copies could be made for Board members who wished to have them. BONDS DISCUSSION Pennington said right now the capital improvement program w»s at a total 191E.2 halt, that we had a limited amount of money and we were going through major revisions to the program right now. He said it is possible for the City to issue bonds but in small denominations (less than $10 million) and unrated. He said we were not in a desperate situation. He said some of the CIP projects will be paid for from sales tax. Pennington asked Linebaugh to explain the cutbacks in the program. Linebaugh said the original plan anticipated $10 million in Sales Tax 191E.3 projects in 1989, and $12 million in 1990. He said we talked about five years worth of projects Linebaugh noted sales tax funds for '1988 amounted to $4.3 million, and we 191E.4 predict $4.4 million in 1989. He said, with interest, we project having about $4.5 million to spend in the next two years. He noted the projects which are already committed for x1989 (shown on' .pages 55-59 of the Administrative Services Department handout), and those considered high priority, and called the Board's attention to staff recommendations for capital improvements funding in 1989 and 1990 (pp. 58-60 of the handout). Mayor Martin commented that, built` into this was an assumption that we 191E.5 aren't very shortly going to make a decision,on paying off the incinerator bonds. Martin said he thought the -Board Would bemaking's decision on the bonds and the CIP program will be"pushed:bnck a year.. ,He said the program was a "pay as you go" situation. He said the signals were not very clear to him whether or not we could float bonds without a rating. Pennington said he thought a small bond issue could be marketed locally °at a very high interest rate. Linebaugh said they had been told the interest rate could be an additional 2%. Vorsanger said he thought at least :we werenot waiting, but were moving 191E.6 ahead in a good direction. He said, because of the magnitude of some of the projects being discussed, there is no way all the money can be spent in 1989 that was projected. He suggested.that; if there is any,additional money, we give it to the schools to begin their planning. Vorsanger said we could June 9, 1989 probably issue bonds at 6 3/4 % to 7 1/4% without the incinerator problem, but because of the incinerator, if we issued unrated bonds their interest rate would be somewhere between 10 1/4% and 12%. i 3 J -E Green said he thought realistically the $4.3 million is all that can be 191F.1 spent in 1989, but that in 1990 he expected optimistically that we would proceed ahead. Martin said the incinerator task force may consider the possibility of our 191F.2 applying sales tax proceeds to the incinerator repayment. He asked if we were foreclosing that possibility by making these other plans. Linebaugh said the staff was working with a lot of different assumptions and weren't closing off the application of sales tax money to the incinerator repayment. ANNEXATION Director Green said he thought the City should set a goal for reaching 191F.3 50,000 population by the time of the 1990 census, noting there were many advantages to reaching that figure. He said annexing land in our Growth Area might help. Martin asked if anyone had any idea how the people in the Growth Area might feel about being annexed. Spivey asked if another community could annex part of our Growth Area. Planning Management Director Merrell said he would check on that. EMPLOYEE MORALE Mayor Martin asked if City employees were happy and satisfied working for 191F.4. the City. Bob Kelly said that, in a meeting with Public Works staff in late 1987, a 191F.5 division head commented that morale was the worst he had seen in 16 years. Kelly said he thought we had "turned a corner" now. Police Chief Watson said "basically our morale is higher than it has been in the past " Mayor Martin said he attended a meeting recently of an eminently successful hotel chain where the owner stated "Let me tell what the most important thing to our corporation is. It's employees. If we've got happy, satisfied, well-trained employees, the business takes care of itself." Martin said he thought the same thing applied to the City. He said, if we have that ingredient in our City, the citizens are going to be well -served. He said, however, that he thought the converse was also true - that, if we had a disgruntled, demoralized group of employees, it will show. Fire Chief Jackson rated the morale at the Fire Department right now as medium to something less than medium, though not "rock bottom." He said some funding limitations on some projects, and the parity issue, were serious factors. He said he thought morale was going through a low period. 191F.6 191F.7 191F.8 1 June 9, 1989 i 191G Director Vorsanger said, in listening to the discussion today, he thought 191G.1 there was something here that'was missing but he couldn't put his finger on it. He asked if the department heads had told the Board today what their problems were. . Watson cited lack of money and space, while Jackson said that his department 191G.2 had an active training program but he saw it as a weak link, in that they only have one employee staffing the program. He said the fire houses were in terrible condition and needed to be rehabilitated and have the asbestos removed. Directors Lancaster said he thought the Fire Chief should be commended for 191G.3 having the guts to say that morale was not what it ought to be. Lancaster asked how the chiefs thought of the City of Fayetteville compared 191G.4 to surrounding areas, salary -wise. Watson said he thought in some areas we were comparable and in some areas we were somewhat under other communities. He said definite improvement was needed and would help morale somewhat. Jackson said, from a recent salary survey done by Bartlesville, Oklahoma, we were just below center. He said about 25 departments were surveyed. Spivey asked how we stacked up with other communities as far as staffing. 191G.5 City Manager Pennington said our staffing was low, and that was why the upcoming pay plan study was so important. Pennington said the space problem has an affect on employee morale. USE OF CONSULTANTS The Mayor asked the City Manager if, as time goes by, he saw the City using 191G.6 fewer consultants. Pennington said, as the City grows, probably not. He said any city of any substantial size has the common sense to go outside, for example, for a major classification study. Martin said he wondered whether or not there was a point in.time when.the City staff can do some of these projects themselves. Pennington said he thought that could happen as we get caught up. Vorsanger said theCity Manager had already notified the Board that a consultant is going to be hired'to negotiate contracts with airlines for she rental. He wondered why this was necessary and why we didn't have someone on our staff who could do those negotiations. Bob Kelly said the consultants are recommending a 40% increase in airline rentals, and it is contemplated the airlines will use 'professional negotiators. Linebaugh said he recommended the consultants be used because of the 40% increase and 15 to 20 contract changes, and said=the City.weakened its case by lowering the rates in 1985 and 1986. ;He said it is going to be a difficult job to negotiate and he felt the City should.. get someone equal to the airlines negotiators. Director Vorsanger said one of the things that worried him was the cost of $11,000 to the consultants for only a $5,000 increase in rentals. He said that wasn't very cost effective. • • 9 June 9, 1989 r Director Spivey asked if there was a way we could get the Airport to "break 191H.1 even." Linebaugh said, in his opinion, "you'll never get the Airport to break even." NO -SMOKING ORDINANCE Director Vorsanger asked what could be expected on the no -smoking ordinance. 191H.1 City Manager Pennington said the 6 months time frame (for tabling the ordinance) was up and when the ordinance comes before the Board again they will discuss what compliance there has been. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at about 12:40 p.m. C 1