Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2001-12-04 MinutesMINUTES OF A'MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL DECEMBER 4, 2001 ' V•� ti;J � ` V J 90t• ;. c1 A meeting of theFayetteville City Coy, uncil will be held on December 4, 2001 at 6:30.p.m. in Room 219, of the City Administration Building, located at 113 'West Mountain Street, Fayetteville, Arkansas. PRESENT: Mayor Coody, Aldermen Jordan, Reynolds, Thiel, Young, Zurcher, Trumbo, Davis, Santos, City Attorney 1{it Williams, City Clerk Heather Woodruff, Staff, Press, Audience. CONSENT AGENDA APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES Removed from Agenda. LAKE SEQUOYAH: A.resolution awarding a contract to Richard Utley in the amount of $23,700 for the operation of the Lake Sequoyah boat dock. RESOLUTION 158-01 AS RECORDED IN THE OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK. BID 01-53: A resolution awarding Bid 01-53 to Police Supply d/b/a Cruiser Tech of Tulsa; Oklahoma, for the purchase of one hundred and fifty Smith and Wesson Model 4006TSW, less the trade-in of City owned guns; and approval of a budget adjustment. - RESOLUTION 159-01 AS RECORDED 1N THE OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK MOTOROLA: A resolution approving a radio maintenance contract with Motorola Inc. in the amount of $21,087.43 This contract is to cover the radio equipment previously owned by the City that is not covered under the warranty of the new. system. RESOLUTION 160-01 AS RECORDED IN THE OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK. TCA CABLE: A resolution authorizing the TCA Cable Partners to continue to operate the cable communications system. RESOLUTION 161-01 AS RECORDED IN THE OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK. MITCHELL OIL: A resolution approving a contract with Mitchell Oil Co., Inc., for the purchase of gasoline and diesel fuel for the City of Fayetteville vehicles and equipment and to provide a fuelmg facility. RESOLUTION 162-01 AS RECORDED IN THE OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK. • • • 000560 City Council Minutes December 4, 2001 Page 2 BID 01-57: A resolution authonzing up to $100,000 for compactors and roll -off style compactor containers for lease or purchase by commercial and industrial customers to Best Pac, Easley S.C. and purchase up to $20,000 for open -top roll -off style contamers for lease to Solid Waste customers to waste equipment-Mayfab of Beeville, TX. REMOVED FROM THE CONSENT AGENDA. BID 01-56: A resolution authorizing purchase up to $55,008 for 2 to 8 yard contamers for the Solid Waste Division for lease and/or purchase of Multi-fanuly and small commercial customers and approval of budget adjustment. RESOLUTION 163-01 AS RECORDED IN THE OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK. Alderman Davis moved to approve the Consent Agenda with the removal of the minutes and Bid 01-57. Alderman Zurcher seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion carried unanimously. BID #01-57: A resolution authonzing up to $100,000 for compactors and roll -off style compactor contamers for lease or purchase by commerc ial and industrial customers to Best Pac, Easley S.C. and purchase up to $20,000 for open -top roll -off style containers for lease to Solid Waste customers to waste equipment-Mayfab of Beeville, TX. Alderman Trumbo stated he had requested this item to be pulled because of an ordinance that the city had which required commercial haulers to obtain the city consent to operate within the city linuts. The ordinance had not been enforced in the past. A lot of companies had three and six year contracts with other haulers which they could not break. He asked how they were going to gear up to get into this lugher profit margin business when all the other companies had three and six year contracts. They would be going head to head with some well capitalized companies that have been doing this for a long time. Mr. Dumas, Utility Services Director, stated in their evaluation of their solid waste services and their consideration of providing expanded services, there had to be some way to increase revenue. Recycling was necessary, but it was expensive and they had to find a way to cover those expenses. They currently served a limited part of the market, both in the small commercial containers and their residential service. The commercial activities that they currently had fund approximately thirty-three percent of the residential program. The twenty-two commercial accounts that they had subsidized the residential services by about a million dollars per year. Given the fact that they have established this kind of history of the rate structure, if they were going to expand those recycling options they needed to find other ways to expand the revenue base outside of what they were doing now. The only part of the market that they were not into was the large container services, rolloff style, either open top for construction activity or roll -off containers for typical industrial trash. As they began to MOSCI City Council Minutes December 4, 2001 Page 3 research this, they found an ordinance which had not been enforced. There was a way, given the ordinance, that would have allowed them legislatively mandate that they were just going to take over that market sector. He thought that would be a mistake for a couple of reasons. The city would not be able to ramp up to provide that service overnight, like that would require them to do Second, it would be very disruptive to those large commercial and industrial customers that have that service now. Thirdly, the actual cost of operation to provide this service, what a reasonable return would be, that they could provide the service at a very competitive rate to those customers that were now being served dby the pnvate• sector and provide as good or better service than is being provided. They could wait the existing contracts out. He thought they could on a competitive basis compete with the other haulers in the community, if they can't, then they would know that fairly quickly. They were asking for one hundred and twenty thousand dollars for roll -off containers and compactors. They would not be buying those until they had a customer where they could place the container. In response to questions, Mr. Dumas stated they had two trucks to deliver and haul.. At some point, when they entered this market there will be a need for additional equipment, when they got enough customers, and additional personnel to operate that equipment, which will be covered by the revenue that is being produced by the activity. Alderman Trumbo stated it had been brought to his -attention that with the size and scope and capital of this type of business with Waste Management, Allied Waste and Roll -Off, that because this was an enterpnse fund that the city would have to be doing this below cost in order to compete with them. k i r . 6 Z. Mr. Dumas stated it was not going to be done at less than cost. -If they did not get any contracts, then they won't be buying any of the equipment. They will probably buy some of the open top roll off because they do have some customers with that right now. They have been providing that on a very limited bases. Alderman Trumbo stated the recycling permit Roll -Off had received from the State on on-site construction site was that they recycle. That was the whole idea that they would recycle to keep it out of the land fill He asked if they were going to be doing the same thing. Mr. Dumas stated he did not see any reason why they could not enter that market sector also. Alderman Thiel stated she did not believe they could implement the ordinance right now, but thought that they could enforce it in the future. Mr. Dumas stated he did not know if they would want to enforce it in the future. He would be hesitant to enter into the market that quickly because they could not provide the service that fast. It might take them three or four years. OOuJu2 City Council Minutes December 4, 2001 Page 4 Ms. Cheryl Zotti, Roll -Off, stated the most challenging thing for the city nght now was going to be these existmg contracts. They were at least three years out. They had done their research, because they were the newest of the three. They have been to every industry that had these types of containers. They know the exact date that they would expire. What few they did have in Fayetteville had a three year contract with a three year renewal. That would be challenging for them. In general, municipalities did not provide their own waste service. It was not a normal thing for a city to be doing what they were doing anyway. Industrial accounts, she did not agree that the profit margin was as great as it has been presented. It was more expensive to get into. The trucks were more expensive, the containers were more expensive. Capital wise, it would be expensive for a city to break into that. Her company had an open construction and demolition debns recyclmg facility. They placed over twelve hundred construction boxes per month through out northwest Arkansas and the four county area. Alderman Santos stated the city attorney had sent a memo and the way he read it was that the existing contract were not valid because of this ordinance. Mr. Williams stated they could be considered invalid or unenforceable. The normal rule was that if a contract was m violation of the law, then it was not enforceable. They had not been actively enforcing this ordinance, but that did not mean that it was not the law. He thought the solid waste division was not seeking to apply the ordinance. It would not be something that the city would do. It would be the customer. The litigation would be between the trash hauler and their customer. Alderman Santos moved to approve the resolution. Alderman Jordan seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion carried unanimously. RESOLUTION 164-01 AS RECORDED IN THE OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK. OLD BUSINESS RZN 01-17.00: An ordinance approving rezoning request RZN 01-17.00 as submitted by Cynthia Beard and Williams M. Center for property located on the southeast corner of 15th Street and Beechwood Avenue. The property is zoned I-1, Heavy CommerciaVLight Industrial and contains approximately 12.13 acres. The request is rezone to R-2, Medium Density Residential. The ordinance was left on the first reading at the October 16, 2001, meeting left on the second reading then tabled at the November 6, 2001 meeting. Alderman Santos moved to bring the item off the table. Alderman Trumbo seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion carried unanimously. Alderman Trumbo moved to suspend the rules and move to the third reading. Alderman Davis seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion carried unanimously. Mr. Williams read the ordinance for the third and final time. .; 000583 City Council Minutes December 4, 2001 Page 5 Alderman Jordan statedthere had been a petition brought before the city council. The council had supported a meeting between the developers and the neighbors. The meeting had been very positive and well attended. Some of the issues that had been brought to his attention were the flooding, traffic, and the size of the what was going to be put in there. He asked how they would plan to keep the property from flooding? Mr. Chris Parton, Crafton Tull and Assocates, presented a. map illustrating the proposed detention basins. The purpose of the detention basins was to keep down stream property from flooding. The water would run into the detention basin, then allowed to run off at a very slow rate. Equal to or less than the amount that was leaving the site before it was developed. Alderman Jordan asked when they would do a traffic study. Mr. Tim Conklin, Planmng Director, stated if they were going to do a traffic study to detemune what off site improvements were going to be needed, the developer would hire a consultant and pay for that consultant to do the traffic study. What the city would do was run some numbers from the software and come up with some numbers of the traffic that would be generated. 'With regard to recommendation, the developer would then pay for that recommended improvement: _ _._..._ .. -s Alderman Jordan asked if they would be responsible for the public trails and the amenities along the creek corridor. s Mr. McClard stated that had been discussed dunngthe meeting. If they buy the property, they have agreed to develop a trail and plaque area. They thought it was important from a marketing point for the project. They would put up some picmc tables and maintain it. They had offered to develop the trail and to provide the land for the park. There were some financing issues. Their hope was that it could be dedicated to the city, if the city wanted it. The city can then mamtam it They could work those issues out at large scale. They would have to clean up some along the trail, but their intention was to leave the buffer zone. Alderman Jordan asked if they bought the property would they be willing to offer a bill of assurance that they would do that. Mr. McClard replied, he thought so. Once they owned the property, then they could sit down and go through these issues before they went into large scale development. That way they could just build it into the project Ms. Donna Bawling, Eighteenth Street, asked how the trails and ponds were going to be maintained. There was currently a very bad odor coming from the detention pond a the Umversity. 0005 ' City Council Minutes December 4, 2001 Page 6 Mayor Coody stated if it was city owned it would be maintained by the city. If it was pnvately owned it would be maintained privately. Mr. Chris Parton stated that was correct. The detention ponds were constructed such that a concrete channel was installed in the bottom so no standing water remains within the pond. They empty out within a matter of hours after the stone. Alderman Thiel noted the detention ponds would be maintained by the property owner and not the city. Alderman Trumbo stated he was going to abstain because they work for the same company, but it was a separate corporation and his firm would not profit from this, so he was going to go ahead and vote. Mayor Coody asked shall the ordinance pass. Upon roll call the ordinance passed by a vote of 7-1-0, Zurcher voting nay. ORDINANCE 4351 AS RECORDED IN THE OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK. RZN 01-18.00: An ordinance approving rezoning request RZN 01-18.00 as submitted by Bill McClard of Lindsey and Associates on behalf of Cynthia Beard and William M. Center for property located on the Southwest corner of 151 Street and Beechwood Avenue. The property is zoned I-1, Heavy Commercial/Light Industrial and contains approximately 19.39 acres. The request is to rezone to R-2, Medium Density Residential. The ordinance was left on the first reading at the October 16, 2001, meeting and tabled at the November 6, 2001 meetmg. Alderman Young moved to bring the item off the table. Alderman Trumbo seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion carried unanimously. Alderman Trumbo moved to suspend the rules and move to the second reading. Alderman Davis seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion carried 6-2-0. Jordan and Zurcher voting nay. Mr. Williams read the ordinance. Alderman Santos moved to suspend the rules and move to the third and final reading. Alderman Jordan seconded. Upon roll call the motion carried 7-1-0. Zurcher voting nay. Mr. Williams read the ordinance. Mayor Coody asked shall the ordinance pass. Upon roll call the ordinance passed by a vote • 4 of 7-1-0, Zurcher voting nay. 4 t t i 5 City Council Minutes December 4, 2001 Page 7 ORDINANCE 4352 AS RECORDED IN THE OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK. RZN 01-19.00: An ordinance -approving rezoning request RZN 01-19.00 as submitted by Bill McClard of Lindsey and Associates on behalf of Cynthia Beard and William M. Center for property located south of 15th Street between Beechwood Avenue and Razorback Road. The property is zoned I-1,iHeavy Commercial/Light Industrial and contains approximately 9.86 acres. The request is to rezone to C-2, Thoroughfare Commercial. The ordinance was left on the first reading at the October 16, 2001, meeting and tabled at the November 6, 2001 meeting. Alderman Young moved to take the item off the table. Alderman Davis seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion carried unanimously. Alderman Santos moved to suspend the rules and go to the second reading. Alderman Davis seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion carried unanimously. Mr. Williams read the ordinance. Alderman Davis moved to suspend the rules and go to the third and final reading. Alderman Jordan seconded. Upon roll call the motion carried by a vote of 7-1-0. Zurcher voting nay. Mr. Williams read the ordinance. Mayor Coody asked shall the ordinance pass. Upon roll call the motion carried by a vote of 7-1-0, Zurcher voting nay. ORDINANCE 4353 AS RECORDED IN THE OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK. ANX 01-4.00: An ordinance approving annexation request ANX 01-4.00 as submitted by Dave Jorgensen of Jorgensen and Associates on behalf of Mark Foster for property .owned by Eugene. Nottenkamper and Anthony Turchi and located north of Wedington Drive on the east side of 51' Street. The request is to annex into the city approximately 30.99 acres located in the Planning Area. The ordinance was left on the first reading at the November 20, 2001 meeting. Alderman Young moved to suspend the rules and move to the second reading. Alderman Jordan seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion carried unanimously. Mr. Williams read the ordinance for the second time. 1 -, ?; t » . Alderman Jordan stated he was concerned about the fire protection out west. People were concerned VVUQJt)U City Council Minutes December 4, 2001 Page 8 that fire protection was not as good as it should be out west. He asked if a new station was needed out west. Chief Bosh stated he had only been there a couple of weeks. One of the things that they were going to do in the Fire Department was to step back and pull some response information and housing permit information as well as development information. They will then be able to identify, by usmg data as their decision making tool, where those stations are going to be needed. He was inclined to believe that they needed a station out west. There was a lot of development out there. One thing that he wanted to make sure that they did was to utilize the data and information gathered to back their decision. They were wanting to use this information to get a head of the growth The station will then serve as a community anchor and will help to bnng people to that area and to encourage more growth m that area. If they were able to get ahead of the development then they would be able to place a station where the land is not as expensive at the time and then let the growth catch up to them. Mr. Earnest, Urban Development Director, stated they were assisting in collecting some very basic research about anticipating the growth area and siting a fire station where they thought it would serve the growth area. In response to concerns, Alderman Davis stated the subject property was between two subdivisions already annexed into the city. Chief Bosh stated they were working on a station out there. He would encourage the annexation out there. He did not believe it would be a problem to serve. Ms. Barbara Moorman, an area resident, questioned if the dense development they had just approved near the center of town was considered smart growth, she wanted to know what this was Developing on the fringes and going way out. Mr. Earnest stated this was not leap frog development. It was connecting to existing water and sewer and existing street systems. By that definition it was not considered sprawl. They were reducing their density further west. ORDINANCE WAS LEFT ON SECOND READING. RZN 01-22.00: An ordmance approving rezoning request RZN 01-22.00 as submitted by Dave Jorgensen of Jorgensen and Associates on behalf of Mark Foster for property owned by Eugene Nottenkamper and Anthoney Turchi and located north of Wedington Drive on the east side of 51° Street. The property is zoned A-1, Agricultural, and contains approximately 30.99 acres. The request is to rezone to R-1, Low Density Residential. The ordinance was left on the first reading at the November 20, 2001 meeting. .., R 4**..10 UUUtTi iJilL•�:tIU City Council Minutes December 4, 2001 i Page 9 Alderman Trumbo moved to suspend the rules and move to the second reading. Alderman Young seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion carried unanimously., Mr. Williams read the ordinance. ORDINANCE WAS LEFT ON THE SECOND READING. CIP:.A resolution approving the CIP for 2002-2006. Mr. Davis stated during the last ice storm and power outage, the intersection lights could have run off a battery pack for a number of hours. That project has been submitted as part of this CIP. If and when they adopted the CIP, if they would adopt it as amended it would include this project. • Alderman Santos moved to approve the resolution. Alderman Reynolds seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion carried unanimously. RESOLUTION 165-01 AS RECORDED IN THE OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERIC NEW BUSINESS VAC 01-8.00: An ordinance approving vacation -request -VAC 01-8-00 as submitted by Dave Fulton on behalf of Gerald Tomlinson for property located at 2522 S. College (lot 12 of Taylor Estates). The property is zoned R-1, Low Density Residential and contains approximately 0.10 acres. The request is to vacate an existing utility easement. Mr. Williams read the ordinance for the first time. Alderman Trumbo moved to suspend the rules and move to the second reading. Alderman Davis seconded. Upon roll call the motion carried unanimously. Mr. Williams read the ordinance for the second time. Alderman Santos moved to suspend the rules and move to the third and final reading. Alderman Jordan seconded. Upon roll call the motion carried unanimously. Mr. Williams read the ordinance for the third and final time. Mayor Coody asked shall the ordinance pass. Upon roll call theordinance passed unanimously. ORDINANCE 4354 AS RECORDED IN THE OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK. 14 a • 000568 City Council Minutes December 4, 2001 Page 10 OFFER AND ACCEPTANCE. A resolution approving the offer and acceptance contract between the City of Fayetteville and the Board of Trustees of the University of Arkansas for the sale of 4.05 acres of land on South School Street (Genesis Site) for the price of $459,000, less associated closing costs. Alderman Tnunbo stated he thought this made a lot of sense. This was an asset the city had to sell to the University to enhance their development. Mayor Coody stated the city had roughly about a $300,000 contribution in this. They would be giving a road that the city owned and maintained and giving it to the State Alderman Davis asked if it was correct that they had invested $683,070 to this. They were selling it for $459,000? They were going to take a loss of $224,000? Mr. Ed Connell, Land Agent for the City, staled this was the city's contribution to the whole program down there. Alderman Davis stated he believed it was the right thing to do, however, he was not in favor of the city being in the land business. To him this was not a wise use of tax payer dollars, when they were having that kind of a loss. Mr. Connell stated it was basically a development m the area, and the city would benefit in the future. Mayor Coody stated they had an opportunity to build the State's first real research and technology based park down there with the University. They had some cutting edge stuff going on. They had to start someplace and the best place to start was not that property. They needed to do what they could to get that started. Mr. Boettcher, Public Works Director, stated he and Mr. Connell had both evaluated their investment as a city in that property. What they had looked at was the cost of the road, prorated between the benefits to the current tracks that were already occupied and the tracks that they were selling that were undeveloped. When they did an analysis of that and what they would call base investment in the current property, that was basically an equable transaction where the city was neither losing or gaining on that transaction. Mr. Williams stated tlus was an investment the city made years ago to help Genesis expand at that point in time. They never assumed that they would get any money back from that. They built the road. They cleared out some slum property down there and in exchange they bought more property and expanded Genesis dramatically. This had been done as an economic development sort of pro.] ect UUUbb'J ?DUD City Council Minutes December 4, 2001 Page 11 for the south part of Fayetteville. He had been on the council at that time. He never assumed that they would get any money back for that. He thought that it had been a very good investment for the city. Alderman Davis stated he was glad that they were selling it to the University, but he did not believe the city needed to be in the land business. They had not had very good success in it. Mr. Steve Davis, Budget Manager, stated when they first got this property, the city getting the property and cleaning. it up was tied to the University getting a three million dollar grant. The University got the grant and was able to expand their site. They should have left money on the table to make sure that their part of the grant stayed in place. Alderman Davis moved to pass the resolution. Alderman Santos seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion passed unanimously. RESOLUTION 166-01 AS RECORDED IN THE OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK. 0111 ER AND ACCEPTANCE: A resolution approving the offer and acceptance contract between the City of Fayetteville and Bryan Walker III, dated August 13., 2001, for the purchase of 32.91 acres of land on the east side of South School Street (across from Genesis Site) for a price of $360,000, plus associated closing costs where applicable and the approval of a budget adjustment. Mayor Coody stated they were selling the previous item to the Umversity so that they could continue their expansion. This item would basically take that money. and buy thirty-three acres across the street from Genesis The University would like to use the land around Genesis for a specific need, research and development of small businesses. They did not want manufacturing there. They wanted to keep manufacturing off site. That was what they hoped to deal with on this site. They were wanting to use this for research and technology related businesses. Alderman Davis stated they were paying approximately $10,938.92 per acre for this land. He asked who would be responsible for building the infrastructure. They still had the I-540 site that they had promoted to be a research and technology park for years, but they still had not put infrastructure m there. They also had parcels in the Industrial Park that was ready to be purchased. He had a real problem with the city trying to purchase more land. He hated for them to store property for them for a number of years before they were ready to purchase it. If. their intention was to sell to the University some point in time. He hoped that they would not go in and do any. infrastructure to increase their cost. Alderman Santos stated he would like to see it developing by pnvate developers who would provide the infrastructure just like they did for other private development. He thought the need for this was that all of these baby businesses that the Genesis Center nurtured, as soon as they started selling and 000570 City Council Minutes December 4, 2001 Page 12 become a real business they could not use the University property any more. Mr. John Maguire, Economic Development, stated the University was about to add six million dollars to their project. They were also m the process of establishing a foundation to do as Kevin suggested, to own property near by. They were in the process of trying to buy Dash Golf's property. Because of the old electroplating plant, there had been some soil samples made on the site. Mr. Boettcher stated where the old manufacturing site was, they took one sample on the north boundary and the east boundary nearest the previous manufacturing operation. They also took some back ground samples lower on the site. The samples all checked. There was no evidence of higher levels of any metals. In response to questions from Alderman Young, Mr. Maguire stated they had been talking with someone who was looking for about a ninety to one hundred thousand square foot building. They would need approximately four or five acres. Alderman Young asked if they were to buy this property were they gomg to at least get an engineer to draw up a preliminary plat so they would know where the lots are and where the streets were gomg to be. Mayor Coody stated they could do that, but they had a Landscape Architect on staff now that could help them design it. Alderman Young stated he was womed about not having a plan in place prior to having someone purchase some of the property. Mr. Maguire stated part of this property was on a hillside and would lend itself to six to twelve thousand square foot building. There were probably no more than two locations for large buildings. One along the road. Alderman Young stated he did not want them to sell four or five acres and then have all the rest of it landlocked or where they could not utilize it. He thought they should draw up the lots and put a price on them. Alderman Trumbo asked what fund the money would go into on the sale of the property and what could that money be used for? Mr. Steve Davis stated the property was in general fund as a general fund asset. It could be used for what ever general funds could be used for. They had to be careful on what they spent general fund money on because of a court ruling on the Town Center Lawsuit which prohibited them from using general fund money for bnck and mortar project. Part of them wanting to purchase the thirty two 40 5 7 i City Council Minutes December 4, 2001 Page 13 acres at the same time they were selling the four acres, was that they would have a direct kinkage between the two transactions and they were not contaminating the fund with their normal general fund money. It would protect the ninety-nine thousand dollar differential and it would go into the general fund for city services. Alderman Davis stated it was his understanding that they were not going to do anything to the infrastructure at this time. Mayor Coody stated they did not have any plans on developing tlus right now Alderman Santos moved to pass the resolution. Alderman Jordan seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion carried unanimously. RESOLUTION 167-01 AS RECORDED IN THE OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK. BOBS: Approval of a contract with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Arkansas for the policy year January 1, 2002 through December 31, 2002. Alderman Davis state there were insurance companies leaving the State very day. • He hoped that next year they would go out and let other people quote on this. - s F.3• Mayor Coody stated one of the reasons they were leaving Arkansas was because we had the worst health in the country. He thought Arkansas was the only state where ,the smoking rates were increasing. Which decreased the health of the people in the state. `When that happened their cost go up. J Alderman Jordan stated the Well-ness plan concerned him the most. It was a benefit to the employees. It did not cost them anything to have a physical. Now their lower paid employees will be a lot less likely to have those physicals and theywerethe people who needed it the most. Mr. Ted Webber, Administrative Services Director, stated it was a very low number of employees that used the well-ness benefit. Blue Cross was not making the option available to them. In response to questions, Mr. Williams stated the deductible was five hundred dollars. Alderman Trumbo moved to approve the resolution. Alderman Davis seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion carried unanimously. RESOLUTION 168-01 AS RECORDED IN THE OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK. PAY PLAN: Discussion and approval of amendments to the City's pay plan. 000572 City Council Minutes December 4, 2001 Page 14 Alderman Thiel stated since there had been some discussion about salanes over fifty thousand. She thought the majority of them thought that the people under fifty thousand the hundred percent was acceptable. They did not want to go into the reserves anymore than necessary. This pay amount was tied to this at one hundred percent. She wondered if they should hold off on this. Alderman Trumbo stated he wanted to go ahead and approve this. He thought it would be good for the city to approve this because they have had so much discussion and public input. They needed to clear the air on going forward. With the decreases in the health benefit he thought it was in the best interest of the city employees. Alderman Santos stated he believed they should fund it at one hundred percent of the Hay Plan recommendation. All this would do would be to get them up to average Alderman Reynolds stated they needed to approve this tonight to let the employees know that they were behmd them. Alderman Trumbo stated that had they not had 10.25 million m reserves and another four million in another account they would not have the option to do these kind of pay increases. In response to questions, Mayor Coody stated they planned to have the Hay Group to facilitate a wage study with management and the chiefs of the fire and police departments and representatives from the non -uniformed employees of the city. They would then determine the cnteria for the cities that they wanted to compare themselves to. 'They wanted to eliminate two points of contention. One was what cities were they gomg to use for compansons The second point was that when they get the information back, where did they want to fit within the range. Did they want to be a median or above. Once they established those factors, then they would send the request out to the other cities. Then it was a matter of the Hay Plan bnnging back the information. Alderman Jordan stated when they selected the committee they needed to bring police and fire and hourly workers. Everyone needed to able to have some input. Alderman Davis stated they had discussed having someone from every department come in. Spokes person for the Fraternal Order of Police, stated there was still more needed to get them where they belonged. They were not looking of extra, they were looking for what the original plan set out for. He agreed with them that they were short and they were behind, but it sounded like the council was willmg to step up to the plate and address the problem for them. Their one manor concern was that they could not get a definition of what their goal was Was it average? Was it median? Was competitive? They went where others were afraid to go. They wanted to know that they had the support of the people that they work for. When they didn't, it made it hard for them to do their job. 1 UUub 3 • City Council Minutes December 4, 2001 p # Page 15 In 1989 the Hay Group pointed out that employee pay increases should not be a swing item in the city's budget. Employees were the city's contact with the public. Alderman Trumbo stated he believed that their goal was to get everyone on the upper range. Mr. Tim Franklin, Police Officer, stated there was going to be committee formed. Will they allow a member of the Fratemal Order of Police and the Firemen's Association to be on the committee? Mayor Coody stated yes. Alderman Young moved to amend the resolution. Mr. Davis stated January 1 occurred during the middle ofa pay period. They could not calculate pay roll on two pay rates. They had a pay period that started January 7. If they could make it affective on January 7 it would make it a lot easier on the pay roll staff Alderman Santos stated the intent of the resolution was to implement the Hay Plan recommendation' at one hundred percent affective January 7. Alderman Young moved to amend the resolution at an expedited review or new Hay Plan be implemented to commence immediately. Alderman Zurcher seconded the motion. Alderman Young stated he was requesting that they start the contract procedure. Mr. Davis stated the Hay Group had indicated that the cost of this work would be approximately twenty-five thousand dollars. If they wanted to approve a budget adjustment to set that money aside it could be appropriated at this time. Alderman Davis asked if they could use some of the proceeds from the land sale tonight to pay for that. He asked if they needed a resolution for that. Upon roll call the motion carried unanimously. Alderman Trumbo moved to approve the pay plan. Alderman Jordan seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion carried unanimously. Alderman Trumbo moved to suspend the rules and place the budget adjustment on the agenda. Alderman Davis seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion carried unanimously. Alderman Trumbo moved to approve a budget adjustment in the amount of $25,000 for contract services. Alderman Davis seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion carried • 000574 City Council Minutes December 4, 2001 Page 16 unanimously. RESOLUTION 169-01 AS RECORDED IN THE OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK. BUDGET: A resolution approving the 2002 Operating Budget. Mr. Steve Davis stated the 2002 Budget was $136,301,103 compared to last years adopted budget of $85,877,479 the major difference was two capital projects. The library construction for $20,417.00 and the first installment of the Wastewater System Improvement at twenty five million dollars. The original general fund budget showed use of reserves of approximately two million dollars. City staff went back and reduced spending 1.3 million dollars in general fund so that they could fit in the group benefit plan adjustment and the Hay Plan adjustments. In doing so they had a proposed use of fund balance of approximately 1.8 million dollars for next year. It would leave them with a projected fund balance or reserve account at the end of 2002 of six million dollars. Alderman Zurcher stated the Youth Advocacy Budget had not been brought back to 2002 budget, it was cut completely. He stated he would like to put some money back into that budget. Mayor Coody stated there were some committees that have not had corium for four or five meetmgs. Some of the committees were not very productive. Alderman Thiel stated this budget has taken money from a lot of non-profit groups and organizations that they have funded in the past. They had asked Steve to look at the city survey to see what people thought were important. Alderman Young stated he had been anticipating this budget in November, but that did not happen. He asked Mayor Coody if this was his proposed budget. Mayor Coody replied yes. Alderman Young stated in the past election, one of the major issues was communications and opening up and changing the way they did things. He was disappointed in this budget. This was not a real budget. It was a Readers Digest condensed version of the budget. If they really thought that they could know what was going on with the budget, they were mistaken. There was no break down in any of this stuff They did not know what the money was being spent for in this document. Mr. Davis stated more information had been provided this year than m the pervious eight or nine years. Alderman Young questioned what "services and charges" were. They did not know what that money was going for. There was no break down. This budget was not any different than the previous administration. vvvvi'td ri 1 Wut� City Council Minutes December 4, 2001 Page 17 • • Mr. Davis stated "services and charges' covered everything from public notification to motor pool replacement charges. Things that they bought that they would contract for. Their budget was established as a program performance budget In a program performance budget the city council looks at the program description and the resources available and the outcome or results. They were a policy settmg body. They were not a line manager body. They were to tell them what their policies were and they would try and implement them through the appropnations that they provided them. This was the level of detail the council had seen since 1992. Alderman Young stated that he was going to propose that they approve the budget in February 2002 because in the past any new alderman did not have a say in the budget. He would like to change that.. He would like for everyone to be accountable to that budget when they first entered office. Alderman Thiel stated that would change their accounting year. Mr. Davis stated they had a State mandate that all cities and counties fiscal year runs the calendar year. January 1 was a new funding year for them They could not write any checks unless they had a spending authorization. The budget was the vehicle to do that. Even if they did not approve the budget until February 1, which was the deadline in State Law, they would still have to pass a continuing -funding resolution affective January -1: -It-would-be a portion of the last years adopted budget, so that they could write pay roll checks and pay light bills. Otherwise they would not be able to write any checks. Alderman Young state he was looking for accountability. Alderman Thiel stated she thought some of the new member of the council did have some input on some of the last minute changes that were made. Alderman Zurcher moved to table the item. Alderman Jordan seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion carried unanimously. THE ITEM WAS TABLED UNTIL THE NEXT MEETING. • M1