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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2002-01-15 MinutesMINUTES OF A MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL .JANUARY 15, 2002 A meeting of the Fayetteville City Council was held on January 15, 2002 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 Young, Trumbo, Davis, Santos, Jordan, Reynolds, and Thiel, City Attorney Kit Williams, City Clerk Heather Woodruff, Staff, Press, and Audience. ABSENT: Alderman Zurcher absent. STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS - Mayor Coody gave the State of the City Address. See Attachment A. OTHER BUSINESS Mayor Coody stated Stan Green has resigned from the Northwest Regional Airport Board. It was his responsibility to recommend a new appointee. The council would have to vote on his recommendation. His recommendation was Tommy Deweese. It was the conscious of the council to put the nomination on the next City Council Agenda. CONSENT AGENDA. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES. PUBLIC PARKING: A resolutionrto reliminate public parking directlyrin front of the federal building.restricting`.parking to government ,official use only. RESOLUTION 3-02 AS RECORDED IN THE OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK. HABITAT FOR HUMANITY: A resolution to -waive the building perinitfeeand other development fees for homes to be constructed byHabitat.for^Humanity. RESOLUTION 4-02 AS RECORDED IN THE OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK. SFCDC: A resolution to waive the building permit fees and development fees for homes to be constructed by South Fayetteville Community Development Corporation. RESOLUTION 5-02 AS RECORDED IN THE OFFICE OF THE CITY CLER/l. Alderman Davis moved to approve the Consent Agenda with the exception of the minutes. Alderman Jordan seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion carried unanimously. OLD BUSINESS MOTOR VEHICULAR RACEWAYS: An ordinance to regulate motor vehicular raceways. The ordinance was left on the first reading at the January 2, 2002, meeting. Alderman Trumbo moved to suspend the rules and move to the second reading. Alderman Davis seconded the motion. Mr. Williams read the ordinance for the second time. Mr Berry, track owner, asked the council how they were elected? By the majority of the people? We submitted twelve hundred signatures in support of the speedway. They only had a hundred and fifty. They won by majority. He thought they should drop the issue. Mr. Mike Baker, manager of speedway, stated he knew the owner of the property was going to follow through, but it had nothing to do with him. He was going to work with everyone. They were going to have the races over early every night. Hopefully they would not have any problems with the neighbors. They were going to start at 6:00 p.m and be done by 10:00 p.m at the latest. Alderman Trumbo asked Mr. Baker if he had any problems with the proposed ordinance. Mr. Baker stated the time was the only thing that bothered him. He hoped that they got done every time by 10 00. He did not foresee a problem. It has been done before. He thought that they would get done by ten, if not earlier. Alderman Davis stated Mr. Baker had stated in the paper that ten o'clock might be difficult for them to meet all the time. Mr. Baker stated on a two day event, it might be difficult to make it on Friday. If it looked like it was going to run late then they would stop and start earlier the next day. He did not think there would be a problem on a weekly deal. The problem would be on the two day events because there would be more cars. He did City Council Minutes January 15, 2002 Page 3 not foresee a problem on Saturdays. The only problem should be on Friday night, because people worked. There were only five events scheduled. The first race, March 29, could be a problem. Alderman Davis stated too many times they had citizens come up here and tell them that they had ordinances on the books and that they did not enforce those ordinances. He was concerned that.if they set a.ten o'clock time, then they needed to be done by then; He didnot`see;that they could haevany leniency. He suggested an amendment to this ordinance changing the time to 10:30. 1 i • e ! 4 4.4 Mr. Baker stated he had thought.it was going to ,be a problem and had told the City Attorney that, but he did not believe ,it was going to be a problem. *li i 4 Alderman Davis moved to amend the ordinancebychanging the time from 10:00. p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Alderman Trumbo seconded the motion. Mr. Baker stated they would be helpful. He was still going to start at 6:00 p.m. Alderman Santos suggested three warnings a year and to add it to the penalty section. Mr Williams stated he thought on the warnings it would be better to leave it with the police and the prosecutor.. He did not know of another ordinance that allowed three chances. He thought it would be better to trust the city's employees. Alderman Thiel stated she. thought that they would be lenient at first to give everyone time to get use to it and feel it out. Shehad a lot of constituents that were set on the ten o'clock, however, that along with the other compromises make this a win-win situation. She thought this was better than a law suit. She thought that they could live with the ten -thirty. As long as it is ten -thirty. The goal should be to stop at ten. Tempers were going to get heated if it was ten -thirty and it went on to eleven. If it was ten going to ten -thirty, that was okay She was willing to compromise at ten -thirty. There were people that were not happy with the five two-day races. They were not happy that this ordinance did not do anything about monitoring the noise. She felt that they had to make some compromises. City Council Minutes January 15, 2002 Page 4 Alderman Reynolds stated he wanted everyone on that petition to be happy and he wanted this business to survive. He was going to support this amendment because it was workable. Upon roll call the amendment passed unanimously. Alderman Thiel moved to accept Section 2 as read tonight. Alderman Davis seconded. Mr. Troy Olson, an area resident, stated this seemed to him to be similar to the noise problems that they were having on Dickson Street. Alderman Thiel stated the decibel level at the race track was considerably higher than Dickson Street. Mr. Olson stated they had a very nice track. The council needed to work with the business to make it better. Upon roll call the motion carried unanimously. Alderman Davis moved to suspend the rules and move to the third and final reading. The motion died from lack of a second. THE ORDINANCE WAS LEFT ON THE SECOND READING AS AMENDED. NEW BUSINESS RECYCLING RECEPTACLES: A resolution approving the purchase of 27 waste/recycling receptacles from Windsor Barrell Co. for the Downtown Area, the Square and Dickson Street in the amount of $19,353.00 Mayor Coody stated this was an effort to clean up the downtown area. Half the trash can is for recyclables and the other half is for trash. Alderman Santos stated the only problem he had with this was that he would like City Council Minutes January 15, 2002 Page 5 to see it as apart of a unified design theme for the whole Downtown Dickson Street Project. He had been told that if they came up with a unified design theme then these would be placed in other places around town. Alderman Santos moved to approve the resolution. Alderman Jordan seconded the motion. r. Hwy F w In response to concerns from'Alderman Davis,; Mr `Dumas statedtheywere bolted to -the sidewalk so they could:not be removed'easily:-They'would"not be moved during .special events. They had spoken with theIDDEP*and they.did,not have a problem with the design, however, if they did chose a different design, then they could move these to a different location. ;They were planning on using mollies to bolt them to the sidewalk:- ` 46` '" " ' '"` Alderman Reynolds stated those containers were quiet large and theirsidewalk was small in some areas. Mr. Dumas stated at this time this was the only size they were getting. If they found that there were some locationswhere they needed a container then they could move some smaller sizes in. There were some options. They were going to find. out what their needs were. Mr Jordan stated he was concerned about what the public was going to put in them. The public would probably put everything in there. He was concerned about the contamination that might occur. Mr. Dumas stated if there was significant contamination, then it would go into the waste stream instead of the recycling stream. There would be a learning curve for the community. Alderman Jordan stated he thought they need to educate the public better on recycling. A lot of people contaminated because they simply did not know. Alderman Thiel state that she would like to see local artisans brought into the picture. - + Upon roll call the motion carried unanimously. �: RESOLUTION 6-02 AS RECORDED IN THE OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK City Council Minutes January 15, 2002 Page 6 WORKORDER SYSTEM: A resolution approving a contract for Software and Implementation Services with Hansen Technology, Inc. in the amount of $487, 600.00; and approval of a budget adjustment. Mr Ted Webber, Administrative Services Director, stated this did represent a significant amount of work put in by city staff off a significant time frame. He emphasized that bringing Hansen into the city would be a significant building block on the future systems that they had in the city. They will be replacing some existing, non -compatible, non-intergraded computer systems which were manually based. Another benefit that they would have actual input from the citizens. Research time to answer citizen questions will be answered with much less research time and in a more timely manner. Also the asset management piece would allow them to define where they could see where they were spending their money and where they were spending their time. It would allow them to level their effort of work and allow them to work smarter. The Hansen Project was just a piece of the project to improve citizen and customer service. The University of Arkansas will be helping them make this become a reality. They have asked Dr. Dan Gaster and Allen Elistran from the University to present their role in this project so that they could understand how broad it was and how important it was to the community. Dr. Gaster stated they had been asked to address and improve the culture of customer and citizen service with the City of Fayetteville. He was the Chairman of the Management Department of the Sam Walton College of Businesses. Mr. Elistran was also in the Management Department. They have both been doing research for several years on customer service and culture. They were pleased to help the city out. They have learned that technology itself rarely provides an adequate solution to any kind of management problems. It had to implemented into a context that supports that implementation. What they were proposing to do was to start a two phase program. The first phase would be to do a comprehensive survey of city employees. In this survey they will be using a standardized organization culture questionnaire. The perceptions, attitudes and belief of the employees regarding the level of service that organization promotes and supports is highly coordinated with customer service response from external customers from their organization. If they could change the culture of any organization to support the use of this technology. The culture change would involve promoting a culture within the City Council Minutes January 15, 2002 Page 7 organization that supports the whole idea of customer service. The survey would provide them some base line data from which they could address or assess the level of the culture within the city, among the city employees and their perceptions about customer service. They could then compare this data to data from other organizations. They could pinpoint potential problem areas within the climate of the city within management processes and various departments of the city that might provide road blocks to their technology project. Secondly, they would be able to pinpoint .some training and prevention programs they might want to undertake. This data would then allow them to evaluate the success of the implementation over time. , Mr. Elistran stated this was a cutting edge project that they were undertaking and that they were looking forward to working with them. Mr. Webber stated Mr Leflar from the Accounting Department at the University would be working with them to allow some of his senior level students to actually participate on this project. They would be making a presentation to their class tomorrow at two -thirty. They would be participating as a team member on this project. .It would give those senior level students some real world experience that will be resume building for them. It will give the city resources that they do not have available to us atcity hall. Alderman Davis asked if there were other cities using Hansen technology. Mr. Webber stated the city of Tulsa, their project was a mature project. The city of Oklahoma has just started in their implementation.? t • Alderman Santos moved to'approve the resolution. `Alderman Reynolds seconded. Upon roll call the motion passed unanimously. `` • 4 RESOLUTION s-7-02 AS RECORDED IN THE OFFICE.01? THE CITY CLERK. CIVIL SERVICE: An ordinance granting authority }.to the Fayetteville Civil Service Commission to appoint and remove the Police Chief and Fire Chief, and for other purposes. Mr. Williams read the ordinance for the first time. City Council Minutes January 15, 2002 Page 8 Alderman Trumbo stated he had brought this up last year. He had talked with Mayor Vanhoose of Springdale and Police Chief Mike Blocker, and Fire Chief Hines of Springdale to ask them their views on being under civil service. In this case there was a very political situation dealing with a mayor's authority and dispersing it with five commissioners with the same responsibility. They have had people on the Civil Service Commission that has been there for a long time. They had a lot of background. Mayor Vanhoose had written a letter stating both systems had pros and cons. He believed the best system would be something in-between. Their present system worked well. He believed it did because they have employed two outstanding chiefs. Mayor Coody stated he believed that they had a system in-between. They had a committee put together to hire a Fire Chief. He thought the process that they had put together was the best of both worlds. He read letters from the Fire Union and Police Union both in support of the current system. Alderman Trumbo stated it was not so much the hiring as it was the firing. Mayor Coody stated he did not discount the opinions from the fire and the FOP. He asked if he was about to fire Chief Watson and if this was an problem. Alderman Trumbo stated both Chief Watson and Chief Jackson had felt that they deserved the protection of the Civil Service. Alderman Jordan stated coming from a union background, one of the first rules was that they did not put rank and file workers under the same umbrella of protection and expect a fair shake for the blue collar workers. Once the Civil Service Commission made their decision the Fireman or Policeman had no other alternative than to go to a court of law. This way there were checks and balances. Alderman Davis stated what Trent was concerned about was not the way his administration has handled this, but there was no guarantee what the future administration of the city will do. Will they allow this type of process? They had no way of knowing. He was trying to make sure that in the future they were protected by Civil Service. Mayor Coody stated he would like to protect people in his position too. It was City Council Minutes January 15, 2002 Page 9 unfair for him or anyone in this position to have department heads that did not have authority. It was his job to see that the city ran well and smoothly. He had to have authority to make that happen He was ultimately responsible to make sure the department was running well. If he would not deal with him then he was hamstrung. The voters could throw him out of office because he could not control the Fire or Police Department. In order to deal well with the department they had to have the authority to make hard decisions. If he did not have the authority, then he had liability and responsibility, but no authority to fix it. What manager wanted staff that they could not control or discipline or correct and expect to get the job done. Alderman Davis stated it gave the mayor the ability to use political power and ask a chief to do a special. favor. If that person did not come through, it also gave him the ability to fire that person in time and possibly use other reasons. That was a concern." Mayor Coody stated it may be a concern for people who thought like that. He did not think like that. If a mayor did decide to fire a police or fire chief for political reasons, this council can reinstate that chief. They had the authority to override his decision. If the Civil Service had the authority, they could not do that. Alderman Trumbo stated he felt the mayor should have ultimate control over the Public Works and Administrative Services. Fire and Police were a totally different world than city administration. The Fire and Police Chief worked themselves up through the ranks in a very structured.environment. He did not believe it was the same as city administrdtion..TIn visiting with Mayor.Vanhooseof Springdale, he knew their system worked. They had a great department and both chiefs liked. 'the system and they felt very comfortable with having fivd'people to answer to rather than just one. .2 ims Alderman Santos stated that Police and Fire'were public servants and should be accountable to public and the only way to do that was if they were accountable to elected officials. To put the fire chief and police chief as co -mayors accountable to an unelected commission removed them from any obligation to serve the public. He did not think it was a good idea to turn over public control of the two largest departments in the city to an unelected body. He asked that they City Council Minutes January 15, 2002 Page 10 leave the ordinance on the first reading since Randy Zurcher was not present. Alderman Trumbo stated he would like to vote on this tonight. He did not see any reason to hold this up. Alderman Zurcher was not going to change his mind. He was adamantly opposed to it. He did not believe anything had changed from a year ago. Mayor Coody stated he would like to vote it up or down now, rather than letting it linger. He did not believe people were going to change their minds and he would like to get it out of the way one way or the other. He did not see any benefit of keeping it alive. Alderman Trumbo stated in visiting with Chief Blocker of Springdale his final comments were that he believed Chief Watson deserved the Civil Service system He added Chief Blocker's opinion carried a lot of weight with him. Mayor Coody stated he agreed, but the only opinion that would carry more weight with him would be the huge percent of their fire and police service folk that felt the other way. He tended to go with his employees rather than Springdale's employees on an issue that affected Fayetteville employees. Mr Bill Moeller, an area resident, stated it was bad organizational design to have the workers and the bosses reporting to the same independent body, subject to the control of the same independent body. Secondly, these are key executive positions. These were not rank and file positions. Executives manage their own careers. They accept the higher risk level of hold of an executive position. By virtue of the position they were part of the inter -sanctum and executive committee, which formulates the policy. They formulate and administer policy. These positions must report in good organizational design to the chief executive officer. They knew what they had right now. If they changed it, they were speculating on what they would have. He asked why they would want to substitute something that they did not know about for something they had experience with. He urged them not to pass this change in their organization. Alderman Trumbo asked Mr. Moeller if they had an outstanding Police Department. Mr Moeller stated he would say they had a very good Police Department. City Council Minutes January 15, 2002 Page 11 Alderman Trumbo stated they had a very good Police Chief that had been in charge of it for fifteen years Mr. Moeller stated from where he sat as acitizen he Police Chief. { 1 *'p'p,, +� f • 1 1; 1 1 _ ;4 .a t it AldermanTrumbo asked why their Police Chief wanted Civil Service protection. • % 1 i Mr. Moeller replied before he retired he held an executive level position. He was paid as an executive. He realized the advantages of an executive position. would say they had a fine x • He would'also.like'to have had the job-securityythat Chief Watson wanted. It would be great if they could all have that security, but there was a trade off. At some levels they traded off a degree of security for some of the other things they got. Mr Domic Swanfield, FOP, stated they would like for him to add two additional members to the Civil Service Commission. They felt that the:addition of a female and a minority to the commission would better reflect the community. Mr. Williams stated the change would have to be made by ordinance. Mr. Steve Frankenberger, an area resident, stated the last thing on earth they needed to do was to take the politics out of the process. Politics was the tool that .they used to implement Democracy. Any time they took the politics out of it they were taking democracy out of it. They elected the Mayor to make those decisions and they expected him to take responsibility for them. He would like to leave this one the first or second reading to give his alderman a chance to be here. He hoped that he would have something to add to the debate. Mr. Jeff Erf, an area resident, asked how this would make him safer. • Mayor Coody stated he did not believe it would make a lot of difference either way. There may be more responsiveness in the current situation, but he did not know about making it safer. Mr. Erf stated hetried to find out and understand a little more about the Civil City Council Minutes January 15, 2002 Page 12 Service Commission. What he ended up getting was a copy of their rules and regulations. State code stated that rules and regulations have the force and effect of law. He noticed a couple of things in the regulations. Article 2, Section 8, "No person shall be appointed chief of either department who is not first certified by the Commission." He asked if that has happened. Mayor Coody asked Chief Bosh if he had been certified by the Civil Service Commission. Chief Bosh stated he did not meet with the Civil Service Commission when he was appointed. If so he did not know about it. Mayor Coody stated they could assume it did not happen. Mr. Williams stated he had gone through the rules and regulations and suggested to them that there should be some revised rules and regulations. That was one of the rules he had suggested. It no longer followed State Law and State law trumped these rules He had received a response to him. Mr. Erf stated he was also curious of the actions that they had done. He had asked to inspect minutes. Apparently, they did not keep minutes, but their regulations stated a stenographer was to be present at each business meeting. He would like to know who was at those meetings, what was the agenda and the attendance record. They were not available. He did not know if they were following their own regulations. According to their regulations that if someone had a complaint against the policeman or fireman it was to be filed with the Commission within the ninety days of the incident. He knew that was not the current procedure. The current procedure was to fill out a complaint form and submit it to the Police Department. It appeared the Civil Service Commission was left out of the loop. It was another example of another regulation. He did not know if they wanted to give them another responsibility. Mr. Jason Alvarado, FOP, stated in response to question there were approximately one hundred sworn personnel, of that hundred the FOP had seventy to seventy-five percent representation of the entire sworn personnel. Mr. George Weiss, an area resident, stated the majority of the Fire and Police City Council Minutes January 15, 2002 Page 13 personnel were against the ordinance. It seemed to him that a vote for this ordinance was a vote against their police and fire fighters. Alderman Trumbo stated historically with unions, management and rank and file saw things differently.' {� ; 4 1 n: 1t Alderman Thiel stated it was her -,understanding that the firemen and policemen were under the protection of the Civil.Service Commission at.this`time.. They had this protection, but the people in the Parks Department did not have this protection. They were totally accountable. She .resp"ecteththem, but they were } wanting a protection that other city'employeestdid not�have;tbut they did not want their bosses within that same framework. She felt the whole purpose of them being under the Civil Service was because of the importance of their work. This had only been changed a few years ago. The City of Fayetteville had been under Civil Service until four years ago when the State Law changed. Mayor Coody stated he would suspect it had something to dowithbeing uniformed personnel. Chief Bosh stated his assumption would be that it was due to the nature of their work. They were critical, necessary services that need that level of protection for their rank and file members. In the event that they have a disaster they were the people that were called to serve in that capacity. They could not be subject to any arbitrary decisions that may be made in the heat of the moment. Alderman Davis moved to suspend the rules and move to the second reading. Alderman Reynolds seconded the motion. The motion passed by a vote of 6-1. Santos voting nay. Mr. Williams read the ordinance for the second time. Mayor Coody asked if anyone on the council had a close personal or financial relationship with the Chief or his family members. To set the record straight so not to embarrass anyone later he was directing his questions to a couple of folks. Alderman Thiel stated she knew the Police Chief. She was good friends with this • City Council Minutes January 15, 2002 Page 14 wife. Legally the State provides that a conflict of interest was primarily a financial conflict of interest. She had no financial interest with Chief Watson or his wife. She did not know if she knew him any better than several members did Her relationship was with his wife. Mayor Coody asked if there were any close financial ties? Alderman Trumbo stated he was looking at him like he was insinuating something. So why didn't he just say it so he could respond. Mayor Coody asked if there was ever any kind of investment club that he handled that the Chief was involved in. Alderman Trumbo stated it had nothing to do with this. The investment club had been closed He was offended by his insinuations. If the mayor thought he had a conflict he should have called him and he could have explained it to him. Mayor Coody stated he felt this was a personal assault. He felt this discussion was coming from an article that came out in the Times. The implication was that he was at the verge of firing the chief therefore in order to keep that from happening the council would like to take the authority away from his so that he could not do that. He had no plans on firing the chief. He has told him that and all of them that. That was not in the works. To change the system that they have now, based on rumor or based on the idea of protecting someone that there might be something without anything factual to back them up. It was a bad way to do business. Fifty-five percent of the general fund was Fire and Police and one-third of their employees were Fire and Police. That was an enormous part of their city and he was not about to turn his back on them. They were just now in the process of building some very good moral in the Fire Department. They had a good Police Department and he wanted to keep the good Police Department in place. He thought this whole discussion was inappropriate because it was based on rumor and fear. Those rumors were not well founded. He has had this conversation. It was amazing that some of the people who wanted to see him retire were now the same people who were wanting to give this to the Civil Service. He found this surprising. They have been through this once before and they have proven that they have taken the personal politics out of this and he want to keep it out of it. He thought they should keep doing business as they were. Because they did not have a problem City Council Minutes January 15, 2002 Page 15 right now. If they did turn this over to the Civil Service, they would be saying to the Fire and Police personnel that there opinion did .not matter to them. Alderman Trumbo stated he did bring this up last year when. Chief Jackson. asked him to. retire. He thought Chiefs were entitled to the same type of protection as the Union wanted their protection. Alderman Davis moved to suspend the rules and move the third and final reading. Alderman Reynolds seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion carried by a vote of 6-1. Santos voting nay. Mr. Williams read the ordinance for the third and final. time. Mayor Coody asked shall the ordinance pass. The ordinance passed by a vote of 5-2. Santos and Jordan voting nay. &RDINANCE 4364 AS RECORDED IN TUE OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK. UNIVERSITY OF ARK: An ordinance waiving the requirements of formal competitive bidding and approving an agreement between the City of Fayetteville, Arkansas and the University of Arkansas to develop a strategic plan to define the physical and economic characteristics of the Arkansas Research & Technology Park; authorizing the mayor to sign said contract; and declaring an emergency. Mr. Williams read the ordinance for the first time. Mayor-Coody stated ttiey,.were+wanting to work with the University of Arkansas to develop the -Genesis site. The University has gotten a :large appropriation of six million dollars. They were sinking a lot of staff time into this to develop the master plan;for their property and the thirty-two acres that the city owned across the street so that they could keep going with the project. This was going to be good for .the State and Fayetteville. ,:Fayetteville was fiftieth in technology t enterprises.. } They had exceptional talent putting this together. Mr Stafford, University, stated there was a need for a plan. They had been building City Council Minutes January 15, 2002 Page 16 on the idea that they have been analyzing for the past six months. They needed to quantify the idea so they could go forward with necessary funding Working with their congressional delegation to hopefully receive some support from Federal appropriations to make this possible. They needed to quantify the land area that was necessary for this. They were going to be analyzing the entire area with regard to adjacent property and services that were complementary to their park There would be a full socioeconomic analysis so they would know in detail the impact of this project. Alderman Davis stated their total cost was $37,500 which was coming out of their Economic Development fund. Alderman Santos stated he thought this was a very good thing for the city and region. Alderman Santos moved to suspend the rules and move to the second reading. Alderman Jordan 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 of the third and final time. Mayor Coody asked shall the ordinance pass. Upon roll call the ordinance passed unanimously. Alderman Santos moved to pass the emergency clause. Alderman Davis seconded. Upon roll call the motion carried unanimously. ORDINANCE 4365 AS RECORDED IN THE OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERIC. PARTS EXPEDITER: A resolution authorizing the half time equivalent position of parts expediter in the Fleet Operations Division of the Public Works Department. Mr. Oestreich, Fleet Operations, stated this was to authorize a part time position City Council Minutes January 15, 2002 Page 17 that has existed for the past two years. The position had been funded in the past through attrition: This year they were going to have to have the position authorized. They were changing him from his previous position of approximately twelve dollars an hour to eight dollars an hour. This would be a budget savings for them. This individual had over twenty-six years experience with the city. His function was to run parts and do general goffer work. Alderman Reynolds stated this was not•aviolation of their hiring freeze, this was a savings to the city. Alderman Santos moved to approve the resolution. Alderman Jordan seconded. Upon roll call the motion carried unanimously. RESOLUTION 8-02 AS RECORDED IN THE OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK. Mayor Coody stated he just let his emotions get the better of him. It did not happen often, but his dark side took over. Brenda, I apologize to you. Trent, I apologize to you. Alderman Trumbo stated he had the utmost respect for his job. It was a hard position. The council was also doing a good job. Mayor Coody stated he would like to enter into a letter of agreement with Duke Industry. There were only two binding parts to the agreement. The city would agree not to negotiate with anyone else for six months and:. they would agree to standard business confidentiality. I Alderman Davis stated they needed to make sure that they were very careful with this. v Alderman Trumbo stated he had requested information.on the companies and all their background. The Water and Sewer Committee needed to look at this. Meeting Adjourned at 8:40 p.m.