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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2010-10-18 Finance Committee Minutes FINANCE COMMITTEE October 18, 2010 Minutes Councilors: Bronson, Wheeler, Nealley, Stone, Hawes, Blanchette, Weston Staff: Cyr, Ring, Cammack, Gastia, Little, Wellington, Farrar, McKay Others: Eric Russell, Peter and Jennifer Brown 1. Consent Agenda a. Write-off of Interest – 16 Penn Plaza Little explained that #23 at 16 Penn Plaza was sold in the City’s fiscal year 2006, and the City received full payment of all taxes a year later. Wells Fargo then indicated they had made a mistake because the money wasn’t to go towards that account. Wells Fargo asked for a reimbursement. The money was refunded by the City leaving a balance due on the account, but the balance at the time of property sale was combined with another one. So this particular account was no longer being assessed. The City continued its normal procedure of sending notices to the assessed owner. When past due notices were issued this past April, they were sent also to the assessed owner as well as the newly assessed owner. The new owner called, Little explained the situation, and the new owner contacted their attorney as well as the attorney for the previous owner. The new owner has proposed to pay the principal portion due but would like the City to waive the interest. Little recommended waiving the interest. The property is no longer being assessed and the request for the refund was well after the time period in which a lien could be placed on the property. The City’s only recourse would be through the court process for the $400. Bronson asked if this was due to a clerical misstep. Little said no; the error was on the part of Wells Fargo. A motion was made and seconded to approve the Consent Agenda. 2. Bids/Purchasing a. State Street Manhole Project – WWTP – Sitewerx - $77,965 Cyr said there are some structural issues with the old brick sewers on the lower end of the State Street. A structural relining is planned for the future. In order to do the relining, the City needs access to the systems. The City issued a bid to install 4 six-foot diameter sewer manholes in which to gain access. These would be installed on top of the existing brick sewers on State Street. The bids came in higher than monies available. Engineering reviewed it and determined it could be done with the three most crucial access areas at this point with the fourth being added at a later. Engineering went back to both bidders and, with the manner in which the items were bid, there is quantity information. Quantity deductions were made without putting the bid process at risk. Staff recommendation is to award the bid to Sitewerx, the low bidder, at $77,965. Responding to Stone, Ring said he wasn’t certain why both bids came in over budget. Usually there are more than two bidders on this type of project. A motion was made and seconded to approve staff recommendation. The item will be forwarded to full Council for final action. b. Performance Management Review Services – Police and Fire Back in July, Cyr noted that the Council passed an Order authorizing the issuance of a Request for Qualifications for consulting services to review public safety operations. On th September 8, the City received 18 responses to its RFQ. All proposals were individually reviewed by 4 staff members (Cyr, Gastia, Cammack, Farrar) with a unanimous opinion that there was not a clear frontrunner. The top four ranking proposers were invited to participate in an interview process. On September 28 and th 29, the four involved staff members in addition to Councilor Chair Stone and Councilor Bronson interviewed: Resource Management Associates, Emergency Services Consulting International, Matrix Consulting Group, and McGrath Consulting Firm. Interviewees were asked specific questions that arose from their proposals and the group focused on experience, qualifications and project methodology. Cyr included a brief outline along with the Committee’s agenda background on each of the four groups. With police, she found that the responders tended to be organizational type studies or in communities that were not as similar to Bangor as would have been desirable. With fire, the responders seemed better and Emergency Services Consulting works with fire services only. In the end, all projects are intended to take between 4-5 months to complete. The recommendation of the entire reviewing/interviewing committee is to award a contract to Emergency Services Consulting, Inc., the best fit for Bangor’s operations. in the amount of $30,629 plus out of pocket expenses not to exceed $51,033 for the review of the Fire Department management review services and a contract be executed with McGrath in the amount of $35,685 for review of the Police Department services. Nealley and Cyr spoke about the fact that the firms will work independently of each other but can pool different information to see if things brought up in one department or another that may be of benefit to the other. Nealley made a motion to move staff recommendation. Responding to Weston, Bronson said the item will be moving forward to full Council. Cyr said that technically it doesn’t need to go to full Council as each individual contract is under the $50,000. Given Council interest, Cyr said there is no reason why the contracts cannot go to full Council as individual Council Orders. She also noted that the Committee will also be discussing payment of these services in agenda item #3 which will come back to the Council at their upcoming meeting for final action. Nealley clarified his motion that the Finance Committee recommends staff approval realizing that the dollar amount will be addressed by full Council. At that time, there will be time for discussion. Bronson clarified that Nealley did not recommend sending the award of contracts to full Council. Weston seconded the motion with a doubt. Bronson preferred that the contracts be sent to the entire Council. The process began as one project and technically the combined amounts would be over $50,000. Stone would like to hear Weston’s reasoning for doubting the motion. Weston said he preferred to see this as a motion to full Council and commented on the motion itself if a different motion is made. Bronson said the motion has been made. Wheeler is of the opinion that the contract awards should go to full Council. He also suggested that the review be placed on hold until the new city manager has had time to become familiar with all city departments and operations. Before reviewing these two specific departments, Wheeler suggested that the next Council should consider a total review of all city departments and wait to integrate the fire/police reviews into a master plan. Nealley said the Council tends to rehash, and this item will be discussed again at full Council when it goes to them with the authorization amount of the services. Nealley also agreed with Wheeler’s suggestion for across the board review of departments, some of which is done during the budget process. Nealley again made the motion to accept staff recommendation to approve the two contact awards both of which are under $50,000. While a worthwhile goal to review all city departments, Bronson noted that he would doubt that there is any one consultant to perform the whole job. He also questioned the City’s fiscal ability to undertake a completely review in any one year. Wheeler said it was not his perspective that the total review of all City departments could be done by one or two firms. Bronson again clarified that the motion is to authorize the two contracts be approved at the committee level at this time. He noted that the motion was doubted. Weston agreed with Wheeler’s suggest to wait for the city manager to arrive and become familiar with the various departments and their respective operations. He doubted the motion because he feels it is a topic which should be approved by the entire Council. Bronson supports the motion. Bronson asked for a roll call vote. Nealley: yes; Weston: no; Bronson: yes. The item received passage by a 2-1 vote. c. Update on Pending Bids Cyr spoke about demolition of 4 Mill Street. In May of 2010, the City condemned the building located at 4 Mill Street. The City would not acquire this property until liens mature in December 2012, therefore CDBG funding could not be used for the demolition. This building is dangerous and needs to be demolished as soon as possible. Code Enforcement has requested permission from the Finance Committee to solicit bids for the demolition. Cyr has a couple of recommendation for funding sources if the Council so approves at a high-end estimated $20,000. There are funds available in the General Fund’s Demolition and Landfill Closure reserve. Any additional needed funds are available for any shortfall in the Improvement Reserve. Nealley and Weston talked about the timeframe involved after a property is condemned. Nealley asked Wellington to explain the procedure policy in place. Wellington provided detailed information. Bronson clarified that Cyr was seeking approval to issue bids for the demolition and to appropriate funds. Weston made a motion to recommend approval of staff recommendation. Nealley seconded the motion. Cyr talked about a request for the City to issue proposals to obtain Licensed Real Estate Professionals. The City received approximately $1.2M in federal funds under the Neighborhood Stabilization Program which allowed the City acquire foreclosed homes, purchase, rehab and then return them to the housing stock to qualified buyers. There are certain requirements to be met by homeowners. The City has now expended the majority of the grant funds and has rehabbed a number of homes which are ready to be placed on the market. The City would like to issue a RFP to hire a qualified real estate agent to deal with the listing, sales, pricing and closing of these properties. Nealley approved the direction from staff. Cyr said this would not require an additional appropriation resolve because it would be funded from the sale proceeds. If the Committee is comfortable with the direction, the RFP will move forward. Weston made a motion approving staff’s recommendation to issue a RFP. Nealley seconded the motion. 3. Resolve 10-344 Appropriating $71,500 from General Fund Undesignated Fund Balance to Fund Performance Management Review Services of Police and Fire Departments Cyr said this is the underlying appropriation for the police/fire departmental reviews. Based on the recommendations from the selection committee, the total amount of pocket estimate is $71,500. Cyr recommended that the money be appropriated from the Undesignated Fund Balance which is at $8.5M as of June 30, 2010. The Undesignated Fund Balance is less than it had been due to lower than anticipated revenues during the year. Stone asked if the two firms would be willing to hold their price for a time certain to cover the concerns expressed about the new City Manager being brought up to speed. Stone asked Cyr to check with the two firms. Cyr said she will do whatever the Council would like but she thinks in order to do that there should be some amount of certainty that the reviews would go forward. Bronson said this maneuver would push the actual payment into another fiscal year. Stone said he preferred that both the payment and the review be pushed into another fiscal year. Cyr said there is a progress payment schedule involved. Weston didn’t see the need to wait and said he opposes the actual review process. Hawes talked about the use of Undesignated Fund Balance and past discussions when the Council was dealing with the tax rate for the current fiscal year. She recalled that it was a matter of not using it because of pending emergency use. Hawes did not feel that using it for department performance review is an appropriate use. Nealley spoke about precious discussions and decisions amongst the Council to move forward with the fire/police department reviews. He doesn’t feel it is appropriate now to talk about putting it on hold for the arrival and settling in of the new City Manager. He would like to see the City move forward as originally intended in this area. The final reports will be reviewed by the Council and City Manager. Nealley spoke about savings which will be equivalent to if not exceed the amount of the expenditure. If the consultant’s report indicates that the City is not spending enough money on overtime, then the wrong consultants were hired. If the consultant’s report suggests hiring more direct labor units to decrease the demand forward upon employees to work overtime on in calling them in at late night, then perhaps there will be savings in the overtime budget alone when $1.2M collectively is being spent on public safety overtime. The City had its Interim City Manager and Police Chief provide in their initial Police Department budget $80,000 worth of projected savings just in overtime. The amount proposed to be spent on the consultant’s reviews for both departments is less than that amount. He could suggest that the money for the reviews come from the public safety overtime budgets but he rather suggested the money from the Undesignated Fund Balance. Within the first fiscal year, savings will have been achieved savings from acting on the consultant’s recommendations to replenish the expenditure. Nealley made a motion to move Resolve 10-344 to the full Council. Weston said he is still opposed to it but since it will be going to full Council he offered a second. Blanchette said that she respected Nealley’s opinion but that he knew when entering into this that there was a possibility that the consultant find that the city is grossly understaffed in either or both the Police and Fire departments, and that the Council would take that under consideration. She didn’t agree with Nealley’s comment about not accepting that possible decision by the consultant just because it isn’t what the Council wants. It sends the wrong message. She is hurt and resentful of that. A witch hunt has never been needed. She has never felt that the departments are not being truthful with the Council. She doesn’t think that the Police and Fire Departments have ever been out of line. Stone felt that Nealley was saying that if the consultants indicate that the over time is fine then Nealley meant that the consultant should look at it more completely and hire more employees to reduce the overtime and the cost of the additional employees may be less than the overtime. Blanchette said she is not worried about how the Committee heard it but she is worried about what the public is hearing. The public is hearing that the Council feels that the Fire and Police Departments are racking up overtime unnecessarily. Nealley clarified his comments. He has never questioned the need for additional labor units. He again referred back to the budget session at which the Interim City Manager and Police Chief recommended an $80,000 savings in the overtime budget and then it was later whittled to $40,000. There was not a consensus among the Council for the $40,000 and the idea was dropped. Nealley said he never insinuated that any department was unlawful or negligent. Nealley then spoke about Bangor’s past decision to not join regional dispatch and the redundancy in costs with both the city and county. Bronson spoke in favor of the review. Farrar clarified that Nealley is correct in that the Interim City Manager’s proposed budget did recommend an $80,000 reduction in the police overtime account. He wanted to make certain that it was his (Farrar’s) recommendation as he needed to bring forth difficult recommendation to bring a proposed budget to the Council. The Police Chief opposed that reduction from day one. Bronson clarified that the motion had been moved the seconded to approve staff recommendations to move this item on to full Council. The vote was not doubted. 4. Executive Session – 36 MRSA Section 841(2) – Hardship Abatement A motion was made and seconded to move into Executive Session. 5. Open Session – Hardship Abatement Decision A motion was made and seconded to approve staff recommendation. 6. Executive Session – 36 MRSA Section 841(2) – Hardship Abatement (Material to be provided at meeting) A motion was made and seconded to move into Executive Session. 7. Open Session – Hardship Abatement Decision A motion was made and seconded to approve staff recommendation. 8. Discussion regarding Workout Agreement – 110 Pearl Street (Material to be provided at meeting) Council directed staff to enter into a workout agreement that includes a variety of requirements that were presented by staff. Adjourned at 6:10 pm.