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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-01-23 Government Operations Committee Minutes Government Operations Committee Tuesday, January 23, 2007 Minutes Councilor Attendance: Allen, Gratwick, Palmer Staff Attendance: Barrett, Farrar, Cammack, Winslow, Yardley 1. Ambulance Billing Agreement – Bangor Fire Department and Glenburn/ Hudson Ambulance Service The City of Bangor Fire Department currently provides ambulance billing services to a number of communities and organizations. Glenburn/Hudson Ambulance Service has expressed interest in having their ambulance billing handled by Bangor Fire. This can be accomplished with existing staff and will provide additional revenue for the Fire Department. The Agreement is similar to others presently in place, and we would recommend your approval. Chef Cammack- We currently handle the billing for 7 other communities and we are looking to enter into an agreement with the town of Glenburn/Hudson. Palmer asked what kind of revenue would we be looking at for this? Chief’s response is that Glenburn/ Hudson’s Ambulance Service does about 400 calls a year and the contract would require them to give us $12 per call. That is about $4800 for that service. There is a one time up front cost of about $500 for adding another vender to our billing software and they would pay that additional cost. Gratwick – the larger prospective from the 8 communities means that we are going to be bringing in how much? Cammack responds by saying that currently the communities that we do the billing for equals to about $36,000 in revenue. So this would add another $4800. We do not need to add any additional staff or computers. We are going to do this with the existing staff. Gratwick comments that the more people that make use of this resource; the better it is all around. If Glenburn were going to do this on there own what would they have to pay? Cammack – Usually in other smaller towns they have someone else do it such as the Town Clerk or the Finance Director. What they find is that they often lack the expert technology to do this. Most do not have a billing software, and their reimbursement really plummets. With the communities that have had us take on their billing and getting feedback from them, we have found that their revenue has increased because we have the folks and the expertise to provide what they need for billing. They not only look at it as a way in which they can reduce cost but also increase their revenue. There is no downside for us. For example, if someone does not pay their bill it becomes a problem for Glenburn as opposed to Bangor. Everything that is on the bill appears to the patient that it comes from that community. There is no interaction with us once that bill is sent to the patient. Palmer asks if there is any right to advertising should the City want to talk about concerts coming up at the Bangor Auditorium or anything else in that billing? Do we ever think in those terms as additional revenue generation or easy marketing to the folks in Glenburn or the other communities? Cammack responds that he has never looked or thought about that type of advertisement but we are not prohibited from that happening. A motion was moved and seconded to approve staff recommendation. 2. Request to Apply for a VISTA Position at Bangor Health and Welfare Department Recently, the University Of Maine Center for Aging approached the Health and Welfare Department and encouraged them to apply for a Senior VISTA position. The person in the position would help represent the Health and Welfare Department with senior related issues, topics and groups. Additionally, the position would provide a senior perspective within the Department including advising program managers to ensure that programs are senior appropriate and effective. The Center for Aging has indicated they are willing to waive the customary salary contribution from the participating agency (the City, in this case). The City’s obligation would be to provide a work location including a telephone, desk and computer. This offer presents a unique opportunity to participate in the VISTA program at no cost and in an area (senior issues/topics) of growing concern. Staff recommends moving forward to develop a contract with the Center for Aging, which would return to the full Council for consideration. Yardley - Recognizing that we are in the middle of a budget year and that there is not a lot of extra money, VISTA is willing to consider our application without the requirement of putting up money to cover some of the cost of the salary. So the only expense to the City for this one year position would be the office support, which includes the phone, office space, desk, etc. He thinks he would be able to absorb this with vacancies and surplus equipment. The Health and Welfare Department is already wired for a couple of extra computer stations for the interns that we have from time to time. He thinks it would be a good opportunity to enhance what we do around the elderly, not only in the community but back in our various departments. He thinks it would be good for Patti Hamilton to have someone that has this specialty and could bring information back for the nurses, and also to the immunizations and general assistance departments. He thinks we, as a department, under serve the elderly. There are barriers, both cultural and otherwise to accessing a lot of the services and he thinks we could do a better job and thinks this position would be a low risk way to enhance our expertise in the issue of elders. Allen is concerned that is position is tied into a federal grant. She asked how does one take a position that is tied into a federal grant and tie the matching funds to infrastructure costs as opposed to salary costs? Yardley answered Allen by saying that the University has indicated willingness to absorb that cost and will be somehow paying the entire cost of this VISTA position. He did not inquire with them how they were going to do that because he didn’t think it was his concern. What he said to them was that he wouldn’t be able to find the 3 or 4 thousand dollars in this year’s budget to cover that expense and they said they would take care of it. The question was raised if this would be a student or a faculty member and the answer Yardley gave was that typically it would be a post-graduate of a BA or masters degree program that is looking to do community service in a specialty area. They commit to a year service and often times there is a component where they have some of their student loans paid back. In other words, this would be a graduate of the University that is looking to do, not volunteer work, but community service work. It could be someone anywhere in the country that applies through this program and accepted as a VISTA eligible person and then we interview them and decide if we want to hire them as a VISTA at our site. They then become affiliated with the center on aging at the University and are stationed with us. Palmer asked about their benefit package and their healthcare. Yardley said that it was his understanding that they are provided a healthcare program through the Federal VISTA Program. He recalls with the Americorps/VISTA program they receive their benefits through their employment as part of the Americorps/VISTA and then they are assigned to our work station and get paid through the University. There benefit package is based on the VISTA program. Palmer then asked if we have any other VISTA employees within the City departments? Yardley responded by saying that he has an Americorps/VISTA employee at Park Woods and she is doing her second year there. She runs our Learning Center and is working great. We pay for that program and we budgeted into the Park Woods budget. We paid $3,000 for the first year and $4,000 for the second year. It is full time and she is staffing the Learning Center and has been able to staff it for the last two years. We are open afternoons and evenings and they have some weekend functions also. She is from Old Town and she has a BA in education and this is what she chooses to do. She is a great asset to the City and is doing a great job for us. Gratwick points out that he understands that the VISTA program is a wonderful domestic Peace Corps which brings the socially conscious recent college graduate back to work in our own country. They do all sorts of wonderful things for the local community for not a lot of money. We should try and get more of these people to help out because a lot of their salaries are paid for by the federal government. If we can do that then we might get a group of young energetic people and start them off in a role of a public service path. To answer Gratwick, Yardley said that The Center of Ageing is a fast growing part of the University School of Social have been very successful in partnering on a number of issues both within the state and throughout New England. They are doing a lot of creative innovative work around the issue of ageing and they have a very active board and well represented by very prominent local people. They have been around for the last 5 – 6 years. Yardley is really excited about the prospect of a more formal relationship with them. Allen asked why wasn’t the Eastern Area on Aging, that has been very much a part of this community, been put into the Department of Welfare and why is this one surpassing them all? Yardley answered Allen by saying that the other organizations that Allen mentioned does not have the same type of volunteer that this program offers. Yardley works very closely with Eastern Area Agency and we partner on a number of things. They are involved in both of the groups that he referenced, such as the Dash Network and the Greater Bangor Collation and Elder Abuse. They don’t happen to offer this type of program that he is aware of. Allen responded by saying that they offer programs that go to the individual’s home and interact with the individual and work within the community framework. She does not see where this one is that much more of an exception then the other two. Yardley responded by saying that it is not his intention that this position would serve elders directly. It wouldn’t be direct service, it would be working with Health and Welfare and perhaps throughout the City bringing the issues of seniors to our attention so we are better trained and better aware of those needs. It is also to act as a liaison to some of those other committees. We refer all the time to the services to the Eastern Area Agency. This is not about duplicating or even filling a gap in service that is out there. It is about more of a community organizing kind of position as apposed to a direct service position. For example, they might organize training with the police department that might benefit them in working with elders, or his GA case workers making Park Woods a little friendlier in the sense of an environment for seniors. Their interest in partnering with a municipality, particularly Bangor, is a unique one because there are not other municipalities that have a Health and Welfare Department. So we provide a unique partnering opportunity that they obviously see the benefit too. This is all above board and the federal requirements are going to be followed in this grant. If this works, then he will be planning to put 8- 10 thousand into his budget for those kinds of positions in future years. A move was made and seconded to approve staff’s recommendation and will go onto full Council, once a final agreement has been reached with the University. 3. Discussion of Education Campaign and Designation of Fine Payments Regarding Council Ordinance 07-050, Smoking in Motor Vehicles. During the consideration of Council Ordinance 07-050, there was interest expressed in having a follow-up discussion regarding two topics: a public education campaign and how any fine money received would be designated/ used. The suggestion was made that these topics be scheduled for the next Government Operations Committee agenda for Committee/Council staff discussion of approaches and options. Winslow pointed out that he does not feel like the money received from these fines will be a large amount. He checked the revenue line for code violations for the last couple of years and one year it was $650 and the other was $840. The police department does not write a lot of ordinance violations. A couple of the ordinance enforcements that affect the police department directly are, the curfew ordinance there were a hand full of those over the course of a year. We used the opportunity to get the kids off the street and get them reconnected with their families and do not look to see how many tickets we can write. Another one that has been used is the cruising ordinance that prohibits people from looping in certain areas downtown. Again that worked well initially to help solve a problem. It was a tool given to us to help deal with the problem. So we are not looking for a large amount of revenue here. I have instructed my officers that they should use this opportunity to help educate these people, particularly in the first few months as people get use to this new ordinance. It has obviously attracted a great deal of attention. The data has not been entered into the system; therefore, I have not been able to query to see if anyone has been warned for the issue. I have queried 5 or 6 officers and haven’t found one that has stopped anyone yet. They have not seen any violations. It is our intention not to be out there aggressively trying to see how many people we can catch but as officers came across violations they would choose to stop them and use the opportunity to educate people. Dr. Shenkin added that he feels that any revenue from this ordinance be symbolic and used towards educational campaign. Due to the small amount of revenue expected he doesn’t feel that a campaign the size that people were looking for is possible. Palmer added he feels this is a beginning. He believes that since the issue is secondhand smoke, that he would hope that most of the curriculum would be surrounding that issue. There is a lot out there about how smoking is bad for your health but the whole concept of what happens with secondhand smoke is where our focus should be. OSHA has regulations for employees in confined areas but in a vehicle with children with young lungs we have the only ordinance in America. Hopefully we can do a better job to make people aware of the dangers and find other ways to safeguard our population from those issues. One thought of his is that a lot of the people that are going to be smoking in their vehicles are people soon to be graduating from high school in Bangor and he wonders if there is a way to develop some sort of educational moment for these graduates about the dangers of smoking in these vehicles as well as younger children that can help educate their parents. This could be similar to the use of seat belts. Many parents use their seat belts because their children tell them to or because their grandchildren tell them to. Gratwick asks Barrett to estimate what he thinks the value of the recent two week public education campaign that has been going on for folks in Bangor, such as national papers, New York Times, television coverage, etc. What would be the value of that campaign already undertaken because of this publicity if we had to pay for all of it? Barrett responded that if we excluded the national TV time he believes that it would run in the range of about 1 million dollars. That might or might not cover the TV time but it would be in that range. There have been a significant amount of coverage and he is unaware of everywhere it has been. He did know that after a Google search the day after the Council adopted the ordinance the story was picked up by at least 120 media outlets around the country. Barrett does not think there has ever been an issue that has produced so much email in the City of Bangor. Answering Palmer’s question he feels that this would be a major first step in the process of education. Gratwick asked that due to the small amount of money expected in revenue of this ordinance, will the money go back into the budget and then used as regular City general funds? Or is this money, however small it is, set aside and then used down the road to dedicate to seniors, students, etc. for grants for the best advertising relating to this. In other words, to carry it another step with the goal being educational as opposed to a sign on the back of a bus, or a spot on the radio station. Barrett responded by saying that the money does go back into the general fund. It is reflected as a revenue item in the police department. It is easy enough to dedicate the source of revenue, so it would be easy enough to dedicate this fund that specifically came from violations of this ordinance to a dedicated cause. Allen asked if there is any possibility of accessing this tobacco fund that exists in the State Of Maine for some type of advertising. Yardley responded by saying that when smoking was prohibited on Health and Welfare grounds, it was tobacco funds that helped pay for the signage that went up all around our campus. It did not cost the City any money and the big metal signs said “this is green space, no smoking”. He is sure that we can work with these folks to do that. There is a new RFP coming out in the end of March for all the new tobacco money for next year. Depending on what the RFP requires, we could build into our application something that says some of the things that we would like to do based on our experience. The tobacco money is all tied into the Public Health Infrastructure Development, but his department received about $250,000 each year for the last 4 or 5 years to do tobacco related programming. That includes the staff and overhead expenses, but that is the core funding for the Healthy Maine Partnership monies. Based on what the state is looking to do, he would anticipate that there will probably be 1 million to 1 ½ million dollars for Penobscot/Piscataquis County. He feels that there would be a possibility of being able to use this money towards education/advertising for secondhand smoke because of the bold position the Council has taken in this issue. Hawes mentioned that the BDN publishes newspapers in education. They do that on different topics and they have students that design ads that are paid for by local business. Maybe they would consider using this as a public safety issue. It was also mentioned that these funds be set aside for a year and then look at what we have. Yardley is also looking into the available funds for the educational process that would probably give the City much more to work with than what we would have at this moment. Palmer suggested that the electronic bill boards that are used to inform the downtown area of the overnight parking bans could then be used in the school area’s warning drivers of the ordinance. Hawes suggested that someone find out if the schools have newspapers and maybe they would generate a program within their school that could do flyers relatively inexpensive. Hawes is looking for some direction on what the committee wants to do. She feels that everyone is looking to hold that money aside but we need to decide what our options are. Barrett said the first thing we need to do is to ask the Police department to track any revenues that we actually receive and if we do start to receive any revenue before the end of the year, that we return and set it aside in a reserve fund for this purpose. Even a small amount could be helpful in offsetting some costs. Second, he thinks Yardley should pursue the notion of trying to get the State to run some sort of statewide campaign on the issue of secondhand smoke, and/or doing something with some of the local money specially targeted to that. He thinks we have come up with a series of suggestions tonight that we can follow up on. There are two radio ads that are being run now. We can see if the radio stations will donate the commercials to us and then we can broadcast them on our television station. Yardley said he was on the board of the Maine Children’s alliance so he might be able to work something out. Even with a small amount of money Barrett says we can still print out information to give out to police officers so that when give out a warning they will have something to give them that explains and talks about the hazards for children. He thinks we should follow up on these things and track things and if we do start seeing revenues we can ask Cyr to set something up and designate the funds. A motion was made and seconded to approve the staff’s recommendation. Barrett reminded Yardley to report back to the committee after he received the RFP from the State and has a better understanding of the kinds of items that they are looking for in that RFP and if our thinking will fit into what the State will allow. Dr. Shenkin added that he felt that the City should also accept donations from citizens who what to make a healthier community for their kids. He feels that we might raise more money than you would expect by doing so. Barrett’s response to Dr. Shenkin was that the Council can make a generalized request and we would be happy to accept funds, but you cannot make specific requests out of fear of conflict of interest. Groups outside the City can organize a campaign requesting the donations be made to the City. If you are interested in doing that we need to talk more because we normally come up with some agreement about how that will work. This would be similar to what we did for Dakin Pool folks. The meeting adjourned at 6:10 p.m.