HomeMy WebLinkAbout1998-10-06 Municipal Operations Committee Minutes Municipal Operations Committee
Meeting Minutes
� October 6, 1998
� Councilors Attending: Michael Aube, Gerry Palmer, Michael
Crowley, Nichi Farnham
Staff Attending: Edward Barrett, Mary-Anne Chalila, Don
Gross, Joe McNeil, Erik Stumpfel
1. Proposal to Discontinue Boyd Street
Councilor Farnham is not participating as a corporator of
Phillips/Strickland.
The Council referred this issue to the Municipal Operations
Committee for further discussion.
Ji.m Ring explained that this is a request from the
Phillips/Strickland home to discontinue the lower 180 feet of a
block of Boyd Street, between State and York Streets. The public
hearing was held and after reviewing the facts and considering what
is the public need and interest, Jim's report recommends against
the discontinuance. As he indicated at the Council Meeting, it is
a rather unusual request in that most of the discontinuance
requests that are received are for streets that are no longer used
or where all the abutters want to do away with the street. There
are a number of factors listed in Jim's report that he feels are
� relevant to the issue and should be considered in the determination
by the Council. First, the combination of Boyd Street and Forest
Avenue make for a continuous route between Hancock and Stillwater
Avenue. The intersection of Boyd and Forest Avenue with State
Street is a signalized intersection. It is the only one between
Broadway and Hancock Street. The proposal, in Jim's view, would
shift some of the traffic that uses Boyd Street to adjacent
streets. Another factor is that the Phillips/Strickland home does
have considerable property and it appears that they have other
options. There are also a number of businesses in that area that
could be negatively impacted by traffic circulation. Ji.m feels
that the public need is better served by the preservation of this
public way.
PUBLIC CONlr�NTS:
Various individuals attending the meeting made comments regarding
this issue.
The Committee recommends approval to not discontinue Boyd Street to
Council.
2 . Fleet Re�lacement - The Bus
Bob Farrar e�lained that there is an opportunity to move up a bus
� procurement. The City is procuring three busses this fall and now
has the opportunity to purchase a fourth bus at half the cost to
the City. The transportation bond that passed this spring provides
additional funding to communities to reduce the normal 20� share
from the City. Because of the state funds available, the City can
purchase another bus for only a 10� share. The savings to the City •
by buying the bus a year early is approximately $20,000-$25,000.
Staff believes this is a good opportunity to purchase a year early
and to save money and recommends the purchase. There is sufficient
money that was appropriated by the Council to procure the three
� busses and there is $25,000 left over in order to purchase this
bus. Because this is a deviation from the Fleet Replacement
schedule, staff wanted to bring it before the Committee. The bus
that this would replace is a 1982 with 700,000 miles. Most of the
busses being replaced are approximately 10-12 years old and have
500,000 - 750,000 miles on them. Approved.
3 . Amendment to Personnel Rules and Regulations
Bob Farrar explained that when the revised rules and regulations
were adopted last year, a commitment was made to the Council to
keep them updated with respect to changing state and federal rules
and regulations. Recently, there have been circuit and supreme •
court decisions that relate to salaried or exempt employees and the
application of discipline to those employees. The courts have
indicated that for a salaried employee to maintain their exempt
status, in order for them to not be paid overtime, they can not be
disciplined for less than one week unless it is a violation of a
major safety rule or regulation. Staff is proposing to amend the
City's rules and regulations to comply with these recent court
decisions. It will be indicated that salaried or exempt employees
can not be disciplined for less than one week. This means that if
the manager is put in a position of having to discipline an exempt
eznployee, that employee would either be reprimanded verbally or in
writing or would move to at least a week suspension. If an exempt
employee is suspended for less than a week, they become non-exempt.
• Bob Farrar has reviewed this with Tom Johnston, Labor Counsel and
concurs that the City needs to make the appropriate amendment to
the rules and regulations. This will impact 30-35 salaried
employees. Councilor Farnham asked what the current method of
discipline is. Bob explained that it is a progressive method;
oral repri.mand, written reprimand, suspension or reduction in pay
and then discharge. This would cut out the suspension without pay
for less than a week. Approved.
4 . CNF Status Report
Councilor Crowley excused himself from this issue due to conflict
of interest.
Ed Barrett explained that based on what has been happening the last
yeax, since Council approved the Continuum of Care proposal, staff
has been working toward getting this project up and running. There
have been some obstacles beginning with the certificate from the
state. The original application was turned down because of the
cost of the residential care proposal. This was primarily due to
the use of CNA's to staff it. It has since been resubmitted using
PCA's, which is a lower salaried position with less training.
Staff has not heard a definitive answer from the state as yet. The
residential care portion will probably be approved but the nursing
home group is still reviewing it. A number of other factors that
have become apparent over the last year have urged staff to go
• back and revisit the financial forecasts. One is the completion of
the facility assessment by Carpenter and Associates which calls for
spending approximately $2 million over 7 years. Secondly, there
has been a continued decline in the occupancy. A year ago, it was
at 85� occupancy and today it is at 77�. Also a number of needs ,
have been put on hold due to the delay in the certificates needed
to move forward. It is coming to a point where decisions need' to
be made. The final factor entering into this is that Don Gross sat
down and reviewed how the nursing facility has been funded in the
. past and came to the conclusion that the City has been shorting the
facility in terms of operating capital (patient furniture,
replacement equipment) . It is getting to the point where some of
this needs to be done. As a result, staff went back and put
together some revised figures. The original projection was for 21
residential care beds which showed that if this were implemented,
you would see small operating cash flows down the road starting in
FY00. The adjusted projection is based upon some of the factors Ed
outlined above. The basic adjustment is for interest and principal
on some of the facility needs along with the cost already built in
for the expansion and renovation. Occupancy rates were also
adjusted. The original projection assumed about a 95� occupancy
rate. More and more of these facilities are in the planning stage .
or are coming on line. Secondly, based on the configuration which
requires shared bathrooms, staff felt we couldn't attract the
percentage of private pay that was originally estimated (50�) . As
a result, the financial estimate goes down to $190,000. Most of
that difference in the first year is the $141,000 in estimated
outlay which is trying to address the deferred replacement program
that has probably been in place for the last 25 years . The third
option looked at is what happens if nothing is done and we continue
to operate as currently is. There would be losses that start at
$300,000, and they would grow over the period to approximately
$500,000.
This information was given to bring the Committee up to date.
• Decisions on certain capital items will need to be made in the near
future. Staff is looking for feedback and if there is any
additional information the Committee would like to receive on this.
Councilor Aube commented that he thought it would be helpful for
the Council to see the breakdown of nursing facility related needs
versus building related needs. Mary-Anne Chalila explained that
the problems with the building at this point in time is deferred
maintenance. She feels that the only work done to the building was
necessary repairs . Things are done just to keep systems going and
at this point these systems have failed.
Councilor Aube commented that the most compelling reasons he heard
to keep CNF open was the quality of care. If the state grants the
license under the PCA wage group, and if this doesn't work and the
quality of care is down, will we be able to change this? Don
answered that we would not be able to change it, but the state is
in the process of developing a case mix reimbursement for
residential care. The City could hire, at their cost, whatever
they want, but would be reimbursed at the lower rate. Councilor
Aube asked if Don had an estimate for FY 99 as to the total number
of patients CNF will provide a service to? Don answered that for
budget purposes, 52 residents per day were estimated and
approximately 45 of that population are long-term care with a very
low turnover.
Councilor Farnham asked what the status is with regard to the
� federal government's interest in the building and its use? Ed
explained that May 22, 2001, will eliminate the restrictions on
the building. The restriction is that it has to be used for health
related purposes. The mix of operations in the building has changed
somewhat over the years . There is still an option to change what
goes on in the facility as long as it continues to be used for '
health related purposes.
Public Comments:
. Royce Day: Mr. Day asked what the status was of the catering issue?
Don answered that it has been approxi.mately one month and CNF is
about at the break even point. There were problems with the
licensing of the kitchen that needed to be resolved before
operating so the kitchen has been operational for about 2 weeks.
The business is building at a fairly good rate. Don will have
September figures for the Committee soon.
Mr. Day asked if a certain number of ineals is guaranteed? Don
answered no. Mr. Day wanted to know how they process what it
expected? Don answered that CNF offered to provide a service and
the way the University has been set up, there is no rent payment, •
no utility payment to the University and they recognize the
likelihood of someone being financially successful in that
operation is small. They make it as easy as possible to operate.
Every dollar of revenue that CNF gets for providing food goes
directly to the nursing facility.
Mr. Day asked if there is any liability to the City for serving the
meals there? Don answered that there are no more than exists
with providing food to the residents of the CNF.
5. Cascade Park Parking Lot Lease - EMMC
� Councilor Crowley excused himself from this issue due to conflict
of interest.
This is the fifth year this has been done. Spaces at Cascade Park
are leased to EMMC from November through March. The City maintains
the front row along State Street for those that wish to use the
park. The revenue of $33/month per space go into the Cascade Park
renovations capital fund. Councilor Aube asked why the money goes
to renovations instead of the parking fund? It was Ed's
recommendation to do this because this is a park property and there
are capital needs associated with the park. Approved accepting
lease agreement.
mop10-6.98
•