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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 •