Fort Walton Beach Council minutes — 11-26-07 special minutes — reading text

MINUTES OF THE SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING 213 OF THE CITY OF FORT VVAL TON BEACH, FLORIDA NOVEMBER 26, 2007 INTRODUCTION A special meeting of the City Council of Fort Walton Beach, Florida, was held on Monday, November 26, 2007 at 5: 30 p. m. in the Council Chambers at City Hall, with the following members present: Mayor Mike Anderson Councilmen: Mike Holmes, Virgil Miller, Dennis Reeves, Bill Garvie, Dr. Wayne Pullen, Jim Hartwell, and Mike Minich. Also Present: Joyce Shanahan, City Manager; Lisa Absher, Finance Director (Absent); Helen Spencer, City Clerk; Toni Craig, City Attorney; Department Directors; and Media CALL TO ORDER The Mayor called the meeting to order and welcomed everyone. He requested anyone who wished to address Council to approach the podium after being recognized, and then state his or her name and address for the record. PLEDGE The Mayor led in the Pledge of Allegiance. STUDY OF ALTERNATIVE DELIVERY METHODOLOGIES FOR CITY SERVICES Consideration of the Study of Alternative Delivery Methodologies for City Services. Dr. Donald Long of Management Advisory Group, Inc. will be present. The City Manager stated Council directed her to solicit staff input on the recommendations impacting the various departments and operations of the City and provide recommendations and comments on each recommendation. She pointed out staff also identified those recommendations they believe have been have an implemented, those recommendations that require no further action, those recommendations that ongoing effort. She out there is a table that reflects the Department Director's and City Manager' s pointed recommendations on those recommendations that require Council action. that were The City Manager suggested she begin with a brief review of the recommendations implemented and requested Council consensus if they agree. The City Manager went over the recommendations staff believed have already been implemented: 9- purchase scanner for use in Human Resources 14 - Human Resources should determine the current market rate for the accounting related positions. 49 - eliminate four of the seven vacant full- time in public works - this was accomplished in positions the FY 2007- 08 budget. Some positions were frozen and not eliminated; although the four in positions were not necessarily the same as the report suggested, they were largely the same pay scale. 50 - eliminate the Service Maintenance Supervisor position in fleet - this was accomplished in the FY 2007 -08 budget. 51 - eliminate the recycling program and associated fee - this was accomplished in the FY 2007- 08 budget. 53 - approve 3 percent increase in sanitation service fees - this was accomplished in the FY 2007- 08 budget. The City Manager explained the center of the disagreement between the Department Director and the the City Manager on recommendation #49 was that the Department Director did not want to eliminate positions entirely and those positions were frozen; in addition, during the budget process with regard to the Service Maintenance Supervisor position, the Public Works Director asked for a staff level position to help undertake some of the burdens and additional duties and she did not propose that to Council for funding. 2 lsAcial Council 11- 26- 07 STUDY cont. Tom Murray, Public Works Director, explained his disagreement on recommendation # 49 had to do with the elimination of the engineer position and then reclassifying remaining personnel because of additional duties they had to absorb through the elimination. He said there are two staff personnel working beyond their job description and the desire is to compensate them further. The City Manager stated that will be considered in the upcoming budget process. The impact of recommendation # 14 was questioned. The Human Resources Director explained all I accounting positions were recently looked at and they did salary surveys. He said most recently they looked at the Senior Accounting position that has one vacancy and recommended to increase that pay grade by four pay grades, which has been approved. He said they recently re- advertised at the higher salary for the position with good results. There was no action needed on the recommendations that have been implemented. The City Manager mentioned staff believes the recommendations that require no further action have been addressed or can be addressed during the current year and do not need any specific additional action from Council if Council concurs. The City Manager went over the recommendations that require no further action: 4- continue to provide city management and related services through existing departmental personnel. 6- retain the Human Resources Department organizational structure and staffing level. 10 - continue to provide human resources services through the Human Resources Department and its personnel. 11 - retain the high level of service provided by City Clerk. 22 - continue to provide purchasing functions through the purchasing department and four personnel. 25 - continue to provide information services through the IT Departments and its personnel. 26 - do not contract the golf club with a private management firm at this time. Continue the privatization of selected club house functions ( pro shop and restaurant). 45 - retain the current level of staffing for code inspections. 46 - continue to implement performance measures as established in Community Development. 47 - continue the current staffing and level of services for building inspections and plan reviews. 48 - continue to provide community development services through the CDS Department and its personnel. 55 - do not recombine Public Works and Public Utilities. 56 - continue to provide current Public Works Department services with City personnel. 57 - continue to provide mowing and related services with current units. 62 - continue to provide water, wastewater and storm water services through the Utility Department and its personnel. ( Staff is continuing to pursue an Interlocal agreement.) Clarification was requested on the meaning ofthe impact statement "avoidance of contracting issues". Dr. Long explained in trying to determine whether to provide a service in- house vs. contracting for that purpose, there is a litany of considerations that are critical to making a good short and long term determination. He explained the comment "continue to provide current services by the city personnel" that having looked at the nature of the service, the quality of it and the cost that might occur as a result of going forward with any kind of contracting effort they concluded it is really not a good idea for the short term and long term to move forward with a serious contracting effort. Regarding # 62 on the waste water treatment plant, the request was made for a cost analysis between the spray fields and some other I method of handling the waste with a comparison of the cost that may need to be paid to the government when the contract is concluded vs. the cost of purchasing equipment to do the same thing with city owned property. Mr. Garvie moved to accept the recommendations presented by the City Manager that require no further action. Mr. Minich seconded motion and it carried unanimously with Holmes, Miller, Reeves, Garvie, Pullen, Hartwell, and Minich in favor. Special Council 11- 26- 07 215 STUDY cont. The City Manager went over the recommendations which are an on going effort: the bank 15 - a systematic effort should be made to transfer as many finance activities as possible to and secondarily to one or more private contractors. 16 - evaluate all possible opportunities for electronic transfer of data. 17 - the explore of feasibility out for utility payment processing or purchase machine. contracting 20 - continue existing purchasing policies with periodic review or concurrency and adherence to modern standards. 31 - consider a concerted inter- departmental effort combining Police and City Attorney to aggressively and real estate assets. pursue forfeited assets - including vehicles, personal property 35 - ensure an adequate training budget for the Police Department. Mr. Miller moved to accept the recommendations presented by the City Manager that are an and it carried unanimously with Holmes, Miller, ongoing effort. Mr. Reeves seconded motion Reeves, Garvie, Pullen, Hartwell, and Minich in favor. The City Manager went over the recommendations that require further Council action or concurrence. Recommendation # 39 - close the Senior Center and achieve the higher level of savings of $78, 185. 00. The City Manager noted the Department Director disagreed and she had limited agreement subject to of funds and the outcome of the property tax reform on City revenues. She reported staff availability recommendation is to keep the Senior Center open now and continue to explore additional partnerships with other non- profit agencies, staffing the center with the use of volunteers with the exception of the Center Manager and reducing hours. She requested Council consideration to continue to explore keeping the center open and revisit the issue during the FY 08- 09 budget process once they have a better idea of what the constitutional amendment mightmean and additional revenue caps they may be facing It was questioned if reduced hours were considered in the meantime. The City Manager stated reducing hours was not considered for this year, but the hours and staffing level was reduced for the FY 07- 08 were cut back and budget. Jeff Peters, Parks & Recreation Director, explained hours and staff personnel as a result it has been tough to staff rentals on the weekend. It was questioned whether thought had been given to leasing the entire facility to the City of Mary