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Administration Minutes 2009 08-24-09 i APPROVED 9/28/09 UNITED CITY OF YORKVILLE 800 Game Farm Road Yorkville, IL 60560 ADMINISTRATION COMMITTEE MEETING City Hall, Conference Room Monday, August 24, 2009 — 6:00 P.M. PRESENT: Chairperson Robyn Sutcliff Brendan McLaughlin — City Administrator Diane Teeling — Alderman Valerie Burd - Mayor George Gilson — Alderman Ward 1 Gary Golinski - Alderman Susan Mika — Finance Director Kathleen Orr — City Attorney Bart Olson — Parks & Recreation Dir. Rose Spears — Alderman Ward 4 Tom Gilmour PRESENTATIONS: NONE Alderperson Rose Spears addressed the committee prior to the meeting be called to order; notifying all that she is recording the meeting. The meeting was called to order @ 6:00p.m. MINUTES FOR CORRECTION /APPROVAL: The minutes for June 18, 2009 were reviewed and approved as presented. All the items recommended for Consent Agenda will move on to City Council on Consent Agenda. NEW BUSINESS: 1. ADM 2009 -41 Monthly Treasurer Report for May 2009 2. ADM 2009 -42 Monthly Treasurer Report for June 2009 Alderman Gilson asked if we expect the general fund to dip back down below the 5.11% shown in June. Susan Mika replied that she doesn't anticipate it going down because revenue is coming in. Gary Golinski recalled committee meeting members use to receive a full budget report and not just a treasurer report. Susan Mika said one of the reasons why they stopped presenting budget reports to the committee was at the year end there was a lot of confusion with the audit going on. Brendan McLaughlin, Susan Mika and Valerie Burd made the decision was made to not present the budget report until the audit was completed. Gary and George said it was nice to review the budget report when it was available prior to coming to the meeting. 1 There is still one more section of the audit to complete. Susan said a draft may be complete in the next 2 to 3 weeks. Valerie Burd said the reason why they did this is because there were a lot of extraneous line items in there from year end entries and if the alderman see this and they start commenting publicly that the city is in the hole and in all actuality we're not, it may become alarming to some of the residents. Susan stated that some of these line items were adjustments from compensated items such as sick time, vacation, comp time, insurance on city buildings, etc. etc. Both Treasurers' Reports will move forward to consent agenda. 3. ADM 2009 -43 Discussion on Amending City's Ethics Ordinance Kathy Orr, the City Attorney, asked which ethics ordinance we would like to follow. The city currently has the IML version or do we want to adopt the State's version which has an Ethics Advisor and an Ethics Commission that would hear the complaint. We still need a penalty section no matter what policy we go with. Currently there is no penalty in the ordinance. By state law; any violation of municipal ordinance can be fined to a maximum of $750 and the Ethics Ordinance ramifications from $1000 up to $2,500 and 364 Days in jail. Valerie Burd said that the city was under the impressions that Eric Weiss was the City's Ethics Officer, but he is not. Eric reviewed the ordinance and stated that he is not the Ethics Officer. When we adopted the latest version of this ordinance in 2004, we repealed the one that states he is the Ethics Officer. Eric Weiss recommended that we amend this ordinance to have .penalties and an Ethics Officer or Ethics Commission. We could use the county commission or set up our own commission. Kathy said state law provides that the Ethics Advisor is appointed by the Mayor with consent of the council. s George Gilson said he feels like this is self serving as a political agenda and he's against any sort of power in the hands of one officer or commission. He likes the current IML as adopted. Robyn asked how effective can it be if you can't bring it to and there are no penalties. George said he don't think the Mayor appointing somebody. He also thinks it's a self serving way to punish somebody and he's against that. He doesn't think that power should be in the hands of the Mayor or j in the hands of one person. Robyn said it would be up to the commission, whoever the commission is. Rose Spears said when this ordinance was passed, the council appointed Tim McCann as the Ethics Officer. She would like to approach Eric Weiss and ask him if he and his office would take on this responsibility, because she feels that he is not bias in what he decides. She thinks the City Attorney would be risky and the Mayor having total responsibility of appointing somebody with the advice and consent of the council has proved to be a bad policy. 2 Valerie Burd said the current ordinance doesn't call for an Ethics Officer. The City has been without an Ethics Officer. Rose Spears was under the impression that the ordinance was updated with States Attorney's Office noted as the Ethics Officer and stated that he was taken out of the ordinance without the council being aware of it. Valerie said the council was aware of it because you repealed the former one. George asked if there was an issue with going back to Eric Weiss being the Ethics Officer and Valerie replied no. Rose also has concerns, which the council and the mayor have brought up in the past about documents being changed need to be red -lined so that the changes are easily and quickly identified. If the documents are not red - lined, changes are very difficult to identify. Robyn Sutcliff said we need to get back to the matter at hand and we can address it another time. j Kathy said in 1999 the City Council said the State's Attorney was the city's Ethics Advisor and if there was a problem it would go to the State commission. But here's the problem, is there a State Ethics Commission 10 years later. Kathy needs to research. Gary Golinski said he liked the old version stating the States Attorney being the Ethics Advisor. He also stated that he likes the idea of taking it out of the Mayor's hand and the City's hand. If there's an Ethics violation, he'd rather have someone from the outside looking in. I Valerie Burd stated as far as she knows, all Ethic issues have been handled through the State's Attorney's Office. Valerie Burd would like to go on record about a remark made by Alderman Gilson about her motives for doing this. She believes it was inappropriate. According to the governing ordinance, you're not supposed to make personal attacks or go into motives on why we do things. Alderman Gilson stated he didn't personally attack her; he stated that they self serving. George's suggestion is to go back to the old ordinance and make the State's Attorney the Ethics Officer. Kathy is asking for direction to research if an Ethics Officer can act as an Ethics commission. Valerie stated why don't we just go ahead and make the State's Attorney the advisor and the county commission as the Ethics commission. 3 After much more discussion, this item will be brought back to the committee after getting more information on the Ethics Officer or Advisor, State Commission, County Commission, or Local Commission. 4. ADM 2009 -44 Department Head Hiring Process Valerie Burd asked for this item to be put on the agenda, because our policy doesn't match the state statue. After we hired the City Administrator, she asked if she could suggest who can be interviewed for open positions and she was told NO. At that time, she decided to get this cleaned up. The policy is very confusing especially for new alderman. She would like to clarify what everyone knows what were suppose to be doing and what are different roles are and make it very clear. Personally she thinks it's a good thing to have city council to participate in the hiring process, but that has to be something each Mayor decides on how they want to handle their appointment process. She also wanted to clarify that this may be something the Mayor may use, but is not obligated to follow the hiring process. Alderman Gilson asked if we can add a recommendation in the resolution that says we recommend that the Mayor work through the City Council with the hiring process. Kathy says for the record the code book states it is the Mayor's appointment corresponding with the State Statute. As a resolution it cannot amend an ordinance; as a resolution it would have a message it does not bind the Mayor. Chairperson Robyn Sutcliff said she doesn't see anything wrong with adding the resolution, but the Mayor doesn't have to bind by that. Alderman Golinski stated that the City Council's power in all of this is that you can vote down the appointee and we can also specify the duties for that person. Brendan McLaughlin also stated there's a second piece that the State Statute and the Municipal Code are in conflict with one another. State Statute reads if the Mayor removes someone from office and the City Council choose to override they can do that by 2 /3' vote, but the Municipal Code says at anytime the City Council by 2/3 rd 's vote can remove an appointment by the Mayor which is not the case. Kathy to conform the Municipal Code to say City Council can not remove any appointment by the Mayor. The action for this item is to draft a hiring resolution and repeal a section from the Municipal Ordinance and copy a section from the State Statute and incorporate in the Ordinance. This item will move to consent. 5. ADM 2009 -45 Discussion on Procedures Regarding Alderman Addressing Committees and Staff on Ward Issues and Policies Alderman Gilson brought this forward, because he would like to have a policy or recommendation set. This arose from a discussion with the Mayor and Charles Walker on issues from Windett Ridge. The Mayor gave Alderman Gilson a directive via email that he is not to address staff personnel about issues or policies 4 i I relating to our ward. He was also told there are to be no one on one meetings for Alderman with staff or constituents. Is this a written policy is what he wants to know? He also wants to address a suggestion regarding any further meetings with constituents or HOA's from each perspective ward. He suggests that one of both aldermen be present during these meetings. Chairperson Sutcliff asked if this is with meetings with staff or constituents. Alderman Gilson replied constituents and /or HOA's. Mayor Burd thinks he is referring to staff meetings. He also asked if there is anything on the books that says he can't come in and talk to a staff member and ask about issues pertaining to his ward. Mayor Burd asked if she can clarify the issue and to clear up any misunderstanding that Alderman Gilson is having. The City would be asked for a meeting with several staff members to sit down with one alderman and one constituent. What she said to Alderman Gilson was that is not an efficient way to use the tax payer's dollars and the staff time. She suggested to Alderman Gilson that this should take place at committee meetings, that way the other aldermen are present. She also stated that he can bring issues to an individual staff member but reiterated that they will not set up a meeting with several staff members for him and one constituent. Later in the conversation the Mayor also mentions she doesn't understand why one person from Windett Ridge should be coming in demanding that the staff all sit down and give him an update on what was going on in his subdivision when there are a lot of other residents that want updates as , well. I i i Alderman Gilson asked for instance if it would be acceptable to bring in a j constituent to meet with Travis Miller and a Joe Wywrot to answer questions pertaining to his ward? He is clouded by the directive the Mayor is giving. He is looking for a definitive answer. He doesn't see how that is in the best interest. of the residents. Chairperson Sutcliff responded how she handles requests regarding her ward. She alone will contact the staff member to see if any of the requests can be resolved. If not, then she will bring the issue to the committee. She also mentioned that she has never come across a circumstance where she needed to bring in a constituent to meet with a staff member. 1 Alderman Gilson responded that everything isn't legislative and it doesn't require to come to the committee. Some are simple questions that need to be answered and they weren't getting answered by staff. He personally had to be a liaison 3 times for questions that weren't satisfactory answered in a constituent's eye. Chairperson Sutcliff asked if anybody else had problems getting answers from staff. (No Reply). She is confused by the matter. After much more discussion, Chairperson Sutcliffe brings this to a close and doesn't think a policy is necessary to restrict Alderman from communicating with 5 the administration staff. She also said we all need to be aware of the situation and be conscientious and communicate is the key. Alderman Golinski agrees. 6. ADM 2009 -46 Staff & Committee Recommendations Regarding the Comprehensive Plan Alderman Gilson brought this forward as well. He recently got this information from a class he went to for newly elected officials. He thinks we should re- evaluate our comp plan based on a conversation with the instructor of the class. He believes staff isn't following the recommendations according to our comp plan. He realizes that certain market structure dictate growth, but he also realizes in general if we continue down the path we are going, staff making recommendations contrary to our comp plan. This is setting a bad precedence. If we don't feel like what we are looking for growth in certain areas, then we should change that. Chairperson Sutcliffe said we just completed the comp plan and that Alderman Gilson was a part of it. She stated that there is a lot of unknown when you develop a comp plan and you don't know who wants to come in. Developers have the right to ask to put in what they want, but the decision is ultimately based on City Council approval. Alderman Golinski said we were sued because we followed the comp plan. Mayor Burd said she's always looked at the comp plan as a guideline. There are instances where you pick certain zoning here and next to it another type of zoning. Some zoning types are put in the comp plan based on what is already there. City Council and aldermen are suppose to make decisions. They're not suppose to rubber stamp everything that comes through. They're suppose to look at it and ask themselves if this is good for the community, does this meet the general wish of the comp plan. She thinks that if we had to change it for every little thing we want to make a different than what's in the comp plan; we would be changing it all the time. We wouldn't have Kendall Market Place if we weren't going to be open to making some changes to what was in our former comp plan. Brendan McLaughlin said some communities amend their comp plan every time they re -zone a piece of property if it's not conformance with the comp plan and he knows other communities that do not; they use it as a guideline. i Chairperson Sutcliff said we need to be flexible. Alderman Gilson said for clarity sake, he wasn't trying to make the assumption every time we deviate from the comp plan, we get sued. What he was saying was if we continue to set a bad precedence, that we'll have things like that happen. If the comp plan says suburban or estate neighborhoods and if you feel more density is acceptable then you should put more density in the comp plan. He also said if the consensus of the people who formed the comp plan thought they wanted a certain type of zoning, then we should try to have staff stick within with their recommendation going forward and if doesn't fall within the comp plan, then the recommendation should not go forward, but if it does then change the comp plan to reflect that. 6 i ! Again after much more discussion, Chairperson Sutcliff said the committee will take it under advisement, but there will not be any changes at this time. 7. ADM 2009 -47 Discussion on Policy Regarding Questions of Budget Line Items at City Council Meetings Alderman Gilson is asking for re- consideration on the policy (or if there is a policy written) that says we can't ask questions of the line items during Council Meetings. He said he doesn't always have the time to pre - forward his questions on approval of line items. He's not asking these questions to stump the finance director. He's asking questions because he has an honest question that he would like to get answered. He's also asking if the finance director can bring the book in so she can answer the questions readily. Mayor Burd said Alderman Gilson can ask questions, but they need to be in writing. Alderman Gilson asked Susan Mika to speak up about this. Susan said she could bring in this accordion binder with the invoices, but she will be unable to answer specifics questions about the line item, because there is no explanation on the invoice of why this item was ordered. Mayor Burd said it doesn't matter; Susan is not bringing this binder to the council meetings. The department head is the one who knows why this bill is coming through. Alderman Gilson asked why the department head can't answer the questions about the invoice. Mayor Burd said this goes back to the previous Admin meeting, where she felt Alderman Gilson was being abusive to the finance director making some kind of remark "Didn't she feel stupid not knowing the answer to these questions the night of the event ?" Everybody at that meeting reported that to her. With that being the case, that's when Mayor Burd decided we are not playing Stump the Finance Director. Working with the department heads by providing her with the questions a day in advance so she can do the research and get the answers that night to the aldermen so that everyone can make a decision. It is also being considerate of the other Alderman, so we're not all sitting here while one of you is asking 5 questions. She doesn't understand why Alderman Gilson can't email questions on the bill list by 5 O'clock, when he emails all other types of questions constantly. Alderman Gilson said if he could do it great, but setting forth a policy stating he can't ask questions is being counterproductive and he's not doing it to stump the Finance Director and he said he never said she was stupid either, but if he has a last minute question about a line item he doesn't see a problem asking it and getting an answer from the department heads. Susan Mika said if a bill list doesn't get approved, legally we would have to pay that bill, because as a department head, you have the authority to order the goods 7 or services and because that vendor supplied the goods or services he can sue the city. Kathy Orr explained the law which confirmed Susan's statement. Mayor Burd stated that every one of them either called her or emailed her about an offensive remark made to the Finance Director during the previous Admin meeting. Is she misrepresenting what was said that night? Was there not a confrontational situation with the Finance Director? Alderman Gilson said Susan and him talked about it. Several members of the committee agreed that it was confrontational. The Mayor said she will not be put in that position any more. This is why questions need to be submitted the day before. The Mayor also stated that questions will be allowed on the night of the meeting, but the answers will be supplied the next day. But how are we going to have a vote that night if we wait 'til the last minute to ask a question and the staff has to go do research. It doesn't help. Alderman Gilson said for the record he said it would be a lot better than her stammering and stuttering and not be able to answer the questions that were put forth at the council meeting. That is not in any way confrontational. Susan Mika said in that meeting Alderman Gilson made a comment that she was incompetent. She again said he said she looked incompetent. She took that personal. Alderman Gilson recalled a previous conversation between him & Susan at West Side Gyros, about how she felt when she can't answer a question during the council meeting and that's when they started talking about bringing the binder to the council meeting. For her to say it was confrontational that was interesting. Chairperson Sutcliff had to intervene to bring this meeting to order. Her opinion on this is that she thinks it works really well and hopes that everyone can get their questions in ahead of time. When questions are presented ahead of time, she thinks it's extremely professional and the meeting runs very smoothly and expedient and we should all be professionals. Alderman Golinski agreed that questions should be submitted in advance. Alderman Gilson said for clarity sake is that the new policy, we can't ask any during the Council meeting. Mayor Burd said you can ask all the questions you want, but staff will get back to you the next day. Alderman Golinski says do they have the option of answering. All agreed to say that option should be allowed if the answer is readily available. 8. ADM 2009 -48 Policy to Enact a Regular City Council Budget Review and Adjustment Alderman Gilson said this is another suggestion for a regular review of our budget during Admin meetings and adjust to market conditions. Chairperson Sutcliffe thinks this is a good idea. Susan Mika said we only do budget adjustments at the six month budget review. 8 i Alderman Golinski responded that is for adjustments, but for review the committee always received a budget report at every admin meeting and he misses getting that report. Alderman Spears said each month the report showed the percent of where we should be at. Chairperson Sutcliffe asked why we don't have it any more. Susan Mika said because of the budget adjustments for the end of the year. She went into detail about the budget report and stated that it is not a Profit / Loss statement. Focus needs to be put on the different line items for each department and not an aggregate total of the General Fund Balance. The budget reports are posted on the website, but only after they are approved and with a disclaimer about all of the adjustments that have been made. Alderman Spears complimented Susan's summary cover page and the explanations she included which eliminated extra questions. Committee members agreed that they would like to see the budget reports at future Admin Committee meetings. I ADDITIONAL BUSINESS: Alderman Golinski noted while he was on vacation in Rapid City, he picked up the Rapid City Newspaper and noticed that they publish all of the City Council meeting minutes. ADJOURNMENT OF THE ADMINISTRATION COMMITTEE MEETING: With no further business to discuss, the meeting adjourned at 8:38 p.m. Minutes respectfully submitted by Tim Dlugopolski I 9 I A T 0 United City of Yorkville 800 Game Farm Road 1 1636 Yorkville, Illinois 60560 Telephone: 630 -553 -4350 0 1:� 0 5.. Fax: 630 -553 -7575 <LE �v PLEASE SIGN IN MEETING: DATE: �- '� `(, a-o o g (� , c, u p W-) NAME COMPANY PHONE NUMBER �-g( r Q-� U i I I I I