Admin Committee Minutes 2003 04-10-03 I
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UNITED CITY OF YORKVILLE APPROVED BY THE
ADMINISTRATION COMMITTEE MEETING ADMINISTRATION
THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 2003 COMMITTEE WITH
REVISIONS
In Attendance: 8 -14 -03
Mayor Art Prochaska
Alderwoman Rose Spears
Alderman Paul James
Alderwoman Valerie Burd
City Administrator Tony Graff
Guests:
PRESENTATION I: FUTURE COUNTY OFFICE BUILDING
Jeff Wilkins stated that in a letter to the City that he had requested cooperation from the City of
Yorkville with regards to the new County Office Building at the John Street campus. He
mentioned that they did manage to get a lease through next summer in the Countryside Center.
He said that they are on a fast track to get the plans for the new County Office done. They have
gone through all the programming with the users of the building. They have plans to look at two
elevations that will be presented by KS & A and they saw their preliminaries last week. He said
that they have hopes for a two -story building with the flexibility of adding on to it in the future.
The zoning issues were worked out on Tuesday night. He mentioned that the committee would
probably like the aesthetics of the two -story building opposed to squared roof of a one -story
building. He said that the Land Use Planner Mike Shoppe said that for what they were planning to
do there that the on site and detention was adequate. Mr. Wilkins pointed out on maps what KS &
A commissioned for possible additions or future buildings. They are looking to build a 29,000
square feet building. It will house Public Health, Environmental Health, Behavioral Health,
Technology Services and a few others. There will also be a Child Advocacy/Interviewing Center.
There were also plans for future parking. There might be plans to put in sidewalks on both sides
of the building, but that would depend on costs. He mentioned that they did send a letter to the
Sanitary /Sewer District about paying fees for sewer hook -up fees. Mr. Wilkins mentioned that
they hoped this would be an asset not only to the County but also to the City of Yorkville.
Alderman Paul James asked how big the Technology Service Department would be.
Mr. Wilkins said that have just 2 technicians and I director. He said between Facilities
Management and Technology Services they have a centralized purchasing mechanism.
He said that the new building will face south because they did not want a dark north entrance. On
the second floor stairs and restrooms will be at the front and also the Administration Office,
CASA, KCED. The Technology Office will be in the middle of the building. The Conference
Center and Board Room will be on the second floor as well as the lunch area and Environmental
Health. They are looking at control points to be able to control the more public rooms. He
explained that they added a second entrance for the Child Advocacy Center. The Centralized
Information Service Office and dividable classroom space is mainly for when topics such as bio-
terrorism issues, outbreak issues, or any other type of emergency issues need to be discussed. The
building is projected for staffing for the next 15 years or so. Out of the 29;000 square feet 3,000
will be geared to Technical Services, 400 for the Interview Room, and then there would be about
4,000 square feet of space to grow for Health and Human Services.
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Alderwoman Valerie Burd asked if there would be a basement in the new building. Mr. Wilkins
said no that would be unlikely. He said that they are looking at a masonry building, a standing
seam roof, but if budget required it they might have to go with a shingle roof. He felt that it would
turn out to be a nice looking building.
The committee decided to forward this to the next COW on April 15, 2003.
PRESENTATION II: PORTICO MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS WEB SITE
Portico Marketing Communications Representative Todd Pauli stated that the handouts explained
the company's web's rule and government and what Portico can offer for the City's web site. He
mentioned that it was important to know how many citizens actually use the web for government
resources, and stated that it is actually quite a lot. He pointed out on the hand out that the 4 key
words at the top; Strategy, Design, Support and Promotion cover what they do to help you
through the process:
Strategy - they take you through the content to get an idea of what is out there, and could help
make decisions on what people might want to see on the site. They would also take a look into
other communities and see what resources they might offer and consider adding to the Yorkville
City Web Site.
Development — they offer a full design and coding which includes the whole package of
producing a web site.
Real Time Review — this is offered for the web site which enables the customer to log on and
review the materials of the web site as it is being built and to see what changes are being made. It
helps to have the customers review the materials in case there are changes that need to be made. It
cuts down at editing time during the end and making last minute changes. It also ultimately saves
money. It also allows growth partnership between the client and company, and to be sure
everyone is satisfied with the results.
Support & Hosting — Portico offers a full range of hosting options as well. This would include e-
mail hook -up and e-mail accounts that go directly through the domain name. They offer training
for the employees on how to use and set it up and dump a -mails that come through and go into the
outlook accounts.
Mr. Pauli said that they pride themselves in helping their customers step through the whole
process. They have come up with a process to help them step through the surveys, questionnaires,
and opinion polls and what is right for Yorkville as far as resources on the web. They offer a good
blend of design and a good view of designs that might look good but might not function well or
that might down load slow. They have experience with large scale web development. The team
that would work on the web site all has experience with corporate web design and development.
They have experience with doing sites that are several hundred pages and being able to host and
support those sites. He felt that they would be the company to go with for the long haul of growth
for the future. .
Mr. Pauli gave a couple of references. He suggested calling Larry Boffel who used to be the
Business Developer at Plainfield, with any questions about that web site. The other reference was
Kids Campus Day Care which they are currently working on. He said that their web site can be
viewed to see the progress that they have made on it. He felt that they were the best to speak with
right now as they are in the middle of that project and thought that they would be able to tell of
their operations with Portico. There were other references listed.
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Mr. Pauli mentioned that they did a series of flash virtual tours for the Village of Plainfield. They
contracted a total of 5 that covered things like entertainment, working in Plainfield and living in
Plainfield.
The second part of Mr. Pauli's presentation included a foundation that did a lot of research to get
a clearer picture how many people are actually accessing government web sites. He stated that the
numbers were recorded in 2002. By tracking users on the web they were able to show that 76% of
Americans are users of the Internet in some way. According to the survey, 51% of Americans
looked at government resources on line. Included in the information was what the government is
doing with the information taken from the research and how they are trying to turn the web into a
viable research for citizens to access. He pointed out that according to the research that Federal,
State and Local Government via the web went from 40 million in 2000 to 71million in 2002. It
showed that people are quickly coming to their expectations of the web.
Mr. Pauli mentioned that for Local Government it offers 24 hour information access as well as
access with the web connection. It would allow the City of Yorkville to give the impression of an
easy accessible source. It would also establish a first impression of people relocating, businesses
looking at the area for development and tourism. Many people research the web before they make
their moves. People also gain trust in a web site that is up to date and user friendly. It is important
to establish a web site that is professional, up to date, and has the information that the citizens
might need or find useful. He added that by putting more information on the web would allow a
lighter work load for the office and could deter people from entering the office for information.
The people would be more likely to search the web for the information rather than leave their
homes or offices to go and get it. It could make for a great two -way information system for both
the citizens and the City. He mentioned that Naperville has that option on their web site and that
they use it when taking polls and for feed back.
Mr. Pauli stated that the Naperville web site is an all inclusive site that includes on line bill
paying. Though on line bill paying is a good resource to offer, it is a touchy subject for
government because there are other fees such as e- commerce, visa/MasterCard processing fees.
The cost of the Naperville web site was $56,000 to build, Mr. Pauli's proposal is much less than
that. He only wanted to give an example of what other communities are putting into their web
sites. They want a viable resource for their community. Mr. Pauli said that if the City of Yorkville
would so choose to go with Portico that they would offer a free design of an envelope insert that
could be sent with utility bills. The insert would point out the features of the website and would
be a good way to promote the web site.
Mr. Pauli stated that he put together a few different scenarios for the proposal. The first one listed
is the Comprehensive Site. He said he felt it was a very good starting point in terms of getting
information out. It lists different categories and the number of pages. The number of pages goes
up significantly on the government side. He is budgeting for the City Code to be on it as well.
Listed in the proposal was their estimate of their hourly rate which is $55 an hour. It is an
estimate that is base on what is on the first page. They are really flexible at what types of
information they want to put out there and what they City would like to hold back for the time. It
could go up or down depending on what scale they would want to go by. Mr. Pauli said they
could host the web site for cost of $50 a month. That would include site user statistics so they
could measure how many people visit the site. That would be important to rate what resources are
working, and which ones might not be working.
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Mr. Pauli pointed out that St. Charles measured that just about 6,000 people a month visited their
web site in 2002. About 1,500 of those were repeat visitors. The last 2 months they have averaged
about 2,500 of repeat visitors.
Mr. Pauli said that important on the front page of the site, no matter what color design or shape,
they need to have a site that is accessible, and information that is not buried down in the site. It
means that they would build expandable menus so that everything on the site is no more than 3
clicks away. There are also areas for City news and access links, community calendar and
contacts. They are items that are always front and center on the first page of the site. He added
that the first two proposals included a search engine. That gives another option incase someone
doesn't know exactly where to go, they can type in a key word and it will bring it up.
Mr. Graff said that he felt that Mr. Pauli hit on all the topics of City's goals for their web site.
Mainly of which would be to have more information accessible to the public via the web. This
would include information on meetings, projects, public hearings, and various permits.
Alderwoman Valerie Burd asked if it would be possible to add a base in which the public could
send a -mails to. She felt, with regards to the low voter turn out this election season, that it would
be good to hear feed back from the public. Mr. Pauli said that it was possible and that they would
only have them log on to a different web site. Everything else would remain the same. It would be
like the AOL account but would give expanded capabilities in terms of e-mail user list or they
could build a list for all of the City's aldermen. They would then only need to click a button and it
would send that list to all the individuals. The added bonus would be if they do have a Microsoft
Outlook E -mail it would automatically drop down to the desktop. If they didn't have that then
they would have to log on to an e-mail host web site. Mr. Graff commented that that is their goal,
to be able to have contact back and forth with the user list. Another item he said that they would
like to have on the web site are utility notices. It would encourage people to log to receive any e-
mail notifications of the City. It would also allow us to put together a user list and also to specify
the list. Mr. Pauli said that this would be included with the e -mail service they would provide.
Mr. Graff asked Mr. Pauli if the City would have the capability to set up e-mail accounts for all of
the City's staff and employees without going through him. Mr. Pauli said yes he could give them
the Administrative rights and password which would be easier for them to have control over that
area. Mr. Graff stated that they would have a Department Head go through and see all the
information before it goes out.
Alderwoman Burd asked if they should create a policy that could manage what goes in and out as
far as a -mails are concerned particularly of those who might be campaigning for office.
Mr.Graff said that they do have an Internet Policy in regards to what employees can send out, but
not everything that is sent out can be monitored as far as e- mails. It would mainly be what goes
on the site itself.
Alderwoman Rose Spears asked that since the City staff does the agendas, minutes, newsletters
etc., will they be able to enter into the site without having to go through him for it. Mr. Pauli said
that that would depend on how the City would like that set up, it could go either way. He said that
he recommended it for better control over accessing sites.
Alderwoman Burd asked if he could get a quote on what it would cost to add things like the news
letter or brochures, or occasional ads. Mr. Pauli said that he is capable of designing that and if she
would get together a list of what she thought she would like to see added to the package then he
could give her a better quote. With no more questions asked, Mr. Pauli finished his presentation.
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Mr. Graff thought that it would be a good idea to take the time to make comparisons with the
other 3 companies that they had offers from. Finance Director Traci Pleckham informed the
committee that Weblinx came in at the least expensive at $3,220 which includes hosting, with
unlimited e-mail and upgrading fees, and no additional fees. He was also the developer for the St.
Charles web site with which Portico had made reference to. Portico's costs are running just under
$9,000. They do have done larger scale web sites such as Schaumberg and Lake in the Hills. For
just the hosting alone Portico would run to $600 a year compared to the $250 from Weblinx.
Alderwoman Burd said that if the look they are going for is clean and precise then Weblinx is the
one to go with. The other company's seem to do more graphic design which is where the extra
costs come in.
Alderman Paul James recommended having Weblinx come in and give a presentation at the next
COW. Mr. Graff suggested inviting Andy Clements from Weblinx to come to the next COW
meeting to be there in case anyone should have any questions.
This item will go to COW on April 15, 2003.
OLD BUSINESS
Minutes for Approval/Correction
There were none.
Review Planning Coordinator's Fees
Mr. Graff reported that the Planning Coordinator is doing a good job of cataloging the entire
goings on regarding the developers. He said that we do not do any permit work; that all the permit
work is done by the Coordinator's office. He said by doing this he has not had one bill contested
from any of the developers. It would seem that everyone is paying their fees. He said that it is a
good tool to access the progress of the report.
The committee decided to bring this item back to the next Administration meeting on May 15,
2003.
Water Accounts Update
Alderwoman Rose Spears asked if they should take off the meters that have been replaced. Mrs.
Pleckham said that they keep them on the report for a month and then take them off the next
month.
This item will come back to the next Administration meeting on May 15, 2003.
Update of Technology Plan Proposals
Mr. Graff stated that one of the concerns with the NIU proposal was staff and another was timing
issues. He said he spoke with De Vry and they have an out source program to where they assign
associate professors to do work. They normally do it for companies because De Vry they are very
company oriented. He said that they have done some governmental work but it has mainly been
for technical assistance. The timing issues could be a problem because with the way they have to
do things it takes them a long time. He said our current vendor currently pulled together a scope
of services together. He said that it could take between 25 -30 hrs. to get everything up and
running.
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Mr. Graff recommended that they could do a chair sign off on it and buy the hours and have them
put together this plan and not to exceed the 30 hrs. in the contract. This project could be done and
we should have internet connections within 4 -6 weeks. Mayor Prochaska asked how long it
would be until we are hooked up to the library. Mr. Graff said it would all depend on when the
City is able to begin underground work for the hook up and how long it will take to finish it.
Alderman James asked how much money the City was spending on the project per month. Mrs.
Pleckham said that it is $170 per month.
Mr. Graff said he would not recommend the NIU proposal right now because it is too great of a
challenge. The time factor is playing a major role. He felt that they needed to be up and having
the systems running now.
This item will go to COW on Tuesday May 15, 2003.
New Entry Way Signage
Mr. Graff said that they still do not have the final version of the design for the entry way sign.
They are still waiting to hear back from the company about the artist rendition to sign off on.
Mr. Graff said he would have Holly call the company to get an update on the situation and the
costs of the changes that were made.
This item will come back to the next Administration meeting on May 15, 2003.
NEW BUSINESS
Grant Coordinator Contract
Parks and Recreation Director Laura Brown said that Schrader & Associates currently works for
Forest Preserves and has worked for numerous municipalities; both districts and villages. She said
that they would like to get a proposal for the City on doing some grant money. This company
specializes in large grants such as the Oslad Grants, OLT Grants, the Homeland Security Grants,
and Land Acquisition Grants. Mr. Graff and Ms. Brown worked together to come up with projects
that would fit in there. That would include things on the parks end and city end. Ms. Brown faxed
the ideas over to Schrader and she spoke with Laura Ross and she faxed over a proposal of
$14,000 a year. It would be a 5 -year layout plan that would go over what grants the City would be
going after. Then they could take a look annually what grants they will target. This might involve
doing 3 or 4 a year that would be in large dollars amounts. She said that an Osland Grant is
$750,000. A Bike Path acquisition would have no cap and Bike Path development is 2 million.
She said that Ms. Ross has been extremely successful at getting the grants and is willing to lobby
for the City if needed. Ms. Ross has had experience with getting grants for cities for 20 years. She
said that it would also include having the staff sit down with her and give her a lot of information
that she could use to support the reasons for needing the grants.
Ms. Brown said that for $14,000 a year the return is unbelievable. It could be paid in quarterly
installments. Mr. Graff said that though this is not in this year's budget that we could pay it from
this year's budget.
Mayor Prochaska did say that if they are going to do a contract with them that he would like to
see it already in the budget. Mr.Graff said that as long as they keep the maximum dollars then
they could allocate the line item money. It would be under the Finance Department, and
Contractoral Services.
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Ms. Brown said that if anyone had any other ideas that Ms. Ross would be willing to seek out
grants fpf jp�m as well.
it -
Mr. Graff said that Police Chief Harold Martin is looking at Homeland Security dollars. This
would be for network and sharing information. It costs about $60,000 for the forwarding and
tracking system.
Alderwoman Burd asked what the beautification and fagade would cover. Mr. Graff said it would
primarily be for planter and other types of similar additions. Ms. Brown added that she had given
r Alderwoman Burd's arti a ���ati to Ms. Ross and those would be great
historical grants and one that she would look forward to working on. There are also a lot of
museum dollars and visitor center dollars available. Ms. Ross has done grant work for Carroll
Stream, energy efficiency with a solar wind mill.
Alderman James asked how much of this would be matching dollars. Ms. Brown said it would
just depend on what type of grant it was and whether it offered any type of matches and also if we
could use it.
This item will go to the next COW on May 15, 2003.
Proposing Ordinance for SSA — The Highlands & Windett Ridge
Ms. Pleckham said that City Attorney Dan Kramer has the item and is reviewing it. She said it is
the next step in the process for the SSA. Mr. Graff said that there is a change on the resolution.
Resolution 10 for the Highlands was 20 million, now they are asking for 15 million. There will be
a second SSA coming in with the proper SSA district requirements and they have met with the
county with regards to how this is all going to be recorded, and how the taxpayers are going to be
billed for it. That would be the taxpayers of these subdivisions and districts. The engineers still
have to sign off on it before Traci allocates the funds to be released for it.
This item will go to COW on May 15, 2003.
Capital Fees
Mr. Graff said that all committees have been working on this for the last 3 months. The reason
why they got this late is that they had been trying to negotiate Moser Development. They wanted
to get the latest fees applied to that development to get that waived for end cap services, along
with justification with regards to that. They are looking to raise the capital fee which right now is
$1,200 and they looking to raise it to $2100. He said that they broke out with justification that is
going in with the costs of the vehicles. The last time they raised the fee was 15 years ago. They
will be receiving funds that will allow them to buy the equipment needed for Public Works and
the Engineering Department. There are plans to try and evolve land cash for park equipment to
maintain the park facilities.
This item will go to item will go to COW on May 15, 2003.
Investment Policy Review
This item has been tabled.
Budget FY 03104 Update — Salaries and other items
Mr. Graff stated that all the employees are in the realms with the salaries for merit for COLA. It
was an adjustment that he and Mrs. Pleckham recommended. Mrs. Pleckham put together
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numbers; the information was included in the packet. There is $51,000 in the budget for merit and
pay equity. There would be $1600 dollars left afterwards. The task was for all the Department
1-I0-work together to on the Pay Equity issues and
to et some support for th e on
had some tenure. The item was brought to the g
Mrs. Pleckham will do a follow up survey to see what the COLA and merit were for the towns
that they did and come up with a type of average for it. Then do a 6 month review and see what
they did for the pay equity to bring up those who are on the short end and bring them up to the
average.
This item will go to COW on May 15, 2003.
ADDITIONAL BUSINESS,
Employee Manual Update
kin
Mr. Graff reported that they are worg on the inspection of the Employee Manual. They are
going to limited scope which means the authority would only be granted by two people. They are
talking to the Labor Attorney and they are looking at the two people to be the Chief of Police and
the City Administrator for the inspections. There are more issues such as safety issues that they
will be working out as well.
Meeting adjourned at 9:00 p.m.
Minutes by Theresa Brady
Revisions by Jackie Milschewski, City Clerk, per the Administration Committee.