Admin Committee Minutes 2003 03-13-03 Page 1 of 15
UNITED CITY OF YORKVILLE APPROVED BY THE
ADMINISTRATION COMMITTEE MEETING ADMINISTRATION
THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 2003 COMMITTEE WITH
6:30 P.M. REVISIONS
8 -14 -03
In Attendance:
Mayor Art Prochaska (in at 7:45 p.m.)
Alderman Paul James
Alderwoman Rose Spears
Alderwoman Valerie Burd
City Administrator Tony Graff (in at 7:00 p.m.)
Guests:
Public Works Director Eric Dhuse (left at 8:30)
Park & Recreation Director Laura Brown
Bill Powell
City Treasurer Bob Allen
Andrew Clements from Web Links
PRESENTATION: WEBLINX PRESENTATION BY ANDY CLEMENTS
Alderwoman Valerie Burd introduced Weblinx's Andy Clements and mentioned that she had first
met Mr. Clements at an Economic Development Corporation marketing workshop while getting
bids for KS +A's website. . She said that she had the opportunity to become familiar with his
work and that he is interested in doing work for the City of Yorkville. Mr. Clements has done
work for Oswego, St. Charles, Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, and others.
Mr. Clements stated that he has done web sites for nearly all the communities in Kendall County.
He said that he works closely with the Yorkville Economic Development Corporation and also
the Yorkville Chamber of Commerce. He said that the Yorkville City Web Site is not the greatest.
He felt that either the Economical Site or City of Yorkville Site would not be the first stop for
corporate executives who are looking to locate their businesses in Kendall County. He mentioned
that Oswego has taken advantage of his services through the web site.
Mr. Clements stated that one issue he would like to address is the overall design of the Yorkville
City Web Site. He referred to the handouts and asked the committee if they had compared the
Yorkville City Web Site to other towns such as Oswego or Geneva. He felt that the City's web
site could use some improvement to bring it to the same level as with the other communities in
the area. He said that he had revised the Montgomery Illinois Web Site. He said that the town of
Montgomery was behind up until a couple of years ago. One of the goals for Montgomery was to
build a web site that was user friendly. He mentioned that the Kendall County Record quoted that
the Montgomery Web Site was the most user friendly web site in the state of Illinois.
Mr. Clements stated that he is currently working on the 2 nd handout, which is the revision for the
Yorkville Economical Development Corp. that is scheduled to be launched next week. He
thought as long as they were working on that project, that the committee might consider a
proposal from Web Link to re -map the Yorkville City Web Site. He felt it would add a real
service entity not only for the residents but also potential residents and businesses looking to
come into the community. He made mention of the list he prepared to show his work.
Alderwoman Burd mentioned that the costs were very reasonable.
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Alderwoman Rose Spears asked if the system quit running or if it would not link properly, if he
could be directly reached. Mr. Clements said yes. He should be able to deal with any of those
types of problems without having to come out; they can be dealt with from their facility.
Mr. Clements mentioned that with Oswego and Montgomery, they were able to get all City
employees and trustees on their e-mail system. That's all part of the hosting, so they all have their
own personalized e-mail through a web -based interface. Mr. Clements mentioned that Weblinx
offers a service to get rid of any unofficial entities that might interfere with the City Web Site.
Alderman Paul James asked about the updating of the sites, specifically for the Police
Department. Mr. Clements said that as in Oswego, there are certain areas of the web site where an
employee can go through a web base, and post things automatically without having to know any
special coding skills. He said that he also offers a couple of retainer or maintenance programs
where if some of the more complicated work needs to be done, it could be e- mailed to him and he
could hard code anything that needs to be done.
Park and Recreation Director Laura Brown asked if he could line -route information from
Yorkville to a specific person. Mr. Clements said that it could be routed to anybody it is just a
standard e-mail colony. Ms. Brown asked if there were a maximum number of users on the e-mail
web base accounts. He said no, it can be as many as you want. Mr. Clements said that for the
Village of Oswego he had about 15 employees sign a disclosure agreement. That way he would
have a contact in case anyone left their position and tried to take any information with them. Ms.
Brown added that this way if an employee were to be fired, you would call the web -based host
and ask to block any e -mail coming or going to the former employee.
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Mr. Clements defined some of the job services:
1) 100 MB of storage — a typical client uses about 5 -10 mbs per storage, he does not
anticipate going above that.
2) Unique IP Address — it is a virtual address that shares throughout a hundred different sites,
and share the same IP address.
3) 5.000MB of tbroughout Der month - this is important because it is the amount of data
transfer. They have never had anyone exceed 5, 0000 MB.
4) Unlimited POP E -mail Accounts & Forwarding - simply means the amount of e-mail
accounts would be unlimited.
5) FREE Web Based Mail - if you are on the road and do not have access to an e-mail client,
by going to the web browser and typing in mail.weblinxinc.com and user name and password,
it will work just like Outlook Express.
Alderwoman Burd asked if people would be able to pay their water bills through the e-mail
system. Mr. Clements said that the website would have to be E- Commerce capable. There are
web based packages that can be purchased for that.
Ms. Brown mentioned that there is a contract that should be coming soon for a DSL connection.
Once the connection is made into the office then the AOL accounts can be eliminated and there
would be an immediate DSL connection and it would be on line all the time. Employees would be
able to e-mail each other without having to go through AOL.
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Alderman Paul James asked how many e-mail accounts the City currently has. Mrs. Pleckham
said there are 8 accounts.
Alderwoman Spears felt that the committee should seriously consider Weblinx plan. She felt it
would be a good for growth. She said that she had browsed many of these Web Sites and was
very impressed with Mr. Clements work.
Ms. Brown asked if Mr. Clements could set up e-mail based application for templates that people
could fill out an e-mail back to us. Mr. Clements said that he could. Alderwoman Burd added that
they could also do questionnaires.
Mrs.Pleckham said that another one of their goals is to get City Ordinances on line as well.
Ms. Brown mentioned that without E- Commerce that they would not be able to do Money
Exchange because it is a huge liability.
Alderwoman Spears asked that if Weblinx does put City Ordinances on line and/or surveys, if
there would be additional charges. Mr. Clements said that it would usually be done in a PDF file
if the City wanted to do HTML.
Ms. Brown asked about links and where they would get access to them. Mr. Clements said that he
likes to get linked to the local sites and that he keywords the site so that it comes up as number 1
on the search engines for anything that they feel would be useful. Ms. Brown asked how many
search engines are used. Mr. Clements said there were over a hundred.
Ms. Brown asked what kind of server he used. Mr. Clements said that he has 3 servers that have 2
unit boxes and NT server that are in a data warehouse in Texas. He said that he leases these 3
servers and that they are staffed around the clock.
Alderwoman Spears asked when Mr. Clements first started making web sites. Mr. Clements said
that he started at age 13. When he was in high school he took an internship at the ODAC. He did
web sites for them and then also for banks and while still in high school did a web site for Edge
Mark who are still clients today.
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Alderwoman Spears asked what the costs would be to the City. Mr. Clements said that he would
have to put together a proposal. He said that they do charge $50 an hour and that City sites are
usually a little bigger but that they would probably be looking at no more than $3,000. Mr.
Clements said that he could have a proposal ready by early next week.
Mrs. Pleckham thought it would be a good idea to get input from the Police Department and staff.
Mr. Clements said that though he did not put it down in the presentation, that he has also done
web sites for both the Montgomery and Oswego Police Departments. Thought the police web
sites are separate, they are linked to the City's site. That was done to separate e-mail.
Alderman James asked if there are different links for the different departments would there be
any additional fees. Mr. Clements said no, it's all included as one.
Ms. Brown pointed out that with the Tourism Department that they could create a mailing list to
let people know when certain events are coming up such as `Music Under the Stars.'
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Mr. Clements stated that his advice would be to look at the St. Charles web site and make a list of
items the committee would like to see included on the web site. He said that the St. Charles web
site has a whole package of interests in which they could consider for the Yorkville City web site.
This item will go to COW on April 10"" 2003.
OLD BUSINESS
Minutes for Approval/Correction
With correction to be made the committee approved the minutes for December and January.
Review Correction to Employee Manual
City Administrator Tony Graff stated that from the last meeting there were a few corrections and
recommendations by the committee to change some language.
In the section of the Part -Time Employees, the committee decided to make it more precise so that
when an employee read it, they would understand what a part-time employee was.
On page 3 the final draft they struck out the exception. The recommendation from the committee
and the City attorney Dan Kramer thought that the revised version was a lot cleaner.
Mr. Graff said that he had spoken with the library. He said that Attorney Kramer brought up that
since the library has adopted their own rules and regulations and that are different than the City's.
A couple of different examples are that they are open on certain holidays such as Columbus Day
and Presidents Day. That would come in conflict with the manual but changes were made
specifically for the library on those few instances which is on page 4 of the manual. They also did
review the library's Rules and Regulations Manual and the recommendations have been
forwarded over to the library. There were some legal verbiage changes that were recommended
to them.
Alderwoman Burd asked Mrs. Pleckham if she would make sure that the library gets connected
with the Skylink. Mrs. Pleckham said that she would do that.
Mr. Graff pointed out that on page 32 of the manual that they had had good discussions on the
Education Training and that they and Attorney Kramer concurred with the committee's
recommendations for cleaning up that section. He said they had inserted what the committee had
recommended in regards to the College Degree or Certificate Program, that the program must be
submitted by the Department Head, to the Mayor and City Council for approval.
Mr. Graff stated that in regard to the educational stipend the attorney's recommended that there
should be a stipend of 2% for Associates Degree, 2% for Bachelors Degree, and 2% for Masters
Degree. He said there is other verbiage that explains there could be an education stipend just
beyond that necessary entry level of that position.
Mr. Graff mentioned that there was some employees have voiced a concern about the Search and
Seize Policy under Employee Conduct 3:10. The concern was the inspection of an employee who
might be subject to suspicion of having weapons or who might be under suspicion of having
drunk alcohol while on the job. Mr. Graff said that he had already spoken with Public Works
Director Eric Dhuse about bows and guns. The policy states that they do not want any City
Employee to have access to weapons. With Homeland Security becoming more prevalent in the
work place, Government places must be more secure.
Page 5 of 15
Mr. Graff stated that the Department Heads have considered asking $150 towards the Employee
Manual. It would be a one time payment to all employees. They would receive that upon the
acknowledgement of the payment and they would receive a receipt for it. He said that the
committee will have to look at what they would consider for a recommendation for the employees
to adopt this policy. Mr. Graff said that due to the changes in the manual that protect the Manager
Rights and with the information given, he felt that it would eliminate conflicts when it comes
down to grievances, disciplines, hiring and promoting. He suggests the amount of $100 for the
employees.
Alderwoman Spears asked if the attorney's mentioned any averages. Mr. Graff said no they didn't
because this is a new case law where as of yet they have not changed too many manuals.
Yorkville is the first one to change their manual to most current.
Alderwoman Spears said that with checking with the staff other municipalities that she felt that
$100 was comparable with the other communities.
Mr. Dhuse asked the committee to keep in mind that his employees have the option of the County
Union and that most growing cities are going with the Union.
Alderman James asked why Mr. Graff felt that each employee should get $100. Mr. Graff said
that it is because of court ruling. The court ruled that when cities change their manual that there
should have been consideration in regards to the changes that the employee should have received.
He said that even though they didn't dilute any benefits they did add language that strengthens
management position in regards with discipline and grievances. It gives more strength to the
management for managing its employees.
Alderman James voiced his concern over the $100 stipend. He felt that he could not support it.
Mr. Graff said that it is the foundation to build policy off for Department Heads to get written
approval.
Alderwoman Burd pointed out that it if the employees accept the money then they can not sue the
City and they have agreed to it.
Alderwoman Spears asked what they would do if someone would not accept the money and said
they did not want it. Mr. Graff said that we have done our obligation in regards to the offer
consideration. That is what the courts would recognize. If the employee still wants to refuse the
consideration, we are still the employer. We would have them sign off. If they would not sign
then termination might be considered. It would have to be explored at the next level. If there is
gross misconduct then the discipline could be held to termination.
Alderwoman Spears asked if they do not sign it would they still have to abide by it. Mr. Graff
said that they would still have to abide by it. He said that is why they have training sessions. The
Department Head will sit down with the employee and will go over the manual page by page and
ask them if they understand what they have just read and then it is documented. If they refuse to
sign it then they would bring in an assistant or Mr. Graff to witness that they had gone over the
manual with the employee and they have physically handed it to them.
Page 6 of 15
Alderman James felt that the employees should just sign to show that they did have the training.
If they want to listen and read it, that would be up to them. He felt that they should just document
that they did have the training and that they were aware that there were changes and that's it.
Mr. Graff stated that they are not giving them the consideration to sign but rather the
consideration that they have to basically sign, which is the way it was explained to him a while
back. He said that the attorney's say that they have to have acknowledgement forms that they
have received the document.
Alderwoman Burd felt that the committee should just follow the procedure that the labor
attorney's wrote up for them. She said that it was there to protect the City.
Alderman James asked about the procedure of training courses. Mr. Graff said that when a new
employee comes in they hand them a packet and have them sign for the packet and that they have
received certain acknowledgement forms.
City Treasurer Bob Allen asked how many full time employees the City currently has. Mr. Graff
said that there are 48.
This item will go to COW for discussion on April 2, 2003, with the attorney's opinion letter
attachment.
Review Planning Coordinator's Fees
Mr. Graff stated that Development Coordinator Anna Kurtzman showed from the report that she
submitted that she put in a total of 29.75 hours. He said that the position is working well, and that
developers like it because they have a contact person.
Alderman James mentioned that a couple of questions were asked about the coordinator's
position. How many hours would Mrs. Kurtzman end up working and if her hours would be
100% billable to developers. It would appear from the report that everything is lining up.
Alderwoman Spears said that they would like to keep her in in -house staff for a couple of months
because it is a good tool to have.
Mr. Graff said that Jennifer likes it too because there are developers asking for more
documentation and we're having more billable hours. It's good that she can send an individual for
that. He said that's why there is more detail on the report to show what she did day by day.
This item will be brought back to the next Administration meeting on April 10, 2003.
Water Accounts — Update
Alderwoman Spears reported that there were a lot of meters that were replaced.
Alderman James asked if the meters that are replaced drop off the next report.
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Mrs. Pleckham said that anytime that a problem is resolved then the next month it will be off the
report.
Page 7 of 15
Salary Schedule
Mr. Graff stated that memo to the committee from Finance Director Traci Pleckham show's the
recommended proposed salary ranges. The survey's supports the ranges. He said that they wanted
to keep it on the current salary ranges and they will adjust it in the budget next month. He said
that the ranges pretty much follow the averages. Some on the high end came down, because the
survey showed that they were too high in those ranges. If the survey did show that some of these
ranges might have been a 1 -2% below the range they didn't go down on the entry level. They
kept entry level at entry level for what it is. The Department Heads really felt strong and so did
Traci when doing the survey that with entry level at this point; we know what we are competing
against.
Alderman James asked if any employee fell beyond these ranges. Mrs. Pleckham said that there
was just one and that is the Executive Director from Parks and Recreation.
Treasurer Allen commented that some of the communities in the survey are a lot larger that
Yorkville. He felt that while trying to keep up with the other cities that we are using up quite a bit
of our resources to compensate our employees.
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Alderwoman Spears pointed out that the committee did mention that they are trying to look at
population, budget to keep it in line. She said after completing the last survey it proved to be very
difficult to do. Other communities give incentives and do things that are hard to compare to.
Mrs. Pleckham pointed out that she did add population in the survey because it was a concern.
Mr. Graff said that when you look at salary surveys done by professional firms there is a variance
in low and high in population and that is where they get the averages and mediums for that. He
said that Montgomery hired a professional firm for their salary survey and spent about $30,000
viewing all their job descriptions on a $70,000 contract. He said that we could do that and that the
labor attorney said it is a good way to gage where Yorkville is on a true comparable. It gives the
City Council and City employees a chance to see some information on it.
Alderwoman Spears pointed out that Mrs. Pleckham had access to the other cities surveys and
that she used that.
Mr. Graff pointed out that 8 of 16 cities surveyed are under a population of 10,000 He said that
the highest was New Lennox where we took an average.
Mrs. Pleckham pointed out that they looked closely at the cities with double digits variances just
to see if the ranges were justifiable with what and why they were doing it.
Mr. Graff recommends for the committee to recommend the salary schedule and present it to the
Council. This way they have it updated before they do the approval process for the budget.
Alderwoman Spears asked if the stipend had changed. Mr. Graff said no they just cleaned up the
verbiage on it.
Mayor Prochaska mentioned that one thing they need to look at is the averages of both smaller
and larger towns, most of which are in our area and within the same conditions that we are in. He
pointed out that not all the ranges went up and that some actually decreased.
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Alderman James asked Treasurer Allen if there was one position listed that was of concern to
him. It was Mr. Allen's opinion that for the purposes of the City Administrator, there were some
fairly large communities that were substantially larger than Yorkville that at the time the survey
was taken, were not offering their top people that much. He said that he has had the opportunity
to talk to some people and that some questions were raised about the cities salaries.
Alderwoman Spears said that she kept in perspective the population and budget and felt that the
salary ranges for City Administrator and Executive Director were accurate.
Mr. Graff mentioned that one of the things the community has done over the last year is they have
updated all of the job descriptions and have brought them up to standard. That was not only by
Labor Law but also to bring them up to a professional standard.
Mrs. Pleckham pointed out that the one thing that was not in this report but was in the last report
was the Engineer Survey. She wanted to make sure that was also included to bring to COW. She
said that Geneva was included because there were actually very few towns she could find that had
a City Engineer, but that it did fall into the same ranges as what they found in the Engineer
Survey.
Mr. Graff said that one thing that was talked about at the Department Head meeting with the
Mayor was how to lead into the Salary schedule. He said that every year in the budget they give
some kind of COLA plus Merit for salary increases. One thing that was agreed upon is that last
year they did a 5% and this year they are looking to do the same. He is waiting for Bob Smith to
send the research for the most updated COLA rating.
Mayor Prochaska informed that one thing that they did last year was 3% and 2% because the
COLA was so high last year. He said that what he discussed with the Department heads was
going on what the Council had mentioned and that was going with a 1 'h — 2% for COLA and
then the remainder for merit. Last year everyone could get up to 5% and it was set. He suggested
that for this year if they are going to talk about a 5% adjustment COLA for all then the dollars
would go to pool for that department and then the Department Head would have stability. He felt
that that would help in reward again in merit. In other words someone could end up with a 6%
increase if someone ended up with less depending on how those dollars were divided. It would be
up to the Council as to what the minimum would be for the COLA increase. The evaluation
system is done through a point system.
Mr. Graff said it was difficult for the Department Head, before they did adjustments, that the 2
year period for the Salary Schedule were out of sync. The last time they did the adjustment it
worked out well with $30,000 for adjustment pool. The Department Heads tried to work it out
between themselves to try to equalize that. The reason for the adjustment is that they wouldn't
want a new employee to come in to be at the same level with an entry level person. That way the
entry people have some kind of seniority.
Alderman James felt that the Department Head should give some input but didn't think it should
ultimately rely on them because it could make for some hard feelings.
Mayor Prochaska disagreed with that. Mr. Dhuse added that that was the reason why he was
hired. He said that the scale make it fair and justifiable. Decisions are not based on a whim; there
is some accountability to it. Mayor Prochaska agreed and said that the accountability is there and
it is the Councils place to enact the policy. That is what we hired the staff to do and that is why it
is set up the way it is.
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Alderwoman Spears asked Bill Powell if he had any input. Mr. Powell commented that regarding
Mr. Graff and administering raises, that one problem that he ran into at his other job was being
the new guy he never had a chance to catch up. He thought that there ought to be a point in time
that a new employee, after 3 or 4 years, would be doing all the activities of the job and at that
point in time be at the average rate of salary. After that then adjustments for merits could be made
from that. He said it can be hard to dictate when you have a small pool of money, to justify an
equity increase. He said that at his former job they had tried to do this and what would happen is
that the amount of equity would end up being so small that the person would be behind his whole
career.
Mr. Graff said that once Bob Smith gets back to him on the Salary Survey then they can take a
closer look at it. If the consensus is that the total 5% then they will need to take a look at what the
COLA and merit will be. After that they would be able to send out a memo to the employees,
knowing that the Department Heads will verify it at the budget. In the past with this formula they
have seen the average would probably be around 4.23% — 4.5% would be the average for the
COLA and the raises with most employees in that range. An employee would have to score
superiorly in order to get 5 %. For budget purposes 5% is used. He also said that for budget
purposes when talking about salaries, that all merit and salaries are based upon everyone but the
Department Heads. He thought it might be a good idea for the committee members to talk about
that among themselves. He said a lot of cities do go into executive session specifically for the
employees and to talk about giving the authority to the Mayor to negotiate what ever percentages
used for that. Knowing this he thought that the committee might want to take a look of going into
executive session, possibly in April. The other component they would need to look at would the
fact that the 2 employees on employee agreements (Harold Martin, Chief of Police and Tony
Graff, City Administrator) would not get negotiated until after the election and can only go up to
the terms of the Mayor. He said that there are contingency dollars in the amount of $176,000 and
he said he felt comfortable working with the fate of that.
The committee recommends for this item to be sent to COW on March 18, 2003.
This item will go to COW on April 2, 2003.
NIU Tech Study
Mr. Graff said this was in regards to the proposal back in December from a consulting company
about coming in and doing the tech and strategic technology plan. We have 5 year plans for the
other capital but hadn't put anything together for hardware or software. Some people were
concerned about the company coming in and doing inventory and assessment some of the City's
needs. There was also talk of going on to RFP to see what kind of software that we want. He said
that when he was recently at a seminar at NIU, they said they were looking for community uses
that and that they would like to come in and do an assessment. They have a Masters program that
is overseen by their IT division at NIU. It would actually be their IT division that would come in
and do the assessment. They did come in and Mr. Graff met with them and the meeting went very
well. The cost for their services came to the amount of $7200; to come in and do the assessment
and also for developing a strategic plan and getting us to know where we are in our technology.
Mr. Graff felt it is a great program and felt it would be the answer to what they need. There is a
contract for it, and it does not need to be paid until the completion of the project. That gives us
the opportunity to pre -pay if the money is there or hold off until next fiscal year.
Alderwoman Spears asked why these services were needed. Mr. Graff said that it is to begin
developing our 5 -year Capital Plan for technology.
Page 10 of 15
Alderwoman Burd said that she was not impressed with their down -town study. She said that she
had spoken with Rodger Dahlstrom at the presentation and they said that they do not always have
the same people doing the surveying. She wondered if there was another entity that could do
assessment.
Mr. Graff said that they did have Smith Engineering who has a consulting division for technology
which was brought to the committee but member weren't comfortable with and felt they did not
have the expertise to go out for an RFP. He said we do have providers with their software
company that came in with our accounting, that are very good with giving their specifications, but
they lack the knowledge of what we might need for the over all picture. He said what they are
really looking for is a true integrated technology system. They need a plan for when they
integrate over to the library. He said he felt confident that NIU could do the job.
Mayor Prochaska pointed out that there are other schools that have these programs or there are
also some other technical schools that might be willing to do something like that also. He felt it
would be worth it to call them and ask if that kind of work.
Mr. Graff said that he could make a phone call to DePaul College and HT. He said that we have a
couple of HT professors that live in Yorkville. He said that one professor would like to actually
do a study about truck traffic. The universities do have great resources. He said that he would
contact the University Outreach Division and the other College to compare what services they
might be able to provide.
Mr. Graff will bring an update on this at the next meeting.
This item will be brought back to the next Administration meeting on April 10, 2003.
NEW BUSINESS
MFT Resolution — Fox Industrial Bond (Obligation Retirement Resolution)
Mrs. Pleckham said that this pertains to payment of bonds for the next calendar year. She said
they just need to do a term of resolution for them to for them to authorize the $75,000 to pay the
bond off.
This item will go to COW on March 18, 2003.
Internship Program — Summer City Intern
Mrs. Pleckham said that Bart Olson, who is participating in the Internship program, is very
interested in Public Administration. She thought it would be a good idea to get an internship
program back in track as it is a busy time and Mr. Olson is looking for the experience. She said
that they could always use the added help. Ms. Brown had drafted a program for Mr. Olson. That
way he could get experience in all the departments and help out with various projects that are
coming up. Mr. Olson's resume is attached to the packet.
Alderwoman Burd thought that the idea for the intern was great and thought that they should
support the idea. She said they need the young people that are coming into government and really
good for the City to do. Mr. Olson would get 4 hrs. of credit working through the internship.
Mr. Graff mentioned that a memo would be passed out shortly because the Police Department is
already signed up with an intern at Western Illinois. Chief Martin wasn't aware that it needed to
Page 11 of 15
first come to the Administration meeting for approval. He said that they should have a general
policy for the Internship Program. He said that he would ask about the policy of the Internship
Program.
Ms. Brown said that she felt the Administration Committee would have to think about the
Internship Program in terms of what they are paying for them and the equity. She said that some
times when you get into municipalities, stipends are done regardless of what area or department
you are in when internships are offered. Also they would need to consider the budget and how
many interns they want and what they are willing to pay.
Mr. Graff said that Western encouraged no pay.
Mrs. Pleckham pointed out that Mr. Olson would be full time and would receive the 40 hour
weekly stipend.
The committee agreed to approve this as long as it is in the budget.
This item will go to COW on March 13, 2003.
Health Insurance Update
Mr. Graff stated that for information purposes, we did get a renewal notice from Blue Cross/Blue
Shield. He said that they had put in a 17% increase across the board. Mrs. Pleckham provided
information on the different programs. Mr. Graff pointed out that they are looking at no higher
than 8% and the lowest is 2.2 %. He felt they came across very well this year because of the
increase in the employee base which spreads out our risk and liability insurance industry. He said
that they did search the market for another insurance plan but they haven't heard any response.
Alderwoman Spears asked if the plan offers doctors in the Kendall County area. Mr. Graff said
yes. He said that they should hear back from other insurance companies within a couple of weeks,
after they receive that they will make comparisons.
Wyndham Deerpoint and Wiseman - Hughes SSA - Resolution of Official Intent
Mr. Graff said that they hired attorney Chris Knight from Foley and Lardner and they met with
William Blair and associates. They are recommending since there are 2 different subdivisions
looking to use the SSA policy and apply for SSA funding that the first mechanism that needs to
be in place is the resolution of intent. He said that it was important because every dollar that is
spent on this, the developer basically spends in that they reimburse us. We can not apply for the
SSA with out having the resolution of intent. What they are doing now is crediting them to a
deposit as outside consultants, which means that they have been paying for the attorney to be
involved with it. He said that they are beginning to get into engineering and planning for the
approval for the SSA. They recommend that we pass a resolution of intent. Weismann Hughes is
looking at 10 million dollars, and Wyndham Deerpoint is looking for 28 million dollars.
Weismann Hughes is the Windett Ridge project at the south end with 280 homes, 9 acres of
commercial. Wyndham Deerpoint is at the Highlands which is 300 acres at the Deuchler farm. He
said that it is also for on site work. The developers are paying 3.3 million toward sanitary storage
and 40% for the water improvements on the project. That is not part of the SSA, they have to pay
that to us. That is what they had negotiated with the annexation agreement. There is language in
the memo that shows that there is no debt to the City, and that the City is not responsible for this
and that it is all developer risk. We are not obligated on any of the bonds they could be sold on
open market. The infrastructure that is on the sight is paid by the new people that move in when
it goes on their tax bill. Mr. Graff said that committee member will be receiving more paper work
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on the formalities of the SSA. Mrs. Pleckham sent out a memo that explained what the SSA
process and time line was. Mr. Graff said that this was the best tool recommended by all of the
finance institutions. It not only minimizes obligations to the City but to not have any obligations
to the City. New growth will pay for it itself.
This item will go to COW on March 13, 2003.
2003 Road Improvement Program Financing Option
Mr. Graff reported that Public Works loved this plan so that they have asked that the
Administration would fund it. He said that for that last 3 weeks they have been meeting. He said
the standards that are in the resurfacing and infrastructure of the roads, there is an amended report
that will say that all the roads will have a 20 year life span. They would be looking for a 20 year
finance option that does life span of the road. The average daily road with the average daily
traffic count will be 20 -25 year life spans. They are looking at 2.8 million dollars of work. There
will be a couple of more streets they will be looking at repairing in addition to the others.
Mrs. Pleckham recommends that they look at getting a balloon loan. Mrs.Pleckham and Kevin
McKenna will research the local market first and put up inquiries to local banks. It will be interest
only on a 4 -year balloon. At the end of the 4 years they will have the exact amount for the loan.
Then they would go for a refinance and look into locking it in a 15 -17 year notes. They would be
able to support the project and some of the new growth dollars could be identified and set aside,
during the 4 -year loan. Once they get more sales tax dollars, they will start setting them in a fund
for the debt service that is occurring for this. He said that it is a great financial program that they
have put together for the process. He said that by looking at the audits and reports that they feel
strongly that they fund this with current dollars.
Alderwoman Burd asked if the plan included curbs.
Mr. Graff said no, that they wanted to try and stick with the rural characteristics as they see in the
old areas of the community. Also if curbs and gutter are put in there is the risk of people losing
their trees and reconstruction of their lawns. He said that they need to let the public know of what
is to come. There will be storm water drains put in to manage the storm water, storm sewers and
some gutters. He said that the committee would be glad to do a neighborhood meeting and have
Smith Engineering come in and explain the process.
Alderwoman Burd said that would be good because some residents were displeased with the
current gutters.
Mr. Graff suggested having Smith Engineering come to the COW meeting on April 2, 2003 and
go over the maps of what streets are to be repaired and financing.
Mr. Allen voiced his opinion and said that he really felt that the city should not finance road
repairs. He thought that it would end up being a situation where the expenses, with being long
term, end up being substantially more. He had concerns because there would be maintenance
costs involved with some of the newer streets. He felt that the City should pay cash for the streets.
Mr. Graff pointed out that there has to be money there for repairs. He said he would be glad if
Mr. Allen could come up with a better plan of how to finance the road repairs with the current
dollars, and have it get done with in the next few years.
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Mr. Allen said that that would mean doing a re -haul of the budget and cutting back in the budget
in other areas. Alderwoman Spears asked how they would be able to pay for the roads. Mr. Allen
said with cash. Alderwoman Spears asked by what means he would come up with the cash for it.
He felt that the City should use the money that they have instead of paying a lot of money to
finance it.
The committee asked Mr. Allen to put together a plan for his means of trying to pay for the road
repairs with current cash and bring it to the committee. They asked for him to show them the
options and alternatives and where the cash would come from, with out raising taxes and
developed growth.
Mr.Powell said that with interests rates as low as they are, it would behoove the City to do more
than they would normally do, especially at this time. You will pay less interest over long term and
it brings in local labor and wages for a time when it is needed.
Mayor Prochaska said that one thing we do not want to be doing is taking out the road repair plan
more that 3 years, because if it is taken out longer than that, then the City will be back to where
they are now which is doing only 3 streets a year. Then the problem is that we are not getting
streets improved fast enough to the streets that are falling apart. He said we have to come up with
a way to get these streets done with in the next couple of years the streets are in too bad of shape.
Mr. Graff pointed out that the other thing they need to look at is that maintenance dollars are
being spent and since they are being spent we need to keep the roads up to some drivable
condition or interest rate dollars. He said that they have already explored all the options, and there
would have to be a drastic service cuts to be made to be able to afford this. The budget is 6
million dollars and out of that 6 million it is generally an operational budget. That is services the
citizens are paying for today. We have lowered our taxes and have new dollars coming in so that
residents would see a tax break. We would have to increase taxes in order to fund a project like
that, or we allow the new growth dollars to pay for the old roads. There are other issues here as
well such as health issues and home value issues, to take care of He said by evaluating Fox
Industrial Park, they found by making the repairs to the roads that they noticed an increase in
EA V, plus more buildings being built and more jobs coming to our community. By repairing the
roads, particularly in the old part of town, it will help stabilize the community. This council will
have to make a decision on that.
Alderwoman Burd said considering the roads in the old part of town, that she once mentioned
possibly doing something along the railroad tracks to spruce up the area around the park.
Mr. Graff said that it might be something to talk about with the railroad.
Mr. Graff said that if Mr. Allen could come up with an alternative plan for the funding of the road
repairs that he could bring it in next COW meeting on Tuesday.
This item will go to COW on March 18, 2003.
ADDITIONAL BUSINESS
Land Cash
Alderman James said that some questions came up at the last meeting about land cash. He said
that he feels that this will address exactly what they were asking about. He thought that when the
developers come in and there are Administration and Engineering Fees, etc., that they should look
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at the process that they have of keeping track of all those fees and to make sure the fees are all
coming in. He said that they should do a check on it to see if there are any gaps and we are certain
that we have collected all of the fees. Mr. Graff said that that is being done and there is spread
sheet that shows the fees that have been collected and he could bring the spread sheet in for
Alderman James. Mr. Graff said he felt comfortable with this process is being done but that at the
next meeting they will go over how this process is being done. They will go over how they collect
and how they track fees.
Springfield Trip
Alderwoman Burd said that she went to Springfield with Joyce Barrett and Stephanie Todd. She
said that Stephanie Todd wrote a full report on the Kendall County Jail and got the building
placed on the Illinois 10 most endangered building list. She said that it was a really impressive
presentation. They met other people who were involved in preservation programs who were
trying to save their own building in their communities. She said they left packets with some of the
legislators. She commented that Tom Cross's secretary told her to note him if anyone from
Kendall County came in. He told her he would try to see them and that he especially likes to
welcome visitors from Kendall County. She said the visit was to get emphasis on the saving of
the courthouse and to show validation to wanting to save it. They are hoping with the outside
acknowledgement and it being on the endangered list, that the county would take into
consideration trying to save it. She said she spoke with a gentleman who gave the presentation
and he would like to speak with the Mayor about trying to help Joyce Barrett and her group to
find funding for this. One thing they talked of was turning the jail into a county records building.
There are grants available for the city. The city might have better opportunity for funding because
of the new growth. She said that one thing that they will consider for next year is giving the City
an allotment of our $30,000 grant to this project as part of funding for it. She felt that if this is
such a worth while building, then that's what the grant should be for.
Mayor Prochaska pointed out that the Kendall County Jail would probably be eligible for the
Fagade program. Alderwoman Burd said she would appreciate any support she could get for this
project. She felt that the jail would be a benefit the city to see it renovated and saved because we
really do not have that many historical buildings in the area.
Music Under the Stars
Ms. Brown said that she had the entertainment schedule for Music Under the Stars and the
sponsorship packet for the Women's Golf Outing.
Mr. Graff said that they did receive the notice from the Tourism Bureau about Music Under the
Stars for the summer publication and that they were looking for all of the events for the City of
Yorkville. He said that the secretary e- mailed some of the organizations to them. He said they
need to forward as much as they can to them.
Investment Policy
Mr. Allen asked if the committee could have the investment policy on the next agenda. He
wanted to publish the policy for anyone in the public who would be interested it. He thought it
might be a chance to get some public input on it.
Mr. Graff pointed out that the Investment Policy was part of the Information Act. If anyone
wanted to get a copy of it they could. He said that copies of the packet are 50 cents.
Mayor Prochaska said that if anyone were to come and pick up the agenda then they could get
copy of it.
Page 15 of 15
NIU ASSESMENT OF GOVERNMENT SERVICES
Mr. Graff said that on April 4, 2003 NIU will be here to do the interviews from 9 a.m. until 4
p.m. of any of the public officials for the assessment of government services. If anyone can be
available for an interview, they can schedule them in, other wise they could reach them by phone.
There was no more additional business.
Meeting adjourned at 9:55.
Minutes by Theresa Brady
Revisions by Jackie Milschewski, City Clerk, per the Administration Committee.