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Administration Minutes 2010 01-21-10 APPROVED W/ CORRECTIONS 2/18/10 UNITED CITY OF YORKVILLE 800 Game Farm Road Yorkville, IL 60560 ADMINISTRATION COMMITTEE MEETING City Hall, Conference Room Thursday, January 21, 2010 – 6:00 P.M. PRESENT: Chairperson Robyn Sutcliff Valerie Burd - Mayor Diane Teeling – Alderman Bart Olson – City Administrator George Gilson – Alderman Gary Golinski - Alderman Susan Mika – Finance Director Wm Powell – Treasurer Charlie Graff – IT Specialist PRESENTATIONS: NONE The meeting was called to order @ 6:00p.m. MINUTES FOR CORRECTION/APPROVAL: The minutes for September 28, 2009 were not part of the handout packets therefore will be pushed to next month for review. NEW BUSINESS: 1.ADM 2010-01 Monthly Budget Report for November & December 2009 Susan Mika and Bart Olson worked on the budget together and modified the format. Bart gave a brief explanation of the budget report. He mentioned about an added benefit was the preview current thoughts on a revised budget. He hopes to present more next month and if there are policy options that need to be made we can discuss it then. Bart asked for any comments or questions. Gary Golinski had a general question. How short are we going to fall on the budget at the end of the year? Bart replied our moving target number which fluctuates from day to day is less than $100K. Bart also mentioned they’ve talked to Dept. Heads about cuts. Mayor Burd stated this includes things that have already been identified at the beginning of the fiscal year and they were already addressed from previous cuts. Alderman Gilson asked about more information on Employee Health Insurance Contribution. Susan explained about employee contribution by the selection type of the employee; from single to family coverage. He also asked how many building permits we anticipate. Bart replied 10 Single Family Permits, a couple of Commercial Permits. Alderman Gilson doesn’t feel we should be depending on anticipated building permits to pay our bills. He would like a list of building permits that we base the $200K number off of. Alderman Gilson also asked about several more line items; Legal Services, Dues for IML, Car Allowance, Bad Debt, 1 Park & Rec Loan, News Letters, Land Cash Budget which were answered by Susan Mika and Bart Olson. Bart also talked about the increase in membership at the Rec Center which was more than budgeted. 2.ADM 2010-02 Discussion on Adding Senior Services Donation to Water Bills Chairperson Sutcliff mentioned that Senior Services is really hurting right now and wanted to add a line to the bottom of the water bill asking the residents for a donation. Alderman Golinski said this is something we talked about before. He said where do we draw the line. There a lot of good causes out there; United Way, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Donations for Haiti. He’s against using staff resources at collecting donations. He also mentioned later that he is not dead set against it. Mayor Burd said the City use to give money to these organizations. One Criteria would be by serving only the Yorkville population. All of these other organizations, even though they are worthy, they are not providing a life service to someone that is in dire need of food or clothing. We did it last year when we asked for donations to the food pantry. Chairperson Sutcliff asked Susan Mika what kind of strain does that put on admin to collect and track the money. Susan said it is minimal. She just adds a line item to the water billing account. Once we are done collecting the funds, we simply issue a check request and submit it. Alderman Gilson asked do we have any idea for administrative costs. He said if it’s not a high costs, why not. Susan Mika estimated approximately an hour of the employee’s time. Alderman Teeling doesn’t have a problem with it. This item will go to council for discussion. 3.ADM 2010-03 Phone Service Recommendation Susan Mika mentioned we can save money by switching our phone service. It will rd still be AT&T, but bought through a 3 party; Call One. She said AT&T gave an offer but it is not as significant as Call One. In order to make the change we need approval from the committee so we can take on to City Council for further approval. Charlie Graff gave a detailed description. It will still be AT&T phone lines and service, but Call One will be the major liaison between the City and AT&T. Call One has agreements with AT&T to negotiate better rates. The total savings per month from Call One’s analysis is approximately $1,400 a month. Charlie said could fluctuate from month to month because it is based on usage and estimates savings could be $1,200 - $1,400 a month. It doesn’t cost the City anything to make the switch, but we would have to sign a 3 year contract where we wouldn’t change the level of service. 2 Alderman Gilson has a few questions. Is the service we have now based on a flat rate? Charlie said the rates are contracted. Charlie also mentioned the large portion of our savings is actually line charges and not per minute charges. Alderman Gilson asked if they offer a plan based on a set of minutes. Susan Mika said they don’t offer plans to government. Alderman Gilson also inquired about why we would be exempt from taxes to Call One and not AT&T. Charlie said he doesn’t know if it’s just because or if it’s in the contract. He also said it was kind of difficult to understand the way the Call One Rep explained it. Alderman Gilson asked if we were locked into the current rates now. Susan & Charlie said we are not, but if we wanted to sign a new contract with AT&T we would be. Charlie did re-tract; he said we are under contract for the long distance service with AT&T. We would have to cancel that service, but we would recoup the cost of cancellation after one month of service with Call One. Alderman Gilson is against to locking in to a 3 year contract. Alderman Golinski asked if there’s an out clause. Charlie said he doesn’t know exactly. He would have to look at the contract. Alderman Gilson would like to see the proposed contract. Susan Mika asked if you want to take it a step further, she can have the rep from Call One come in to the City Council meeting. Alderman Gilson asked how soon do we want to make a decision on this. Charlie said sooner rather than later because of the savings we can incur. Alderman Gilson would also like to see the offer from AT&T. He also said that rates are going down. For us to lock into a 3 year, you have to look 3 year. Rates are going down, but he doesn’t know if that will all work out in the end. Charlie agrees that the rates are going down, but are they going to go down 30%. We are offered a significant saving for now and the future. This item will move forward to consent. 4.ADM 2010-04 Review of Committee Liaisons All OK. OLD BUSINESS: 1.ADM 2009-59 FY 09/10 Budget Update Bart Olson said we kind of touched on some of the line items in the budget. This gave us a chance to talk about where we are with the budget and the fact that this will come back next month. Our preference is that there are no policy decisions to be made. Alderman Golinski had a comment on budget revisions. The auditor mentioned it is not common practice to do budget revision. Bart Olson said he is of the opinion that it is common practice, but the auditor may have more knowledge on the subject. Wm Powell’s personal opinion is that we don’t revise the budget, but the constant review is a good thing. 2.ADM 2009-43 Discussion on Amending City’s Ethics Ordinance Bart Olson said there is nothing more to report on this. He talked to Eric Weis on this after the packet went out and Eric said he didn’t expect to hear from the Attorney General for another month. 3 ADDITIONAL BUSINESS: 1.Alderman Golinski asked for the discussion at the next Admin Committee Meeting on choice of auditors. Susan Mika said we currently in the middle of a 4 or 5 year contract. Alderman Golinski then said then we don’t need to have a discussion. 2.Chairperson Sutcliff brought up the meeting schedule. We are going to keep rd the schedule the way it is. The 3 Thursday of the month. 3.Chairperson Sutcliff also brought up the idea for a discussion on an amusement tax. She would like to take a look at it. Mayor Burd says we don’t have an amusement tax. ADJOURNMENT OF THE ADMINISTRATION COMMITTEE MEETING: With no further business to discuss, the meeting adjourned at 7:37 p.m. Minutes respectfully submitted by Tim Dlugopolski 4