CITY
OF PICKERINGTON
FINANCE
COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL
CITY HALL, 100 LOCKVILLE ROAD
THURSDAY,
MARCH 16, 2006
REGULAR
MEETING
7:30
P.M.
1. ROLL CALL. Mr. Wisniewski called the meeting to order at 7:30 P.M., with roll call as follows: Mr. Wisniewski, Mr. Hackworth, Mr. Smith, and Mr. Fix were present. No members were absent. Others present were Judy Gilleland, Mr. Sabatino, Lynda Yartin, Linda Fersch, John McGory, and others.
2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF February 16, 2006, Regular Meeting. Mr. Fix moved to approve; Mr. Smith seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mr. Hackworth, Mr. Fix, Mr. Wisniewski, and Mr. Smith voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 4-0.
3. FINANCE DIRECTOR:
A. Review and request for motion to approve draft ordinance amending the 2006 appropriation, Ordinance 2005-98. Mr. Wisniewski stated the Committee had received a draft ordinance with the appropriation for the police officer. Mrs. Fersch stated it was determined that by the time this ordinance was passed, we would need approximately $47,000 and the Police Fund already had a higher balance than anticipated, so we need to transfer $35,000 for the police officer. She further stated under the Sewer Repair and Replacement, we had to pay the Norfolk Southern fee for going under the railroad for the D-Line, so she is requesting that $19,812.50 be appropriated to reimburse the area she had taken it from. Mr. Hackworth clarified this police officer was one of the officers on the contingency list. Mr. Wisniewski moved to approve and forward to Council; Mr. Fix seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mr. Wisniewski, Mr. Fix, Mr. Smith, and Mr. Hackworth voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 4-0.
B. Finance Director’s Report: Mrs. Fersch stated she had provided a report to the Committee and she would be happy to answer any questions. Ms Fersch stated the Insurance Committee is meeting to review options of health insurance as our agreement with the Consortium will expire at the end of September and we must determine what we want to do. Ms Fersch further stated she will be conducting a survey of the communities have left the Consortium to see what they are doing.
C. Review and request for motion to approve draft ordinance to amend Ordinance 2000-136 by adding City of Hilliard and city of Groveport as additional communities to contact in the event of a disaster recovery situation. Mrs. Fersch stated our current agreement is with Worthington, Lancaster, and Grove City, however, since we have updated our programs we have learned that Groveport and Hilliard are comparable to us. She stated we would like to amend the original legislation to include these two communities as locations to use in case of an emergency. Mr. Wisniewski inquired when the last time we tested our disaster recovery plan was. Mrs. Fersch stated we realize we need something more elaborate than we have, and she has Eric Vannatta working on updating our Disaster Plan with regard to the computers now. Mr. Fix moved to approve the draft ordinance adding these two communities for electronic disaster recovery; Mr. Smith seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mr. Wisniewski, Mr. Smith, Mr. Hackworth, and Mr. Fix voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 4-0.
D. Review and request for motion to approve draft ordinance authorizing the City Manager to enter into an agreement with Barbara Slaven for consulting services. Mr. Wisniewski stated this would be handled after the Executive Session.
E. Review and request for motion to approve a draft ordinance authorizing the City Manager to enter into an agreement with The McGory Group, LLC, for consulting services. Mr. Wisniewski stated this would also be handled after the Executive Session.
Ms Gilleland stated the Schottenstein contract requires that fee arrangements for additional projects, over and above our general legal, be negotiated and agreed upon by Schottenstein, the City Manager, and approved by Council manic action. She stated has their hourly rates for additional projects that they have been billing us for, and her question to Council is, is it the intention that you want the hourly rates or do you want an estimate through the year of what each issue is going to cost us? She stated the ordinance is not clear. Mr. Wisniewski stated he did not feel Council wanted to be approving every project. Mr. Sabatino stated he had requested this language be in the contract, and his intent was for Council to approve any and all special projects that there are. He stated it goes in line with the policy of looking at each individual engineering contract as a separate deal. Mr. Sabatino stated rather than giving carte blanche to Schottenstein this would give us the opportunity to maybe look at someone else. Mr. Fix stated he did not feel we wanted to be in the position to bid out legal fees when we have a contract with Schottenstein, and he did not know that any of Council was qualified to evaluate whether or not the time they put into any special project was appropriate or not. He stated further, if we needed to go through Finance Committee and then three readings at Council on every legal project they would have to do, that we would find ourselves getting into significant time crunches and having to do things by emergency. He stated he has a problem with that, and therefore, he felt if Council approved the hourly rates and left it to the judgment of the City Manager to make sure they are working on things that are appropriate might be what we should do. Mr. Hackworth stated he was not sure what special projects we are talking about. Ms Gilleland stated in addition to their monthly general fee right now, we are billed for Diley Road acquisition and litigation, Viola Park, the EPA issue at Ashton Crossing, the bus barn, the BIA, and annexation matters. Ms Gilleland stated the Diley Road acquisition was for the northern terminus so we should be phasing out of that. Mr. Sabatino stated when we get to the eminent domain proceedings on Diley Road, would those each be special projects or would it be included in the $15,000 monthly retainer. Ms Gilleland stated she felt they would be special projects because with a project that large there could be a lot of extra work involved. Mr. Sabatino then stated as he understood it then, the northern terminus eminent domain proceedings each was handled as a special project. Mr. Hackworth questioned if on the Diley Road project, in the people accepted our offer, would drawing up the new title and deed fall under our blanket coverage or would it be a special project. Ms Gilleland stated she was not sure, but she would find out about that. Ms Gilleland stated she would do whatever Council desired, she was just asking the question now so she would know how Council would like to handle it. Ms Gilleland further stated the hourly rates were included in the contract and they have further narrowed that down to partners being billed at $220 per hour, associates at $180, and paralegals at $110. Mr. Fix stated as he understood it, Ms Gilleland just wanted to know if Council wanted to approve the hourly rates or each project individually. He stated he felt we should approve the hourly rates and Mr. Sabatino was saying each project individually. Ms Gilleland stated it is difficult to estimate legal costs for the year. Mr. Sabatino stated that was his concern, he did not like just giving a blank check. Mr. Wisniewski stated that would be for the City Manager to decide. He stated if there is work that can be done by another legal firm, there is no reason she cannot go ahead and do that. Mr. Sabatino stated what we should be doing is trying to spend our legal expenses outside of our contract as judicially as possible. He stated he would not be in favor of giving a blank check to Schottenstein to bill us however many hours they want to at these rates. Mr. Wisniewski stated it was definitely up to the City Manager’s discretion as to who we use for legal services outside of our regular contract, and if we want to use Schottenstein then these are the hourly rates they will bill. Ms Gilleland stated she understood Mr. Sabatino’s concern was who was monitoring the legal bills, and hopefully that would be several people. Ms Gilleland stated further she has been providing the legal bills to Finance Committee, and Mr. Wisniewski stated he would request those be sent to all of Council. Ms Gilleland stated when Council sees the bills at the end of the month, if they had questions on it they can ask her about it. Mr. Sabatino stated he just wanted to be sure that somebody is looking at the bills. Mr. Wisniewski stated obviously Council cares, but we didn’t want to be going through a lot of appropriations and extra paperwork that is not necessary. He stated he felt it was the City Manager and Finance Director’s role to let Council know how the money is being spent. Mr. Wisniewski stated if we have the opportunity to use another outside firm, to get experience with them, then that was fine. Mr. Sabatino stated it was his thought that there might be things we need done that falls outside of our regular contract, but yet does not require the prestige that we pay for with Schottenstein, and could be done more cost effectively. Mr. Hackworth stated, for example, there may be other firms that we can use for negotiations with the FOP for their contract. Mr. Wisniewski stated then he understood that the Committee was comfortable with it being left up to the City Manager to decide on how the money that is already authorized by the budget for legal fees is being spent. He stated if Council sees something they do not agree with, then they can talk to the City Manager. Mr. Sabatino stated his concern was just with trying to get a reign on what we are spending, and if there is an opportunity to save some money to do so. Ms Gilleland stated then she will provide all of the legal bills to Council every month, and if Council has a question they can let her know. The Committee stated they agreed with that.
Mr. Wisniewski stated he had requested the vendors list and Mrs. Fersch stated she had that, but she did not bring it with her this evening. Mr. Wisniewski requested that be included in their packets and also that a review of the prior months vendor report be added as a standing agenda item on the Finance Committee agenda.
4. PERSONNEL DEPARTMENT:
A. New Employee Update. Mrs. Fersch we have hired two part-time Administrative Assistants for the Parks and Recreation Department. She stated both individuals bring a wealth of experience to the Department. Ms Gilleland stated with regard to the Staff Engineer position, we had a third interview with one candidate and we are working on scheduling a third interview with the second candidate. She stated they are both great candidates and she hoped we would have a decision within the next week.
5. DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT: Update.
A. Review and discussion regarding Cover TIF. Ms Gilleland stated she had wanted to have our TIF attorney present this evening. Ms Gilleland stated she has had some discussion with the developer that started out office and then went more retail than we cared for. She stated with the TIF they are proposing there is some office and then retail because the bottom line is the office will not pay for itself so they need to get the retail in there. She stated the property she is talking about is south of Kohl’s and adjacent to Kohl’s and adjacent to the three office buildings there owned by Zurovsky and Weiner. Mr. Hackworth stated he understood the right-of-way for the road had already been given to the City, and Ms Gilleland stated she would have to check into that. Ms Gilleland stated with this TIF they are requesting that the TIF funds pay them back for building the road that will provide access to the office buildings. Ms Gilleland stated the long-term plans for the road would be for it to ultimately come out at the light at Windmiller or the light at Fuller’s Way. Mr. Fix clarified that with the TIF we would be reimbursed for our up-front costs, and the City would get zero property tax income until the developer is paid back. Ms Gilleland stated we do not want to do this if it is just the retail, and we don’t want offices built if there is no market for them. Mr. Smith stated if there are going to be five office buildings it seemed good, and Mr. Hackworth stated the other point is that the developer is taking the risk. Ms Gilleland stated there are also some adjustments we are considering for the existing TIF at Kohl’s that will make this even more appealing for the schools. Ms Gilleland stated she would like to have our TIF attorney to come to the next meeting to talk more about this issue.
Mr. McGory provided a draft copy of the Small Business Development Guide he has been working on with the Planning and Zoning and Building Departments. He stated they hoped to have it finalized very shortly.
6. CHAIRMAN: Mr. Wisniewski stated he had nothing to bring forward this evening.
7. OTHER BUSINESS: No other business was brought forward.
8. MOTIONS:
A. Motion for Executive Session under Section 121.11(G)(1)(b), Matters involving an employee’s or public official’s employment, Section 121.22(G)(2), Purchase or sale of public property, Section 121.22(G)(3), Conference with law director regarding pending or imminent court action, and Section 121.22(G)(4), Matters involving bargaining sessions with public employees. Mr. Wisniewski moved for an Executive Session under Section 121.11(G)(1)(b), Matters involving an employee’s or public official’s appointment, and Section 121.22(G)(2), Purchase or sale of public property; Section 121.22(G)(3), Conference with law director regarding pending or imminent court action; Mr. Fix seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mr. Hackworth, Mr. Fix, Mr. Smith, and Mr. Wisniewski voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 4-0.
Finance Committee went into Executive Session at 8:35 P.M. and reconvened in open session at 9:50 P.M.
Mr. Fix moved to approve and forward to Council the legislation authorizing the City Manager to execute an agreement with The McGory Group for consulting services regarding economic development within the City of Pickerington; Mr. Smith seconded the motion. Mr. Hackworth stated he felt we needed to protect our borders and work out something with the Township to work out their issues and find a way we can continue to grow and not box ourselves in. Mr. Fix stated he would like to have a work session or something scheduled so all of Council can receive a briefing on JEDDs and what we can do with them and what would be the right thing for the City. Ms Gilleland stated she would get a work session scheduled for just before the next Council meeting. Roll call was taken with Mr. Smith, Mr. Fix, Mr. Wisniewski, and Mr. Hackworth voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 4-0.
Mr. Wisniewski moved to approve and forward to Council the legislation authorizing the City Manager to execute an agreement with Barbara Slaven for consulting services regarding media relations and public information; Mr. Fix seconded the motion. Mr. Hackworth clarified the contract will be amended to reflect that the monthly column will not be attributed to nor authored by any elected official. Roll call was taken with Mr. Smith, Mr. Wisniewski, Mr. Fix, and Mr. Hackworth voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 4-0.
Ms Gilleland stated the City of Lancaster provides prosecution services for us for Municipal Court in Lancaster and last year they began charging us for those services. She stated we could contract out for these services, however, it makes more sense to use their prosecutors, their clerks, their system, etc. She stated last year we paid them $24,900 and this year they increased the fee to $35,000. She stated we did negotiate that amount down to $24,900, however, in 2007 they will be asking for an increase. Ms Gilleland stated she planned on signing and returning this contract unless there were any issues from Council. Mr. Hackworth ascertained they have been doing a very good job for us and we have had no problems.
9. ADJOURNMENT. There being nothing further, Mr. Fix moved to adjourn; Mr. Smith seconded the motion. Mr. Hackworth, Mr. Smith, Mr. Fix, and Mr. Wisniewski voted "Aye." Motion carried, 4-0. The Finance Committee adjourned at 10:10 P.M., March 16, 2006.
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:
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