FINANCE COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL

                                               CITY HALL, 100 LOCKVILLE ROAD

                                                      THURSDAY, JUNE 15, 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. Fix, and Mr. Smith were present.  No members were absent.  Others present were Judy Gilleland, Cristie Hammond, Mike Sabatino, Lynda Yartin, Linda Fersch, Chris Schornack, Ed Drobina, Bob Cramer, Rick Palsgrove, Terry Walburn, Sean Casey, and others.

 

2.         APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF MAY 18, 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.  

 

Mr. Wisniewski stated Ms Gilleland had prepared a presentation regarding the information the Utility Fees Review Committee had been reviewing. 

 

Ms Gilleland presented a power point presentation (Attachment 1 to these minutes).  Ms Gilleland stated no action was requested of the Committee this evening; she was just presenting all of the information for the Committee to review and stated she would like any feedback from Council members. 

 

The Finance Committee recessed at 8:55 P.M., and reconvened in open session at 9:05 P.M.

 

3.         FINANCE DIRECTOR:

 

            A.        Review and request for motion to approve draft ordinance amending the 2006 appropriation, Ordinance 2005-98.    Mrs. Fersch stated the Committee had received a draft appropriation ordinance to increase the General Fund by $22,000 to help pay for the Economic Development Director.  Mr. Fix moved to approve and forward to Council; Mr. Wisniewski 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. 

 

            (1)        Impact Fee Report.  Mrs. Fersch stated a report had been distributed to the Committee showing through May we have collected $503,378. 

 

            (2)        Investment Report.  Mrs. Fersch stated rates are expected to raise in the next few weeks so we are still doing some short-term investments. 

 

            (3)        Review of Vendor Report.  Mrs. Fersch stated the report had been provided to the Committee and she would be happy to answer any questions.  

 

            (4)        Health Insurance Update.  Ms Fersch stated we will be at the end of our three-year commitment with the consortium in September, and if we do not decide to leave the consortium this year we will have another three-year commitment.  Ms Fersch stated currently, the employee’s insurance review committee feels the recommendation should be to leave the consortium.  Ms Fersch stated at the next Finance Committee meeting the insurance broker we have been working with will present the quotes he has received.  She stated we must decide by September 1st if we are going to leave the consortium so we can give them the required notice. 

 

4.         PERSONNEL DEPARTMENT: 

 

            A.        New Employee Update.  Mrs. Fersch stated interviews have been taking place for the part-time Deputy Municipal Clerk and we will be advertising for a Finance Clerk in the next couple of weeks.  Mrs. Fersch further stated the Economic Development Director position has also been filled. 

 

                        Mrs. Fersch stated she had also provided the Committee with a draft amendment to the Pay Plan and Authorized Strength.  She stated because the Finance Clerk will assist with payroll it was determined the high end of the pay range was to low, so she was requesting to increase it from $13.46 to $14.50 per hour.  Ms Gilleland stated further starting pay for the Development Director tops out at $25.00 per hour and she would like to increase it to $28.85.  Mr. Fix clarified the position is not paid hourly, that is just the way our Pay Plan is set up.  Mr. Hackworth clarified this position has been vacant since Ms Crotty resigned.  Mr. Wisniewski moved to forward an ordinance to amend the Pay Plan and Authorized Strength to Council reflecting these two changes; Mr. Fix seconded the motion.  Roll call was taken with Mr. Wisniewski, Mr. Smith, Mr. Hackworth, and Mr. Fix voting “Yea.”  Motion passed, 4-0. 

 

5.         DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT:  Update.  Ms Gilleland stated there was no update this evening.  She stated the Committee had received a summary report from The McGory Group on their activities as well as a New Development report. 

 

6.         CHAIRMAN:    Mr. Wisniewski stated he would like to request everyone consider the possibility of the City awarding two scholarships of $1,000 each to City residents who are pursuing higher education in either science or math since those are the areas where we have a lot of need in this country.  He stated he was just asking that people think about this and provide some feedback to him regarding the pros and cons of such a program.      

           

7.         OTHER BUSINESS:  Mr. Wisniewski stated Mr. Fix had some information regarding a Memorandum of Understanding with Violet Township and Canal Winchester.  Mr. Fix stated he has been working with the group that includes representatives from the City, the Township, Canal Winchester, and Mike Arcari and John McGory who serve all three entities in a development capacity.  Mr. Fix stated initially they had addressed the possibility of Pickerington to enter the existing CEDA between Violet Township and Canal Winchester, trying to come up with a short term agreement on land that looks like it is going to be prime for development in our immediate vicinity, and creating a development area that will extend down to the Route 33 corridor from Route 270 down to Lancaster and include all the various governmental entities that would touch.  Mr. Fix stated it became clear that there was not a desire on the part of Violet Township and Canal for the City to join an existing agreement that has been in place for about five years.  He stated further the cost for us to do that would be more than he felt Council would be willing to pay.  Mr. Fix stated after lengthy discussion it was determined that issue would be removed from discussion.  He stated the group than began discussing a joint economic development effort.  He stated Mr. McGory and Mr. Arcari had spent a couple of months putting together a report on the land that can be developed or should be developed, where it is located, what could be developed, etc., and he had provided that report to the Committee this evening.  Mr. Fix continued there are some primary areas indicated where we should see some significant commercial development in the next 20 years.  Mr. Fix stated he had requested, as a starting point, a draft Memorandum of Understanding be prepared that he could bring to the City to discuss, and the other entities could discuss as well.  He stated he had received the first draft of that and he had provided it to the Committee this evening.  Mr. Fix stated he would like feedback on the Memorandum of Understanding so he could take that back to the next meeting.  Mr. Smith stated this memorandum only agreed to work together, we were not obligating to anything other than establishing a working relationship.  Mr. Wisniewski stated, however, it did mean to a certain extent we would be expending time and money working on these things.  Mr. Wisniewski stated he does have a concern as to what our priority projects are, and where we should be spending the majority of our time.  He stated he did have a concern about this MOU when we do not have a clear direction or plan as to what we want to do or where we want to be in the future.  Mr. Wisniewski stated he agreed there were instances where it made sense to work with the other entities, however, there are also situations where we should be working on our own.  Mr. Sabatino stated he felt both Mr. Wisniewski and Mr. Fix had good points, and Council should take the extra time to discuss and determine what we want before we begin negotiating with other entities.  He stated our representative would then know he had the support of Council going into the negotiations.  Mr. Wisniewski stated he felt the reference to a joint parks and recreation district and the statement regarding any other issues decided by the joint working group.  Mr. Wisniewski stated he felt we should focus our attention on what we actually want to do.   Mr. Hackworth stated he felt there were a lot of issues included in this document that we have already dealt with, such as the Transportation Thoroughfare Plan, and we coordinated with the Township when we did that plan.  Mr. Fix stated these questions were why he had requested discussion so he would know what issues to take back to the group.  Mr. Sabatino stated he agreed Council needed to have this discussion and determine where they want to go with it.  Mr. Sabatino further stated he felt Council needed to discuss it create the collective vision that our representative could present to the working group.  He stated he felt the basic idea has merit, but Council needs to determine what direction we want to go in.  Mr. Sabatino stated he felt we should schedule a work session for all of Council, not just a Committee, and it should be structured so that the appropriate decisions could be made.  Mr. Wisniewski stated if everyone concurred we could schedule a Council Work Session at 7:00 P.M., just prior to the next Council meeting.  Mr. Wisniewski stated his question would be if there were any other models where two cities and a township have successfully formed a CEDA, JEDD, or anything else.  Mrs. Hammond stated she was aware of one and it has not been in effect very long.  She stated she knew that the agreement was very long and convoluted and she was not sure we were ready for that.  Mrs. Hammond stated further she felt a budget needed to be set on what we would spend on these JEDDs and CEDAs.  Mr. Wisniewski inquired if this would replace the JEDD talks with just the Township alone, and Mr. Fix stated he did not know.  Mrs. Hammond stated it was very frustrating because we don’t seem to follow any order in doing these things.  Ms Gilleland stated Mrs. Hammond was correct; we are most definitely in a reactive mode.  She stated with JEDDs, however, you can only absorb commercial properties.  Mr. Fix stated the point of what he had distributed tonight was to try to put together a long-range plan and put together a cooperative environment where we are not reacting to things, but actually have a plan, a marketing program, a real understanding of what is going to happen in each of these areas and how all three entities would mutually benefit from it.  Mr. Sabatino stated he still felt all of Council needs to have a dialogue before any discussions with other entities so that our representative will know what we feel will serve our best interests.   Mr. Wisniewski stated he felt the draft presented this evening was to generic in nature and a work session where everyone can discuss it would be appropriate.  Mr. Wisniewski stated Finance Committee would request a Council Work Session be scheduled for June 20, 2006, at 7:00 P.M. for open discussion on the Memorandum of Understanding between the City of Pickerington, Violet Township, and Canal Winchester. 

 

Mr. Sabatino stated he agreed with Mr. Hackworth and Mr. Wisniewski that until Council knew the specifics, they did not know if it were in the best interests of the City or not.  Mr. Fix stated he was looking to see if cooperative economic development is something they are interested in doing.  Mr. Wisniewski stated, as he understood it, the issue was if we agreed in the concept of forming joint economic development areas with Canal Winchester and the Township.  Mr. Wisniewski stated he did agree with it if we were talking about the area along U.S. 33.  Mr. Wisniewski stated he felt we needed to focus on this one point.  Mr. Hackworth stated he agreed with the concept although he felt it should remain focused on this specific area. 

 

Mr. Smith stated as he understood it, this would establish a formal working relationship specifically targeted to this specific area.  Mr. Wisniewski stated he would like to see something included in the document as to how the task force would communicate and keep the various government entities up to date on what was happening. 

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 stated no executive session was necessary this evening. 

 

9.         ADJOURNMENT.  There being nothing further, Mr. Wisniewski moved to adjourn; Mr. Fix seconded the motion.  Mr. Hackworth, Mr. Fix, Mr. Smith, and Mr. Wisniewski voted "Aye."  Motion carried, 4-0.  The Finance Committee adjourned at 10:05 P.M., June 15, 2006.

 

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:

 

 

________________________________

Lynda D. Yartin, Municipal Clerk