CITY HALL, 100 LOCKVILLE ROAD
MONDAY,
NOVEMBER 6, 2006
REGULAR
MEETING
7:00
P.M.
1. ROLL CALL. Mr. Sabatino called the meeting to order at 7:00 P.M., with roll call as follows: Mr. Sabatino and Mr. Fix were present. Mrs. Riggs was absent. Others present were Judy Gilleland, Lynda Yartin, Keith Smith, Chief Taylor, and others.
2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF September 11, 2006, Regular Meeting. Mr. Fix moved to approve; Mr. Sabatino seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mr. Sabatino and Mr. Fix voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 2-0.
3. SCHEDULED MATTERS:
A. Review and discussion regarding Policy on Requests for Professional Services. Mr. Sabatino stated the Committee had received a draft policy prepared by the law director and a form for requesting such services. Mr. Sabatino stated he had spoken to the law director today and he indicated that at times there are multiple requests for the same information. Mr. Sabatino stated this could be caused by a lack of communication among council members. Mr. Fix stated the way it is structured today, any council member can request anything of any outside consultant and that consultant would be required to do it whether or not it made sense to the majority of council or that consultant. He continued he thought we were trying to give the consultants some direction, and to give council members some direction, as to what should be done automatically and what should be done with approval from the City Manager or Council. Ms Gilleland stated she felt the biggest issue is the expenditure of funds. She stated we need to make sure that the requests of council members do not cause the consultant to be billing us extra hours. Mr. Sabatino stated on that general principal he would probably concur with most of that, however, he felt we need to define exactly what our consultants are doing for their retainer and make sure that part of the contract deals with everything that is ordinary, usual, and routine and does not cause extra billing. He stated he did not feel this draft policy was quite there yet on those issues. Mr. Sabatino stated he agreed we should not spend a lot of money on issues that the entire council does not concur on, and therefore all council should be involved in any project that we are going to be spending above and beyond the usual customary expenditures from the very outset. Mr. Sabatino stated he felt the draft, as written, is a lot looser than it should be. Mr. Fix stated he agreed with Mr. Sabatino that the draft was too loose. He stated the policy refers to a request by a council member seeking assistance for a simple matter that was not expected to require “a significant amount of time” and he felt we need to define what a significant amount of time was. Further, if more attention is needed, who would determine that? The Consultant? The Council Member? The City Manager? He stated he felt that needed clarified, as well as defining what “significant work product or research” by the consultant consisted of. Mr. Sabatino stated he agreed with Mr. Fix that we need some thresholds rather than just general statements. Mr. Fix stated he also felt that needed to be tied back to the contracts that we do with our consultants so it is clear what is part of the retainer and what would constitute extra work. Mr. Sabatino stated he also felt that since both the engineer and law director were employees of council, the decision regarding extra work should remain with council. He stated this would leave the Manager out of a situation where she would be put in a difficult position. Mr. Fix stated he agreed with that as long as there was an expeditious way to get that done, such as an e-mail to council members stating they approved or not. He stated this would prevent something having to wait until the next scheduled meeting for a vote by council on something that would take a short time to complete. Mr. Sabatino stated he concurred with that. Mr. Fix stated the question then was what we need for our own staff. Mr. Sabatino stated he understood that a council member can ask an employee anything, however, they cannot direct them to do anything. He stated personally, when he has a need to ask a question, he contacts the Manager and she either tells him to contact the employee directly or she will get an answer and get back to him. Ms Gilleland stated that is essentially what Section 2 of the draft policy states. Ms Gilleland stated she would get with the law director and provide a revised policy for the next Rules Committee meeting to consider.
Ms Gilleland stated when items originate from the entire Council, and are then assigned to a Committee, then that would seem to be an automatic authority to have the consultant perform the work. Mr. Sabatino stated he felt that would be a more effective way of getting things to Committee. Ms Gilleland stated this would be better than a member of council coming up with an idea on the side and working on it a little bit, then taking it to Committee, then to Council, it seemed the more effective way would be to bring the idea up to Council to see how everyone felt about it, and then the work flowed from there. Mr. Sabatino stated this type of thing can be dealt with on the agenda, and Mr. Fix stated it could be done under “Other Business.”
4. CHAIRMAN: Mr. Sabatino stated he had nothing to bring forward this evening and Mrs. Riggs had not asked for him to discuss anything.
5. OTHER BUSINESS: Mrs. Yartin stated there would be a vacancy coming up on the Planning and Zoning Commission, and Rules Committee had interviewed some applicants for recent vacancies on other Boards and Commissions who had also indicated they would be interested in serving on Planning and Zoning. Mr. Fix stated when we advertised last time it did not specify a vacancy on Planning and Zoning so he felt we should advertise again just in case there was a resident who was specifically interested in that Commission, as well as considering the applicants who had already been interviewed. Mr. Sabatino stated he concurred with that and Mrs. Yartin stated she would place the ad and provide the Committee with all of the applications for the next meeting.
6. ADJOURNMENT. There being nothing further, Mr. Fix moved to adjourn; Mr. Sabatino seconded the motion. Mr. Fix and Mr. Sabatino voted "Aye." Motion carried, 2-0. The Rules Committee adjourned at 7:28 P.M., November 6, 2006.
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:
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