THURSDAY, MAY 17, 2007

FINANCE COMMITTEE WORK SESSION

7:00 P.M.

1. CALL TO ORDER. Mr. Smith opened the Finance Committee Work Session at 7:00 P.M., with the following members present: Mr. Sabatino, Mrs. Hammond, Mr. Smith, and Mr. Fix. No members were absent. Others present were: Judy Gilleland, Lynda Yartin, and others.

2. SCHEDULED MATTERS:

A. Coordination of Council and Committee agendas:

Mr. Smith stated he had promised the Mayor that he would assign Rules Committee an item to be integrated into the agenda. Mr. Smith stated there was a huge discussion at the last Council meeting regarding impact fees, and the Mayor expressed his reluctance to support the exemption of the impact fees that are before Council. Mr. Smith stated Finance Committee reviewed Mr. Hansley’s guideline of a million dollar payroll, with payback to the City within three years. He stated the Mayor would like to see if it would make sense to codify those guidelines as part of the impact fee ordinance and he was requesting Rules Committee review this issue. Mr. Smith stated this assignment did not come with a direction of when this must be accomplished as he was aware Rules Committee was working on the update of the Administrative Code.

Mr. Fix stated Rules Committee completed their review of the Administrative Code at their last meeting and they should have a draft ordinance with all of the changes for a final review at their June meeting. He stated the intention is to schedule a work session of Council prior to a Council meeting in July for discussion by all of Council. Mr. Smith ascertained all of Council will receive a draft of the proposed revised Administrative Code prior to the work session so they will have the opportunity to review it in advance. Mr. Fix stated after the review by Council, if the document is ready, it will be sent to Council at the first meeting in August. Mr. Fix stated Rules Committee still has intentions to tackle the Charter review, and work on the strategic plan with staff if that is possible.

Mrs. Hammond stated Service Committee is continuing to work on the wastewater treatment plant project. She stated with the wastewater treatment plant and the Diley Road project she does not want to add any new major items to the agenda at this time. Mrs. Hammond stated Planning and Zoning will be reviewing the issue of outdoor patios that several businesses are requesting because we want to ensure that there is still access to the establishments and that litter is controlled in those areas.

Mr. Sabatino stated at the last meeting some parents had addressed the Committee about some issues at the high school and Chief Taylor will be looking into that and reporting back to Safety Committee. He stated further he has requested a Community Comment section be added to the Safety agenda so residents can address the Committee. Mr. Sabatino stated further he will be adding a section to the agenda to discuss safety concerns in the community that anyone might have that falls outside the Community Comment area.

Mr. Smith stated at Finance Committee this evening an appropriation for $4,000 has been included in the appropriation requests to match the amount the Township has appropriated for the Pisgah Cemetery project. Mrs. Hammond inquired if we could include funds in the budget for requests of this nature. Ms Gilleland stated it is not unusual for the City to have a contingency fund for small items such as this. She stated, however, this is time sensitive and the cemetery is City property so she thought it would be a good way to capitalize on the work that is being done.

B. Coordination of Committee activities. Mr. Smith stated further the Council Work Session on Communications has been rescheduled for June 5^th. He stated he and Mr. Dunlap met last week with Helen Male, of the Chamber of Commerce, to talk about newspaper coverage and communications in the business context and he hoped to have more information on this at the next Finance Work Session. He stated he would also like a work session before the first meeting in August to discuss another item off of the retreat agenda. Mr. Sabatino inquired how the City would interface with the Chamber on the business communication issue, and Mr. Smith stated the City and the Township would be sources of information that could be shared with our residents. He stated, again, he did not know what direction this discussion would take and hopefully he would have more information by next month.

3. ADJOURNMENT. There being nothing further, Mr. Smith closed the work session at 7:28 P.M., May 17, 2007.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:

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Lynda D. Yartin, Municipal Clerk