PICKERINGTON CITY COUNCIL
CITY HALL, 100 LOCKVILLE ROAD
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2007
COUNCIL BUDGET
WORK SESSION
6:30 P.M.
1. CALL TO ORDER: Mrs. Hammond opened the Council Budget Work
Session at 6:30 P.M., with the following council members present: Mr. Fix, Mr. Hackworth, Mrs. Hammond, Mr.
Sabatino, and Mr. Wisniewski. Mrs. Riggs
was absent due to a work obligation and Mr. Smith was absent due to the death
of his mother. Others present were: Judy Gilleland, Lynda Yartin, Linda Fersch,
Chris Schornack, Ed Drobina, Tim Hansley, and others.
2. SCHEDULED
MATTERS:
A. Review and discussion regarding proposed
2008 budget. Mrs. Hammond stated the
review would begin with General Government.
Mr. Hansley stated with regard to the paratransit subsidy the goal is to
spend less than the amount in the budget.
Mrs. Hammond stated she would recommend we form a task force to
investigate the use of the van and provide a recommendation to council
regarding continuing this funding. Mr.
Sabatino stated he understood that Parks & Recreation has partnered with
the Olde Pickerington Village Business Association and he would rather see that
than to just give the Association funds.
Ms Gilleland stated it is important to support the historic downtown
area and she had increased it by five percent this year. Mr. Fix stated he felt there should not be an
increase and Mr. Sabatino stated he concurred.
Ms Gilleland stated if all of Council concurred she would decrease that
amount in the budget. It was also
determined to decrease the Violet Festival funding to $12,500. Mr. Fix clarified the $100,000 under the
Development Code Update was removed and should be deleted from the budget. Mr. Wisniewski clarified the Violet Township
annexation agreement was for an agreement on the Spring Creek property that we
would reimburse the Township the road and bridge levy and what they lost in
motor vehicle taxes. Mrs. Fersch stated
she had questioned if this agreement had an expiration date, however, our law
director has indicated it is ongoing.
Mrs. Fersch stated she would ask the law director to look at this once
again.
Ms
Gilleland reviewed the legal department budget and there were no changes or
corrections.
The Budget Work Session recessed at 7:25 P.M.
and reconvened in open session at 7:55 P.M.
Mrs.
Hammond stated the review would resume with the Engineering budget. Ms Gilleland stated the original engineering
budget included an employee only and did not include extra money for retainers
or anything. She stated that has since
been refigured to allow Council to have some options. Ms Gilleland stated Council can continue the
current consultant’s contract or hire a city engineer. She stated a decision did not need to be made
tonight on how to fill the position; she just wanted to introduce the figures
so everyone would have the information.
Mr.
Schornack reviewed the expenditures to date for engineering services and stated
on the form he had presented to Council, the yellow highlighted items are
considered to be engineering Category B expenditures. Ms Gilleland stated she had provided a memo
showing what she felt could be performed by an in-house engineer. Mr. Sabatino stated we have a staff engineer
and couldn’t that person do a lot of these things. Ms Gilleland stated the staff engineer had
done a lot of the items.
Mr.
Sabatino stated when we hired our law director we went with a law firm so we
would be able to have well-rounded resources available from a single
source. He stated there was no one
engineer that would be able to do what is required any more than there would be
one attorney that could do everything.
He stated he was of the opinion that we should continue with things the
way we have for this next year and about July 1st start looking at
how we want to handle it going forward.
He stated to propose such a dramatic change at this point in time, with
a new dynamic on council and a new Mayor coming in, would be looking for
trouble. Ms Gilleland stated she agreed
that nothing would happen the first of the year; it was just her thought to
have Council start thinking about it and be able to look at the options. Ms Gilleland stated in terms of consistency,
she felt it was a valid argument that we needed a large law firm, however, she
felt this is one area you do not need consistent thinking. Mr. Fix stated this is not something that
will be decided this evening and he would suggest this be put on the agenda for
either Finance or Service Committee in January and they can work on it and make
a recommendation to all of Council. Mr.
Wisniewski stated he agreed and he would rather leave it as is in the budget
for next year and deal with it at the Committee. Ms Gilleland stated she felt this should be
considered by Finance Committee and she would ensure it was placed on the
Finance agenda for their first meeting in January. Mr. Hackworth clarified that the staff
engineer cannot sign off on some things that the City engineer can. Ms Gilleland stated that the expenditures to
Stilson have gone down over the years because of our staff engineer doing a lot
of the work. Mr. Drobina stated the
staff engineer did the specs for the water tower, she did the specs for the
sewer cleaning, she meets with developers and attends all of the
preconstruction meetings with developers, she attends committees, she put
together the antidegradation for the wastewater plant, she is there every day
for residents, developer phone calls, customer service, she supervises the
inspectors, etc. Mr. Fix stated he felt
it would be helpful if Council could get the information that would identify
the significant projects the staff engineer has worked on that if we had to put
out to an outside engineer would have cost us more money. Mr. Hackworth clarified that having the staff
engineer has significantly reduced the Category B services from Stilson. Mrs. Hammond stated it was agreed that
Finance Committee would look into the City Engineer issue, however; in the
meantime the engineering department’s budget would remain as it was in
2007.
Mrs.
Hammond stated that completed the review of the budget. Mr. Hackworth clarified that the
Administrative Assistant for the Mayor was not a new position, it has always
been included in the Pay Plan and Authorized Strength, it has just not been
funded. Mrs. Fersch stated she does need
to make the note in the Pay Plan that the position will be part time.
Mrs.
Fersch stated she would make the appropriate revisions to the budget and
forward the completed document to Council prior to the next Council meeting.
3. ADJOURNMENT. There being nothing further, the Council
Budget Work Session closed at 8:45 P.M., November 29, 2007.
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:
______________________________
Lynda D. Yartin, Municipal Clerk
ATTEST:
_____________________________________________
Cristie Hammond, Council Vice President Pro
Tempore