CITY HALL, 100 LOCKVILLE ROAD
WEDNESDAY,
AUGUST 6, 2008
REGULAR
MEETING
7:00
P.M.
1. ROLL CALL. Mr. Fix called the meeting to order at 7:00 P.M., with roll call as follows: Mr. Sabatino, Mr. Fix, and Mr. Smith were present. No members were absent. Others present were Mayor O’Brien, Cristie Hammond, Tim Hansley, Lynda Yartin, Phil Hartmann, Ed Drobina, Brenda VanCleave, Mike McKinley, and others.
2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF June 4, 2008, Regular Meeting. Mr. Sabatino moved to approve; Mr. Smith seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mr. Smith, Mr. Sabatino, and Mr. Fix voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 3-0.
3. SCHEDULED MATTERS:
A. Review and request for motion to approve draft resolution appointing an individual to the Planning and Zoning Commission. Mr. Fix stated he would like to comment that the Rules Committee members were very impressed with the candidates interviewed for this vacancy. Mr. Sabatino moved to recommend Council appoint Paula Evans to the Planning and Zoning Commission; Mr. Smith seconded the motion. Mr. Sabatino stated it was a difficult decision as they had interviewed a lot of qualified individuals. Roll call was taken with Mr. Fix, Mr. Sabatino, and Mr. Smith voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 3-0.
B. Review of draft Charter revisions. Mr. Fix stated Mr. Hartmann had provided a redlined copy of the Charter showing the proposed revisions to date, and a copy showing the Charter as it currently is. Mr. Smith stated he would like to address the issue of Council employees. He stated he firmly believes Council employees should report to one person, and that one person could be the President of Council, the City Manager, or whomever. He stated if an employee reports to all seven council members it makes annual appraisals and supervision very difficult, and in many cases there is no supervision or annual appraisals done on council employees. He stated further he felt the duties of President of Council should be highlighted and separated from the Mayor to give a little more direction in running the affairs of Council. Mr. Smith stated further he felt the Municipal Clerk should be an employee of Council reporting to the President of Council. Mr. Smith clarified that the Mayor is the President of Council by Charter, so the elected councilperson is just President Pro Tempore so they take over when the Mayor cannot perform his duties. He further stated he would like to separate that to more coherently codify the duties of President in areas our Charter is silent on.
Mayor O’Brien clarified that after Rules Committee completed the review of the Charter, they would review the changes being recommended. Mr. Fix stated after that process is complete the Rules Committee will forward it to Council for their input and suggestions prior to Council appointing a Charter Review Commission. Mr. Sabatino stated once Council arrives at their recommendations, he felt it should be turned over to the Charter Review Commission and just because Council was recommending something they did not have to agree with it. Mr. Fix stated that was correct, Council would be making recommendations to the Charter Review Commission for consideration. Mr. Hartmann stated the major change in the red lined Charter he had provided to the Committee was that he had made Section IV relative to the City Manager and a new Section V relative to Administrative Officials and Departments. Mr. Fix stated he would like to continue with the review of the Charter prior to discussing the revisions already suggested.
C. Review and discussion regarding proposed revisions to Sections 4.11, 4.12, and Sections 5 and 6 of the City Charter. Mr. Smith stated this would be the Section to discuss taking the law director off as a Council employee, along with the engineer, and making them municipal employees. He stated he would include the Finance Director as well and the only employee of Council should be the Municipal Clerk. Mr. Fix clarified that Mr. Smith meant that these employees would still be appointed by Council, but would report to the City Manager and take direction from the City Manager. Mr. Sabatino stated he did not feel it was ever the intent that the elected officials would have to get permission from the City Manager to have access to these employees. Mr. Smith stated he agreed with that and language could be put into the Charter or the Administrative Code so that was the case, that Council would have just as much access to these employees as they do today. Mr. Sabatino stated if he calls the law director he can ask him to do something, however, if he calls the Service Manager he cannot ask him to do something. Mr. Smith stated he could ask him to do something as long as Council or a Committee has said it was okay, and the Council guidelines adopted a year and one-half ago said any type of contract employee said the Committees of Council would endorse anything over and above their retainer. Mr. Sabatino stated he did not think that was correct, that he did not take it that he had to go through Committees to get permission to talk to the law director, the engineer, the finance director or the municipal clerk. Mr. Hartmann stated he felt council could certainly talk to anyone; it is a matter of whether you are giving out assignments. Mr. Fix stated our Administrative Code did say that council did not want all seven council members throwing out assignments to the law director, the engineer, or any other employee of council because we were being billed for that. Mr. Fix stated from a business standpoint he understood Mr. Smith’s concern. Mr. Sabatino stated the fact is you have eight people who were elected by the people to look out for their interests and they can’t do that job if they have to ask permission from the City Manager to have access to what information they need. Mr. Hansley stated the typical reason the City Manager does not supervise the law director and the finance director is for a check and balance and it does make sense to have them separate from the City Manager. He stated the engineer is not typically found as an employee of council. Mr. Fix stated as a summary, he felt it made sense that the five employees of council are hired by council, terminated by council, and other than the city manager report to the city manager with access to council. He stated he would suggest language be crafted very similar to what was done in the engineering contract that has the day-to-day oversight of those four positions performed by the city manager with unfettered access from the members of council and the mayor. He stated he would further suggest that it does not make sense that the engineer reports to council and he felt it made sense to move the engineer from an employee of council to an employee of the city manager. Mr. Sabatino stated he did not agree with that, he felt the engineer should be an employee of council. Mr. Fix requested the law director to prepare draft language where the clerk, the law director, and the finance director be employees of council, report to the city manager on a day-to-day basis, but have the full access of council, and move the city engineer to a regular staff employee. Mr. Sabatino stated he would like to know how these proposed changes were to be presented to the voters; would it be presented as a whole document or would it be in elements. Mr. Hansley stated it could be presented as an entire document or it could be broken into sections. Mr. Fix stated he did not feel this Committee was ready to get into that discussion, as the review had not been completed.
Mr. Hartmann stated with regard to the Planning and Zoning Commission and Board of Zoning Appeals, the terms are defined for Planning and Zoning in the Administrative Code and he did not feel it was necessary to have it in the Charter, and there are no term limits for the Board of Zoning Appeals, which is unusual. Mr. Fix ascertained the Committee would like to have the term limits for both Planning and Zoning and the Board of Zoning Appeals defined in the Administrative Code. Mr. Hartmann further stated he felt the appeal process should be defined further for Planning and Zoning and Board of Zoning Appeals decisions. He stated he would get together with the Planning and Zoning Director and provide draft language on the appeals process because the Charter is a good place to put this in clear, concise language. Mr. Fix stated he would like to have that language for review at the next Rules Committee meeting.
Section 5.04 regarding the Parks and Recreation Board was reviewed with no suggestions other than the term limits also be defined in the Administrative Code. Mr. Hartmann stated it has been suggested that other groups such as the Board of Education, etc., be members of this board. Mayor O’Brien stated he would ask the Committee to give that some thought because it will take joint efforts to make certain types of Parks and Recreation facilities happen. He stated as things develop, he felt the Parks and Recreation Board should be more along the lines of the Planning and Zoning Commission. Mr. Fix requested the law director prepare language to provide authority similar to the Planning and Zoning Commission. He stated he would like to discuss the composition of the Board by allowing representatives from other entities as members at another time.
Mr. Hartmann stated the next section for review is Section 5.05, regarding the Board of Health. Mayor O’Brien stated he would like to have Mrs. Fersch’s input on this section as she is our representative to the Board of Health. Mrs. Fersch stated she felt this language was sufficient.
The Rules Committee recessed at 8:00 P.M., and reconvened in open session at 8:10 P.M.
In review of Article 6, Section 6.01, Fiscal Year, it was determined that a schedule for the budget process is prepared and distributed to council. Further, in Sections 6.02 and 6.03 there were no recommended changes. Mrs. Fersch stated in Section 6.04 she would like to suggest that consideration be given to an interim budget that is finalized after the end of the year when all of the figures are actual and not estimates. Mr. Fix stated then Mrs. Fersch’s suggestion is that we do an interim budget and then in February have Finance Committee look at a final budget based on the end of the year figures. Mrs. Fersch stated that was correct because by starting the budget process earlier a lot of things can happen that would change the figures, for example, the estimated income tax. She stated the final payment for 2008 will be on December 15th, and that could make a big difference. Mr. Smith inquired if our Charter prevented us from doing an interim budget, and Mr. Hartmann stated he did not see how it prevented it. Mrs. Fersch stated she would recommend adopting an interim appropriation budget, and Mr. Hansley stated the language in the Charter regarding the Manager’s budget was written to avoid a stalemate. Mr. Hansley stated he felt the present language is easily interpreted as if council has not done anything different, the Manager’s budget as submitted becomes the interim budget. He stated it could then be amended after the first of the year. Mr. Fix inquired if we wanted to change our process to have an interim budget and then after the first of the year adopt a final budget. Mr. Smith stated he was trying to see the value of doing that instead of what we do today. Mr. Fix clarified that Mr. Hartmann agreed with Mr. Hansley that our current Charter allows us to have an interim budget. Mr. Fix stated he would suggest the law director craft language to be reviewed at the next meeting that allows for more flexibility in the budgeting process so that this council and future councils can decide the budget process they want to use and still be within the bounds of the state laws and avoid the stalemate. Mr. Smith stated his concern with interim budgets is that most of the time people generally do not attach a lot of significance to an interim budget because they know there will a final budget at some point. Mr. Fix stated it would be up to the individual council members down the road to decide how they want to deal with the budget. He stated he was suggesting flexibility be built into the Charter so that future councils can decide how they want to do it. Mr. Smith stated he was not sure that flexibility is good. Mr. Fix stated he felt Mrs. Fersch made a valid suggestion that should not be considered under the current language, and he would like to have the law director prepare draft language that can be discussed during Finance Committee with all council members and the Mayor present, and a decision moved forward. Mrs. Fersch stated if we had an interim budget you could put in items that you would like to have, then if the balances were not right after you get your end of year balance, you could take it out. Mr. Fix summarized that Mr. Hartmann would prepare some draft language regarding an interim budget to be reviewed at the next meeting. There were no further suggested changes for the remainder of Section 6.
Mr. Fix stated at the next meeting this Committee would review the remaining sections of the Charter and Mr. Hartmann stated he would provide a memorandum on those sections. Mr. Fix stated the Committee would then begin the process of a final review on the proposed changes.
4. CHAIRMAN: Mr. Fix stated he had nothing further to bring forward.
5. OTHER BUSINESS: No other business was brought forward.
6. ADJOURNMENT. There being nothing further, Mr. Sabatino moved to adjourn; Mr. Fix seconded the motion. Mr. Sabatino, Mr. Smith, and Mr. Fix voted "Aye." Motion carried, 3-0. The Rules Committee adjourned at 8:55 P.M, August 6, 2008.
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:
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