PICKERINGTON CITY COUNCIL

CITY HALL, 100 LOCKVILLE ROAD

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2008

COUNCIL BUDGET WORK SESSION

6:00 P.M.

1. CALL TO ORDER: Mrs. Hammond opened the Council Budget Work Session at 6:05 P.M., with the following council members present: Mr. Sabatino, Mrs. Hammond, Mr. Fix, Mrs. Sanders, and Mr. Wisniewski. Mr. Smith was out of town and Mr. Sauer was ill. Others present were: Lynda Yartin, Linda Fersch, Chris Schornack, Chief Taylor, Angie Fenner, Steve Carr, Larry Jones, and others.

2. SCHEDULED MATTERS:

A. Review of proposed 2009 Police Department Budget. Mr. Sabatino stated he would like to comment that this budget was to be presented on the basis that the income tax issue would pass and he had noticed that in contrasting this budget and the budget for the Parks Department, the Parks Department is proposing to add a person and the police budget is static in personnel. Mrs. Fersch stated we do have a hiring freeze and the first person that left was the part-time administrative assistant in Parks, and that position has not been filled. Mr. Sabatino stated he did not think that was the position they were looking to fill, and Mrs. Fersch stated it was that position and they were adding extra hours to make it a full time position because of the pool. She stated we have adjusted in the budget for the pool part of Eric’s time and part of Steve’s time which would eventually relieve the Parks Fund of the money we are putting in Steve’s budget and that would help us hire the full time person. Mrs. Fersch stated the police department has not been affected by the hiring freeze because we had an officer in March and we replaced him. She stated we also have added another part-time dispatcher and we are replacing the dispatcher. She stated because police is critical for safety they were not affected by the hiring freeze, so any additional money coming from the levy is going to help the police department for status quo because they have the union raises for next year. Mr. Sabatino stated that is all well and good, but significance of $2.8 million if we cannot fund at least one or two patrolmen on the street our priorities are not in proper alignment. Mrs. Fersch stated we will not get all of that money in 2009 even if it is passed, we will not feel the full effect of that increase until 2010 when people file their final returns. Mrs. Fersch stated further this year we are giving the police department $2,010,000 and next year we are giving them $2,375,000, so they are getting $365,000 more in order to keep pace with their budget, and the majority of their budget is wages. Mr. Sabatino stated even if we get only half of the money next year, he did not understand why we couldn’t move off of the level we are at on sworn officers. Mrs. Sanders stated she agreed with Mr. Sabatino, and she felt we were being misleading since our signs ask to vote for this issue for police, and then to stay status quo. Mr. Wisniewski stated that has what the message has always been; we need the increase just to absolutely maintain what we have right now. He stated he did not feel there was anything that had been misleading, because Mr. Hansley has clearly stated exactly what the intentions were for the initial year. Mr. Sabatino stated he didn’t know if the would use the word misleading, but he did feel there is clearly an implied message, and Mrs. Sanders stated that is what she meant. Mr. Sabatino stated if this levy passes he would hope that with the funding from that we could do something more than just status quo, even if it is only one officer for 2009, and maybe add another next year. He stated if we remain status quo, we still have people moving in and we have more businesses coming here, we would be losing ground if we remain status quo. He stated if the levy does not pass that is another story, but this discussion is based on if it does pass. Mrs. Hammond stated she understood that, and she does not disagree, but the income tax, at least for the first year, is only supposed to keep us current with what we are doing now. She stated she did not think that anyone had a lot of extra add-ons in their budgets. Mr. Sabatino stated he did not completely buy that because part of the message has been debt reduction, and that is enhancing that position. He stated he thought that we were using the police department as part of a means to get the increase approved and to just maintain status quo with them we were not doing right by the people. Mrs. Sanders stated when she looked at the numbers and we have the same number of officers in 2009 as in 2006, it just seems there has been a lot change in our community in three years. Mr. Wisniewski stated he agreed a couple of more officers would be great, and he would add it to the contingency list for right now because he did not see any sense in putting it in and then if the levy fails, take it right back out. Mr. Sabatino stated, however, this budget is strictly based on if the levy passes so if the levy passes there shouldn’t be a need for a contingency list, we should have a clear spending plan for the additional funds and he felt we could find whatever the incremental cost for one officer is as part of our 2009 proceeds. Mr. Wisniewski clarified Chief Taylor stated aside from the wages, his overall budget is $10,000 more than last year. Mr. Wisniewski clarified the cost of one officer, with benefits, is approximately $75,000. Mr. Fix stated one of the things that has been emphasized in the campaign to get the tax levy passed is police officers on the streets, and he is inclined to err on the side of having more on the streets than less. He stated he would prefer not to wait on the crime wave that does not exist today; he would rather be more proactive and give the Chief more officers. He stated should this levy pass he would was inclined to add more officers. Mr. Sabatino stated since Mrs. Fersch has indicated we would only get about half of the increase this year, he would compromise with adding one office in 2009 and in 2010 look at the funds we have available then. Mr. Fix stated he could live with that compromise as long as we look at adding more down the road. Mr. Wisniewski clarified that between the DARE grant and what the schools pay us, those two programs pay for one and one-half officers. Mrs. Fersch clarified the consensus was then to add one additional officer to the police budget for next year.

The Budget Work Session recessed at 6:25 P.M. and reconvened in open session at 6:30 P.M.

B. Review of proposed 2009 Parks and Recreation Budget. Mrs. Hammond stated Mr. Carr had distributed some information to the Council members for review. Mr. Carr stated Mr. Sauer had asked for something similar to a profit/loss statement on some of our programs, so he had provided a listing of programs that have started through today, and also a listing of programs that run during the summer, but do not typically run through the school year. Mrs. Sanders stated earlier we had discussed raising the fee for the summer playground program and questioned if we were still considering that for next season. Mr. Carr stated we considering raising the fees to $40 for resident and $50 for nonresident next year. Mr. Wisniewski stated it appeared that on staffing levels, Mr. Carr was looking to add someone in the Recreation Division and someone in Parks Maintenance for two additional people in the department. Mr. Carr stated before the hiring freeze there were a total of 5.5 people in the department and his budget request is to keep the same staffing in Parks Maintenance, and to add one-half of an employee for three full time employees in the Recreation Division. Mr. Carr stated in the pool budget he is proposing that one-tenth of Eric VanAtta’s salary be charged off to the pool because in his role as facility operations administrator he would assume some of the responsibilities he had this year when everyone was sharing the load. He stated further one-tenth of his salary was being charged to the pool as well. Mr. Carr stated other than the addition of the half-time administrative assistant, the only other major expense in his budget was a pick-up truck as it has been several years since the Parks Department had a new vehicle. Mrs. Hammond clarified that we will be looking at the fees charged for pool memberships next year. Mr. Sabatino further clarified that it has always been the intent not to go into the General Fund for monies toward the acquisition of the pool, but to use the Park impact fees for that payment. Mrs. Hammond ascertained there were no further questions for the Parks and Recreation Department budget.

Mr. Wisniewski stated he felt there were ways we could better distribute our staff, and Mrs. Hammond stated in looking at the list of job duties for the part-time people in Parks that Mr. Carr had provided, she could not see how they could spend 22 hours a week working on a lot of those things. Mr. Wisniewski inquired if there were recommendations staff would make as to how staff could be better allocated. He stated some of our staff are working excessive hours, and others are working less, and questioned if there would be a recommendation for restructuring that may help balance that out. Mr. Wisniewski stated for instance if we had one person over multiple areas, could they better allocate the resources more efficiently. He stated further, as an example, what about combining our parks and service departments and having one director over them. He stated we are spending $75,000 a year for mowing and landscaping and it seemed if we had a director that was over the entire area to be able to take some of the service people that aren’t doing something on a particular day of the week, he could send them out to mow or do landscaping instead of spending $75,000 on that. Mrs. Sanders stated we are short staffed in some areas during certain times of the year, and by doing this it may alleviate some of that. Mrs. Fersch stated Parks really needs the additional people from May through October, and that is why we were looking at hiring more summer help for doing the parks maintenance, etc. Mrs. Fersch further stated that the contractors bring their own equipment in, so if we did the mowing we would probably have to buy more mowers. Mrs. Fersch stated it might be a good idea to have Mr. Carr prepare a report on how many parks we mow, the acreage, the average hours they spend, and what they do on the landscaping. Mr. Wisniewski stated he was also going to address in Service Committee about putting grass in the medians because he felt we need to follow the example of Canal Winchester and the Township and put mulch and rocks in there. Then we do not have to worry about mowing, watering, etc., besides the safety factor. Mrs. Fersch clarified then that Council would like an evaluation of any departments where it would make better sense to overlap, have better scheduling, or be able to pull from different departments when things need to be done.

Mrs. Fersch stated for the next work session review of the Service Department and the remaining small funds were scheduled. She stated the pay plan would also be scheduled for review in the near future.

Mrs. Fersch inquired if Council would like to schedule a Special Finance Committee meeting in order to bring the budget forward to Council because the regular Finance Committee meeting falls the day after the Council meeting. Mrs. Hammond stated she would like to schedule a Special Finance Committee meeting for November 12, 2008, at 7:00 P.M. Mrs. Fersch stated she would have the pay plan ready for review by November 12^th so that can be put on the Special Finance agenda as well.

3. ADJOURNMENT. There being nothing further, the Council Budget Work Session closed at 7:32 P.M., October 22, 2008.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:

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Lynda D. Yartin, Municipal Clerk

ATTEST:

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Cristie Hammond, Council President Pro Tempore