TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2011

REGULAR MEETING

7:00 P.M.

1. ROLL CALL. Mr. Blair called the meeting to order at 7:00 P.M., with roll call as follows: Mr. Blair, Mrs. Hammond, Mr. Barletta, Mr. Fix, Mr. Sauer, and Mrs. Sanders were present. Mr. Wisniewski was absent as he was out of town on business. Others present were Mayor O’Brien, Bill Vance, Lynda Yartin, Chris Schornack, Chief Michael Taylor, Ed Drobina, Greg Bachman, Lynn Miller, Nate Ellis, Janet Thiede, Brice Civiello, Brett Sciotto, Don Smith, and others.

2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF December 8, 2010, Regular Meeting. Mr. Fix moved to approve; Mrs. Hammond seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mrs. Hammond, Mr. Fix, Mr. Blair, Mr. Barletta, Mr. Sauer, and Mrs. Sanders voting “Yes.” Motion passed, 6-0.

3. Discussion with Governing Dynamics regarding Pickerington, Ohio, Citizen Survey Proposal. Mayor O’Brien stated we identified funding for Governing Dynamics in the 2010 budget and we used half of it. He stated we have had discussions on how we want to go forward and in talking with Governing Dynamics and it was felt the best course of action would be to start the process with a survey to find out what our citizens are looking for. He stated he was proposing to use the remaining half of the money from 2010 to apply toward this survey and since we have a contract with them for 2011, we would not have to use half of the funds for this year. He stated Mr. Sciotto is present tonight to speak about what we might expect and to answer any questions. Mr. Vance stated further that during the budgetary discussions there was conversation regarding a performance audit on the police department as they are the largest department in our budget. He stated a police department audit could take different directions as to what you would like to find, would you want that audit to be strictly the best financial operation, levels of service, cost cutting efforts such as contracting out services, etc. Mr. Vance stated potentially a survey could be structured to the level of police department services our citizens would like to see, and once we get the results as to the level of service the citizens would like then whoever does the audit can be asked to come up with the costs associated with those services. Mr. Sciotto stated it has been about a year and a half since the last citizen survey was conducted in Pickerington and that gave some great insight into how the citizens felt about the government, about the financial management, etc. He stated this survey was a little different and would update some of the information but would also dig deeper into expectations. He stated that in going forward it would help understand what the citizens truly expect and to go in and begin measuring performance and evaluate efficiency without understanding what the public expects would probably be misguided. Mr. Sciotto stated it was felt this would be the perfect way to understand what the citizens expect of you, what would even be possible with the current financial resources, and what would need to change moving forward; whether that is a change in service or finding different priorities to fund or different funding mechanisms. He stated he is proposing a pretty comprehensive survey and it would allow you to draw conclusions about the entire population of the City and not just the person who answer the survey. He stated it would be balanced for geography, age, and gender so you can truly draw conclusions about everyone one. Mr. Sciotto stated he would answer any questions anyone might have. Mrs. Sanders clarified this would be a telephone survey.

Mr. Sauer stated he also had an idea of a continuing flow of information coming from the elected officials and some of the decisions being made by the Finance Committee with regard to efficiencies in spending, different priorities they may see and possible tax issues down the road. He stated he would like to know what the best avenue for getting that information out to the public would be; would it be a press release or what? Mr. Sciotto stated they had held a training session so the staff could do that type of thing and a communications calendar was prepared that can do regular on-going kinds of messages from the City, and as he understood it, Mr. Sauer was referring to specialized communication focused on the financial side and as you move forward communicating specifically on finances will be critical on building a case to either increase taxes, to change the services provided or the level of services provided. Mrs. Sanders stated she felt that in the year or so there will be a lot of negative financial information put out regarding the schools with their budget coming in with such problems, and if we focus on the positives it will help the community feel a little more at ease about what we are doing. Mr. Sauer stated he was just trying to find what the mechanism was to make sure that occurred. Mr. Sciotto stated in the message calendar some of those points Mr. Sauer mentioned were included, and it is now how those messages are tailored, both to reinforce the successes you have but also to address the challenges. He stated the caution he would have is that you cannot lead the citizens to believe that things can remain the same indefinitely without some change in priorities or change in funding. He stated you also want to provide an accurate picture and make sure that picture is being seen by the average citizen. Mayor O’Brien stated we are coming up on the State of the City information and this year he plans to do a video State of the City and put it on the web site for people to watch and he is open to any suggestions for this. Mr. Barletta stated he reads the Mayor’s Bulletin every month and there is a lot of information contained in that and Mayor O’Brien stated anyone who wishes to contribute to the Bulletin is welcome to do so. Mr. Barletta further stated he felt having a vision for the future on what the residents want out of their parks and recreation department was also important and he hoped those kind of questions could be incorporated into the survey. Mr. Sciotto stated the City would be in control of the final survey device and he would work with everyone to figure out what those questions need to be. He stated it was his job to make sure that those questions were as powerful and as useful as possible. Mr. Vance stated he felt it has become apparent to everyone involved that the City is at a financial crossroads as associated with a couple of our biggest costs, and one of our biggest costs is the provision of public safety with the next biggest cost an active road maintenance program. Mr. Vance stated this year’s budget has $20,000 for road maintenance and he felt everyone would agree that is inadequate and we cannot continue to do that on an annual basis and have the condition of our roads remain very good as we go through the next few years. Mr. Vance further stated this is the sixth year Chief Taylor has not had an additional officer and he felt we need to bring someone in to verify whether or not that is appropriate based upon getting feedback from the citizens as to what level of service they will expect from the City and then putting a price tag on that. He continued that at some point in time it is his understanding we will go to a referendum and get feedback from the citizens as to what level of service they are willing to pay for. He stated then this Council would have the information they need to move forward with its planning for the next few years. Mr. Vance stated those are the goals and we should prioritize police and paving in this survey proposal.

Mr. Fix stated this is the first step in the process as we need to know where we stand today and then we can chart the course from there so he felt we need to do this. Mrs. Hammond stated she felt there could be other ways to find out the same information and she was not really in favor of surveys. Mr. Blair stated he would oppose this tonight, and that he is not against what Governing Dynamics has provided so far, but he would vote against appropriating money for the survey. Mr. Sauer stated he felt Governing Dynamics has always done good work for the City and he is fine with the survey proposal. Mr. Sauer stated since this money was appropriated in 2010 and this is a new year, he would assume it would need to be reappropriated, Mr. Schornack stated that was correct. Mr. Fix moved to appropriate not to exceed $12,000 for the survey to be conducted by Governing Dynamics; Mrs. Sanders seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mrs. Hammond and Mr. Blair voting “No,” and Mrs. Sanders, Mr. Sauer, Mr. Fix, and Mr. Barletta voting “Yes.” Motion passed, 4-2.

4. FINANCE DEPARTMENT.

A. Finance Director’s Report. Mr. Schornack stated he had provided a written report and we had good news last week with our Note and Bond sale. He stated we received six bids on each of our two items and the Bond came in at 2.95 percent and the Notes came in at 5.9 percent interest. Mr. Schornack stated he had also provided the 2010 final report and our General Fund ending balance came in at about $2.7 million which is up about $300,000 from 2009. Mr. Sauer clarified that by getting that interest rate on the Bonds we will save approximately $200,000. Mr. Fix stated it appeared there is a 37 percent carryover and questioned how this would impact the projected carryover for 2011. Mr. Schornack stated we anticipated a $1.5 million carryover and we are about $500,000 higher than that assuming we receive the revenues and do not spend all the operations. Mr. Fix stated then since there is $500,000 more than anticipated would it be wise to have a conversation at the next Finance Committee meeting about spending some of that $500,000 on some of the things that were set aside at the end of the year, such as paving and police. Mr. Sauer stated he would request Mrs. Yartin add that to the agenda for the next meeting. Mr. Fix stated he would like staff to work to come up with some proposals as well. Mr. Blair stated he would request Mr. Schornack also factor in things like the Local Government Funds being completely cut out, and Mr. Schornack stated there was also discussion on losing the estate taxes. Mr. Schornack stated we normally receive about $300,000 in Local Government monies and he had budgeted roughly $30,000 on estate tax. Mr. Fix inquired if the Local Government Fund was already funded for 2011 and Mr. Schornack stated we receive funds every month so he would recommend caution until the funds are actually received. Mr. Fix stated he would request someone find out if there is a chance that our government funding might be cut this year and Mr. Blair stated he would work with Mr. Schornack on that.

B. Review and request for motion to approve draft ordinance amending the 2010 appropriation, Ordinance 2009-91. Mr. Schornack stated he had no appropriation requests this evening.

C. Review and discussion regarding Performance Audit of Police Department. Mr. Vance stated Mr. Schornack had received a proposal from the State Auditor’s office and it appears to be a cost analysis or a comparison as to how much our police department costs versus costs of public safety in other like sized municipalities. Mr. Schornack stated a Performance Audit would be an analysis of us versus cities of like demographics and size. Mrs. Sanders questioned if the survey and the performance audit would come in at the same time. Mr. Schornack stated the State is looking into doing Performance Audits for their State divisions, so they could lose a lot of their staff to that and it could push us back into next year if we do not schedule ours soon. Mr. Fix stated then we should do it now or perhaps wait a year. Mr. Vance stated that is only based upon if we went with the State Auditor’s Office, but we have other options. He stated Chief Taylor had investigated an option using people with a police background, either professional or educational experience in public safety, and with a total cost of between $7,000 to $8,000. Mr. Vance continued this would not be as much a fiscal comparison between us and other comparable municipalities and it would depend on the feedback from the citizens as to which direction this council might want to go. Would it strictly be a financial matter, is it more to substantiate the level of service and how many additional police officers we will need, how many vehicles they will need, etc. Mr. Fix clarified that Mr. Vance’s recommendation would be to get the results of the survey and have council get together and determine how they want to proceed. Mr. Blair stated he did not see what the survey results would change in the audit and Mr. Fix stated the thought process behind the audit was to compare how we spend our money and the services we get in return for that investment against what other communities are doing. Mr. Fix continued that Chief Taylor has said we have less officers than we should have, and that is great coming from our Chief of Police, but it doesn’t necessarily carry the credibility that it could if that was verified by an outside audit group. Mr. Fix stated he did not see the correlation between a survey of the citizens that asked if they wanted the same services, better, or less. He stated to him these were two different things. Mr. Vance stated an audit can provide a variety of things, and he agreed with Mr. Fix, however, from his perspective it could provide an independent position on substantiating the costs associated with the resources we make available to the Chief. Mr. Vance stated further an individual with a police background could come in and, based upon their experience, provide findings based upon their professional experiences and knowledge. Mr. Fix stated that was correct, but these are two different questions. He stated the first question is how are we doing with the money we have now, and that is what the audit will answer. The second question is, assuming that we are spending the money as wisely as we can, do the citizens want to continue to pay for that or not? Do they want better service? Do they want to pay less and get less service? He stated he felt these were two totally separate questions. Mr. Blair stated he agreed with Mr. Fix and we should go forward with the audit right now and do the survey. Mr. Fix stated the best answer would be that we are spending the money as wisely as we possibly can, we need more officers, and the citizens are willing to pay for it. Mrs. Sanders stated she felt by doing this we would have the “qualifiable” and “quantifiable” data. Mr. Sauer clarified the document before the Committee was the agreed upon scope of the audit and Mr. Schornack stated it was, with the exception that we had requested a fleet maintenance analysis be included. Mr. Schornack stated that was already included in the costs that they provided. Mr. Fix stated the purpose of the audit was to add credibility to what we are going to eventually ask our citizens to do or tell them about how we spend our money. He stated in his opinion the State Auditor is the highest level of audit you could ask for and that is why he would recommend we engage them for the audit. Mr. Schornack stated he would only add that performance audits are only called Performance Audits when they are done by the State Auditor’s Office. He stated anyone else would be doing an analysis of some sort. Mr. Barletta stated he had read the examples of State audits and they contained very valuable information and he felt the State Auditor would do a great job on seeing how we measure up with other communities in how we spend our money. Mrs. Hammond stated if we are going to do an audit, using the State Auditor would provide the most impartial audit that we could do. Mr. Sauer stated he would agree with that as well. Mr. Fix moved to proceed with the Performance Audit of the Police Department by the Auditor of State as outlined in the Letter of Arrangement with the addition of the fleet maintenance analysis; Mr. Blair seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mrs. Hammond, Mr. Fix, Mr. Barletta, Mr. Blair, Mrs. Sanders, and Mr. Sauer voting “Yes.” Motion passed, 6-0.

5. HUMAN RESOURCE DEPARTMENT.

A. Human Resource Director’s Report. Mrs. Miller stated she had provided a report on personnel activities from the first of the year. She stated the most significant activities right now are centered around safety and training. Mrs. Miller stated further a Safety Team is being established with members of each department and they will be working to reduce safety exposures and risks at all facilities. Mrs. Miller stated she would be happy to answer any questions.

6. CHAIRMAN:

A. Discussion regarding 2012 Budget Issues/Concerns.

(1) Feedback from Gahanna regarding Citizens Commission. Mayor O’Brien stated everyone had received a packet of information regarding the Gahanna Citizen Financial Advisory Committee. Mayor O’Brien stated Gahanna did not limit the members to residents of Gahanna because they wanted it to be a community-wide effort with a very diverse make-up. Mayor O’Brien stated the Commission was free to set their own meeting schedule and because it was a Blue Ribbon Panel they were not bound by the same restrictions as a Committee of Council. Mayor O’Brien stated once the Commission received the information from the Finance Department as far as revenues and projections, etc., their recommendation was that Gahanna needed a tax issue. Mayor O’Brien stated should council decide to have him go forward and work with the City Manager to pursue this for Pickerington, he would be happy to do so. Mr. Fix stated he appreciated Mayor O’Brien gathering this information and he liked the idea of having a Blue Ribbon Panel but he wanted it made clear that he did not in any way want to cede council’s responsibility on deciding what kind of initiative should be put before the citizens should they decide to do that. He stated that was Council’s responsibility, that is what they were elected to do and what they need to do. Mr. Barletta stated he did feel this was a good idea, and he agreed that Council was not trying to shirk their responsibility. He stated this would be having people from the community validate what Council was doing with the citizen’s money. Mrs. Sanders stated she agreed that she would like this to be less formal than a Council appointed commission and she felt this would provide valuable information for Council. Mr. Sauer stated he also agreed this would be a good idea. Mr. Fix clarified the Gahanna commission had 20 members. Mayor O’Brien stated he felt that was too large but he would have to see how many volunteers we had for the commission. Mr. Fix stated he would agree that having part of the business community involved, even if they do not live in the City, would be an important element of representation. Mr. Fix stated further if there are people in the community that we know would be critical of this, that they be invited to participate in this as well. Mayor O’Brien stated he hoped we could take the results of this Commission and present them in a public forum, with the members of the Commission present, so they could answer questions on how they arrived at their recommendations.

Mr. Sauer stated his question would be how the selection of the members would be addressed and Mayor O’Brien stated if it is a Blue Ribbon Panel then Council would trust in the Mayor and the City Manager to pick the right people. Mayor O’Brien stated if Council wants approval, then it would go through the Rules Committee and that would change a lot of things. Mayor O’Brien stated it would then become a Council appointed commission with formal meeting sessions with the Clerk present taking minutes, etc. Mr. Sauer stated he felt it would be better for Council not to be involved in this. Mr. Fix stated for the selection process perhaps the Mayor, the City Manager, and Council President could work together to seat however many people that are appropriate. Mr. Sauer stated if we have an agreed upon timeline for this it would be easier for the City and the Committee to stick to that timeline to make sure we make the deadlines so when we anticipate making a decision we are able to do so. Mr. Barletta stated his concern with a timeline is that it would have to be between July and November and perhaps that could be opened up a little more at the beginning. Mr. Sauer stated then Mr. Barletta felt it should start earlier. Mr. Fix stated if the commission is seated in May, start providing the information in July, and by the end of July we should have all of the audit information, then they would have September through November to make their recommendations. Mr. Vance clarified this would be a Blue Ribbon Panel to have a conversation about the City’s financial situation. He further stated Parks and Recreation has an improvement plan that is not budgeted for, we have a pavement maintenance plan we have no money budgeted for, we have a police department that from at least an operational standpoint has significant needs as we go forward in the future that, from the City Manager’s standpoint, we have no money budgeted for. He stated we would then put all of that on the table and basically verify that these are what this city needs to be responsibly operated to provide a high quality of life as we go forward and get the committee to substantiate this is the direction we would like to go or not go. Mr. Fix stated that was correct.

(2) Review of Revenue Enhancement Timeline. Mrs. Yartin clarified the timeline would be updated to reflect the creation of a Blue Ribbon Panel in May by the Mayor, City Manager, and Council President. Further the Panel would convene June through November 2011. Mr. Sauer stated that was correct.

B. Public Information. Mr. Sauer stated this was discussed earlier and he did not have anything further to add at this time. He stated he would discuss this further with the Mayor and Manager. Mr. Sauer stated his concern was that the residents did not know what was done by this Committee and the decisions that were being made. Mrs. Sanders stated the Mayor’s Bulletin does get a lot of information out to the public as well. Mr. Sauer stated he just wanted to make sure that the message is getting out to the public.

7. OTHER BUSINESS:

A. Review and request for motion to approve resolution for final legislation for final legislation for PID 86639 – SRTS (Safe Routes to Schools) sidewalk project within the City of Pickerington and Violet Township. Mr. Bachman stated this is the final legislation for our first Safe Routes to Schools Grant. He stated this would install about 1,000 feet of an asphalt path at Diley Middle School and also includes sidewalks for Fairfield Elementary School in Violet Township. Mr. Bachman stated the majority of work is in the Township; however, we are the lead agency so ODOT requires the final legislation. Mr. Bachman stated the legislation speaks to a dollar amount, however, we have previously done legislation for an agreement with the Township that they will pick up any extra costs and the cost to the City is zero dollars. Mr. Blair moved to approve and forward to Council; Mrs. Sanders seconded the motion. Mrs. Yartin stated if there were no objections, she would put this resolution on the Consent Agenda at the next Council meeting. Roll call was taken with Mr. Barletta, Mr. Fix, Mrs. Sanders, Mrs. Hammond, Mr. Sauer, and Mr. Blair voting “Yes.” Motion passed, 6-0.

Mr. Bachman stated he has been meeting with ODOT on our S.R. 256 safety grant application and they would like to take the lead on this project. He stated that is significant in that a safety grant will go to ODOT District 5 and then be recommended on to ODOT Central Office. He stated if the District takes the lead on it, obviously we have their approval and that would carry more weight at the Central Office. Mr. Bachman stated ODOT is also retaining a consultant to study the traffic signals on S.R. 256, both our ACS light signals and the signals leading into Reynoldsburg, to come up with a timing plan for those signals and hopefully putting ACS lights on their signals. He stated he has requested they include timing plans for Saturday because of the backups on Saturday and they have agreed to that. Mr. Bachman stated further the Federal Highway Administration is doing a study on the operational aspect of our ACS lights and the cities chose for this study included Pickerington, Tyler, Texas, Anaheim, California, and Annapolis, Maryland. Mr. Bachman stated he has also received preliminary approval of funding for the intersection at Center Street/Milnor Drive/Meadows Boulevard. He stated we applied for funding through MORPC for three projects and we received funding for this project, however, the money for construction is not available until 2015. Mr. Bachman stated although that seems a long way off, several things must occur between now and then. He further stated this is funding of 80 percent through ODOT and MORPC and 20 percent local for construction. He stated the design will be 100 percent local and overall our projected costs for this project are between $100,000 to $200,000. Mr. Fix stated he would encourage Mr. Bachman to get with the City Manager and Finance Director and put together a short wish list of what might happen with the extra carryover funds. Mr. Bachman stated he would do that.

B. Review and discussion regarding commercial advertising on water tower. Mr. Vance stated the question has arisen if there was the possibility where commercial entities within our City could approach the Council and seek advertising opportunities on the new water tower. He stated Mr. Don Smith from Rule 3 is present this evening and he may have some questions in this regard. Mr. Vance stated his question would be if there was any flexibility on this question. Mr. Don Smith stated they had the idea that the water tower would be a good signage location for their facility, and they were looking at the possibility of putting their signage on there. Mr. Smith stated this could be renewable income for the City. He stated he did not know the logistics of this but with the water tower being where it is, it might be a good opportunity for the City to utilize that space and perhaps it could be rented with an annual renewal of some sort. He stated he would certainly be interested in being a part of that and the tower is large enough you might even possibly have two or three businesses interested. Mrs. Hammond clarified that typically it is 15 to 25 years before a water tower needs repainted. She stated should we entertain this idea and the business went out of business, we would certainly want something that could be removed or replaced easily. Mayor O’Brien stated even if an ad were removed, unless you repainted the tower each time there was a change you would still see the residual of that ad. Mr. Fix stated if he recalled, it costs somewhere around $40,000 to repaint the tower. Mayor O’Brien stated this just seemed like something that would have to be managed closely. Mr. Fix stated he has checked around and there are other communities who do advertising on their water towers and get decent money for it. He stated when talking about revenue enhancement this might be one of a hundred ways we might do it. He further stated there were a couple of brands that are unique to Pickerington and that we are becoming known for, with Rule 3 being one of them. He stated if there was a way to enhance Rule 3’s standing in the community and generate revenue for the City at the same time, it is something that should be considered. Mr. Fix further stated with the other municipalities that have gone through this process, there would be answers to all of the questions that have been raised and he felt it was worth exploring at a minimum. Mayor O’Brien asked Mr. Fix to forward the information he had from other communities who had done this, and Mr. Fix stated he would be happy to do that. Mr. Blair stated he was in favor of this, but the logistics of it were his only questions. He stated if we can figure out how others have done it, he was fine with looking into the opportunity. Mr. Barletta stated he would be open to considering this as long as it was not a money pit we would have regrets about. Mr. Sauer stated he would like to have this continued on the agenda for further information.

C. Review, discussion, and request for motion to approve draft ordinance to amend Section 220.07(F) of the Codified Ordinances of Pickerington entitled, “Consent Agenda.” Mrs. Yartin stated this ordinance was being presented as a result of the Replacement Charter that was passed at the November election and became effective on January 1^st of this year. She stated the prior Charter established that no action that exceeded $10.00 could be placed and the Consent Agenda and the Replacement Charter provides that Council shall establish an appropriate not to exceed amount. Mr. Fix inquired what the recommendation of the City Manager was on this issue and Mr. Vance stated he would recommend an amount of $25,000 or less. Mayor O’Brien stated he felt that made sense as the Manager’s discretionary spending limit was $25,000. Mr. Fix moved to approve with a not to exceed amount of $25,000; Mr. Blair seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mrs. Hammond, Mr. Barletta, Mr. Fix, Mr. Blair, Mr. Sauer, and Mrs. Sanders voting “Yes.” Motion passed, 6-0.

8. MOTIONS:

A. Motion for Executive Session under Section 121.22(G)(1)b, Matters involving an employee’s or public official’s employment, Section 121.22(G)(2), Purchase or sale of public property, Section 121.22(G)(3), Conference with law director regarding pending or imminent court action, and Section 121.22(G)(4), Matters involving bargaining sessions with public employees. Mr. Sauer stated an Executive Session was not necessary this evening.

9. ADJOURNMENT. There being nothing further, Mr. Blair moved to adjourn; Mr. Fix seconded the motion. Mr. Blair, Mrs. Hammond, Mr. Barletta, Mr. Fix, Mr. Sauer, and Mrs. Sanders voted "Aye." Motion carried, 6-0. The Finance Committee adjourned at 8:30 P.M., January 18, 2011.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:

________________________________

Lynda D. Yartin, Municipal Clerk