CITY
ADMINISTRATION COMMITTEE
CITY
HALL,
WEDNESDAY,
JUNE 8, 2011
REGULAR
MEETING AGENDA
6:30 P.M.
1. ROLL CALL. Mrs. Hammond called the meeting to order at 6:30 P.M., with roll call as follows: Mrs. Hammond and Mr. Barletta were present. Mr. Wisniewski was absent. Others present were Bill Vance, Lynda Yartin, Lynn Miller, Gavin Blair, Jeff Fix, Ed Drobina, Greg Bachman, Carol Carter, and others.
2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF May 4, 2011, Regular Meeting. Mr. Barletta moved to approve; Mrs. Hammond seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mr. Barletta and Mrs. Hammond voting “Yes.” Motion passed, 2-0.
3. SCHEDULED MATTERS:
A. Review and request for motion to approve draft resolution appointing an individual to the Parks and Recreation Board. Mrs. Hammond stated Mr. Aaron Dean has been filling the unexpired term of Susan Green and that term is now expiring. She stated Mr. Dean has requested he be appointed to a full term on the Board and he is actually currently serving as President of the Parks and Recreation Board. Mrs. Hammond stated Mr. Dean is quite active and she feels he is an asset to the Board. Mr. Barletta stated he is familiar with Mr. Dean and he feels he is a good volunteer. Mr. Barletta moved to approve the resolution appointing Mr. Dean to a full term on the Parks and Recreation Board and forward it to Council; Mrs. Hammond seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mrs. Hammond and Mr. Barletta voting “Yes.” Motion passed, 2-0.
B. Review and discussion regarding merging the Tree and Beautification Commission with the Parks and Recreation Board. Mr. Vance stated at the last meeting of the Tree and Beautification Commission they were going to discuss whether or not they would like to go in this direction. Mrs. Hammond stated the Parks and Recreation Board did not have their last meeting due to the lack of a quorum and the Tree and Beautification barely had enough members to make a quorum. She stated she felt the general consensus among Council is to merge these two bodies. Mr. Barletta stated he had served on the Parks Board in the past and there were a lot of times they couldn’t meet or were just barely able to meet and he saw the Tree Commission not have a quorum many times. He stated he felt it would be best to merge them. Mrs. Carter stated she is currently on the Parks and Recreation Board and she has served on the Tree Commission and she felt it would be best if they were combined because the Tree Commission does have a hard time getting a quorum and also the duties of these two boards intertwine quite a bit. Mr. Blair clarified that this would not involve eliminating anyone from either of the boards because the Parks Board currently has four members with one vacancy and the Tree Commission has three members. Mrs. Hammond stated with the members we currently have if the Board was set up with seven members then the Council representative could be a non-voting member except in the case of breaking a tie. Mrs. Yartin clarified the Parks and Recreation Board is created by the Charter and the Tree and Beautification Commission is created by the Administrative Code. She further stated the composition and duties of the Parks and Recreation Board is outlined in the Administrative Code so it would require an amendment to the Administrative Code to outline the number of members and the duties of the combined board. Mr. Barletta moved to recommend the Parks and Recreation Board and the Tree and Beautification Commission be combined into one board with seven appointed members with the Council Representative serving as a non-voting member except in the case of a tie vote and the appropriate legislation be prepared; Mrs. Hammond seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mr. Barletta and Mrs. Hammond voting “Yes.” Motion passed, 2-0.
4. HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT.
A. Human
Resource Director’s Report. Mrs. Miller
stated she had provided a written report to the Committee and she would answer
any questions. Mrs. Miller stated we
have completed our recruitment for summer staffing for the pool and the parks
program, bringing on 32 individuals at this time. She stated all due diligence was done in the
hiring of these employees and great care was given to ensure they understand
their responsibilities as City employees.
Mrs. Miller stated she would also like to brief the Committee on a new
initiative on a
(1) Discussion on
5. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY.
A. IT Proposals Update. Mr. Vance stated a draft job description for an IT Manager was provided to the Committee and he would like feedback as to the specifics of the job description. Mr. Fix stated he understood we were going to contract this out. He stated it seemed to him to hire someone to run a system that has no funding and who would still need to contract out for services they are not specialized in was a waste of money. Mr. Blair stated at the last meeting it was determined to amend the pay plan to include the IT Manager position. Mr. Vance stated if this job description were to meet the satisfaction of this committee it seems we do have a lot of financial specifics that we would have to coordinate with the Finance Committee and he thought the earliest we could do that would be at the July meeting if the Chairman put those items on the agenda. Mr. Barletta questioned then that part of the goal would be to shift some of the things we currently contract to this position, such as maintaining the web site or things that other members of staff currently do. Mr. Vance stated staff’s understanding was that 100 percent of what we do now on a contractual basis would be done in-house. He stated there are some questions that we still do not have answers to and some of the costs that we have yet to identify for eventual discussion. Mr. Vance stated tonight’s goal is simply to get the job description approved if this Committee would like to do that. Mrs. Hammond stated she felt there were two different issues and whether we can fund this is one thing. She clarified further that Mr. Barletta felt the job description was very reasonable and covered all aspects of what we need. Mr. Fix stated in his professional experience he has found it almost impossible to find one person that has a broad enough range of skill sets. He stated he has found that someone can be very good on the network and hardware side or very good on the software or very good on the internet part, but rarely do you find someone skilled enough in all three to cover all you needs so you end up having to outsource a good portion of it. He stated he felt we would be putting the cart before the horse that, in his estimation, probably would not have a broad enough skill set to do all the things we need and we would still need to outsource some of it. Mr. Barletta stated we do have some issues that we need to deal with, and he did not disagree that we would not need some external support contracts to fill the gaps, but he felt we cannot continue to go forward the way we are now. He stated we need to do something and he would rather have someone that reports internally than have a contractor who is less accountable to the Council and the City government. Mr. Fix stated there are benefits to bringing someone in-house, and accountability is one of them, and having them available is a second benefit. He stated he felt we could put a contract together and have someone here helping us fix our issues within 30 days, whereas if you work through all the issues that need to be worked through from a human resources standpoint and then deal with all the issues from a finance standpoint, then advertise, interview, and hire a person you are talking about six or eight months before they could realistically start to make an impact on what we do here. Mr. Fix stated perhaps we should start with someone on an interim basis until we can get someone up and running. Mr. Barletta stated in the interest of moving this along he moved to approve this job description; Mrs. Hammond seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mrs. Hammond and Mr. Barletta voting “Yes.” Motion passed, 2-0.
6. CHAIRMAN:
A. Strategic Plan Goals – Update. Mrs. Hammond stated it appears we are moving along quite well in looking at the list of goals.
7. OTHER BUSINESS: No other business was brought forward. Mrs. Miller stated she would like to clarify that the Committee would like her to contact other communities to see how they evaluate council employees.
8. MOTIONS: There were no motions.
9. ADJOURNMENT. There being nothing further, Mr. Barletta moved to adjourn; Mrs. Hammond seconded the motion. Mrs. Hammond and Mr. Barletta voted "Aye." Motion carried, 2-0. The City Administration Committee adjourned at 6:55 P.M, June 8, 2011.
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:
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