CITY OF PICKERINGTON

FINANCE COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL

CITY HALL, 100 LOCKVILLE ROAD

THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 2005

REGULAR MEETING

7:30 P.M.

1. ROLL CALL. Mrs. Riggs called the meeting to order at 7:30 P.M., with roll call as follows: Mr. Wisniewski, Mr. Hackworth, and Mrs. Riggs were present. Mr. Wright was absent. Others present were Judy Gilleland, Lynda Yartin, Linda Fersch, Frank Wiseman, Susan Sheikh, Susan Crotty, Phil Hartmann, and others.

2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF February 17, 2005, Regular Meeting. Mr. Hackworth moved to approve; Mr. Wisniewski seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mr. Hackworth, Mr. Wisniewski, and Mrs. Riggs voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 3-0.

3. FINANCE DIRECTOR:

A. Review and request for motion to approve draft ordinance amending the 2005 appropriation ordinance 2004-81. Mrs. Fersch stated the northern terminus project on Diley Road is listed as a TIF project. She stated the TIF will run for ten years and we do not know if we will be able to pay off the full amount of the debt we would incur on the northern terminus, but it seems more logical to include it in the TIF as at the end of the ten years we could extend the TIF for another 20 years and leave the schools out of it. She stated she was, therefore, requesting an appropriation increase of $1,489,454 for the right-of-way acquisition and the construction. Mrs. Fersch stated this project will be paid through this TIF Fund for proper accountability. Ms Gilleland stated this expenditure was originally planned out of a different fund, and we were simply asking for an appropriation in the TIF Fund just in case we have TIF money. She stated at a later date we will decrease the appropriation out of the Diley Road Fund. Mrs. Fersch stated she was also requesting an appropriation increase in the General Fund of $250,000 for park land acquisition. Mr. Hackworth moved to approve and forward to Council; Mr. Wisniewski seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mr. Wisniewski, Mrs. Riggs, and Mr. Hackworth voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 3-0.

B. Finance Director’s Report: Mrs. Fersch stated she had provided a written report to the Committee and she would be happy to answer any questions.

C. Review and request for motion to approve draft ordinance amending Pickerington Codified Ordinances Section 248.01 entitled “Bonds” to change certain performance bond amounts and to add a section entitled “Tax Administrator.” Mrs. Fersch stated this section of our code needs to be updated due to some changes. She stated she is no longer the Tax Administrator so that position needs to be added, and the Recreation and Special Events Coordinator needs to be increased due to an increase in the amount of money they handle. Mrs. Sheikh pointed out that we do not have Special Events Coordinator position and that is actually the Administrative Assistant in the Parks and Recreation Department. Ms Gilleland stated that correction would be made to the ordinance prior to it going to Council. Mrs. Fersch stated some positions are listed in the ordinance that we do not have or are not filled at this time, however, she would like those to remain in case we do need them in the future. Mrs. Riggs moved to approve and forward to Council with that correction; Mr. Wisniewski seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mr. Wisniewski, Mrs. Riggs, and Mr. Hackworth voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 3-0.

D. Review and request for motion to approve State Infrastructure Bank Loan. Mrs. Fersch stated the Committee had been provided with draft legislation and the application. Mrs. Fersch stated we were looking at this loan as a gap financing measure to keep our Diley Road project moving as the funding from MORPC comes in stages over the years. Mrs. Fersch stated with this program, the first year you borrow money it is interest free, the second year you accrue just the interest, and you do not have make payment until the 31^st month. Mrs. Fersch stated we wanted to roll the northern terminus in this because the Ohio Municipal Bond Pool was for interim financing to get us over the part where the State Infrastructure Bank Loan will kick in. She stated they cannot release any federal funds until environmentals are approved, and that will not be until May. Mrs. Fersch stated she estimated we would need $7.5 million for the northern terminus, for the preliminary design, engineering, and twenty percent of the cost of right-of-way for the Diley IV and the final design and construction of Diley IV. She stated Diley IV is the project MORPC will be contributing money to. Mrs. Fersch stated the interest rate has been three percent for several years now, so that is an attractive rate. Mrs. Fersch stated for the Ohio Municipal Bond Pool we had pledged we will be paying that off when we are able to get the State Infrastructure Loan in place. She further stated our goal is to have a balloon payment at the end, and then after ten years, which is the maximum the State Infrastructure Bank will let us borrow the funds, we would go to a bond issue on anything that is left. Mrs. Riggs clarified the total amount that we estimated was $7.5 million. Mrs. Fersch stated we are not committed to that amount of money, we do it on a draw basis, therefore, if we only needed $6.5 million, that is all we would have to borrow. Mr. Wisniewski clarified the $7.5 is for the total project, and MORPC reimburses us. Mrs. Fersch stated we are required to spend the money up front, and then they reimburse us. Ms Gilleland stated Mr. Mike Cope will be at the Council meeting to review this issue with Council. Mr. Wisniewski moved to approve the draft ordinance and forward to Council; Mr. Hackworth seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mr. Hackworth, Mrs. Riggs, and Mr. Wisniewski voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 3-0.

4. PERSONNEL DEPARTMENT: Mrs. Sheikh stated she had provided a written report to the Committee and she would be happy to answer any questions.

A. Review and request for motion to approve draft ordinance amending Ordinance 2004-86 (Employee Pay Plan and Authorized Strength). Mrs. Sheikh stated she was requesting a pay plan amendment to change an existing Service Worker position to a Service Technician 1 position. She stated this issue was raised at a recent Labor Management Committee meeting and it was discovered after AFSCME bringing it up. She stated this employee has been performing functions as a Service Technician and she just wants to get him classified accordingly. Mrs. Sheikh stated it is not unusual for a Service Worker to go out in the truck with a Service Technician to get training, but it got to the point where he was going out in the truck on his own and doing the tasks that a Service Technician would be sent out to do. Mr. Wiseman stated typically we do train our Service Workers so that when a Service Technician position comes open they are ready to move into it. He stated we are starting to change our philosophy so that if they are doing the work now, we are going to go ahead and promote them into that job. He stated we are expanding our Service Technician force by doing this, and Mrs. Sheikh stated we are reducing our Service Worker strength force by one at the same time. Mrs. Sheikh stated the Labor Management Committee has been discussing a reorganization in the Service Department, so she may have more amendments in the near future. Mr. Wisniewski moved to approve and forward to Council; Mr. Hackworth seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mrs. Riggs, Mr. Wisniewski, and Mr. Hackworth voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 3-0.

5. DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT: Ms Crotty stated she had provided a written report to the Committee and she would be happy to answer any questions. Ms Crotty stated she had requested some recalculations on some of the impact fees as she felt the traffic information they were using was not giving accurate figures for the City. She stated our engineers have provided the data to the consultant and he should be able to have the recalculations done fairly quickly.

6. CHAIRMAN:

A. Law Director Search – Update. Mrs. Sheikh stated 17 RFPs were sent out and a pre-proposal conference is scheduled for March 22^nd, at 2:00 P.M., here in Council Chambers. She stated this would provide an opportunity for firms to ask any questions they might have. Ms Gilleland stated Council members are more than welcome to attend this pre-proposal conference. Mrs. Sheikh stated the submission date for RFPs is April 5^th, and it is anticipated that interviews will occur between April 11^th through April 22^nd. Ms Gilleland stated Mr. Plunkett will narrow the field down for us and then a full Council interview will be scheduled for the candidates. After the interviews are completed, the recommendation will come from the Finance Committee.

B. Review and request for motion to approve agreement for consulting services with Barb Slaven. Mrs. Riggs stated Ms Slaven is currently doing our public relations work and her contract is about to run out. Ms Gilleland stated she would like to have this contract become effective on June 1^st. Mrs. Riggs clarified the contract is for a monthly retainer of $3,000 and then a charge of $200 per page. Mrs. Riggs stated she would like to see a not to exceed amount in the contract. Ms Gilleland stated the cost would typically run $25,000 to $30,000 for six months. Mr. Wisniewski stated the cost would depend on how much work she did other than the retainer. Ms Gilleland stated she would like to have the contract run until the end of the year. Mr. Wisniewski moved to authorize the City Manager to enter into the contract with Ms Slaven until December 31, 2005; Mr. Hackworth seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mrs. Riggs, Mr. Wisniewski, and Mr. Hackworth voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 3-0.

7. OTHER BUSINESS:

A. Review and request for motion to authorize advertisement for bids on property located at 350 Diley Road. Mr. Wiseman stated in our advertisement we will base our acceptance of bids based on the appraised value of the property. Mr. Hackworth clarified this was just for authorization to advertise the property. Mr. Hackworth moved to authorize the advertisement for bids on property located at 350 Diley Road; Mr. Wisniewski seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mr. Hackworth, Mrs. Riggs, and Mr. Wisniewski voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 3-0.

Ms Gilleland stated MORPC had given a presentation to Council on their Growth Management Plan and they have requested a per capita amount from surrounding communities. Ms Gilleland stated they are requesting approximately $2,600 from the City for this project. She stated she felt this was a good idea and it was a good thing to support this regional effort. Ms Gilleland stated she did not require any action from the Committee, she was just ensuring that there were no issues with the City contributing to this study.

Ms Gilleland stated she and Mrs. Fersch had reviewed attorney fees, and we are having a lot of things come up with the number of law suits, JEDD advice, annexations, TIFs, and general legal counsel. She stated she just wanted to let Finance Committee know that we are using counsel quite a bit. Ms Gilleland stated Council and staff have open access to call the attorneys, and that has been necessary in order to get a few things accomplished. Mrs. Riggs clarified that by staff, Ms Gilleland meant Director level had open access. Mrs. Riggs further clarified the bill for general legal in January was $30,000 and in February it was about $40,000. Ms Gilleland stated overall this year she hoped to be in the same ballpark as last year or less, but a lot of that depended on how the litigation fell out.

8. MOTIONS:

A. Motion for an 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. Wisniewski moved for Executive Session under the stated sections; Mrs. Riggs seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mr. Hackworth, Mr. Wisniewski, and Mrs. Riggs voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 3-0.

Finance Committee went into Executive Session at 8:50 P.M., and reconvened in open session at 9:20 P.M.

9. ADJOURNMENT. There being nothing further, Mr. Hackworth moved to adjourn; Mrs. Riggs seconded the motion. Mr. Hackworth, Mr. Wisniewski, and Mrs. Riggs voted "Aye." Motion carried, 3-0. The Finance Committee adjourned at 9:22 P.M., March 17, 2005.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:

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Lynda D. Yartin, Municipal Clerk