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Home My WebLink About09-20-10 Personnel & Finance,~~I ~ PERSONNEL 8~ FINANCE September 20. 2010 The September 20, 2010 meeting of the Personnel and Finance Committee of the South Bend Common Council was called to order by its Chairperson Council Member Tom LaFountain at 5:55 p.m., in the Informal Meeting Room, 4'h Floor County-City Building, 227 W. Jefferson Blvd., South Bend, Indiana Committee Members Present: Tom LaFountain, David Varner; Oliver Davis, Karen White Other Council Present: Derek Dieter, Henry Davis, Ann Puzzello, Tim Rouse Others Present: Mary Ann Myers, Chuck Leone, George Lane, Gregg Zientara, Mayor Luecke, Tom Price, Rita Kopala, Aladean DeRose, Randy Kelly, Rahman Johnson, Kathleen Cekanski-Farrand, Mike Sienecki, Susan Mahoney, Stacey Church Agenda: 2011 Operating Budget Hearings • Century Center • Hall of Fame • Human Rights • Mayor • Clerk • Council Centurv Center At Chairperson LaFountain's request the Director of Century Center, Kurt Brown, began the Center's 2010 review and 2011 budget projections. As has been the pattern, Kurt used apower- pointand accompanying handout to facilitate the review. Kurt spoke of 2010 accomplishments including investment in capital projects and a customer satisfaction in capital projects and a customer satisfaction rating of 4.61 out of 5.00. This prompted Council President Derek Dieter and Councilmember Rouse to question the mechanics of the satisfaction rating data gathering process. Kurt described the system as a "in-house" survey measuring 15 variables on a scale of 1 to 5. The survey had a 25 - 30% response rate. Brown promised to provide the survey and a monthly tracking at Oliver Davis' request. Councilmember White shifted focus to Century Center personnel. Kurt said four permanent positions had been cut, a housekeeping manager, a house keeping supervisor, a security manager and a marketing secretary. Councilmember Rouse asked how many full-time employees there were before the cuts. The answer - 21. Council President Dieter asked fora 5 year revenue history and then wondered in spite of declining revenues why performance bonuses were awarded to senior staff. He followed by requesting and itemization of to whom and the dollar amount of bonuses. Councilmember Henry Davis asked a series of questions all basically asking what we as a Center, as a City really were doing to go after new business, to compete even in a down economy. Brown said he believed we would be doing well but for the recession. Councilmember Henry Davis wouldn't let go. He said we need to be more aggressive. He said we cannot accept stagnation. More needs to be done, Councilmember Henry Davis said. Mayor Stephen Luecke weighed in announcing a group putting together a 3 year strategic plan. Gregg Zientara added to the "remember these are tough time" defense. He said hotellmotel room occupancy rates in St. Joseph County were only 47% claiming and industry standard of 60% to break-even. Council President Dieter asked for a breakdown of those statistics. Hall of Fame There was no discussion of finances. Gregg Zientara reminded the Council of a September 14, 2010 memo from his office stating figures for the Hall would not be available until the end of November. Discussion did go on however, prompted by Varner asking the Mayor whether he anticipated a new contract with the NFF or an extension of the one in place. The Mayor said he foresaw a continuation of the current one. Gregg Zientara briefly recounted the past and continued city financial support of the Hall. Annually this amounts to $500,000 to defray operating expense, about $1.4 million to service debt on the building and what has been a $200,000 yearly contribution to maintenance of the building. Gregg said the fund now endowed at $1 million would allow the $200K to go to the improvement of the Cove. Human Rights Lonnie Douglas, longtime Director, rose to make his agency's presentation. He described the rather complicated funding mechanism underlying the department's ability to accept and resolve cases. Revenues all of which he detailed and all of which fluctuate some-what according to intake come from the federal and state funded programs as well as our own general fund. His hope for the future would be to expand the Commission's providence to the County. The HR Commission was established by city ordinance in the mid-fifties and would need a County ordinance to expand it's reach beyond South Bend's borders. In answer to Councilmember White's question, Lonnie said his budget is funded 50% by the general fund and 40% from revenue they generate. Legal Chuck Leone, City Attorney presented for his department. Chuck reviewed both the personnel on his staff as well as the financial summary. Basically, he was talking about doing more with less. He said the staff was taking on more work previously farmed out. Bond work and environmental law were the two exceptions. He also mentioned the use of volunteer law students doing work of interns during the summer. An earlier austerity move by the legal department cut $40,000 from their budget used to pay interns. During Council questioning President Dieter suggested tracking results of diversity training for police officers. In other words, can we measure whether it took or not? Councilmember's Henry Davis and Tim Rouse both asked Leone what was being done to encourage fair opportunities for minority contractors? Councilmember Henry Davis said there should be outreach to undercapitalized small contractors who need a helping hand to grow. Councilmember Rouse agreed emphatically. Manor Mary Ann Myers, Director of Secretarial Services in the Mayor's Office presented the budget for the Mayor's Office. She emphasized there was little change from last year. Most senior administrators including the Mayor will continue to return 5% of their budgeted salary. There will be no additional staff and they will continue to function with a staff of seven continuing the reduction from 10 begun in 2006. Clerk City Clerk John Voorde presented his office budget. Overall it reflects a 2.8% increase mainly due to increased cost of supplies and a 2% increase in salary form himself and staff. Council Council President Derek Dieter presented the Council's budget. He noted the elimination of the paralegal position and a 2.5% increase in salary for the Council Attorney. Miscellaneous Councilmember David Varner, Chairperson, Information & Technology Committee, introduced Susan Mahoney, President, Public Access Michiana (PAM) to present a request for dollars to help PAM get started. Susan presented astart-up budget totaling $176,080 for the 1St year expenses. Of that total PAM hoped the city could fund as much as $150,000 or perhaps a lower request of $118,000 pending studio space costs. While a considerable request Susan said PAM did not see it as inappropriate given the fact that the city receives upwards of $822,000 annually from Comcast and AT&T cable fees. In the meantime PAM was attempting to get free or low cost studio space from Century Center and help from WNIT. Their requests from other local governments have proved unsuccessful. Councilmember Oliver Davis urged PAM to pursue WNIT's help. Councilmember Rouse pointed out the inequity of South Bend footing the lion's share while others contributed nothing. To date the Council was willing to show support in the $65,000 range. It was conceded more analysis and discussion was needed. There being no further business to come before the committee at this time, Chairperson LaFountain adjourned the meeting at 6:47 p.m. mountain, Chairperson nel and Finance Committee Attachments