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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-16-17 Personnel and Finance (#1) O�Sp[J T$ ti U C W PEACE r-- ■ i 1865 OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK KAREEMAH FOWLER,CITY CLERK PERSONNEL &FINANCE AUGUST 16, 2017 5:30 P.M. Committee Members Present: Karen White, Regina Williams-Preston, John Voorde Committee Members Absent: Gavin Ferlic Other Council Present: Dr. David Varner, Tim Scott, Oliver Davis, Jo M. Broden Other Council Absent: Randy Kelly Others Present: Kareemah Fowler, Bob Palmer, Graham Sparks Presenters: Angela Kouters, Cristal Brisco, Eric Horvath, Jitin Kain, Jen Hockenhull Agenda: Mayor's Office Legal Department Public Works Committee Chair Karen White called to order the Personnel and Finance Committee meeting at 5:30 p.m. She introduced members of the Committee and proceeded to give the floor to the presenters. Mayor's Office Angela Kouters, Chief of Staff to the Mayor with offices on the 14th floor of the County-City Building, stated, I do not want to be redundant to the Budget Overview presented by Mayor Pete so I will do my best to cover things not previously discussed by the Mayor. Obviously we make it our mission to reflect the values of our mission statement. This is how we go about making sure we accomplish our mission and that our residents receive the highest quality of care. By having an inclusive and transparent government,we are investing in both people and places across the City. Approximately ninety percent(90%) of the proposed increase in expenditures are due to rising personnel costs as well as a proposed paid intern system. We want to make sure the opportunities we present are paid.Not every student has the ability to take time off from work during summers and we want to reflect the opportunities offered elsewhere. The other increase is the changing of a part-time secretary to a part-time project manager. We are also 455 County-City Building•227 W.Jefferson Boulevard•South Bend,Indiana 46601 Phone 574-235-9221 •Fax 574-235-9173•TDD 574-235-5567•www.SouthBendIN.gov JENNIFER M.COFFMAN ALKEYNA M.ALDRIDGE JOSEPH MOLNAR CHIEF DEPUTY/DIRECTOR OF DEPUTY/DIRECTOR OF POLICY ORDINANCE VIOLATION CLERK OPERATIONS proposing to bring the salary of the Community Outreach Director in line with the other leadership positions in the office. The Mayor went over a number of our accomplishments but there are a few accomplishments specific to the Mayor's Office. Specifically, the South Bend Youth Task Force brings in young people that are engaged in City business, and the Mayor is incredibly proud of their work. There are a few challenges and goals we have for 2018. The Mayor is very focused on trying to curb the opioid crisis here in South Bend, the lead-exposure to children in the community and the gun violence. Council President Tim Scott stated, There are three (3) things in the budget that are County- dependent—the fiscal curb, PSAP and the Healthy Homes Initiative. What are we doing with the County to address these issues? I also enjoy the PDF format with this. Councilmember Dr. David Varner asked, Can we please get further explanation on the proposed fourteen point eight percent(14.8%) salary increase? Also, what are the assumptions in numbers with regard to the increase in technology expenditures for the City? Councilmember Jo M. Broden asked, Could you please identify the locations and times of when and where these materials will be made available for public viewing?How can the ordinary citizen find these documents in advance of these meetings? Committeemember Regina Williams-Preston asked, What does the diversity look like on the internship program? How are we ensuring those opportunities are offered to a diverse group? Also, what does the diversity of recruitment numbers for the South Bend Police Department look like? I would also like to know more about the proposed salary increase for the Community Outreach Director. Is there any money in the budget for increased home testing for lead and mold? The grant that we didn't get, the City pledged, I think, $100,000. Where is that money and could that money still be used? I would also like more information on the gun violence initiative. All questions asked from Committee and Councilmembers were recorded for the record, and will be fully answered and published by the Mayor's Office at a later date. Legal Department Cristal Brisco, Corporation Counsel with offices on the 12th floor of the County-City Building, stated, Thank you for the opportunity to present the Legal Department budget for your review, consideration and, hopefully, approval. This is my last budget presentation as Corporation Counsel. Before I begin, I would like to let you all know how extremely grateful I am for having served you all. When I joined the City in 2014, I set forth a vision to provide high quality representation with integrity, competency, professionalism and civility. The entire Legal Department lives and fulfills that vision on a daily basis and I am confident that the new Corporation Counsel, Stephanie Steele, will continue that. I believe it was during the 2015 Budget Kick-Off where Councilmember Oliver Davis quoted Jacob Lew, the Secretary to the U.S. Treasury that stated, "A budget is not just a collection of numbers, but an expression of our values and aspirations." That is a quote I wrote on a post-it note and I've kept it in mind throughout the budget process. It has been good to see, going through this process, that our values have been reflected. The Legal Department is committed to the well-governed and 2 administered City values that are identified by Priority-Based Budgeting. The Legal Department achieved a healthy program distribution. Most dollars in programs fall into quartile one (1). We, the Legal Department,have the lowest number of quartile four(4) dollars of any City department. It definitely demonstrated the value and necessity of our programs in serving residents. The top two (2)programs that were identified by that process were litigation and administrative hearings in access to public records fact compliance. These results are consistent with the time and energy expended by the department in those areas and are in line with governance priorities. The one (1) quartile four(4) program that was identified by the initiative was legal counsel for the South Bend Building Corporation. That program consists of one (1) required annual meeting and is mandated by ordinance, so it is something that we have to do. It only costs one thousand one-hundred dollars ($1,100) in the grand scheme of things. She continued, I'm very proud to say that we have a sustainable budget. I would like to thank the Council for that. The reason why the budget is sustainable is because every year we have looked at this and we have achieved what we have said we are going to do with the dollars approved. There are no significant budget changes. Frankly, there is actually a decrease by $35,418 and that is largely due to a decrease in the allocations to the Legal Department. For example, in 2017, our IT allocation was $99,335. That has been reduced to $73,815. Our postage allocation was three thousand six-hundred dollars ($3,600), and that has been reduced to two thousand dollars ($2,000). She went on, This is always the fun part to talk about our accomplishments. The Access to Public Records Act(APRA)benchmark of ten thousand (10,000)requests is really significant. Not only did we hit the benchmark, but we did that all without a single violation. We also developed a litigation transparency guide which was published on the Police Department's Transparency HUB to give residents greater access to case terminology and court documents. For example, one (1) case that received a lot of media attention was jury trial case titled `Franklin v The City of South Bend.' Folks wanted answers for that and the trial was in Fort Wayne and we purchased, for two thousand eight-hundred dollars ($2,800),transcripts. We published that online on the HUB so people could go and read the transcript. That amount of money can be cost-prohibitive for many families to be able to know what is going on. We've also provided training to our City employees and that helps empower the employees to do their job most effectively. Those trainings have been in open-door law, APRA, procurement and claims investigation. There is a consistent downward trend in our Liability Fund. Back in 2013 we were averaging $1.4 million paid out, and in 2017 we are at a little over $100,000 paid out. If we continue having proactive plans resolutions, aggressive defense strategies and implementing the proactive safety measures, it will help keep that downward trend going. While our Liability pay-outs are going down our collections have been going up and that is what you want it to be. We treat all of the City debtors with dignity,respect and civility. We, as the Legal Department, are charged under statute to collect all debts due to and owned by the City. We have an obligation to do that but we also know that things happen in people's lives so we've also created payment plans for as little as fifty or ten dollars ($50 or$10)a month. We do work with our residents while still holding them accountable. In addition to defending cases, we also initiate litigation. We have a confidentiality agreement so we legally have to remain quite vague about the details,but we filed an action and we recovered$425,000. We are very proud of that because it was an innovative legal theory. We also responded individually to sixty-five (65) claims 3 related to the flood event. Climate change is real, and I want to highlight that we individually responded. We could have sent a form letter that every resident got, but we wanted to treat our residents with respect and dignity and we took the time to review all of their claims and responded to each specific circumstance. She went on, We have also collaborated with other cities on AMICUS Briefs. AMICUS Briefs focus on anti-discrimination and inclusion. We also received a favorable jury trial verdict. The matter was Tidwell v. The City of South Bend and we are proud of that because it reflects our aggressive defense strategy. We are backing up our Departments when we know that they are right. Our firefighters and emergency responders saved a woman's life and we shouldn't get sued for saving someone's life. Lastly,we provided the legal framework for the 2017 implementation of the Municipal ID Program. We expanded the Riverfront Development boundaries and have completed preliminary agreements for the South Shore Line Project. In the past, I would go onto list our goal for 2018 but in deference to the new Corporation Counsel, Stephanie Steele, I am excited for the great work she is going to do and I will leave that presentation for her. Committee Chair White thanked Mrs. Brisco for her work and tenure throughout her time with the City of South Bend, and wished her all the best in her future endeavors. Councilmember Broden asked, With regard to APRA, is there a benchmark of the benchmarks? Mrs. Brisco replied, We have the highest volume of any government unit of our size. In terms of benchmark,though, we haven't had a violation and we are now at approximately seven thousand six-hundred(7,600) requests as of August 1, 2017. So to not have a violation makes our benchmark to make sure we don't incur a violation. We want to be able to do things right and maintain that effective work. Councilmember Broden followed up, In recognizing the responsiveness, what are the general areas that drive that volume? Mrs. Brisco replied, A lot of the time it is people requesting copies of police reports. We also have some lawyers that use it as a covert way for discovery,but it is largely requests for police reports. Councilmember Broden then asked, Is the follow-up with litigation and is there any pattern there? Mrs. Brisco replied, I should probably clarify. A lot of what we are seeing is not for litigation against the City but it is usually, for example, a copy of traffic accident reports. Sometimes you are able to foreshadow'something to come, due to the nature of the request. Councilmember Broden asked, With regard to the sixty-five (65) claims for the 2016 flood event, is there a dollar amount associated with that? Mrs. Brisco replied, We did not pay those claims so there was no dollar amount. 4 Councilmember Broden followed up, So the nature of the claims were, I assume,trying to receive assistance from the State or Federal level. So was your office a gateway to opening up those opportunities? And is there a number that goes behind that? I assume it isn't something that could be identified but I assume that is the next logical step with that and I commend you for that. Councilmember Scott thanked Mrs. Brisco for her work in her tenure as Corporation Counsel. Public Works Committee Chair White entertained the idea of allotting tonight's time for the main presentation and allotting time in the second budget hearing, August 21, 2017, for questions and comments from the Council and community members. This agreement was formalized by Committee consensus. Eric Horvath, Director of Public Works with offices on the 13''floor of the County-City Building, stated, Thank you for the opportunity to present our budget. I will just hit the highlights and the major funds. We welcome any and all questions, as well as one-on-ones (1-1). He introduced fellow staff in attendance. He went on, It has been somewhat of a year of alignment for our staff. We have a lot of new folks that have gone through development. Our mission is to provide the essential household services for our residents through sustainable infrastructure. We have a new program on the internet to show where and when all of our streets are going to be paved. We are also focused on enhancing the Quality of Life for our residents. The five (5) major areas we focus on are sustainability, streets & sewers, engineering, utilities and solid waste. Central Services has been moved to the Department of Administration and Finance budget as we thought that would be a better fit. Most of Fund#222 is no longer in the Public Works Department budget. He went on to discuss a few specific line items depicted in the presentation (available in the Office of the City Clerk). He continued, We are down forty (40) positions from last year but the majority of that is from the Central Services move. We have two (2) fewer employees staffed in the Solid Waste Department and we've added a position for a Public Information Officer. This position will be essential and primarily tasked with marketing programs in an enhanced way, getting better and more information out to the public regarding the projects going on in our Department. In addition to that, we have included two (2) grant positions, contingent on us receiving a grant. The two (2) major areas for our Full-Time Employees are our Utilities area, approximately one hundred and twenty (120)people and our Streets and Sewers area with about one hundred(100)people. He continued, I would like to go over a few of the major projects we have going on. We have an incredible Engineering staff that is responsible for everything in the built environment in the City. Whether it's sewers, water mains, roads, buildings, or parking structures,this staff is managing those projects. There are a tremendous amount of projects. We have had a huge increase in pedestrian safety projects. Obviously Smart Streets was a huge initiative that is almost done. This has spurred a lot of economic development. Our expense budget is up slightly, due primarily to the three (3) added positions aforementioned. Fund#251 is for the Local Roads and Streets. Train whistles have been an ongoing issue since last month. There was some confusion between the City and the Federal Railroad Administration(FRA) over some things 5 that happened back in 2005 and 2007 in regards to becoming a quiet zone. We had to reapply for the re-establishment of being a quiet zone and we were tasked with having to put in a few more safety measures in a couple of our crossings. We have done that and we comply with the requirement but we just found out before this meeting that they will be re-establishing that on September 7, 2017. We will work with the Railroad Company to try and get that done sooner than September 7, but there are no guarantees. The railroad companies have a twenty-one (21) day period in which they can transition. There is $120,000 to help us expand our train whistle quiet zone area. We have to program these funds better than what we have now. We hadn't fully programed these funds in the past and hadn't looked at what it would all entail. A lot of this work will be in collaboration and cooperation with the FRA so it will take some time to figure that out. This does not include the South Shore line. We have added about twenty percent(20%)to our paved materials for the Local Road and Streets account. He continued to give a few specifics to the Local Road and Streets account, highlighting projects listed on the presentation. He went on, Fund#257 is our special LOIT Fund, which is a one (1) time distribution. We are continuing to push the Bendix Drive Project. It is a Federal Aid Project and I wish it could happen quicker. There is $100,000 for right-of-way engineering acquisition and there will be an additional ask for construction dollars. We have also been successful with creating additional sidewalks and ADA accessibility in the school-zones. We have been successful with our$1 million Community Crossing Grant, which affects Ironwood Drive from State Route twenty- three (23) south to Corby Boulevard. We have budgeted the full $2.3 million knowing we will have $1 million of revenue come back into the Fund from the grant. Moving on to Fund#412, we have three (3)projects programmed from this Fund. First is the Ironwood-Corby-Rockne intersection. We are not doing a roundabout there but we will be modernizing that intersection by adding some additional travel lanes and making it handicap accessible, as well as adding drainage to that area. We also have added a project for school-zones. We anticipate receiving a grant and that would enable us to get flashing beacons in all of our school-zones on all major routes to protect those kids crossing those roads. Lastly the parking garages are a continuation of the Master Plan and we are slowly taking care of those by taking care of elevators and deck coating. He then specified dollar amounts for those projects by referencing the budget depicted on the presentation. He continued, Ameritech Drive is another TIF project totaling $500,000. He then showed a list of the top ten(10) drainage program areas. He then also addressed the budget of the Light Up South Bend Program, as well as the Lamp post Program. He continued, On to Utilities, the value of water isn't appreciated more than when you don't have it or access to a clean and safe supply. We have done a significant amount of testing this year in relation to the lead issue to be sure we are still meeting the EPA requirements. We have a cooperative program with the School Corporation to make sure they are meeting those requirements as well. We have also provided information to the public with brochures that gave information on how to minimize lead because there are a lot of lead lines in South Bend. The majority of the lines that service houses in South Bend are still made of lead. We are fortunate we don't have aggressive water and that the water quality makeup is one that keeps the coating on the pipes so we don't have that lead leaking into the water. It is still important that we think about this and do the things to prevent any sort of lead contamination. I want to thank the Council for the support on the rate increase. We are still working with IURC and ODCC on that and will continue doing so. It is a huge process with a lot of back and forth on questions. We 6 have a hearing date set for the very beginning of 2018 so we anticipate this rate increase will take place,probably quarter two (2) of 2018. About 5.3 billion gallons of water were delivered in 2016. There were 43,000 customer accounts. We are going to try and update our billing and customer service program which is badly needed. It is a really old program and very difficult to manage. A good example of this is when we moved our recycling off of our bills, we had to individually change each and every one (1) of those bills. There was no button to push to take them all off. We will be updating that software this year. He then went on, In Fund#620, we see an increase in the revenue side which is twenty-two percent (22%) starting quarter two (2). The expense side decreased a little over$400,000. Our Capital Expenses went up about $300,000 but in addition to that, if you recall, we subsidized a few of those expenses by using TIF dollars. Overall we are pretty flat on the water works expenses as we've gone from $19.1 million to $18.4 million, approximately $700,000 less overall on the water works side even though our Capital Expenses are going up. There has been a lot of deferred maintenance on capital equipment and that is why we are only able to do forty (40) million gallons when we should have seventy (70)million gallons. We are pumping less water than we can but overall we have conserved more water. The majority of our work has been finishing Phase One (1) of our Long-Term Control Plan which consisted of a lot of work to our Wastewater Treatment Plant, as well as finishing East-Bank Phase Five (5). Those projects are either complete or almost complete so we will be completely done with Phase One (1) of our Long-Term Control Plan. We have also reassessed our Long-Term Control Plan and have taken a new approach by saving upwards of$700 million. I thank the Council for pushing us to do that, as well as their support. We are still going to meet the water quality requirements of the EPA. So now our job is to convince IDEM and EPA that it, in fact, does what it says it does. We are holding off on the EPA meetings in hope they will appoint a new Region Five (5) director but with that uncertainty, we are going to move forward without the EPA and lay out our plan. We feel very comfortable with what we have regarding the data and science behind it. With the recent upgrades to our primary and secondary channels, we think we could actually pump more than seventy-seven(77) million gallons through here which would be very helpful as we move into Phase Two (2) of our Long Term Control Plan. We still have half of the City on combined sewers which creates issues for us so we will be doing some stress-testing of the plant to see if we can get that capacity higher. We are also adding generators to our system. We are now also producing very good compost because of our ability to remove the plastic. Jitin Kain, Deputy Director of the Department of Public Works with offices on the 13th floor of the County-City Building, stated, The triple bottom line is taking into account the social, economic and environmental impact that all of our projects have. The three (3)top goals in sustainability are to increase efficiency by reducing our operating costs, creating a culture of sustainability to become business as usual, and finding ways to incorporate sustainability into the culture and practices of all work in the area. You may be aware the costs for electric are expected to rise. AEP has started a process to change the rates and, in fact, IURC is going through a process for public hearings for the AEP rate increase. These are expected to occur by the third or fourth quarter of 2018, so our budget does not reflect any of those changes because we are not sure where the rate case goes,but we do expect to come back for an additional appropriation. On the natural gas side, we do expect some small increases but expect the usage to be generally flat. We are also,through the practice of hedging, able to secure the rate of natural gas. There are a 7 few projects our Sustainability Office is involved in. We are moving toward a few electric stations to allow electric vehicles to charge. The greenhouse reduction strategy is also underway. We have a WorkSmart Committee where we interface with all the departments in the City and train employees to be more efficient in how they manage their own office spaces and physical environment,with the goal of creating a culture of sustainability in the City. We are also involved in supporting initiatives such as biking, walking,transit and other mobility and accessibility projects. We are looking at an AmeriCorps program to provide volunteers to low- income properties to provide assistance for weatherization and teach individuals how to be more efficient in how they use their energy. We are also looking at small consulting projects where we can provide assistance to different departments for HVAC lighting services like solar. The Streets and Sewers Division is involved in a number of activities. As of today, we have completed fourteen point three (14.3) miles of main roads paved throughout the City. We expect the total number at the end of the year to be about twenty-eight miles (28). As a reference point, we have about two thousand two-hundred (2,200) lane miles in the City, so there is a lot to cover. We use an industry-standard rating system where we rate the condition of all the pavement and we are able to prioritize the top fifteen(15) or sixteen (16) miles based on that. There is now available a map at www.southbendin.gov/projectmap which allows residents to see the condition of the work in their block or on their street,but also City-wide. Our sweepers have completed one (1) round throughout the City. Our Traffic and Lighting office is focused on converting many of the street lights into LED for greater efficiency. We have completed about fifty-nine (59) so far with ninety (90) left to be done. They also provide support for events. Our Sewer team has been busy since our heavy rain in August 2016 with a number of digs. We have also completed approximately two thousand eight-hundred (2,800) feet of sidewalk and another two thousand seven-hundred (2,700) feet of curb projects. Mr. Kain briefly discussed the Department's MBH revenue and expense, primarily referencing the graph depicted in the presentation. He stated, You will notice the revenue increased in 2018 due to the gas tax increase, and that will result in approximately $1.4 million coming in to the fund, and that will allow us to do more paving. It will also help support our work on traffic signals. Our Solid Waste fleet has been converted to CNG and will continue to do that over the next couple of years. We have been converting a majority of our City to front-side garbage pick- up. There are few cases where we would continue alley pick-up, but the vast majority of the City will have front-side pick-up by the end of 2018. The yard waste pick-up program has been really popular. The participation rate has been higher than initially estimated, more than half of the City is utilizing the program and it continues to grow on a monthly basis. In addition to the weekly pick-up, we offer one (1) free pick-up per month. Container management is a large part of our work, too. To date, we have supplied approximately seven thousand six-hundred(7,600) yard waste containers. He then briefly overviewed the Solid Waste Capital Expenses depicted in the last two (2) slides of the presentation. Committee Chair White thanked the Departments for their presentations and reminded the Departments and members of the public there will be an opportunity for questions and comments at the next budget hearing. Jen Hockenhull, City Controller with offices on the 12th floor of the County-City Building, stated, The presentations made today will be available in the next twenty-four(24)hours on the 8 City's website. In the future, we hope to have the presentations ready three (3) days before the hearing. With no other business, Committee Chair White adjourned the Personnel and Finance Committee meeting at 7:08 p.m. Respectfully Submitted, Xa.,,, Karen White, Committee Chair 9