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HomeMy WebLinkAbout09-06-17 Personnel and Finance (#5) O�S0A3 T$8�® 4 � U C W PEACE a + 1865 OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK KAREEMAH FOWLER,CITY CLERK PERSONNEL & FINANCE SEPTEMBER 6, 2017 5:00 P.M. Committee Members Present: Karen White, John Voorde Committee Members Absent: Regina Williams-Preston, Gavin Ferlic Other Council Present: Jo M. Broden(late) Other Council Absent: Dr. David Varner, Tim Scott, Oliver Davis, Randy Kelly Others Present: Kareemah Fowler, Graham Sparks, Bob Palmer Presenters: Randy Wilkerson, Ron O'Connor,Marlaina Johns, Jen Gobel, Tracy Skibins, Steve Cox, Gerard Ellis, Bob Means, Todd Skwarcan, Jen Hockenhull, Danny Cocanower Agenda: Code Enforcement Animal Care/Control Fire Department Committee Chair Karen White called to order the Personnel and Finance Committee meeting at 5:00 p.m. She introduced members of the Committee and proceeded to give the floor to the presenters. Code Enforcement Randy Wilkerson, Director of Code Enforcement with offices on the 13th floor of the County- City Building, stated, Many members of my staff are here to present with me. Our mission statement has not changed at all. We are here to make a safe and clean environment for the entire City. The Department of Code Enforcement is divided up into three(3) divisions. They are Neighborhood Code Enforcement,the Neat Crew and Animal Care and Control. Ron O'Connor, Director of Finance for Code Enforcement with offices on the 13th floor of the County-City Building, stated, This is the Departmental Expenses. He referenced a slide on the presentation(available in the City Clerk's Office). He continued, For Code Enforcement we have Fund#600 and Fund#219. In 2016 our actual expended was $2.8 million. In 2017, it is projected we will spend$3.3 million. Our 2018 proposed budget is $3.5 million with an overall seven 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.SouthBendfN.gov JENNIFER M.COFFMAN ALKEYNA M.ALDRIDGE JOSEPH MOLNAR CHIEF DEPUTY/DIRECTOR OF DEPUTY/DIRECTOR OF POLICY ORDINANCE VIOLATION CLERK OPERATIONS percent (7%) increase between the two (2) Funds. He then referenced a slide in the presentation depicting the Departmental Revenues. He stated, In 2016 revenue was $875,000, in 2017 it is projected at$654,000 and projected in 2018 is $712,000. Overall there is approximately a nine percent (9%) increase across the two (2) Funds. He then showed a couple graphs depicting the same information. Marlaina Johns, Data Analyst for Code Enforcement with offices on the 13th floor of the County- City Building, stated, Most importantly, we have gone up forty-five percent (45%) in the amount of tickets issued. Most of that is because of the continuous enforcement properties that have been abated. Once they reach the second year status, the ticket amount goes from two hundred and fifty dollars ($250)to five hundred dollars ($500). We have seventy-seven percent (77%) involved with grass and weeds. Jen Gobel, Manager of the South Bend Animal Care and Control with offices located at 521 Eclipse Place, stated, We brought in $30,000 for tickets. We have seen an uptick in enforcement and ticket writing. Tracy Skibins, Deputy Director of Code Enforcement with offices on the 13th floor of the County-City Building, stated, We have a few Key Performance Indicators. The first and foremost is in outreach. We try our best to put people in touch with resources they need to make the mandatory improvements. This includes neighborhood clean-ups and meetings. Councilmember Jo M. Broden arrived at the meeting at 5:07 p.m. Mr. O'Connor then briefly overviewed the few slides that depicted the Code Enforcement Inspectors budget. He continued, We are down eight percent (8%) overall in the inspector revenue. Ms. Skibins stated, We are fully staffed currently with the hiring of the new inspector this past May. The one (1) change is changing the title of Data Analyst to Operation Analyst. The change in title just better reflects the day-to-day responsibilities of the position. Ms. Johns stated, 2017 was the first year we had the landlord registration. We had one thousand two hundred and ninety-seven(1,297) registrations created. Within that,we had four thousand seven hundred (4,700)properties registered and one thousand three hundred(1,300) owners registered. Mr. Wilkerson stated, It is also important to point out that with the landlord registration this year, we found some LLCs. It is working as we hoped it would. Ms. Skibins stated, We have some goals and challenges facing the Department for 2017. We are looking to improve the Accela Software. We are also assessing the commercial structure of a few buildings. Our inspectors are trained in many different areas of inspection. We are looking at past-due invoices. We are purging most of our files to eventually become fully technological. 2 Mr. O'Connor then briefly overviewed a few more slides depicting the same information as well as the organizational chart of the staff. Mr. Wilkerson stated, We are working on the bridges the homeless frequent as well as building a better relationship with other City Departments. We are also working on more neighborhood clean-ups. We are brainstorming best ways to deal with our tire clean-up. Animal Care/Control Ms. Gobel stated, Our mission is to promote education to the public on the humane treatment of animals while fostering a respect, understanding and compassion for all creatures. Our core values are Humanity, Empathy and Approachability. She overviewed a few slides that depicted the expenditures and revenues. She continued, There is quite a bit of change in our supplies line item. A majority of that accounts for our Veterinary Fund for vaccinations. We had a slight change in personnel with the addition of a fourth animal control officer and an extra part-time internal staff member. She then overviewed slides from the presentation that depicted the expenses and revenues in graph format. She continued, We aren't picking animals up as much anymore as we are encouraging people with other alternatives in hopes to bring them in. Our pet euthanasia numbers are also down. She then briefly overviewed the organizational chart for Animal Care and Control. She continued, We are seeing an uptick in animal bites but our main goal is to decrease the animal euthanasia rate. We are also looking to switch out our vans with pick-up trucks. That will help save on maintenance. We are working on establishing a better relationship with the South Bend Animal Care and Control Commission. Committee Chair White opened the floor to questions from the Committee and Councilmembers. Councilmember Broden asked, What are your metrics with animal hold times and reducing euthanasia rates? Ms. Gobel replied, We are working on fast-tracking that process. We hold animals for five (5) days for owners to come pick them up. That is almost free room and board for that animal. If it were a stray, we only keep it for three days. So an animal we can identify the owner of,we are keeping longer than ones we don't. That doesn't seem right and it should be the other way around. Part of this has to deal with the Ordinance and there needs to be changes to that. Councilmember Broden followed up, What does the timeframe look like for those changes to the Ordinance? Ms. Gobel replied, Right now we are probably seventy-five percent (75%) through. We need to close up a lot of loopholes. At this point it's hard to say because City Legal needs to look over it all, but it will be relatively soon within the next couple months. Committee Chair White asked, Who have you involved in that process? Ms. Gobel replied, Right now I've only worked with a select few people that have some expertise in things. 3 Committeemember Voorde asked, How do you handle cutting overgrowth? Mr. Wilkerson replied, Previously we would cite this property to make the owner do it.Now we do it and bill the property owner. Committee Chair White asked, Have you seen an increase in illegal dumping?And have you seen an increase in graffiti? Mr. Wilkerson replied, We are getting better at investigating whether or not it was an illegal dump. We are still seeing a number of dumps. Fire Department Steve Cox, Fire Chief of the South Bend Fire Department located at 1222 S. Michigan Street, stated, Thank you for hearing our budget presentation. I have with me many other members of our Department to answer any questions you may have. Our mission statement says the Fire Department exists to provide our community with the highest quality of emergency services protecting life and property through education, response and dynamic outreach. I read that on purpose because often times we talk about all the ancillary stuff we do such as recruitment and public education items. Our primary mission is to respond to emergency situations in the community. This year alone we have already responded to close to 20,000 calls. We are an all hazards response organization so anything outside the law enforcement responses is handled by the Fire Department. Back in the day we just responded to fire but we are now jacks of all trades. The Department Vision was developed by Fire Fighters on the Department through the strategic planning Committee. We put it together back in 2014 and Council approved it. It has a lot of overlapping segments with the City's mission. Gerard Ellis, Fire Captain for the South Bend Fire Department located at 1222 S. Michigan Street, stated, We deal with three (3) different Funds for retirees. We have the old 1937 Fund,the old 1977 Fund and the true 1977 Fund. The pension portion is paid by the State. The City's obligation in payment comes out of the 1937 and the old 1977 Fund. From this time of last year we have lost fifteen (15) retirees and six (6) widows. He continued briefly describing the graph provided in the presentation(which is available in the City Clerk's Office). He continued, One (1) of my main roles with the pension Fund is simply having something there to help these individuals through the process. I budgeted a three percent (3%) increase. Chief Cox continued, I will now discuss the overall budget summary for the Department. In the 101 Fund, Personnel and Services are just over$18 million. Supplies and Services are at about $1.5 million. Allocations and Insurance is at about $1.5 million as well, all totaling $21.26 million. In our LOIT Fund which is our 249 Fund we carry all salaries. $3.3 million is for salaries and benefits. The EMS Capital Fund is getting changed with the way it is utilized. We are wanting to move everything from the 287 Fund to the 288 Fund. 287 was set up a couple of years ago to cover capital expenses using EMS reimbursement to do so. We have had a lot of conversations about how to cover that EMS reimbursement money. For the 2018 budget, we tried to wrap all of our EMS expenses and house it all in Fund#288. That is projected at a little 4 over$5 million. We also have some supplies and allocations related to EMS and that totals $6.3 million. The total budget is right around$33 million. He then showed a graph depicting the year- over-year comparisons with the years 2015, 2016, 2017 and the projected 2018. He stated, We are requesting a slight decrease in our supplies, capital and debt even though we have a slight increase in personnel costs. We are not requesting a change in any staffing numbers but we have received a grant that funds three (3) firefighter positions for the next three (3) years. Committee Chair White asked, Would you be shifting firefighters being paid from the General Fund over to the grant? Chief Cox replied, There are a lot of strings attached to the grant. We have to maintain the overall staffing levels of when the Department was first issued the grant. We had a couple of retirements just prior to getting the grant and we were down three (3)personnel. We don't have to increase our numbers as long as we don't drop to two hundred fifty-four(254) in that three (3) year timeframe. He went on, During 2017 so far we have graduated two (2)regional recruit academies. Our Department began several years ago, once the training center was built, reaching out to other regional Fire Departments who may not have the facilities we have to provide training for their recruits and they pay us to be able to do that. We do not prioritize making money on that negotiation. Our priority is to equip the firefighters with the best training. We have all staff trained for incident command and have standardized that process. We also have a wonderful Indiana River Rescue Training School. We also commissioned a hazardous material vehicle and replaced the old one (1). We completed the first annual work performance evaluation for our wellness and fitness initiative. We look forward to the completion of Fire Station Number 4 and beginning construction of Fire Station Number 9. They are both LEAD certified buildings which means they are more sustainable. We are hosting a Public Safety Career Fair from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on September 14, 2017. We are realizing there has been little study done on the cancer susceptibility that firefighters have. In the past few years there have been some major studies and we launched a cancer prevention initiative. A challenge we face moving forward is establishing our Capital Expense Funding. We anticipate close to twenty(20)to twenty-two (22) firefighters that will be retiring. We have a diverse standing hiring list and we will be starting to replace those. Our Medicaid Reimbursement Program may be going away and we will have to prepare for that. He then showed pictures of the construction of the Fire Stations. Bob Means, Chief of the Indiana River Rescue School for the South Bend Fire Department located at 1222 S. Michigan Street, stated, The River Rescue School was formed in 1983 when the East Race Water-Way was put in the City. It started off with two (2) schools a year,typically in the spring and fall. We have since evolved to have over nine (9) different schools. We trained all of the Chicago Air and Sea Fire Personnel. This year we brought in a New York Fire Department Special Ops team. We have been hosting the International Association of Water Rescue Professionals for the past three (3) years and we plan to continue hosting it. That brings over two hundred and eight(280) different people from the all over the world. We've done a good job being a regional training center but have since become a national training center. We try to operate at cost but the demand has been very large and we usually hold more schools than we anticipate. 5 Chief Cox stated, I think it is great that we have nationally certified professionals responding to the calls right here in South Bend. The citizens are really very fortunate. In response to resident feedback, our budget does not have Infant Safe Sleep within our budget however members within our Department have been trained on those issues. We are incredibly proud to be a part of the combined CTE Program. The goal each year is to have students get their certifications and examinations to become Firefighters. This program motivates young students toward a career in Fire Service. Committee Chair White then opened the floor to members of the public. Mark Piasecki, 101 N. Conestoga Lane, stated, I didn't see any evidence for the costs of trucks and the tower. Where does that come into play? Chief Cox replied, The Facility was funded by bonds. As for Fire Trucks, we have a long term fleet replacement program. Depending on what type of vehicle we are needing in a given year, we decide to either buy or lease. An ambulance could cost$250,000 while a latter truck could cost$1.1 million. In the EMS Capital Fund there is $2.1 million. That includes the lease and bond payments. Sharon Banicki, 3822 Ford Street,asked, Are you still doing your house-to-house fire alarm battery program? Chief Cox replied, Yes, we still do that. Ms. Banicki then asked, Why is the Rescue School losing money? Chief Means replied, We are not losing money, we have a surplus actually. Ms. Banicki then asked, What kind of raises is everybody getting? Chief Cox replied,Negotiations are about to start and that is yet to be determined. Ms. Banicki followed up, Randy, you're next. What kind of raises are you getting? Mr. Wilkerson replied, Two percent(2%). Ms. Banicki continued, So nobody is getting anything special or out-of-line? Mr. Wilkerson replied,Nope. Sue Kessim, 4022 Kennedy Drive, stated, I am so impressed with the Fire Department. Do we break down the calls by what type of call it is? Chief Cox replied, We do analyze the calls and break it down by type. 6 With no further business to discuss, Committee Chair White adjourned the Personnel and Finance Committee meeting at 6:52 p.m. Respectfully Submitted, Karen White, Committee Chair 7