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REGULAR MEETING OCTOBER 24, 2016 <br />Corporation Counsel Cristal Brisco, offices on the 12th Floor of the County -City Building, stated <br />she can speak to how this works in practice now. Since 2008, the Legal Department has had an <br />agreement with the Redevelopment Commission by which the Department keeps track of the <br />attorneys' hours who are working on Redevelopment Commission projects and then those hours <br />are submitted to the Commission who then confirm those projects were in a TIF District. It is <br />billable hours like any attorney. That is how it should work for TIF Engineers as well. <br />Councilmember Dr. Varner stated for the sake of clarification as a member of the <br />Redevelopment Commission, we have always seen the bills in total not as billable hours in that <br />fashion. It is usually sent as a total bill but the City may come up with the bill that way. <br />Corporation Counsel Brisco thanked Councilmember Dr. Varner for sharing that with her, since <br />she has been in office she has made it a practice that the Assistant City Attorney provide the <br />Commission with the sheets and she will make sure if it is not getting to the members then we <br />correct that. <br />Councilmember Dr. Varner stated he is clear that they use TIF funds for private contractors and <br />special contracts. Periodically there would be a request for funds because someone in the Legal <br />Department was being charged to a Redevelopment project. We need to make sure we <br />understand what the rules are. <br />Mr. Schmidt responded what has been contemplated for the TIF Engineer it is the case they will <br />work fully on TIF projects. <br />Mr. Murphy stated we want to get it right too and bill it properly because it is subject to audit <br />and we want to make sure everything is correct. <br />Councilmember Davis stated it is a concern that we just got this memorandum today. He stated <br />he has concerns that we have something creative and it would be good of the Legal Department <br />to respect us enough to give us time to review this so we could review this prior to tonight. This <br />is the very first time we are looking into doing this. <br />Eric Horvath, Public Works Director with offices on the 13th Floor of the County -City Building, <br />stated in relation to the TIF Engineer position that last year we had a TIF engineer as well who <br />was eighty percent (80 %) funded from TIF. We allocated their hours as much as we could on <br />that formula. In addition to that, we have a Director of Redevelopment Engineering which is the <br />additional position and the idea is to hopefully save TIF dollars in the long run. There are a lot of <br />engineering needs that can be met by having staff do it and these projects have a really quick <br />turnaround time so if we can build those into the staff, we can save money that we previously <br />would spend hiring someone outside the City. It is that type of stuff, like the Berlin Flats and all <br />these developments that come up where there is an immediate need to tell whether or not we <br />have the capacity in the existing water and sewer utilities and other right of way issues, where <br />this position would be very beneficial. They would not directly report to Engineering but report <br />to the Department of Community of Investment and be responsible to look at long -range plans <br />for sewer and water in terms of economic development as well as being able to do design and <br />quick turnarounds on these requests that come in for a live development. <br />Councilmember Davis asked if Mr. Horvath has that in a written job description and also when <br />the City has other people providing services to the TIF District whether it is picking up trash or <br />cutting grass is it tracking those addresses as well. <br />Mr. Horvath stated he does not have the job descriptions on him but he can get them to the <br />Councilmembers. We are not tracking all employees working in TIF Districts. We want to make <br />sure it is in compliance with the statute. <br />Mr. Schmidt stated it is our understanding at this point that the statutory guidance relates to <br />professional services which is the traditional accounting, engineering, architecture work, legal <br />work and so forth. What we can do is look into if there are other avenues available. <br />Councilmember Davis asked where is the definition in the State Code that says professional <br />services. <br />13 <br />