08-16-17 Personnel and Finance (#1)

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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